Skirmish at Appleloosa

Chapter 3: Skirmish at Appleloosa.

Featherfang was glad to have ran into Coyotl.

Coyotl was the massive jaguar-skin wearing stallion that decapitated the head guard back in Ponyville. That feat had saved Featherfang’s life and maybe Lyra Heartstrings’s life as well.The massive stallion that is Coyotl had a red color to his body and carried a large, two-handed macuahuitl on his back. He had an aura of duty that surrounded him.

Coyotl was also what you would call a workaholic. In the journey to meet up with another group in Appleloosa, Coyotl was the one to start the fire, hunt food and preside over the operation like it was a child he was babysitting. He also healed Lyra’s neck wound, something else that Coyotl excelled in.

But the weirdest part? Coyotl was referring to Featherfang as lord Featherfang. Featherfang would ask him why he gave the “king of garbage” an honorable title, and Coyotl would tell him that not until they reached Appleloosa would he tell him why.

Featherfang knew that his stunt in Ponyville has branded him an outlaw to all Equestrian territories, and he was traveling with a group of what the ponies of Equestria would call savages.

Lyra was still quiet after the incident in Ponyville. It was not everyday that your own town guards slash you in the throat with the intent to kill you. Featherfang felt sorry for her and more anger for his being and blood. Because if it wasn't for his curse, she would”t be an outlaw like himself. It was possible that they saw her as a kidnapped victim, but to Featherfang, that was an optimistic hope.

The small group eventually spotted Appleloosa on the horizon. Lyra was very tired from all the running and trotting through the night. Seeing daylight touch the sky, she was overcome by fatigue. She collapsed on the ground, taking deep breaths and trying to get up.

Featherfang took notice of this and turned to Coyotl. Coyotl shrugged and continued to walk with the other jungle ponies.

“Hey Coyotl, what are you doing?” Featherfang asked.

“Pressing forward. We must reach the jungle before the ritual begins,” Coyotl replied.

“Are we not going to rest? Lyra-”

“Lyra is a supporter of Celestia’s rule. We have no need for her to come along, it’s like carrying dead weight.”

“Then why did you heal her?” Featherfang said with a hint of anger.

“Because she delayed the guard from killing you,” Coyotl stated.

Featherfang was not about to abandon Lyra. She helped save his life after all. Featherfang was thinking how he could try to convince them to not leave her behind. He knew fighting was out of the option because of his spear wound, and the fact that these guys could probably outfight him.

Then he remembered something.

“I order you to stop!” Featherfang said, trying to put as much authority in his voice as he could. Coyotl stopped and turned around.

“What did you say?” He asked, his figure towering over Featherfang.

Featherfang did not back down. “I said stop. That’s an order.”

Coyotl looked at his ponies, then back to Featherfang. Coyotl then knelt and said “as you wish, my lord.”

Featherfang was stunned. This was the first time anypony has ever shown him respect. But, Featherfang had a follow up on his command.

“I also order you to find water and rest up. We will move out at dawn and… Coyotl.”

“Yes my lord?”

“Lyra is part of this group. She helped save my life. It is only fitting that we help her as well. We do not abandon other ponies, understand?”

“Yes, my lord.”

******

With an hour before the sun dips into the horizon, the jungle ponies were getting ready for the night run. Lyra, now refreshed and ready for the run, went up to Feather fang and thanked him. Featherfang has never been thanked in his life, ever.

“Coyotl.”

“Yes my lord?”

“Could you tell us why you call me that? Why you saved my life?”

Coyotl nodded. He sat down and began his tale.

“Long ago, my civilization was the jewel of the world. We were a wealthy, powerful people that had it all. It was all thanks to the Sky serpents.

He paused, then continued “Every civilization had a group of guardian nature spirits. For us it was the sky serpents . They had god-like powers over the forbidden jungle. But more importantly they controlled the Sun and the Moon, and the winds of the sky, the jungle itself. All other guardians paled in comparison to them. But all this power came at a price, the infamous blood-curse. The serpents were very blood-thirsty, driven to demand sacrifice of animals in order to satisfy their hunger. Then… it happened, and we don’t see them anymore.”

“Then what happened? Why don’t we see them anymore?” Lyra asked.

