Author's Note

I've had most of this story ready for a while, and with lots of procrastination included, this chapter is done, next is in the works.

Einsamkeit

Its been nearly several weeks since Augustus found his new home. The old ruin had become a wooden fortress complete with a barbed wire wall and a repaired bridge, at the expense of a couple of days without water, but his scouting had given him some luck, and he found a fresh water creek near the castle. The local fauna is rather easy to trap, and Augustus has been thriving in fresh venison.

His new look comes from lack of maintenance of himself. A small scruff on his bottom chin exposes itself to whoever dares look at him, and his eyes turned glassy and madness inducing from surviving with no contact to anyone else. Just him and his thoughts. His few nights here have been filled with dread as the rain from the night skies, the shoddy wooden covering giving very little cover from the rain. His trench coat is covered in soot and charred ashes, as Augustus had covered himself in it to deter larger prey, and it gave his coat a darker appearance, blackening out the white cross of his old alliance to the Iron Cross of Germany.

The man had become a shadow of his former self. The casual man had become a force of nature, and intruders were dealt with accordingly. Young ponies often ventured near Augustus's wooden walls that were laced with lethal barbed wire, ready to cut anything bigger than a rabbit to shreds. His expeditions to raid caravans for metal have proven to work, and hes found dozens of spools of uncut wire, ready to be converted into a deadly countermeasure from intruders.

During his time at the castle, hes often seen many patrols in the sky, looking over the land, luckily not inspecting the castle too thoroughly as to find him and his new wooden palisade. His time in the ruin has changed him completely, and nothing remains of his old self. Paranoia consumed him, molded him into a new being, one capable of bringing down an army. In Augustus's mind, that was the plan.

Augustus opened the plank door, peeking out to spot any possible threats lurking outside of his fortress of solitude. He looked over the small opening near the cliff to his wooden barricade, and exited it, covering it with barbed wire in many places, but not enough to stop access without covered hands. He lugged his rifle over his shoulder, and stepped off the wooden bridge, heading into the forest with a keen eye set around reconnaissance of the area to find camps for supplies.

His hard leather boots hit the ground softly and sunk in a small portion. But still often snapped fallen branches and sticks that cluttered the ground. His stoic face stayed to the front, his eyes scanning his front, but also monitoring the sounds around him. His steady pace containing a steady rhythm, and his stature stays true through the deeper parts of the forest. Within minutes, hes in the lighter part of the forest, courtesy to his presighting of the entire accessible land, up unto Ponyville, his destination today.

He begun jogging through the light forest to Ponyville, and kept his eyes open for anyone that dared watch him, risk they get spotted and Augustus scared them off with his looks, if not a rough shot of his gun. He continued moving like water across rocks, through the trees and bushes,dodging anything to trip his feet. His now expert footing, trained by the past days in the inhumanely deadly forest, was carrying him along quite quickly, and the edge of the town became visible to him within minutes of the beginning of his venture outside of his home.

He laid down, and decided to creep up on his stomach, along the forest line carefully, as to not be seen and sought out by anyone that bothered. As he went along the rough grass and brush of the forest line, he saw Fluttershy's house, his old savior, not too far from his current position, and decided that it was the best course of action, seeing no other cover on the edge of the forest. He looked around to make sure no one was around or looking, and he charged for the edge of the house, ducking behind it and peeking around the corner of it to check for anyone that saw him. Once he was sure he wasn't spotted, he looked up at the old oak that he called home very temporarily.

'Just like the night time raids, except in broad daylight'

Augustus looked around the other side of the tree, hearing commotion from around it, and spotted a formation of guards, roughly 6, with a single guard down the middle looking rather important, as his armor was a deep blue instead of shining gold. Augustus cursed himself for being so idiotic as to think his almost weekly raids on passing traders would go unnoticed. He ducked his head back around the corner, and checked the other side, seeing a few tents set up, each with a banner depicting a sun, and a creature circling around it.

' There's that mark again.'

Augustus squinted his eyes to get a closer look, and he noticed several different types of guards. Some had fabric robes and scrolls in hand, some levitating them in air, while some others showed no skin or weakness, as the dark and gold armor they wore covered everything, including a visor, only revealing glistening gold slitted pupils. He ducked back once more, and looked around.

He looked to the house, and he finally noticed that a window was left open on the house. He jumped up on the remains of the crate from a month before, and vaulted over the window sill, and he was inside easily. Once he was inside, all of the animals laid their eyes upon him, and a few got up to greet him. He pet them quickly to put them at ease, and covered his mouth with a finger, messaging them to not let this encounter leave their animal lips, and was responded by an acknowledging nuzzle by many of them and a nod with others. He walked upstairs and peeked through his old saviors door, and saw no one inside, and he entered. He looked all around him inside the room, and figured that Fluttershy was not home, off doing something.

Augustus got back on his objective and looked through the window in the room, gazing outside, there were dozens of tents with banners, armored figures lining the city buildings. The village was no longer quiet, the tranquility being replaced by serious voices barking commands and the sound of hammers slamming down on metal, the clinking of armor, and carriages arriving every few moments.

'This is not how you're supposed to greet guests, even if I took just a couple of pounds of wire.'

Augustus's focus was thrown off by a click that came from downstairs, and opened the door a bit to see what was wrong, and revealed the 6 mares coming into the house, each of them looking rather serious and upset.

'Scheisse.'

He closed the door and quickly looked around for something to hide with, and noticed the bed was large enough to hide under, and he slid under there, clutching his rifle, trying to not expose himself. He heard the multiple pairs of feet slowing stomping up the steps, and Augustus silenced his breathing down to nearly nothing.

He saw the door open, and several pairs of feet enter the room, and heard creaking as the bed struggled to hold the weight of whoever was seated on top. He took a very low but heavy breath, and held his rifle tighter. He heard their mumbling, and slightly released his grip, silently inching himself closer, and leaning his ear towards the girls on top of the bed.

"Where could he be?" A gentle voice asked. Fluttershy.

"He ran into the Everfree, timber wolves probably got him by now" He heard the lightly raspy voice say. Rainbow Dash.
Upon hearing that, a couple of them gasped, and one of the characters in the room began to sob and whine.

'Think again.' Augustus thought to himself.

"Dash! Watch your words, you've upset Fluttershy!" A very refined voice said. Rarity.

"I don't care, since you all seem to care more about that thing then your friends!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Dash stop bein' so full of yerself, were your friends, but August needed help!" A very western voice sounded off. Applejack. He saw the blue pair of feet walk out of the room, and several joined her, and there was loud arguing down stairs. But where was the 6th pair?

Augustus heard small a giggle from next to him, and turned his head like a rusty hinge towards the emitter.

"I love Hide and Seek. Who's it?" A bouncy voice said quietly. Pinkie...

Augustus's eyes met her blue ones, and she scooted next to him, their noses touching.

"Hiya Augustus!" Pinkie said incredibly loudly.

Augustus nearly jumped out from under the bed, bumping against the frame and making it rumble on the floor. Augustus cringed as he heard it, and soon enough, the voices downstairs quieted, and they heard feet rapidly coming up the stairs. Augustus begun to panic, while Pinkie Pie resumed her normal bouncing, and Augustus looked around for an escape. He saw the door open, and revealed the rest of the mares staring at him, and he immediately did a complete turn, and tried to pry the window open. They all entered the room, each ready to block Augustus.

With a good effort on his part, he shoved the window open fully, and jumped, quite a moderate fall, but not enough to keep him from stopping. As soon as his feet his the ground, he looked to meet the girls faces, looking down at him. He turned his head and ran into the village without thought, bolting by tents and crates filled with things meant to help take him down, knocking several of them down on top of the guards.

He ran by the tents and guards crowding around, all of them looking at him at full sprint. A few of the stunned guards grabbed their spears from the ground and begun to run after Augustus, and time went on and more guards had joined the fray to capture Augustus, some of them yelling at him from a distance.

"Stop right there, ape!"

"Halt!"

Augustus got out his rifle and fired a shot just above their heads, making most of them dive out of the way of the purposely missed shot. This bought him some more time, and he saw a massive opening as the guards try to regain their strength from the fall. He got back to his running, and soon enough, there was generally quiet, aside from the afar voices that wanted his head on a pike.

Augustus put his rifle under his trench jacket, took off his helmet, and put his hands in his pocket as to hide his hostile presence a small bit. He looked all around him, and saw guards just ahead of him, and took a quick left turn, avoiding the crowd of them, and taking a less noticeable path through an alley.

Augustus could hear the armored footsteps, and looked behind him to see 2 guards staring at him, slowly walking toward him. He quickened his pace and, once out of the alley, begun his run again, being noticed by more guards who begun another wild chase. He was about to get out his rifle again to pot another shot at them, but he hit into something hard.

Augustus looked up to see a towering figure, taller than all the guards who had caught up. The guards looked up at the figure with a small smile, and bowed before the colossus. Augustus slowly back stepped, fearful of what was under that helmet. His curiosity was answered.

His eyes were met with nearly aqua blue eyes,dark blue fur, hair like a night sky,incredibly long eyelashes, and a very unhappy frown. She started walking toward him slowly, and he kept crawling backward on his feet, until he recovered his balance and started his run again. The figure only sat there while Augustus looked at it, but when he turned his head, he was heading straight into an open hand that clamped onto his neck as it made contact with it.

Augustus felt his feet lift off the ground, and his lungs emptying quickly as his windpipe was completely blocked by this giants hand. Augustus tried grasping the hand, but the thick metal armor didn't allow such access, and soon enough black circles begun to appear in his sight. He reached down to his holster and got his pistol, aiming it at the being's abdomen, and pulled the trigger, a loud bang resounding off the armor, the effect of a ricochet.

As soon as the shot fired out, the giant stepped back, stunned by the hit. Augustus simply laid on the ground, trying to get precious air back into his lungs. The guards get out of their bow to the new opponent and point their spears at Augustus. He gets out his rifle, lightly touching each spear with the bayonet of his rifle. Each of the guards were smiling, but Augustus's frown couldn't get more ugly. He quietly turned off his safety as the first guard charged forward, screaming his battle cry.

Augustus kicked him in the groin, the guards armor doing very little, and Augustus kicks the groaning soldier to the ground. Another one steps up and Augustus goes to shove his bayonet into the guards chestplate, but the guard grabbed his rifles barrel, and a small tug of war starts. Augustus tries to grab his rifle, but it is tugged away, and he pulls out his knife and pistol.

Several of the guards were antagonizing him, laughing at him and trying to get him to attack. It took Augustus all of his strength not to, but instead held his ground. Another guard walked up, this one covered in plated armor, throwing his spear to the ground and cracking his knuckles, and a very bright set of green eyes with a pension to bring him down to his knees. Augustus looked at him, and simply raised his pistol, repeatedly squeezing the trigger.

The bloodied corpse of the guard fell, and everyone around him was silent. Most of the guards backed away in fear, but still circling around him. Augustus slipped the empty ammunition cartridge onto the ground, and refreshed his gun with a new one. The guards circle slightly broke, and Augustus saw his escape, but had no good path to get through to it. He could see the circle closing fast, and he went to move for it, but was stopped by a large blow to his back.

Augustus was flung many yards through the lines of guards surrounding him, and his rolling finally came to a stop. He could barely feel his legs and arms, his grasp on his armaments failing, he released the pistol and knife into their separate holsters, slowly getting up and trying to limp away from the giant, who had a predatory look in its eyes. Augustus fell as he looked back, too worn out to even move.

The giant figure covered in the dark blue armor, looked down at him, those merciless eyes beaming into his own. He saw the hand flicker, and soon enough a large dark blue lance was in its hands. It inspected Augustus once again, and raised the lance, and Augustus laid his head back, ready to be taken, but instead, heard an ear-shattering shout.

"Luna! Enough!"

The figure stopped just shy of Augustus's face by mere inches, the sharp blade glistening in the sunlight. He could feel a cold aura come from that weapon, and took opportunity and begun to crawl out of reach of the lance. Augustus had felt the pain in his arms, more noticeably the left, which was now broken from the earlier attack. He groaned as he felt the very bones in his finger pressing together, shattered. A small line of blood had dripped from his lip, and he hugged his other arm with the one that was only bruised.

"Celestia, this wretch does not deserve mercy." Luna said, coldly glaring at Augustus.

Augustus looked up through bleary eyes to see an even taller figure, plaid in white fur and wing spanning more than a bombers, and a horn that could breach a tanks armor. Connected to all of that, a very serious face looking down at him with a judging look. The other figure had taken off her helm, revealing more of the dark blue fur covering a very thin face, and another set of wings that could square with the Red Baron's own plane.

Augustus laid his head back, and continued to crawl away in fear and the agonizing pain. Augustus had gotten on his stomach and used his unbroken arm to help propel himself along the ground, slowly inching forward, away. More pain enters his body as his broken ribs drag along the ground, his bleeding lip causing a few drops of blood to color the ground along his path.

The white royal figure, who he guessed was Celestia, had walked around him, interrupting his slow crawl away, making Augustus stop and turn over, trying to fill his lungs despite the pain induced when even breathing.

"This is over, Queen Chrysalis," she said, looking down at him and summoning a very large blade, a golden shine glistening in the sun, and soon enough a white fire envelopes the sword.

