The horseman

The dark forest seemed to stretch on endlessly as Andrew trekked on, he had been walking for a solid five minutes and still there was no sign of the source of the smoke. Andrew stopped for a moment to take in the surrounding area, the trees stretched high above him, the leaves covered so much of the sky hardly any light was shining down, it was impossible to tell if it was night time or not.

Andrew kept an ear open to listen out for a stream or something that could lead him to a town, but the sound of silence pressed hard on his ears. "just keep going" he told himself, he griped the spear he was still carrying and headed forward.

He walk aimlessly for another two minutes and still found nothing, he was loosing hope, maybe he'd been dumped in some barren parallel dimension, if he didn't find something soon he'd either be eaten by another wolf or he'd starve.

A branch popped up infront of him, obstructing his path. He grabbed it and snapped it off, from behind the branch he saw a large clearing, a bush in the left corner yielded a large cluster of ripe black berries.

Andrews' stomach growled, he hadn't eaten anything for hours, he looked around the clearing,

No monsters.

He kicked his way through the bush in front of him and carefully approached the bush, he pulled a berry off it and ate it. The fruit was perfectly ripe, he began picking berries and stuffing as many of them as he could into his pockets.

His pockets bulging, he turned away and looked around for another opening he could pass through. Suddenly he heard noises coming from close by, he scurried back behind a large boulder at side of the clearing, he poked his head out to see what the creature was.

Out of the trees emerged another armor clad horse, it had a spear over its back and large eyes looked strangely bloodshot as though it hadn't slept in a while. It was followed by another, smaller horse, this wore no armour but it had two bags on its back, it was yellow in color, had a large light pink mane and had a strange pattern of butterfly's on its flank.

...wait.

Andrew drew back slightly, his mouth hanging open, he knew that horse, but that was impossible, how, of all the places to get stranded in, how could he have gotten stuck in Equestria?

The two horses, or ponies now he supposed, were poking around the black berry bush he had raided, the armored pony shook its head and took off its helmet, its short blue mane was tangled and unkempt, "picked clean" he said shaking his head,"there's some on this side" the yellow pegasus said, she gestured to a small group near the bottom of the bush.

"It's hardly a meal, but I guess it'll do", the pegasus picked the remaining berries and dropped them into her bag, when it opened Andrew caught a glimpse of some apples and an orange stashed away as well. "Come on" the armored pony said,"lets.."

He stopped and turned his head to a corner of the clearing, slowly he drew out his spear and held it ready. Andrew could hear something bounding through the forest, out from behind a large thorn bush another glowing wolf leaped out. It targeted the armored pony and leaped at him, tackling him to the ground, its teeth inches from his face.

The pegasus pony screamed and took off in the opposite direction but two more wolves emerged and obstructed her path, Andrew, thinking quickly picked up a jagged stone from under the boulder and hurled it at the wolf bearing down on the pony Andrew guessed was a solider.

It hit the wolf, disorientating it and allowing the solider to kick it off and kill it, Andrew leaped up and struck out at the another wolf with his spear catching it through the side, the solider joined him and managed to destroy the second wolf.

The solider was panting, he wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead,"thanks" he said, still panting, "don't mention it" Andrew replied looking down at the splintered bits of wood.

The guard looked up at Andrew,"your not..gonna pick us off now?" He asked,"I kinda just want to get out of here". "You should be" the guard replied,"I don't think I've seen timber wolves this active ever, listen, you can come with us back to our camp it's safer down there", "is it far?" Andrew asked,"just down that path" the guard replied,"but we need to move".

The pegasus, who had been nervously looking down at the ground, suddenly screamed again, the two looked round, the wood of the destroyed wolves was putting itself back together at great speed, a second later the wolves were resurrected, on let at the guard again pinning him to the floor, Andrew raised his spear but second wolf closed its jaws around Andrews ankle, he yelled in pain and threw a blind punch at the beast, his fist connected with its skull and it fell back.

Painfully, Andrew grabbed the spear and staggered off to the path the solider had gestured to, at the mouth of the path he looked back at the solider.

There was nothing he could do, more timber wolves were emerging from the forest,they were starting to tear chunks of flesh away from him. Andrew turned and staggered off until the sound of muffled screaming had died behind him. He stopped to catch his breath and slumped against a nearby tree, he clenched his teeth and examined his bleeding leg, the bite was deep and stung violently.

Andrew rested against the smooth trunk of the tree, pushing some of his stringy brown hair out of his eyes, his ears suddenly pricked up, he could hear what sounded like quiet sobs.

He looked round, the noise was coming from behind a small clump of bushes, silently he approached the bushes. He gently pulled the branches apart, it was the yellow pegasus, she must have flown off while Andrew wasn't looking. She was covering her face with her hooves and crying quietly.

