A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 48: A Working Roegadyn.

*Point of view: Brex Mith*
*Location: Ponyville, just outside of the adventurer's guild*
*Time: Ten in the morning*

Brex was currently looking at today's newspaper and had just gone over a section that said that it was scheduled for the next few days to be a warm set of summer days, with only a few scattered clouds here and there. Normally, he wouldn't be going through one of these. But it was placed right outside of his door when he returned and it seemed that all the rooms had them for the guests. So, he went ahead and started going through it and found that it was pretty normal when it came to a newspaper of a small town, where the articles mainly consist of every day events.

Although, the Roegadyn did happen to find it a nice distraction from all the staring he would normally get as he walked through the town and he worked on a few of the crossword puzzles in his head. It was quite enjoyable for a bit, that was until he realized that a majority of the answers refer to Princess Celestia. So, even though he tried his best to power on through, he just couldn't bring the entire puzzle down and had to forgo it for the weather report instead.

Brex had just folded the newspaper a few times and slipped it into his left arm sleeve to deposit it inside of his item box to read in the future just as he had gotten to the doorway that led into the adventurer’s hall. Unlike most of the towns and cities, the one in Ponyville was a bit small considering that it was always up to some type of trouble in the show. Brex just assumed that it was due to how quiet it’s all been.

The whole thing was about roughly the size of a small store, with only two floors and from the look of it on the outside, one would think that there was either too small rooms or perhaps just one large one on the second floor. Even the job posting board itself was right outside of the door, instead of being inside like all the others that he had come across. As he approached, he leaned in to get a better look at what was available and saw that there were only three available quests, as there were some remanences of small tattered bits of paper where some thumbtacks were still placed, showing that others have already been taken down.

Out of these were a single rank “D”. Along with two that were for rank “F”. The higher-ranked requested a small monster extermination that needed to be done in the White Tail Woods. Obviously, Brex would have wanted to go for that one. However, his current ranking just wouldn't allow him to do it, so unless he joined another group that was on the same level as the quest itself or even just one rank below if they had the recommended number of party members.

The first, one of the rank “F” quests happened to be one that required some help with manual labor at one of the shops for a couple of hours. Which entailed some heavy lifting from what was noted. The last one that was on the board, was a request for additional hands in doing some yard work and gardening for the town. What details were written on this one, mainly consisted of mowing and some light landscaping when it came to beautifying the town to give it a summer feeling for any of the festivities that they were planning on doing in the next few months.

Brex began to think to himself, while scratching the back of his hood as he eyed the two ranked “F” quests. “What to pick, what to pick... I haven't really done any gardening for quite a while. However, that might take all day. I suppose I can try and do the one for that shop first and if I can kick that out quickly enough, I might be able to tackle this other one before it's too late. It's really too bad I can't do that other one though. Honestly, I'm surprised that there's not that many monster related quests up here. Oh well, even if there was, I'm too low of a rank to take those anyway. I guess it's the shop one it is.”

As he finished with that thought and had just pulled off the quest regarding the shop that needed a spare set of hands. He heard Rory's voice speaking up after first giving a small yawn. “Good morning, Master. Hmm, I see that you're already at it.” This got her a mental chuckle from Brex as he replied right as he had opened the door to step inside of the building. “Well look who's up. And here I was thinking you were going to be out of it for a good while with how long we were at it yesterday and this morning.”

This got a playful chuckle as well from Rory as she began to say, “Oh you know better than that Master. I'm nothing like the others. Just give me a few short hours and I'm right back up. Although, as for the others. I don't think they'll be up and about anytime soon. They're both here with me right now and one of them is still talking in their sleep in the third person. One guess as to who I’m referring too.”

Brex had just made his way past a few small tables and was now a foot or so from the counter that no one was standing behind at the moment, when he replied in an apologetic tone, while wincing behind his mask a little. “Yeah, you don't think that we may have gone a little far this time, do you?” This got him a firm, yet playful tone from Rory as she answered. “Of course not Master… If anything, I believe we were still too light on them. Last night was us just teaching them how to handle being patient. It's not like we did them any physical harm. In fact, the only marks are from the way they kept on struggling against their bonds if anything.”

Brex had been looking from where he stood at the counter for any signs of the one that’s meant to be running the front desk and found a bell and gave it a single ring as he replied to Rory. “Anyhow, just make sure you're looking after the both of them. Also, I'm going to need you to keep an eye on the research team. Especially those working on the chemicals. The last thing I want to hear, is that a section of the labs had to be closed off for quarantine… Again.”

He then heard Rory saying, “I don’t think that you have to worry about that too much. Those scientists must have learned they're lesson the last time. Who would have thought that a group of them were trying to come up with a way to get more stallions to be produced when having sex through the use of some drugs? Only to find out that the compound became airborne. From there, all of the females present in that lab found that they could not get turned on by anything for a few days.”

“You just had to see their faces when they found that it had worn off. All seven of them were nothing but zombies until it did. Although, both of the stallions that were in that group were able to breathe a little easier, knowing that they weren't being eyed like candy half the time. But I did hear that the two of them are working on that very same compound to turn it into some type of mare repellent for the extreme cases of heat season.”

After hearing this, Brex could not resist letting out a small shutter through his body as he thought about what he has seen over the course of his time in Equestria. Especially when it came to how crazy these ponies could get during those times. He was more than thankful that every town and city had their own timed heat season among all the mare’s so it wasn't an around-the-clock problem.

It was at about that point, that a mare had come out of the back room after hearing the bell being rung and Brex had to cut the conversation short with Rory. The mare that came out instantly stood in front of him, while giving a wide smile that all front desk workers were known for. But Brex could instantly tell who this Pony was with how they looked.

She was a Unicorn mare with a magic mint coat, brilliant cyan mane and tail with a white streak. She had these sunglow eyes. On the one arm sleeve of the uniform near the shoulder, was a picture of her cutie mark that showed a lyre on a light green background.

(Here is a picture of Lyra from the show.)

She then began to say, while craning her neck back just a bit to look up towards his mask. “Hello there sir, my name is Lyra. Pleasure to meet you. Are you here to put up a job request?” By now, it had become a full-on reflex whenever he came inside one of these places, that they would instantly assume that he was there to put one up on the board. Rather than taking on a quest for himself. So, the Roegadyn did an eye roll from behind his mask before replying, as he also brought out his identification plate to show the mare.

“Taking this Quest.” That was when he placed the paper on the counter. From there, he slid it towards her and turned it around so that it was upright for the mare to read. After, she had leaned in to get a good look at what was written. She hummed to herself for but a moment before reaching down and taking out a small booklet before going through the pages until she had found something.

That was when the mare looked up at him before saying, “Ah! Here we are! Oh?! I forgot about this one. Bon Bon did say that she needed an extra set of hands and I was going to be filling in for a few days over here at the guild. Didn’t think that she would go so far as to post this on the board.”

Brex already knew that in this reality, the pair known as Lyra and Bon Bon were a couple and the mint green Unicorn helped out at the candy shop that the other one owned from time to time. So, hearing this didn't really surprised Brex much at all. Also, out of curiosity. Brex had done a little digging and found that Bon Bon did have a second identity in this Equestria under the name of Lemon Drop. She was a secret agent that worked under Celestia. Although the Roegadyn was pretty sure that Lyra didn't know anything about this and only knew her as Bon Bon.

His thoughts were broken when he heard Lyra speaking up again, as she looked over the book for more details that was not written on the flyer that had been posted out front. “This is a job that my mare friend posted for our candy shop. Well... It's more like hers, I just help out. Here's the rest of the information regarding what needs to be done and along with the address. Just make sure you take it easy and don't have her over work you.”

“Also, when the task is completed make sure you get her signature and bring it right back here so that way, I can mark it off as completed. Oh, one last thing. I may have said to take it easy, but you better not slack off either when you do this. Its not only your reputation that’s on the line, but the Guild too.” When she had said this, the mare had shifted her expression only slightly to one of a person that clearly didn’t think he could do this job.

Choosing to ignore this, Brex looked over the piece of paper that he was handed and gave her a quick nod before picking up his identification plate and exiting the Adventurers building. According to the additional info. Bon Bon has some new supplies for making her treats coming in and can't carry them herself due to needing to be in the shop at the same time.

Seeing as the items were meant for her baking purposes, keeping them outside for too long would not be good, so she couldn't wait on her usual help this time around. There was also a scheduled time the show up at the shop if any was to take the quest and it appeared that it was only twenty minutes away from the displayed time on his game clock on the upper right-hand corner of his view.

By the time he had arrived at Bon Bon’s candy shop. There was still several minutes left for the cut off time when he had started to knock on the front door. The window that was a part of the door had a closed sign, with some clock hands indicating that the shop would be open at eleven, which was only a few minutes away. After a few seconds had gone by, Brex could hear someone coming towards the door and calling out. “Just hold on, we're about to open.”

Brex knocked again, while making sure that his voice was just loud enough to be heard on the other side. “From Adventurers Guild.” This of course, got the one inside to hurriedly make their way over towards the door and opened it by yanking at it hard. Only to take a step back after noticing that whoever was on the other side, turned out to be Brex and he was almost taking up the entire doorway with how his body stood.

The mare in front of him was an Earth pony with a beige coat, pigment blue mane with a rose-pink streak, cerulean eyes, and a cutie mark of three objects that appeared to be candys that are individually wrapped. She was wearing a colorful striped outfit of white, pink and light blue that went quite well with her hair coloring.

She had been standing there for a few seconds while holding onto the door with her right hand and blinking several times over, before she had finally noticed that she was staring at him and had relaxed enough to ask the following question. While seemingly trying to hide the fact that she was a little more than nervous. “Are you really from the guild for that job I posted?”

Brex already had the piece of paper in his left hand and brought it up in order to pinch the paper in his thumb and index finger to allow the mare to see what was written, without having to get any closer. Once the mare had gotten a good look and was sure that he had been sent by the Guild. Her attitude had changed to that a of a professional business owner and began to explain what was needed to be done.

She was to watch the shop and continue on in the kitchen. As for Brex, he had to wait outside in the back for a delivery wagon to show up and wait as the goods were offload into a loading area. From there, Brex had to carry them into the shop and place them where Bon Bon had already indicated beforehand. From what he could tell, was that these were a monthly delivery. Meaning that they came in bulk. So, not only were they large, but quite heavy to begin with. But this mattered very little to the Roegadyn.

Once the delivery had arrived and the two Earth mare’s that were on the wagon had started to offload the goods. Brex watched from a short distance away as the mare’s had gotten done with two out of eight containers. However, the pair was having a hard time with how heavy everything was, along with trying to get it down safely from the back end while parked behind the building. After a little bit of watching this, he realized just how long it would have taken for a normal person to do. Seeing as the Earth Ponies were supposed to have the most amount of physical strength and even this pair were struggling.

After finally having enough of watching them being stressed on the third package. Brex approach the side of the wagon and reached over from the left side. Thanks to it being uncovered, he carefully grabbed onto the large wooden box and hoisted it up and over head. From there, he carried it over and near the back door and placed it carefully on the cement slab nearby.

When he came back again for the fourth container. He ignored the blank stares from the two mare’s who are currently staring straight at the box that he had just taken care of. Only to slowly blink as they watched him take the next one that was marked for Bon bon’s shop off and do the same without even making any sounds of effort.

The rest of it only took a few more minutes and when he was finished placing the eighth and final package down. Brex turned and he saw that the two mare’s we're just standing next to the cart with mirrored blank expressions as they whispered the following to one another, without so much as looking at the other, while their eyes stayed glued to the stack of box’s.

“Did he just… Move those?”

“I-I think he did…”

“But… Those are all roughly two hundred and fifty pounds, right?”

“N-No… T-That was our last delivery. These are three hundred and eighty pounds apiece.”

“But still… H-How can one stallion pick them up and move them around as easily? They may as well be beach balls and he hasn't shown any signs of being tired...”

“I heard that the Apple clan has a family in this town. Maybe he's a part of them?”

“D-Do you think he's already been spoken for?”

“Don't even bother. I'm pretty sure that I smelt a female on him when he was passing by with one of the items.”

“Uh oh, he's looking at us! We need to snap out of it.”

“Sorry, I can't. I'm thinking about how big his muscles must be underneath those cloths.”

Thinking that nothing would get done unless he made the first move. Brex approached the pair and motioned with his hand to indicate that he was holding onto an imaginary quill and writing in the air. As they were staring blankly at his gesture, one of them had finally figured out what he meant and scrambled for the notepad that had the billing receipt for the delivery. Brex had taken the paperwork inside. But soon returned with a very confused looking Bon Bon, who clearly didn't believe that the work was already finished.

However, when she had stepped out and saw that the entire wagon had been emptied out and all the boxes were sitting at the back side of her building, she could do nothing but blankly nod before signing the paperwork. From there, she showed him just where they should be placed inside of the basement, where all the supplies were kept. There was a set of double doors that allowed one to swing both open at once in order to allow large items to go through without much trouble at all.

He could see that she was going for what appeared to be an old-style pallet jack. But seeing as it would be a lot quicker for him to do it by hand. Brex had already picked one of the boxes up and was closely following Bon Bon inside. But by the time that she realized that he had already gone past her as she was fiddling with the equipment, her eyes shot open when she saw how he was carefully placing one of the containers along the corner wall with very little effort.

She had attempted to lift a finger in order to say something. But had held her tongue when she saw how he was already on the second, then the third box. while holding them under both of his arms. What should have taken maybe an hour or two from start to end to complete, had taken less than twenty-five minutes for Brex to complete the entire task from unloading and placing them in their proper locations underneath the shop.

As he was showing the paperwork that he needed to get signed by Bon Bon in order to return to the Adventurers Guild. The Roegadyn have to snap his fingers a few times in order to get the mare’s attention as she was clearly trying to figure out what was going on. Bon Bon then shook her head and looked at the piece of paper. She then began to sign while still staring at all that was done. Afterwards, asking him in a mixture of confusion and concern in her voice.

“Um... I really didn't expect this. Those must have been really heavy, are you sure you’re, okay?” This she only got a mild shrug from Brex as he replied. “Only a little.” The mare had given him a dubious stair before she resumed her usual attitude as a store owner and signed away at his own paperwork and thank him for all the assistance.

Afterwards, he quickly returned to the guild and submitted the paperwork. Which caught Lyra completely off-guard with how fast he had returned. All the while, grumbling to herself about how Bon Bon must have not told her about it being an easy delivery. Brex had deduced that Lyra had somehow managed to get out of doing that work by orchestrating a need for her to fill in at the guild and was clearly upset about using her get out of work free card on something that was supposedly easy in her mind.

Seeing as it was barely noon. Brex went ahead and grab the second rank “F” job and made his way towards the mayor's office in the center of town. Once Brex had arrived, he found half-a-dozen ponies all wearing yellow vests. Along with gardening gloves and equipment all lined up and receiving their orders for today. Of course, when he showed them the paperwork. A number of them had scoffed and said things that where along the lines of how he can't possibly be of any use, or he should have just stayed out of the way and if he wanted to do some gardening, that he should have done so in his own backyard.

While at the same time, a few of the others were looking uncomfortable upon hearing what was being said and attempted to stay out of it by gaining just a few feet of distance from the ones that were making a fuss. By the end of it all, the one that was in charge said that they needed all the hands they can get and one stallion helping wasn't going to hurt.

Just hearing this only made the Roegadyn to roll his eyes once again. It wasn't until a few minutes later, that Brex was informed that the reason why they required some help today. This was how there was this one dead tree that needed to be taken away and a little extra muscle were in desperate need when getting the roots out of the ground.

Apparently, there was this one tree that had gotten sick and needed to be replaced. They had also requested the aid from the Apple family, but heard that the two parents we're out of town and the eldest of the three siblings had gotten injured recently. This meant that the only one capable of working the farm right now was Applejack and couldn’t work on this with them.

Of course, upon hearing this, Brex went stiff as he began to recall what happens shortly after Big Mac got himself hurt and Applejack was the only one that could do the harvesting. Inside, he was groaning to himself and mentally ordered his body double that was keeping an eye on the farm, to sit back and only interfere or send a message if things got out of hand and to allow this important lesson to play through. All the while, making a mental note to himself to pay nurse Red Heart of visit and have her prepare for a lot of patience that might be coming in soon from food poisoning.

Afterwards, they got to work at doing some trimming and grass cutting. When they finally got to the part with the tree. Brex could see that it was taller than most of the two-story houses that were nearby and the trunk itself was wide enough that he could barely get his arms to go all the way around. It was quite impressive for a pine tree, but a good portion of it was dead and rotting away that he could see from most of the branches being completely barren.

As Brex was examining the tree and the surrounding area, which was pretty open and plenty far from any of the buildings. He can hear a number of the ponies talking to one another about what they are going to do. One had said that they could cut away a good portion of it and chop it down near the base. They had wanted the construction Golem to help with pulling it out by the roots. But unfortunately, another member had pointed out that the Golem was currently being used for another assignment on the other side of town and that they would not have been able to get permission to use it before the day was up.

Wanting to get things done and over with. The Roegadyn approach the one who was in charge and was clearly racking their brains as to how to attack this tree situation. Brex asked, “Does method matter?” The group leader turned to him for a moment before turning towards the tree once more before saying, while giving out an exhausted sigh.

“No, we just have to get it out of here. As long as it doesn't cause any damage to the surrounding buildings, then I'm pretty much up for anything. Well… Aside from burning it. Can't take the chances of whatever killed it to spread to nearby trees. There's already a disposal site that’s already set up. We just need to get it over there.”

After giving it a few seconds to go over and his head. Brex then said to the mare. “Please stand back.” She had given him a very confused look after raising an eyebrow and was clearly about the say something, when he had moved past her and approached the tree. He avoiding the other ponies that were still arguing as to what they're going to do.

Just as he had gotten to the base of the tree. Brex went into his menu options and after going into his character window, had switched over to using his harvesting class. From there, he summoned his level seventy hatchet and began to take a few swings at the base of the tree.

After swinging at for eight times, he found that he was nearly halfway through and carved out a good section of it. From there, he went to the other side and began to slowly chop away until the tree had lost enough of its mass to begin to topple in the direction that he had first chop the way at. Which turn out to be an open area with nothing nearby that could get damaged.

But before anyone can say or do anything after seeing this. Brex had already begun the chop away at the tree to break it up into three parts and removed a number of the branches and tossed them into a pile. Once that was done, he grabbed onto one of the sections and began to lift it until it was being placed on his back and he was partially hunched over in order to keep it from going anywhere and turned towards the leader that he was talking to before. Without showing so much as a hint of trouble, he asked in a board tone. “Where is site?”

After getting the general directions which would lead him outside of Ponyville and towards the South Westside. Brex carry the large log that was easily the size of a four-door pickup truck and made his way through a few of the streets. Only to be gawked at by every pony that he ended up passing.

He was even sure that he had caught a few of them rubbing their eyes after seeing him. Only to return to doing it again and even one of them had rushed off to a shop that was selling eyeglasses. When that one had return, they rush right back into said shop to apparently get a refund. Because when Brex saw the pony again, she was no longer wearing them.

Once he had arrived to the disposal site. He turned and went back for the next log, only to find that the other workers were carrying the smaller branches on his way back. He did happen to wince behind his mask upon noticing the deep foot prints that he made thanks to his combined weight with the wood on his back from walking on the road. He had gone back and took care of the final pieces within the next half hour with how slowly he had to walk while loaded up. Now, when it came to the last part which involved the tree roots, that was going to be a little tricky.

Not only was it large to begin with, but it was easy to assume that the roots we're pretty entrenched. He was thinking about doing some digging to loosen up the dirt. So, he switched over to his White Mage class and approached the base of the stump and placed both of his hands onto the dirt before channeling one of his Earth attack spells underground. When he had done this, a few of the ponies that were within five meters of him, had stumbled for just a moment after the ground gave off a sudden rumble.

Thanks to this, the hard ground and clay underneath had been turned to pretty much soft sand thanks to the Stone spell that he had used to pretty much break apart the ground underneath the surface. Afterwards he switched over to his Monk class and pulled out from his inventory box, a long stretch of black rope that gave off a metallic shine as the sunlight went across it.

This one in particular, was a dropped item that he had gotten during the game. It was called, Garlean Fiber. A lightweight material which was extremely strong. He remembered getting these as he was farming next to a military facility and taking quite a number of their large machines down in order to collect some of these components for crafting purposes.

Using what he had brought out. He wrapped it around the base of the stump until he had it nice and tight and began to pull at the lines after getting a few paces away. With them wrapped around his right arm to prevent slipping and gripping on with both hands. The stump started to shift and place as it slowly was being dragged out.

As he was doing this, the other ponies. Along with a few bystanders were watching from a safe distance with half of them rubbing their eyes as they witnessed the stump nearly halfway out, along with most of its roots as it came sifting through the sand like ground with only him being the one to do all of this.

After a few minutes of this, Brex had stop pulling to find that it had completely left the ground and was now laying on its side with enough roots sticking out that it would have made it seem like the whole process would have taken close to a couple of days of nonstop work to get it all out if they were to do this job normally.

But before any of them could say anything about what they witnessed. He had gone back and gently placed both of his hands on to the soft dirt once he had gone back to his White Mage class and used the same spell from before. But instead, it was used to condense the pieces into stone pillars that shot up from the ground. In which he grabbed onto and tossed into a neat organized pile just a short distance away.

Typically, this would count as an offensive spell for the class would summoning Earth to strike at their target. But in this case, Brex was using it in a way that was more of a construction orientated Style. He then turned towards the group of ponies that he was working with and approached the leader. Brex then asked the following. “Hole is ready. Where is the new tree?” After working out a few unintelligible noises from her mouth. The mare dumbly pointed to the Northwest before replying as she kept her eyes focused on the stack of rocks that had been turned into neat bricks right next to a newly made hole.

“W-We have a pony going up to the White Tail Woods in order to get a sapling, along with a few Adventurers. But they're not back yet. I believe the mare’s name is Wood Cutter. Umm... Now I just don't know what we should be doing thanks to you already taking care of pretty much everything. After hearing this, Brex gave them a small nod before turning his direction to where the mare had pointed. He then said, as he began to walk toward the White Tail Woods. “I'll help her.”

Brex could clearly hear that the mare had wanted to protest. But choose to ignore her as he begins to go into a light jog on the outskirts of the town. After a few moments, Brex had started to internally chant a few spells. First, there was a minor boost in his speed as he went into a full-on sprint. This was also accompanied by what could be seen as visible wind being pulled towards his body and enveloping it in a light sheen before dispersing.

The next thing that happened, was how his body began to emit a faint aura before his legs picked up even more speed that they became nearly a blur and the sudden bursts of increased acceleration cause both of his arms to be held low and out at his sides like one would see in a Naruto anime when running at top speed and focused all of his energy into his legs.

Because of this, he had originally gone from nearly sixty kilometers an hour on foot in the beginning. With the total doubling with each additional effect. The Roegadyn had reached up to a speed of around two hundred and forty kilometers, which roughly puts it to just over a hundred and forty-nine miles an hour.

With how far the White Tail Woods were from Ponyville. it would have taken well over two hours to get there and the same to return. But at the rate at which Brex was moving on his feet and leaving a heavy dust trail behind him while becoming pretty much a white blur to any watching. The whole trip was taken down to a roughly around fifteen minutes in order to reach the woods.

What Brex have used was a combination of the following. The Sprint skill which grants an additional boost to a player’s speed. While in the game, this would only give a handful of seconds maybe twenty percent to the total run speed to the player. However, for Brex it was quite a bit higher and he could keep it almost continuously thanks to his nearly limitless stamina. The other two effects were his manipulation with two of the spells that came from the book of The Shield Hero.

Both being a movement enhancement spells where one would be used by a human and another that only a monster could use. Luckily in his case, he was not restricted to a single element and could freely use anything that he was able to read in that book. So, monster abilities were not out of the norm. Especially when he had the Blue Mage Soul Stone in reserve. This allows him to do something similar by copying a monster's ability once he had beaten them and seen the move in action used at least once during the fight.

In the past, Brex had gotten the spell known as Quick from low to medium. But now he had unlocked the High version. If Brex was to use the skills for their intended purposes for a quick burst of speed, instead of going for a more lasting effect. Then there would be no doubt that he would be going much faster than he was at this very moment. Brex had already arrived to the tree line leading into the woods, but had not seen hide nor hair of this Wood Cutter pony that was supposed to be on their way with the tree sapling.

While standing at the outskirts. He began to hum to himself as he was glancing all around from where he stood for any traces, but still he found nothing from either direction along the outside. When he went to investigate the trail a little more closely. From that, he did find that there were some freshly made wagon tracks, along with four sets of hooves.

But they were only heading in one direction and that was into the woods. Meaning that she had not made her way back out yet. Unless she took another path, which he very much doubted. After giving a light shrug. The Roegadyn started jogging into the woods through the open path before himself.

*Point of view: Third Person*
*Location: Whitetail Woods*
*Time: Five minutes ago*

Within the White Tail Woods, everything seemed calm and serene as the wind lightly blows through the green leaves of the many trees. That was until a group that was comprised of four ponies ran by as one of them was pulling a cart along with a small sapling riding in the back as they were clearly in a hurry with how they had just now pushed past the number of tree branches in their way.

They were clearly nearing their limit with the way they all had been breathing heavy while looking over their shoulders every few seconds and avoiding anything on the ground that would otherwise trip them up. But soon the sounds of heavily rustling branches following in their wake. There were even a few similar sounds coming from up in the many trees in the same direction as well.

Soon, what came bursting from the bushes, was a swarm of large insectoid creatures crawling around on six limbs, along with long bulbous tail with a stinger on the tip. The creatures were even giving off this high-pitch hissing sound as they fumbled across the forest floor and into one another as they continue to give chase. A few of which would open their mandibles and shoot a thick stream of webbing.

(Here is a picture of what is chasing them.)

Only to miss the group by the narrowest of margins and coat a nearby tree in their path with the sticky substance that seemed to pretty much harden within moments after landing. The trees that had a branch snared would show that the limb was being bent as the webbing had set in to show that it would contract once the target was caught.

After a small amount of running later. the mare’s came to a clearing and stopped in their tracks upon seeing another group of the same insectoids looming between the trees just up ahead. With another loud series of hissing coming from behind, they turned and found that the rest had already managed to catch up and were already in the process of encircling their group and closing off any visible escape routes.

Although one of the ponies within the group was in fact a Pegasus. They were pretty much grounded with the way their wings appeared to have been gummed up previously by the same webbing that the insect creatures had been spat out during the chase.

The same Pegasus then called out, while taking up a defensive position after pulling out a set of dual wielding daggers and standing near one of her comrades that was a yellow Pegasus. “Fluttershy! Make sure you hang back get ready with some of those healing spells of yours. looks like we're going to need them after all.”

The one that had spoken turned out to be Rainbow. but thanks to her current gear, it was hard to see the blue fur and rainbow mane underneath with how she was wearing mostly black and a hood that only exposed her face, tail and wings.

The second of the group now identified as Fluttershy, had a step backwards until she was nearly pressing up against the cart. Said cart was being pulled by an earth mare that was mostly green in color and her main was that of a light amber color. She wore a pair of overalls, along with a checkered brown shirt that had a picture of a cutting axe that was embroidered on to her right shoulder.

The last member could be identified as Applejack. She was wearing the same outfit that she did while accompanying the rest of the Mane Six into the Everfree Forest during the Nightmare incident. Albeit a little worn down with how some of her gear had been scratched up already and she was clearly out of breath as she was holding her large axe in both hands. While not taking her eyes off of the insects, Applejack called over her shoulder.

“Hey Rainbow! Do you think you can fly yet?” This got her a hurried reply as Rainbow was in the middle of throwing one of her knives at an insect that had gotten a little too close. Only to have it fall out of the wound after a few seconds of it landing with only the tip going perhaps an inch in.

“If I could, then I wouldn't be here on the ground, now would I? I’d cut this damn stuff off my wings, but they're so tight and they're restricting my wings so much that I can't even get at them. If that one hadn't snuck up on us, then these guys would be belly up right now. Besides, I know you're good with that axe and everything, but with how tangled up my wings are right now, I wouldn't even chance in letting you have go at it.”

Applejack had just repelled two of them by taking a wide swing with her axe. The motion having caused one to back off. As for the second, that wasn't so lucky and had one of its front legs chopped at the halfway point and getting a loud hiss of pain from the creature. The farm mare then said as she readied her axe to block another attack by one of their long stinger tails. “Wasn't this supposed to be a rank “D” quest? We were told that there were nowhere near this many.”

Fluttershy had released a loud welp as she duck just in time to avoid getting hit with some webbing that stuck to the side of the cart, before she started speaking just barely loud enough for the others to hear. “A lot of the smaller ones have some discoloration. I think they might be hatchlings. I can tell that more than half of them are slightly smaller than the rest. They must have tripled their numbers recently.”

That was when one of the creatures had snuck up on Fluttershy, by climbing over the cart and had attempted to jump on her when she let out a scream and held up the book in her hands in an attempt to defend herself. The bindings had flung themselves open and a number of the pages fluttered across until coming to a sudden stop with some strange lines that were written across the paper.

When she did this. There was a spark of blue light and in that moment. Blinding colors came and a small creature had collided with the insectoid. This causing it to veer off course and causing to fall a few paces away from Fluttershy and rolling onto its legs again after giving out another loud hiss. What had interrupted the creatures attack, was a small fox-like amalgamation of light that condensed itself and now had a solid form and revealed to be a fluorescent green version of the carbuncle that the Arcanist class could summon.

The green carbuncle then rapidly approached as it darted across the grass and gave it a powerful headbutt after lunging forward, sending the creature to the edge along with the rest. Only to turn around and stand in front of Fluttershy to act as a protector while it's three tails were lifted into the air in an intimidating gesture as the front end was partially crouched down.

It was the mare that was sitting inside of the cart that called out next and sounding very panicked. “I'm so sorry! I swear on Celestia’s name that when I came out here and spotted those creatures, that there was not nearly this many and reported everything I saw to the guild. I didn't think trying to get a tree back to town was going to end up like this!”

Applejack had just taken a downward swing, only to miss the nimble insect before calling over her shoulder. This ain't your fault miss! I doubt that any Pony would know that they would multiply this quickly.” She had just taken another swing only to miss once again before she added. “If these things weren't so darn quick, then I could cut them up into pieces.”

Rainbow was the next to speak, as she had jumped onto one of them and attempted to dig one of her daggers into its hard carapace. Only to receive a grunt of annoyance after watching her blades barely making a scratch before jumping away. “Hey! At least you can kill them if you hit! The dang things are almost too hard for me to get my weapons to dig in. If I could fly, that way I could get the added power to dig my daggers past their stupid armor. I’d have them down and out in ten seconds flat.”

Over with the very scared Fluttershy. She had opened her book up again and held out her other hand to fire off a magic spell at one of the insectoids. But the spell ended up only to wash over their bodies with doing barely any damage that could be seen. The Pegasus then went and started to have some tears in her eyes as she began to whimper out. “I-If my level was higher… Than I’d be able to be of help, but it's just that I don't really like to hurt others.”

Applejack called over her shoulder once more as she got closer to the group to help in protecting Fluttershy. “It's no ponies fault Fluttershy. None of us knew that this was going to happen. All we got to do is get past this and report it to the guild. If it goes on like this, then Ponyville might get overrun by these if they keep on breeding like some pack of rabbits.”

The mentioning of rabbits had caused Fluttershy's eyes to shoot open as she began to look extremally panicked compared to before as she screamed out. “Oh no! If they make it all the way there and then to my place! Angel Bunny is going to be killed by them. Along with all my little friends in the cottage. I-I just cannot bear the thought of my little friends being eaten.” The yellow Pegasus seem to have gotten some courage, but lost it when she was spooked by one of the nearby insectoids giving out another one of those hisses, only to make her cower once again.

It was just Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy that were up against a pack of nineteen monsters. With every counter-attack. The encirclement had gotten tighter until there was hardly any elbow room between the three mare’s as their attackers drew so close that they could smell the rancid breath from their fanged maws. The three adventures got ready for one last push to break their line in an attempt to make a run for it, along with the pony that came along for the quest.

(Play this for the song that's being heard. ENGLISH Naruto Shippuden Opening 3. “Blue Bird”.)

But all in attendance came to a sudden stop as the four mares were looking up and at random directions towards the tree line that surrounded them, as the creatures did something similar with how they kept turning their bodies slightly and random position and halting their advance. From where they couldn't pinpoint it, they began to hear an odd sound that quickly turned into music and a voice began to pierce through the woods that seemed completely out of place in their current situation with how strangely upbeat it sounded.

But without any warning, an object came flying down from directly overhead and had narrowly missing Rainbows wing before hitting the forest floor with a heavy thud before a tearing sound was made. Which alerted all of those present to its existence. The blue Pegasus, having panicked on how she thought that she was almost hit, released a loud scream and this caused her wings to flare out from the webbing that was keeping them trapped. This of course surprised the mare as she began to flap them rapidly in order to get the rest of the goop off, which did so quite easily.

This action ended up gaining the attention of the monsters once more and one of them came jumping at Rainbow. only for her to instinctually swing one of her blades in a reverse grip and dig most of the weapon into its skull, thereby killing it instantly, as the limbs went limp. This got a large grin to form on the Pegasus face as she yelled out in victory. “Oh yeah baby, the dash is back!”

She then took to the sky and began a series of dive-bomb maneuvers where she would hack and slash at multiple targets as she went by and dispatching them quickly. This leaving bodies falling one after another within seconds apart.

When it came to Applejack. She had taken the opportunity from Rainbow's attacks to move in and found that she was able to hit the insects so much quicker than she normally would have. Which resulted in her missing hardly any of them unlike earlier. As a result, the farm mare was easily slicing and dicing her way and even taking out two or perhaps three on rare occasions with one big swing of her weapon. The strikes being able to cut them cleanly in two without much issue.

For Fluttershy, she had stepped back up and had motioned her hand to give an order to her summoned carbuncle. Which it then shot across the field at blinding speed to leave a trail of light and as it came close to doing a head butt. It would launch itself into the air and go into a corkscrew maneuver. By doing this, it had the effect of pretty much drilling right through whatever it came across, leaving a large hole and a still standing insect corpse that crumpled down after a few seconds later.

The whole scene had done a full flip when it came to who had the advantage now, with the way the mare’s were tearing through their enemies. All the while doing this within the time span of the song being played in the background, along with the unknown singer. It wasn't until the final insect was taken down, that the song came to its end and there was nothing but silence afterwards on the wind. The last that could be heard after a few seconds, was this one detached leg that had its tip stabbed into the ground and had fallen over after a light breeze had come by.

Applejack was currently surveying the area to see if they had missed any more. In the meantime, Rainbow was hovering in the air while doing multiple fist bumps and patting herself on the metaphorical back. When it came to Fluttershy, she was already holding onto her carbuncle and relentlessly examining for any injuries on it after constantly running itself through the monsters.

Applejack, who is standing proud. Had just then began to stumble for but a second while shaking her head as if trying to get back to her senses. At the same time, the other two were going through a similar effect as the adrenaline-fueled junkie Pony known as Rainbow, had come down and was looking very tired in the same way as a kid would when coming down from a sugar high and holding onto her own head. She then started to let out a small moan after suddenly getting tired.

Fluttershy had ended up crumbling down and was now sitting next to the wagon and laying up against one of its large wheels. The yellow mare had her hair looking messed up and a little dizzy for a moment as she was still clutching onto her summoned companion. Back with Applejack, she began to speak in a tone that was a mixture of surprise and exhaustion.

“Whoa nelly! What in tarnation was that all about?” She was then clutching at the air with her free hand that wasn't holding on to her axe to flex her fingers before she went on. “I don't really know about y'all, but I feel like how I do sometimes when Pinkie starts playing at her party's. But way more intense. Had myself a whole lot of energy and now I'm just completely plum tuckered out…”

It was the mare that was inside of the cart that came out and was looking all about at the carnage left behind and gave out a loud whistle as her eyes went wide. The mare then said in a very excited tone of voice. “Wow! I had no idea that you were able to handle all of them just like that! I guess it really is true that the title of Element bearers of Harmony isn't just for show!”

“Now I don't know about you all, but as much as I'd like to see you take on all the monsters in the world. I would rather much be out of here and have an expedition group come out here and check the place before I come any ware near again to get another load of trees. This one right here will be more than enough till that’s all taken care of”.

Applejack, upon hearing this. Began to look towards the tree line and was clearly about to call out with how she had brought her left hand up to cup the side of her mouth to help in directing her voice. But was brought out of it before she could say anything by Fluttershy. Who had immediately nodding her head and speaking in a scared voice. “I-I would very much like to be back home right now. I really need my Angel Bunny... If... If that's okay with all of you?”

Upon getting all their things together. They began to move the cart again in making their way towards the beaten path to get out of the White Tail Woods. As they were leaving the clearing off to the South End and passed a couple of trees. There was a large figure standing on one leg upon one of the branches at the very top of one of the tallest trees and looking in their direction. In his right hand, he was holding what appeared to be an electric guitar.

*Point of view: Brex Mith*

As he was glancing over and through the trees by using his combination of sensing abilities to keep track of the group of ponies. Brex brought up the item in his hand. Which turned out to be a black electric guitar with flames painted around the edges. He then sent it back into his item box after giving out a small chuckle and reaching up with his right hand towards his mask that was slightly lifted up to expose his mouth. Only to pull it back down and cover it up again.

He then started to jump down from branch to branch, while speaking under his breath in a somewhat amused tone. “I'm glad I didn't have to jump in after all. All those girls needed was a little boost thanks to my Bard skills. A simple application of skills to boost their critical hit chance and an increase in hitting accuracy, was the perfect combination for that situation.” That was when his tone turned a little serious as he continued on.

“But still... Those creatures were all around level seven and a few of them were even level twelve. I don't know why it is, but for some reason the monsters that I've been seeing around Ponyville seem to be mirroring some of the ones that would be placed around the key cities in the game in some way.”

“Oh well, I guess I should be happy that I haven't seen any traces of any of those Beastmen tribes that show up in the game. That would make things complicated. He then slapped his hand over his mask face before saying in a surprised, yet casual tone. “Oh wait… If I really think about it. Then there really are beast tribes if you think of the ponies and Griffin's in that way. Nah... I better not think of it like that, otherwise I might get in trouble. I doubt very much they'd like to be referred to as beasts.”