Coyotl’s tone turned somber “Celestia’s ancestor wanted all the treasures, all the wealth and the whole continent under his rule. He knew the Sky serpents blessed the Empire of the Seponies well, He thought the “savages” didn’t deserve to be alive. Therefore, he combined forbidden magic with some of the magic we use today, creating a powerful weapon. This weapon was known as the sword, Apocalypse.”

“Apocalypse?” Lyra said.

Coyotl nodded, “Indeed. That was the name of the sword. The sword had a unique ability to slay spirits and guardians, who were immortal. Celestia’s ancestor gathered an army, and with this sword, he conquered all of Equestria. My people were the only ones that could stand a chance…”

A silence was observed among the jungle ponies before Coyotl spoke again.

“The Sky serpents themselves tried to help, but Apocalypse led Celestia’s ancestor to them, and killed them all. During our last stand, on the site of the Temple of the Serpents, our last sky serpent, by the name of Quetzalcoatl, wanted to fight alongside with us. But we knew that as long as the ancestor had the sword in his possession, Quetzalcoatl was doomed. In an act of mercy, we sealed Quetzalcoatl in a snake charm inside the temple. After the battle, my people were suppressed and were put to the sword. A few of us escaped and have lived in the jungle ever since. We we a proud people, brought low. At the end, the ancestor would give the sun and moon to his descendants. His current descendants are Celestia and Luna. Celestia though, has appointed Azuhuitol as ruler of the jungle, and he has desecrated a number of our temples.

But, one of our priests revealed in one of our codex’s passages that an heir, sired by Quetzalcoatl himself, would be the one to lead us back to glory, revive the sky serpent, and destroy Celestia’s rule over us. It was this prophecy that caused us to spread a cult about the serpents, and it spread far and wide. As we revealed the truth about the sky serpents, we brought only the finest mares to the snake amulet for Quetzalcoatl to chose who would become the mother of his child.

In a period of two thousand years, he rejected mare after mare, until one mare that was once part of the order of Luna, was brought before him. I remember that, she was the most exquisite and beautiful mare the Serponies had ever seen. I saw it. I saw the spirit of Quetzalcoatl rush out of the amulet and possess her body. For the next few days, the mare would speak with Quetzalcoatl’s voice as she told the remaining Serponies on what to do in preparation for the coming rebellion and the retrieval of the child, for the child would not grow up among his people. When Quetzalcoatl was done imposing his spirit on her, he left her body with the words “it is done, let her go on her way to raise my child in peace.”

The mare went home with two Serponies as an escort. But the two would be killed by Celestia’s soldiers. The mare found a home on the outskirts of Ponyville. It was there that she would raise the child in secret, because she knew that everypony would hear about how Celestia’s ancestor conquered the savage winged beasts of the jungle in their childhood. She raised the child well, with a secret Serpony sent to watch her and the child.

Eventually, a local neighbor told the guard that the mother was part of the Serpony cult, and they tried to arrest her. They asked her to reveal the location of the cult, or if the supposed child had been born. She refused to give them the information, and died as the result of hours of torture.

So the promised child would grow to be an outcast in the nearby Everfree forest. It was there that he would suffer the blood-curse. It was there that he would teach himself to fight. It was there that he would be watched by Celestia, for only she knew his true parentage. She would not kill him outright, but watch him with the hope that he never will uncover the truth about his parents.”

Coyotl meet Featherfang’s eyes and said “That child is you.”

Featherfang stared at Coyotl for a minute, then said “are you crazy? My mother disappeared!”

“I’m not crazy. I know you are the child of legend. After all, I was the one that was ordered to keep an eye on you.”

Featherfang looked down, grief threatening to make him cry.

Featherfang looked up and his eyes narrowed “then where were you when they captured my mother? Where were you when I left my house to live a life of misery in the Everfree forest!?”

“I had to leave you to report on your mother’s demise, and you were meant to live in the forest until we came to get you,” Coyotl replied.

“Damn the forest, and fuck you!” Featherfang shouted. He turned and took to the skies.

Coyotl looked to the ground, a single tear dropping from his face. He turned to the other jungle ponies and said “prepare to move out, we don’t rest until we hit the Badlands.”