"Hey" Andrew said as quietly and as kindly as he could, "it's ok, their gone now", she raised her head to look at him, her eyes were puffy and red,"is Golden Edge with you?" she asked, that must have been the soldier's name,"um..well no, he..um..didn't make it" he said sadly looking down.

The pony looked down to,"did you try to help?" she asked,"yeah, but one got me" he showed her the bite on his leg,"I took off and when I looked back.." he left the sentence hanging,he didn't think he had the stomach to describe what he had seen, the pegasus however seemed to guess what had happened.

"Look he said something about a camp, is it far"

"Oh, no it's close by, I'll take you there, and then somepony could fix your leg"

"That'd be preferable" Andrew stood up, wincing at the pain from his leg,"I'm Andrew by the way" Andrew said. The pony stood up and brushed a few tears out of her eyes,"I'm Fluttershy" she said,"just follow me and we'll get there in no time"

Andrew kept close to Fluttershy as they walked down a long beaten dirt path, Andrew was limping slightly, trying to keep his foot off the ground, as they walked a multitude of thoughts rushed through his head all at the same time.

"Who sent me that paper?" he thought,"why did it bring me here? Why Equestria, and besides this place isn't real". But there was no way he could be dreaming, everything was far to vivid and the searing pain in his leg was very real, it was all becoming confusing again. "This camp should give me answers" he thought stumbling slightly as the path went down sharply.

"There it is" Fluttershy stopped, they had come to the end of the path, just ahead of them was a square of land, in the middle of which were five rows of tents, most of them looked ordinary, they were square and circular and looked big enough to house three. Two tents however stuck out from the rest like a sore thumb, one had two stories and looked as though it was made of purple silk, the others was a large rectangular tent that was made of strange kind of fabric that looked like it came from a far eastern country.

In the middle of the camp was a watch tower, on top of witch was another solider, he was holding a pair of binoculars and was stationed in front of a horn, he spotted the two of them and whistled to another guard at the base of the tower, he nodded and headed over to them.

"Good to see you returned safely" he said,"did you get anything?" Fluttershy handed him the bag of fruit,"it's not much but it's all we could find" she said apologetically, the solider opened the bag and sighed,"I don't think everypony is gonna eat today" he said sadly, "anything else?" "Well I did find this" she gestured to Andrew to was painfully hobbling along behind her.

The guard looked at Andrew open mouthed as if Andrew was some kind of giant monument he had never seen before,"what is this creature?" He asked Fluttershy, "his name is Andrew, he got hurt by a timber wolf, he needs help". The guard looked back at Andrew, then he looked down at the spear Andrew was still holding,"where did you get that spear?" He asked,"I found it" Andrew said,"on a body" he added awkwardly.

The solider gave him one last look then turned back to Fluttershy,"your friends are waiting in there" he gestured to the two story tent, she nodded and flew off, "you" he said sharply, Andrew approached him, "there's a medical tent over there", he pointed a large plain white tent, "a nurse will be with you soon".

Andrew nodded and started to limp off,"wait" the guard said, Andrew turned,"there was a solider with her" he said,"his name was golden edge, where is he?"

Andrews' eyes shifted from side to side, he opened his mouth but then he looked solemnly at the ground, "he didn't make it did he?" Andrew shook his head,"wolves tore him apart" Andrew said still staring blankly at the ground".

The guard put a hoof to his forehead, and removed his helmet, his mane was also tangled, and at one side of his head Andrew could see several stitches covering a fresh wound, "was he a friend?" Andrew asked, the guard looked at him sadly,"every solider here is a friend of mine" he said, he put his helmet back on, "go on" he said gesturing once again to the tent and Andrew obeyed.

The medical tent consisted of eight beds, four on both sides, two were covered by screens, from behind one Andrew cold hear loud shaky breathing, not really wanting to know what horrible state those ponies were in, Andrew sat down on the nearest bed to the entrance.

His leg stung again when he sat down, he gritted his teeth and sank back into the pillows. About half a minute later a distressed looking unicorn entered the tent, she was pushing along a cart loaded with medical supplies. At the sight of Andrew she stopped dead in her tracks, she stepped away from the cart and began cautiously approaching him, looking at him as though he was a danger animal that was growling at her.

"Now there's a good..well..whatever you are, now, don't be afraid" she was speaking to him as if he was dog,"I can speak perfect English thanks" he said, a slight hint of annoyance in his voice. The scarlet unicorn drew back slightly, fear starting to form in her face, her eyes darted all over Andrew, finally coming to rest on his injured leg,"oh" she said letting out a sigh of relief,"right, uh now just hold still, I won't hurt you".

