Fracture

Chapters

Odd Jobs.
Hairline.
Dissenting Opinions.
Diagnosis.
Gearing Up.
The Train Job.
Night Life.
Suburbia.
Hells Bells.
I'm Dreaming of a Dead City.
Burn Your Dread.
Stratagem.

Odd Jobs.

The wild songbirds sang and the wind blew through the forest. The grass brought delightful scents to your nose and you could taste the scent of apples in the air and feel the heat of the sun on your skin.

RRRIIIIP!

And the sounds of tearing flesh.

You angled your knife in and sawed the last bits of the Manticore's hide off its haunches. Tossing them in your bag with the rest, you threw it over your shoulder and started back towards town.

The Everfree Forest wasn't where you wanted to spend the rest of your day.

You were Anonymous and this forest was safe to walk in because of you. Well, partially because of you.

Another cog in your great machine was waving to you from up in on high.

She drops out of the sky, breaking only at the last second and landing in front of you in a cloud of dust.

"Dash, you keep that up, you'll end up hurting yourself."

Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. "You're one to talk, Anon. Fighting that Manticore all by yourself like that."

"What can I say? My time in the guard leaves me antsy for some action."

Dash sniggers as she falls in speed with you. "You've been out of there for how many years and you STILL need me to help you find thrills?"

"I am able to find thrills easy enough on my own, Dash."

"I know, you STILL smell like apples."

You chortle as Dash and you keep walking. "Nice sight on this bastard, by the way. He never knew what hit him."

Rainbow hops up and flutters in your face. "I figure you need SOMEONE to spot things for you with this tiny little eyes you have."

You roll the organs in question. "You know Dash, I was in the guard for almost a decade without your expert help."

She giggles. "I'm amazed you lasted that long."

-Music-

You and Dash crest the top of the hill that let you look down on Ponyville. You could see the friends and neighbors you've had for years all trotting around living their lives in peace.

Dash flies ahead and motivates you into movement.

Equestria had been good to you in all the years you were here. Even when you spent time at the orphanage as a kid, it was fun. Once you were of age, you were the first human in the guard, first biped too. The blacksmiths had thrown a fit whenever they had to resize your armor.

You made a point in repaying them every time you could by fighting Equestria's threats. From monsters to Diamond Dogs to the occasional messy dragon migration, you and the rest of the guard stood against everything that tried to lay a hand on your home.

You had apparently impressed because you were a Watch Commander within a few short years. You did what you could for Canterlot in your new position, but the nobility had eventually come to you and told you something. It turned out that Equestria had never had a guard remain in their ranks for as long as you had, the rest had either retired or fallen. You had told them that you wished to keep serving, but they had insisted that you at least TRY to get out and see what life was on the outside.

It was then that they sent you to Ponyville, it was then that you fell in love in more ways than one. The quiet rustic charm, the people, the desire to protect them, it was all here in this town. So you stayed, and formally retired from the Canterlot Royal Guard. You still did some work with them whenever they needed a specialist and they still worked with you to keep the town safe.

And you couldn't be happier.

You wave Rainbow off and walk into the library with sack over back.

"Twilight? Are you in here?"

"Come on in, Anon!" Twilight calls from the other room.

You walk inside and closed the door behind you, taking in the old book smell. You drop the sack on the floor with a wet "SMACK"

Twilight steps out of the other room and levitated the hides into it. "They didn't give you too much trouble, did they Anon?" Twilight asks.

"These buggers? They're nothing compared to some of my old guard stories."

Twilight rolls her eyes and goes back to a blackboard, on it was what you recognized as a map of Ponyville and what looked to be air currents.

"What are you researching, Twi?"

Twilight sighed. "The dragon migration is coming up and they're flying RIGHT over Ponyville again, I'd like to be ready just in case."

You put your hand to your chin and think, as the leader of Ponyville's guards, it was your job to keep appraised on these things.

"How many are you thinking?"

"I can't say for sure...the dragons tend to fly their own way."

You and Twi stand in silence as you stare at the board.

"...Think we should be prepared?" you ask.

Twilight takes a few steps towards the board and looked back to you with a grin. "Don't worry, Anon. Even if they come? We can beat them."

You loop your hands behind your head. "That's what I'm here for, Twi."

You wave goodbye to Twilight as you step out of the library. "Be seeing you, Twi."

"See you later, Anon!"

Dragon Migration...You could handle that.

You come up on home sweet home: Sweet Apple Acres. The sound of a barking dog told you that the family would be out soon. Good old Winona, always guarding the property.

As you walk to the house, you saw the other telltale sign of home. A bright red bow bobbing up and down.

"Anon! Anon!" she shouts.

"Hello, Bloom!"

You catch Applebloom as she jumps up and nuzzles into your chest, Winona right behind her.

"Did your hunt go okay, Anon?" she asks in the draw you can't even recognize anymore.

"It went well, bugger didn't lay a claw, tooth or pointy tail on me."

Bloom shoots off a smile that could warm the ice caps as you take her back to the house.

"So how about you, Bloom? Did you have a good day at school?"

The filly vigorously nods. "A huh! Miss Cheerilee taught us about times tables today!"

"Oh? And how'd that go?"

The thousand watt smile grows ever brighter as you carry her.

You ruffle her mane. "Atta girl."

As you reach the house, Applebloom calls out. "Granny! AJ! Anon's home!"

Two mares trot out of the house after a few moments and look you over with smiles. "Well now, look who the monster dragged in." the orange one says.

"Always the charmer, AJ."

You put Bloom down on the ground and walk up to hug Granny Smith. "Hello, Gran."

You feel a hoof loop around your neck. "Hello, youngin'."

You rise to your feed and glance to the barn. "In there?"

The family nods to you.

You wordlessly make your way over to the barn and nudge the door open, catching sight of the big red body working inside.

It was later now, close to supper. You were laying on a hay bail in the back of the barn looking up at the sky as the setting sun set it ablaze.

The body next to you shifts, his hooves bouncing against your chest.

"Easy, hayseed. You have big hooves."

Mac snorts next to you. "Ah seen you take worse."

You reach over and stroke his mane. "I'll bet you have."

Mac chuckles next to you. "How'd it go today, pard?"

"Got some nice hides for Twi, just like she asked."

"An' how's the rest a tha' town?"

"Town's town. People are happy, stores are stocked, clocks are running and the trains are on time."

Mac laughs. "Ha! Anonymous the Human. He fought the Diamond Dogs, protected our town, and help everyp0ny he saw, but the best thing he did was get the trains on time."

Ha.

You reach an arm over and pull him close. "You know it, lover-boy."

You and Mac lay in silence together for a while.

"Been almost four years..." he says.

"Hmm?"

Mac looks down at you. "S'been about four years since you came here."

"Heh...Four years "pickin'n apples"

Mac chuckles under your arm and nuzzles closer. "Long way from a farmhand, huh?"

"Long way indeed."

The sun finally sets over the horizon drowning the shy into purple.

Mac's lips press up against your cheek. "Love you, Pard."

"...Love you too, Hayseed."

The stars wink into sight as you welcome the night with the most important guy in your life curled up with you.

Hairline.

You swing your sword laterally and carve a deep gash into the dragons' chest. He staggers back a bit, clawed hand coming up to the wound in shock. You keep the offensive strong, blocking a desperate swipe of a claw with your shield and thrusting your sword into his abdomen. The dragon slumps and crashes to the ground as you yank your sword out of him and go back into the fray.

That was your eighth kill, a young one this time. Twilight was correct, the only dragons that were here on the ground were either the ones too young to fly or too old to. A part of you felt bad for slaying the weak and infirm, but these monsters were planning to barrel through your town and raze it to the ground.

That wasn't happening.

A roar from up above drew your attention. Dragons in the hundreds shot across the sky in numbers that blotted out the sun.

Good. Everything was going as planned.

Just one of those dragons could cause incredible damage to the town, you needed to keep them in the air where it was safe.

Another young drake rushes you with claws drawn. They bounce off your raised shield as you thrust it forward and bash him in the face. You twist around behind him and slash him up his hack, getting a roar out of him. When he turns to try and roar again, he finds himself choking on your blade.

"Number nine."

You rejoined the soldiers guarding the path into town. You had requested this post, it was the only path the dragons could reach that lead to Sweet Apple Acres.

You figure you are allowed to be a bit selfish.

"Anon!" a voice calls.

You turn to the sound and see Shining Armor and his command staff galloping up to you "What it is, Armor? A bit busy here."

Armor casts a magical bolt over your shoulder at a particularly old looking dragon and scares it off. "Yes, I can see that. I need you to take a squad and secure the Everfree." he says.

Whoa, wait, what?

"I need to stay here." you say without thinking.

You had to keep the farm safe, keep the family safe. More dragons charge and you and Shining Armor instinctually work and talk.

"I know you want to stay, but the dragons are heading through the forest! If we don't cut them off, they could get into the town or worse, sneak up on our forces." Shining says.

You break a drakes snout with your shield and stab him through the eye. "There is nothing worse than them getting into the town!"

Armor uses his magic to pull a dragons leg out from under him, allowing several soldiers to finish it off. "And they'll demolish that town from the rear if we don't stop them in the forest!"

You think that through as you spar with your current combatant.

...The plan made tactical sense, if you could appear on all fronts, then you could keep the larger force at bay while playing your home field advantage.

But there was no one better at defending the farm than you...

...Dammit.

You spin the dragon around and get him through the back as you make your choice. "Fine! I'll go it alone! Keep the farm safe!"

Armor uses a spell to guard some of the troops.

"Go!"

You break off from the defensive line and hightail it to the Everfree Forest. They had BETTER keep that farm safe...

You keep low as you skulk through the forest, your armor bound tight against you so as to not make any more noise than you have to. The beats of the forest all seemed to be scared off by the encroaching horde, making the Everfree deathly quiet.

You hope Zecora is okay...

Voices from up ahead draw your attention. A group of four dragons, young ones by the looks of it, were slowly walking through the unfamiliar forest and speaking in their guttural native tongue.

You keep low and out of sight, staying behind them as they walk. There was a clearing up ahead that would serve as a good place to jump them.

You tiptoe a few feet behind them as they walk, darting between bushes and closing the distance before the final strike. The clearing was coming up...

The drakes walk through the clearing, looking this way and that at all the wonders of the Everfree. They neglect to notice the creeping figure hiding in the shadows.

As the last of them passes into the clearing, you strike. Your knife comes out of its sheath and pierces the neck of the rear-most drake. His friends wheel around at the sound and contort their faces with rage at their fallen comrade. You duck under the claws of one and bash him with your shield, sending him reeling back. Claw meats blade and lashes back in pain as you riposte another away from you. His friends taken care of in a heartbeat, you are free to concentrate on the last one.

You hammer him with slashes and thrusts and force him back. As far back as you can. The drakes eyes echo the fear he feels when his back hits the hard bark of a tree. He raises his arms to try in vain to defend himself only to find cold steel weaving through them and into his neck. The dragon gurgles his last words and slumps against the tree, a shadow forming over both him and you.

Oh yeah, the other one.

You pry the sword out clean and flip it under your arm, the blade protruding behind you and stab the tip up. The hitching breath and sudden weight on your back tell you that you hit your mark. You slide your blade out and let the drake fall to the ground in a bloody heap.

Re-sheathing your sword, you slowly walk over to the wounded dragon as he begins to right himself. Your fist contacts the side of his head with a wet THWACK!

"Stay down, if you know what's good for you."

The dragon collapses back on the ground once from the hit and again when you place your knee on the back of his neck. As he struggles underneath you, you pin his arms to the ground.

"Listen and listen good, insect."

His eyes snap open and glare at you.

"You're going to go back to your flight and tell them of what happened here. The Everfree Forest is not safe, understand?"

Maybe you'd be able to get back to the farm. The drake snorts out his nostrils and cracks open his mouth "Yesssssss..." he hisses.

...Good.

You remove your knee from the base of his spine and stand. "Now get out of here."

You don't want for him to say anything, just turning and leaving. You hear the drake scramble to his feat and disappears into the foliage behind you and let yourself grow a triumphant grin.

You'd loop around a bit and head back to the barn, that kid would ensure that no one else came through the forest. After about twenty minutes of patrol, something swoops over the forest and fills the air with a low roar.

Shit! A dragon came down!

You ran to the forest's edge overlooking Ponyville and froze at the sight.

...no...

"Nonono..."

This...no! NONONONO! The dragon strafed Ponyville again, sending a gout of flame across it.

But your eyes were drawn to the closest fire.

Sweet Apple Acres. Where the family was.

