The Last of the Crocfolk

In the City of Manehattan-Nighttime

A lone police officer was blissfully walking down the sidewalk as a part of his usual patrol route. Good thing for him that there nothing of note happening tonight. The worst thing that happened tonight was some drunk stallion throwing up on a taxi driver's head. He was reaching the end of his patrol route near some of the warehouses in the warehouse district near the river.

Suddenly, something strong grabbed him by the neck and dragged him into a dark alley between the warehouses. Even in the dim light of the alley, he could see something large and white hold him up by his collar. The cop wasn't sure what this creature was, but it was glaring at him with big red eyes.

"Speak, pony! Which way be south?" the creature demanded with a threatening voice.

The cop didn't know why this creature wanted to know which way was south, but he did his best to give a reply with his limited air supply.

"South is... that way" the cop replied pointing his hoof across the river.

The creature turned his head towards where the cop was pointing and then turned back towards the cop.

"Thank you for cooperation. You may live tonight" the creature said.

The mysterious creature let go of the cop and was about to walk out of the alley when the cop fired a beam of magic by one of the creature's feet. The monster didn't even flinch. But he did turn around to glare at the cop.

"Halt! I'm taking you in for assaulting an officer!" the cop shouted.

"You just threw away your chance" the creature said.

In a flash of movement, the creature pulled out a long black blade and swung it at the cop. The cop jumped out of the way of the blade and smiled defiantly at the monster before him.

"Ha! You missed my neck!" the cop shouted.

The creature smiled back at him. "I wasn't aiming for your neck"

The white monster held up a claw and in it's grasp was a Unicorn horn.His horn! The monster had cut off his horn!

The officer was horrified! This beast had taken his horn and was smiling at him for it! The creature walked even closer to the horrified Unicorn. He held the blade over his head.

"This is to avenge my people!" the beast cried before bringing the blade down.

A Unicorn's severed head rolled towards the creature's feet while his body twitched on the ground and bled out. The creature sheathed his blade and walked off in the direction the cop pointed to. But before he did, he took the severed horn. This was an act with the intent of dishonoring his foe. Ponies weren't worthy of honor or respect.

The cops were stunned at the sight before them. When Officer Nightstick didn't report back in last night, the other officers were sent to search his patrol route to find him. His family had said that he never returned home last night so they were worried.

Eventually, they found him in the warehouse district. Or rather what was left of him.

Chief Cuff Clapper showed up later than his other officers. One of his subordinates trotted up to him to fill him in on the details.

"You found him?" Chief Clapper asked.

"We found his body" the officer replied.

"What was the state of the body?" the chief asked.

"Well, some vultures were eating it but we chased them off"

"Will the lab techs be able to identify the cause of death?"

"Oh, they'll be able to identify the cause of death"

"And why is that?"

The officer led the chief to the body, which was covered up with a sheet. The officers with the body pulled back the sheet to reveal the state of the body.

The body was showing the clear signs of being eaten by the vultures earlier, but that wasn't what stood out to the chief. It was the fact that the head was separated from the body and the horn was missing completely.

"Oh, dear Celestia!" the chief said quietly. He turned to his subordinate.

"Has his family been told?" he asked.

"Yes. It wasn't pleasant"

"Any ideas as to who did this?"

"We know it wasn't a pony that did this."

"And we know this how?"

"There were large claw prints on the neck, suggesting this killer has large claws and considerable strength".

"Any witnesses?"

"Well one. A homeless stallion that was walking to this one warehouse he likes to sleep in."

"Take me to him".

The lower officer led the chief to the homeless witness. He was wearing nothing but a dirty black beanie on his head.

"Sir, I know that you've seen something horrible, but can you please explain to the chief what you saw?" the officer asked.

The homeless stallion gulped and spoke in a low voice.

"I was making my way down to my favorite warehouse when I hear a tussle going on in one of the spaces between the warehouses. I thought it was two thugs having a brawl so I wanted to see it. But I get there to see some big lizard monster decapitate an officer and take his horn!" the stallion replied.

"Did the creature say anything?" the chief asked.

"Well, I heard him ask the officer which way was south"

"What did the creature look like?"

"He was big, white, had red eyes, looked like a bipedal crocodile, and carried a black blade"

Now they had a good idea of the direction the creature was heading in. All they needed to do now was to get the hounds and see if they could pick up the creature's trail.

"Thank you for your time, sir" the chief said before walking away.

"What do we do now, sir?" his officer asked.

"Are you kidding me? We get a pack of smelling-hounds and go after the killer!" the chief said.

Just Outside Manehattan

Leatherfoot had managed to make it out of the city in one piece. He had been walking for hours through the night to get out of the city and make his way back to the Motherswamp. Once there, he could try to hide form the rest of ponykind. He never wanted to see those disgusting creatures again for as long as he lived.

The ponies will pay for what they did! All of them! They will pay!, he thought to himself.

He was walking through the small patches of forest just outside the city when he heard what sounded like dogs barking in the distance. He turned around to see several armed ponies and leashed dogs entering the forest. One of them looked at Leatherfoot and pointed to him.

"Over there!" he shouted.

Leatherfoot didn't have the energy to fight opponents that could use magic, so he just took off running through the forest. He booked it over bushes and fallen trees like an acrobat. He wouldn't allow himself to be captured again by these horrid creatures.

He had to get away. He had to get back to the Motherswamp and find a way to avenge his species.

