New life

by A_Pony_Name

Rating: teen
Tags: Random, Adventure, Human, Dark, Alternate Universe, Romance
Length: 9980

When change appears in the equestrian government, it is delt with swiftly and with the least amount of witnesses as possible. When Zach comes in, he brings a whole lot of it with him. Will he fail, like the last revolution, or win the thrown.

Follow Zach, as he takes on the system of the ponies. Will he get crushed and crumble. Or awaken equestria out of their tyranny.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2017-01-09 05:36:10 UTC

Is that... Gilda

Hunting was one of the best times for Zach, he didn't give a care in the world, he was getting paid by the government because he was shot in the back on a trip to the Middle East. He was now aloud to do what he pleased, which was hunting, a lot of hunting. Now no one was the wiser of were he was, and his only 'family' was his brothers in arms. But they all died on the mission, he was the only survivor.

So he drove his truck off into the forest, not following any trails. Over the course of a week, he got some fowl, run across a bear and got a small red tailed deer. He was about to drive back when he heard a large "HELP!" And a bird scream, and knowing the screams of death, he was going to help whoever the where, black, white or covered in fur, it was calling a plea, and this was not a animal.

He drove as fast as he could and before he thought about anything, he raised up a rifle and shot the assaultant. Except the assaultant was not human... And neither was the one being attacked. One was a large bird creature who was now looking at Zach, and the one lying on the ground was a... Unicorn?

The bird muttered "damn carnies." Then in a testimony of piece raised both arms and said, "hello, my name is gilda and I am a griffon. Can you please help me out of these bonds" and she pointed over to the ropes tying her down. "And if you don't Mind me asking, what are you." Zach was stunned, it was not unlike the time when he was personally called to meet the staff Sargent.

"My name is Zach King, and how the fuck are you real?" He asked.

"Well you see, when a momma griffin and a daddy griffin love eac-"

"I know how that works but your a griffin, nay, you are Gilda. You are a FUCKING CHARACTER IN A TV SHOW.

"Look man," Gilda said, taken aback "I don't know what half of that meant, but you just saved my life. So you do what ever kings do and I am going to serve my whole life under you," she said bowing. "What would you like me to do."

"There are many things you just messed up," Zach said, "like one: I am not a king, that is just my last name." She stopped bowing immediately, "two: I might have wanted to shoot you to, I might be a predator wanting meat." She fumbled a little and almost jumped into the sky, " WAIT, I'm not actually going to, but you need to be more aware."

"Well then thank you mister." She said gleefully, "but your not getting away that easy, you saved my life so I am now in your debt."

Zach stood there not knowing what to do, he watched mlp when he was about 16 and it was now about ten years later. He was standing in front of Gilda, so he just opened up the passenger door and told her to get in, he was still going back to his house after all.

After about an hour though he was unsure of where his house was, he was going the right way, SW but it didn't do any good so he turned around and headed back around to the place he killed the unicorn.

"So... What are you again, and how do you know my name," she asked

Zach flinched expecting this to come up sooner or later. "I am a human, and I have heard stories of a lot of ponies."

"Ohh... I don't get it."

Zach sighed "I didn't think you would, i didn't think you would."

The rest of the trip was passed in silence, sometimes one would ask a question and the other would answer sending the trip into silence once again.

When they got to the camp again to see that the body of the unicorn had been ravaged by a 'monster' for lack of a better word so he told her calmly to look away while he delt with the dead unicorn. He went to the body, picked it up and through it behind a tree, getting his shirt coaked in pony blood. "Why would some deadbeat like you come and try to drag gilda out to the carnival." He muttered, I'm just going to ask her that later.

When he returned he found Gilda sniffing the meat, and smiled, "don't get much meat with the ponies watching your every move do ya'?"

She looked at him and sighed "ya, but this your kill."

"Here," he gave her a bird "eat this it'll lift your spirits." She swiftly declined

"Why not," he thought about, then reached a conclusion, "is it considered canabalizm?"

"No, but I don't like the idea of taking food from a stranger, even if you just saved my life," she huffed.

"Well if you don't want it", he waved it in front her face, "then you don't get it." He started putting it away painfully slow.

"Wait, dweeb, can I please have it" he chuckled at that and through it at her.

After starting a fire and plucking the bird (much to Gilda's distaste), he cooked the two birds until they were tender and gave one to Gilda. They ate in silence, except for the occasional moan that emitted from Gilda.

After supper was ended she went up to Zach and thanked him for everything and asked if she could stay in the tent, for warmth he said yes and the two went to sleep in the tent.

The raid

when the two finally awoke a similar thing could be heard in both rooms. "Aww fuck" they said simultaneously, they both had a hangover for what they did last night. When Gilda arrived she asked Zach how to fix it.

"Get a lot of water down your system and you will get over it." Zach said in a raspy voice.

She then got a tub full of water out, and started chugging it down. when she was finished, she plopped down on the couch next to Zach and handed him a gallon of water. After they both stopped drinking, they started talking, to get their minds off of the pain.

"Why did that unicorn want you for his freak show?" Zach asked eventually.

She responded darkly, "they took me because I'm a griffin."

"But why would they take you, just because your a griffin?" Zach asked, "and why would anyone even go to a carnival if there are people there that can talk!"

"If you are surprised by that, just realize, we are carnivores. That and Griffins are rarely seen in equestria, we are outsiders in the population." She said, answering his question.

"Do they think you to be lower than them as well? Just because you are a griffin." He said, and she nodded. "That's some messed up shit!"

She scoffed, "how was your precious life then. You wish you could've stayed home." She said sarcastically. Zach then lifted up his shirt, to where he was shot in the back.

