And I thought we were normal. How wrong I was.

   Before you start reading I'd like you to ponder this and leave a comment with your answer. Who should be the main romantic interest if I choose to have one. Twilight, Rainbow Dash or the blind pegasus from his first actual mission. I'm open to other alternative, but these three are weighing the heaviest in my mind and I'd like some help. Now that that's over, on with the story.

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   I illuminate the path ahead of us as Uefi and I both run down the path as quickly as we can, myself carrying Big Mac and him carrying Thunderback. I had remembered what Twilight said about the sleep spell so it didn't take much to wake him up. With the help of some voice localized instructions, I was able to direct him and pull him back into consciousness without letting the others know.

"I can't believe that you actually did that. I figured you'd just run off on us." I hear him sigh in relief as we exit the forest.

"I thought about it, but how long could I go on without my decoys/lackeys?" I huff, poking Mac with a stick held in my magic.

"I resent that."

"Nopony asked your opinion Mac." I laugh, stopping to unload the now conscious, but still groggy, man.

"Ugh, what happened?" I hear Thunderback groan as Uefi sets the pegasus down.

"I saved your flanks; that's what."

"What?"

"They got the jump on Rose when I switched out with him for the watch. He woke me up when they were dragging us back and I escaped before following them and getting you all out before anything happened." I give the short version of what happened.

"Well thanks, but what happened Rose? Weren't you supposed to keep watch?" Mac asks with a good bit of annoyance.

"Twilight used some kind of spell on you guys to keep you sleeping while the rest of them just went right at me. I tried, but when it's five on one you can't expect a miracle." He defends himself as we get back on the move.

"You could've run off and came back later to save us."

"I'm not very good in combat without my bow; running would've been the extent of my capabilities. Luckily I woke Sonata up on the way there."

"When your tools are your fists and your magic, you can't very well leave home without them; given you're a unicorn that is." I joke.

"That's why I brought my gun with me. I'm not as useless as Rosebush here, but without it I'd probably be reduced to running too it that situation." Thunderback defends my other pegasus friend who groans, obviously regretting the name he chose.

"I'm glad to see somepony gets it."

"That's the problem when you use silly gadgets." Mac laughs and we high-five.

"Unarmed or nothing, then again that's pretty close to nothing." I agree with my bulkier counterpart, ignoring my usage of blades prior to the last few months.

"See if you're saying the same thing when you're getting shot at." Thunderback retorts, hopping over a random rock in the field.

"Nopony said we couldn't run away." I remind him.

"Nopony said that we're aloud to run away until we finished the job. Failing looks bad on our part." Uefi chimes in and I sigh.

"Some of us are good enough that we don't worry about getting shot at because we don't get caught." I respond.

"Yeah; that business at the mansion was really the epitome of not getting found."

"I blame my partner for not giving me better directions."

"Hey; don't blame me for that. Without me you'd of never gotten in there." Uefi retorts and I laugh.

"Whatever; let's just agree that each pony has different skills." Mac mediates the senseless agreement as I check the time, 1:45.

"I'd like to know though; where exactly are we?" Thunderback asks, causing my instinct to sigh to be stimulated once more.

"I'm not sure. I got knocked out when they jumped me, so I can't be sure of how far they actually took us." Uefi says as I hop over another stone in the grass.

"It's been awhile, but I've been in this area before for sales and other things. If we keep going this way we should hit a road going north to another town." Mac directs us but I cock and unseen eyebrow.

"How will reaching a town help us? Won't they just follow us into the town and nab us there?"

"You're not leaking a trail right now. If we can get into town and hide, our scents will mix into the general population's and as long as you don't move around too much there won't be able to track you very well."

"And, if we need to, I can just run out of town and distract them if they get too close. It would at least buy you a little bit of time." I try to finish the idea.

"Yes, well; let's hope it doesn't come to that, but I doubt the town would be able to keep us hidden for more than a day or two, especially after ponies realize who we are. Ponies aren't very big on helping contestants like us; they prefer watching us run for our virtue."

"~If you four are done talking, I'd like to make announcement.~" I hear the voice from earlier come through my camera.