RUN. RUN FASTER. You bound down the road towards the farm as fast as your legs will go. The lines of guards had broken under the dragon from above, they were running around this way and that just trying to contain the situation.

You didn't care. You had to get to the farm. Get to them.

You had your sword and shield drawn as you ran, cutting down any drakes in your way. One across the neck, another through the heart. You barely registered them, you just had to get to them. Get to him.

You ran through the gates to the farm and out into the still burning orchard.

"MAC! AJ!"

...Nothing. You keep running, looking for sight of anything.

"BLOOM! GRANNY! ANSWER ME!" You run though the familiar familial fields in search of a sign, any sign, that someone was alive.

You stop dead in your tracks at what you find. A mass of red curled around a spot of yellow.

"OH GOD, NO!"

You run up to them and slide onto your knees. Mac was bad, cut up and bleeding all over. Shit, he had already lost a lot of blood. Bloom was wrapped in his hooves, her skin bubbling and blistering from fire.

Have to...have to stop this.

You reach into your pouch and grab the first roll of enchanted bandages you could...The only roll.

N-not enough roll to get them both...

The stallion underneath you sputters and gasps. "H-her! Use 'em on her!"

Wha-

"Mac! I can't just-"

"DO IT!"

You scream and start wrapping Applebloom in bandages. When you finish, they are emitting a soft green glow as they work their healing magics.

...Juxtaposed by the ever increasing red pool around you.

You cradle Mac's head in your hands. "MEDIC! NOW!"

He coughs underneath you. "No pard...no..."

"M-mac...Just...hang on, we'll get you fixed up..."

You propped him up on your lap "We'll...keep you here..."

Mac shakes his head. "No...you won't..."

That brings tears to your eyes like nothing else can "Mac...p-please...Please don't..."

You turn back behind you "SOMEONE GET ME A HEALER HERE NOW!"

Mac nuzzles his snout against your palm. "We had a good ride, Anon..."

"So let's not make it end, yeah?"

Mac looks up at you with glistening green eyes. "All good things, Anon..."

You smack the dirt with your fist as the tears drip onto Macintosh "Dammit...I...shouldn't have gone...should have stayed here..."

Mac turns his bloody face up to you. "Now don't be like that...you had a job to do..."

You stay silent for a bit.

"...I should have done it better..."

Mac's eyes start drooping as the puddle under him grows ever bigger.

"Love...you...Anonym..."

Mac's head lists to the side as his eyes lose their light. You sit there for a moment, unable to so much as think. Your body goes numb as you feel the best part of you fade away.

You feel hollow...

Faint sights and sounds break through your grey haze. You think you notice the guards colors...Shining Armor yelling in your face...a unicorn taking Mac and Bloom away...

The dragon setting an area in the distance ablaze... But one sight...one sight breaks through...

A young drake and several others walking along in the distance. The color of his scales...the shape of his face...the blood on his claws...the broken nature of his snout...

He...came back...And he killed Mac...

...

..!

-Music-

THAT DRAKE. HE DID IT. HE WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED MAC. HE WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED THE ONE YOU LOVED HE TOOK ADVANTAGE OF YOUR MERCY AND SPAT IT BACK IN YOUR FACE. HE DOESN'T DESERVE YOUR MERCY. HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE!

You explode off the ground, forsaking your shield behind you and make a beeline for the drake. Your sword is out in a flash as you run screaming towards the dragons. Wood splinters as you barrel through a fence and strong-arm the drake against a tree. Red plays at the edges of your vision as you look into his eye. Your pounding heartbeat almost drowns out your thoughts. Almost.

TEAR OUT HIS THROAT, RIP HIS FLESH. MAKE HIM SUFFER.

You drive your sword through his chest and into the tree behind it.

SUFFER.

You rip the sword down to his calf and swing it out wide of the wound, killing him instantly. His allies glare in outrage and charge you, but the red in your vision and the fire in your veins propels you forward.

You draw your knife in conjunction with your sword and whirl between the dragons claws. Through the din of it all, you can still feel your reflexive guard training take over.

Block right, riposte.

Double sweep.

Block rear, spin and take the knife to the throat.

Break the left knee, stab the eye.

Blind them with blood from the sword.

Those thoughts drive you until all the drakes are dead and bleeding into the hard ground.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! WHO ELSE WILL FIGHT ANONYMOUS!?"

As if on cue, the dragon who ignited the farm landed not twenty feet from you.

"YOU'LL DO!"

You charge the dragon with a warrior's cry and a purpose in your heart. Kill it dead.

Kill all of them dead.

You jump onto its leg as it takes to the sky again, read to show this dragon flight what happened when they took Mac from you.

You cling to the dragons leg as it soars through the air. The acrid stench of smoke that could only be coming from burning houses below filled your nose but you just couldn't find a fuck to give.

All you wanted to do was rip this dragons throat out. You use your knife and sword to climb your way up the dragons leg and onto its back. It roars and rages at the pain your causing, trying to flail you off. You tighten your grip on the blades and keep climbing until you reach the dragons back.

Get it down.

You stay low and use the blades as anchors as you climb towards the dragons head.

"TAKE IT DOWN! CRASH IT!"

The wind carries your words away as you crawl up the dragon.

You flip your knife out and angle it towards the wing behind you, compensating for the wind as best you can. Once you feel the dragon slow down a bit, you throw. The knife flies out of your hand and imbeds into the thin membrane of the dragons wing, tear along down it thanks to the wind pulling it along.

The dragon screams and roars at the pain of having its wing ripped and begins to lose altitude You grab the back of the dragons head and use its crest as cover for the incoming ground.

"HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

WHAT A RUSH!

You and the dragon smash into the ground, tearing through trees and tossing you from its back. You landed in a heap several dozen feet away, laughing the entire way and even as you right yourself.

"HA!"

The dragon you rode in on was eviscerated. The trees and rocks of Whitetail Woods combined with the speed you came in on tearing him to pieces.

You spit on the corpse and walk away, back towards the battle. You push your way through the trees back towards the fight. The woods let you out on a hill overlooking the town, stalks of black smoke billowing up from it. And below the hill was dozens and dozens of dragons.
Hehehe...

"More..."

It was later now, by a couple of hours. The town was made safe, the dragons had all been killed. And you were filled with rage again. The din of battle...being able to fight and kill and crush those dragons...it had dampened it for a while... But that was no longer.

You stomp back towards the farm, needing to...see him again... Standing around the house were Shining Armor, AJ and Granny. Words aren't said as you walk up to them both and wrap your arms around them.

"I'm sorry...I tried to help him but I just...I'm sorry..."

The two mares sniff and sob on your shoulders. "They...almost got Applebloom...Big Macintosh ran out to try and save her a-and..." AJ says.

You feel those damn tears go down your face again as you think back to finding him there.

"Wh-what happened to Bloom?"

Granny smith speaks. "They took 'er to the hospital once it was safe..." Shining Armor steps up. "They said those bandages saved her life, Anon...and most of her skin..."

"She shouldn't have needed them..."

Faint sounds of flapping wings draws your attention skyward as the last of the dragons flew along their ancestral path. The fire in your veins reignites on sight with them, the monsters that took Mac from you.

THEY DESERVE TO SUFFER.

You rise to your feet and follow their path. Probably...headed for the Northern mountains...

They needed to suffer...

"A-anon? Where ya goin'?" AJ asks.

"After them...they need to pay..."

Shining Armor steps up next to you. "Anon, that's not healthy. You need to stay here a-"

"NO! THEY DID IT! THEY DESERVE IT!" you hiss.

Shining , AJ and Granny recoil as your harshness.

"They DESERVE it..."

You keep walking towards the dragons.

They had to pay...

The fire in your veins and the rage in your heart demanded more of today...Demanded you fight...

And giving that what it wanted was the only thing that made sense to you anymore...

Dissenting Opinions.

You were sitting in the back of the carriage as it rolled and bounced through town. Inside the car with you are two ponies and a Diamond Dog.

Dust Bowl. Rock Wrecker. Rex.

Dust peers out the window. "Ya think it'll be a good haul?"

"Ought to be, this'n here's the biggest bank this side of the Main Line." Wrecker answers.

They both continue to look over the town. "Gonna be a lotta guards there..."

"Guards not problem. We break." Rex says.

Wrecker laughs. "Heh. Could always bring in a dragon or two..."

You feel your heartbeat quicken.

Easy...keep it together.

Remain calm.

"Dunno, all them dragons up North got killed by SOMETHING."

"That happen years ago, pony. Need to not be scared of ghosts."

"It killed DRAGONS, dog. Dozens. I think I'm in my right mind to be a bit scared.

"You're in your right mind to shut up. We're almost there." you say.

Your three companions shut up and steel themselves as the carriage pulls into an alley.

Stupid kids...

Your thoughts take on a blue hue.

They are un-tempered.

Think they'll screw it up?

Their potential for damage is high.

Well I like em, they have the same disposition

Their disposition is irrelevant in this situation.

And why is that? Why can't we have some concrete partners for once?

You know why.

Because we do not wish to be caught.

Because meeting new people is fun!

Because they'll die.

...Enough. We're here.

The carriage stops and open its door.

"Faces."

Your companions pull red bandanas over their mouths and hair as they step out of the carriage. Alright, let's be bad guys.

-Music-

"Go! Now!"

Dust runs into the recently blown vault as Rex and Wrecker check the windows.

"Deputies be here soon!"

"I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!" you snap.

You hold your axe to the neck of the clerk in front of you.

"You're lucky this hasn't gone tits up, meat."

The clerk rapidly blinks her eyes, quietly regretting hitting the silent alarm.

You throw a sack at her. "Fill this with bits. Now."

The mare nervously opens the draws and begins shoveling bits into it. Wrecker walks through the crowd of cowering bank go-ers.

"Now all y'all stay down! We're just a few men lookin' to make a living! Aint no reason for somepony to do something they're gonna regret!"

You glance out over the crowd, your thoughts going blue again.

Sitrep.

The stallion near the tellers line is large and carries himself well, he is our biggest threat. The young mare near the door has been glaring at us for the past four and a half minutes, she may attempt to impede escape.

Anything else?

The sheriff's office is six blocks from here. If the alarm was tripped four minutes ago, they will be here within the next forty seconds.

Always so nice to live in a town where you can feel safe!

Shut it.

"Hurry up back there!"

Dust runs out with the sacks of bits in his magical grip. "We're good!"

"Lookout!"

"Lawmen here!"

You glance out the window, two deputies come dashing into the bank while the remainder stay outside.

You grab the half filled bag of bits from the clerk and run to the rear of the bank.

"Out the back! All of you!"

-Music-

You toss the loot into the rear of the carriage and signal for the rest of the gang to hop in. Once everyone was inside, you lean out the window to the driver.

"GO!"

The old bastard and his grandkids earn their keep as they rocket out of the alley and down the road out of town. The deputies all jump at the sight and rush back to their own carriages to give chase. As you and your pursuers exit the town limits the lawmen's greater speed become apparent.

The chariots race up next to you and slam their wheels against you.

Gah!

Those need to be destroyed.

You throw open the window and lean halfway out towards the carriage. You swing your axe at the deputies as they try to harry your carriage. One gets it across the nose and another gets bashed in the head with the broadside. A particularly daring stallion attempts to grab you by the wrist and drag you out.

Throw him.

You twist your hand and grab the stallion by the hoof before pulling the hoof and body attached to it down. The deputy rolls and skips along the ground behind you, making his compatriots pull back to save him.

GO FASTER

"SPEED IT UP, OR YOU DON'T GET PAID!"

The family pulling your cart takes it into high gear and pulls away from the lawmen. You flip your axe back into your hands and aim.

This had to be perfect...

Wait...

The two remaining sheriff carts line up perfectly.

Now!

You toss your axe at the wheel of the lead chariot, shattering it and causing the vehicle to skid on the ground. The chariot behind slams into the lead one and sent both of their occupants sailing into the air. You pull yourself back inside as your chariot sails over a hill further into the mountains.

The carriage screeches to a stop in front of a rundown shack next to a large mesa. You and your partners-in-crime hop out as the family pulling you collapse on the ground to rest. Dust laughs as he trots into the house, bit bags in magical grip. "Did you see the looks on their faces when we burst in? Priceless!"

This one is good.

Dust dumps the bags out on a very large table. In moments, the four of you are counting the total up. Wrecker lets out a low whistle. "Damn...one and a half mill..."

HA! WE'RE RICH!

*Money is of no value...*

Hmph! Spoilsport.

The four of you begin dividing up the bits between yourselves, making sure to leave a large pile for your driver.

Paying a driver well would ensure a good job from them.

As you all collect your agreed upon number of bits, you saw that there was still a huge pile left on the table.

