Episode 4: The swordsman and his Rescuer.

Scootaloo crouched, carefully checking the ground, it was obvious that not long ago a battle took place there; splashes of blood littered the snowy place and even a severed leg was lying in the middle of the frozen road.

I really hope that this blood isn't from him—she thought as she saw a trail of little blobs of blood leading east—it can't be...

Scootaloo found almost unbelievable the fact of someone, or something, leaving a trail of blood to their lair; furthermore, knowing of all the monster littering the ruined city.

"They must be really strong or really dumb to do this..." - she spoke to herself, opening a smile that mimic Rainbow Dash's grin - "Either way, let's find out."

And Scootaloo ran, following the path of blood blops.

The guards walked between the trees, complaining about the task of keeping vigilance outside their lair. There were too many dogs in the perimeter just to keep two prisoners safe.

One would be given to the queen and the other would become food, the same way the stupid hunter had.

*Who would know that the creatures of this world are more violent than the ponies?*
Tooth stopped thinking, it hurt his head to use that way. Only then he realized he was alone, all the five dogs had disappeared, as if a unicorn had cast magic on them.

He felt fear, if there is a unicorn there, it could be dangerous for the pack.

But something lightly taped on his shoulder, when he turned to look, he only saw a small fur less mare look alike of orange skin and purple hair; she smiled at him, and he was going to reciprocate when she hit him hard on the head with some kind of stick.

~~Bonk~~

And Tooth was Knocked off.

Scootaloo was surprised, the track had led her to a small hill at the border of the Silent woods; what meant that some strong monster could appear at any moment; that's why she chose to act quickly.

And now, she had to take down six monsters that she, in all her years acting as a Canterlot Crusader, had never seen.

After scanning the surroundings one more time, she checked that there were no more guards; which meant that she could proceed following the track that led to a badly hidden hole on the side of a hill.

*It's time to go where no girl went.* She thought as she proceeded to the hole.

Some time earlier

A teenage girl was locked in a crude made cell inside the Dog's lair; all her belongings were stripped of her, leaving her only with the rags she used as clothes, and a cloak.

Worse than that, right next to her and outside the cell, in what the dog called a table, there was her most precious item; the "Compass Of Fate".

Time was short, and he knew that, and despite the hopelessness of the situation, she tried one more time to use her magic.

Rising her left arm, she aimed for the iron bar that locked her and with great concentration started muttering the arcane words her teacher showed her a long time ago.

It was hard for her to maintain the concentration when her jailer, one of the diamond dogs, started to yell.

"PUNY PONY, STOP NOW OR JAILER MAKE YOU STOP"

"NO. LET PONY TRY" - came a grave voice from the darkest corner of the cavernous shelter, carrying itself with mockery - "PONY WILL FAIL. PONY ALWAYS FAIL."

His words hurt the girl, but she still had to try; but as predicted, her magic didn't manifest, even so she felt the magical energy leaving her body.

And as she stopped, she heard the grave voice from the alpha once again, but not his word – only laughter.

Fury and sadness swell inside her seeing her impotence in front of the situation, and she struck the bars in frustration.

"Twilight... I failed..." the girl whispered to herself, going to the back to of her cell and lying down in the dark.

The girl was almost sleeping when she heard the grunting of many dogs entering the cave, they were loud and their steps heavy.

The girl knew that something was happening and quickly got to the bar of the cell to have a better look at the situation as the discussion between the dogs got louder and louder till the Alpha interfered.

"WHAT ARE YOU BLOCKHEADS DOING?" - Shouted the alpha

"ALPHA, HUNTER FIGHT PONY LIKE CREATURE AND LOSE" – it seemed as if the dogs had presented something to the alpha – "HUNTER LOST LEG; BUT WE CATCH CREATURE!"

The girl heard the alpha grunting loudly, as if taking a great decision, before he shouted.

"YOU FIVE, GUARD THE ENTRANCE!" - Some more grunts, and the girl heard some dogs exiting the cave - "TOOTH, TAKE THE HUNTER. HE FAIL. NOW HE IS FOOD."

She heard a whimpering noise as something heavy was dragged out of the cave.

"TAKE CREATURE TO WHERE THE PONY IS; WE DEAL WITH IT LATER."

With it, the Alpha got back to his side of the wall, where his "bed" was. The Jailer quickly followed the alpha order, walking to the cell carrying the body of a teenager.

"BACK, PONY!" He barked, and the girl retreated.

She didn't have time to take four steps when the jailer trowed the teenager's body at her, grinning while doing it. She didn't have time to prepare herself, but still, she caught the boy when he was about to hit her.

The girls put him carefully on the ground, looking at his face. He had cobalt blue skin and long indigo blue hair. But what caught her attention was the small tears flowing from his eyes.

She didn't know why, but the boy remembered her of someone, she just didn't know who. But she was happy, if this boy was alive in this world, it meant that her friends were too. There was still hope.

Then she looked again at the table where her compass was, just to see a beautiful silver sword. A word escaped her mouth in disbelieve.

"Luna's...?"

Confusion, fear and anxiety filled the girl's heart that didn't know what to make of the situation.

Why, in Celestia's name, this boy had Luna's sword and why he hasn't woken since his arrival. She knew he was alive because all this time, small tears still fell from his eyes; but nothing more.

