Chapters The Everfree, a place of mystery. A place of horror. And to some, a place of sanctuary.
Those that decide to brave the horrors of the Everfree usually stay there. To them, it is a place of solitude, where they can let out their rage, sorrow, or even joy. Most tend to stay away because of the threat it poses, and they would normally be right. But what they don't consider is those who came out alive and unscathed. Foals tend to wander in, to the shock of their parents, but come out unharmed. Why? Let's discover why.
100 Years Ago...
Through the overhang of the trees of the Everfree, sunlight shone through, lighting the dim area. In a small clearing, animals of all kinds gathered. This was the only place in the whole of the Forest that was free from hunters. Timberwolves gathered here, Hydras gathered here, Manticores gathered here. No fights ever broke out. The reason they were all gathered, however, was because of a yellow cat-like creature. It was clothed in a blue and grey suit. On the chest was a metal disc with a blue light activated. On it, was a symbol of a wrench head. There were similar designs on the arms as well.
Next to it, was a massive wrench. On the head were two blue patches, with the rest of it being a grey metal. As the animals surrounded the new creature, they all started to make noises. Slowly, the new creature became aware of it's surroundings. As it stirred, the surrounding animals started chattering amongst themselves even more, making more noise. Slowly, the newcomer opened it's eyes and looked around.
It jumped up with a start, preparing to defend itself from these new animals.
Where am I? It thought. Looking around more, it saw the wrench on the ground. It walked over to it, and picked it up with ease. The wrench was swung around with a few practice swings, before the creature stopped, seemingly happy with it.
Suddenly, a loud explosion sounded out through the forest, scaring the animals away. The larger ones, however, stayed behind, ready to fight this new threat. The newest arrival also stayed. They all heard rustling to their lefts, and turned to face where the noise was coming from. The bushes parted to reveal ponies running through. Seconds later, several more armoured ponies came rushing through with spears at the ready. The animals watched as the armoured ones circled the unarmoured ones.
"Under the name of Her Majesty, Princess Celestia, we demand that you come with us." One of the guards yelled at the four ponies in the middle of the circle.
"Never!" One of them answered.
"Then we will have to take you by force!" The guard that spoke before said.
The group quickly jumped towards where they saw the least amount of guards paying attention, and jumped towards them. Spells came forward from two horns, clearing a path through the circle. They dashed through, but the animals in the clearing moved to block their paths. Lightning shot from the two horns, electrocuting the animals.
Seeing the larger animals being taken down, the newcomer moved behind them, ready to stop this new force. The fried animals fell, revealing the creature to the ponies.
"Haha! What chance does this one think of having against us when we easily killed these ones?" The leader shouted. The new creature's eyes widened upon hearing that they were dead, but they quickly narrowed in determination.
"So be it." The leader said. The Unicorns of the group unleashed lightning from their horns once more. It arced through the air, racing towards the creature. Faster than any of them could follow, the creature brought up it's wrench, guarding itself. The lightning hit the wrench head on, and started gathering in the gap between the tips.
All eyes widened in seeing this, but the creature took advantage of this moment of surprise, and pushed against the lightning.
"Increase the output!" The leader yelled. More and more lightning shot at the creature until it was just one massive beam of lightning. However, that didn't stop it. It kept walking towards the group of thugs. Suddenly, the beam stopped to reveal two exhausted ponies. Sweat dripping down their muzzles and panting.
The creature aimed its wrench at the thugs, before the lightning burst from it in an even larger beam. It quickly dissipated, and the creature ran forward. The Pegasus of the group took to the air and dived for it. Before the two collided, the creature span around, making the Pegasus miss its mark and crash into the ground. One of its ears twitched as it heard the Pegasus get up behind him and take off. The creature jumped into the air and performed a frontflip, landing on the back of the Pegasus.
It smashed its wrench over the Pegasus's head, causing it to fall unconscious. Before they crashed, it jumped off the back of the Pegasus and tackled one of the Unicorns. It knocked it unconscious with a hit to the head, and leaped for the other one. After it too was knocked unconscious, it stood up and looked at the leader, and Earth Pony.
"Heh, good luck doing the same to me." He said, pawing at the ground with his head lowered like a bull, ready to charge.
"I don't need luck." The creature said.