"Gnade, bitte! Please...I am not who you think I am." Augustus begged, holding up a bruised arm. He tried crawling away again, but every bit of progress was stomped out by a single step of this unnatural woman.

"I am not a fool Chrysalis." She said, stepping on Augustus's foot, making him yell in pain from the weight.

"P-please, miss. I am being hunted, I just want to keep myself alive. Is there any way to prove it to you?" Augustus said, trying to prop himself up with his damaged arm. The enormous mountain of a woman had sheathed the sword, and slowly leaned down, placing her hand on his head.

Celestia had found herself in a forest, completely quiet except for the seldom chirp of a bird flying by. She looked around and a small flurry of butterflies flew over her head, and she slightly smiled, but was also puzzled on why she was here, and walked around, noticing a stone bridge with a rail on it.

"What is this place?" She asked, looking around. She heard a very far off clicking sound, and looked back to see something shining right in her eye. She blocked it with her hand, but still saw it shining right in her eyes. She squinted behind her hand, and she saw something move ever so slightly. Celestia heard a quick snapping sound, and she leaned to her side just in time, the bullet grazing her hair.

She looked to where the glint was, and pulled out her sword once more, and the glint disappeared, revealing a small figure running from her at full force. She ran after it through the heavy forest, and soon enough, she found him, sitting down in a small tent. She got on her knees, hiding behind a large rock.

The only thing to come to her ears was the sound of several creatures that looked just like Augustus, but some of them were very thin,carrying little and had small fabric caps on, while others had very large backpacks, small metal vests, and metal masks.

She saw something move out of the corner of her eye, and saw Augustus heading towards them, and he greeted them, shaking hands. She watched as they went into a large stone fortress, and the metal doors latched shut, but she approached them slowly, making sure to stay quiet.

She peered into one of the gaps of the door, and saw him and the others like him sitting in a circle, and laughing, glass bottles in their hands, and she scoffed.

'How does this prove anything?'

She stayed a little while longer, and soon enough, the laughing subsided, and Augustus was on his feet, and one of the men he was with went over to a small wooden door. He opened it right before her eyes, and a familiar green gas emitted from the closet. Augustus went to reach for something on his leg, but one the others grabbed him from behind, then kicked him to the ground.

Celestia's eyes went wide as a large womanly figure came from the mist, and she already knew who it was. She pressed her ear to the door, but retracted when she heard something hit against the metal door, and she did so again, pressed her keen ear to the door, closing her eyes and focusing in.

"I am naught but an exiled queen. Wandering the wastes, noble warrior. And you, have got my attention."

Celestia heard the evil laugh from through the door and also a groan of pain, and she listened even more carefully.

"Such a creature, how did you even survive the Everfree?" She laughed again, more groans of pain emitting from Augustus behind the door, and Celestia finally had enough. Just as she was about to slam the door down, she heard silence inside, until...

"You'll be mine soon enough. A queen needs a king by her side."

Celestia immediately felt her pelt heat up in rage as she came back to reality, and her ethereal hair became more reactive, quickly snapping in the wind of the day. Meanwhile, Augustus was in a sweat as soon as he came back from the dream, looking around to see the royal sisters and legions of guards around him, and he laid his head back.

"Luna!" Celestia nearly screamed, and Luna stepped in front of her with a determined look.

"Chrysalis has returned from the Badlands. I want every guard searched for disguising magic's and thorough checks when we return to Canterlot!" Celestia said, and Luna nodded her head. Celestia looked over to Augustus with his head still back, and a light golden glow picked up Augustus into the air. He flailed his battered arms and suddenly felt warm, and looked at his arms to see the bruises quickly disappearing, and the pain in his body had left him, the cuts and broken bones mending together. The glow retracted from his body and he fell onto his knees on the paved street.

Augustus got up and put his arms in the air as a small group of guards surrounded him with a small chunk of rope in their hands.

"And you, you are coming to Canterlot too. We need to figure out why that evil wretch is after you." Luna said, slamming her lances handle against the ground.

"Y-yes, uh, princess. Just let me get my rifle." Augustus said as he bent down to grab the wooden stock. He took off the bayonet and put the pin onto the safety. One of the guards shoved him forward, and he looked back at the large guard, then resumed his march forward, a iron carriage greeting him. The door went down slowly with the rattle of chains.

"Get in." The buff guard said, and Augustus listened with no hesitation. He watched the iron door close, and the bumpy ride to the capital of Canterlot begun. Augustus knew himself that he was in for much more than he hoped for in his life.