The Serponies nodded and began to move to Appleloosa, with Featherfang shrieking in the skies, lamenting the loss of his mother.

~~~

“Are you sure that we are doing the right thing?” Applejack asked Remnant.

“It is. After all, restoring a power that the world sorely needs is a noble deed any day of the week,” Remnant replied. He looked behind him and said “How are you holding up there, Vinyl?”

Vinyl, who was walking next to Applejack with a limp, said “I’m good. Limping, but good.”

They continued to walk for a little before Applejack asked Vinyl “where did ya learn ta used one of them fancy swords.”

Vinyl looked to the katana on her flank and smiled, “I learned in some kind of weird manual that fell out of one of them weird voids. I didn’t know what language it was written, so I had Twilight translate it with magic. So, after my DJ gigs, I kinda studied up on the techniques described in it and had one of the blacksmith ponies make the sword, with my own personal touches of course.”

“You two, we are almost there,” Remnant said as he looked at the map. “We could shock travel the rest of the way to Appleloosa.”

The two mares groaned “not again, you already shock traveled us into a nest of snakes,” Vinyl said.

“Besides, what’s the point if we’re near Appleloosa in the first place?” Applejack added.

“Alright, but you might regret it.”

The three walked until they could see Appleloosa in the setting sun. The scene itself was ordinary, but something was flying in the sky above the town, shrieking. The residents below were yelling at the figure in the sky, but the figure did not stop and dived for one of the ponies. The pony yelled in terror and ran into the saloon, while everybody else scattered.

Remnant stared at the figure in the sky. He suddenly broke into a gallop, with Applejack and Vinyl trying to keep up.

“What’s going on?” Vinyl asked, her limping gallop barely able to keep up with Applejack’s trotting.

“I have no clue.”

Remnant ran into the town of Appleloosa. The locals gave him strange looks, but he brushed those looks aside as he got closer to his objective.

The heir he was looking for was in the skies. While Remnant was glad he found the heir, the heir was out of reach for yelling and talking. Remnant also realized that the heir was shrieking up a storm, something that will raise a red flag for Celestia’s troops.

In a desperate bid to get the heir from screaming anymore, he dug into his pouch and brought out another stone. He threw his stone into the air, and once it was lined up with the target, Remnant let loose a small bolt of non-lethal lightning. The lightning struck home

The lightning struck true, and the heir fell out of the sky. The heir fell to the ground, but was caught by a large jungle pony. The jungle pony looked around in rage before spotting Remnant and shouting a command to attack. The jungle ponies that were with him, along with the ones they had previously encountered at the Sweet Apple Acres, brandished their weapons and began to charge.

Remnant was able to see a light green mare with a lyre cutie mark arguing with the lead jungle pony. The jungle pony pointed away from the battle, which the mare reluctantly obeyed his command and ran to the outskirts of Appleloosa.

Vinyl drew her katana out of its scabbard and held it to her face. The katana began to glow a light blue as it seemed to be charging. Vinyl yelled to Applejack and Remnant “Get to cover and cover your ears!”

She held the katana so the point of the blade hovered over the ground. When the hostile jungle ponies got closer, she drove the blade into the ground, causing a sound wave of bass to surge forth from the blade. The jungle ponies were sent flying into buildings and other structures of civilization. When they landed, the very few that were not knocked out were disoriented and could not hear, though the deafness would last for a few minutes.

Vinyl took her katana out of the ground and got in her fighting stance as the jungle ponies struggled to their hooves. Remnant and Applejack getting ready to engage in a brawl. Coyotl, seeing that his men were unfit for battle, drew his macuahuitl with his teeth and galloped at the trio, determined to defend his master.

The three were ready as Coyotl reared on his hind legs and put the macuahuitl in his hooves as he slid into the group of three and swung, and would of decapitated all three if Vinyl didn’t emit a bass soundwave before he swung.

The soundwave (or shockwave) blew him off his feet and sent him fifty yards down the street they were on. He landed and felt three of his ribs break on impact.

Coyotl got up, ribs flaring with pain, just in time for Vinyl to try to decapitate him. He avoided her sword and swung his macuahuitl at her, which she barely dodged and got nicked on the cheek.

