*CLANG CLANG CLANG*

“Up and at ‘em, boys!” a cold female voice barks, reverberating off of prison walls serving as an alarm for the morning sun. The light slowly reveals an awkward lump of bodies woven together on the cell’s floor that writhe slightly in response to the booming voice.

...

“Wakey wakey!” the voice repeats, patience already razor thin.

...

“GET UP YOU DRUNKS!” She bellows louder than ever, causing dust to fall from the jail ceiling.

From inside the cell the mass of bodies begins to writhe more fervently on the floor, and untangling from each other are the bodies of Bulk Biceps, Big Macintosh, and Anon. Spike sits upright in the cell’s only bed adjacent to the pile and he appears to be the only one not in complete shambles upon waking, stretching after a good night’s sleep.

“Eey...ugh.” Big Mac groans.

“Thank Celestia I have a rest day today…” Bulk says.

“That cat is going to have a hell to pay when I get a hold of it.” Anon says.

“What cat?” Bulk asks.

“The one that took a shit in my mouth.” Anon says, pinching his eyes.

“Ok ladies let’s get moving! Down the hall to interrogation let’s go let’s go!” The mare barks. The mare in question was Sheriff Sterling Shine, and she was the famous lean mean protector of Ponyville. But seeing as Ponyville and by extension the rest of Equestria have almost no real crimes, the department was quite small, and it consisted of her and two deputies. It didn’t make her any less intimidating though. The silver maned earth pony stood as stiff as a board at all times and her off white coat was groomed pristine and in stark contrast to her navy blue uniform.

Spike, having no hangover because he didn’t drink at all last night, led the group next to Sheriff Shine and opened the door for her in gentlecolt fashion.

“Here you go, Sheriff!” Spike says politely.

Sheriff Shine smiles kindly at the little dragon, “You’re a good boy Spike, but you’re also an accomplice to these assclowns,” She says shifting to a glare, “So I’m gonna have to ask you to join them inside.”

“Yes Sheriff…” Spike says dejectedly.

On one side of the interrogation table sat the boys, and on the other sat Sheriff Shine who sighs deeply at the sight of these half-asleep drunks who appear to be melting into an amorphous pile of body odor and regret.

“Alright boys, I know all of you well enough to know that you all aren’t inclined to cause mayhem, which is why I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and holding off charges. For now. But can you please explain why the Wonderbolts had to be called at 1:30 in the morning last night to put out a huge spreading fire in the Everfree Forest?”

Anon starts, “Well you see--”

“Actually how about we have Spike tell the story? He’s less likely to have forgotten important details.” The Sheriff says cutting him off. Anon doesn’t object and just lies his head in his arms.

“Well Sheriff,” Spike starts, “It was about eight o’clock when I went over to Anon’s house for our monthly guys night…”

Spike sucked in the crisp cool air as the moonlight guided him through Ponyville, summer was coming to a close and fall was just around the corner. But rain, snow, sleet, or shine would not be stopping any of the guys from their monthly Boys Night. Spike didn’t really understand why Anon didn’t like baking and gossiping with the girls during their monthly sleepovers at first, but Anon insisted that Spike join him and the guys to have fun instead. Twilight seemed supportive as it would give him some guy friends besides Snips and Snails to hang out with, but Rarity was extremely distraught about Spike being away and doing “brutish activities” as she put it. She really fought hoof and mane to have him stay, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up as to why. She probably just wanted to keep a steady supply of his famous cookies.

Spike found much more joy playing Ogres and Oubliettes with the guys than he thought he would. He was the Oubliette Orchestrator of course, and he found immense joy partaking in dirty, messy, gory fun that the girls were never a fan of and it was something he wasn’t going to miss for the world. Especially now that their campaign was reaching it’s apex.

Arriving at Anon’s house, Spike could tell the night was already kicking off as a loud drunken argument could be heard with little difficulty from outside.

“I FUCKING SAID FROM THE FUCKING BEGINNING THAT HE WAS FUCKING SMALL!” Anon shouts over Big Mac and Bulk.

