~Third POV~

The night sky illuminates the rocky landscape below, offering any night travelers a peaceful scenery.

“Dagnabbit, let go!” After a mighty pull, the earth pony, trapped by a lasso around her foreleg, is moved an inch as she stands her ground.

Another lasso travels down her head and ends around the base of her neck. It pulls back a moment later, pushing her a few inches in that direction, and causing her head to jerk back for a second. Prompting the fall of her stetson hat.

The ponies holding her tight are also earth ponies, but wear a bandana that covers their mouths, “Somepony put the shackles on her!”

Metallic chains rattle as a pony on the side, flanked by two more, pulls the shackles from his saddlebag with his snout.

The trapped pony does bare her teeth, trying to look as intimidating as possible, but draws a short gasp of pain as both ropes pull simultaneously.

Her limp is stretched painfully, added with the shortage of air, all she can do is clench her teeth, while pulling her foreleg back so the bone doesn’t pop.

The pony holding the rope to her foreleg smirks underneath the bandana, “First catch of the year is a succe-AAAAAAA-” A terrible chomp on his tail leaves the stallion screaming while leaping in the air in a cat-like fashion. Inadvertently letting the rope go as his hooves flail frantically.

The rest of his gang watch him with wide eyes as he reaches a 10 foot height – along with the animal still biting his tail - before he plummets down with an audible thud. While the very animal that bit him lands on his back.

*Bark bark* A dog – brown fur, white underbelly, chest and tail, and a red collar with a golden tag – barks at them angrily at the remaining four ponies.

Temporarily distracted, they didn’t notice the orange coated pony regain her breath. She glares at the pony holding the rope to her throat. Seeing her opportunity, she pulls at the rope with only one hoof, but the bandit, holding on tightly, is forcibly pulled in her direction.
He ends up lying flat on the ground, unaware he’s next to the one they tried to capture. Worse is that the crash left him with his eyes closed as he endures the pain, but upon opening them, is greeted by the sight of two hind legs bucking him on his face. His last image is his vision flashing white before blackness consumes him.

She sighs heavily. Releases herself from both ropes, and grabs her hat to place delicately on her head, “Ya know,” she turns in their direction with the front of her stetson bend down to cover her eyes, “I was supposed to be on my way to my cousin’s town,” she tips the hat back in normal position, her emerald eyes glaring at the three, “but I will gladly take five minutes to take ya vermin out of his property.”

*Bark Bark* Winona went to Applejack’s side and barked angrily at them.

The three are still stunned over what happened. The shackles forgotten as the pony couldn’t help but gape, but he snaps out of it and breaks into a gallop.

He clears half the distance while Applejack stays her ground.

But when the distance turns to feet, the bandit spins and slides the rest of the way on his forelegs. Hindlegs up and ready to buck the ‘uncooperative’ mare on her face.

She ducks under it – the same can’t be said by her hat as it’s kicked onto the dirt.

Applejack then delivers a swift punch on his gut. Knocking the wind out of him before his hindlegs reconnect with the ground. He heaves, eyes wide while clutching his stomach as he collapses in a fetal position.

She kept her eyes on the remaining duo, who are matching her glare with their own. Suddenly, two hooves travel around her neck, trapping her in a choke lock, and the one responsible has his tail hair ruffled with evident bite marks on her.

“What are ya waiting?” He spats at his gang, “At her!”

With a notable glee in their eyes, they rush towards the struggling mare.

On her end, she has grabbed onto one of his forelegs to pull it loose as she shakes and squirms against the lock. But the bandit tightens his grip, halting any progress and choking air out of her.

“Relax will ya,” he orders. “We won’t beat ya up too badly, or ya end up as a useless mare.”

What came out of him next is a screech of pain as the dog – which he forgotten because the mare was fully oblivious to his presence before – has bitten his tail once again.

Applejack feels his grip weakening, but not enough to pull her head loose, so she acts fast.
Bending her head forward as much as possible, then swinging it back and striking the stallion on the snout.

She’s released as the bandit hobbles back with a hoof on his bloody nose. She catches her breath, and scowls when realizing her hat has been kicked off, “That’s it!”