"Yeah; what?"

"We're giving Sonata a fifty bit raise for that little stunt, Rose will receive a ten bit raise for causing it and Thunderback a five bit raise for the explosion. Rating boosted a whole 23% after that and the net has been talking about it quite a bit.~" I smile as the other three stallions grimace.

"What can I say? I'm a crowd pleaser." I grow my passive smirk even as Mac gives me a jab in the side.

"Well keep it up and there'll be plenty more where that came from.~ Now if you'll excuse me I have some posters to attend to." He finishes and I hear a small 'click'.

"Looks like you're in the lead for now Sonata." Thunderback matches my smirk. "Of course I'll be ahead of all of you by the time this is all over."

"Don't be so confident. Remember; I'm doing this to get the farm some extra money, if that means putting on a show, I'll do it." Mac glares at us.

"Fair enough big guy." I keep a smirk as we continue to dash towards the supposed road.

~\o/~

   Luckily, we arrive in town just after daybreak, so the concentration of ponies is pretty low in the area as we duck into an alley.

"I didn't think this is what he meant by posters." I hear Uefi say as I slip into the shadows.

"What do you mean?" I ask, slightly pushing the green pegasus out of my way.

   Near the end of the alley a dimly lit poster sits, depicting a dark grey unicorn, clad in black clothes a long coat, crouching in a tree, dimly illuminated by the orange glow of an underlying fire as six mares pass through under it, carrying three other stallions behind them. The title, Prey Turned Predator, hangs above the image with a smaller line under it reading, Sonata's strikes back to save his fellow males. *~Special dual camera view package available for five bits extra.~*

"~How do you like it? The split screen camera views have been a hit so far and since half of what you did fell under the second day's events many ponies were forced to preorder both the DVDs of day one and day two to avoid not knowing just the beginning and not the end, vise versa applying."

"I don't remember authorizing this though."

"You authorized it when you let us put that camera on you.~"

"Fine, but I don't see how you these things out so quickly.

"~Magic is a great thing my friend. We had a painter start as soon as you finished and had enough copies made to send out within an hour. This event is quite the cash cow if you're quick on the draw.~" The disembodied voice says and I sigh.

"And yet I only get a fifty bit raise."

"If it had been the last day you would've gotten much more, but since there's still a high chance of failure we can't afford to give you more. Besides, contestants who succeed always get a bonus if they make it out with their 'honor'.~"

"Then expect to pay up in a week."

"I look forward to it~." I hear the familiar 'clicking' sound.

"I better have my own poster by the end of this." Uefi mumbles.

"Same here." Thunderback and Mac agree simultaneously as I start to take down the poster, which is about half my approximate two meter height. "What're you doing that for?" They continue the trend of voice overlapping.

"It's the first time I've been on a poster. Not to mention it'll be a good conversation piece and potentially valuable someday." I defend myself, rolling up the sturdy material, now ingle decreasing its value, but allowing me to slip it into a loop in my belt so that it won't be intrusive.

"Whatever, you're enjoying this way too much."

"You'll know the feeling when you're on a poster, but for now we need a plan." I switch back to a more serious mindset.

"Well, we probably have a few hours lefts until you start leaving a trail again; so for now we need to find a nice out-of-they-way place in town to hide you." Mac says, rubbing his chin in thought.

"We can't use any inns or hotels since those will be the first places they'd check and it has to be somewhere they couldn't see very well from above. I'd suggest a dumpster, but since running is the only option if you get found it wouldn't be a very good idea. Alternatively a stair well could've also been nice, but none of these buildings look big enough for one. So that leaves us with... Not much." Thunderback brainstorms aloud.

"What about that one spell you were working on before? Did you ever get it to work?" Uefi chimes in; referencing a spell I had been working on before we left.

"No, I can't use it for more than about fifteen minutes, tops. Besides, it's full of faults. For now I'll stay here, but you all go out and look around for a bit. I need to catch up on a little sleep." I plop down in the dirt of the alley with my back against the wall.

