Shards of glass

We trudged ahead, never stopping to view the scenery, as we were on a tight schedule, making our way through the forest, the farther we walked, the less the parasprites followed, one by one they stopped following the haunting music, and made their way back to the depths of the forest. More and more light penetrated through the high tops of trees, and before we knew it we had left the safety of trees, and they shifted into giant fields of golden wheat, all growing ridiculously high, reaching even above our heads, and leaning in like a gaping mouth about to swallow us whole.

They walked with their heads lowered, and legs tense, as if they were prepared to dash at any moment. I suppose they had a right to, now that they were out of the forest, if their stories were right they were in just as much danger out here as we were in the forest, surrounded by bloodthirsty parasprites.

A barn started to show through the layers of wheat, and a single pony, lacking both a wing or a horn layed down beside it, a sliver of wheat in his or her mouth, and their coat was a dark brown. The others sighed, of relief or despair, but whatever it was they were quickly cut off as the barn door opened, and they all dashed to the safety of the tall golden crops. A pony, no, two, no three, one of each species walked out of the barn door, each clad in synonymous armor, each depicting a bright sun on their body.

The pony sleeping slowly opened his eyes, and leaned over to the ponies I supposed were guards from the Hattens reaction. "You gentlemen find what you were looking for?"

The earth pony stepped forward, responding to the pony. "Afraid not, good sir, but we are thankful for your cooperation in this brutal time."

"No problem, you guys are already stretched incredibly thin, and I prefer to not interfere with your jobs, hate to create extra work."

"Erm, thank you, kind... citizen."

They trudged up the path to where I was, and almost didn't notice me, up close I noticed they had bags under their eyes, as though they hadn't slept in days. When they did notice me they put on a business face and walked up to me holding up some papers. "Excuse me, we're sorry to bother you, but have you seen any suspicious characters such as these, we were told they were in the area." They held out a small stack of four papers.

I looked at them, none of which depicted any of the Hattens, instead they depicted four different ponies, all unicorns, all in pinstriped suits, they looked more like they were going to a business meeting than belonging on wanted posters. "I'm afraid not, I'll tell you if I see these ponies."

"Thank you... for your cooperation." He said, half falling asleep. They continued on right past where the Hattens were hiding, seemingly not noticing them even as they past right by Tanker's hiding place. They trudged on, heads nodding down then shooting back up, and they soon were past our line of sight.

"You folk can come out now, don't pretend to hide, I saw you from a mile away." The pony laying next to the barn spoke, his eyes were closed, but when no one emerged he repeated the statement. "I said get out of my perfectly good crops and onto the nice pathway I set up, not hide in them like a bunch of bandits!" When no one moved he sighed and said, "Now, don't worry, I won't call any guards, if you were looking for trouble you would've mugged those unfortunate souls when they past you, wouldn't take much, even if they find who they are looking for they aren't going to capture them in their deprived state."

First Night, then Hoodlum, and then all the others besides Entry moved out of the golden wheat, and back on the path. He didn't look up, but simply said. "All of them, mister light foot, I'd hate to have to drag you out of there, be an awful lot of work for both of us."

Finally Entry moved out of his hiding place, and out into the open. "Great," The pony said, "Now, who might all you fine people be?"

We explained ourselves, sensing no hostility from the strange pony, and he simply yawned when we finished our story. "From the woods, you say, must be on the run from your jumpiness. I'll see if grandma has any extra food she can hand out, wanted to give it to the guards, but they refused, poor chaps haven't had any good rest in weeks." He leaned back even further, and knocked on the barn he was leaning on three times in rapid succession, and a final one a second later. an answer of eight knocks, some farther apart than others, echoed from the barn. "You're in luck, she's got some extra bread and water for you guys."

"Uhhhhhh..." We were just as confused as the guards were, if not more so. "Thanks?"

"No problem, you guys take it easy, I'll lead you to the table." He opened his eyes and yawned, mouth gaping open. he scratched his back and started to lead us to the barn doors. He paused right before he opened the doors. He turned to us and said. "Oh, by Celestia, you might want to duck."

"What?" I said, before any response was issued he swung open the barn doors, and a high pitched wail could be heard throughout the old house.

"AYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAAAAAAA" A voice yelled, I remebered his advice and slammed to the ground just as a pony flew past me, swinging on a rope. Everyone followed suit, but Tanker was not so lucky, as he had been placed at the lowest point of the swing, and even ducking, his considerable girth had made him an optimal target for the crazy pony. All of his gigantic weight was sent flying, knocking over anyone behind him, and was being propelled by the pony. He fell belly up, and before he could react a bucket of water was flung on his face, and a loaf of bread was shoved into tanker's mouth.

"Grandma please! Just one day! Didn't you get the knock?"

"You know the rules Gilden, all ponies need the exercise, if they can 'scape from me they can eat at the table! Wohohohohohoo!"

The pony stood up, and lo behold, the pony who took down tanker was none other than an old, wrinkled pony, holding stacks of bread. We were all dumbstruck for a moment, our brains trying to comprehend just what kind of shenanigans was happening.

"Wohohohohohhohooo!" Our shock quickly turned to adrenaline and pure, raw, fear as the old lady started to run at us at blinding speeds, and with a very dangerous gleam in her eye. She targeted Hoodlum first, and Hoodlum did what she knew second best, run like hell itself was racing to feed him a loaf of bread. She shot across the barn, running for the hills, and at first it seemed that she was outrunning the devil granny, and the old lady leaned to the left, seemingly giving the impression of giving up and turning around. She disappeared into the wheat, probably to attack us and take us by surprise. Hoodlum slowed down a bit, her legs starting to give out. He approached the top of the hill, with granny nowhere to be seen, she gasped a sigh of relief, and collapsed at the top of the hill.

"You almost got me sonny, but you're gonna have to run a little faster than that if you want to eat at the Oat's table!" Her scream was muffled as a loaf of bread was put in her mouth. The granny had moved into the wheat, and had seemingly reappeared at the top of the hill! The old lady turned to us, causing a shiver to go down our spines, and she disappeared into the wheat again. Our hearts raced as clumps of golden wheat shifted and swayed to the wind, never giving her position away. For what seemed to be an hour, we stood, frozen in anticipation of where she was going to appear next. A small shift in the wheat appeared for a moment, then the crazy lady shot out of the grains, launching herself at Night. Unlike me, he seemed ready for the oncoming onslaught, and gritted his teeth as the small ball of death raced to him. At the last moment, he rolled to the left, the wind of the granny arm thrusting bread could be felt feet away. The old lady seemed to grin, seemingly accepting this new challenge.

"Left, up, right, up, down, why you're going all around!" She said in a singsong voice, trying to hit the poor former general with the piece of bread. Each time she launched another piece of bread, Night barely dodged it, ducking, jumping, rolling, blocking, anything and everything possible he tried to stop the pastry from being forced inside his mouth. He started to tire, and his dodges became less and less accurate, more often than not he grazed the pastry, barely stopping it. In a last ditch attempt he tried fighting back, raising his hoof to knock the piece of bread from her hand. And... he did! despite all odds, he timed it just right, knocking the piece of bread from her hoof...

And into her other hoof, his eyes widened, but that was all he could react before her hoof came thrusting down, filling his gullet with a loaf of bread and knocking him to the ground. She turned around and narrowed her eyes on

Me, crap. "Let's go sonny boy!" She yelled, launching herself to me.

"Wait!" I yelled, and surprisingly, she skidded to a halt.

"Yes dearie?"

"Um, uh, erm," My brain wracked up for anything that fell within a plan. "Could I... have a loaf of bread?"

"Why yes!" She launched herself at me, about to put the loaf of bread in my mouth.

"Wait!" I yelled again, "I meant like that I could use against you, it seems kinda one sided when you're the only one with the bread, could I have one to try to get you with by any chance?"

"Oh, why didn't you say so? of course!" Her terminal velocity stopped, and she slowly put a loaf of thin bread in my hoof, then backed up and took a similar piece from her pile. "As the industrialists would say, en garde!"

She launched herself at me, piece of bread in her hand. We clashed in my desperate bid to not have a loaf of bread shoved down my throat, and despite the softness of the bread, it rattled my right foreleg to it's core, but at least I blocked it.

In one swift movement she rolled behind me, somehow keeping the bread clean the entire roll, and thrust the breadstick where I was a second ago, if not for a skeletal hand pulling me out of the way.

"Keep your eyes open, one hit and it's all over!" Tartarus said, before thrusting my head down to avoid another swing of the devil granny's bread. This swing had left her open, and I jabbed my breadstick at her face.