"This is what my people did to me. I almost died, and I would have, if the MC's didn't arrive." Gilda stared in disbelief as he put his shirt down.

"Your kind, did that, to you!" She was at a loss for words, "how di... But... If..."

He raised a finger up to her beak "shhhh " he commanded, "I am safe now."

After her break down, he went over to where they where the night before. "What's all this?" He was looking at a piece of paper that read: 'destroy the beasts with our brothers'

When Gilda looked at him she said, "I have no clue what this is but I like the sentiment it has." She looked at the paper impressed.

"Remember, we were drunk last night. " Zach said. "So let's not get any ideas."

"Are you sure, what if this is a message telling us to save the less fortunate from the hooves of ponys. Like me, you saved me, you could probably save others." She started saying, "there was a few others at the circus. I remember that there was a Minotaur and another griffin where I was held."

"Are you proposing that we attack this camp and free them?" Zach asked, unsure what Gilda meant.

"Why not," Gilda said, "if we free them they might have a chance to see their families again. Like how you gave me that chance."

"Ok, but we have to get ready and get there." Zach said, "and where is this camp. Because I can fight and I'm fighting for a good cause."

After a while of digging through what he had, Zach laid out his weapons and ammunition on the table. "This is a shotgun, it's what I use to hunt birds and the like. I also got a glock.45, This one is a 22. It is what I used to get the unicorn off of you. And this is my sniper, a Remington 700. That's all I got, but I also have a good 6" knife. I'll just use the knife to threaten them while you go in back and unlock all the cages."

"Are you sure your good with doing that, they might seriously hurt you." She said, concerned. "I don't know what I would do."

"Don't worry about me, they will want me to get in one of those cages anyway, so they won't start with violence." Zach was saying. "And plus I will just shoot them if they attack me."

Zach and Gilda walked, because it was only one mile away, and the car would have attracted attention. When Gilda was in place at the back, Zach walked up and pretended that he was a tourist. As he expected, the two workers were  overjoyed to see a 'new face' around and asked if he wanted a look around.

"That won't be necessary. I am just on my way to town." Zach said while walking away.

"No please, we insis." The two said simultaneously, "we want to show you a new attraction."

Zach pulled out his knife and said, "look I don't want any trouble, but if it's trouble you want, it's trouble you will get." The unicorns just laughed.

"So you know our game," one said while walking forward, "then you know your not getting out of this." They took the knife out of his hand using magic, and prepared for a fight. He saw Gilda working hard trying to open up the locks. So he reached into his holster and aimed it at them.

"Steve," the first unicorn said, "take the, toy-thing, from him so I can tie him up."

"I'm trying but it's not work-" BANG! a loud gunshot cracked through the woods, hitting Steve.

Zach turned the gun towards the first, raised it up, and shoot the second one twice, in the head, creating a nasty hole in his muzzle and eye socket. He fell, blood being emitted from his face. Zach picked his knife back up, sheathed it, and checked the pulse of both of the unicorns. Both dead.

"Zach! What was that!" Gilda said, looking worried, "are you ok."

"I'm fine," he pointed towards the pony bodies, "but they aren't."

"Zach are you ok," she asked, curious this time, "you are glowing."

"What do you mean," he looked at his arms and realized, "AHH, I'm glowing!"

He then started to spaz out, and feel a tingling sensation all around his body then passed out.

"Princess, something peculiar has showed up on the magic map!" A guard told his princess.

"Send some troops out to investigate." She said, "and catch this anomaly." She said with a smile on her face."

Winged beasts

"ZACH," Gilda walked over to him when she realized he was awake. "Are you ok."

"I think so, how long was I out, and where are we?" Zach asked after regaining consciousness. His vision slowly returning to him.

"We're back at my place." She said, "and you have been out for about two hours ."

"Did you hide the bodies" he asked, hoping that she did.

She muttered "no, I forgot, but I was just trying to look out fo-" there was a loud knock at the door.

"OPEN UP ITS THE PONICE!" Someone had called out, Zach had quickly grabbed his knife and pistol.

"Open it, carefully." Zach said, his voice barely even a whisper. "I'm going to hide in this room." He said, backing into the other room.

"Hello miss, i a---" he stopped when he realized he was talking to a griffin. Every pony in the 'squad' was looking a lot more nervous. The ones with magic focused on channeling their magic, while the others gripped their spears tighter.

  "May I help you ponies." Gilda said annoyed, "you going to take me away because I'm a griffin?"

"N-n-n-no," replied the first guard, "we just wanted to, to umm, make sure you were all right and safe." He said, very shakily.

"Well good, then scram dweebs I have a lot on my plate." Gilda said, slamming the door.

The second guard, who was a unicorn said, "that's going to be a problem, because we need your friend in there," he pointed to the doorway with a smirk. "So you can just, how did you put it," he scratched his head pretending to think. "Oh yea, SCRAM DWEEB," he yelled so loud, the roof shook. Gilda was about to punch him but he soon corrected her, "if you touch me, I will have a report filed against you for a carnivore, attacking a herbivore. And you know they will listen to me." He spat in Gilda's face and walked in.

The guard then heard "MOVE GILDA MOVE!"

The guard faced Gilda and then said, "what a pleasant surprise, our guest has decided to join us. Come on stallions, let's show this colt some manners." He grinned maliciously

All Zach could hear was little bits and pieces of the conversation, that he was now growing anxious about. Then he heard a large scream, "SCRAM DWEEB." That didn't sound like Gilda so he got his shotgun holster and yelled "MOVE GILDA MOVE!"