"What that pile for." Rex asks.

"S'for the boss, idiot." Wrecker says. "The guy who planned this here heist."

Dust pushes the boss's bits into a bag. "I hear that he's some big problem for the law out here, that he keeps pullin' these jobs and no one can stop him."

"Just some walkin' disaster area for the entire Mild West."

Rex throws his bag over his shoulder. "Hear he was ex-royal guard. That why can can't get caught. Knows all tactics they use to catch him."

Idiot kids.

You scrape your share of the bits into your bag. "You shitlords really want to know who the boss is?"

The three of them look between each other and you before nodding. You reach into your pocket and throw something onto the table. The three of them are so focused on it that they don't notice you grab the boss's bag. Resting on the table in its place was the rusted and dirty badge of a royal guard commander. You yank the badge by its chain back to your hand as you step out.

"Good job today, boys. Might be seeing you around."

As you leave, Dust runs to the door. "But...why'd you risk your neck if you were the ringleader of this!?"

You toss the drivers their share and glare back at him hollowly.

"Boredom, mostly."

It was later now, much. Luna's moon hung high in the sky as you walked. With your bag of bits over your shoulder, you thought. We can't go back there for a while.

Five months would be a fair estimate.

We said that about Cowpenhagen and look what happened there.

Cowpenhagen was an exception, we could not have known that stallion would become mayor.

Let alone that he'd hold a grudge...

What about moving forward?

Find me something to do.

There he goes again...

DON'T TEST ME, YOU GREEN IDIOT.

All of you calm down. One foot in front of the other for now.

We need to dump this money, it will draw attention. A replacement weapon will come in handy as well.

Another axe!

We also need to lay low.

Need more work. Need to stay active.

What we need is a friend...

You stop mid stride and stare towards the Northwest.

"Appleoosa..."

Diagnosis.

Dust crunches underneath your boots as you walk through the desert. Walking had been your preferred mode of travel as of late, it was difficult to get passage on trains when you were the only human around and with your record. Fortunately, Appleoosa was the right combination of a town in the middle of nowhere and hospitable enough that it let you treat it as a hub to the rest of the Mild West.

Among other factors.

As you cross the town border, you take in your surroundings. The smell of hey and dirt. The low din of the townsfolk going about their day. Creaking wood as carriages rolled past you towards the edge of town. The buildings were taller than most, but not too high.

Ponies cannot jump that high, should the need to escape become apparent, the rooftops are safe.

What about pegusi?

Move fast to avoid a tail.

You weave your way through the townsfolk as you thought.

Now where was that shop...

"Strong Defense". East end of town. Across from the open air market.

You grimace.

Sometimes you annoyed yourself.

More wagons ride down the street towards the edge of town, the same direction as the first.

What are they all meeting for...?

You're sure it's a meeting?

It is the most likely scenario.

Keep moving, these sheep are looking.

You stare around at the ponies walking through the street. Sure enough, a lot were staring at the bipedal ape man dressed in leather armor who seemed to be having three different conversations to himself. You're sure you snarl at them as you walk further down the road, a storefront with a shield and a sword on the sign out front.

You step up to the counter and drop your bag of bits onto it. The clerk behind it stares at both you and the bag for a good few seconds each before meeting your gaze with wide eyes.

"No questions asked, got it." he says.

You smirk, at least there were some people who knew the proper way to conduct trade. You walk along the rack of weapons and mull the choices over.

Hmmm...

Get me something that I can rend and tear with.

Ooooohh~. Throwing darts~.

We DO need more ranged offensive weaponry.

You listen to all of your advice as you pick and choose.

A pair of tomahawks.

Bandoliers and throwing knives.

Flash bombs!

And a few smoke bombs for getaways.

The clerk eyes you as you pick out what you wanted. "Jeeze pal, you planning to take on the army with this stuff?"

Didn't he say no questions?

Should reach over there an-

"Just some work." you say.

Have to keep a lid on it...

"One o' them mercenaries, eh?"

"You...could say that."

REACH OVER THERE AND GUT HIM!

You rub a finger on your temple.

Justaclerkjustaclerknotlikethelastone.

"Uh...you okay there, buddy?" he asks.

"Y-yeah, just the heat getting to me..."

The clerk rings up your purchase and slides the bits into the register.

"If the heat's gettin' to ya, head on over to the local watering hole. That'll bring you right back up..."

You quiet the angry tornado in your head and walk out with your things.

"Yeah, might check that out..."

You had a friend there anyway.

-[url=http//-

You push through the doors of the bar and let out a contented sigh. This place was nice...even Red liked it.

You walk around or past all the other ponies in the bar as they drank, played cards and revel. You pound twice on the bar. "Pohito."

The bartender makes a slightly odd face as he trots away.

A golden stallion next to you chuckles once. "Only one guy I know round these parts who drinks Pohitios."

You turn to face him "I like the minty taste."

He tilts up his hat. "And here I thought apples were your thing."

You roll your eyes and sip your totally not-stereotypical drink. "Hello, Braeburn."

Braeburn tosses off his hat and throws back his own drink. "So why'd you blow into town this time, Anon?"

"Can't I just stop by when I'm in the neighborhood?"

"When ya got those this time?" he asks pointing towards your head.

You wince and run a finger over the scars leading up to your hairline.

"Cougar got me in the hills..."

Braeburn shakes his head. "Why ya gotta go and be so reckless, ya big idiot?"

It's cute that he worries

He should understand that we're fine

Aw, he's just worried about his squeeze

We are not his "squeeze". He is ours

You feign another pass at your scars as the fire in your veins lights.

Braeburn seems to not be taking it. "You alright, pard?"

You try to stem the tide of Red.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine...you wanna get outta here?"

Braeburn gets his own red going on his face.

You find your hand going to the back of his neck on its own.

"C-c'mon, Anon...everyone's lookin'..."

You let your vision grow redder as you lean into his ear. "What do I care~?"

Braeburn shudders and slams his hoof on the table.

"Tab!"

The sun rises over the horizon of the Appleoosan desert. You lift your hand to shield your eyes from the harsh rays of the star from your face as you eat your eggs.

At least Brae fixed his chair

We spend enough time here, he ought to have...

Speaking of the devil, the golden stallion trots out of the room behind you with a appeased smile on his face. "Ah tell ya, pard. You n' yours are one of two things that can tucker me out like this."

You sip your coffee. "The other being?"

"Tryin' ta out-buck cousin AJ."

You smirk. "Comparing me to a tree-kicker? Now I'm all mad."

"And we can't have that none, can we?"

Braeburn hops up to a chair across the table from you.

"Can't end up like them dragons, huh?"

Your mind goes blood red and you grip the edges of your hair at mention of the dragons.

"DON'T. TALK. ABOUT. THEM."

Braeburn winces at your outburst and shies away a bit. "N-now...calm down...no need to be gettin' all ornery..."

Your fingers dig into the table as you glare daggers at the golden pony across from you.

HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOU-

You take a deep breath and calm the raging inferno in you enough to regain yourself.

"Brae...you know you can't talk about that..."

He shuffles in his seat a bit. "Sorry, Anon...know ya have got some bad memories there..."

You remember back to that time...all the blood and anger and heat...the foremost thing that comes to your mind is holding a young dragon down as you tore out his throat with your hand.

"Some good ones too..."

Braeburn starts to poke at his own eggs with his fork.

"Still don't understand all that stuff with your head..."

You sigh. "Let me explain it..."

-[url=http//-

You put your fork down and run your hands through your hair. You do you explain this? It was always the hardest part...

"Brae...you know how you have that voice in your head? The one who tells you to do things?"

Braeburn nods his head.

"Well...I have three."

His eyes widen as he gulps down his food. "Three...? Do they all say the same stuff?"

You slowly shake your head "They all sound different and say different stuff...it's like-"

You grab you knife and fiddle with it.

"It's like they're all three different people, but me too, you know?"

Braeburn sits across from you in rapt attention.

"I've started calling them things...you know, when I talk to them. There's Blue, I think he's all my time in the guard or my logical thinking, or whatever. He's smart and gotten me out of a lot of problems, but he's a bit of a pill."

HA!

Hmph

"Green" as I call him seems to be some sort of reaction to what happened...with the dragons and Mac..."

Or those four months we spent alone in that cave!

"An what's he like?" Brae asks.

"He's..."

Green proceeds to mark farty noises in your minds ear.

"Unique."

Braeburn sets down his fork. "And...the last one?"

You sigh again as the bloody tint edges its way back into your brain "R-red...he was the first...all that anger at what happened that's still getting out in whatever way it can..."

"...Like?"

"Violence, sex, you..."

Braeburn is taken aback at that. "Me...? S'that what this is? Just a way to appease the devil in your head?"

You sigh and lean back. "I don't know, Brae...I'm not thinking that far ahead..."

Braeburn is silent for a bit, uncomfortably so.

Weak

You sigh. "I'll just go..."

You climb out of your chair and gather your shirt and your things. He can't handle all this? Fine, his problem. As you grab your things, you blow past the quaking cowboy and walk out the door.

You walk West away from the sun towards the edge of town, eager to get away from the accusatory words Braeburn or anyone else had for you. You were how you were, anyone who couldn't handle that would just have to...leave.

Not like you could.

You reach the edge of town and spot a circle of wagons with about a dozen ponies clustered in the center.

As you pass by, you hear some of what they're talking about.

"Heading north-"

"-big haul-"

"-big risk-"

"-more bits than you can imagine-"

You stood still next to the wagon circle as you heard them out.

Sounds like a good opportunity for violence.

You turn towards the wagon circle draw closer.

Need to do SOMETHING, gotta get away.

A pony hops up on a box and flares his wings "Alright! Y'all know the job and what the reward is, now who here wants a piece of that action?"

"I do." you boom.

The ponies all turn to look back at the stranger who barged into their circle.

"Now who in the hay are you!?" one shouts.

"Nobody important, but I want in."

The lead speaker cocks an eyebrow. "You know what this job entails, Stranger?"

"Doesn't matter."

You and he stare each other down for a few moments.

"...Alright, that's one. Who else?"

Several of the other ponies follow your example and raise their hooves.

Good...more meat.

This job'll be fun!

We'll need some things, first.

Gearing Up.

Every day had the chance to be a good or a bad day with Schizophrenia. On good days, you might only hear a little bit of the others, either due to distraction or them just not being active. On bad days, they'd be like needles in your brain by disagreeing with each other.

Today was one such day.

And on the worst topic.

Spelling it with a U is stupid!

Spelling it with a U is correct!

Color!

Colour!

It had been like this ever since you left Appleoosa.

Having to listen to those two argue while clinging to the side of a train for a few hundred miles was your new definition of hell. It wasn't all bad though, it gave you and Red something to agree on.

Not the most healthy of things to do, naming your split personalities, but you weren't the picture of mental health these days.

Next you'll be spelling armor with a U!

It's the correct way of-

IF THE BOTH OF YOU DON'T SHUT UP, I SWEAR I'LL THROW US OFF A ROOF.

Green and Blue both quiet down and recede to their corners of your mind, leaving Red and you in the forefront.

When it rains...

You spot a pair of patrolling guards from the corner of your eye and duck into an alley to avoid them.

Wait until they pass, then slit their necks.

We're trying to get in and out of the city quietly.

The ensuing panic would allow us to slip in and out.

No.

Red growls in your head, he had always favored more direct methods. You turn and head out the alley on the other side, making a beeline for the familiar garage off the main road.

You peer inside the garage and spy two heavy cream colored stallions with peppermint manes looking into a giant car. They, like you, were arguing with one another.

"Flim, I told you to tighten the induction line!"

"I did that! It's just that your ridiculous idea of a "super fuel" rattles the line to pieces every time!"

"It gets us three times as far for the same amount of fuel!"

"And it almost kills us by making the car explode!"

You knock your fist against the frame of the door twice. "Nice to see you two are getting along."

The Flim Flam Brothers turn their heads so fast towards the sound of your voice you can hear the wind break. Once they catch sight of you, the natural color seems to drain from their faces simultaneously, an embarrassed shade of red coming through instead.

You roll your eyes, are these two prats STILL hung up on that?

The brothers glance at each other and compose themselves. "What are you doing here, Anon?" Flim asks.

You stroll into the garage up to the boys, your weapons hidden under your sun poncho.

"Came to pick up that special item I talked about in my letter."

Flim and Flam serve as your engineers, something that this job needed. Flam sighs heavily. "Two days to prepare a bag of bombs is not exactly a lot, Anon."

"Not to mention that we're not too keen on getting involved with...whatever you have planned!" Flim says.

"Do I have to get you both drunk again?"