Once he had finished that last part. Brex had landed on the ground and was swiftly making his way through the thick amount of trees. At the same time, making sure to keep a good distance from the mare’s so that they didn't notice his presence. Brex was keeping an eye out for any more dangers that might suddenly pop up as he did this.

When he was sure that they were nearing the edge and out of the woods by traveling on the path. Brex quickly rushed out and made it a few minutes back onto the road and turned on the spot to casually walk towards the forest once again to make it appear that he'd only just arrived right as the girls came out.

Right as they saw him, Applejack had a questioning look on her face while the other two were looking a little nervous as they seemed to be sure as to who he was. As soon as he had gotten close enough. He called out to the mare that was pulling the cart in his usual, monotone voice.

“You Wood Cutter?” To which got him a quick nod from the mare before he went on. “Trees pulled out.” This only got the mare to have a slack jaw before she pointed towards the general direction of Ponyville before speaking. “Wait, hold up! That big tree over there is already done?” He then gave her a slow nod before pointing towards the tree that was sitting inside of the cart as he began to speak again. “Is that it?”

When she had nodded to that. He came up and gently took hold of the handles for the cart while guiding her away from them. This was before he said, “You seem tired.” Wood Cutter was clearly about the protest, but when she saw how easily he was able to lift the front end up without showing much effort. She reluctantly went ahead with allowing him to pull the cart as they headed towards town.

All the while Applejack was taking the lead in the formation on the road. She would occasionally glance back at him for only a second or two before returning her gaze to the front. Wood Cutter was walking along on the right side of the cart and the other two were taking up the rear. Brex kept his site straight ahead. But on occasion, he would turn his head just enough to get a good sight of them now and then to get a look at their current stats.

Name: Applejack.

Age: 20.

Level: 10.

Race: Earth Pony.

Gender: Female.

Class: No Class.

Weapons specialty: Two-handed Axe.

Name: Rainbow Dash.

Age: 18.

Level: 11.

Race: Pegasus.

Gender: Female.

Class: Rogue.

Weapons specialty: Daggers.

Name: Fluttershy.

Age: 19.

Level: 8.

Race: Pegasus.

Gender: Female.

Class: Arcanist.

Weapons specialty: Grimoire.

When Brex was finished, he began to think to himself. “Well, I guess I can't be too surprised that they're only that high, but still... If things aren't done soon, they might not be able to handle what might show up next if the events continue to line up alongside with that of the show. The one that I'm most worried about right now is Applejack. Her base level may be pretty good but she hasn't really taken up the class of Marauder because she didn’t go to the schools.”

“Maybe I should consider giving her a few lessons... After all, it's not like I can continuously hold their hands and bail their asses out of trouble every time that they get into some mess. That would just make me an arrogant, wanna be hero. And as I keep telling Rory whenever it comes up, I have never once considered myself as one. If they don't start shaping up and fast, then by the time Queen Chrysalis or Tirek comes around, then they're going to be toast.”

After releasing in internal sigh, he continued. “As much as I like fighting in all, I don't plan on stunning their growth by stepping in every single time things get a little too hard for them. The last thing I want to do, is turn them into a bunch of pansies just like Celestia's been doing with the whole holding back so-called forbidden knowledge because some pony didn't get it right the first time, they were making it when it comes to combat.”

After Brex had these thoughts, a while had passed and they arrived back at Ponyville without there being any type of incidents occurring along the way. Once Wood Cutter had met up with the others that were waiting to plant the new tree. Brex went straight to work and hauled it out of the cart and placed it into the hole that he had made before leaving.

From there, he took the massive bricks of Earth that he created and place them so that they were surrounding the tree itself before using his Earth abilities after switching back to his White Mage class once again. From there, he caused them to crumble, thereby filling the rest of the hole easily and effectively without doing any harm to the sapling in the process.

When all was said and done. Brex got his paperwork signed by the leader of the group of workers and immediately turned away to head towards the guild. But bumped into Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy after getting out of earshot of the other ponies. Apparently, they had accepted the third quest that he was unable to go for and Wood Cutter was the one who issued it and had just got theirs signed off on and were heading over to the guild as well.

The Roegadyn try to pay them no mind and walked around them without so much as even acknowledging their presence. However, he heard Applejack calling out to him after he had gotten only a few feet away. “Hold up, we're heading there too, so why not go together?” Brex had turned his hood slightly to the right and gave a half-hearted shrug before moving on and continuing his way at a slow enough pace to allow the three ponies to catch up.

Brex had expected to get some type of interrogation started as soon as they have gotten close. But instead, what he got was an uncomfortable silence as the three walk next to him with Rainbow and Fluttershy on his left. As for Applejack, she was on his right and were quite close during the walk. To everyone else thanks to his mask and hood, they would have expected his vision to be somewhat narrowed. But to him, his vision was as good as if he had nothing on his head to begin with.

So, because of this, he was able to catch on the very edge of his vision, that Applejack was sending some signals with her eyes over to Rainbow and getting a very light shake of the head to indicate that she was not agreeing with whatever was being sent in her way. After several more moments of silence and getting fed up with the eyeball usage on both sides of his body. He had rolled his eyes before speaking in a somewhat flat tone. “Disclose your intentions...”

Upon hearing this, all three of them suddenly flinched due to how unexpectedly his voice came out of nowhere and Applejack was beginning to look a little nervous with how she was already showing signs of darting her eyes around, while giving a crooked smile while she replied. “I... Uh, that is, we I mean... It's just that we... Uh... We know every pony in town and you've been here for a while. Even if its late, just thought that it would be the neighborly thing to do and introduce ourselves.”

“My name is Applejack and I work at Sweet Apple Acres. I’m sure you heard of it, it’s the big farm outside of town. She then pointed over to the others before continuing. This here is Fluttershy and I believe you already know Rainbow Dash.” This earned her a slight nod and a hum as each name was given to show that he heard her. Applejack went silent for a little bit as her eyes roamed between him and the other two, while having this expected look on her face over the course of the next several seconds.

She then began to speak in a somewhat unsure tone. “So... Umm. Aren't you going to introduce yourself as well?” Brex then turn to her for but a moment. As he was still walking and he turned his gaze back to the front and spoke in an emotionless tone that had a small trace of sarcasm woven into it.

“As dictated by customs, I am not meant to disclose anything personal without being first accompanied and given the go ahead by one or more of my herd mare’s. After all, I am just some male that's walking on the streets alone and is currently surrounded on both sides by some random mare’s I have no connections too. Wouldn’t want to get taken advantage of or attacked, now would we?”

From what he was able to see. Applejack had a look of realization, before it turned into panic as she adjusted her position in order to be giving him an extra foot of space. Now shaking her head frantically before she spoke. “Whoa there partner! it's nothing of the sort, believe me! We aren’t those types of mare’s!” She was clearly going to continue but Brex interrupted her by using the same tone as before. “Then is it normal to take up flanking positions on either side of a male here in Ponyville out of a need to protect them just because they're alone on the street? Because I was led to believe that we are not permitted to be out and about on our own.”

The farm mare had a hurtful look on her face for but a brief instant. Then she went and shot a death glare over in Rainbows directions and this caused the blue Pegasus to instantly flinch upon getting it. That was when Applejack began to converse back and forth with Brex as they said the following.

“He-HEHE. Uh... Look. I heard what rainbow had said to you after that fiasco happened at the flower shop and I could tell you that she's really sorry for it. Isn't that right Rainbow?” This of course got the Pegasus to look down towards the road while giving a weak nod.

“Oh, she made it quite clear as to what position we all play in this society. The males are meant to be weak and feeble. We're not even allowed to go out of the house without being escorted by a female member of their family or one from the herd. Otherwise, we will be assaulted or even taken advantage of by other mare’s hoping to get their mitts on a stallion for themselves. I've seen and heard it all from my travels. I have already told Miss Dash, that I was fine and have not made a report during this whole time. Honestly, I don't care whether she's sorry or not at this point.”