She grabs one of the falling lassos with her teeth, and swings the end onto the retreating bandit. She traps him with the end circling under his armpit and across her back. He looks fearful, silently begging her not to do whatever she had in mind.

With a flare of her nostrils, and shortly after Winona let the bandit go, she swings the stallion of his feet and crashing onto the oncoming bandits.

They’re send flying for meters before rolling onto the ground, and stopping either on their backs or sides. None of them show any signs of moving, suggesting they were knocked out from how much force she used.

“There! Good riddance!” She grabs her hat and (once again) places the hat delicately on her head. Her features relaxing just a bit.

*Bark Bark* She looks to the side and finds Winona barking at the stallion – which she hit in the gut – attempting to crawl away with one hoof. He only got a few feet away.

He stops as a hoof presses on his back. He whimpers and shakily looks behind him. His gaze locks onto the cowgirl’s hardened one, “You’re gonna tell me what in tarnation’s ya all are doing here, or I will buck ya in the face like your pal over there.” She points behind her, and he can clearly see the bruise forming on the stallion’s forehead. Though the eyes of the mare is a more terrifying sight, “Well?” She demands.

He whimpers some more, keeping in mind she took down all five with a dog as her helper, not to mention swinging a full grown stallion as if it was nothing.

What happened next surprised Applejack and even Winona. The stallion, helpless in the situation, fainted.

Pony and dog look other before the pony asks “I mighta gone a bit far, don’t ya think?

Winona barks in agreement.

~*~

Heartbeat racing, deep-quick breaths through his mouth, and finally, wing rushing so fast that his white-bushy mane is dragging him down.

“Run faster!” Flash yelled at him over her shoulder. Surprising him because despite the size difference, she’s ten feet ahead of him, and slowly gaining more distance.

He looks over his shoulder, six ponies, all male from what he can see, are slowly gaining on them, but for the moment, he’s still at a relative safe distance.

Why? Why is this happening to me?! The nameless pony blinks away the tears before a sharp pain cut through his thoughts.

It was shortly after we woke up – does a six hour nap count? – and the clear red-orange of the sun was becoming present.

We been walking for a few minutes, when Flash suddenly told me “If I tell you to run, you do it.”

“W-What?” To say I was a little unease would be an understatement. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and the foreboding feeling of somebody watching us.

I looked around, but only see the rocky ground that stretches for miles. I gulp, “Um, F-Flash-”

“Do what I say.” Without raising her voice much, her commanding tone makes up for it.

“O-Okay.” I wanted to ask what was going to happen. Since we’re going to this Jacktown place, Flash has to know about the dangers surrounding it, but asking might be worse.

The danger might happen right when I’m asking, and I will react slowly. So it’s best if I-

“Run!” She bolted to a full gallop. I was confused for a brief second before my body responded.

I sprinted, doing my best to catch up as I heard a mini-explosion somewhere behind me. I looked behind.

A pile of dirt was falling back to the ground, and once it settled, I could see the hole it made. A pony jumped out, and once it landed, I noticed the bandana he’s using to cover its…what was the word again, snout?

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

Five more spots where the dirt flew up, and five more ponies jumped out as well. All wearing different colored bandanas to cover their snouts.

“Hurry!” Her shout brought my attention to my body, forcing it to go faster despite woken up not even thirty minutes ago.

T-That was odd… and livid.

“Hey! Focus!” She snaps out of his thoughts. Her glare meets his wide-eyed scared gaze before looking ahead again. The ex-human doubles his efforts in an attempt to catch up.

When that didn’t work, he closes his eyes and bends his head forwards. He redoubles his efforts and makes a bit of progress than before, but with his vision closed, he didn’t see Flash slowing down, nor what lies ahead.

Flash skids to a stop, but hears the continuous beats of hoofsteps close behind her. Knowing what’s about to happen, she prepares her magic, and when he passes her, she traps his tail in her snout. Careful not to bite too hard, but strong enough to stop his momentum.

He yelps in pain as his tail is stretched to a point he thought it would pop off. He hovers in the air for a second before his body lands splayed out on the ground.

Although the pain on his rear lingers as a painful reminder. Exhaustion and lack of sleep takes a stronger hold. His eyelids sway to a close, but as they come to a close, the sense of perception returns to him, and notices his forelegs – from the elbow to his hooves – are bent downwards.

He groans, not wishing to remain in the waking world, but confusion and curiosity make him lift an eyelid very slowly. He sees a cliff on the horizon, but a-lot of nothing on his vision. His gaze sways down, and sees another cliff with a notable sandy surface, traveling down in a slope.

Pain and fatigue were soon replaced by fear. Prompting him to get up and a few tentative steps back, “W-Why, another c-cliff.” The taste of metal comes to his mouth, so does the memory of his near-death experience with the cliff from the forest.

Unknown to him, Flash is next to him, but turned to face the opposite end and wears a stern expression, “It would be useful if you turned around.”

He trembles at Flash’s impassive tone, but does as she ordered.

“Eck!” The dark stallion takes a step back. The six ponies stopped as well and formed a half-a-circle around them, blocking their exits.

The pony at the center of the formation steps forward, “How about we make a deal. Don’t resist, and we won’t be more rough than what we’re supposed to.”

The nameless pony looks at Flash, and despite her expression being its usual (in nicer term) unfriendly, he can tell she looks… unamused, “Why not let us go? For a bandit, you sure don’t act the part.”

The man brings a hoof to his temple and starts rubbing it, “Look. It’s too early in the morning for this. If this were my choice, I had you two lass walk free, but if the boss hears I let two fillies walk by for free, it will be my flank on fire. So no! N. O. You mares are coming with us!”

He dashes forward. The ex-human instinctively raises a hoof to his chest before stepping back. Flash, however, doesn’t seem bothered that a pony over twice her size is approaching them. Instead, her lips curve into a small grin.

When the bandit got in close range, her hoof bolts into her saddlebag, and pulls it out as fast with a black weapon in her hoof. She uses the momentum to swing in a vertical arc. Striking the stallion on the head, causing him to collapse unconscious immediately.

Her companion stares in awe, mouth agape and eyes wide. His gaze wanders over the weapon on her right hoof: a black police baton with a shaft over a foot-and-a-half, like the ones he seen on TV or in school.

Once he shakes his head, he sees the other five bandits are also staring in awe like he did.

Flash looks at them with amusement in her eye, “Who volunteers to be next. Or should I make this easier and decide?”

They all looked at each other, no doubt wanting to confirm if they all saw the same thing.

She can definitely take care of herself, the ex-human thinks to myself, but… I doubt she can protect me and fight at the same time. “Um, F-Flash-”

Her expression turns grim as she glares at him from the corner of her eye, “I know. I’m trying to think of a way to get you out of here so I can deal with them alone.”

His gaze goes back to the bandits, and gulps as they’re now glaring at them while taking slow, tentative steps forward.

His legs begin to shake, Why? Why is this happening? Not a day passed and I’m already a liability. Why can’t I be useful for once?

He looks behind, or more specifically, down at the cliff. He can just see himself ready to jump, ...W-What? There he is at his side, a see-through version of himself, but with clear features visible: desperate look in his eyes while biting his lower lip, looking down at the sandy cliff.

He blinks and the image is gone, replaced by a painful throbbing between my eyes. He applies pressure with a hoof, but it didn’t ease the pain in the slightest. Why now?! He cringes, even thinking hurts.

One step back, but pulls the back the instant he felt the sand.

One step back, but lost my balance as my hoof slides downwards because of the sand. My other hindleg slides as a result, but prevented the rest of my body to follow by pressing my front hooves on the firm ground.

Flash notices. Half turned while keeping an eye on the bandits and giving occasional glances to me. I can see the deep concentration in her eyes, as well as her scowl, “Buck!” She flips the baton, and shortens the pole by pressing against the ground. After securing it inside her saddlebag, she rushes over to me.

Her hooves surround my neck before pushing us both onto the sandy slide.

With wide eyes, I let out a small scream, and an *eck!* as my bushy hair softened the impact on my head.

On my side, Flash is keeping her balance on all fours, but shows signs of struggling as she bares her teeth.

I look back at the ledge, only four of the bandits watch us before they step back out of side. Then they reappear before jumping. I watch in confusion, but when they land, wooden planks are released from the sand.

My mouth gapes in awe and fear as they surf their way towards us.

The pain subsides immediately, and his vision is greeted by a shadow of some kind. He realizes it’s his hoof and lowers it, but almost jumps back at the sight of the approaching bandits. Although a different concern crosses his mind, W-What did I see exactly?

He looks back but with a scrutinizing gaze. It takes a few seconds, but he spots multiple oval indentations meters below. They’re all spread throughout in a line, but with wide enough gaps so no one gets on by mistake.

What if… He bites his lower lip. Then moves his gaze back to Flash who’s keeping a stern gaze on the bandits.

She glances at him, “Whatever it is, save it for later.”

Can she really tell by looking at my face? He shakes those thoughts away as fear urges him to do something he could never dream of, “I… I’m sorry.”

Her reaction is something he sees daily when correcting someone that the most popular guy in school is his big brother, and that’s often the rare mixture of skepticism, and somewhere along the lines of ‘what the fuck did you just say?’.

Must’ve been too surprised to hide her emotions, he thought before wrapping his foreleg around her smaller body, and jumping back in the direction of the surfboards. All while trying to ignore her protests.

“What the bloody buck are you doing!?”

And curses, can’t forget about the curses.

He yelps as his bushy hair softens the landing for his head. Flash struggles in his weak grip, but notices his leg is moving off slowly, as if her strength is increasing.

The sand soon becomes sturdier; a bit of it splashes off as he takes the wooden surfboard down with them. Picking up the speed and the wind as a result.

“It-It actually worked!”

“WHAT!” Flash broke out of his grasp and rolled onto the board on her stomach. She glares at him, but soon turns into confusion as she looks below her.

While she tries to make sense of what and how it happened, the ex-human does as well. At least he does before he remembers the end of his… vision. He looks up in time to see the exact thing happen. Four bandits jump off in almost the exact same way – one jumped farther to the side – but all land on a circular indentation and slide down with a surfboard.

“Get up!” To his side, Flash is already up. Impatience displayed on her eyes as she says “I said get up!” She grabs his shoulder, and with strength close to what was applied on his tail, he’s raised off the board, flips him, and forces him onto the board before velocity leaves him behind.

His only complain is that she could’ve been softer. The burning mark on his shoulder is prove of that. Shakily, he raises up, stopping halfway before gathering some courage. As he fully stands, he begins to regret his decision as he feels the wind brush all around him, and the fact that he’s surfing for the first time with no real experience.

“F-Flash?” Worry taints his voice, and his mind draws a blank. Unlike Flash.

“Shift your weight forward! The more speed we gain, the sooner we will reach flat land.”

He followed her order without hesitation, focusing his weight forward and leaning in hopes it helps somewhat.

“You fillies got lucky in finding our sandboards,” Out of the two, the ex-human is the only one who shivers while Flash rolls her eyes, but out of the need to know how far behind their pursuers are, he whimpers lightly at seeing closest one is only meters away. The rest are following close behind, almost in line as they swish to the sides in expert motions, picking up speed and ground faster than the duo, “but you sure don’t know how to use them!”

He, and the rest of his gang, laugh at their short-sighted attempt at escaping.

The nameless pony faces forward again; eyes wide in fear and biting his lower lip to stop it from trembling.

The leading bandit raises a hoof and points to his ride. As he surfs to the left, instead of taking a small turn to travel right, he takes a slight curve so he’s moving forward. He glances back, and sees one of his partners approaching from behind. He shifts his weight back, slowing down the enough so the other bandit is right at his side.

The one who slowed raises his hoof, the other grabs it and hurls him. It got him the desired result as he’s quickly catching up to the (in their view) mares. On the right side, the other two bandits did the same, so now they have the pair trapped on both sides.

“End of the road fillies!” The one on the right said with a sneer.

The dark earth pony panics by looking at the bandit and back down at the path in front of him. The smaller pony only glanced at him with a studious gaze, before focusing it down the path. Several meters ahead, she notices it, a circular indentation on the sand, but unlike the previous ones, this one is several meters wider, and they’re heading straight at it.