The brother's mouths snap shut and they hang their heads a bit.

"No, really, it was fine. Hell, it was fun! I couldn't pick out who was who the entire night."

Flim and Flam's eyes dart between you and each other.

"Hey, at least you both learned a bit about yourselves, and it's not like you did anything THAT terrib-"

The sound of the front door opening cuts your story short.

Flim and Flam both look confused. "We're closed...there shouldn't be any customers."

The hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

"Stay here..."

You inch your way to the door where the sound came from. You peek through and spot a white stallion in dark grey armor examining the room.

"Flim Flam brothers! You are under suspicion of harboring a fugitive from the law! Show yourselves and this will go smoothly!" he calls.

Damn

You glance back at the two of them, they were either pacing around the room or had their hoof on their head panicking.

Must have tailed us

You unhook a hatchet from your belt and inch closer to the doorway. Once the stallion turns his back to the door, you strike. You grab his snout and bury the hatchet into the front of his neck before he can react. At the same time, you lift him by his head and throw him to the floor behind the counter. You cover his mouth as the blood seeps from his neck and his eyes go dark.

Flim and Flam are quick to run in and examine the noise, their faces contorting into both shock and horror at the sight of the dead guard.

"Anon, what did you do!?" Flim shouts. While Flam just mumbles out "This is bad" over and over.

You get up from the ground and move to the window while Flim takes your place at the corpse. "You bucking idiot! You just killed the guard!"

"I killed -a- guard." you say.

Flim is still angry. "What?" he shouts.

"There are more outside."

At least twenty guards were taking up positions outside the garage, a sergeant barking orders to them.

This complicates things.

We need to initiate a tactical withdrawal

Go out there and do the same as you did to this schmuck

The guards start spreading out around the garage.

Not viable, they have numbers and armor

Anything?

We need to escape, fast

You glance back to the panicking brothers.

Fast...

-[url=http//-

The engine revs to life as Flam finishes gassing it up and hops on.

"Are you sure about this, Anon?" he shouts.

"No."

You put the pedal to the floor on the Cider Squeezy and smash through the wooden doors of the garage.

Most of the guards jump back and out of the way from the screaming Cider-mobile now barreling down the road.

Most. Good thing this had a plow.

Flim and Flam hang on for dear life behind and next to you as you steer this metal monstrosity. Ponies in the street follow the guards examples and dive out of the way. In the mirror, you see several pegusi rapidly closing in on you.

Dammit!

Take em out!

We're moving too fast, the wind will carry the throwing knives away.

Shake 'em!

You veer to a street on the left and careen straight into the open air market. The mayhem intensifies as wood is splintered and thrown into the air. To your chagrin, the guards still follow through your path of destruction.

"Dammit! Don't these guys take hints?"

You steer back onto the main road and gun it towards the bridge out of town. Your hand dives into the satchel bag and pull out a belt of explosives.

Good ol' FF Btothers! Always making spares!

You prime the detonator and set the timer for five seconds as you near the bridge. The pegusi behind you are still gaining on your, mere feet from the car now. Once you pass over the middle of the bridge, you throw the bomb over the side and press the pedal so hard it might as well pass through the floor.

You hold Flim and Flam down with one hand as you count down in your head. "HANG ON!"

The bomb explodes, sending the car holding the three of you tumbling into the air.

Your head is ringing.

Dammit...

Sound off!

HAHA! YEAH!

THAT'LL SHOW 'EM!

DAMN STRAIGHT!

You swear you feel your personalities high five.

Where are we?

You look around the scene. Before you rested the remains of the Super Cider Squeezy 6000 after it had been thrown through the air. Flim and Flam were a few feet from you rubbing their heads. The bombs were still in their bag around your wrist.

Behind you was what was once a bridge, now just a ruin with a mushroom cloud going up from the center. Pegusi were flying through the air over the cloud, already on rescue and recovery duty no doubt.

That ought to distract them

You climb to your feet and grab the bag at your feet. "You two should leave, they'll be searching for you after they're done."

You start walking and drop a large bag of bits at their feet.

Flim is the first to regain himself. "Anon, you dolt! You've ruined us!"

Flam just sits in the dirt. "The car...the garage..."

"Complications arose, be glad you're escaping."

Flim and Flam become rapidly shrinking sounds in the distance. "And what do we do NOW, Anon!?"

You stop and glance back at them. "Get away. Head as far away from here as you can and hope they don't notice you."

"WHERE!?" he all but cries.

You start walking towards your job. "Somewhere, anywhere, I don't care."

The Train Job.

-[url=http//-

You sit with your back against the softest rock you could find. You're about a mile or two from where the meet-up for the job tomorrow was, but tonight was a night for sleeping.

Rocks didn't make the best beds, but you've had worse.

To the outsider, you were dead asleep as you sat motionless save for your rhythmic breathing. In truth, you were anything but. You were in your own little world.

IE Your own head.

You stand in a white void that you imagined your mind as, on both sides and behind you was a door. The raised section that you were standing on was the "controller", the place whoever was driving your body stood at. Usually it was you, you were the Prime, after all.

You step off and wander through your mind to where Green lived. Each of the Boys was sequestered in their own little corner of your brain, it kept you functioning. You knock twice on the door and open it, revealing a simple wood cabin with a green tinged you laying on the floor giggling.

Oh, hey boss-me

He goes back to a giggle fit after that.

Snrk! Boss me! Haaahahaha!

Green was always a bit...out there. The result of Cabin Fever.

"Yeah, just came to make sure you were ready for tomorrow."

He waves a hand at you.

Oh the train? You know it! How could I not be? That's WAAAAY too interesting to let alone

Satisfied that Green was ready, you shut the door and went onto the next one down.

The next door you opened revealed a room covered in maps and sparring tools with a lone blue you standing in the center with his eyes closed and his hands behind his back.

"Blue."

Prime

"What are you doing?"

Blue is silent for a bit.

Estimating

"Estimating?"

Estimating how fast the train will be moving tomorrow and how we are to board it

"Anything else?"

Blue's eyes snap open and focus on you with their normal ice cold calculative stare. The train will be guarded

"We've handled guards before."

It is possible we may have known some of them, if the rumors of cargo turn out to be true.

Your own head sinks "That's in the past now..."

Blue closes his eyes for a moment.

I will be ready with the proper tactics the guards will be using on the morrow

You nod your thanks and close the door.

The last door was...tricky. Blue and Green could be trusted to drive your body if need be, but Red...

Red would cause trouble.

You walk up to the thick steel door and knock twice.

"Red?"

Two hard slams on the other side of the door were your answer. This blasted part of you...always with the violence.

"Look, you know what tomorrow is. I came to make sure you're ready."

Always ready

And the short answers.

"Are we going to have a problem tomorrow?"

Another bang.

You offer a train full of meat to me, satisfy me and there will be no problem.

You scoff. "I don't "offer" you anything."

A deep laugh comes through the thick mental door. You fight and kill and fuck in the hopes that I am made fat and happy, so that I may stay in here and not threaten that pathetic world on the outside.

Another bang on the door. You offer some to save the many, this fact is known.

You take a step away from the door. It was true, you were terrified that Red would get loose, but offerings?

"I-just be ready tomorrow."

A harsh laugh comes from beyond the door. I will.

-[url=http//-

The group crouched low on the bridge over the train tracks. In the distance, you could see the train coming ever closer. Ever closer to all the gold...

Steelwing, the pegasus who got you into this job, watched as the train got ever closer. "Steady..."

The train begins to pass under the bridge.

"Now!" he cries.

You and the rest of your hijackers jump from the bridge and roll along the roof. Steelwing lands ahead of you. "Alright! All of us head to the car that's holding the mint's gold! Anon! cut us off from the engine!"

You nod and head the opposite way to the front of the train. The wind in your face was forcing you back as you walked along the roof.

Get low, crawl

You heed your advice and drop low to the ground, using your hatchets for additional grip as you dug them into the roof. A tunnel rapidly approached up ahead, one far too low for you to stay here.

Keep moving.

What!?

I SAID KEEP MOVING, GET AS FAR AS YOU CAN.

You hear the banging of fists on steel as you continue to crawl further and further. The tunnel grows ever and ever closer.

Have to jump!

MORE YOU SPINELESS COWARD.

You force yourself a few more feet forward until the tunnel almost fills your vision.

Now!

You pry your hatchets out of the roof and grip the edge of the car and smash feet first through a window and into the car inside. Ponies scream and shout at the monster who just smashed into their train car, but one command carries above them all.

"Run."

They oblige. Ponies jump out of their seats and make for both exits. Almost trampling the royal guards that show up after them.

Good.

The first of the guards leaps over the seats at you. You drop your hatchets and grab the guard by the neck and chest.

OUT.

You turn quick and toss the guard out the shattered window, watching him bounce between the tunnel and the train.

HA!

You about face and grab your hatchets off the floor as you dive back into the guards. You go into autopilot while you fight.

Or rather, Blue takes over.

Block high

Twist the hoof

Kick to the neck

You turn and twist and slash as the guards throw themselves at you more and more. The blood of the last guard leaps up and splashes over your face as you rip the hatchet out of his neck. The red haze at the edge of your vision pulses in time with your heartbeat when you climb to your feet.

Three cars to the front

You start hoofing it to the door and throw it open, letting the wind from the outdoors into the car. The red in your vision...it wasn't stopping.

Red wasn't backing down.

Red!

You keep moving towards your destination, intent to figure this out later. You reach the junction between the two cars, the bolt connecting them between your legs. The bomb could go off here and you'd be home free...

But there were more guards up front.

Red goes into a frenzy at the prospect of more guards, his rhythmic banging of steel in your head growing ever louder. You feel him barreling against the door and into your brain, just like those years ago in Ponyville.

The bomb is dropped from your hands over the bolt connecting the cars as you step over it and further into the train.

What in Celestia's name are you doing Re-

That's enough from you.

The door shatters and the monster inside comes barreling out, covering your vision in crimson. Your arm goes down and grabs a soot black cowboy hat that one of the stallions must have dropped. You gently place the hat on your head and grin as you enter into the next car, the bomb going off behind you and severing you from the rest of the train.

"I'm driving now."

-[url=http//-

It was good to drive. Prime didn't have the metal for this, he hadn't had it since the dragons. These ponies were weak, there was no way they could beat you. They deserved to be subservient to you. And that's what you planned to do; whatever you wanted, starting with this train.

The guards were no worry, they can't stand against you. Not even dragons could stand against you.

They throw themselves at you in panic as they saw you tear and slash your way through their comrades, not stopping until every one of them was dead. One gets an axe to the neck, another was sent out the window. One unlucky bastard gets thrown to the ground and had his head stomped in.

Where?

The engine is ahead, past the coal car

You liked Blue, he didn't care who lead. Green and you were fine too, it was only Prime that opposed you. Fortunately, he was locked away in your room.

You rush through the door and climb up and over the pile of coal inside, finally reaching the engine. Three ponies inside were serving as conductors, all of them were slack jawed when the ape covered in blood and ash burst through the door.

"Leave."

Two of them are smart and run out the other door, but the other seems to think he's a hero and charges you. You send him screaming over the edge of the train.

Time in the Mild West had taught you to never put all your eggs in one basket. That's why you had Flim and Flam make you more than one bomb. You set the timers on the rest of them and toss the bag holding them into the fire of the engine. Wasting no time, you make for the roof to leave.

To your surprise, a pegusi is standing there. He's covered in cuts and scrapes and his armor is dented, but he's able enough.

He glared at you with tired but determined eyes. "You're friends are almost three miles back...why are you here?"

You count down the timers of the bombs in your head, all the way down to the last second before you meet the stallions glare.

"Fun."

The engine of the train erupts into a fireball the size of a house as the bombs tear through the engine.

The lack of locomotion shakes the entire train once, with the more violent shaking coming after the wheels are taken out. You blow past the stumbling guard and make your way to the back of the train.

HAHA! I LOVE THIS SHIT!

We need to get off the train before it happens.

Before what happens?

Another explosion finally disintegrate the engine and forces the whole flaming car off the track.

That.

BRILLIANT!

The shaking of the train multiplies a dozen times over as the train barrels over the harsh Western desert. Anyone and anything that wasn't thrown off before was shaken off now, a trail of boxes, boards and writhing bodies stretching out behind it. You jump over the gaps between cars as the ones behind you twist onto their side and lurch onto the ground. A glance behind you proves to be just the thing you didn't need to do.

Not with that cliff coming up fast.

DOUBLE TIME!

You full tilt sprint across the train as the engine tumbles off the cliff and drags each car behind it over in tandem. You reach the last car and jump for your life as the train goes sailing off into the valley below. You fuck up the landing and land face first on a stray piece of metal, sending you into absolute blackness.

