Mammals

It was another nice day in Ponyville, which isn't saying much, considering every day in Ponyville is always nice. The skies were clear and vibrant as usual, various ponies and foals were going about their usual business, the birds were, however, not singing, as they usually would. Instead, many of the singing birds were sitting around, mostly bathing, feeding their young, or simply lounging about. Among the birds were groups, or rather, packs of animals that were also lounging about, not really doing much.

One of the animals in the group was a large brown bear, who was currently busy constructing signs, writing on them with a pen he happened to find while traversing the Everfree forest. As he continued to write on the make-shift boards, a rustling sound could be heard in a grove of nearby bushes; the bear cocked his head up wondering who was entering their domain.

Walking out of the bushes, with a trout in her mouth, and nearly drenched in water, was the pet of the element of honesty, Winnona, "Winny," Harry called out to the female Border Collie, holding back a bit of a chuckle after seeing her current state, "I'm guessing you had pretty good hunt?"

The Collie simply walked over to the bear and dropped the dead fish onto his sign, "Yeah," she responded apathetically "let's go with that." Contrast to what the others might have believed, Winona did not speak with a southern accent like her owner.

Shaking off the water with much gusto, she sat back in her spot, which was a tree next to a set of emerald green bushes. The next to walk out of the groves was a snow-white Turkish Angora cat, her usual purple bow missing on the top of her head, her mouth had a slight discoloration of purple around it, "Well," Opal huffed "Thank ya for the help, Winona." Yet another contrast to their owner, Opalescence spoke with a thick southern accent.

The aforementioned Collie looked at the southern feline with annoyance and then proceeded to ask her about the whereabouts of some berries she was supposed to procure, "Opal, where are the berries?"

"Well," Opal began, a look of embarrassment plastered on her face, "while Ah was walkin' back, I got a bit hungry and well,"

Every animal in the proximity groaned loudly with indignation, "Goddess dammit Opal, that's the second time this week!" Winona shouted in annoyed anger. The canine promptly lefter her shaded spot, walked up to the embarrassed feline, "How the hell are we supposed to survive if you keep eating our rations."

"Well sorry, Winona, but unlike you, some of us weren't prepared for the wild," she responded angerly,

Winona narrowed her eyes at the Angora with irritation, "Oh sure, go and blame everything except yourself, you're just like Rarity-" she paused mid-rant, pondering on other comparisons, in fact, you're no better than those ponies who put us here, always willing to push everything out of your way so you can get on top..."

Winona went on with her tirade, and once she was finished, she turned to the white cat and noticed the cats face now wore an expression of anger, the corners of her eyes we glistening as tears began to form. It looked as if she were ready to yell, but was holding back, shit "Opal, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that, " she raised her paw, and placed it on the felines back to console her, "It's just been tough for me leaving the Apples and all that."

The cat glared at the canine in anger, "You say that like we're not all suffering," she hissed at the collie.

As a way to diverge the tension of this situation, Harry asked the whereabouts of a certain rabbit, "Speaking of suffering, where is Angel?"

Once he mentioned this, the grove of trees ruffled again, and out stepped the previously mentioned hare; his white coat was dirty, covered in a good amount of scratches. His right eye was closed shut and had a purple bruise on it; Angel's right ear, although it had a small gash, a line of blood could be seen trickling down it. His friends looked at the rabbit with a mixture of worry and fear. Winona walked up to the bruised hare, her motherly instincts dialed-up, "Angel, what happened to you!?" she asked concernedly.

The rabbit looked up at the canine with neutral eyes before coldly replying how he was beaten by a duo of ponies, "Two ponies, one unicorn, the other earth," ignoring the collie Angel walked as he continued on about his encounter, "I didn't even do anything, they just came up to me, and beat the shit out'ta me-" he turned back to the pack with eyes filled with fury- "just because they could."

Many shocked gasps followed after Angel's explanation, "Why would they do that!?" a young timberwolf in the crowd asked, hiding behind a large tree once everyone looked at him.

Angel glared at the young wooden-golem wolf and reuttered his last words, "I just told you, 'because they could'," Angel then limped towards a tree stump and promptly sat down upon it. The moment Angel laid his back on the stump, a large ruckus began, as many panicked that some ponies might be out to hurt them, or worse.

In an attempt to quell the small panic, Harry walked into the middle and announced his plan to reinstate the animals into Equestria, "Everyone listens to me!" the panic quickly subsided, and every animal within the proximity looked up at the bear, "now I know it's been a tough couple of months, but I think I have the solution to our problems!" the bear announced ecstatically.

Intrigued by the bear's announcement, Angel lifted his head and stares into the grizzly's direction, "And what would that be?" he hissed.

The bear cleared his throat, "Well," he rubbed the back of his head in worry, "I was thinking that maybe we could, work of the equestrians as laborers?" Harry said quickly. An uproar of anger was met with this idea, Harry once again attempts to quell the audience, "Listen," he began, with only a few animals turning their attention towards him, "What I was thinking was, we could prove our usefulness to them, and as such, prove our worth and let us live with them again."

"You really think that's a good idea?" Opal questioned

"I'm sure it'll work," Harry turned his gaze to a family of beavers, one mom, and two sons, "In fact, I sent Woody and Bucky downtown in Ponyville to help with a reconstruction job."

The beaver mom glared at the bear with a mixture of anger and shock, "You sent my husband out to work with the ponies that kicked us out!"

"Amber trust me, I've seen them build dams for you and your little ones, I'm sure once they come back, they'll bring good news about their job." In terms of how Harry had planned it out, the beavers reconstruction job would be a domino effect of having other animals work odd-jobs in Equestria; as long as they had come back with good news, everything would fall into place.

"We've got some bad news," Harry's thought quickly ended as he heard those words. He turned around to see see the two male beavers he had sent out to help the equestrians, both were covered in dirt, and were covered in a good amount of splinters and bruises. The wife of the first beaver ran up to her husband, with fear in her eyes, and hugged on to him tightly.

Like the wife, Harry quickly walked over to the duo of beavers; greatly confused by their appearance, "What happened?"

The wife was about to chastizes the brown bear until her husband intervened, "We were doin' what you told us eh," he began his report, "They were a little reluctant, but they allowed us to work for them," Bucky paused, remembering the violent abrupt end of their job, "It was going fine until, well, Woody here, accidentally, took a bite out of the support beam." Bucky glared at the other beaver, while everyone stared at Woody in confusion.

Backing up in fear, Woody quickly explained himself "Look, I just thought that the beam looked a little off eh, so I thought I would just take a little bit off, and-" The beaver began to rub the back of his head in shame of what he had done, "I guess I took off too much, eh?"

"After that fiasco, the owners got a few kicks in before we were finally able to get away."

As they were talking, Harry had put his hands into his face, drowning in the disappointment of the, This was supposed to work he lamented as he moved his paws to the top of his head, and clutched his hair, Why didn't work!?

"I'll tell you why it didn't work," Harry's eyes widened as he heard those words, surprised as if someone here had read his mind. Turning to the source of the voice, he saw the white bunny sat up, with an angered scowl, "we're animals!" Everyone gasped at his outburst, a large majority of them taking an umbrage to it, Angel quickly attempted to settle everyone down, so he could better explain himself, "what I mean by that, is that we have animal instincts that have have been tarnished because of those goddamn equestrians," He hopped off the stump, and began his rant, "Why should we cater to their every whim, why should we have to care for them-" he turnd his head back to the large of animals, "When we could rule over them."

Timmy, no longer hiding behind the large tree, glanced worriedly towards the rabbit, "What do you mean?" he asked inquisitively.

"What I mean is," he paused mid-explanation, and began his speech with alight hum...

"You and I are the same...We don't know or care who's to blame" he slowly began walking from the stump and to the center of the pack.

As he walked, his arm shot-up, and pointed at the glowing sun "But we know that whoever holds the reins, nothing will change," he turned his head to Harry, who unknowingly, still held a wooden sign in his paw, and narrowed his eyes at him in displeasure, "our cause has gone insane!" Harry, in embarrassment, placed the board down.

Continuing this speech, Angel made his way back to the stump and stood proudly,

"And these battles, they can't be won" As he sung, a young beaver found a projector that happened to be placed in front of the large tree that Timmy had hidden behind a few minutes ago

"...And these tyrants, always overcome," Angel pointed at the youngling and signaled him to turn on the projector.

Without a second though the young kit turned on the projector on an image popped up on the bark of the tree. On the tree were various, unflattering and edited pictures of the four princesses, And do you want them to live on, and on and on? The next image shifted to a map of all Equestria,

"Why split these states when we can be only one!"

The next slide showed the same map, but instead of the various flags that identified the different countries, every county was red, and there was on a single symbol in the center of the map.

The symbol itself appeared to be a white claw tear, and behind it was a dark-green triangle.

"And must we do as we're told?"

"Must we do as we're told?"

The slide appeared to be animated, as it went back to the frame of the current equestrian countries, and then slowly, the red color began to fill each empire, until every nation was completely filled with red.

The slides shifted to different images of various show-dogs competitions, as well as other images of ponies hitting or hurting their pets out of anger. Many former pets, specifically, Winona and Opal, began to remember the times in which both of their owners hitting them for the most minimal of actions. An unbridled anger awoke in the two, with memories of being put on display or doing assinine tricks, and then there was the abuse some animals suffered when under the 'care' of their owners

"You and I fall in line"

"To be punished for unproven crimes"

"And we know that there's no one we can trust"

Flipping to the next slide, an image of the pack's primitive ancestors showed up, "Our ancient heroes, they are turning to dust!"

