Chapter 11

Twilight sat down around the edge of the crystal clear pool as she talked with Cerberus, who was lapping up water greedily.

"The two dragons who cared for me raised me like one of their own, they saw no difference between canine and reptile.  They received this outlook from their own parents.  I was, as you could say, lucky to find them."

"Yeah, Spike is like a little brother to me."

"Yes, but I missed my old family, I longed to be with the others, but I was out of luck on that situation."

Twilight took a long sip of water and pricked up her ears, "But they're thousands of dogs everywhere, aren't you the same?"

"Dogs like the ones you know don't communicate with each other, they just bark and bark.  My group developed an actual civilization where we could talk with each other.  We are not the same."

He made a thumbless fist with his front paw.  A look of sadness over took him and Twilight gave him a belated look of encouragement after a small silence that was only disrupted by the small chatter of Hawk and Bull.

"You guys almost ready to head out? We'll need to travel for another few hours before we can set up camp on the edge of the woods!" Bull asked from across the pool.

"Alright."

Traveling light weight was a good idea, but Twilight couldn't shake the feeling of wanting more supplies for later.  They traveled for miles and the same things were happening over and over again.  Twilight counted the planets and stars in the sky every twenty minutes, Cerberus repeatedly nipped at his other head's ears, Hawk was sharpening his tomahawks, and Bull was cleaning out the barrel of her rifle.

Hawk undid a few of his sheaths to spread his wings and flap around for a bit.  He flew up to the top of a dune and took out a small pair of binoculars.  He scanned the tree line for a moment.

"It looks all cle-"

BANG!

A shot ran out and grazed the upper part of his left wing, and he dropped, hitting the soft sand, but tumbled down, holding his hoofs on his pen wound as small amounts of blood spurted out.  He yelped in pain as he landed on his gun, bruising his back, and sending it off its sling and away from him, towards Twilight's hoofs.

They all ducked down, and Bull went prone and covered herself in her cloak, blending in.

"Twilight, grab the gun! Get behind the dune!" Bull violently whispered.

"Ah! Bull?" Hawk yelped again.

"Stay down, Tomahawk, I'll wait until he get's closer."

The sound of hoofsteps in the sand became a bit louder as a male voice could be heard, and the sound of a bolt action rifle being cocked.  Around the corner came a colt, a rugged one, like one you would find in the slums of Flankfurt.  He had a lit cigar on the edge of his mouth, and didn't notice the other ponies except for Bull.

He walked over to his target and knelt down, poking at him with his gun.  He pulled out a piece of paper.

"Hawk, isn't it?" he said.

Hawk didn't say anything.

"You have a mighty big bounty on yer head, but where's yer girlfriend?"

Hawk turned and spit in his face, "Up yours, you don't talk about her."

The bounty hunter then started to pound down on Hawk, planning on killing him, but Bull motioned towards Twilight, who was levitating the gun above her head.  Twilight had never fired a gun before, but even though she didn't enjoy killing or death, she couldn't stand to see a pony be killed mercilessly.

In a split second, Twilight fired, but missed, and the bullet impacted the sand next to them, which gave Hawk the chance to reach for his tomahawk while the hunter was looking at Twi.

The razor sharp mini hatchet stuck right into the side of the hunters neck, one third of the a way to decapitation.  He gurgled and sucked in air with extreme effort, but let out a single sigh and died in the sand, painting it a scarlet red.

Bull got up and took out a few bandages to wrap Hawks wing in.  Twilight picked up the sheet of paper that was splattered with drops of blood.  The message was clear.

"Hawk... Bull... You are being hunted?"

"... I'm sorry, Twilight.  I'm sorry Cerberus.  You guys remember when I said that we are mercenaries?"

They nodded.

"Well, we were mercenaries... And we got into some trouble with our Brotherhood of marksponies and they might be a bit ticked off," Bull said.

"But your a mare, how can you be in a brotherhood?"

"That's where the problem comes in.  I pretended to be a colt so I could get the education I needed to survive in the real world when Hawk was excepted.  I met Hawk while I was training to be a marksmare, and we have been best friends ever since."

"So what now?  Cerberus, you, and Hawk are being hunted by bounty hunters?  How many hunters are there?" Twilight asked.

"There are eight High Marksponies of the Brotherhood, and they probably sent a few for each of them.  I think they have been following us for some time, we should be heading out now... Try not to think of it, we put you, our clients, in danger, and we are going to get you to Tartarus," Hawk returned, getting himself up.

"Here's your gun, Hawk."

"Thanks, Twi.  Let's practice your shot once we get out of the desert, eh?" he said and Twilight blushed.

She glanced at Hawk's wound, "We should camp here until Hawk feels better in the morning."

Cerberus was going to object to the thought of waiting another minute in the desert after the encounters, but Bull interrupted, "I think you may be right, Twilight."

Cerberus kept to himself.

Time passed like hay in a hand basket and there was no fire, only Twilight's horn that was glowing as a torch. Bull and Hawk split their many robes and used them as sleeping blankets to lie on.

Hawk and Cerberus were both asleep, but Twilight, who was lying next to Bull's Eye, and Bull herself, were both awake.

"Bull's Eye?"

"Yeah?"

"What are we looking at in terms of threats?"

"What do you mean?"

"How much danger are we in, not counting Cerberus' bounty hunters, if there are any..."

"Twilight, we are taking you both to Hell.  It's riches must be untold of and we have promised to take you there.  We will keep our clients safe, it is our guarantee."

Twilight huffed.

"I want to believe, but I can't... yet.  Maybe I just need to read a book.  This is the longest I have gone without one."

"By the way, how exactly did you get stuck with Cerberus?"

Twilight had forgotten all about Ponyville succumbing to the terrible event that was going to happen Tuesday morning.  A rush of emotions came to her like a flood and she tried to hold back tears she didn't even know were coming.  What if Future Twilight was wrong, maybe they were already dead.  Twilight closed her eyes, she wasn't going to tell Bull the truth yet, but she didn't want a friendship to be built on a lie.

"I guess I was just... that pony at that place at the wrong time," Twilight nervously said.

"I know that feeling.  The Brotherhood would always test their students by putting them in those kinds of situations without them knowing."

"How was it in the Brotherhood?"

"Well, it wasn't as brotherly as I expected..."

"Go on, please," Twilight curiously said.