The blackness recedes after a what you gather to be a few moments, taking the red along with it. You spit a bit of blood out of your mouth as you take in your new surroundings.

He was gone...you were you again.

You look inside your head, Green and Red were both hysterical, laughing and rolling around on the "floor".

"Nnngggg..."

You push yourself to your feet and inspect yourself. A little banged up...some gashes and gouges here or there, but your armor blunted most if it despite being leather.

You walk over to the edge of the cliff and glance down. The train was a wreck of mangled metal, split wood and burning coal at the bottom of the canyon.

No way something survived that...

Unlikely

Shit...

You were scared. Red had always been an annoyance, but taking over? Circumventing your control? That was new. Red wasn't supposed to get out, he wasn't even supposed to EXIST.

You sigh.

None of this was supposed to exist... All because you weren't fast enough.

The faint sound of wooden wheels on dirt and the thunder of hooves drew your attention behind you. A could of dust almost a quarter mile high was coming over the horizon, indicating that the law was on its way.

Shit. SHIT! We can't be here! We just crashed a train, killed guards and were responsible for the theft of millions of bits! We need to bail!

You limp into the nearby hills, forsaking anything that wasn't still on you.

Where are we going?

Anywhere that's not here!

Night Life.

-[url=http//-

Hoofington was a step up from the Mild West. At least a small step. And at least on the outside.

On the inside it was the same as always. Big sights, loud noises, and enough action that you were always sated.

The year since that botched train job had been a blur. Red was asserting more control, pushing more and making more choices. That was part of the reason you came to Hoofington, there was always something going on here. Your days were spent in a dazed sleep as you prepared for the midnight hours, where you truly were able to come alive. The nights in Hoofington can only be described as "Blissful anarchy."

A man can walk from his bed and straight into the Grand Galloping Gala for low-lifes like himself. From party to backroom to dumpster and back again, the Hoofington life was one you could get behind each and every night.

And as for money...

You had graduated from theft to something a bit more...intense.

Your boots land on the pegasus underneath you and your fang shaped knives dig into his neck. A bit more satisfying. You drag the corpse off to the side and knock on the wall, drawing the attention of another down the hall. His face contorts to shock and agony as you grab his snout and drag your knife across his neck. The penthouse apartment stays quiet as you sneak through, dispatching sentries, servants, and anyone important until eventually you were the only living being in the blood soaked apartment.

Well! That was fun!

That it was.

You kneel down and rifle through the guards pockets.

Hmm...couple bits, a watch, slip of paper with some phone number on it.

Bunch of crap.

You rise back to your feet and start to rummage through the apartment proper, there had to be something worth stealing in here.

Bedrooms.

You kick in doors and delve into the dresser drawers of the ex-owner of this home. "Autopilot" kicks in and the others speak up.

Grab that jewelry.

The bits.

More corpses.

This is how it went when you did this now. It was like this frighteningly more often now, the others pushing you further and further back into your own brain.

Necklace.

You pocket the valuables and throw any that are bigger into a bag.

Floodlights from the buildings across the street snap on and fill the room with light that rivals the sun. You shield your eyes as you stand and ready yourself. Three knocks come from the front door before you hear it shatter, the sound of hooves not far behind it.

"Royal guard! Everyone freeze!" they call from the living room.

They tailed us.

Or they were here before we got here.

You twist your head around and watch as the guards start to surround you. You spy the window.

This is where the fun begins!

-[url=http//-

You grab a chair just as the guards catch sight of you and send it sailing through the window, you following after it.

"After him!" one of the guards calls.

You run across the roof and slide over dish antennas and run through hanging laundry as the guards chase after you.

Distance.

Agreed.

A thick wire connected this building to the one across the street, running for about two hundred feet. It'd do.

You unhook your knives and cross them over the top of the wire, jumping off and sliding down. Bolts of magic whiz past you as the guards reach the edge of the roof behind you. Pegusi are in the air in moments, circling you as you slide down.

They're expecting us to ride this out.

Drop.

You slide your knives off the wire and drop to the roof below, rolling in to the fall and breaking into a run. You run along a parallel angle from the wire towards the edge of the roof.

Alley.

Your lungs burn as you jump off the roof towards the opposing wall and kick off to catch the fire escape. You drop and grab your way down to the ground and land with a THUMP!

They'll be here in moments, head out the back.

You're about to turn and run when a commanding voice stops you. "Anon."

You growl and look back at him over your shoulder.

"Armor."

Shining Armor takes a few steps towards you. "You look...well."

You don't know the half of it...

"I feel...well."

Everyone knew that was a lie, you were covered in scrapes and cuts in that alley.

"It's been a while." he says.

You snort. "Couple of years."

"Where did you go? After that day in Ponyville?"

You snap your head around and glare at him. "Away."

Shining eyes you as if trying to dig out more information that you weren't planning to share before walking closer. "I'll assume you're curious about how we found you?"

You glance up at the pegusi taking position along the rooftops.

Shining approaches you from the side. "The drink you had at that club earlier was magically tagged. We tracked you."

You spit a bit of the possibly contaminated saliva out.

"Clever."

You glare down at your old friend. "So why go through all this trouble, were those guys up there friends of yours?"

Shining glances at the now surrounded penthouse. "Yes, I saw that. We'll talk about that later."

No you won't.

"But...I need your help, Anon."

Whoa.

Wait.

What?

"Excuse me?"

Armor beckons you down to his level and whispers into your ear. "Communications have ceased from Trottingham...It's been two weeks and all we've had are some frightened refugees in Dappleshore and Stalliongrad."

You lean back a bit. No communications? What could that mean?

"What do the refugees say?"

Shining glances both ways. "They spoke about walking corpses." he whispers.

Corpses?

Hmmm...

You pull away. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Shining sighs. "I need you to go and investigate, possibly attempt to fix whatever's wrong."

...He wants you to help him? After not helping with the dragons? You feel Red muscle through as you snort and walk down the alley.

"Not interested."

You walk the streets at late night back to your place. Okay, technically not "your" place, it belonged to some son of a city councilmen who you were helping with some "self discovery".

Kid had potential, at least in the sack.

You step through the door into the apartment and find it dark.

"Lace? You in?"

You drop your knives on the counter and make for the living room.

"You're not gonna believe who tracked me dow-"

The living room is empty.

"...Lace?"

You walk through the room and find a small note on the table.

...Huh?

You grab the note. "Anon, it's not working out. I know what you do at night and where you go. I know about the things you used to do. You were great to be around in doses, but you're just...not what I need right now. Have a nice life. -Royal Lace."

That...

You crunch the paper in your hand.

THAT LITTLE.

You flip the table over and the couch soon after, stampeding around the room.

THAT STUPID LITTL-

-E SHIT THINGKS HE CAN-

-REPLACE US SO EASY THAT LIKE THAT!? A-

FTER THE TIME WE PUT IN!?

You drop your ass onto the floor and run your hand through your hair.

"Might as well just DO Shining's stupid job now!"

Not like there was any other reason to stay here...

How far to Trottingham?

Three days by train

...Fuck it.

You jump to your feet and make for the door, grabbing your knives on the way out. You could hit up some stores, grab some gear, and be there in the week. You head back out into the cold night and head for the nearest train station. As you pass the alley by the apartment, you could have noticed the white mane of your now ex, Royal Lace. And once again, had you been paying attention, you could have noticed the flash of emerald fire from the alley followed by the sound of clopping hooves.

Suburbia.

Music

You grip the roof tight as the smoke bellows into your face, the train screaming down the side of the mountain. The cars behind you were shredded and blown out after the recent events. Before you now on the roof of the train stands a battered and bloody griffin clenching her sides, just like that pegusi so long ago.

It had been a busy three days.

"LAST STOP, STORMWING! LAST CHANCE TO THROW ALL OF THIS BEHIND US!"

Please don't. She glances around at her situation, clearly taking your words under consideration.

But, as is the case with her kind, that griffin bravado and honor takes root and thrives. "Not way. Not after what you pulled. We end this now!"

Thank The Maker.

The hen charges you, using the wind at her back to close the distance between you both as fast as she can.

Idiot.

Knee.

You shoot your knee up into her jaw as she gets close before you grab the feathers on the side of her head. You spin yourself around with her still in your grip and hurl her from the train.

She spins and twists in the wind as you speed ahead, but her wounds do too much to slow her down and she vanishes beneath the trees.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Riding on a burning train down a mountain at blinding speeds and throwing some dumb bitch off with your bare hands, this was the time of your life.

You step to the edge of the train and spot the lake you were currently running over.

No time like the present!

You leap from the train, your velocity causing you to painfully skip over the water's surface.

FUCK,

SHIT

DAMN

ASS

You break through the water's surface near the shore and haul yourself out and onto the shore. Your knives and gear can all be felt on your body, save for one important thing.

DAMMIT.

SHIT

WHERE IS IT?

You get to your feet and slow through the wet sand. "WHERE IS IT!?"

Traveling light was a necessity for you, you usually only ever carried your gear on you and some bits.

Save this. This went everywhere with you. You spot a simple rucksack at the edge of the beach and all but run towards it. Inside you can feel water sloshing around as you madly grasp for the object inside. Once your hand finds purchase, you pull the little stuffed friend out and sigh a deep sigh of relief.

"Hello, Smarty Pants..."

The doll didn't respond, but it being there was enough for you.

Mac had loved this thing...it had been the only thing you had grabbed from Ponyville before you left...

You sigh and shove the doll back into its sack before throwing it over your back and tightening it to ensure it wouldn't be thrown off again.

By your reckoning, you were a few miles from the Trottingham suburbs, only a short walk away. You set out and walk through the woods, putting your body on autopilot as you take in the gentle sights and sounds of the forest.

Before long, you see the small houses of the suburb, the residents of it milling about.

Nothing LOOKED out of the ordinary...

Shining, you're a moron.

You moved closer to the town, now being able to make out some of it.

It was a lot like Ponyville with a northern flavor. The roofs were the same just made of brick, the streets were paved and the citizen-

...Okay, maybe Shining wasn't a moron.

Everyone in the town was muted, grey. They all wear blank expressions and simply shuffle their hooves along the ground as they walk seemingly without direction or purpose.

You stride through the town, giving the ponies a wide berth as you do.

As you walk, you inspect them.

Small pupils, mouths agape, drool spilling out and hooves dragging along the ground.

None of them seem to notice us...

It's a little insulting.

You huff a bit and walk down the road towards an official looking building. Rounded structure, pillars along the outside keeping the roof up, crows next at the top.

A lot like Town Hall in Ponyville.

You step up to the front door and knock your knuckles against it twice.

"Hello?"

You hear the sound of hooves on hardwood from behind the door.

"Anyone in there?"

Break down the door

That's ins-

You find your foot moving up to the doorknob. Your foot bounces off the door three times before the sound of cracking wood and a hail of tiny splinters hearkens your entry into town hall.

Immediately before an arrow embeds itself in the wall.

"GAH FUCK."

"Dammit all!" someone says.

You spot a unicorn in the back of the room wielding a small crossbow, struggling as he tries to reload it.

You burst from the doorway and bound over the makeshift barricades, tackling the stallion to the ground. "You greet everyone like this, kid!?"

"Please don't take me!"

Huh?

Gather information.

"Explain."

He removes his hooves from his face and looks up at you. "You mean...you don't know?"

You shake your head.

"Oh thank Celestia! You may be able to help!"

He wriggles his way out from underneath you and hops to his feet. "It all started about two weeks ago. Some ponies said they saw the old necromancer Grogar in the nearby ruins of Tambelon. A few days later, there were reports of walking DEAD circulating around town!"

"A few magisters looked into it, they think that Grogar has to siphon life energy from living beings and then spread it out over the dead to raise them."

The stallion reloads his crossbow.

"I'm the only one left. The ones outside get...controlled by him! Turned into his little obedient slaves!"

The stallion peers out the window. "I think we can make a break for it if we-"

You weren't listening, you were heading to the door. You throw open the doors and bang your fist against one as loud as you can, attracting the attention of all the ponies outside.

You glance over your shoulder at the stallion. "Stay inside."

Music

Your back arches and your pupils constrict as the townspeople stumble ever closer to you. You run into the crowd of cultists and start swinging your knives, aiming for necks, faces, and chests.

This...this was sick.

There was no one to save from this, no need to. They were gone, the life was stolen from them and they were forced to hobble around afterwards. This wasn't murder, it was an act of mercy. You whirled around the town, killing every shambling form you found. It turned out that the unicorn in the town hall wasn't the only survivor. You found a few families in homes, a few people trying to get food, a child hiding under a porch. You directed each of them to the town hall to take shelter.

