Sanford strolled through the market in Canterlot's "lower" district in his usual clothing that consisted of a grey vest, and jeans that were partly covering his bandaged midsection. He was wearing a utility belt around his jeans and sported a bandana that mostly covered the band-aid on his head, to finish the look he had his mirrored shades over his eyes, despite the cloudy weather.
This of course gained him the odd stare from some of the crowd of humanised ponies that he'd grown used to over the small amount of time that he had been in this strange place, after all, he'd seen improbability drives in action. As Sanford was walking past an alleyway, he heard some muffled sounds coming out of it. If he were still in Nevada, Sanford would've ignored it, but this new world seemed a lot safer and more peaceful than his home and crimes would be on a lower scale. His interest piqued, he opted to check it out, what he found wasn't the most disturbing thing he had ever seen. Two bulky male griffons, as Sanford had read a bit about, were wrestling a struggling lavender unicorn mare with a dark purple mane that had a hot pink streak going through the middle and an identical tail to the ground.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Sanford demanded, causing the griffons' heads to snap upwards in his direction.
"Damn it! Deal with him, I've got this mare," the griffon on the left, dubbed Griffon 1, ordered.
"With pleasure," Griffon 2 replied, pulling a wicked curved dagger out of it's sheath.
"You have chosen.... poorly," Sanford smirked, opting not to pull his hook out of his jeans just then. So, as Griffon 2 swung his dagger at him, he sidestepped before grabbing the griffons wrist and twisting it. Griffon 2 grunted in pain and dropped his blade allowing Sanford to catch it mid-air and swing at him. In his haste to dodge the deadly counterattack, Griffon 2 stumbled backwards, giving Sanford the window of opportunity to drive his fist into his gut. As the griffon doubled over gasping for breath, Sanford violently elbowed the back of his head and rendered him unconscious.
Sanford then looked back to Griffon 1 who had finished tying and gagging the mare and, with one glance at his fallen comrade, bolted with the unfortunate unicorn over one shoulder.
"No you don't," Sanford chided mockingly, deciding to pull his hook out and tossed it just to the right of the fleeing griffons legs before sharply flicking the thin rope it was attached to, causing it to snag on the kidnapper's leg and giving the rope a hard tug to topple him.
"Too easy," Sanford muttered as he walked towards Griffon 1 who was just pulling his dagger out of it's sheath before it was kicked away.
"P-please don't kill me!" he stammered,
Sanford crouched down and chuckled as he replied, "Goodnight mate," and slammed the handle of the knife against Griffon 1's skull, knocking him unconscious too.
Sanford's attention then turned to the lavender mare who looked at him with hope mixed with disbelief, and as soon as her gag was off she couldn't stop thanking him, "Oh thank you, thank you! I thought I was done for and then you came along and saved me! Thank you so much!"
"Woah! Calm down, calm down a sec," Sanford responded, "we should probably call the guards and get you back home. Yes?"
It was then that the mare calmed down enough to think straight, "You're right, my name is Twilight Sparkle by the way Mr.....?" she prompted for his name.
Knowing that it wasn't the weirdest name he'd ever heard he complied, "Sanford,"
"Hello Sanford. I don't know why the griffons would want to foalnap me, I was just walking down the street with my friend when they jumped me,"
"Where would your friend be now?"
"HEY!!" yelled a raspy voice from above just as Sanford was dive bombed by a rainbow streak and sent sprawling across the ground. Sanford quickly rolled and stood back up, bringing his hook and dagger to bear, to see a cyan pegasus mare with a rainbow mane and tail glaring daggers at him and threatening him, "Stay back or I'll smash your face in!" she warned.
All this accomplished was to make Sanford chuckle, which made her even angrier "What!?"
Sanford replied by pointing to the unconscious pair of griffons, "I am not your enemy miss, I think that you'll find that I just saved your friend from these two griffons,"
Twilight, finally snapping out of her shock backed him up, "Yes Rainbow, Sanford here just saved me from being foalnapped.... just before you decided to attack him," she added as an afterthought.
"Yeah? How do you know he isn't just trying to gain your trust so he can stab you in the back later?"
"He could have done that just now!"
"Please calm down!" Sanford interjected, trying to stop the argument before it got out of hand.
"Shut it!" Rainbow yelled as she swung her fist at him. Sanford easily sidestepped the attack and tripped her up on her way past.
Rainbow growled and was about to charge at him again when Twilight magically restrained her, "RAINBOW DASH!! What do you think you're doing!?"
"What does it look like?" she retorted.
"Assaulting an innocent?" Sanford suggested earning a glare from the cyan mare.
"He's right Rainbow, he saved me from the griffons," Twilight chided, but before Dash could respond a trio of guards rushed in and pointed their weapons at Sanford.
"Halt!" the leading stallion, a spear wielding unicorn stallion, ordered, "You are under arrest for the assault of 2 ponies and 2 griffons, what do you say in your defence?"
"Ummm.... not guilty?" Sanford tried, earning himself the blunt end of a spear to his gut, "Ouch! Ok, ok," he dropped the hook and dagger before slowly putting his hands behind his head. The leading guard tentatively took a few steps towards him, promoting a smirk form Sanford as he quickly drew the small carbon sword from under his vest and swung, taking the blade off of the guard's spear.
"That's it! Get him!" said guard ordered as he drew a spare short sword.
Sanford sank into a ready stance as the guards charged him, the leader came at him again with a downwards swipe that was smoothly blocked and countered with a stab to his shoulder.
One down, two to go.
The left guard, a mare, fired a crossbow bolt at him, Sanford just barely dodged it and he heard it whistle past his ear and imbed itself into a nearby dumpster. He retaliated with a slice to her arm and a four-finger jab to her abdomen, winding her. The last was obviously fairly new to the guard business, because he was trembling as Sanford approached him and pinned him to the wall with the sword to his throat. By this time the mare had regained her breath, "Take your wounded friend to a doctor," Sanford ordered her, when it looked like she was about to object he added, "or he gets it," this shut her up as she put the wounded guards arm around her neck and helped him out of the alley.
Once they were gone his attention returned to the pinned guard, "So, why did you and your buddies attempt to arrest me unprovoked?" he started his interrogation.
"I-I was ju-just following the Colonel's orders!" he managed to stammer out.
"Okay. Why did he order you to do so?"
"I don't know! I swear!"
Twilight finally managed to get over the shock (Again) and intervened, "Sanford!? What are you doing!?"
"Interrogating," came his simple reply.
"Yeah! I get that! What I mean is: why are you interrogating a guard?"
"I have my suspicions...." Sanford could tell that a crowd had gathered and could hear metal on concrete as more guards approached, "You might wanna get out, in case of a misunderstanding with the guards," he suggested to the 2 mares, who latched on to what he was saying and hastily made their way out. Sanford then threw the helpless guard on the ground, knocking his helmet off. This seemed to cause a strange reaction. The "guards" body seemed to ripple and change, leaving a sight that Sanford was very familiar with.