Vinyl at this moment was cursing her leg wound. She dodged left and right, but couldn’t use the speed she was used to get in the opening and deal a blow

Remnant galloped to the fight, yelling at Coyotl that the group was on the jungle ponies’s side. But Coyotl didn’t listen, and as a result, did a 360 spin attack the Vinyl blocked, but was thrown and Remnant’s lance was sliced in two, making it useless. Vinyl struggled to get up because of her leg wound, and Coyotl noticed this. He said “should've healed up before engaging me in battle.” He raised his macuahuitl to deliver the final blow to Vinyl.

Applejack, mustering her courage, tackled the big stallion. Coyotl and Applejack tumbled together in the dirt and Applejack kicked the jungle pony in his broken ribs, causing further damage as Coyotl howled in pain. He broke away from the apple-bucker and was back on his hind legs, snarling and holding his side of his broken ribs.

It was here that Remnant charged another one of his stones, and sent it into the ground, causing an electrical wave. The electric zapped everybody except for Remnant and caused both members of both parties to stop fighting.

“That’s enough!” Remnant yelled. He walked over to Coyotl, who was down on all fours and taking in breath alongside Applejack. He said “we are here to help your quest. We are here to help you revive the sky serpents.”

Coyotl looked with disbelief. He kneeled and said “forgive me. But why did you strike Featherfang out of the sky?”

“The forgiveness was quick,” Vinyl noted.

“Because he would be spotted by Celestia’s forces.”

“Something that already happened.” a voice said.

Vinyl, Remnant, Applejack, Coyotl and his jungle pony warriors (just coming out of their bass-induced dazes) looked to the pony that said that.

The pony was none other than Erron Black, with a small regiment of Celestia’s army. The jungle ponies brought out their weapons while Erron stood on his hind feet and twirled his pistols with his hooves.

“You sure must be the most dysfunctional allies i’ve seen in awhile. Sorry for the interruption, but I have to kill you now.”

“Who are you?” Coyotl asked.

“Name’s Black, Erron Black.”

Featherfang had regained consciousness by now, and looked around and said “what happened?”

“Alright men, the objective is to capture or kill Featherfang, preferably capture.”

Erron fired one of his pistols, killing a jungle pony that was to the right of Coyotl. As soon as the jungle pony dropped dead, the two sides clashed in what could be only described as battle. Forelegs were cut off, ponies were speared, brains were blown out, ponies were disemboweled.

The sheer brutality and gore made Applejack sick and horrified. She was being led to safety by Vinyl, who was in no condition to fight in a battle like that. Both of them looked behind themselves as the battle raged.

Because of the blood, Featherfang’s blood-curse was in full throttle. Featherfang shrieked as he flew into Celestia’s forces, ignoring his wound and knocking over her soldiers. He shrieked as he tore out throats, crushed skulls and tore open abdomens with his teeth and tearing out the organs. He kicked a Celestian stallion in the head, splitting the un-helmeted warriors head, causing brains to spill. Featherfang turned around and snapped his jaws on the snout of another stallion, crushing the jaws and snout of his foe. He was an unstoppable killing machine.

Erron saw that he was killing most of the men, so he took the rifle off his back and chambered a round with his hooves. He had his sights set on the heir of the sky serpents.

Then, Coyotl tackled the outlaw. The two got up and faced off as Erron slowly put his rifle back on his back and took his tarkatan blade out. Coyotl himself twirled his macuahuitl with his hoof.

Then the two charged at each other.

While the two heroes fought, the battle at hand tipped in the Celestian favor. The jungle ponies put up a stiff resistance. But, one by one, were getting killed. True to the way of their warriors, they died as they lived.

The last of the jungle ponies and Remnant were getting cornered near the saloon. When another jungle pony dropped dead at Remnant’s feet, he took out another of his stones and aimed for the middle of the crowd of Celestia’s forces. He unleashed a thunderbolt that exploded and killed a good number of Celestian soldiers, but they still were outnumbered. The Celestian forces hesitated when they saw the electrical explosion, giving enough time for one of the jungle ponies to say to Remnant “go!”

Remnant shook his head “I will not-”