Or where her face was, in a flash she had disappeared, and nothing besides Tartarus saving my neck once again by tossing me aside to avoid a strike from above. The old woman squinted at the parasprite illusion,and started swinging the breadstick at the parasprite, with Tartarus able to easily dodge her swings like a... well as Hoodlum would put it, a parasprite and a swatter.

She was distracted by Tartarus, and took the opportunity a second time, swinging in for the meal. Just as my breadstick was about to reach it's intended destination, The granny leaned back, and in a swift movement thrust her breadstick in my mouth.

Didn't actually taste that bad, could use some meat, but of course I was in too much of a daze to realize that, and pain, so much pain, getting whapped by a breadstick wielded by an old grandma hurts a lot more than you'd expect. As I slowly recovered, munching on the bread, I saw the old lady slowly approaching Amber, who was sitting down.

"May I have a piece of bread?" Amber said, smiling and holding out his hands. The devil granny grinned and sped up to meet him, but just as she was about to pelt him with the bread, a rock that, looking back, was obvious was there, but seemed to never catch my attention, hit the old lady's hooves, causing her to go flying. "N-now!" Amber yelled, and Tinker appeared out of the grass, wielding a small blowgun made of tightly interwoven wheat, and shot a small pellet, aiming right where the old granny was flying.

At the last moment this crazy lady seemed to twist in midair, and flung a loaf of bread at terminal velocity speeds at the same angle as the pellet. They collided, and the pellet was shot to the side, and the bread shot to Tinker, landing with a sickening thump on his face.

"Ha! Gotta try a little harder than some rocks and a plum seed to take me out!" She said, but her eyes widened when she looked down, when she threw the bread it changed her trajectory the slightest bit, and straight into Tanker's freshly dug hole. A lovely fwump could be heard as she landed, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"How deep is that hole?" Gilden asked?

"A good fifteen feet, she isn't getting out of there anytime soon." Tanker said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"You just had to say that." said Amber. As soon as the sentence was finished the old lady started to cackle, giving everyone a near heart attack as she leapt out of the hole while flinging a piece of bread at Amber, hitting him in the stomach. She turned to Gilden, saying, "Your turn dear grandkiddie 'o boy!" It seemed that even relatives were not spared in the bread apocalypse. His eyes widened more like someone who had forgotten something important, and then he quickly...

Did nothing at all, he just waited for his granny of death to come to him, like a man who had accepted his fate, and judging from the fact that this happened regularly, was no surprise. Just as her hoof came wailing down to deliver her punishing grains, her arm seemed to bend, like it was being distorted, and the cascade of hooves and bread that came after the first all seemed to bend around Gilden, creating a vortex of bread as seemed to fire her punches at the speed of sound, but without him moving an inch, not a single one seemed to land. Then something strange happened, a bead of sweat formed on his head, then another, then another, and soon the distortions lessoned, and in one final blow, it completely stopped, and Gilden was knocked to the ground by the force of the bread.

She took out a piece of bread, and the both of them nibbled away at the meal, and for the moment everything seemed calm, even peaceful, at least until the bread was finished.

"Alright where's lightfoot?!" The granny said, wiping the last crumbs from her mouth. From what Gilden had said, I assumed that she meant Entry, and sure enough, he was gone. "What of wuss."

"Grandma!" Gilden said, looking shocked.

"Well then why don't they come out and fight?"

"Because they've been running all their lives, and you just took out everything they could throw at you."

"THEN THEY FIGHT LIKE STALLIONS UNTIL THE VERY LAST!" The grandma shouted, rushing into the grass.

"Hoh boy, listen I'm really sorry about this, my grandma can be a bit... nonsensical at times." In response, Night, Tanker, and I lifted our bruised faces and raised an eyebrow in unison. "Really nonsensical at times, but if it's any consolation she does this to just about everyone, considers a rite of passage."

It's a rite of passage to chase your guests down and stuff their face with baked goods?" Tartarus said.

"Only here. . . shiny parasprite." He said, as if he had just seen Tartarus.

"I'll take that pause as a moment of awed silence for my shining glory." A silence was kept, only to be broken by a single loud thump echoing through the stalks of wheat, and we all were frozen in silence as dragging was heard, and a single Entry was dragged through the grass, bread stuffed in his mouth.

"So, how are you? I do hope you enjoy it here!" The grandma said.