It drew back its arm, and threw the wrench like a boomerang. Everyone in the clearing were too shocked to do anything but watch as the wrench flew through the air. With a loud clang, the wrench connected with the pony's head, knocking him unconscious with his gang. The wrench came back to the creature's awaiting hand. It caught it perfectly and effortlessly. It turned to face the guards.
"Can you take me to this Princess?"
The guards and the creature walked through the forest, eager to return to their Princess. Well, the guards were. As they made their way to the edge of the Everfree, a bright light flashed before them. Everyone covered their eyes, and waited for the flash to dissipate. When it finally did, in front of them was a strange object.
It was made out of metal, painted mostly orange with a couple of grey parts, and blue lights on it. There was a cylinder on the front with a hole in it, allowing you to see the inside. Instantly, the creature ran up to it, and grabbed it. It did a little dance, and put it behind its back.
"Put your... paws, where we can see them!" One of the guards yelled. The creature complied and put it's hands in the air. It wasn't holding anything.
"You there!" The guard gestured to another with his spear, "Check to see if it's strapped the object on its back." The guard complied and pat down the creatures body, after checking there was nothing on its back.
"Nothing, sir!" The guard said.
"Keep an eye on it."
"Yes sir!" They all responded.
With that, they all were on the move again. Soon enough they made it out of the forest where there were three chariots awaiting them. To the creatures confused look, the lead guard talked to it.
"We sent out a message to ready a couple of chariots for the criminals and us."
The creature nodded and embarked on of the chariots. After a couple of minutes, all of the guards and the group of thugs were on chariots and ready to go. The Pegasi took off and quickly rose. There wasn't any conversation between the guards.
For the next 10 minutes, the creature watched the scenery by. Lovely view, but you can get better. It thought.
When they touched down, they were in a large hanger with many, many guards patrolling the area. When the creature set its foot on the ground, spears were raised in its direction. It quickly raised its hands in the air in a placating gesture, trying to calm down the guards.
The rest of the guards disembarked and quickly formed a circle around the creature, and left the room. They first went to the dungeon to drop off the thugs. When that was done, the creature was led to the barracks.
Once there, the lead guard started talking to it.
"I need you to leave your... weapons... here before we take you to meet the Princess." He said. The creature shook its head.
"I said, I need you, to leave your weapons here!" The guard enforced. It sighed at the guard before placing the wrench down. When he stepped away from it, the wrench flew back to its hand.
"Did I not just say that you need to leave your weapons here?!" The guard demanded. The creature sighed before doing the same thing. When it stepped away, the wrench flew back to its hand. The creature turned to the guard and shrugged.
"*sigh* Fine, keep your weapon. Just don't do anything in the presence of the Princess." It nodded, letting the guard know it understood. The group left the barracks and started off towards the Throne Room. Thankfully, there weren't any nobles lined up outside to complain about how 'they deserved to be above everyone else'.
The small group quickly entered through the large, marble doors and made sure no one would intrude on the meeting. When everything was checked, the all made their way to the throne and bowed.
"Princess Celestia." They all said. The creature just stood there, not doing anything. One of the guards noticed this and whacked a hoof against the back of its knee.
"Bow you insolent-" The guard was cut off by the wrench making contact with his head. The guards instantly shot up and circled the creature, who just stood calmly in the middle of them.
"Guards-" Celestia said from her throne.
"Don't worry, Princess. We'll take care of this-"
"That is enough!" Celestia cut him off. She glared down at the now cowering guards. "Leave." She said simply.
Everyone in the room, including the creature, started to leave.
"Oh, not you." Celestia said, pointing a hoof at the creature. It gave a look of confusion before shrugging and approaching the Princess.
When all the guards left the room, the doors were pulled shut with a loud bang that echoed through the room.
"Now then," Celestia began, "I believe introductions are in order. My name is Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria." She said with a bow. "Now if only you could talk. I've never seen an animal quite lie you before."
"Probably because I'm the only one of my race that I know of." The creature said.
"That would be a-" Celestia cut herself off and did a double take at the creature. "Did you just talk?"
"No."
"Didn't think so... So what- Are you trolling me?" She asked with a grin.
"Maybe." It said with a smirk.
Celestia started chuckling, before it turned into full blown laughter.
"Oh, that is rich! None of my subjects can do that to me, I'm always the one trolling them."
"Good to see I'm the first."
"Now then," Celestia said after recovering from her laughter. "Who and what are you?"
"I'll answer your second question first. I am a Lombax. We have similar anatomy to cats, as you can see." It said, gesturing to its ears and tail.
"Yes, I can see that."
"But, I wasn't always like this."
The caused Celestia to pause. "Oh? Do go on."
"Well, here's how it happened."
The sun was shining down on me as I approached comic-con.
"Comic-con?"
"It's an event where people go dressed up as characters from games, mangas, TV shows, etc."
I took a deep breath to steel my nerves. I was always a bit nervous in large crowds. Small gatherings, like family get-togethers, I can do, but large ones like this... different story. I decided to try slipping in with the crowd that was walking through the doors. I put a lot of effort into my costume, Ratchet, but I still didn't want any extra attention.
When I made it inside with minimal notice, I went wandering the stalls. I had everything but the Omniwrench-
"And what is this Omniwrench?"
The creature held up the wrench. "This, is the Omniwrench. A tool, and weapon."
-So I went looking for one of those. As I wandered, I saw all sorts of replica's from Ratchet and Clank, but no Omniwrench. Just as I was about to give up, I saw one last vendor, holding an Omniwrench from 'Crack in Time' in a case. Seeing it as a goden opportunity, I quickly made my way over to the stall.
"How much for that Omniwrench?" I asked the man.
"For you, Ratchet... 10,000 bolts." He replied.
"10,000?! And bolts?!"
"Check your back pocket." The man said, gesturing towards my pocket.
I reached in and felt something that wasn't there before. I pulled it out, and in my hands was a card. It read:
Currency: 17,830 bolts.
Owner: Ratchet.
Puzzled, I handed over the card to the merchant. "Umm, is this good?"
He gave a laugh. "Yeah, just let me take the funds out."
He moved to the register that I somehow didn't notice before, and slid the card into a slot. He waited a couple of seconds before handing it back to me.
"Here ya go. The Omniwrench is all yours."
"Thank you." I said, picking it up.
When my hand had a solid grip, there was a bright flash. I closed my eyes to ward of the blinding sensation, but when I opened them again, I was falling through a vortex of colours. I blacked out from all the sensations.
"And that is how I got here. Woke up in a forest with a bunch of animals and the guards and thugs came rushing through. Some of the animals were electrocuted to death, but I knocked out the ponies before the guards took us here." It finished.
"Hmm, interesting. Did you tell me your name?" Celestia asked.
"No...... I haven't."
"Can you tell me?"
The creature adopted a thinking pose.
"My name, my name... Why can't I remember my name?"
"Is something wrong?" Celestia asked, concerned for its well-being.
"No, no. It's fine." It finally gave a nod.
"You may call me, Ratchet."
"So then, Ratchet, what do you plan on doing now?" Celestia asked the Lombax.
"Probably go back to that forest." He responded.
"Why back to the Everfree?"
"Something about it reminds me of home. I don't know what it is, but there's just this feeling I get when I'm close to it. It's sort of... comforting."
Celestia adopted a thoughtful expression. Should I let him go? He helped out the guards, but will he harm the ponies around that area? Celestia thought. After some thinking, she finally made a decision.
"Ratchet, I have decided on what you can do." The one she mention perked up. "You may return to the Everfree Forest, but on the condition that you help any ponies that are threatened in the forest and never harm any of the locals." Celestia said.
Ratchet nodded. "Don't worry Princess, I will make sure no harm comes to those that enter."
"Thank you, Ratchet. You may go."
Ratchet bowed slightly and left the room.
When the doors closed, Celestia let out a sigh. "I really hope I made the right decision." She muttered to herself.
Over the years, Ratchet protected any foals that wandered in, shielding them from harm. Whenever he would escort them to the edge of the forest, he would always tell them one thing:
"If you ever need my help, just call my name."
The most memorable foal was a green mare with an apple pie for a cutie mark. Ratchet watched her enter the woods with a straw bucket over her back, preparing himself to jump in should any harm come to her.
As the mare ventured further and further into the woods, a feeling of dread washed over Ratchet. Is she going into Timberwolf territory? He thought. His guess proved right, as the filly walked right up the the Zap Apple trees and started plucking the fruit. Oh no.
He heard rustling and whipped his head towards where the noise originated from. Timberwolves were hiding behind the bushes, waiting for the perfect time to lunge out. The mare started looking around, trying to detect what made the noise. Soon enough, she shrugged it off and went back to picking the apples.
With barely any sound, the first Timberwolf lunged towards the mare through the bush. Time seemed to slow down for Ratchet, as he quickly darted from his hiding place and smacked the Timberwolf's head off its shoulders. Turning to face the shocked mare, he shouted one word at her:
"Run!"
That was enough to get her to take off, running from the pack of bloodthirsty wood abominations. Ratchet brought out his Lava-gun, which he found by falling into an underground cave one day, and set to igniting the wolves on fire. After he had set all of them ablaze, he took off after the mare, hoping that she made it to the edge of the forest in time.
His fears were proven to be false, as he found her panting outside her house. Ratchet gave a sigh of relief before turning around and heading back to the forest.
Or he would've, if he hadn't spotted the timberwolf creeping up behind the mare.
He dashed off towards the mare, and she saw him running for her. Her eyes widened in fear before ducking down and covering her head with her hooves. She heard a crack and expected to feel pain along with it, but nothing came. She opened her eyes and looked around her. From behind her, she heard panting.
As she turned around, albeit very slowly, what she saw shocked her and was imprinted into her memory from that day on.
"And there Ah was, wonderin' what was happenin'. When Ah turned around though, Ah was shocked deeply at what Ah saw. Behind me, was the creature with a Timberwolf behind it. The head of it, that was smashed up, nothing more than a pile of twigs." Granny Smith said to her three grandchildren.
"It noticed me and walked over. ow, Ah expected it to hit me next, but what it did shocked me. It talked to me." Three sets of wide eyes was the reaction to that.
"It said; 'Are you alright?' Ah was shocked to say the least, and all Ah could manage was a nod. It gave a sigh of relief before talking again. 'That's good. I was hoping you would be able to escape. Now, why did you wander into Timberwolf territoy?' It asked me. It took me a bit before Ah could talk again, but Ah did.
'Ah was looking for some food for mah family.' Ah told it. It nodded before telling me one thing before it ran back into that accursed forest.
'If you ever need my help in the Everfree, just call my name: Ratchet.'
It started running back to the forest before disappearing completely in the tree-line. Ah heard the door open behind me, and out came Ma and Pa. They asked me who that was, and I responded with this:
'The Hero of the Everfree.'"
Granny's audience were in shocked silence. Finally, her second youngest grandchild broke it.
"So his name was 'Ratchet'? Seems like an awful weird name to me."
"Now now, Applejack. That might have to do with that massive wrench he used as a weapon." Granny lightly scolded.
"Ah wonder if Ah'll ever meet him..." Applejack mumbled to herself.
It was the night of the Summer Sun Celebration. Everything had been going nicely, until Celestia had been foalnapped by Nightmare Moon, and Applejack and her friends had to go into the Everfree Forest.
"Have you heard about the legend?" A cyan pegasus asked.
"What legend? There are quite a lot." Applejack answered.
"The 'Monster of the Everfree'?" She asked.
"No, Rainbow. Ah haven't." Appkejack replied.
"Legend says, that deep within the forest lies a sleeping cat-like creature," Granny said one about a cat-like creature. "that awakens whenever a foal wanders into the forest. It stalks them, until their mind breaks, and eats them up. Then, it visits the foals family, and kills them in their sleep with a large wrench." The one Granny said had a large wrench too. "The next day, the family is gone, all traces of them ever being alive missing, except for pony's memories." Rainbow explained.
"Th-th-th-that sounds... scary." A yellow pegasus squeaked.
"Liven up Fluttershy, it's only a campside story." Rainbow said.
"But the Mare in the Moon was real. What if this one is too?" Fluttershy responded.
"Don't worry Fluttershy, this one isn't going to be real." A purple unicorn commented.
"If you say so Twilight."
"Yeah! And besides, I reckon he just needs a party!" A pink earth pony added.
"Pinkie? Did you not just hear me say that it was just a legend?" Twilight asked.
"Nope!" Pinkie responded, ever so cheerful.
"Of course not."
"Why would you ever throw a party for such a ruffian?" A white unicorn asked.
"Rarity, you should know better than to question my party logic!" Pinkie said.
"Hmm, I suppose by now I should." Rarity said.
"Mah Granny also had a story of a cat-like creature." Applejack said, gaining everypony's attention.
"Oh, do go on." Rarity told her.
"She said that it saved her from a pack of Timberwolves when she picked her first harvest of Zap Apples. It even saved her from one when one tried to sneak up on her when she got back home." Applejack continued.
"And before it left, it told her that if she ever needed help in the forest again, all she had to do was call it's name."
In front of the girls, a pack of Timberwolves jumped out of the bushes, numbering at about 20.
"Applejack? I think now would be a good time to make sure of that story." Twilight said.
Suddenly, the front Timberwolf lunged for them, only to miss as the girls seeming teleported to a different place before they continued running.
"RATCHET! "
In a tree, a yellow ear twitched. "Thought I had been forgotten about after all these years." A voice came from the tree. A yellow blur jumped down and dashed off towards where the noise had come from.
The girls had been running for a while, and they were all exhausted. The Timberwolves managed to corner them against a cliff wall, ready to devour them.
"It's been nice knowing you girls." Twilight said.
"Same." They all responded.
"Looks like this is goodbye." They all closed their eyes, huddled in a little group.
As they waited for the pain that would come from being torn apart by Timberwolves, nothing happened. In fact, all they heard was snarling. Opening their eyes, they saw a yellow cat thing holding a Timberwolf at bay with it's large wrench.
"Somepony call my name?" It asked, looking over its shoulder with a smirk.
"Ratchet?" Applejack asked.
"Yep. Now, let's get rid of these overgrown sticks." With that, it reached behind its back with a hand and pulled out an orange pistol.
"Time to die." It said before shooting the Timberwolf in front of it.
The Timberwolf flew away before disintegrating and leaving a pile of nuts and bolts. Said pile then flew over to Ratchet before being absorbed into his body.
Ratchet then put the pistol away before drawing out a small robot. He threw it down, and it grew in size. When it stopped growing, it said something;
"Mr. Zurkon destroy."
Then, a transparent green field was placed around Ratchet with electricity arcing all around it. Ratchet then pulled his hand out, wearing a glove with a mirrored ball in it.
"Let's dance." He threw the ball into the air before jumping into the hoard of Timberwolves. Music started to play and the Timberwolves danced along with it. The small robot blasted away at anything it could get in it's vision, while Ratchet was content to use his Omniwrench.
Soon enough, the music stopped and the remaining Timberwolves, at a count of 6, jumped for Ratchet, his robot blown up a while ago. Ratchet smirked before the Timberwolves were blasted away with electricity coming from the field around him.
He reached behind him once more, and pulled out a massive gun with rockets sticking out of it.
"Goodnight." He shot the gun and six rockets came flying out, hitting the Timberwolves in the head. A maniacal grin grew on Ratchet's face as he shot more and more rockets, causing a massive explosion.
Eventually, rockets stopped coming and he put the gun away, opting instead to take out his wrench. The girls started cheering, but he put a stop to it with a raised hand.
"Not yet." He said. After he finished talking a 20 foot Timberwolf rose out of the smoking crater.
"Fire magic at my wrench." He instructed the unicorns.
"What?" They asked, confused on what he wanted.
"Fire magic at my wrench! NOW!" He ordered. Twilight instantly fire a beam of magic at the Omniwrench with Rarity following up a little later. A purple and blue ball started forming in the space in the head of the wrench. When the ball was large enough, Ratchet ordered them to stop before taking out another gun.
"Come on, Lava gun, let me do this." He muttered before shoving the ball of magic down the barrel. The gun glowed a mix of purple and blue before a copy of the Lava gun faded away. The new one in Ratchet's hand had a glass streak down the barrel with a purple lava glowing inside. The gun was coloured blue and purple highlights. On the side was a knob with four options:
Lava
Magic
Liquid Nitrogen
All of the Above
"Ho ho ho. This is MY type of gun." Ratchet chuckled. He set the knob to 'Liquid Nitrogen' before aiming at the massive Timberwolf. A stream of liquid nitrogen came from a nozzle and hit the Timberwolf, freezing it in a solid ice cube. Ratchet ran up to the massive ice cube and started hitting it with the Omniwrench, causing cracks to appear.
He stepped back when one side had enough cracks and changed it to 'Lava' mode. He fired the lava into the cracks, setting the Timberwolf on fire. He then changed it to 'Magic' and stepped back. He secured himself in place before firing off the gun.
A large beam of magic came from the gun, obliterating anything in its way. When Ratchet stopped firing, nothing was left of the Timberwolf, or the trees behind it.
Ratchet turned to face the girls.
"All in a days work."