“Go, for Featherfang needs to reach the Forbidden Jungle. Please… complete the mission for us. We will hold them off for as long as we can, but you must save him, save our people.”

The jungle pony and his fellow warriors charged into the Celestian forces, hacking and slashing as best they can in an effort to take as many as they can with them.

Remnant galloped and jumped over numerous soldiers and tackled Featherfang as he was about to stomp on a downed soldier’s skull. Remnant used another K.O shock that rendered Featherfang unconscious. He used his electrical power to transform Featherfang and himself into bolts of lightning that landed outside of Appleloosa. Featherfang on his back, Remnant galloped to catch up with Vinyl and Applejack, who were on the way to the Badlands. He was unaware that Lyra Heartstrings was following him.

Meanwhile, the jungle warrior that told Remnant to bring Featherfang to the jungle was one of the last two jungle pony warriors standing. He managed to spear himself a Celestian soldier before he felt a battle axe slice off his left hind leg and then, before he fell, was impaled three different ways by spears. He knew that he was finished, and through his blood filled mouth, he gurgled “sorry… my beautiful...wife.”

He died standing on his only hind leg, the spears holding him up.

Coyotl was knocked to the ground, bleeding in several different places. Erron was a cool as ice, no sweat appeared on his brow. Erron didn’t even look tired in anyway. Coyotl was hurting on all places, and knew he had to complete the mission, no matter the cost.

Coyotl charged at Black, with all his power his body could muster packing into this one gamble of a blow. But Erron blocked the initial strike, which surprised Coyotl. He kicked Coyotl to the ground and pulled out his revolver.

Coyotl got up, worn out and in pain, staggered towards Erron. Erron fired and the bullet hit Coyotl in the gut, but Coyotl still moved forward. Erron fired again, right into one of Coyotls’ broken ribs. Coyotl kept going.

Erron unloaded ten more shots into Coyotl, Coyotl kept going.

Erron put the tarkatan blade on his back and trotted up to Coyotl and hit Coyotl in the face with his revolver. He stood on his hind legs, brought his other revolver, and shot Coyotl in the knee of his right and left hind legs.

Coyotl was using his forelegs to keep himself up, his hind legs useless. He muttered to himself, knowing that he was breathing his last with punctured lungs. He said “My lord, be safe.”

Erron had a revolver at point-blank range and fired, ending the life of Coyotl.

******

Kenshi dodged this way and that to avoid the spear heads of Celestia's royal guards. He decapitated one guard and impaled another. He pointed at one pony, causing the pony’s spine to fly out of his body, killing him instantly. Kenshi then telepathically threw his sword into another guards and did a bout of hoofsticuffs with another guard. He punched the guard a couple of times and then bucked the poor guard with so much power, the pony's hind legs flew off. Sento came back to his hoof and Kenshi turned to slice a guard in half, severed intestines and other organs flying out of the body.

Kenshi put Sento back into its scabbard and took off down the hallway, heading to the courtyard. He had to get out of Canterlot, because he just so happened to stumble upon Celestia's darkest secret.

Kenshi ran into the courtyard and was confronted by a manticore. The monster roared as it held its tail up high, ready to strike.

Kenshi pulled Sento out of its scabbard and got in his fighting stance, ready to strike.

The manticore ran at Kenshi and swiped at the blind stallion, but Kenshi calmly dodged to the left and sliced off the creature’s foreleg off with a quick swipe from Sento. The manticore roared in agony and attempted to skewer him with its scorpion tail. Kenshi dodged to the right, and grabbed the tail. He punched the side of the tail stinger, breaking the stinger and rupturing the venom gland, causing poison to spray everywhere. Luckily, none landed in Kenshi’s mouth.

The manticore roared and attempted to bite Kenshi, but instead got his teeth kicked in. Kenshi figured that his dance with the manticore was done, and rammed his sword into the manticore’s head, killing it.

Kenshi put Sento back in its scabbard and was ready to jet again when he heard “Impressive, not even the manticore could stop you.”

Kenshi said, “with all do respect Twilight Sparkle, shouldn't you be somewhere else?”

Twilight Sparkle landed about ten feet away from with Shining Armor and another guard flanking her. “I don’t think so. I will not let you spill my mentor’s secrets.”

Kenshi Turned to them, his blindfold flapping in the wind, “I really don’t want to kill you.”

“Neither do I, but you’re betraying Celestia.” Twilight growled.

“I seek to stop her madness! She plans to commit vast genocide on a people that isn’t a threat!”

“They are about to try to awaken an evil god, they must be stopped!”

She looked at Shining Armor, And he nodded.

Shining Armor drew his sword with his teeth. He galloped at Kenshi, determined to slice the blind swordsman in half.

Kenshi put his hoof to the hilt of the sword and calmly waited for Shining armor’s approach.

Shining Armor reached Kenshi, driving a wild arc of blade towards the blind swordsman. Kenshi blocked the attack, and answered with a attack of his own. Shining Armor blocked the attack with difficulty, but managed to push Kenshi back. Shining Armor went to go attack again, but Kenshi bucked his sword out of his hand and followed up with some strikes to the face. Shining Armor produced a dagger from his armour and tried to stab the swordsman. Alas, Kenshi put his hoof on Shining Armor’s to stop the knife, with Shining Armor doing all he can to drive the knife home. But, Kenshi held one of his hooves up and Sento appeared. Kenshi took hold of the blade.

He rammed it down Shining armor’s throat, spraying the courtyard with blood, ending the life of the finest guard in the entire kingdom. With Twilight’s scream of despair shaking the castle as Kenshi withdrawn Sento from Shining Armor. Shining Armor slumped to the ground, gurgling his own blood.

Kenshi put Sento back in its scabbard and ran out of the courtyard, with reinforcements chasing him.

When the last of the guards galloped past her, she ran to her brother's corpse, weeping bitter tears.

And swearing revenge.

*******

For the next two days in the Badlands, nopony spoke a word about Appleloosa.

The group was weary of how everything went to tartarus in a basket. All the death, all the chasing, all the sorrow.

Featherfang felt the most sorrowful of all. He finally found a group of people that respect him instead of reject him. But they were killed, believing he was their salvation. He cursed himself, he cursed his bloodline and his existence. He felt that he ultimately betrayed their trust. After all, if he was their salvation, wouldn’t he have some kind of power that would of protected them in combat, a power that he could used to save them?

Lyra sensed the self loathing the Featherfang was putting himself though, and tried to assuage the grief by telling jokes and telling him stories of happyness. The stories themselves fell on deaf ears.

The group made camp near a plateau, silence filled the camp with an air of mourning. After cutting down a dead tree that somehow was in the middle of the Badlands, Remnant made and stroked the fire, his mind thinking about what did the jungle pony’s last moments looked like.

Applejack was desperate to get the mood to lighten up. She was looking for something to do to get her mind off the things she saw yesterday when she wandered away from the camp. She was about to collect some rocks when she noticed a faint light coming from behind a boulder. She looked back to see the camp. Already it looked like a candle flame from where she was standing on all fours.

She cautiously looked behind the boulder to see another one of those void things, just sitting there. Particles flowed to and from it. It let out a soft hum.

Applejack approached the void, studying it. She put her left hoof into it, where it disappeared. She took her hoof out of the void and examined her hoof, to find no damage done. Applejack was tempted to see where the void led, to jump through it and see if what other world is on the other side. But, before she could, the void rippled and began to hum loudly. Applejack backed away as the void began to ripple even more. It stopped humming. Soon, an earth pony slowly fell from the void. The earth pony was colored white, with red armor and white cloth. The stallions mane was brown, shaggy and spiky. His face was visible, but the red armor outlined his head. He had a katana at his right flank that looked pretty ornate.

The earth pony got up and looked around in bewilderment. He finally spotted Applejack and stood on his hind legs. He unsheathed his katana that crackled with electricity. He took a one step forward, then brought his blade up to block a blow from Vinyl Scratch as she appeared out of nowhere. She landed next to Applejack.

“There are samurai in this land?” He said as he locked his Raijinto with Vinyls’ katana.

Author's Note

Yep, I'm including him. Figured that Vinyl would need a sensei of sorts.
Anyway, stay tuned as battles take place in two different areas and see Luna deploy her greatest assets yet, The Knights Lunar!