He turned back once again to the crowd, "And these wars, no matter how far; does anyone know who the cause of them are?"He paused in the middle of his song, waiting for a response from the crowd, and was met with numerous confused stares.

With the question left unanswered, Angel continued his song, "They just promise to fight them all on and on" The image behind him shifted back to a now still image of the map,

"But soon we will see, there can be only one!" His song reached a crescendo, as his voice seemed to get deeper with each line.

He turned back to the tree, where the projector displayed the image, and soon, the words of this soon-to-be nation were splayed above the map, "The Great Empire... The Great Empire of Animalia!"

The song's tone was almost hypnotic, everyone was enticed by each line, but it was not just the song that got their attention, it was instead, the idea of a revolution. Sure they were a small group, but with both the song and the idea implanted in their minds, they were restless, "Animalia!" A male otter shouted, and another in the crowd shouted, and soon various other animals, even Opal and Winona, began yelling out the fictional country's name.

Soon, everyone was under Angels command, and once he realized this, he ended his speech, and stood up to the crowd, "Bothers and sisters," he began as his voice returned to its normal octave, "Today, no longer will we be pushed around by these Equestrians; today is the day, we fight back not just for our right, but for this planet, the one they ruined and pillage."

"What shall we do Mr. Angle?" asked a young bear cub

Angle jumped from the stump, and hopped over to the inquisitive cub, "Do not fret young one," he reassured the bear, "I have a plan."

With the day coming to an end, Celestia's sun floated down and was replaced by the moon of Luna. Everypony went back to their homes, and went to bed, ready for the next day. Everypony of course, except for two mares, who were camping out in the Everfree forest; Lyra Heartstrings and BonBon, both sat near a campfire, taking in the beauty of the night sky. The fire crackled nicely, as the two mares roasted their marshmallows, "This was a great idea BonBon," Lyra complimented the cream-colored earth pony.

The candymaker smiled sheepishly at her friend compliment, "I thought it would be a nice little break from the humdrum of our usual lives." The mint green unicorn smiled greatly as she took a bite out of her marshmallow.

The two mares gorged on their gooey treats in delight, until a rustling sound could be heard in the back, which was then followed by an ominous wind whistle; the mint-green unicorn turned to her friend in fear of what could be behind the forest, "Bon Bon, what was that?" she asked the cream-colored earth pony, her voice shaking with anxiety.

The Earth mare looked at her friend with an annoyed, yet worry-filled, glance, "It's probably nothing," she reassured her friend; However, the scared unicorn was not convinced in the slightest. Bon Bon sighed, "Will it make you feel better if I go check?"

Lyra eyes shot wide open to the suggestion, and quickly negated the idea, "Bon Bon no!" she exclaimed. Ignoring her friend's demands, however, Bon-Bon went over to the groves of bushes and checked around them.

After a few good seconds of searching, the candymaker sighed in relief when she found nothing, "See," she began, "I told you there was-" Bon Bon never got to finish her sentence, and she never would, as a wooden spear stabbed all the way through the back of her neck, blood gushing heavily from the puncture. Bits of skin, muscle, and coat could be seen on the tip of the spear, which was in full front view of the mare as if it were mocking her.

As the spear was quickly whisked back into the woods, the once cream colored mare, fell over from the shock, and in a matter of seconds, died on the spot. Lyra sat on her log, as still as she could be, staring deeply at the corpse of her friend. She stared at the body for what seemed like an hour, and finally, began to scream out in despair, "BON BON!" she quickly leaped from her make-shift seat and ran towards her friend's body, but before she could get there, another spear punctured the right side of her body which caused her to fall to the ground in pain.

Lyra laid on the ground, sobbing both in pain and in mourning of the death of her friend; the blood of whom was quickly leaking towards the mint-green mare. The bushes rustled once again, and behind them, stepped out a group of various animals, one of whom the mare had met before, "A-Angel!?" she cried out. The bunny, however, didn't respond, and instead, he snapped his paws and signaled a large brown bear, and said bear walked to the side of Lyra where he was stabbed, and picked up a large stone, "What the fuck is this!?" she cried out in a mixture of dread and fear.

The cotton-tailed bunny walked over to the petrified mare, and spoke, "It's really a shame," he said disappointedly, "You won't be able to see my plans come to fruition," the bear raised the rock over his head, and stared the mare with neutral eyes, "But I guess some must sacrifice themselves for the future of others."

"What are you-!"

Angel lowered his head to Lyra, his eyes closed, and grinned with a happy smile,"Thank you so much Ms. Heartstings!"

With all his might, Harry hurled the rock onto the crying mares head, bits of brain matter, skull fragments, and blood exploded on to the ground. Angle, his grin still plastered on his face, was covered in the ponies brains and blood; while many were grossed out by the display, many stared at the mare with neutral faces, thinking of this act as the greater good.

Angel, his face still covered in blood, turned to the group, "Now my friends, it is time to relocate!"