“Now, as for Miss Dash. I can already guess what type of personality that she has just from our first meeting. Hot headed, thinks extremely highly of herself. Has a strong need to prove that she's the best at everything, which is most likely due to parental guidance in forcing her to be good at sports or something along those lines.”

“There's also the simple fact that she has the characteristics of one who will not except it when they are wrong when they themselves know it fully just to save face. Because of all that, she is quick to jump to conclusions and will use brute force in order to resolve a situation.”

“Hey now! Don't you think you're taking things a bit too far there? You've hardly known her for more than a few minutes after all. I don't think it's fair to-.”

“Then what about back at the library? Did she not make it clear that she was going to attack me again? Even while my back was turned on her? Although I may have talked ill of your princess, she still went with the option of Brute Force before I got her to stop.”

“Uh... I… T-That may be, but you can't really blame her for acting like that after the things you said in there. Now, can you?”

“Is that so? Then tell me this. If what I said was not true, then why has Miss Dash been looking away this whole time, while you try to not only defend her. But to initiate the whole apology from the beginning on her behalf. You yourself have also been sending her signals during the entire conversation as we've been walking, only to get nothing from her? This is because I have her pegged and she knows it better than anyone.”

Applejack was taken aback as she had her eyes darting between him and Rainbow. As her expression kept switching back and forth between being deeply offended and conflicted about what position she should be in. After a few more seconds of this, the farm mare was about to say something else after she had switched out to that of a stern look, but was cut off by what he said next.

“However, … We all have our flaws and I do not blame her for hers. It's reasonable for Miss Dash to assume that I was up to no good. Especially after coming out from that back door while in the shop. She had no idea that I was there to begin with. In regards to the back alley, she was trying to apologize. But her stubborn nature would not allow her to show weakness. More so when in front of a stallion, so she ended up saying those remarks.”

“Then, back at the library, I will admit that I may have overstepped it, but I was only giving my opinion and she did in fact stop before any type of escalation had occurred, even though I was the one who did so upon making those claims.”

He then turned his head slightly towards Rainbow. Who had just begun to raise her head and was now slightly looking in his direction as he continued. “I know that Miss Dash is not that type of mare. And because of this, I am not too proud to say that I am sorry for both my words and actions. Whether she chooses to accept it or not, is up to only her.”

“Even with all the negative things that I just mentioned. I can tell that she does care for her friends in her own way and is a good Pony that works very hard at whatever task that she puts her mind on till the very end. She just happens to be the type that can lose sight of it now and then. But she will always be loyal to her friends.

“Now Applejack, Miss Dash and to you as well Fluttershy. If you'll excuse me. I want to get this turned in and be on my way. So, I'll see you another time.” With that being said. Brex picked up his speed and quickly gained some distance as he made his way towards the guild building and left the three behind.

*Point of view: Third Person*

As Brex got further away. Applejack was looking at his backside and giving him a confused look before returning it towards Rainbow and Fluttershy. The blue Pegasus was right now staring straight at the male that had just walked away. While having a half open mouth and wide eyes that were filled with a little bit of moisture.

The farm mare I was about to say something, but Rainbow had beaten her to the punch as beginning to speak in a low-volume voice. “What the buck...?” But after a few seconds to return to her normal speaking volume. She had a face that said that she was both extremely angry, yet confused.

“What the buck is his deal?! First, he points out all my flaws and all of sudden does a complete turnaround and starts to say all these nice things about me? Just what in Celestia's name am I supposed to think about the guy?!” This of course, ended with her crossing her arms and giving a slight pout in the general direction that he had gone.

As Applejack pulled off for hat in order to scratch the back of her left ear, they all heard Fluttershy finally speaking up in her usual, quiet voice. “He may have seemed scary. But I don't think he's a bad Pony either. Umm... B-By the way, are all the stallions like that?”

This got a quick head shake from Rainbow, as she threw up her arms in clear frustration. While replying in an over-the-top tone. “Of course not! I've seen a number of stallions and not once have I even seen one talk like that before. They've always been soft-spoken or too skittish to even say anything on their own. I've even seen one being bad mouth to by his heard mare’s and he just stood there and took it without saying a word back even though he was clearly upset.”

Fluttershy then started to hide half of her face behind her hair, as she began to say in a confused tone. “B-But he really doesn't seem all that weak to me. He pulled that cart for nearly two hours and even planted the tree that we had brought back to town. Also, we can’t forget about those large stone pillars that he broke up afterwards.”

It was Applejack that was the next one to speak, after placing her hat back on straight and having a thoughtful expression on her face. “Yeah, she's right and he even used some magic on the ground back there too. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a horn. So that crosses him out as a Unicorn.”

“The only other explanation, is that he went to one of those schools and his current class lets him work with the Earth. He could even be an earth pony just like me. Either way, it seems that what Pinkie said about his views towards the mare’s might be right with the way he's acting towards us. Eh! He just might be what Ponyville needs to break that awful stereotype about the males.”

“Although, I wish that he had at least told us his name. Even if we knew it already. But still...” She then looked over at Rainbow before continuing. “He may have said that you are off the hook. But I still believe that you need to properly apologize to him Rainbow.”

Applejack then took out the paper that was signed just earlier by Wood Cutter and gave it a light wave before she began to speak again. “Anyhow, we better get this here turned in so I can head back to the farm. Big Mac should be done at the hospital and back at the house by now. Got to get a good night's rest if I'm going to tackle the farm while he's laid out for the next week.”

Afterwards, when the three mare’s got inside of the guild building. They had caught the tail end of something that the receptionist that they knew to be Lyra saying something. Which caused Applejack’s hair's to instantly stand on end for but a moment, with how accusing the mare’s tone was sounding. “You completed two major tasks and under a short amount of time? You can't have me believe you really did your job right. Are you sure you didn't just talk the mare’s into signing the paperwork for you and just half-assed everything?”

“I'm sorry, but I'm standing in for another that's out sick. So, just to make sure that I don't get in trouble. I'm going to have to hold off on giving you your reward until I check in with both of the clients. And don't you think that you're going to be able to get away with trying to pull the wool over my eyes. The one you went to earlier today, just happens to be my mare friend. You can count on me asking her what happened when I go back home tonight.” That was when Gambit gave a firm head nod before speaking in a tone that just said that he didn't care either way. “Okay, back tomorrow.”

When finished giving that response. He had turned around and walked past the three that just came in without so much as saying a word an exited the building. Once the doors were closed, Applejack came up to the desk, while holding onto her sheet and after slamming it onto the table. She then gave Lyra an angry glare just as she was about to speak. “Lyra, do you mind telling me just what all that was about?” When Applejack had said those words. She quickly glanced over with her eyes at the door before returning them back to Lyra.

The mint green Unicorn gave a light chuckle of amusement before she waved it off before answering with a light laugh. “Oh, that stallion tried to pull a fast one on me. Hey! You all listen to this! That guy there goes by the name Gambit. He's a rank “F” Adventurer. He came in here around ten or eleven this morning and took a job to help out Bon Bon at the shop with some deliveries that were supposed to go into the basement.”

“I've taking care of those myself and I know for a fact that it takes hours to do that sort of thing, even with magic. But get this, that guy came back in an hour after leaving, saying that he finished it. Then he took another one that was posted by that group that fixes up the trees and cut the grass all over town. There was even this one dying tree that they were going to dig up and there's no way that they could have gotten all that done and planted another one before it got close to sundown. We still got at least another hour and a half tilt then.”

“When my shift is over, I'm going to send this over to the next mare and she's going to do a checkup and contact the ponies that posted the quest for the details. The signatures will be shown to them and we'll have evidence that he's trying to conduct some type of fraud and we can get him kicked out of the guild. Oh, by Celestia! It's going to be so sweet to see his reaction when we destroy that plate of his when we kick him out of the adventurer's guild for good.”