Flash’s eyes widen in alarm, before narrowing back into focus, “Get ready. We will jump.”

Her companion looks at her with panic, “What?!”

Without waiting for permission, Flash grabs his foreleg, crouches lower, then jumps with the enough force to cause splinters on the board. Which, when it was on the circular dent, it caved down with the sand, revealing a diagonal tunnel with an impressive, smooth surface.

Flash took notice of how the four bandits inside without waste, but what surprised her was the similar indentations meters away from the first. They were scattered to the side, a small gap between them, and there are plentiful. Her attention shifts forward, and sees the only source of good news: flat land.

That is until she remembered one crucial fact, “A-AAAAHH! We-We’re FALLING!”

I will have to improvise, she thought grumpily. Redirecting her magic to her forelegs, she gets a good grip on his shoulder before tossing him higher. His girlish scream doesn’t bother her as she lands on all fours without problem.

She bends her head back to look up, and trots forward, but soon stops as the image of the falling pony is overhead. Flash bends her legs, waits a few seconds. The girlish scream intensifies, but the distance shortens.

Not overdoing it, Flash jumps, and grasps the body about a dozen meters off the ground. Just as she thought, they hovered for a moment as she canceled his velocity.

“Uh?” was all the ex-human muttered before gravity brought the two of them down.

“Oof,” he grunted a bit, but thankfully landed on something soft, but as his fatigue drifts him to a relaxing slumber (again), said softness pushes him off, making land on his side.

After a low groan from him, Flash raises to her hooves with a mild backache that quickly fades. Once it does, she turns around and scans the surroundings.

Flash realizes the sandy cliff extends far off to the sides. In fact, she can tell it curves… Is it possible? Slowly turns in place. She notices circular dents dozens of meters off the ground, but only glances at the half-mile length of the cliff.

She does, however, takes into account how far it stretches. Encircling the lands of Jacktown most likely, perhaps the entire providence. From where she stands, the small image of the town is about 1 hour at leisure pace, the other end of the cliff past the town: about 4 hours of nonstop galloping.

Magic was obviously involved, but it couldn’t have been unicorn magic. I was here a few days ago, so somepony has to be manipulating this sector’s Haven.

Her eyes spot something on the ground, but frowns as she realizes it’s just her companion. Her face scrunches as a pondering thought emerges, He fits the general definition of companion, but on a realistic approach, I can hardly call him an acquaintance. …The Amnesic would be a crude, but appropriate term.

The Amnesic is lying on his back, eyes closed and breathing slowly in his peaceful sleep. She steps next to him, and jabs him on the ribs with the enough strength to snap him awake.

“Huh-wha-AAH!” He brings a foreleg up to shield his eyes from the sun, slowly bringing it down as his eyes adjust. He blinks a few times before meeting Flash’s stern gaze.

“Get up. Jacktown is an hour away, and beds make for a better resting point.”

He blinks first, and replies with a groggily, “C-Can it be five more minutes?”

To which Flash rolls her eyes, “But after the five minutes pass, don’t start complaining because of a burnt back.”

She trots over to the inclined sandy cliff to inspect some more. While the dark pony flops one of the loose ends of his scarf over his face. He sighs as its natural coolness takes immediate effect. Letting out a satisfied sigh, the nameless pony closes his eyes and drifts to sleep.

~*~

Unbeknown to the two ponies, the bandit that stayed behind is pulling his fallen comrade by his tail. It’s a painfully slow process under the unrelenting sun.

Even though he’s already accustomed to such heat, it’s usually with the help of a cloak; which he left behind since he thought it would be a quick job.

Instead, he’s moving backwards at a turtle’s speed while using his teeth to pull his friend. He lets him go, spits a strand or two of hair out, and looks behind.

The holes they made are nowhere in sight.

*Sigh* He shakes his head, “Those damn fillies just made my day.” His voice leaks of sarcasm.

He holds onto his tail again, and resumes pulling.

Author's Note

I would've had this chapter up days ago, but I had to do some changes to it, and I got to say, I am happy with this chapter.

So now, all I can ask is for a review. Remember that those motivate me to write faster, and I just feel lonely over here

But seriously, I just want to know what to know what everybody thinks of this chapter.