She put her horn next to the wound, a light, silver aura appeared around it, A drew looked at his leg, he could see the skin mending itself back together, a split second later the wound had healed completely. Andrews mouth fell open, he stared at the area of skin and examined it, there were no bruises and no scars, it was as if nothing had happened.

"That's amazing!" Andrew exclaimed, "how is that..",just as he looked up he saw she had gone and moved hurriedly away to tend to the other patients.

Andrew scowled and left, he took a look around when he got outside, the sun was starting to set now, and the first few stars were sparking into life across the sky, he looked to the left and saw the guard he had spoken to at the entrance, he putting pieces of fruit onto plates and handing them out to some of the other ponies, Andrew approached him.

He arrived just in time to see the solider talking to a brown stallion who was accompanied by a filly who was wearing a tiara on her head. "Is this it ?" he asked indignantly, he waved a hoof over the plate which carried three slices of apple, two pieces of an orange and four black berries, "my poor little princess is starving and thisis all you can give me!"

"Look, Mr Rich" the solider said, in a voice of forced calm,"we have barely enough to feed everypony, if some ponies got more than others, some of them might starve". "So what?" The filly asked,"if you ask me some of these ponies could do with loosening a few pounds, I mean have you seen Sweetie Bell?".

"I'm sorry, I truly am" the solider said, though he certainly didn't look it,"but this is all we have left", the filly made a noise that sounded like,"humph!" and then she stalked off, mutter what sounded like threats under her breath,"see what you've done!" The stallion said angrily,"I shall be speaking to the princess about this, make no mistake". "I wouldn't bank on seeing her majesty any time soon" the solider replied, anger building with every word he spoke. They stared at each other for a moment, then the brown stallion turned and stalked off after his daughter.

The solider made a noise of distaste and stamped his hoof angrily, then he spotted Andrew. "Oh, it's you, you get patched up?" Andrew nodded,"you've got a handy nurse" he said,"don't need many supplies when ya got a unicorn like her around" the solider replied, looking over at the tent and smiling,"yeah, Necter's good at healing minor injuries, just wish we had a few more on hand", he looked down at his hooves.

"How long have you all been here for?" Andrew asked, the solider shrugged,"don't know how long this camp has been here for, me and some of my troops just found it, lucky too,we were in bad shape, there are hardly any of us left".

A whistle sounded from the watch tower, Andrew looked up and saw a solider descending a ladder leading up to the small box at the top,"listen" the solider said,"Golden Edge was supposed to be on night duty tonight, but..due to his circumstances" he stopped and awkwardly looked at the ground again, then he shook his head,"anyway, if your gonna stay here ya may as well be useful, here".

He went went back into the tent for a few seconds and came back out with a crossbow and a quiver of arrows,"it's just until dawn" he said,"I assume you know how to use one of these?" Andrew took the crossbow,"sure just, point and shoot". The solider nodded,"if you see anything whistle and we'll come running", "sure" Andrew turned to leave,"oh, by the way" he said turning quickly back,"my names Andrew", "Diamond Edge" Diamond edge replied holding out hoof which Andrew shook.

The room on the watch tower was made of strong oak wood, a table was nestled in one corner and a chair was right beside it, Andrew laid the crossbow down on the table and looked out over the tops of the trees. He looked down at the ground and saw another unicorn casting a spell, a large dome started forming around the camp, within seconds they were covered.

Andrew looked down at the table, in addition to the crossbow there was also a lantern, a bottle of oil, a few coins, a pencil and a notebook lying on it,  he picked up the notebook and started flipping through it, it was blank.

He looked both ways awkwardly, then slipped the notebook and pencil into his back pocket, then he remembered the berries, he stuffed his fists into his pockets and dropped them onto the table, they were slightly squashed but were still quite firm.

He picked up a few and looked at them, then he looked down at the tents, remembering what Diamond Edge had said about them not having enough food. He wondered how long some of these ponies had gone without eating, "better save a couple" he thought, but the few he was holding he ate.

He picked up the lantern and found a hook to hang it from, the sun had now gone down fully and a large full moon had appeared casting a silver light across the night sky. He lit the lantern and began looking around.

For two hours he watched the grounds around the camp, once or twice he thought he could see another wolf, but it just turned out to be a rabbit. At three in the morning he was starting to doze off, he sat in the chair and his head lolled against his shoulder, a snapping noise from the bushes brought him back to his senses.

He picked up the crossbow and pointed it at the rustling bushes, a deer struggled out from them, it was bitten from head to hooves, it wobbled and the fell breathing quickly. Not ten seconds later, a Timber wolf emerged silently from the woods and crept up behind it.

It was over in a flash, the wolf sank its teeth into the deer's neck and dragged it back off into the forest,"circle if life I suppose" Andrew though, he put the weapon down and retook his seat, he lay back in the chair, listening to the sound of crickets in the distance and counting each star as a new one sputtered into life.