Applejack just raised an eyebrow, before she calmly said to Lyra in a slow and deliberate tone to make sure that what was said would be properly heard by the Unicorn. “Lyra, I think I should tell you that we were all there when they planted the new tree. From what I saw on the way back, all the work is done all over town. I would even say that they did a far better job than normal on this time around.”

After hearing this, the Unicorn looked a little nervous before she recovered her attitude from before. As she lately laughed it off before replying. “Well, I'm pretty sure that it was because they were trying to show off to a stallion no Doubt. I still say he was off to the side and doing pretty much nothing as all the mare’s went and sweat it up a storm.”

“Applejack you're just going to have to admit it. When it comes to the stallions, your family is the only exception. They're all lazy and care about nothing unless it has to do with what they can get for how they look or the bits. Besides, did you even see him? I can only think of one reason for him to be all covered up that much and it has to be that he is just butt ugly!”

Applejack had seemed to have had enough and just as she was reaching up with her hand over the counter to grab onto the collar of the mare’s shirt. She was pretty much pushed to the side a little, as Rainbow came barreling forward and had Lyra in a choke hold with both of her hands. This had pretty much caused the other mare’s to stare at Rainbow in disbelief as the blue Pegasus was clearly angry with the way her face was scrunched up into a deep scowl. She was also beginning to speak in a threatening tone.

“Lyra, you better take-.” Rainbow had caught herself and released Lyra from the hold and taken a few breaths before continuing. “Lyra, I know your feelings towards the stallions and how you prefer mare’s. But still, don't you think that what you said back there was not something you should really be saying while wearing that uniform? What do you think's going to happen if it’s found out that he really did complete those quests?”

After fixing her shirt a little bit. The Unicorn gave a halfhearted shrug before casually saying, “Ha! Then I guess I'll be wrong and that's the end of that. Oh, and if you're expecting me to apologize then don't count on it. After all, I'm only doing my job and preventing our hard-earned bits from being taken by some shady swindlers.”

Applejack stepped back into the conversation immediately after hearing Lyra's words and gave her a flat stare. “Just hold on a picking minute. Are you telling us, that you're not even going to bother apologizing to the stallion after what you said even if things turned out to be true?”

Lyra only scoffed before she went back to looking at some paperwork that was on the table. Apparently, this was something she was doing before everything start it up before she spoke again. “Hey, it's up to you girls to take what I said any way you want. I was only telling the truth. I got no reason to say that I'm sorry about anything.” The Unicorn then turned her sights back on to Rainbow for about a moment before returning her attention back to the book as she spoke up again.

“Besides, here I thought you and I were on the same page on this Rainbow. Ever since we were small, we both agreed on our views when it came to them. Don't tell me you forgot about how we picked on that one colt soon after you moved here from Cloudsdale a couple of years back? HAHAHA! That was pretty funny. Did you happen to get his name by the way? Because I don't remember it at all.”

All Eyes, aside from Lyra. Were now firmly set on Rainbow, as she shrunk in place while holding onto her right elbow. There was even a loud gasp that came from Fluttershy as she slowly shook her head, while still staring at the blue Pegasus. To fight back, Rainbow began to stutter for a moment but then picked up momentum. “T-That, that was a long time ago. I've grown up a lot since then, okay!”

Lyra began to laugh a little bit as she slammed the papers on the table to help in keeping herself upright. Once she had calmed down enough to talk properly. She began to say, “Come on! Do you honestly think I'm going to believe that? Miss Rainbow Dash, the self-proclaimed fastest flyer and all-around best athlete. Is defending a bunch of no-account weakling stallions that can't even lift anything bigger than a small shopping bag?! You and I both know that they're good for only one thing and even their messing that up. It's their own fault that there's so few of them and you all know it!”

When Lyra had finished saying that last line. There was a sense of dread that filled the room as every mare there, had turned their gaze towards Applejack. The normally green eyes had but for a brief instant, had a glimmer of dark-red before returning to normal as she looked as if she was about to climb over to skin the Unicorn alive. Lyra had this expression that she had just called down Celestia's wrath with how she was shaking in place right then and there.

The farm mare then said, in a cold voice as she slowly tapped on the piece of paper that she had put down before hard enough, that there was this creaking sound of wood every time her finger made contact with the table. “Just… Pay… Us the bits we earned... Also, check the notes that she put down about the monsters. There were way more of those than previously thought, so you better tally it up right...”

After several long minutes. The girls had walked outside and as the doors closed, Applejack couldn't help with the stomp the ground hard enough. That it caused a small fissure to be seen just underneath her hoof. Her eyes were even switching somewhat erratically, before she took in a deep breath to return to her normal state. She then said, “That mare is lucky that she's wearing that uniform. Otherwise, I would have so punched her lights out back there.”

“GAaah! I've known her for a long time and I know this is all because of her bucking mother! Whenever we were at school and I saw that mare, she was always bad-mouthing the stallions and I guess it just rubbed off on her daughter Lyra way too much. It's because of mare’s like her and her mother, that my brother can't even leave the farm without having problems.”

Applejack was brought out of her rant by Fluttershy. Who gently tapped her on the right shoulder to gain her attention. This also had the added benefit of getting Rainbow to look over as well when the yellow Pegasus began to speak. “Um... Girls... Do you happen to remember what Lyra had said earlier about Gambit? His rank is only at “F”. This reminded me about what you all were talked about during Twilight's welcome to Ponyville party. You, uh... Don't think that he might be the same one? It's just that, how many ranked “F” are there that fits his description?”

Rainbow was the next one to speak after giving out a few light chuckles and putting her left arm over Fluttershy to bring her in for a half hug as they were facing Applejack. “Come on Fluttershy! Do you really think that could possibly be the same Pony? I mean, he started over ten years ago and by going off of his voice, I doubt that he's in his thirties. Sure, he might be a little older than us, but nowhere near that old. This has to be some other Pony that just started.”

Applejack released the heavy sigh before saying, “Yeah, as much as I hate to say it. Rainbow has a point there. Anyhow, I best be heading home. Got a lot of work to start tomorrow. I'll see y'all around girls!” Afterwards, they all said their goodbyes and parted ways to their respective houses.

As for Lyra, when her shift had ended and she returned home. She immediately voiced her opinion about Gambit to her mare friend Bon Bon. What the Unicorn had expected was to hear Bon Bon saying how useless the stallion was. But was floored when hearing exactly what was seen being done.

She had even tried to argue with her mare friend, that what the stallion had done could not have been possible. That is unless there was a spell involved. But Bon Bon immediately squashed those hopes when the earth mare pointed out that there was no type of magic being used and that he didn't even have a horn to begin with. Bon Bon even stomped out any type of response to refute this, by pointing out how she was living with a Unicorn like Lyra. So that even she was aware of when magic was ever used around herself thanks to seeing it on a daily basis.”

Even with Lyra's current point of view when it came to the males was not a hundred percent on the same page as Bon Bon’s own. As a result of hearing Lyra's bad-mouthing. The Earth mare told her that she had better clean up her act or she might not be able to keep that position over at the guild building. Also, pointing out that if that was to happen, then the Unicorn would be free to help out whenever there was another big delivery.

Of course, the very idea of having to lift so many big containers had made the Unicorn shuttered at the dreadful thought of lugging those around. Knowing full well, that even her magic was barely strong enough to lift one and even then, it was at a crawl to move it.

Even as they went off to bed that night. Lyra couldn't help but the grumble to herself on occasion about there was no way that the stallion could have done what her mare friend had said. Unfortunately for her, this earned the cold shoulder from Bon Bon and the two didn't get to have any night time activities before sleeping that night. which only further infuriated the Unicorn until she had passed out for the night.