The sun sets as you clear out more of the town of more of the cultists. Eventually you spot only one cultists remaining, shuffling towards the woods at the edge of town.

Knives in hand, you close the distance between the two of you. You tackle the cultist to the ground and slam your knuckles and the blade straight into his neck. His eyes lose what's left of their light as the crimson blood seeps from the wound.

Around his bleeding neck, you spot a single blue amulet. You grab the amulet and hold it up to your eye.

The single sapphire catches the rising moonlight as you survey the landscape. Once you point it in one direction, it takes on a low bloody red hue. You remove the sapphire and stare off into the distance, the dull light of a million electric lamps thrumming in the distance.

Trottingham.

The amulet is pointing there.

You rise from your feet and start walking.

Hells Bells.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Bone snaps and breaks between the battering assault of your shield and the rock wall, removing the zombie from the fight.

Just need to-

"GILDA! RIGHT SIDE!"

Gilda yelps as she narrowly avoids a bite on her wing before bringing her claws up across the corpse's face. Good...don't need to lose anyone else.

You had been fighting with the Trottingham Resistance for coming on two hours now. You were tired, a bit cut up, and sore, but you were alive and fighting.

You, Neigh, Gild, Gear and a few others were all that was left of the twenty-odd strength force you left with. And a few of those who fell had to be put down again.

You kick a zombie in the chest and then get him across the neck, clearing the way to down the path.

"Come on! We're almost there!"

Your party takes off down the road towards the center of the city.

"Once we get to city hall, we need to get that bell off of Grogar!" Neigh shouts.

"What does that do?"

Neigh takes off ahead of you, ponies were always better at running that you. "I don't know!"

Brilliant.

You follow Neigh towards the end of the path and come out in a large open courtyard, the city hall building at the far end and a field of the dead in between you.

You ready your weapons when Neigh holds up a hoof. "Wait..."

He trots up to the nearest zombie and sticks his head close. By some miracle, the zombie not only doesn't try to bite his head off, but it doesn't move at all.

A small white post card was hanging from the zombie's neck. Come to think of it, EVERY zombie here had a post card on its neck, and none of them were moving.

Neigh snatches the post card and returns to the group.

"What's it say, Prof?" Gear asks.

Neigh flips the card around and scowls. "It says "I await you in the antechamber in city hall." Signed Grogar."

Brilliant.

Your party creeps through the cold city hall building. There was once a time when this room would have been bustling with activity, now it was a ghost town.

"Will the others be able to hold the door in case those buggers outside get any ideas?" Gear asks.

Gilda scoffs. "They better..."

You push the doors to the antechamber open, revealing a GARGANTUAN midnight blue ram standing in the center of the room.

Weapons litter the ground, a sign that you are not the first to try and take Grogar.

He towers over the ponies, being able to meet you eye to eye. "Hmm. I will admit that I did no-" Grogar is interrupted by a green blast of magic fired from a young unicorn next to you.

The magic bolt splashes over an invisible barrier some two feet from his face, curving around and impacting the wall behind him. Grogar doesn't move an inch, just stand there and eyes the child who dared attack him.

With a quick flash of his eyes and a flick of his horns, Grogar sends the screaming unicorn flying out a nearby window and towards the ground below. You and the rest of the party slowly turn back to keep the necromancer in your sights.

He continues to stand ramrod stiff, no sound beyond his deep booming voice.

"As I was saying, I did not expect to see any members of the living still in this city, a most annoying anomaly."

Gilda's feathers are on edge as she lowers herself. "Why are you here?"

Once again, Grogar is motionless save for his mouth, not wasting a single movement. "I came to take this city for my own, as is my right. My city of Tambelon was thrown into the Dark World with me so many eons ago, I will need a new one." For a fraction of a second, you can see Grogar's eyes dart around the room. "This will suffice."

Those soulless red orbs lock onto the remaining four of you. "I will assume you are here to stop me.

Your party wordlessly dropping into a fighting stance was his answer.

"Hmph. As you wish. You will all be given a single chance to defeat me before I annihilate you all."

Gilda rockets off the ground at a breakneck speed towards Grogar-

-only to be teleported as soon as she entered the same area as the spell did, popping out behind him and speeding towards and smashing into a wall. behind him.

"Next." Grogar says unimpressed.

Gear scrapes her hoof along the ground and dashes to Grogar's side, magically tossing several small canisters at him. With another flash of his eyes, tiny rifts appear around Gear's weapons. Rifts that ferry them directly in front of her face just as they go off with a blinding flash of light and deafening bang.

Gear whimpers quietly on the ground, leaving only you and Professor Neigh.

"Next."

Professor Neigh glances to and fro, sweat beading at his brow.

"Need time to think..." he mutters.

You bend down and grab a sword off the ground, tossing it at Grogar.

The ram catches it in a telekinetic grip and inspects the blade. "Hm...it's to be a duel then?"

You nod. "It is."

Grogar slowly nods. "So be it."

You and Grogar begin circling one another slowly.

Sit rep.

Prof needs time to think.

Keep Grogar busy and give him the time.

And rip that damn bell off his neck.

Music

You hike up your shield as you and Grogar circle around the room. Grogar's eyes are focused intently on you, sizing up the armed biped in front of him with his sword floating in a purple glow next to him.

You both take a step forward and meet steel in the center of the room, sending a few sparks off. The two of you each take a step back and meat again, blocking each other's strikes once more. You meet like that again and again, clashing in the center of the room as your companions look on.

Need more time...

Grogar keeps his attack on and slashes across your chest, drawing a bit of blood from the tip.

"Gaaah!"

Before Grogar can get you again with an overhand slash, you raise your shield above your head.

Move!

You keep your shield raised and twist around to the side, spinning into a position that lets you bash Grogar's head form the side with your shield.

The ram blinks once to clear his vision before turning back to you. "Hmm...It seems you have some skill after all."

"I would hate for this to be over so quickly!" he shouts before lunging back at you.

You crouch behind your shield and smash into Grogar's chest, the bell you were after mockingly dinging on the other side. Grogar digs his hooves into the floor and forces you back, your boots scrambling on the hard marble looking for purchase. Grogar reels back and slams his chest against your shield, knocking you back a few feet and smashing the shield against your face.

You blink away your own stars in time to see Grogar running towards you with his horns down.

You get your shield up just in time to get flung across the room by the ram's charge, smacking into the wall at the far end. You slide down the wall and remove your shield.

"Dammit, die already!"

Grogar casually leans his head to the side and dodges the projectile, letting it embed itself in the wall as

"You younglings always believe that those older than you cannot stand against you."

Grogar rears up and brings both hooves against your chest, cracking you in the chest and tossing you back.

Wall.

As Grogar charges you again, you jump up and kick off the wall, deliver the front of tough boot into his jaw.

HA!

The ram coldly backs away and reattaches his jaw with a SNAP!

"You will make an excellent addition to my horde, human..." he growls before attacking you with a new fervor. The necromancer's slashes become rapid and hard as he forces you back into a corner, his eyes boring holes into your head.

"On second thought, perhaps my ranks are too good for a being such as yourself." Grogar swings high and takes a few hairs off the top of your head.

"Oh no, human. Your bones will build my palaces, your eyes will stud me cro-GAK!"

Large feathered wings beat hard and fast as Gilda tries to keep her arms around Grogar's neck. "Not this time, Gramps!"

Grogar bucks and kicks trying to shake Gilda off, his magic dropping his sword.

Take the opening.

"INSOLENT BIRD! UNHAND ME AND FACE YO-AAAAAH!"

You drive your sword deep into Grogar's midsection and rupture on through the other side. Grogar howls and hollers his hollow sounding scream that shakes the very foundation of the city

But he does not stop nor slow down despite the efforts of both of you.

"WHELPS! CONTEMPTUOUS WHELPS, THE LOT OF YOU! THE LORD OF THE DEAD CANNOT BE FELLED BY MORAL HANDS!" Grogar booms.

Damn!

"I AM THE FINAL FATE OF ALL EQUESTRIANS! THE FINAL BLACK GATE THAT SHUTS THEM AWAY FROM THEIR WORLD!"

A blur of light grey in a beat of sweater vest comes from Grogar's opposite side and places a hoof on the bell around his neck.

"And so you must be shut tight." Neigh says before snapping the cord that kept the magic bell in place.

Grogar's eyes open wide. "NO! NO!" he shouts.

All at once it happens, his volcanic shout turns more and more pathetic and droning, the glow from his horns dies away and sends his sword clattering to the floor. The No-So-Immortal Necromancer seemed to decay and rot before your eyes, collapsing into a pile of refuse on the floor with you still holding your steaming sword in the air that his torso used to occupy.

Gilda picks herself up off the ground, having fallen there once Grogar dissipated and rubs her head. "Is...that it? Did we do it?"

Neigh disgustedly tosses the bell to one side and trots over to Gear still laying on the ground. "Yes, we did..."

You grab your sword and hop to your feet and go over to help Gilda back to hers. "You alright?"

Gilda stumbles a bit, but rights herself soon enough. "Yeah...dweeb only surprised me."

You chuckle. "I thought we were dweebs?"

Gilda eyes you. "We"?"

Shit.

"I mean, I. Sorry."

Gilda buys your cover and smirks. "I pined you, dingus. He threw me around a bit first.

"Well at least we're establishing a proper rank and file to our nicknames, Feathers."

You let her stand on her own legs and pat her on the back.

"You wouldn't make a half bad psycho."

Gilda grimaces a bit as she makes for the door. "And you'd make a half decent Griffin."

What's the difference?

You kneel down next to Professor Neigh to help Gear to her hooves. "How about you, Gear? Are you alright?"

The tinkerer coughs once as she shakily stands. "Heh. What's that Anon? I think those flashbangs did a number on me, I'm not hearing so good."

Gear opens her eyes, revealing them to be red and bleeding a bit. "And I can't see too well either."

Neigh closes Gear's eyes for her and helps you prop her up. "Save your strength, Gear. We'll get you some help as soon as we can.

Gear laughs a bit. "Thanks Prof..."

On their way to the door, Gear turns back to you. "Hey Anon, if I can still work after this, hit me up."

A toothy grin despite the situation crosses her feature. "A guy like you knows his way around good tools."

You chuckle. "Count on it, Gear."

She laughs a single sharp laugh as the Professor escorts her out of the room.

You didn't stick around after Grogar was defeated, it wasn't your place. All you did was fight and steal a bell another guy took off.

You also hated the attention. Within minutes you were outside, looking to find a way out of the city and back to your usual stomping grounds.

As you walk, you spot the shattered window Grogar sent that one unicorn sailing through.

Might as well grab the corpse for them...

You poke around the bushes near the window and find a trail of blood. Green blood.

"What?"

You dig through the bushes and find the offending corpse, the black chitinous exoskeleton and the battered and broken holed limbs.

"What in the-"

Changeling: A species of insectoid creatures native to The Badlands, able to magically alter their form to appear as any life form.

They invaded Canterlot way back when!

They're crunchy.

You're about to touch the corpse when the sound of crunching branches and a voice stop you.

"Pleasssssse do not touch that, human."

You whirl around and bring your sword up as a zombie steps out of the shadows, with no shambling gait and upright. The zombie is engulfed in green fire for a flash before revealing another chitinous being before you. "My partnerssss incompetence iss not ssssomething I wish to relive."

What you assume is a he takes a few steps towards you and eyes the corpse. "Idiot." he says.

"Who are you?"

"My name issss not important. Ssssimply know that it wasss my duty to ensure you came here and eliminated Grogar."

He glances up to you. "A tasssk you completed very well, the Queen will be pleasssssed."

"Queen?"

He shakes his head. "Again, of no importance. I will relay thisss news to Her and thisss will hopefully be the lassst we sssssssee of one another."

The Changeling begins buzzing his transparent wings and takes to the sky, flying towards the mountains. "Human." he says before he leaves earshot.

Well...

You take your own advice and re-sheathe your sword, looking towards the setting sun.

"Back home..."

Wherever home was this week.

I'm Dreaming of a Dead City.

There are very few things that can unnerve you. Wars and combat, the horrors of what some ponies could do to others, you'd seen that and more in your life on the road.

But you'd never seen a simply SILENT city. The towers, the roads, the empty carriages, they were all silent as the grave.

Even the animals seemed to want to stay away from this place, no songbirds sang and no distant hooves or paws rang out in the distance. You sneak along a wall and peak around to spy them.

Rotting carcasses stand as still as statues in the middle of the streets, waiting until their master called on them to move.
Stay low, avoid notice.