"Well it was worth a shot. I guess you can get some sleep though. After all you are the one who got us out of there last night. We'll meet in a few hours to compare hiding spots." Uefi uncharacteristically takes charge and I watch them exit the alley before drifting into sleep.

~\o/~

   I munch on what is almost last of our supply of stale bread roles as we sit, huddled in an alleyway. The narrow alleyway seemed lie the best idea five days ago when we decided on it, but ever since Twilight and her group arrived two days ago we've all been stuck here trying to think of a way to get more food or at least move to a better spot until  time runs out tomorrow morning.

   In truth cabin fever started to set in for me when they walked into town being as I'm not allowed to leave the small space behind the dumpster to avoid leaving a trail and I can only count the amount of pebbles per square centimeter so many times.

"This sucks." I groan to my other two companions.

"This is the game though." Mac says solemnly and Uefi nods.

"I wonder when Thunderback will get here though. I'm starting to think that they found him."

"Don't worry; it's his job to gather information without getting found out." Mac reassures Uefi but it doesn't seem to help much.

"Yeah, but all six of them are looking for him. I'm not sure about how long he can avoid their prying eyes." I voice the concern Uefi and I obviously share.

"Let's just put some faith in the crazy flyboy. After all, he's been doing this for-" Mac begins, but the crash of a dark figure interrupts him as a cloud of smoke rising between us.

"We gotta go now!" Thunderback's voice almost cracks in anxiety, quickly dusting off his jacket.

"I told you Mac." Uefi and I groan at the same time.

"Now, now what's the problem Thunder?" Mac tries to calm the frazzled colt.

"They saw me. I tried to keep them from following, but I doubt rubber bullets did very much to them. I knew I should've sprung for the knock out enchantment instead of the zoom enchantment, but how useful is that whenever a regular bullet stops them long enough to get away." He begins to rant before Mac slaps him across the face, springing to his feet rather quickly.

"Calm down. Now come on, we can worry about the details later but we need to move." Mac slaps him again for good measure as Uefi and I get to our feet.

"Mac, you take Thunder and go. Rose and I will try to draw them off. It's the last day so if we split up it should disperse them enough for us to deal with." I direct him and he nods before running off, obviously catching my meaning.

"What the hell man? We're weaker without them and we don't have any backup." Uefi complains and I give him a stern look.

"Uefi, Mac and I decided on this yesterday. If we run away from them there's a higher chance of Applejack going after us since we already know she's not interested in her brother or Thunderback, but if we stay with them she'll follow and he won't be able to do any required fighting. We'll be stronger without each other. He also gave me these." I explain our plan to him, taking out a bag of small metal pins.

"What're those?"

"Magical inhibitors, Mac gave me ten of them for us to split in case one of us gets one of the unicorns on our tail." I take five off the pins out and hand them to him.

"Alright, I'll trust you." He slips the pins into his pocket.

"Glad we understand each other, but we need to move now." I say, a shadow passing over head. "Like right now." I backflip out of the grasp of a cyan mare.

   I hear Dash curse under her breath before dashing off with magic in my step and Uefi flying not too far behind, the months of speed training obviously paying off. We enter the midday crowd and I begin to struggle to slip through the gaps before jumping up onto a magical platform to see Uefi standing at the other end, tapping a hoof in annoyance. Damn pegasus is good with crowds. I think, jumping off of the platform and landing next to him. With the sound of a certain purple pony's voice in my ears, I sprint away from the scene and soon find myself out of the town in the open fields with a blue pegasus about ten meters away ahead of me.

"Shit." I mutter, noticing the orange pony at my left and the purple unicorn at my right, equidistant from me.

"It's no better from behind either." Uefi chuckles nervously and I sneak a peek at the fashionista. At least I know that one has no intent of doing me.

"Uefi, I don't think we can run from this." I bring up my fists and ready my horn for defense.

"Doesn't look like we can." He tries to mimic my stance and stands behind me, facing AJ and Rarity. I probably should've told him about Rarity's general dislike of me.