“But that’s not a perfect copy!” Bulk retorts.

“He is!! He just got shrunk down after he was perfectly copied!” Anon shouts back.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Bulk says.

“Do ya even know what you’re talking about Anon?” Big Mac asks.

“All I fucking asked was, if you had a tiny clone of Discord would you fuck with him!” Anon is beet red, due to being both drunk and angry, and his jerky movements cause the brimming bottles attached to his drinking hat to spill liquid all over the floor.

“We both said no ‘cause he didn’t do anythin’ the real one did, I don’t know why yer keepin’ this goin’,” Big Mac says, taking another swig.

Anon sputters in disbelief, “That’s just because you--!”

“Hey guys,” Spike says, trying to break it up. Spike knew how emotional Anon gets when he’s drunk, so this could have gone on for a while had he not stepped in.

“Hey! The main man…dragon’s finally here, now we can get this show on the road!” Anon says, immediately forgetting the thing that made him so angry in the first place. Or perhaps he was trying to quickly change the subject so he could get out of the corner he backed himself into.

“You’re darn… damn right it is!” Spike says excitedly. He wasn’t used to having the freedom of swearing openly, making his double life with the guys all the more exciting because he didn’t have to worry about Twilight chastising her like the big sister she was.

“Not tonight bud, apparently Bulk’s got an ‘adventure’ for us to go on tonight and he’s not doing anything else besides that.” Anon says.

Spike raises a confused brow, “What do you mean?”

“Okay okay, I know it sounds fake as Tartarus but trust me it’s out there! And it’s close by too!” Bulk says.

“What is?” Spike asks.

“Here we go again,” Big Mac sighs.

“Ok bro, so about sixteen years ago legendary bodybuilder Wealthy Keys was going to hold a meet in Canterlot, but the train holding all the equipment mysteriously broke down in transit. They loaded wagons with all they could and planned to cut through the Everfree forest to load the gear onto a new train but when the crews came out… they were empty hoofed. They practically ran out of the place, must have not been aware of how dangerous that place can be.” Bulk waves his forelegs for dramatic effect, sloshing ale and coming dangerously close to spilling.

“So we’d be going into a wild dangerous forest to find some old rusty gym equipment?” Spike asks.

“No! Well, you guys might not, I certainly am. But I know there’s also something to make it worth your guys’ while too.” Bulk says.

“Well?” Spike asks.

“There’s a small fortune’s worth of prizes they had with them too, not actual bits but the value alone could get you a roomful of them I bet seeing as they would be antiques. Trophies and medals don’t come cheap, you know, and the history behind them only makes them that much more valuable.”

“Gee, Ah wonder why nopony has risked their flanks gettin’ that junk outta there all this time,” Big Mac says derisively.

“I’m with Mac on this one,” Spike says, “The fact that it’s in the Everfree is reason enough to leave that stuff alone. Why don’t we just do our O&O session like usual to take your mind off it?”

“That’s the thing though, this is a real adventure! We’d be in history books and get a hero’s reward on top of it!”

“Where did you even hear about this anyway?” Anon asks.

“One of my bros I meet up with at comps every year was passing through town and told me about it, he’s a big history buff with this kind of thing so I trust him.”

The rest of the guys all groan in response to his answer.

“So you want to go out into an ultra dangerous forest that we know nothing about just because somepony told you a rumor that there was treasure out there?” Spike asks incredulously.

“Okay okay I know that sounded bad but I double checked! The library has records of it happening and everything! I even know exactly where the treasure is too."

Bulk's reassurance did not inspire any changes of heart from the rest of the group. Bulk only became more emotional upon this reaction.

“What am I gonna have to do to have you guys at least look with me for even a little bit?” Bulk pleads.

“You’re gonna have to really sweeten the pot here, Bulk.” Anon says.

Bulk pauses, he bites his lip nervously as he thinks real hard about what to say next. Whatever he was planning, he was desperate.

“I’ll… buy the drinks every month for Guy’s Night until we’re all dead and buried!” Bulk declares.

Big Mac and Anon look at each other with shocked expressions.

“But Twilight says I’m not allowed to drink.” Spike interjects.

“Anything you want bro, I’ll cater it, Pinkie Promise!” He accentuates his determination by crossing his heart and putting a hoof on his eye.

“Well ah know you’re certainly prepared to lose all your bits on an urban legend,” Big Mac says.

Bulk balks at this, “Even after that you won’t--”

“Now hold on just a second brother, I didn’t say I wasn’t in, because I’m not about to turn down a lifetime of free hooch,” Big Mac cuts him off.

“It’s definitely a crazy idea,” Anon thinks aloud, “But what the hell, I’m in too!”

“Spike? Little bro?” Bulk turns to Spike. Spike feels trepidation to this, and Twilight read him the pamphlet she made about peer pressure several times to prepare him for a situation like this. She even used puppets!

But…

“Ok, but you better cough up a lot of gems if you’re wrong!” Spike concedes.

“YEAH!” Bulk cheers happily.

Since Anon’s house was on the edge of the forest they made quick work of delving into the thick brush, empty packs and saddlebags waiting to be filled with treasure. There were no trails, no roads, just untamed wilderness hiding potential dangers from every direction. Being pleasantly sauced helps the other guys not to care, but Spike was in no such position. He could feel every one of his scales quivering in fright, and even a twig cracking was enough to make him jump.

“C-can’t we just do this in the morning guys? We really should get back to our game anyway, the campaign is at a critical point in the story!” Spike pleads.

“Don’t worry little buddy, all the monsters are too busy hunting each other to bother with small fries like us,” Anon says, rubbing his hand on Spike’s head.

Was that supposed to be reassuring?

"But our campaign is at such a critical juncture!" Spike pleads, "Anon finally collected all of the pieces of the engagement ring he needs to propose to Princess Diane of Trottingham, and Big Mac just cornered the wizard that stole his penis! We can't just leave those things on a cliffhanger."

"Our game will always be there when we get back bro," Bulk reassures.

Anon chuckles, "Bulk just doesn't want to play because his character is in a coma."

"Hey! I made a noble sacrifice so you guys could get away from those kelpies!"

Anon scoffs in response, "You got lucky with that seduction roll."

"Unlike in real life," Big Mac jabs.

"At least I was smart enough to still have my penis after everything was said and done instead of falling for such an obviously bad deal with that wizard," Bulk retorts.

“So where’s this treasure supposed to be?” Spike asks, having to defuse yet another inane argument.

“Allegedly the delivery guys said they were ambushed by some creature in the most dense part of the forest, so it would be where those extra tall trees are,” Bulk says pointing to the distance.

“S-so the d-darkest, s-scariest part?” Spike stammers.

“Well, it was almost two decades ago bro, something bigger probably cleaned out the area by now and moved on to other pastures.” Bulk says casually, tossing aside another empty bottle.

Man, this was certainly a much better lesson about staying away from alcohol than what Twilight has been telling him, because it clearly makes you stupid, Spike thought to himself. Maybe if whatever monster eats his friends before him it’ll get too drunk off their blood alcohol levels and allow him to make a clean getaway. The thought only makes Spike frown though, it would be far too cruel to leave his friends to such a fate. So the young drake soldiers on to what is hopefully not an untimely demise.

However his anxiety started to wane dramatically as the hours dragged on and they were still stumbling through the thick brush, it seemed like they were getting nowhere at all. Granted, when most of your party has half of their attention taken up by frequent liquor sipping breaks, nowhere is the place you’re most sure to end up.

In fact, the anxiety turned into annoyance when you had to take the role of babysitter.

While Spike was clearing a path he heard Anon shushing Bulk as he began to sob.

“Th-that really hurt!” Bulk cries quietly.

“I didn’t mean to hit you with the bottle man, I didn’t see you! Come on, you can hit me back and we’ll be even.” Anon says, trying to calm him down.

“O-okay,” Bulk says with a sniffle. Spike hears a meaty thwack behind him and Anon yelp in pain.

As they dug deeper the boys got into truly academic conversation to pass the time.

“Alright alright, Big Mac,” Anon says, “Cheerilee, or… Nurse Redheart?”

“Hoo-wee,” Big Mac exclaims, “That’s a toughie. Although… Bloomie and her Crusader friends had me shacked up with Cheerilee for a day not too long ago. And lemme tell you h-what, even though we never o-fficially got together I can say from experience that for a teacher her flanks are still as tight as a school-filly’s.” Anon and Bulk laugh saucily at this.

“Alright mah turn, would you roll in the hay with that Gilda girl that was here a while back?” Big Mac asks Anon.

"I don't know," Anon replies, "Usually those girls back home need meds otherwise they get… stalker-y."

“Yeah yeah, but for the hypothetical’s sake let's just say it's a one time thing,” Big Mac prods.

“Hmm,” Anon says scratching his chin, “I heard cats have barbed dicks though, and since I didn’t have griffons back home I wouldn’t want to risk it going both ways.”

“I’d take that action!” Bulk says excitedly.

“Oh please, you just like girls who are mean,” Anon says derisively.

“Heh, yeah, I bet he’d really like havin’ a girl like Gilda with a spiky you-know-what,” Big Mac snickers.

Bulk stammers, “Wha--That’s not true!” Spike himself even gives the first genuine laugh of the night with the other two boys as they poke fun at their muscle-bound buddy.

“Oh ho!” Anon says turning his attention to Spike, “Looks like Spike has something he wants to say about unicorn girls.”

“Yeah, we all know real well about you and Rarity,” Bulk continues, most likely to shift the focus off of him.

Spike goes flush at this, “W-well I like her a lot but--”

“Nuh uhhh,” Big Mac pokes, “Why, you should hear the tidbits AJ tells me about what Rarity’s been sayin’ about’cha, now that’s juicer than a ripe Honeycrisp I tell ya hwhat.”

Spike blushes furiously, “Aw come on-- wait, what’d she say about me?”

“Hold on!” Bulk cuts them off, “Looks like we’re here!”

Finally they seemed to make their way into a clearing, thick untamed grass spanned into a large glade and the gaping maw of a large cave stood ominously just opposite them.

“Well Bulk, is this the place?” Anon asks.

“Yeah bro, I’m sure of it. We just gotta look around now for some loot.” Bulk says.

The boys fan out and begin their search, “Well, it’s kind of hard to see anyth--ouch!” Anon yelps in pain holding his foot.

“Found something,” Anon whimpers.

Bulk hurries over and plucks a small dumbbell from the grass, “Aw, this is just a 10, I can find something better than this.”

Spike finds a rusty medal, the rotten lanyard attatched to it disintegrates at the touch, “How about this?”

“That’s not bad!” Bulk says, “That’ll get you like, 50 bits at least I bet!”

Spike raises a skeptical brow to this, “Really, 50 bits for a rusty copper puck?”

“Oh yeah bro, die-hard fans’ll pay good money for that stuff!”

Big Mac laughs sardonically at this, “You best hope so brother, ‘cause yer gonna need the bits to buy us all those drinks every month.”

Bulk looks upset at this, “There’s good stuff here, you’ll see! And you bros will take me a bit more seriously from now on!”

Anon looks up from where he was digging, “Well, you can’t blame us for not usually taking you seriously dude. You did spend an hour straight a few months ago trying to convince us that mares playing the didgeridoo made them infertile.”

“Everypony told me that was true!” Bulk shouts back.

“You tried to argue with Twilight about it too when we went to her about it dude,” Spike says, “She basically screamed the entire passage from that book about it being a myth at you when you kept pushing it.”

“You guys always keep treating me like I’m stupid!” Bulk whines, lip quivering. Oh boy, looks like they pushed him a little too far. Bulk turned into a huge baby when he drank too much.

“Oh come on, you might be retarded sometimes but that’s why we love you man,” Anon says trying to comfort him.

“Yea, what he said,” Mac confirms.

“Oh yeah? Well I bet there’s a whole load of stuff in there!” Bulk says pointing to the pitch black cave.

“Ha! You might have made us come out this far dude but there’s no way we’re going in there,” Anon says. Mac nods his head in agreement.

Spike comes to his side and lays a comforting hand on his back, “If it makes you feel better I won’t make you buy any gems for me dude, but I think it’s time we called it quits.”

“B-but… I was--” Bulk blubbers. Oh man, he was gonna start crying. Again. Spike makes a mental note to set a strict cutoff time for alcohol on Guy's Night from here on out. And a rule letting them go outside when they're drunk period. Spike sighs heavily, Bulk’s gonna owe him a lot more than just gems if he’s wrong about this.

“Okay, okay, I’ll go look with you. But only for five minutes and then we’re going home!”

“Really?” Bulk beams, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Yes, really. Now let’s get moving you big baby,” Spike says heading into the cave.

“Oh thank you thank you! You’re not going to regret this bro, I promise,” Bulk says trotting happily behind the dragon.

Entering the cavern it seemed that a massive hall stretched deep into the blackness, but oddly enough there seemed to be a speck of light just at the end of it, so the duo elected to follow it. The light grew closer and closer, and as they peek their heads around the corner they see quite a surprising sight.

The large chamber was well lit with torches, and scattered on the floor of the cave were assorted weights, dumbbells, and barbells of varying sizes and colors. But slumbering in the center of this pile was a massive wooden creature.

The beast looked in shape similar to a regular pony, despite the fact that it stood at least fifteen feet tall at the shoulder, and was at least as long as a young whale. It’s skin was wooden and charred black in places, holes eaten through its mighty body as termites came and went over the course of its life. Spike recognized the beast as an Ent, Twilight told him about these things once. They’re sedentary at night because they only eat sunlight, but they are extremely territorial and extremely deadly.

Spike and Bulk stood stock still for a good minute, watching the creature to see if it was awake. Bulk’s attention seemed to be easily diverted however, and Spike had to grab him by the ear to stop him from entering the creature’s space.

“What are you doing?” Spike hissed.

“Look!” Bulk points at a specific pile on the adjacent wall not too far from the creature. Gleaming and glistening having been saved from the harsh elements of nature sat a mound of golden trophies and medals. Spike couldn’t believe his eyes, if Bulk’s right about its value there was a fortune! With that kind of money Spike wouldn’t have to work a day in his life! He could buy the finest gems just for lunch, and he could spoil Rarity as much as possible…

Spike shakes his head to stop himself from trailing off, otherwise he’d forget about the monster too.

“There’s no way we can get anything in there without waking that thing up! I’ll back you up on being right but we’re leaving dude.”

Bulk looks at him pleadingly, “Please, bro! Just one thing, in and out, and we can go!”

Spike grits his teeth. Every scale on his skin screams at him to tell Bulk no, but he also knows thanks to Twilight that Ents aren’t very perceptive, on account that they’re just walking trees. It was a gamble, and he certainly wouldn’t get stinking rich. But he could get enough bits out of this to get Rarity something really nice, and a good meal on the side. Celestia damn it. Spike takes a long, calculating look at the beast, it didn't breathe in the traditional sense so it was hard to tell if it was asleep or not, but given the circumstances there really isn't a lot they could really do to wake it up in the first place.

“Fine, you grab the nearest thing and we’re out of here,” Spike says to him sternly. Before Bulk can sneak in there, Spike grabs him by the ear again.

“But you owe me 100 bits.”

Bulk hesitates from moving forward for a second, but furrows his brow in determination and soldiers on. Bulk tiptoes in as silently as possible, and makes a beeline for the pile of trophies and medals. Typical, but there was nothing Spike could do about it now.

Bulk snags a sizable trophy, and in a moment of excitement he grabs a solid handful of gleaming medals as well and stows them away.

Unfortunately it appeared that greed would claim another victim this night as the sudden removal of items from the bottom of the pile causes a cascade of gold and silver to crash down in a cacophony of noise. Both dragon and pony were frozen in terror as they awaited their fate. The moment after the noise stopped seemed to drag on forever. The anticipation stretched each passing second longer and longer until they thought they had stood there for several minutes.. But as they regained their composure and they realized the next moment passed with no issue, and the next one after that. After a solid several minutes it seemed to be safe to conclude that this tree was sleeping like a rock. The boys decided not to spend what little luck they had left and exited the cave as quickly and quietly as possible.

“Are we really gonna make Bulk pay for all those drinks forever?” Anon asks Mac.

“Nah, we ain’t gonna do him like that.” Mac says.

“Just next month then?”

“Eeyup.”

“Think again, jerkwads!” Bulk declares triumphantly, brandishing the large trophy at the two.

Mac and Anon were at a loss for words, mouths agape that this endeavor had actually turned a profit.

“Well I’ll be,” Big Mac says softly.

“Holy crap, Bulk was right about something for once?” Anon says equally bewildered.

“That’s right!” Bulk says as happy as a kid on Hearth’s Warming, “And since Spike was a real bro who believed in me he gets the cut of the dough!”

“I thought you wanted to grab one of those circus dumbbells for a memento,” Anon says.

Bulk suddenly looks terrified at the thought, “I’ll take the 10 you found, let’s get the buck out of here.”

Back at Anon’s house they’re caught up to speed about what they saw.

“Ah’m mighty surprised y’all didn’t manage to wake the darn thing up,” Big Mac says admiring the trophy that took center stage at Anon’s table.

“I’m just gonna call it a lucky break,” Spike says lounging in a beanbag chair, “That 100 bits is going to get one heck of a gift for Rarity and a diamond for myself the size of her flank.”

“Well I suppose we should celebrate this successful adventure to round off the night, Bulk,” Anon says.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Bulk asks.

“Chug! Chug! Chug!” The boys cheer as Bulk downs an entire trophy-full of hard cider. Spike even felt like joining in the drunken fun and giving a hearty cheer when Bulk slams the empty trophy victoriously on the table.

Just as the night seemed to be at its peak, a tremor struck the entire house. Then another. Soon it seemed like an earthquake was rattling the house, shaking objects off shelves and three tipsy guys on their asses. A deafening roar could be heard from outside the house that further shook the ground beneath their feet, and the boys rushed outside to see the commotion.

The Ent seemed very much awake now, and crashing through the trees it bellows once again in anger as it spots the group who stole their treasure.

“How the hell did it know where we were?!” Anon shouts.

Spike stammers, “I have no--”

Then Spike takes quick notice of the trail of empty beer bottles leading straight from Anon’s house into the woods.

“Oh come on!” Spike says angrily.

As the Ent begins to stomp towards the group, Spike has to think quickly. Anon and Mac are too drunk to be of any help, and Bulk has already started crying, so that cuts him out too. Spike wracked his brain to remember what Twilight told him about these creatures. They’re made of wood, but Twilight said regular fire won’t cut it.

But Spike has something that just might work!

“Anon, give me your drinking hat!” Spike yells as the group scatters around the Ent that’s trying to squish them.

“You want a drink now!?” Anon yells back.

“Just do it!”

Anon takes off the hat and chucks it as far as he can, and it doesn’t even make it halfway to Spike. Big Mac runs up and with his hind legs he bucks it high in the air over the Ent’s back, and Bulk swoops in to intercept it and drop it in Spike’s arms.

Spike takes the mouthpiece and sucks the most he can into his mouth. The taste is terrible, good thing he won’t need to swallow.

With the flammable alcohol Spike manages to breathe a large cloud of green fire all over the creature, and magical dragon fire seems to do the trick as the Ent lights up like, well… dry wood. The creature rears on its hind legs screaming in pain, and in the panic the creature loses its balance and falls backwards into the treeline of the Everfree, causing the fire to spread wildly into the forest.

But strangely enough, the scream from the Ent grows far louder as it burns, and it becomes warbled as it slowly turns into a chorus of shrieking and cries of agony. The beast explodes violently when the sound reaches its apex, the group of boys covering their eyes as chunks of the monster fly in all directions high into the air and far off into the distance.

Ponies from all around Ponyville rush to see the spectacle unfolding, and Sterling Shine in her fuzzy blue pajamas is one of the first on the scene. The boys turn to look at the mare glaring furiously at them, a vein threatening to pop in her forehead.

“What in Equus is going on here?!”

“And that’s pretty much it, Sheriff.” Spike says, ending his story.

The mare stares down at the interrogation table in disbelief, “Well your story is definitely more… more interesting than I anticipated.”

“S-so, are we in trouble?” Spike asks nervously.

The Sheriff deliberates in silence for a moment. Anon was shaken awake sometime during the story and fought to keep his eyes open, and Big Mac who is green in the face grabs a small trash can and cradles it in his hooves in anticipation of vomit. Bulk nurses the glass of water he was given silently, hunching over as if he wanted to somehow shrink away from the tough situation. Spike twiddles his claws and fidgets nervously in his seat as the Sheriff clears her throat.

“You boys caused a whole lot of trouble, that’s for sure. But as much as I hate to say it, I should thank you.”

“Wh-what?” Spike asks, surprised.

“Call it your lucky break, but you actually took care of an issue that would have put Ponyville in far more danger had you not accidentally intervened. We thought the Ents were all but removed from the Everfree years ago, one must have slipped in unnoticed it seems. Of course we don’t have the staff we used to and with a shortage of volunteers actually willing to go into that forest we can’t scout the area like we used to so there wasn’t anything to stop it from moving in.”

Bulk looks at her expectantly, “So does that mean we’re free to go?”

The Sheriff smiles at this, “Oh sure, you boys are free to go.”

Spike and Bulk cheer at this, and Big Mac gives a sickly smile.

“With two weeks of community service of course to pay back the city for cleaning up your mess. And that goes for each of you.”

Anon collapses out of his chair from exhaustion, and Bulk whimpers at the sentencing. Spike could only hold Big Mac’s long hair back as he puked in the trash can.

On the bright side, the spoils still remained in the hands of the victors, and each of the boys had a small mountain of bits cushioned underneath them. While the question of whether it was worth risking their lives was still debated, they certainly weren’t going to complain about this boon even if it meant picking up everypony’s trash for a couple weeks.

Sheriff Shine sits at her desk later in the day tidying up her paperwork for the day, when one of her deputies comes to her desk. She looks up to see his brown coat matted with sweat from galloping here and his features were marred with worry.

“Sheriff, you’re gonna want to come and see this,” He says with panic in his voice.

Just on the outskirts of the Everfree the Sheriff stood over the corpse, deep in contemplation. Her two shaking deputies shared a hushed conversation behind her as she studied the features. The body was burnt to a crisp, any specific features made completely undecipherable. But that wasn’t important as from even a passing glance one could tell exactly what it was. Or, what it used to be.

Sheriff Shine holds up a hoof to quiet her subordinates and bring them to attention.

“What do we do, Sheriff?” One of the deputies asks.

The Sheriff furrows her brow as she continues staring at the body, “First thing is to tell nopony here. Not the Mayor, not Twilight. This is way above their pay grade and it would only cause a panic. I want one of you to take photos of the evidence while the other will prepare a letter of all the information we have on this currently. I will board the next train to Canterlot and take all of it directly to the Princesses. Have I made myself crystal clear?”

“Y-yes ma’am!” The two stallions say with a salute.

Sheriff Shine returns to her office, her fearless attitude currently a facade masking the pit in her stomach as she herself tries not to become fraught with worry over the massive potential this case has. The Sheriff closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, focusing too hard on what might happen will only distract her from what is happening now.
Regardless though, whatever is happening now cannot in any way be good.

Author's Note

Another chapter up for you guys, hope you enjoy!
It's not Pinkie-centric I know, but chapters like these will sparsely be used to do some world-building, and you definitely will be seeing the Sheriff again soon!