You creep along the wall and head into a small building.

The stairs up to the second floor are covered in papers as you climb them. Knives out, you sneak along the wall with windows and peer outside.

Damn, it's worse than we thought.

Stretching from where you were now all the way to the large castle serving as the seat of power in Trottingham was a veritable horde of the undead.

This was going to be harder than you thought. A lot harder.

You creep along the wall and head back downstairs, heading out the back door again.

Alright, new plan. Get through the city, don't get seen, try and figure out what's going on and try and find if there's anyone still alive.

And try not to get turned into a zombie in the process.

You were sneaking along the wall on a street on the northern side of the city. The benefit of having to evade the undead is that they weren't the brightest bulbs around, nor the most aware. You had gotten within ten feet of one without it turning its head. At the moment you were scouting, trying to work out where the undead were the thickest and what the best way to get into the city center was.

Force is not an option, not alone.

Subterfuge would be too slow.

Maybe hit and run tactics to thin the heard a bit would work...

You peer over the broken wall next to you and eye one particular undead.

A mare who looked in her mid-thirties with the standard slack jawed and dead eyed face. Her hooves were a mass of cuts and scrapes from what you guess was dragging them along the ground.

So that means they don't feel pain...

Maybe there's a way we ca-

Your thoughts are interrupted by a heavy mass of muscles and feathers slamming into you at high speed and tossing you several feet back. You try bring your arms up to cover your face, but strong talons grab your wrists and slam them back onto the ground hard.

"Who in the hell are you, dweeb!? What are you doing here?" she hisses into your face.

You try to wrest your arms free, only to find that this griffin bitch had you pined six ways from Sunday.

Dammit...

She slams your hands again. "Answer me!"

You glare up at her. Healed cuts on her face, some mussed up feathers, bags under her eyes.

She's been fighting.

You sigh and meet her arresting gaze. "I'm here on a favor to the captain of the Canterlot Guard, so I suggest you relax."

Her glare doesn't lose any of its fire. "What the hell are you doing here?" you ask.

She grimaces. "The Hegemony got word of attacks on Pisa, I got picked to go check it out." She glances over you. "What in the hell are you supposed to be?"

Bitch.

"I'm a human and my name is Anonymous. Do I just call you "Griffin Bitch"?"

She punches your shoulder. "Gilda works too."

The sound of moans and shuffling hooves on the other side of the wall puts both of you on alert.

"They're coming here."

"They must have heard us."

"Are you alone here?"

"No."

"Get us there."

You scramble to your feet as Gild runs, not flies, into a house away from the undead with you following close behind.

Gilda hops over a broken barrier and waves you into a dilapidated house. "Come on, come on, hurry up!" You run through the door and take cover behind a wall, Gilda quickly walking past you and dragging a piece of sheet metal off the floor. A passageway leading into blackness stretched out underneath it.

"Homey."

"Just get inside!" Gilda shouts.

You lift your foot but pause at a nagging doubt.

Dark. Confined spaces. Unknown ally.

This smells like a trap.

The sounds of moans behind you hasten your choice.

Not like we have much else to do! Move it soldier!

You move down the stairs quickly into the darkness, Gilda hoping inside and dragging the cover back over. You could hear her feathers ruffling and her claws scraping over the sound of your own heartbeat.

"Follow me." she says through the darkness.

Steel plated boots and griffin talons scrape against the stone tunnel. You're on edge the entire time, waiting for the moment when you might be ambushed. The thought that you may die down here in the cold dark with all those walking drones up there...

It wasn't a nice thought.

That moment never comes, however, as a light at the end of the tunnel grows ever closer.

The two of you step out into a small basement made of stone, several ponies and a few griffins were sitting in various states of dejection, almost all of them had wrapped wounds. In the rear of the room rested a single table with several older ponies and griffins standing around it.

"What is this place?"

Gilda sighs. "This is every living thing we were able to find in Trottingham."

You look around the room again, there can't be more than twenty or twenty five ponies and griffins here.

You snort. "Grim."

Gilda shrugs off your comment and walks ahead of you towards the rear of the basement. "C'mon Dweeb, you're gonna give us a hand."

You follow Gilda to the table with the older ponies and griffins around it.

One pony, an older stallion even by these standards with a grey coat and stark white mane quirked an eyebrow at you. "Oh? And what have you brought me this time, Gilda?"

Gilda jerks a talon thumb back to you. "Calls himself a "human", Doc."

The stallion slicks back his hair and extends a hoof. "Professor Bill Neigh, university of Canterlot and visiting family when...all this happened."

You grasp the hoof and shake.

"Anonymous. Former Royal Guard and current...traveler."

He glances to the knives on your back. "Well you may be the traveler we need, come here." Neigh motions you towards the table which has a map of the city on it, several marks dot the map in certain locations.

"What's happening?"

"What do you know?" Neigh answers.

"Only that there are a couple thousand undead in this city and a ram named Grogar is apparently to blame."

The professor nods. "That is more or less the extent of it. Grogar was the ruler of a city called Tambelon some few hundred or thousand years ago. He was a Necromancer with the power to raise the dead to serve him." Neigh sighs and slumps his head. "And it appears he is back and has targeted us."

You glance at the map.

"Any ideas?"

Neigh raises his head again. "One."

"We." Professor Neigh points to a red X at one part of the map. "Are here. In the eastern residential district, with a semi-thick horde of the dead around us."

He points to another X, this one blue and in the center of the city. "Grogar is here at the old Keep that served as the center of power here, that's where the undead are the thickest."

"Okay..."

"Grogar's power comes from the bell he wears around his neck, also the only thing keeping him "alive". If we can take that bell..."

"We kill him."

Neigh leans back. "In essence."

...Gentleman?

A sound plan if it can be done.

You mull it over a bit before looking down at Neigh.

"Alright, I'm in. What's the plan."

He visibly calms. "Good...we need all the help we can get for this."
Neigh leaves the table and addresses everyone else in the basement. "Alright! It's time to get this going! Everyone get ready to move!"

Whoa, wait.

"We're doing this now?"

"No other time, we need to move against Grogar now." Neigh says.

You roll your shoulders and flex your fingers. "I'm ready."

"No you're not." Neigh says.

He walks past you and points to a cloth covering what looks like another room. "Go through there and talk to Gear, she'll help you out."

Neigh walks past you and leaves you to yourself.

You walk towards the curtain and enter into a shower of sparks. "Eyes!" someone calls. You shield your eyes from the mini sun and blink away the dots it brings. Vision clear, you catch sight of a grey mare levitating a band saw over her head and removing a welders mask. "Who in the hell're you supposed to be?"

"I'm the guy who was gonna save your ass until I went blind!" you growl, lowering your arms.

Gear chuckles. "I'll by yerself? That'll be the day."

She levitates her tools onto various nails hanging around the room. "So what can I getcha, handsome?"

You finally lower your arms. "Professor told me to come here before we go do this, said you could help."

Gear removes a pipe from her mouth and blows three rings of smoke. "May have somethin' for ya." She levitates a rather plain looking broadsword over to you in its sheathe.

"Got this from a guard warehouse a little after it all went down, none of us here no how to use it right but..." she takes another drag and blows the smoke out. "You I think may know your way around it."

You snatch the sword out of the air and draw it. Sharp, well polished, balanced at the hilt.

"Yeah...this'll do nicely."

You secure the sword on your belt and move to leave the room.

"Not so fast, got something else for ya."

Gear is levitating a polished bronzed shield up from the workbench she was on, it was battered and scraped, but you could make out the symbol of Trottingham on its face.

The most curious factor was that the edge was sharpened down so that it was almost as sharp as the sword.

"Just because I like ya." Gear says with a smirk.

You secure it on your arm and slam it against the stone wall, the cutting edge going in a good few inches.

"Magically enchanted." Gear remarks.

You can feel the others smirking as well.

Oh baby doll~...

Music

You drag the tip of your new sword along the concrete wall as you walk out the house into the street. That attracts the attention of the dead, the entire street by the look of it.

The rest of your companions join you in the door, Professor Neigh looking up at you. "What now, Anon?"

You grip the sword tighter and bare your teeth. "We kill them again."

You burst out of the doorway towards the first shambling corpse and stick your sword up to the hilt into its head. The blade rips through the skull with a bit of effort as another corpse shambles closer to you. You bash it with your shield and spin around to the others.

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE! KILL SOMETHING!"

The others jump off the porch and attack as you dive back into it. The familiar feeling of fire in your veins and the taste of iron in your mouth drive you further into the horde. You bring your shield to the front and kick off with your feet, slamming into the first undead in your way and pushing everything behind it as far back as you can.

The pile of slowly writing dead flesh falls easily after some jabs, stabs, slices and stomps. From behind you, you can hear the sounds of the others in combat with the dead.

Lack of experience was cast in a new light when your enemies were just a pile of rotting flesh and bone. The only advantage they had was in numbers, an advantage the four of you were happy to remove.

As you rush a particularly large zombie, you peak over at the unending waves behind him leading to the center of the city.

Towards Grogar. Towards the slaughter.

Burn Your Dread.

If there was one good thing that could be said about the direction your life had take, it was that it had taught you how to sleep almost anywhere. The steady rhythmic sound of the train underneath you riding along had lulled you into a fit-less doze.

At least until one particularly harsh section of track jostles you awake.

"Snrk! Buhwah!?"

You rub your eyes and look around the empty train car. Right...train out of Trottingham.

First one you could find, headed back out west.

You lean your head against the window. You gently caress your bag next to you, the one holding your your gear, Smarty, and the sword you received.

Well...back to the old grind...

You begin nodding off again as the train keeps chugging.

"Ponyville. Next stop: Ponyville."

Waitwhat?

"I paid for a direct ticket!"

The conductor gives you a delightful "Are you serious?" look.

"And as I've said seven times sir, we have to fill the water tank and the coal bed up before we can depart again. I would thank you for your cooperation." he says before trotting away.

"But I can't BE here!" you shout to his shrinking form.

When no response comes, your face falls so fast it breaks the sound barrier.

You crane your head out and look west along the tracks.

Could walk it...It's not that long.

By normal train pace, it'd be 63 hours. We walk at a third of that.

Your face falls even further as you consider the numbers.

"Perfect."

The next hour or so you spend trying to waste as much time as you can at the train station.

Try. You can't go out around the town, too many reminders.

You try pacing or singing old war songs or polishing your new sword to entertain you but having as crowded a head as you have makes legitimate entertainment hard to come by.

You're halfway through counting all the planks in the station for the third time when a familiar voice catches your attention.

"WHOA!"

Ohgodpleaseno-

A cyan blur streaks around you and stops in front of your face to inspect you. "Anon, is that really you!?"

You bat her hooves away. "Y-yeah Dash, it's me."

A thousand watt smile lights up on her face and she wraps you in her hooves

"Well where've ya been you big dummy!? We haven't seen or heard from you since-" You can hear Dash's indecision. "S-since what happened."

"Yeah, I've been-" You wriggle out of Dash's hug."-busy."

Her eyes drift down to the sword on your hip. "Yeah...I can tell."

You stand there awkwardly in front of Dash for a bit, trying to decide if you should be saying sorry for being gone so long or just try to leave again.

"Look, Dash, I-"

You feel a pair of hooves snake around your hand and pull you down the station stairs. "C'mon! You got people to see!"

"WAIT, DASH, PLEASE."

Dash isn't listening, just pulling you along the ground.

Dash yanks you through the center of town, drawing the attention of practically everyone you ever knew.

Many of them look happy to see you for the brief instant you saw them. You saw Lyra and Bon Bon, The Cakes, even Thunderlane is still here.

Boy, was it embarrassing seeing him again. That was the day you swore off hard liquor.

Dash continues to drag you along the path, clear purpose in her direction as she rockets along.

"What the hell, Dash!? What is it!?"

"You're due somewhere, Anon!"

What the hell!?

Seriously, where the hell are we going? The only thing out that far is-

Ohgod.

Rainbow skids to a halt in from of a gated fence, beyond the fence rest hundreds upon hundreds of apple trees.

You feel the others go conveniently silent.

"D-dash..."

Rainbow looks at you with a proud smile.

"I-I can't be here, Dash."

That smile melts away in a moment, replaced by a confused stare.

"What? Why? I thought you'd WANT to see the old family."

You start down the road.

"It's not that, I just...I-I can't be here.

Not after everything that's happened. However, there is one sound that could stop you as you walk along the wooden face. One sound that grinds you to a halt.

The high pitched accented young girl shouting "ANON!"

Against your better judgment, you spin around and scan the horizon for any sight of that voice.

Came from just over...there!