   Not taking anytime to talk, Dash rushes me, but not before I see Twilight's horn light up slowly. I form a multilayered wall at my right to take care of any on coming spell, but I just take Dash's fists head. Duck left, swing high, block low, block left, step back, swing kick, shit. I coach myself mentally, taking in hit in stride before she grab onto my leg with a fire in her eyes.

"Too slow." She licks the end of the appendage slowly before twisting the leg and flipping me onto my back and I shiver, feeling the thin coat of cold saliva on the tip of my hoof. No, just... No

   I feel a small rupture in my magic and I spring up, glancing to my right to see a rather disgruntled looking Twilight and a large purple net caught up in the set of see-through barriers I put up.

   I find myself smirking again until I feel two cyan arms come from behind and bind my arms at my side. Damnit. I think before charging up my horn and pulling fake red water out of the air and thinning it out into a few small tendrils. Before I can give her time to react, I slip the appendages under her wings, guessing based on her location behind me as to where they are, and I begin to tickle the base of the wings, causing her to gasp and loosen her grip enough for me to break the grip. Good thing pegasus wings are sensitive.

   Before getting any chance to revel in my success, a stray shot of magic impacts my side and extends into a large purple net. I struggle against the binding for a moment before remembering something. Popping a spell, I find myself about half a meter away from the now empty net and I give a quick sigh of relief. Teleportation occasionally seems overpowered.

"Uefi we need to get back on the move!" I call to the pegasus overhead who has been dodging rocks are magical shots for the whole 2-3 minute ordeal.

"You know who I think would like this time of year in Equestria?" He calls back as I dodge more punches and grabs from Dash along with multiple nets from Twilight.

"Who?"

"Austin Powers."

"Rose, as much as I would love to start making puns, I don't think we have time for it. That is unless you want to get shagged, baby." I spare the time to make a single joke.

"So how do you want to do this then?" He lands next to me as I form a tri-layered set of walls around us to keep the mares out for a minute,

"You go left, I go right. If we make it until the next day we'll meet back up in Ponyville with Mac and Thunder." I tell him as the first of the three layers breaks and the muffled voices of mares become clearer.

"Alright I'll trust you. I just hope Dash doesn't go after me, I can't outfly her when it isn't estrus so I definitely don't have a chance now." The second layer cracks open.

"Then we're agreed. We'll meet back in the farm when it's all over." I say as the last layer shatters around us and I shred a small piece of paper and a flood of blinding light springs forth.

~\o/~

Thunderback's escape

   (Also, the next few different POV's do not occur at the same time. They occur chronologically by the order they appear. Example: this part will end just about five minutes before Mac's part begins.)

"Damnit. Why'd it have to be her?" I mutter under my breath, flying as fast as I can through the forest with a pink blur of speed follows not too far behind. "Never should've split up with Mac."

   Rather than continuing to reprimand myself, decide to start doing the three things I'm good at, thinking, shooting and blowing shit up. After slipping a few rubber bullets back into my gun, I flip my back to the earth and am down the magically enhanced sights and fire the faux bullets at the randomly moving pink blur of pony.

   The recoil the gun flows through me and I smile as the cool metal moves in my hands seamlessly, regardless of the fact that every shot either missed or just glanced off of the pink mare.

"Well that was useless." I complain, re-holstering the pistol and slipping out a small coin sized package of mild explosives. "This shouldn't hurt, much."

   Flipping the coin shaped package into the air, I turn back around just in time to dodge a tree branch and click the detonator in my pocket and the sound of a small boom and the feeling a few stray pieces of wood on my back comfort me. That is before a sharp jab at my through causes me to gasp and fly off course into a tree.

"Sorry Thundy'." A bubble voice fills my ringing ears and I curse.

"No fair." I mutter back, rustling my pants leg and taking out the pistol again, aiming it right at the pink beast's midsection.

"Oh come on. You won't shoot me." Pinkie whines a little, tracing her fingers over her T-shirt and I groan. Any other time I'd say yes, but the estrus is not one of those times.

"Don't be so sure." I bluff, sliding a finger onto the trigger.

"Trust me, I know you would." The maniacal mare whispers, closing the distance between us and slipping her thumb over the barrel. "But you're all out of bullets."