As soon as the door opened, he pumped 3 shells into the group of onslaughting ponys. One used his spear to jab at his chest, but missed and hit his arm. Zach screamed with outrage, and punched the closest pony towards him, emitting a large ring that flung everything back until they were 6 feet away. The only one that was not killed in the blast, was a Pegasus, and shakily said, "this isn't over, the princesses will find you!" Then promptly got shot in the hind leg, he whimpered and backed off.

Zach got up and limped over to the last remaining guard. "Fuck you and your princesses." He said, only loud enough for the two hear. "Because you are going to die here with no help from your princess, or anyone."

The Pegasus tried backing out but was bleeding to much. "Close your eyes" was whispered into his ears, and a large knife was forced straight into his stomach. The Pegasus let out a guttural scream, then fell limp. Blood coating his entire body, he got up and rinsed himself off and looked for a couch.

"Good riddance", Zach muttered after taking one last look at the damage, then jumped onto the couch and took a nap. When he awoke he found Gilda staring at him from the other side of the couch. But it didn't look as though she was looking at him, but more towards his back. He rolled over and instantly found a new sensation, then, on further inspection, found out what this new thing was. "what the fuck", he said, "WHAT THE FUCK!"

It looked to him as though Gilda was either in similar shock, or very tired, as Zach was both, because they both passed out.

In Zach's dreams, he could hear the cries of every person, or animal he had ever killed.

"Is this what thou wishes," a mysterious voice said, "to bring pain to mine subjects?"

"AHHH!" Zach screamed and woke up, "oh, shit, that was a dream."

"Mhhrrdgg" came groggily from the floor. Zach chuckled.

"BRING ME THIS CREATURE AT ONCE!!" Celestia said angrily, "IT MUST BE STOPPED!!"

"Of course celestia, we will do that right away." A tired guard said.

A reason and an explanation

After they burned the bodies and ate some lunch, they were off. Gilda flew, and Zach drove. But what Zach didn't know is how much fuel he had... Until his engine started smoking. When Gilda saw this she came down and asked if everything was ok.

"The poor thing's out of fuel," he said. "It's a shame, we won't get anymore out this lil' car anymore."

Gilda was shocked, "so you don't have any extra fuel, whatever that 'fuel' is?"

"I do", Zach said, "but I don't want to use it all, if I can walk there."

After a moment of consideration she said that it was about 3 miles away.

"Just three more miles?", he contemplated, I have three miles left and five buckets of fuel, I won't get to ponyville until dusk, if I don't drive. "ok I think I'm going to use one bucket and save the rest for later." He said, more to himself than anyone else.

Before he could drive off however, Gilda reminded him that she can't eat there and was hungry, so he let her have some meat.

After about a hour of cooking the meat, eating it, and cleaning up, they left and drove to ponyville. Along the way he saw a deer and was about to shoot it when Gilda reminded him, "if you kill animals within equestria, you are prosecuted by the gallows." He dropped his gun and continued speeding towards ponyville.

After about 10 minutes they were there. They got out and walked into town, Gilda got a lot of attention, so Zach pulled her into an ally way.

"I forgot, you have been here, right." He said, "and you've made a huge 'impression' with them too."

Gilda said yes and that she will go back to the car.

After that, out of nowhere, a certain pink party pony jumped into viewed. "Hi, you look new here, because I know every single pony in ponyville, and your not one of them. Oh and by the way, do you know who you were talking to back there, that's Gilda, she is always mean to ponies, so I hope she isn't being mean to you. Because that would be awfull and bad, also did you know that she went to school with rainbow dash, they were best friends at the time, but then rainbow lived with ponyville now, so she dosnt speak with Gilda anymore, which is very very sad, but now you are here. So you might want to say hi to rainbow dash, she is very sad that her friend left her but now she has me, fluttershy, rarity, applejack, and tw-" she was talking a hundred words a second until someone interrupted her.

"PINKIE" some pony yelled from across the street.

"Oh hey Zach that's twilight over there," she pointed to twilight, "and she knows al-"

"Pinkie," Zach said calmly, and waited to get her attention. "How do you know my name?"

"Oops!" She said, and disappeared.

"Can you come with me," twilight asked, while looking at me. "I need to see you for a second."

"Ooooffff" Zach said clumsily, as he ran into a small dragon. "Sorry."

"Really dude," spike muttered then walked away.

Zach then walked inside of the library, and gaped at how late it was on on the inside. It was huge, like a normal library but inside of a tree.

As Zach was looking at all the books, twilight was getting everything ready for tests. "Nope, nope, nope, and nope twilight. I am not going to be your ginniepig."

"Aww, why not," she said with puppy dog eyes, "please!" She stammered.

"Fine, but on one condition", he stared her in the eye, "pinkie promise you will keep me a secret from celestia and you will tell me everything I want to know."

She looked down at her hooves and sighed "deal, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She repeated dryly and unenthusiasticly with all the hoove motions.

"Good now hook me up to this contraption". The tests took far to long for Zachs liking, but were eventually complete.

"So doc how am I doing?" When she read the results to herself, she was stunned, and needed some time to think. She set the results on the table and left without saying a word. Zach then picked up the diagnosis and started reading

Patient has been found to be holding multiple magics inside of subjects magical core. He has at least 7 magical bodies inside his core, one being a Pegasus. He has taken this creatures magic and made its own magic to compensate. This being could have only taken this magic in one of two ways,

by 1: using a powerful spell to steal all of the power and magic.

By 2: killing said magical creature to steal their magic from them.

We find that the patient has gathered the magic By killing its victims, because this magic is permanent and will, after taken, increase the amount of magic that can be held.

Zach left, not saying a word to twilight, because she just confirmed what he thought, he was stealing magic from his enemies.

After reaching Gildas house, Zach wondered if he should tell Gilda.