A red mane and pink bow, higher off the ground and fuller than you remember, bounces along the other side of the fence and screeches to a halt outside the main gate. Her face lights up as soon as she sees you. "It IS you!" she cries as she runs over and hugs you.

Applebloom had grown up quite a bit in the years you hadn't been home. Gone was the tiny little filly you once new and in her place was a young mare who seemed as strong of body as she used to be of mind.

...The only new addition was the unmistakable feeling of well healed burn scars along her entire left side.

"...Hi Applebloom."

You do your best to hide the sword on your hip and the knives on your back from her as she snuggles into your chest.

"Where ya been? We aint seen ya since those dragons came through the town a few years back!"

"Yeah. I uh..."

You remember back to everything you did during that month on that mountain.

"Went away...for a bit..."

"Where?" she asks with big amber eyes.

"Uhhh..."

It is now you notice that Rainbow has buggered off, some bro.

"N-nowhere important."

Applebloom doesn't press and drags you just like Dash did. "Well that don't matter none now! Y'all gotta come inside and see AJ and Granny again!"

Granny and AJ...

You missed them, even if they were another reminder.

Seeing them can't hurt...right?

Music

You step out of the farmhouse later that night, saying your timid goodbyes to Applebloom and Granny after you put them both to bed.

You sling your bag over your back and make for the road back to town. You missed the train you were on but there was always another one heading out.

A blotch of orange on a hillside nearby draws your attention over to it.

She sits on her hindquarters under a nearby tree staring at the moon, she looks like she's talking.

...Dammit.

Stupid guilty conscience.

You trek off the path and head over to the hill, picking up a bit of what she's saying as you get closer.

"-nd the southern field is coming in real nice this year, got the farmhands workin' their flanks off trying to get it all."

You sneak up and knock the tree twice when she's silent. "AJ?"

She doesn't jump or even raise her head, just let out a sigh. "Howdy, Anon."

You come around to her side and finally catch her eyes. "What are you doing out here?"

AJ looks up to the tree next to her. "Oh just...talking to 'im."

You follow AJ's eyes up to the tree.

Strong thick trunk, full canopy of leaves...bright red apples hanging from the branches...

"Oh..."

"Yeah..."

You remember an old story Granny used to tell you...about how every Apple family member who had passed got a tree named after them.

You place your hand on the bark.

"So this is his..."

AJ nods. "Yeah."

"I like talkin' to him sometimes. Makes me feel like he's still around."

...Hey Mac.

You rub the trunk of the tree.

AJ comes along your side. "I know what y'all r' thinkin'..."

You remove your hand. "Just a bit faster..."

AJ socks you in the side. "Now don't you think like that. Y'all are the reason that Applebloom is still here."

You look down to her. "The reason she got to grow up into that mare down there." she says pointing to the house.

You glance between the house, the tree, and AJ.

"Should have been faster." you whisper.

"I said none of that!"

Music

Aj puts her hoof to your gut with tears in her eyes. "I hadta hear Applebloom bellyache the same darn way after you left! She stayed up for weeks cryin' cuz she thought the same as you! "If I'da been a bit faster, I coulda got away and Big Macintosh and Anon would still be 'round!"

Applejack bites back more tears and grits her teeth. "Well she don't remember ma and pa dying! and you weren't around then! Know what I learned when that happened? That sometimes bad things HAPPEN! And there aint nothin' we can do about it but pull up our bootstraps and keep truckin'!"

Her hind legs give way and plot her flank on the ground while she rubs her face with her hoof, stuttering out her words. "C-cuz...that's how the ones who loved us would w-want us t'live..."

You haven't moved, just watched AJ cry. "T-they wouldn't want us hung up on them...no matter how much we miss 'em." You knew that she was waiting for you to say something, anything, in response, but you'd just noticed how clearly you could hear what she was saying, and how easy it was to concentrate on it.

The others hadn't said a word since you arrived here.

You felt them, at the back of your mind, huddled in the corner and clawing away at you.

But for the first time in years, you were alone with your thoughts.

That feeling of longing and peace that had eluded you for so long swelled in your heart and made you do something really fucking dumb. Despite your trembling hands, despite the blades strapped to your body drenched in past blood, and despite your grief clenching your gut and demanding you turn tail and run, you reach out and gently caress Applejack's face.

"A-AJ..." you stutter.

She looks up at you. You let it all pour out.

"I-I can't...put into words how, but I've been sick these last few years...It's a sickness I caught when I lost Mac..."

"Sick...?" she says.

"Yeah...but here, with all of you I don't...f-feel it. I feel like I used to feel, I feel-"

You feel the tears stream down your face as you watch the sun set over the horizon, just like you did in your previous life. It took everything you had in you to want to grab that life again.

"I feel...like myself."

You glance down at Applejack and stroke her cheek with your thumb. "I don't want to drift away again, AJ...I want t-to get better...please...help me...I need help..."

Applejack sniffs and looks at you with that same stubborn determination she had given you in the past. That was all she needed to hear.

"A'course. Family help each other."

Your knees give out and you wrap your arms around her neck. You'd had enough of death, it wasn't making the pain go away.

It was time to try a life.

Stratagem.

The moon hangs high in the sky as you grunt in exertion and jump for your next handhold. Your foot slips against the roof as you grab hold, sending a few shingles falling to the ground.

"...Good thing I lift."

You keep climbing to using only your arms higher and higher up.

"And I apparently talk to myself too, wonderful."

You kept climbing and hoisted yourself up on top of the steeple. From crouching on top of town hall, you could see out across the entire town and into the hills beyond. It was nice, nice and quiet and peaceful.

"Yo! Anonymous!"

At least for that brief moment.

Rainbow Dash flies up next to you and hovers in the air. "What are you doing up here alone? Don't we both have a meeting to get to?"

You lightly punch her shoulder from your perch.

"Gotta stay in shape, Dash."

"Don't you have weights?" she asks.

"I like the view."

Dash is miraculously silent for a while as she looks out over the landscape with you. "It is something, huh?"

"That it is."

Dash flutters in front of you. "Hey...Anon?"

"Hmm?"

Her eyes dart to the ground and back. "Do you...think it'll be bad?"

You rest your hands on your knees and sigh. "It...might. We have to hear it from Twilight to be sure."

Rainbow nods. "Well, let's not keep everyone waiting, right?"

You grin. "Right, Dash."

Rainbow flies to the ground and you start the process of climbing down.

On your way down, a few more shingles fall off. You'd pay for that, you should just be happy that this wasn't the worst beating town hall had ever taken.

Derpy was a force of nature sometimes.

Later at the library, you found a few people in attendance. The rest of the bearers of the Elements, Mayor Mare, and a familiar face, your old drinking buddy Shining Armor.

"Well, well, look what the Crystal Cat dragged in."

You and Armor touch fist to hoof in greetings.

"I got a message from my dear little sister telling me that my ex-top Commander couldn't handle a little dragon migration?" he says.

"It seemed like a good way to drag you away from the prim and proper parts of the Crystal Kingdom, get you back down here in the muck with us footmen."

You and Armor share a sardonic smirk as Twilight clears her throat. "There's nothing "little" about this migration, you two." she says.

You and Armor both turn to the blackboard Twilight had out the other day when this first came to your attention.

"What are we looking at here, Twilight?"

Twilight lifts several scrolls up as she levitates a piece of chalk up to the board. When the chalk finishes, there is another map of Ponyville drawn with more air currents above it. There were a few noticeable differences this time, namely that the air currents passed directly over the town and in greater numbers.

"What does this mean, Twi?"

Twilight's face was dour. "It means, Anon, that the number of dragons we expected to pass over Ponyville was a vast underestimation."

That didn't sound healthy...

"How many dragons are we looking at, Twilight?" Shining Armor asks.

Twilight's head sags. "It seems that the vast majority of the dragon flight is going to fly directly over the town."

Everyone in the room's jaws drop the floor.

"The...entire flight?" the Mayor asks.

The room grew deathly silent for a few tense minutes. Shining Armor clears his throat. "This is..."

"Bad..."

Shoot...a flock of dragons flying over town was a major threat. Just one of those buggers breaking away and hitting the ground could lead to chaos. And they were only the first part of the problem. With every dragon migration, there were the fliers. But there were also the walkers, dragons too young or too old to fly who walked the earth underneath their airborne kin.

Adolescent dragons were violent and cruel, the side effect of their bodies changing. If too many of them came through the town...

You feel your pulse quicken at the thought. Blasted dragons! Who were they to just roll in here and demolish your home!? You had friends here! You had family and loved ones here! They can go somewhere else for their migration! This just makes you so mad you just want t-

...

It finally clicks in your head. You were going to force them away.

"We need to make a stand..."

Everyone in the room turns to look at you.

"I won't sit idly by while these dragons destroy my home, our home. I say..." You point at the map. "...That we gather up some of the guards from Canterlot, fortify the fields outside town and route these lizards before they can get here."

Shining Armor grins along with Twilight and the Mayor, you had a bit of a reputation for speeches.

"This is our town! We can't roll over for those scaly jackasses just because they say we should!"

Everyone in the room now had a fire behind their eyes.

"Who's with me? Who wants' to fight for the town to get rid of this nescience forever?"

A chorus of "Here here!"'s echo through the wooden home.

You and Applejack were silently walking home together later that night after the meeting. You have your arms outstretched as you teetered on the fence you were walking across.

AJ looks up to you. "Ya sure you should be treatin' this so nonchalant?"

You look down at your sort-of in-law. "What d'you mean?"

She pauses in the dirt road out front of the farm. "I mean, don't you think you should be treatin' this a mite more serious? The whole town's at stake."

You front flip off the fence and land in front of Applejack. "I know, AJ...Believe me, I know. But I can't let these dragons scare me, none of us can."

AJ sighs. "Yeah? Well, that aint working so well for me..."

You bend down and put a hand on her shoulder.

"What is it?"

AJ sighs. "S'just...this is all so much bigger than what we're used to." she tilts her head up and looks you in the eye. "What if somethin' happens?"

You throw AJ a smile and clasp her other shoulder. "It won't. I promise. I'll take care of everything."

A small grin parts Applejack's lips. "You sure you can handle that?"

You shrug. "I've defended the hole town before, I can do it again."

The tan mare rolls her eyes and walks ahead back to the house.

The two of you sneak into the house and tiptoe up to your respective rooms, giving each other a curt nod to each other as you walk in.

Clicking the door shut behind you, you see that Mac is already tucked into bed, Smartypants in his hooves. You undress yourself and crawl into bed next to him, wrapping your arms around his wide chest and pulling the two of you together.

You feel him shift awake and raise his head. "How'd it go?"

No use lying to him, you couldn't.

"The whole flight is due to pass over, we're gonna make a stand."

Mac shifts on his side of the bed and pulls Smartypants closer. "Ya worried?" he asks.

"Not really. We can beat them."

"What makes ya so sure?"

You shrug. "Never lost before."

"There's a first time for everything, pard."

...Not for this.

"I won't let them hurt the town, hon. It means too much to me.

You kiss his neck.

"You mean too much to me..."

Mac sighs contentedly. "Figure you never steered us wrong before."

"Never have, never will."

Mac turns over to face you, letting Smartypants fall between the two of you.

He kisses your cheek. "Good luck out there, pard."

"Thanks hayseed."

"Love ya."

"Love ya too..."

You close your eyes and doze off to sleep with the smell of apples in your nose.

-Music-

The morning the dragons were expected. They had already been flying over the town in droves for the past few hours.

Most of the citizens were sequestered in the town.

You walk down the ranks of the royal guard Shining Armor had called in from Canterlot. Each of them watched the shapes milling about in the forest ahead with stony eyes, just like you remember from your time in the guard. Your old guard armor shone in the sun as you walk up to the other Shining Armor.

"What's the plan, sir?"

You may be Watch Commander, but he was still your boss.

"You tell me, Anon. This is your home turf." he says turning to you.

Or not.

You glance out over the field as the first dragons break through the tree line.

"Hmm...Always did favor the direct approach."

Shining cocks an eyebrow. "A charge? Against them?"

"We have the element of audacity on our side. After all, who would dare attack dragons?"

Shining looks out over the battlefield again.

"Not to mention that we're faster than them on open terrain, have magic, and fliers."

Shining Armor looks to the sky. "Assuming that none of those big ones try to make a dive."

You follow his gaze, inspecting the great reptiles above you with care. "They look pretty intent on keeping the pace, I think we're good."

Armor nods and dons his helmet. "SOLDIERS! PRESENT ARMS!"

You unsheathe your sword and bring your shield to bear as the dragons ahead begin to roar and register a fight.

Right.

"Let's see how many of you we can make die..." you whisper.