"You're right; I am, but explosives are a different story." I mutter as she leans in before flipping a switch on the pistol grip and pulling the trigger.

  I shoot up through the trees as smoke fills the air between us from the weakest explosives I shook out of my pants leg. I sigh in relief before a missile of cotton candy flies out of the canopy and grabs onto me.

"You're not getting away yet Thundy'." She giggles and plants a kiss on my forehead as I flip upside down and close my wings, letting gravity fuel my dive into the earth.

   We impact the earth hard, but I take the worst of it on my back and I just groan in pain before looking over at Pinkie, who seems to of taken the force on her right arm, which is bent at quite an unnatural angle, but thankfully it doesn't seem like the bone broke out of the skin and the screams of her agony fill me ears. This of course giving me a mix of pleasure from my sadism, but also a bit of guilt for hurting the mare so badly.

"Quit crying." I groan, slipping out a syringe of mostly morphine from under my vest. "Always come prepared."

   Jabbing the end of the syringe into her skin, I inject the narcotic into her before taking out some bandages and other materials to stop the mild bleeding and to bind the arm into a proper position. The sound of the bones moving unnaturally under her soft skin causing me to smile despite my conscious desire not to

"There, that should work for now." I tell her, admiring my own handiwork. "I'm not doctor, but you should be fine until we get back." I lift the now calm mare back to hooves.

"Ah' wantaa have ice cream." She giggles and I laugh a little, the stronger of the drugs in the mixture obviously slowing down her brain a bit, but also nullifying the estrus urges for the time being since the last days urges are the weakest.

"We'll get you all the ice cream you want back in Ponyville." I allow her to lean against me as we walk towards the road, not too far from where we are. "I wonder how Mac is doing with Flutters. Probably worse off than me, I told him that tools were better than fists." I say mostly for my own benefit being as Pinkie is mostly just nestling against my side, seemingly oblivious to the world around her as we walk down the road to town and I just smile into the sky. Even if it's mostly drug induced, this slowed down version of her is pretty cute too.

~\o/~

Mac's chase

In hindsight, I probably should've stuck with Thunderback. I think, dodging different grabs and lunges.

"Just. Let. Me. Do. You!" I can hear Fluttershy emphasizing each word as I purposely avoid eye contact.

"I thought you were shy." I laugh a little, trying to least enjoy situation a little.

"I thought you liked mares."

"No need for that kind of talk 'Shy." I reprimand her, giving the opening for her to latch onto my chest.

"Gotcha!" She exclaims her success, pushing me into the earth with unusual strength.

   I manage to break the hold fairly easily but by this time she already pinned my arms down, the strength of estrus hormones aiding her. Not giving her any chance to continue her advances, I use my superior strength to turn over top over her and begin running off. I guess I can't just play around then.

   I ignore her angry yell and run into the forest as fast as my legs can carry me. Grabbing onto a tree, I pull myself around into a turn a slip behind a bush, hopefully unseen by the pink manned pegasus.

   Not but moments later she turns the same corner, before stopping to look around for me as I lean forward.

"Where did he-" She begins before falling forward with a small squeal and I grab the back of her sweater with the hand I didn't use to hit her.

"Ah' didn't think she'd fall that easy." I smile, tossing the now unconscious mare over my shoulder. "I guess Sonata and Rose got the worst of it. It must be quite a bit harder to deal with two mares instead of one." My smile grows at the very quick and clean nature of my knockout, stepping into a road and holding Fluttershy by her long legs.

"Well this is an unexpected surprise." I turn to see Thunderback standing a meter or so away with a giggly PinkiePie leaning on his shoulder.

"Umm, Thunder did you?" I stumble over my words, gesturing to the other earth pony.

"What? No, no. She broke her arm on impact so I gave her a shot to ease the pain. She's just acting like this as a side effect." He assures me as we start to walk down the road together.

"I guess we didn't stray very far from each other then."

"I was running back to you when we crashed. I guess I made it a little closer than I thought." He sighs as the pink mare just keeps giggling. "I'm starting to think half a dose would've been enough."