She even tried to inspect him, looking for any clues of his origin, but he had nothing with him.

The Jailer, an old Diamond Dog, had demonstrated interest in her action at first, but after some time lost interest; and the alpha was sleeping in his corner.

That's when she felt something strange, and looking at the table she could clearly see the silver blade start to shine in a faint blue glow; something that was not noticed by her captors.

"What?"- Unconsciously, she approached the bars of the cell, trying to see better the strange phenomenon; She could not understand what was happening. No matter in what world, Luna has always knewn how to hide well her secrets.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING, PONY? - Suddenly, the jailer approached the bars of her cell, his tusks near her face -"I TOLD PONY TO STAY AWAY OF BARS OR I WOULD TAKE I BITE FROM YOUR -"

The Jailer dog was interrupted in mid-sentence when a hand pushed his head with force into the bars, even deforming it. For a second the girl jumped back in shock. But what really shocked her was what stood proudly in front of her.

A woman using a black shirt, green short and boots; in her left hand a quarterstaff. Her skin was of a light orange color and her hair was purple, and she sported a strong build and a confident smile. No matter how different this woman was from the last time she saw her, the girl still knew who she was.

"Scootaloo?"- spoke the girl

The woman, Scootaloo, tilted her head in confusion while looking at the girl, only to open her eyes in realization.

"Wait! You are Sunse-"

"BEHIND YOU!" - Sunset screamed as a big hand grabbed Scootaloo's right arm while she was distracted and with great force threw her out of the lair.

Sunset was astonished and afraid; the Alpha had risen from his sleep and attacked Scootaloo from behind with a force that would kill any normal person.

More than ever. She needed to escape. Now.

Scootaloo was thrown by a great force out of the hole these monsters called a lair and almost hit the snowy ground, but with a backflip she regained her balance and fell on her feet, even so, the force was strong enough to drag her several feet behind.

Then she saw what had attacked her. It looked almost like the monsters she's been silently taking down, but it was bigger and clearly stronger. Different from the others, the skin of this one was pale, and its eyes were red, and in its right hand it carried a big club.

Scootaloo could feel the danger this enemy posed, and it made her blood start to boil in excitement.

* Rainbow will be so proud of me! * She thought while smiling at the monster.

"Hey, ugly face, you messed with the wrong girl today!"- Sootaloo spoke to the beat - "I will turn you into dust!"

"ALPHA IS STRONG!" - The monster answered what alarmed Scootaloo; not many monsters could do that— "AND ALPHA WILL BREAK LITTLE CREATURE!"

They didn't need more words, their locked eyes told them everything they needed to know.

The Alpha jumped, swinging his club with only one hand, hitting the ground with a huge crash and making the snow to spread all around, even in the air.

Scootaloo stepped back, dodging the first strike with ease, but she didn't anticipate the repercussion of the attack, where a small piece of snow landed on her left eye.

The beast furiously started swinging the club at Scootaloo with ferocity as she could only dodge while trying to clean her eyes.

The range of the monster attacks was long because of his long arms, and he was fast; and even if Scootaloo could evade each attack, she couldn't find an opening to counter it.

* It is like Dash told me* - she thought while dodging the flurry of attack - *If you don't find an opening, you create one! *

With quick movements, she advanced, approaching the monster with each swing of its arm, and with the last movement she twisted her body, canalizing her magic in her left leg and hitting the alpha in the back of the knee, breaking his balance.

The Monster started to tumble, but Scootaloo was determined not to give it a chance to recover, and with the quarterstaff started a flurry of blows. Hitting his face, torso and arms many times.

"AHHHHHHHH!" The alpha screamed, grabbing the quarterstaff with the left hand and swaying the weapon on his right hand, striking Scootaloo in the side, sending her flying into a tree nearby.

She hit the tree and felt the pain washing over her body, even making her bite her lower lip to try to maintain the focus, and as a fillet of blood escaped her mouth, she looked at the Alpha.

The monster was kneeling, in its right hand there stood the club, and in his left he held her quarterstaff. He wasn't much better than her, filled with bruises from her attacks.

That was a problem. She knew that they were matched in power, but she still had a card in her sleeve. Scootaloo rose up, with the alpha in her line of sight, and took a running position.

She knew that using this ability was a bad idea, but it was the only idea she got. So, magic started building in her, even becoming visible to the Alpha as a wave of orange energy flowing from her body.

Scootaloo knew that the Alpha understood that she would do something unexpected when he threw the weapons away, put his hands together and, with some kind of magic, coated his arms and hands with white rocks. It would not be enough to hold her; that she knew.

Magic was expanding inside her, spreading through her body; mostly her fist and legs.

"You not half bad, you know?" - She smiled, it was time to end this. - "But, I will finish you off now."

The magic started to envelope Scootaloo's whole body, morphing and almost looking as if it was solid. It was time.

"Come!" - She shouted - "Wrecking Wheels!"

And Scootaloo magic shone around the snowy ground.

At the same time that the young woman activated her special ability, not far from her, inside the dog's lair, an explosion occurred.

Author's Note

Yo, This was the chapter I was planning to post Sunday; but if is ready, why wait?

Btw, next chapter will be release next Weekend (or earlier)

See ya soon. :pinkie happy: