Richtofen Chronicles: One Last Chance

The three were all looking around, at the blue ground, grey trees, black sky, white dots that covered the sky like ants on cement, or at the bright, white sphere in the night sky. Movement followed them, the four quickly turned around as soon as they heard a snap, Richtofen look at the grey twig that is just laying on the ground, snapped in two. "Something's going on here," he looked back up and faced the two men, both of which had a confused look on their faces, "Well, don't keep me waiting. Come out of your shells and tell me who done this." Richtofen pointed at the ground, the twig has disappeared but left tiny crumbs. Nikolai shook his head then Richtofen gave a smirk to him, "Ja, I knew it was you. You can't keep a secret past me," Richtofen's thumb went up and placed his thumb into his own chest, "I'm like a eagle."

"Nikolai was in front of me and we went past the twig before it snapped," the three faces began to loosen up, their looks turning worried as they exchanged their looks. "What made that sound?" Dempsey sounded worried as he asked the question, Richtofen and Nikolai became paranoid then began to turn around in circles, slowly but fast enough to observe their surroundings, "Did anything follow you two?"

"Well, I may have just killed a group of guards and now we are criminals," a bush rustled, causing the three to turn around. Nikolai quickly equipped his shotgun then pumped a loose shell out, the shell made a clacking noise as it hit a rock on the ground, he aimed at the bush, waiting for a guard or one of the mutated wolves.

A voice cried out, "Somepony, help!" the voice had a Southern accent, like Applejack but with a much higher tone in the voice. In a split second, Richtofen groaned in pain and laid on the ground with a small pony, holding his arm tightly as she cried. The pony had red eyes and a red mane, along with yellow fur and a cute, pink bow-tie on top of her mane. Nikolai aimed his shotgun at the pony and Dempsey grabbed his own fist then pulled it back, making a loud crack. The little pony looked up at Nikolai, staring straight into the grey barrel, "I-I'm Applebloom, a Cutie Mark Crusader," she made a small squeak as Richtofen sat up, he shook his head, picked her up and then stood up, with Nikolai and Dempsey on each side of him.

"I never knew ponies are this small, what kind are you?" Richtofen held her up, face to face with Applebloom. Nikolai thought of something to say then stared at Dempsey, giggling as Dempsey shook his head in disapproval.

"I'm a foal, filly to be exact," Applebloom looked at her flank, seeing no cutie-mark, "I have no cutie-mark." She looked down, having a sad look. Richtofen pulled her closer, hugging her as Nikolai giggled. Richtofen broke from the hug, placed Applebloom on the ground then turned to face Nikolai, with both of his hands into fists and a stern look. Just as Richtofen did so, Nikolai did the right thing and stopped giggling. Richtofen carefully picked up Applebloom once more, patting her head as he held her.

"What happened?" Richtofen slowly asked as he made hand signals at Nikolai, Nikolai responded by holding the shotgun in a ready position, aiming at the bush.

"There were guards in the forest, there was 4 and they all had blood on them, my friends ran away in different directions," she looked around, sniffing the air, "That smells like the guards, I'm scared." She began to cry as three grey guards came out of the green bush, all were covered in blood and were holding blood covered swords.

"Applebloom cover your ears," Applebloom's ears went down along with her head, Nikolai's finger pulled back the trigger and shot out bronze pellets at the left guard, the guard fell down as soon as the pellets hit, creating a puddle of blood under him as the area in which his right part of his head was suppose to be, bleed into the puddle. The middle guard shrieked then pointed his sword to face Nikolai, he ran towards Nikolai as he loaded his shotgun at the worst moment. Nikolai dropped down into a prone position, the sword slicing the air above him as Nikolai pulled the trigger again, blasting off the two left legs from the guard's body then he fell onto the blood covered grass, blood squirting all over Nikolai as the guard bleed out at a fast rate. The last guard started to back away but Dempsey grabbed his last two legs then he forced the Guard down, the guard tried to swing the sword at him but missed.

"Who are you?" Dempsey grabbed the sword's blade and forced it by the guard's neck, "Tell me, or I'll find out what pony tastes like."

The guard began to tear up then gave an answer, "N-Nine-Tailed Fox Squadron," the guard began to quietly cry. Dempsey grabbed the sword from him and the guard broke from Dempsey's grip. He looked up to face Dempsey, who was now aiming the sword at the guard, "I have a family, don't kill me." Dempsey thought about what his comment was and finally lowered the sword, allowing the guard to run back into the deep, dark forest.

"There was four," Nikolai pumped the shotgun and faced Richtofen, Dempsey didn't listen while tracing the word 'Nine-tiles Fox' which was engraved on the gold blade, "We'll need to be careful, Applebloom, you can open your ears now," Applebloom's ears popped up, "Who were your friends?"

Applebloom slowly started to speak, "S-Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle, the other Crusaders." Richtofen patted her head and held her tightly.

"We'll find them, no matter what happens, we'll find your friends," Richtofen threw her onto his shoulders and started to walk towards the smoke once again, with the two following close behind Richtofen while staying on the path.