"I wonder how Sonata and Rose are doing, if these two came after us then that means the other four went after them."

"Well, I think, as long as Rainbow doesn't choose to chase Rose, he'll have a pretty good chance to get away. As for Sonata, I can't be sure. I know he's fair enough when nopony knows where he is, but after he's found I don't know how he'll do."

"Don't worry about him, he'll do fine."

"Confident in him are you?"

"I wouldn't say confident. I'd say I have faith in him."

~\o/~

The pursuit of Uefi

   I try to resort to just flying away being as my body is already covered in bruises, but as soon as my arms come over my head a I feel a rope come around my midsection and bind my wings at me side.

"Crap." I mutter, running into the forest and trying to loosen the damnable thing.

"Not so fast flyboy." I hear Applejack call out as I fall backwards onto my ass.

"Come on; a lasso?" I question, slipping a hand into my pocket as I'm pulled out of the woods and back into the field again.

"Ah' have to do what's necessary." She says as I come within arm's reach of her.

"I guess we have that in common then." I concur, grabbing her leg and she falls down the earth, consciousness having left her body and I smirk.

"What just happened?" I hear Rarity ask, obviously being in a bit more control of her emotions compared to the cereal lying in the  grass.

"Just this little gem." I reveal the small orange piece I removed from my bow before leaving.

"And what exactly does it do?" The white unicorn asks, taking a step back.

"See for yourself." I close the gap on what feels like and instant, slamming a fist into her mid section and she slumps over. "Well that was easy enough. It took ten hits to down a Fluttershy on the first day, hormones must be wearing off."

   I toss Rarity over my shoulder after a good bit of trouble with her white dress, but Applejack's choice of jeans and a simple t-shirt made it much easier to flip her onto my remaining shoulder.

"Well look who we have here." I hear a deep voice call to me as I turn to see Mac with Fluttershy held in the same manner in holding the two I took down and Thunderback who has Pinkie leaning against him who is just laughing manically.

"Hey. What's with Pinkie?" I ask, slowly moving my hand down Applejack's legs and away from her ass. Gotta be careful when carrying the man's sister.

"Don't mention it." Thunderback complains obviously having been given enough shit over it.

"Point taken."

"So have you seen Sonata?" Mac asks and I shake my head.

"Not since we split up. Dash and Twilight went after him so I'm doubting whether or not he's still among the virgins."

~\o/~

The tempo of hastened Sonata

   I continue to run as fast as possible through the trees with my horn and body aching from exertion and blood trickling down my left arm from a few hard blows, forming a small outline around the unseen chitin plating. I lost Dash and Twi' a few turns ago, but with the trail I'm leaking I don't think it'll last long. I guess now is a good a time as any though.

   I pull out the last slip of paper in my pocket and the collections of lines on it begin to glow a mix of my magical hues. Ok; now that that's taken care of... I begin to form a plan, creating a small tear in the material. Now to make a fake trail... I tie the paper to a rock with a piece of string before throwing it as hard as I can, up through the canopy with my magic. I better make sure I get a good shot of this.

   I bring my hand up in front of my face, and begin to charge the only spell I made that I didn't show Twilight. After filling the seal the image my hand begins to get blown away as if it were smoke starting at the fingertips until the entire appendage seems to have been blown away into the wind. I look down and continue the process quickly until my entire body fades from vision along with my clothes and accessories.

   While the invisibility spell does work I'm already aware of the problems in possesses. It doesn't really matter what, but if something hits me the spell will be 'peeled' away on contact, if I stand too close to something as it moves the movement of the air will actually cause the spell to be blown away in the area, if the lighting in the area isn't consistent I'll begin to fade back into visibility, any spell affecting vision will see past it and it drains magic pretty badly, but what do you expect from a spell I worked on by myself. In truth I'm surprised the thing even works, although it did help on the first day to stalk them back to their camp.

   I can hear Dash and Twilight from not too far away and I slip back behind a tree to avoid the chance of them breaking the spell. Not but a moment or two later both the cyan pegasus and the purple unicorn run in right where I had been standing and I keep my head poking out from the tree to observe them.