Leatherfoot could hear the ponies and dogs gaining on him. He had walked all night and was quickly getting tired. He decided to look for a place to hide until the ponies and their dogs left the area. Quickly glancing around him, he couldn't see any place he could hide.

The young Croc-kin ran into a field of tall grass stretching as far as the eye could see. The grass was just light enough that he could blend in with little difficulty. But the dogs the ponies had with him could easily sniff him out. He'll have to take care of the dogs first.

Leatherfoot got down on all fours and ran into the grass. Fortunately the grass was tall enough to conceal him on all fours.

The officers entered the field and instantly had lost sight of him. From what Leatherfoot could hear, the leader of this pack shouted a curse that Leatherfoot had heard many times before from the ponies who came to watch him fight in the arena. The leader then ordered his underlings to scour the field and find him.

Leatherfoot moved cautiously and slowly so as not to alert the enemy to his presence. Every movement was measured and planned. At some point, the sound of a dog sniffing and a pony's hooves made Leatherfoot pause.

A nose appeared a few feet away from Leatherfoot's left. Drawing his Clawblade, Leatherfoot silently decapitated the dog. The pony behind the dog was about to cry out when Leatherfoot grabbed him and snapped his neck. Thankfully the sound of the pony's neck breaking didn't alert the others. Except one, it seemed.

"It's over here!!" one of the hunting ponies shouted.

Leatherfoot took off running again with his pursuers hot on his trail. He managed to recover a bit of his stamina, but it wasn't much. He knew that the ponies will be on top of him in a few minutes. Leatherfoot had to think of a better idea and soon.

But before Leatherfoot could think of something, he found that he couldn't move anymore. He saw himself surrounded in a purple aura of magic.

"What's going on here?!" a voice called from above him.

Leatherfoot looked up to see a type of pony he had never seen before. It was female with light purple fur and a darker purple mane with a streak of pink, a horn, and a pair of wings. She was joined by several others, too. They all looked at him with curious eyes.

One of the ponies pursuing him spoke up. "Your Highness, we were in the middle of capturing this creature for the murder of a Manehattan police officer"

The flying horned one and its friends gasped. They all looked to the bound Leatherfoot with looks of shock. The flying horned one asked him a simple question.

"Is this true?" she asked with venom.

Not wanting these monsters to know that he could speak and understand their language, he decided to reply in his native language.

"Goshu, cilo vedas Pogh refoleega" he replied. Yes, I killed a Pony vermin.

The gathered ponies all looked confused. Clearly this was the first time they've heard the language of the Crocfolk spoken aloud. He would continue to speak to them in his language to mock them.

"I think we should investigate this creature further before I pass my judgement on him" the flying horned pony said.

The orange one with the terrible head covering went up to the supposed leader and spoke with an oddly soothing voice.

"Twilight? Are you sure about this? This guy had killed a police officer!" it said to "Twilight".

"I want to hear his defense before I come to any sort of conclusion" Twilight said.

And with that, Leatherfoot found himself teleported away to a strange place he had never seen before. It was a room made of pure crystal. There was a bed, a desk, and a bookshelf full of books.

Leatherfoot ignored the books. His people had mostly a spoken language, not a written one. Though he had heard of the Crocfolk having a written alphabet centuries ago in one of the old temples. Besides, he couldn't read or write in the pony language anyway.

Judging from the room, this must have been some weird pony dwelling. He went to the door to leave only to find it locked. He reached for his Clawblade to slice down the door. But his Clawblade wasn't there. Those wretched abominations must have taken it.

Leatherfoot roared and tried pounding the door with his fists, but it wouldn't budge an inch. After a few minutes of door-punching, the door unlocked to reveal the same purple horned winged pony from before. She and her cohorts walked into the room and shut it behind them.

What sick torture do these creatures have in store for me?! They'll be sorry they ever messed with me!, Leatherfoot thought.

The purple one, Twilight, pulled out a chair and sat down. Leatherfoot prepared for some sort of magic attack. But instead, she just gave him a hard glare.

"Listen here. I have questions for you and you're going to answer them honestly. Understand?" she said flaty.

Leatherfoot's rage at this monster only surged. How dare this inferior creature give commands to me?!

"Can you understand our language?" she asked.

Leatherfoot nodded. "Goshu"

"Can you speak our language?"

"Bortea, fase brud solf feqo, vogse alliose" I can, but I don't want to, false leader

"Apparently not. Why did you kill the officer?"

"Vugh anf fiis coge nifg fitea cing oyter nedrov dervo dhol xigh aers horbde difno clo risateen" The miserable and dishonorable rodent tried to attack me, so I took his head and his horn

"Twi, we're never going to get anywhere at this rate!" a blue pony with rainbow hair shouted. "He clearly can't speak our language and we can't understand what he's saying!"

Twilight didn't even look at the rainbow one. "I'll have Professor Fossil try to translate for us"

"Who are you?" Twilight asked.

"Lettaefot od bol Witol Cleon" Leatherfoot of the Whitetail Clan

"What species are you?"

"Croafulce" Crocfolk

Twilight gazed into Leatherfoot's eyes for a long time. She slowly stood up and left the room with her subordinates. But before she left, she turned around to look at Leatherfoot.

"I'll be keeping you here until my investigation is done. Spike will bring you food and water" Twilight said before closing the door.

She intends to keep me prisoner here, huh? You think I'm helpless without my weapon, huh? Alright then! Then I'll simply find a way to escape. Your magic won't keep you safe forever, pony, Leatherfoot thought with a smile.

He sat down on his bed and began planning his escape.