"So what are we going to do now?" Gilda said, "we saved a small group of people, want to go a little bigger, by freeing slaves?"

Zach scoffed "there's no slavery in equestria. They are way to nice for that." Zach didn't believe her.

"Did you not see the diamond dogs on the streets, on leashes helping everyone do stuff." Gilda said. Or what about off in cloudsdale, where Griffins do all the manual labor for everybody. Or out in the mines, where all races are kept, mining!" She yelled furiously. "They need our help, everybody enslaves everyone here, can you just help!" She was crying down her beak by now. "Please help me, help them."

"Ok, I will" Zach said sincerely, "I will, but we will need help and money."

"Ok I think I have a place we can go," Gilda said recalling a certain book that a certain friend had told her all about. "Let's go on an adventure."

"I am very displeased with you lieutenant, you need to find this creature, AND BRING IT TO ME!!!" Celestia thundered," and if not, you will be killed. Dismissed."

"I am very sorry princes."

Lessons

"Why are we doing this again," Zach said, between breaths. "This is hard."

The two were up in the air, more specifically a cloud. They had been up there for a couple of hours because Gilda was trying to teach Zach how to fly.

"If you don't build the muscles in your wings, you will never fly." Gilda said, "plus I'm not getting you down from here, you are going to glide down, or fly down." So over the course of the next few hours Zach got accustomed to having wind in his wings, practiced opening them, which took a while. Mostly because he had never used wings ever before, so he had no idea even which muscles to move. After moving them a few times he finally was able to make them move on his own.

When he was finally able to move the wings on his own, he made an attempt to glide down.

"Gilda I'm doing it, I'm-" his wings promptly gave out and he started falling. "AHHHHH HELPPPP MEEEEEE." Gilda acted fast and picked him up right before he 'landed' he was clinging on to her like his life depended on it... Which it did.

"Ok dweeb, let go now" Gilda said, "your safe."

When Zach landed, he landed on something very soft and "snrk, come on fly down." And she bolted down to the ground.

A small yell could be heard from the ground, that stopped daily life in ponyville for a second... Except one of them decided to stop and help this poor soul. A very unwise decision on their part.

"NEVER FEAR YOUR FRIENDLY NEIBORHOOD RAINBOW DASH IS HERE!," she cried heroicly, then studered when she saw the antagonist, "wait Gilda."

She flew down very fast and started talking with Gilda, exempt very violently, "GILDA the buck is this, are you trapping that pony on that cloud?" She gave her old friend a punch in the shoulder.

"Ohh come on dweeb why would I trap somepony up on a cloud, he can get down." He jumped off "see" and tried again, getting a little better at gliding, but still falling half the way. Gilda then rushed to catch him, and did, but rainbow dash had other plans. As soon as Gilda set him Back on the cloud, rainbow kicked the cloud underneath him, sending him falling once again. Then rainbow caught him out of the air.

Being the faster flier out of the two, rainbow sped up and did a sonic rainboom to get rid of her. Zach then was out.

By the time he woke up, he was in a... Cloud house?, "Gilda? Are you there." He called. Getting his knife out of his pocket.

Then something spoke up from another room, "don't worry she won't be bothering you any more."

He stepped into the room, knife still in his hand and turned the doorway. "Rainbow dash?" Zach said wondering why in the world he was there.

She said, "yea it's me, I took care of Gilda for you, she can be a huge pain at times." Then she started boasting, "It's not everyday you see the fastest Pegasus in Equis is it."

Zach yelled, "idiot, she was teaching me how to fly!" She deflated at that.

"You mean she was helping you?" She said unsure of herself, "like teaching you how to fly?"

"Well she was, until you showed up" that made her take a huge hit to her ego, but he wasn't finished, "take me to her right now, we are late for something, and I would appreciate it if we got it finished sooner than later."

"Ohh, that's why it was... Ohh." She said, as realization kicked in.

he then scoffed, "yea, so if you wouldn't mind, I am going to need you to take me to her."

She said, "ok, but I'm going to make it fast, so no one has to know." She blushed

When they had finally arrived at their destination, Zachs ears were ringing, "did you has to do another sonic rainboom. It's killing my ears."

"Where the buck did you go with him!" An angry griffin yelled at rainbow dash. "I've been looking for two bucking hours."

The Pegasus then looked at the human for guidance on what to do. He shook his head, as if saying you dug this grave for yourself.. She stammered "I thought you were bullying again."

"Are you bucking kidding me, you drove ME out of town after all I WANTED TO do was HANGE OUT! So now you are going to not let me hang out with my other friends!" It looked to Gilda that she had really struck a nerve. Because there was now tears raining down the sides of her cheeks. And then she flew away.

After that minor speed bump, the rest of the week progressed fine, until the royal guard found them again... The Pegasus corps. Throughout the week, Zach and Gilda worked on flying, but Zach could never reach past slightly above the ground, then couldn't take it anymore. They stretched his wings they did everything they could. One day they even tried to massage the wings, but never could he get past that point.

When the Pegasus corps came, they had no clue, but that didn't deture them. After Gilda and Zach landed, they ran into the house, getting away from the volleys of arrows. Zach got his 700 and aimed through the scopes, thinking they were ok, he looked out the window and shot once and, HIS SHOT WAS OFF. So he shot again and it didn't work!

He didn't know what to do so he set down his 700 and brought up his .22 this time when he shot, he was up and to the left, but still hit the wing of the Pegasus. The Pegasus, now injured, trotted off to safety. It seemed there was still about 30 more Pegasus when Zach ran out of loaded clips.

"I'm out, can you hand me the big gun" he said, wishing he went over the gun names. This was a 12 gauge semi automatic. Or as Zach liked to call it, big Bess.

After about three shots though, he got knocked on the ground, a fire erupting from his arm. He looked over to see a Arrow sticking out of the flesh in his arm. He screamed. Blood pooling from the shaft, he made a makeshift tourniquet on his arm. Gilda, who was reloading the .22 shots came to your aid and started helping you out. She stopped most of the bleeding by the time the guards touched down.

"Gilda, give me the pistol." You said between breaths, "the small one. And hurry. They will be in here soon." As he was speaking, the door was being pounded and it was only a matter of time before it flew off its hinges. Gilda got him the gun, and right on time because that was when the door bust open.

"GILDA GET DOWN!" Zach yelled, and she complied immediately. He then fired three shots into the mass of meat. The spear, the pony had been holding dropped to the floor, was immediately taken by the griffin. As soon as another got in the doorway, Gilda through the spear, while Zach shot two more shots.

Zach was getting nervous, he only had one more shot left, and the next pony was here. BANG! the last shot was off and he tossed the gun aside, taking his knife. A smoke screen appeared at the doorway, and everything was still for about one second. Then arrows started being volleyed again Zach was hit twice more while Gilda took the worst of the damage, taking seven blows to the back.

Zach, then turning to the offensive pulled the knife out and charged the smoke. He stabbed one and then opened his eyes, scanning for others. The next target was a new recruit, who not knowing what to do held his hooves up in surrender. Zach skipped him and saw the others knocking their bows. He ran towards the first, stabbing the soldier along the throat. He looked at the remaining two and attacked the one closest to him, causing the soldier to punch him hard in the face. Zach worked hard through the pain and killed him. He then went to throw the knife, and... IT HIT! Although not in the place he expected.

The soldier was hit in the right foreleg, And collapsed. After about 10 seconds of lying there, he started moving, only to be (no pun intended) cut off by an impeding griffin talon. Slicing his leg off. The soldier let out a piercing scream that was then muffled by the sound of gargling blood.

Zach was injured and hurt, and saw a what looked to be a private in rank whimpering in a corner, making faint breaths. Zach got the knife out of the stallions ripped off leg, and used the blunt end to knock him out. He then tied the Pegasus to a chair, and treated his wounds and Gilda's , taking about thirty minutes.

Then, amongst all this carnage, they took a nap.

"Yo, Had ONE JOB, lieutenant, one bucking job!" Celestia Thundered

"I understand prin-" he was interrupted by the princess.

"You are to be stripped of your ranks and commissioned to a week in house arrest.

A long journey

"Long days ahead, we are going to be leaving in a couple of weeks." Gilda said, "I need you to work on flying as much as possible. And I will pack the guns." The previous days, Zach had Been teaching Gilda all the safety measures of guns, their names, and other details.

Zach went out to practice flying every day and he was, surprisingly, getting a lot better. He thinks it has to do with the pegasi he killed. Over the course of the next few weeks, nothing really happened other than the two going hunting every week.

The day before the trip started, Zach went to Gilda and talked.

"Are we sure this is what we want to? We have prepared, I am better at flying then I will ever be. But what is our goal." Zach said.

"Our goal is to stop slavery. If we don't, then who will. Celestia alowed it and every body suffers from it." Gilda said, "and if we don't, they will get treated very harshly."

"I know what slavery is, we had it in my old world, but we got rid of it with an army, not some ragtag group of people that want change." He said, convincingly. "So we can't charge head on, we need a plan, and an army."

"I guess that is where our two worlds are different then. Here, you don't need thousands to make change, you only need a few with high hopes, and a plan."

"I am not going in without people to back me up. It's happened once, never again." He said, trying to convince her. "Plus if you want to end slavery, we have to start somewhere, and we have the means to start wherever we want. We will also need bits to fuel our operations."

"Ok but, we are going to need to make change" she said, "so first let's explore the west.

As they were at a stop, currently at vanhoover, they decided to get help from some locals to see if there was anything out there. It seemed that a miracle happened that day, because as soon as they were at the town, a local Minotaur greeted them and told them that,

"There is great danger, yonder to the west, but if ye feel up ta' the task I'll be leadin' a party out to the woods, for a mear 10 bits." He said, then reconsidered, "each, if you want to go, we'ed be headn out on the 'morn."

"Thanks for the offer." Zach said quickly, and headed up to a cloud. Gilda, noticing Zach, flew up to the cloud aswell.

"So did you find anything out," Gilda asked, "because I didn't."

Zach spoke up, "yes, there is a Minotaur that is going to be heading out tomorrow morning. He seems to know what he is doing, but if I say so myself, it looks like a scam."

"So what are we going to do?" Gilda asked.

"Well, the way I see it we have three options. Number one, we go with him, but loose all the money we have right now. Two, we go around looking for more information, which will take a while more. Or Three, we go out alone without a guide, with this option, we can go when we want, and keep the money." Zach said.

"We should look around more, then decide what we want to do." Gilda said, "so meet me on that cloud," she pointed to a cloud off into the distance. "In an hour. By then, that cloud should be around here."

He looked at his watch, it was 6:30 . "Ok, got it, I'll get back in a hour." He then watched as she flew down to the ground and started talking to random ponies.

He took a short nap then headed down. He was meandering around town hoping to find something useful, when it knocked him on the head... Literally

Zach was walking then, WHACK!! A offending pole, about three feet in diameter, just hit him in the shin. "Aww, fuck, fuck, fuck FUCK." Zach yelled at nothing in particular, then zoned in on the pony who had just- accidentally - whacked him with a wooden pole, "what was that for," Zach yelled at the guy, a small group forming around them.

"L-l-l-look, I was, i was building the-the-the," a scrawny and nervous sounding voice said behind the little amount of armor, "the gallows, for any of, the-the criminals who are found." He said, still stuttering

"And who, pray tell are those peop-ponys?" Zach said, still pissed off, "Is there a reward for these ponies in question?" The guard, still stationary hooved him a list of names, faces and rewards.

"These are the ponies, and a few Griffins, and Minotaurs. If you see any of them, contact the royal guard." The pony said, seemingly not afraid anymore, "and watch out for them to, they are a bad ponies to come across."

Zach was about to pound the guards skull in, but then he found a very interesting looking Minotaur. Who was the most wanted, 850 bit reward, dead, or alive. Those three words reminded him of a lot of certain western movies that where so hilarious. He then whispered to himself, "Gilda, I've got a plan forming" he got an evil grin.

Ponies were by then dissipating back to stalls and things, but Zach could only think of one thing, Now this, Gilda has to hear.

By the time Gilda got back to the cloud, Zach was already there. He was reading through all the names and double checking to make sure he had accounted for every face he had seen, he had been looking for any others on this paper, and could only make out one, and he was just a petty thief.

"Got anything Gilda?"

"I heard some rumors here and there about dangerous monsters and stuff, but nothing else, you?"

"I found this," he past her the sheat of paper.

"I don't see what's so important about th-" she then caught sight of the last one, crock, the Minotaur.

"I vote for the fith option, go get this crock and bring him, dead, to the soldiers." He said, feeling clever.

After a little debating with herself, and said, "buck, why not, Im in."

The paper read, crimes include: theft, assault, robbery, scamming, murder, and lastly, treason. These are the crimes known to the RG (Royal Guard) please don't hesitate to bring him in, dead or alive. construction ponies worked the rest of the day to build the gallows, but zach was thinking, you are not going to need those.

"Come, come private, tell me again about this giant in vanhoover." Celestia said, speaking in a soft hush tone to a new enlisted private. "I would love to hear all about him, so we can make sure he stays safe." Celestia kept saying in mesmerizing tones that lulled the guard into talking again.

"Well this giant, with tentacles for hooves and trots on Two legs,-" the guard kept talking and saying everything he could possibly remember about the giant.

After about two and a half ours of talking he concluded that that was it. "Thank you my guard, you have been most kind in sharing this knowledge with me, you will be given a large reward for your bravery." She nuzzled the private and left him to leave the castle. As soon as he was out of earshot, celestia ordered for him to be killed.

"Kill him at once, with no witnesses." She said.

Out on the balcony the order was received, and a single arrow pierced through the sky, hitting him right in the soft spot of his neck. Slumping him down to the ground with a smal thud. The body was then retrieved and walkway scrubbed until you couldn't see the blood stains.

Pony hunt

When Zach awoke, he felt something warm and... Soft? On his back, he was starting to panic, then the events of the other day washed over him. He looked at his watch after getting up. It was 8. He was about to roll Gilda onto another cloud, about a foot beneaththe cloud they were on, but decided against it.

Instead, he chose to look at her, she was cute but Zach was never going to admit that to her. So instead of waking her roughly, he walked over to her skull and started stroking her "mane" feathers.

This was, a mistake on his part though because she soon awakened and eyed him carefully. "What are you doing dweeb?" She said, being very cations of this man.

"Me, oh nothing, really, I was just about to wake you up and you did so on your own so let's get moving, big day today." He said twice as fast as usual chatter, and chuckled nervously.

"Wow, saved my life a while ago and now your trying to lay me, who would have thought." She said with a smirk on her lips.

"Oh shut up."

Gilda didn't know what to think about this man sleeping on her cloud. He had saved her life once, and helped her, when he could have turn tail and run.so, No doubt she was having feelings for this man, he had everything she wanted in a stallion, brave, a leader, not a care in the world but always did what he felt was right.

Gilda was pretending to sleep, then he started to ruffle and pet her feathers on her head and neck. ohh yea, that's the spot, just keep that up., she was thinking. But then realized that she would have to get up sooner or later.

"You comin' to the journey." Said somewhere in a dark alley way. "Cause we're leevin' now."

Gilda and Zach had been walking around for about fourty five minutes in search for the meet up place. They were never given a place, so the meandered around the town hoping to find something useful. They came and gave the Minotaur 20 bits and went into the alley way.

When they stepped in, they looked at their surroundings. The creatures that that had been there aswell included another Minotaur a few Griffins, and a pony. The pony had a cutie mark of a dog, whatever the hell that stood for.

The other 'companions' looked tough and a few matched up to the list that Zach had not to far away. Zach had found himself drifting off for a little bit when another pony visitor came in.

"S-s-so you a-a-re going t-t-to the f-f-forest?!" Said the new, quivering pony. The other one, doggy also looked a little scared.

"Yer' damn right." Said the Minotaur back. "And there ain't no refunds so if ye' tink' yer not cut fer' dis." He motioned to everyone. " then yer in da' wrong place. Cause' ye see, we know har ta defend our selves." The pony looked at the Minotaur. "And we dun got plenti o' scrs' ta prove et. Do ye'?"

After a few seconds of the pony looking in fear at us, he turned and looked at the door, then back at us, and after a few moments of internal debate, he left, legs shaking the whole way.

After that little show 'doggy' got up and left as well. Then, once he was out, the whole place started shaking with laughter. Surrounded by all this mirth, zack and Gilda  also started chuckling.

"Nice 'un buck, really scared the shit out of 'em." One of the griffins called out.

'Tanks but ye' of all griffens should know, I dun like me ponies." The Minotaur said, suddenly become serious. "Buckin' herbivores, I gert arrested 'caus 'o dat. I ate some meat, Called it treason." The Minotaur mumbled.

"Wait so what are the stories of your other crimes, I heard you got a lot of popularity because of it," a confused Zach said, "I heard you were a criminal."

Not getting flustered at this comment, crock, or Buck said, "ponies, dey act all gud but when yer' a carnivor, ye' just don't get a chance. Why, are yoū a herbivore.?"

"Nah I'm a omnivore, but I like going hunting, a lot." Zach said, starting to like 'Buck, "I like the thrill of the hunt."

"Well we ate greens to lad, Bert we like da name crnivers more." The Minotaur said with a nod. "By da way, real names buck, crock is jerst a sher name. Keep eyes of me ya know."

"This is actually our crew," the other, younger Minotaur said, "we wanted to see who you were, and what you wanted, 'cause it's not often you find a group of ponies, Nay, soldiers slaughtered at a house."

"Yea, Bert if 'ye want to know more, 'ye need ta swear an oath." Buck said. "An dun take et lightly either."

Buck started to say the oath, and Gilda and Zach, seeing no way out of this, swore the oath, and started learning about this little group. They found out that this is not just some 'little group' but almost an army of soldiers and scouts that were not armed, and didn't have many bits, but we're trying to get money.

"So let me get this straight," Zach said, "you have been watching us since we raided that little carnival place?" He said, sounding bewildered.

"Ye', an we seen what he can do so ye should join here, yad be a leader, we need a critter with skills like yers." He said, pointing a stick at him.

"I see but what does that mean though," Zach said honestly, "because we are trying to get bits and an army to fight slavery.

The Minotaur was chuckling, "gets fernier ever time I hear et."

"Why, are you against the idea, because I think it would be great, no more slavery." Said Bucky trying to find a flaw in his plan.

"Ets not that son, you'd be goin 'Gainst a princerst"

"We must find a way."

"We will try, but we need supplies and bits." A griffin quipped up.

"Wait, say that again." Zach said, something on the tip of his tongue.

The griffin looked confused, but repeated his words.

"That's it!" Zach said, achieving a yerieka moment. "Dwarves, do you know where we can find dwarves?"

"My twilight sent me WHAT!" An enraged princess yelled.

"The scroll," a servant said, "apparently she has seen the beast, and refused to say anything about it, because of some 'pinkie promise'."

"I see, even my 'faithful' twilight has betrayed me, capture her and her five friends, bring her to where Luna is being kept." She said, cooling down a bit, "shame to, she will have to watch her friends die a slow death, they are to be fed once a day. She is immortal now, so she doesn't need food. Chain her with Luna."

The servant bowed and gave the orders to do her bidding.

The lost brother

"So do you know where we can find dwarves or not?" A tired looking Zach said. They had been going back and forth on how to do this. "Because we need to find resources and that's the best way to go about this."

"Yea, we know that," the smaller Minotaur, named Amos brooks, "but we can't just go in and take what we want from dwarves, they are armed to the teeth with technology we can only dream of. They have the makings of a ship that sails on the air, without air to keep ip afloat. The could wipe us all out if they so chose."

"But if we don't, think of the families of Griffins and Minotaurs that can be saved. And also, I think I have a trump card that will win over the dwarves."

He perked his head up, interested now, "and what might that be, a bit of gold." He said sarcastically.

"No, this." He opened Up a case and set it on the Table, for Amos to see. He then whispered something in the Minotaurs ear.

"Damn, now this aughta be good." Amos said, with a slight smile, trying to think why on Equis Zach need these things.

"Spike get me a book on ancient mythology." Twilight sparkle said to her little green companion.

"I already told you, those are all we have." Spike pointed over to the stack of books that he had put there, not two minutes ago.

she blushed, "sorry spike I just," she took a deep breath to calm herself down. " I am really exited to find out more about this thing. it looked like a dwarf but much taller, and scary. and I read more up on his wings, and they shouldn't have been there, like at all, they defy the nature of its bones, joints and muscles. but I cant figure one thing out spike, he is like a void, taking in all magic. although I am curios as to how he achieved all this magic. I scanned the area he was standing and found a lot of residual magic, and he didn't even cast a spell."

spike was just sitting looking interested, but on the inside, he hated this palace that they were in, he had always craved an adventure, that's the reason he faked applejacks rescue, to get out and have some fun and adventure. and with applejack as a guardian, he would have all the freedom to do so.

"yea twilight, sounds interesting." spike said while yawning, "I'm going to bed."

"lets get moving again," Zach said. they had been hiking for five hours straight. they were looking for a cave, and with the thickness of the canopy, they couldn't fly. the cave in particular was actually more of a pit, that was a few feet in diameter. "we don't want the hydra to come back, now do we."

that little bit of encouragement was enough to get everyone back on their feet, or paws and talons. those that was here was, bucky, or just buck for short, amos, and the twin griffins, steve, and randy.

After an hour more, they heard something in the forest move. They all looked and found nothing, then the noise sounded again, and again, to where it sounded like a chant, and it was deafening... And close, yet it was all around them. A maniacal laughter made the air grow cold. Then it whispered to everyone in the little group all around.

"Tat, tat, tat. I was wondering when I would have some more play things." The laughter rang again like church bells. "I am quite surprised at this little thing here. A magical arrow was flung from a tree and landed right on his forehead. But as soon as it hit, it disappeared into a blue and hazel mist.

"It is ok to stop now my minions." The voice said. All the sound stopped, only to be replaced by screams a second later. "My oh my, look at what sociopaths we have here." The voice said, almost giddy. "Your future holds much death and destruction and fear." The world around them started falling apart, and by this point they all had their weapons out, and ready to be used.

"No need to be rash my, well I could say little ponies, but your not exactly little... Or ponies. Oh my I think my brothers off humor has gotten to me. Oh well, where were we, oh yea, on the astral plane." By the time they all heard what he said, they past out, only to hear laughter.

"Ohggg my face, and body, it feels like I am dead. Uhhhhgggggg." Zach said, still dazed by what just happened. He looked around, only to see the others looking the same way. Then he looked at his surroundings, it was all white, as far as the eye could see.

He looked all around and saw a small stool. It had what looked like water on it. After he regained a little focus, he started walking towards it. The laughter had stopped as soon as he got up.

He looked at the cup and then realizing how thirst he was, started chugging it. He started to realize that the cup still had more water in it after about one minute of constant drinking. He looked down at it strangely and realized that it was still full. Confused, he put it back on the stool, and started checking everyone else out. They all looked fine, so he tried asking if someone or something was there.

"Are you talking to me, human." A voice said right down his neck. He turned around and was facing what looked like a old man. It had Swords around its wings, and had a whole manner of weapons strapped to him, or floating around him. His spiecies was questionable, but to Zach, it looked like a dragonesque. "I can see into your future and past and present."

"What are you, who are you and why are we here." Zach said.

"A bit anxious to get started, hmm ok then. Let the movie begin." Out of no where, a giant theater popped up in front of them and the dragonesque urged them inside. "Seven tickets to the lost brother please." The dragonesque said to an empty ticket box. "Damn things never work anymore do they." He snapped his fingers and a human occupied the ticket box stand. He looked very bewildered and screamed. He was dressed in a business suit and looked like he was taking an interview or something, because he had no words.

"Hello, yes, I would like seven  tickets to the lost brother please." He said to the very confused man. After about a minute of him just standing there, he looked down and noticed the tickets. He slowly gave the dragonesque a whole seven tickets, mouth still hanging agape.

"Oh man, it seems I'm all out of human currency. Here take these," he handed the man a pouch of bits, made of pure gold. "Those are very expensive bits, pure gold by the way." He started walking away, then remembered, "oh yea hope you get the promotion John." The dragonesque snapped his talons and flashed the human back.

The rest of the crew watched, mouths agape as he did this.

"So the reason I want to be promoted is," John very happily said his statements, but halfway through, he felt a tingling sensation all down his back, but ignored it. Then after about thirty seconds it went out to a full on pain. He still ignored this though, still hoping to get the promotion. He looked up at his bosses and froze. Something was wrong, he looked at himself and realized he was fading away, like literally FADING AWAY. As soon as he was all the way faded, it was all black, then, as if going thousands of miles an hour was pushed into a ticket box with many wierd things on the other side. He screamed.

The thing said something about tickets. He couldn't comprehend this, there were red flags ringing all in his head, but his body did what the thing told him and gave him tickets. After that, it gave him a huge bag of coins. Then it said it was pure gold, and walked right on in, saying something about an interview. He was then thrown back into the real world mouth still agape, and holding the bag of gold.

"You guys want snacks," the dragonesque said, they all shook their heads. "What ever then, let's just see the movie then," distaste showing in his eyes. He was mumbling something about popcorn.

The 'movie' talked about how discord had a brother named Thanatos. And how he was banished, and lost all power, because he was the God of death.

"So who are you then?" Zach asked the dragonesque, who during the movie always told Zach to shush

"Oh my, have I really no told you," he sounded shocked. "Where are my manners, the names Thanatos, God of death, at your service."

Drunk as a griffin

"Rise and shine Gilda" Zach said "You get to show me where I'm going, because it seems I've lost my house."

"And your ok with that." She said, after getting fully awake.

"Well yea, I trust you enough to steer me in the right direction."

"That's not what I meant, like your home." She said, "your ok with it being lost. And with the uncertainty that you will ever see again?"

He sighed, "I have never called that house a home, simply because it is not where I live, I live for the hunt. The government just keeps me there when it can, and I leave when it can't."

"That sounds cruel why did they do it to you, I mean I don't actually ca-" she was saying when she got interrupted.

"They did it for, and I quote 'your safety in mind'" he scoffed, then muttered, "safety my ass."

"Well if you want to leave, we better start now, it's about 10 miles away from here. Directly... Let me see your compass," she looked and did some simple calculations, "NE from here, I'll wait for you at the house."

What she forgot, is that Zach had a car... A jeep. He went faster than her and was waiting for her when she arrived. She just stared in disbelief, "but.. Wha... How.." .

Zach just pretended that nothing was wrong, and he did not just do the 'impossible'. "Come on I want to relax after running that far, I'm out of breath" he chuckled.

When Gilda finally realized what happened she socked him in the shoulder," that thing" she pointed to the car,"it's fast."

That's when Zach remembered he had a couple of beers in the car, so he told Gilda, "want a beer?"

She said," I don't know, is it poison"

He got two beers sat down and said "sure is," and took a swig.

She looked unknowingly at it now and hesitantly took a sip, she coughed. He then grabbed her by the shoulders and said "now that ain't how you do it" and pushed just about the whole bottle down her gullet.

When she dislodged the bottle out of her mouth she screamed at him, "WHAT THE FUCK, did you just do, I might not have much time before the poison kicks in. You literally just killed me." By the time she calmed down and he stopped laughing, he checked up on her.

"You good." He said

"That wasn't poison, was it..."

Zach just started laughing even more. He gave her another and sat down with her.

After a few hours of goofing off they were both just about drunk and were a giggle fit. But soon enough one of them said something to the other, and neither one will admit to saying it but one wanted to go on a raid needless to say, the other said yes and prepared for the next day.