"He must've gone up to try to trick us." Twilight says, not even taking a moment to consult with Dash before lunging through the canopy with a magical burst.

Seems like that worked well. I congratulate myself before turning to run away.

"Not so fast Sonata." Dash says and I feel a rock graze my left cheek as the thin layer of the spell is torn away.

"How'd you know?" I ask, trying to seem nonchalant and letting the spell flow off of my body.

"I had Scoots' follow you around the week before the estrus to get some information. She mentioned that spell and the faults and there's also a gap in the trail right here." She points in the area to her right.

"So now what? I run off again and you chase me down within five minutes, we have another ten minute standoff before repeating the cycle another two or three times before I'm exhausted and you have your way with me." I simply state the reality of the situation.

"That or you can just give in. Face it, my speed is too much for you." She smirks and I sign in defeat.

"True; even on the last day you're fast enough to overtake me."

"Then you'll let me win now." Her smirk changes to be a bit more 'suggestive', biting her lip slightly and glinting her eyes.

"I submit, but on this condition." I begin, closing the gap between us and slipping an arm behind her back and pulling her close.

"Yes?" She gasps a little as her body rubs against my own.

"Just take it slow." I whisper to her, taking my other hand and running it through her dazzling mane.

"Ok." She returns in the same volume.

"And Dash?"

"Yes?" Our eyes meet.

"Sorry, baby!" I turn sinister and slam my head into her own as hard as I can and her body goes limp in my grip. "I hope that wasn't too hard..." I groan, putting a few fingers up to her supple neck to feel for a pulse. "Nah, she's alive."

   I sweep her off of her unconscious hooves and turn back towards where I know the road is. About an hour later I find myself on the road with ponyville looming not too far off in the sunset of the horizon. I guess I survived the estrus then. I think before continuing on, holding the mare in my arms. I wonder where I should drop her off for the day though. I don't think Granny would object to letting her stay the night at their place I guess. I contemplate before setting a mental course to the apple farm.

~\o/~

"About time you got here." I here Mac call out from the barn and I turn in the illumination of my horn to face him.

"Glad to see you made it bro." Uefi follows the greeting, peeking his head out from the barn door.

"Now Mac I understand, but how did your sorry ass keep from getting shagged?" I joke, entering the barn, illuminated by lanterns.

"Very funny; you can set Dash in the hay pile over there with the rest of them." Uefi sarcastically laughs, pointing at a pile of hay with the other four mares on it in a pile, save for Pinkie who sits separately with a proper cast on her arm.

"I guess that means you all made it then." I hear a semi-familiar voice say as I drop the blue mare onto the pile softly.

"Never thought I'd meet you in person." I say, turning to the stallion I only heard through my camera before.

"Well it is my job to bring you your pay and collect your cameras." A bring red unicorn pony in a black suit says from his seat on a wooden box with four small coin purses next to him.

"And now that you're here we can finally get on with it." Thunderback emerges from one of the darker corners.

"Ok. I'll begin with the smallest earner." The unnamed pony begins. "A mister Big Macintosh receives the base reward of one hundred bits with a total 75 bit bonus for completing the competition and putting on a fair show." He tosses Mac the small sack and pulls the small device out of his skull with some magic.

"Thank you." Mac pockets the bits respectfully.

"And to a Thunderback goes the total amount of 225 bits and for a Redolent Rose 245 bits." He continues, tossing bags of bits and ripping camera from their faces.

"Danke." Uefi thanks him and Thunderback just nods before leaving through the barn door.

"And how much for me?" My smirk grows wider.

"And Still Sonata for an exemplary performance will be receiving 300 bits and the original painting of the poster to be delivered to his home." He tosses me the largest bag of bits and removing my camera rather easily.

"Thank you very much." I smile.

"Well then stallions; allow me to be the first to congratulate you on surfing the estrus." He stands up and bows.

"Yeah, but I feel like I forgot something..."

~\o/~

Twilight's night hike

"Damn Sonata tricking me like that and damn Dash running off without me." I mutter under my breath as I walk through the forest, trying to find the road in the darkness.