Cogs of Equestria: Volume I

Vortex sighs and shakes his head, "Let's go Firefly," he says with a soft tone. Firefly sat the eggs down, next to where the first one was. The Minotaur sat down on his porch with a big smiles, he was quite pleased with himself. Catching up to Spinning Vortex, Firefly began to speak but Vortex cut him off, "They are a species of wolves, made out of wood." "Right, thanks..." Firefly responded, Vortex knew what he was going to ask, young Firefly was very scared and nervous. The whole situation was terrible, his parents, the Minotaur, everything. Spinning Vortex was just thankful they never found the poor colts father mangled up somewhere.

Going on and on, they found a building. "My dear Celestia..." Vortex muttered, Firefly looked at him oddly, "What?" "This... this is the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters," Spinning Vortex tells the colt. Inside they see five stone orbs attached to a larger structure. "What are those?" Firefly had asked curiously, "The Elements of Harmony," said Vortex in awe. "The most powerful magic known to pony folk." Firefly sighed, "This is nice and all but we need to get some wood for the Minotaur so we can get you a doctor." "Yeah, you're right Firefly," Vortex turns and his eyes shoot open, "BEHIND YOU!" Firefly turns and sees a Timberwolf standing in the entrance to the castle, it howls a heart wrenching sound. Firefly begins to run at it, it charges back, as it is about to leap Firefly rolls. The Timberwolf flies forward straight into Vortex's hooves.

"Firefly I need you to get something for me, I think we left it somewhere down the road," Vortex says happily.

The two ponies drag it back to the Minotaur and drop it in front of his home. "You little ponies are mighty impressive," says the Minotaur, picking up the Timberwolf and dropping it onto a table. "Where do we go from here?" asks Firefly, the Minotaur takes an axe and begins to chop up the Timberwolf. "Well... I have my wolf... and I have my eggs... If I am satisfied with them, I will tell you," he says, messing with the ponies. Vortex growls a little, the Minotaur butchers the Timberwolf, whose screams of pain could be heard through out the forest. "In the name of Princess Celestia I demand you uphold your end of the bargain!" screams Vortex in anger and pain. The Minotaur stops chopping and looks back at the pony, "Celestia? Who is this... Celestia... you speak of? She has no jurisdiction here in the Everfree. No one does. We have a rule... Survive." Spinning Vortex's anger grows, the Minotaur starts a fire and tosses the pieces of the wolf into it.

The Minotaur grabs a pan and cracks the eggs on it, spilling the insides onto the pan. Holding the pan above the fire, he cooks some of the cockatrice eggs. "Now... I how ever am now going to survive a little while longer cause of this new food... I guess I should repay the favor." "I guess you should," Vortex says with a still tone. "But, I may need a little extra on my food," the Minotaur says in low voice, he smiles and looks over at us. "Kill the little one and I will point you the way." He turns back, with out a thought. "Listen here you sick little creature, you can not just bully any pony who comes to you for help!" shouts Spinning Vortex, angry and pissed beyond words. The Minotaur arises, putting his pan down, going over to Vortex and picking him up. "Now YOU listen little pony, I can do whatever I want! I do what I want! I am a Minotaur! I am above you in every way imaginable! Don't get me mad you little vermin!" The Minotaur stops and looks over at Firefly, "As fo-" His eyes look with the creature in the little ponies bandana, it is a cockatrice, staring dead into the Minotaur's eyes.

The Minotaur starts to scream and panic, then, nothing, he is stone. Still with a good grip on Vortex, Firefly lets the cockatrice go, it runs and grabs the remaining eggs. It goes off into the forest. Firefly walks over to the Minotaur and looks up at Vortex. "Hey there... goes it hanging?" "Get me down, please?" Firefly chuckles and looks around for something. He signs and starts to kick the Minotaur, Vortex rocks his body with the kicks. Soon enough the Minotaur falls and shatters, Vortex dusts himself off. "Wait... shoot, we never found out where to go." "Well... the castle must be near civilization so let's go back there and venture forth," Vortex says, reassuring Firefly, as well as himself a little.