Outcry: Dead Horse

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter 3: Pariah
Prologue
Prologue: Director's Cut

Chapter One

“So, how much do you want for it?”

“Three bits.” Brick said, looking at the sack I had placed on the counter. Gritting my teeth, I jumped up on the counter. Brick was an old Earth pony who had worked for the local crime families. He found me after I was kicked out of one for being ‘A shitty thief.’ Thats what they claimed atleast, I knew it was really because I was too good for them and was making the leader look bad for having an underling that was better then him.

Brick took me in that day, but he made me earn my keep. I joined a small group of colts and fillies who worked for him by stealing whatever they could and selling it to him.

“Three bits? These are quality gems!” I shouted.

“Its plastic.”

“But they’re shiny like the real ones! These people won’t know the difference.” The ponies of Canterlot weren’t all that bright. All we need was to get one of them to buy one, and the rest would sell.

“Be lucky I’m giving you this much.” Brick placed the bits on the counter and I put them in my bag while sneering at the old Earth pony.

“Well what would get me a decent meal?”

Brick shrugged and rubbed his chin with his hoof. “I hear those Smarty Pants dolls are pretty popular.”

My head automatically tilted and looks at him funny. “Dolls? You want me to steal dolls?” Brick nodded.

“They’re worth a good amount and supply is limited. A colt like you stealing one from a Filly shouldn’t raise much attention.”

I sat down and thought about it. “Where would I find one?” Canterlot was a big place, with lots of Ponies. If it was as rare as Brick was making it out to be, I might starve to death before finding one.

“I’ve seen a Unicorn filly with one walk by here around two o’clock. She holds it so close you’d think it was her child.”

It was still early, so there was a chance I could catch her. I looked up at the old wooden clock hanging above Brick’s head. Immediately after seeing the time, I ran out the store and hid in the alley next to it. Only one minute until she’d arrive.

“Uugh” A drunk pegasus moaned. She was wearing an expensive dress, and beside her was a bag with something sticking out. I took it out and levitated it in front of me. It was a small mirror, and a nice one too.

I decided to use it to see if the filly was coming. The reflection showed me three ponies. A purple filly with the payload, a White stallion, and the white legs of a taller pony. I brought the mirror closer to me after this and considered my options.

I could either keep the mirror and sell it, or break the mirror and use the glass in order to intimidate them. The Stallion did look tough...

The mirror was tougher then it looked, and it took a couple of good thwacks to get the thing to break. Unfortunately for me, when I did, one of the shards cut my hoof. I bit my lip to try and keep silent.

The three were close, and I levitated one of the shards and started hopping out of the alley, trying to keep weight off the wound.

“Listen just give me the doll and-” My eyes widened as I dropped the glass upon realizing what I was doing.

Celestia was standing behind the Purple filly, looking at my wound.

I was mugging Celestia,

Panicking, the only thing thing I could think of doing was going along with the original plan. I hopped over to the filly and grabbed the doll and used my kinetic magic I was known for to get away. “Hey!” was the only thing I heard from them before escaping.

The entire time, I was cursing myself for being so stupid. ‘Why didn’t I just sell the mirror and forget about the doll? Why didn’t I try to cover up my wound?’ The blood was leaving a trail, so I had to circle around a few parts of the city before getting to Quack, A doctor who lost his license after trying to sell medical equipment. We brought him business and in return, he provided us cheap medical care.

I snuck into his apartment by climbing up the fire escape and entering through an open window. Going in through the door would risk the neighbors seeing me.

Quack wasn’t surprised to see me, I tend to get hurt a lot on jobs, but its not always my fault, you see. looking out for some of the younger members of our group often meant putting myself in danger, and well, I’m put in danger a lot these days.

Quack looked at the rag I tied around the wound to keep pressure on it and sighed. “What is it now, Blank Flank?” I wanted to hit him for calling me that. You see, I don’t really have a name. I never knew my parents and all my life I’ve been moved from pony to pony, with them either calling me ‘Kid’ or ‘Colt’. Recently, people have started calling me ‘Blank Flank’ as I’m the only one in the group without a Cutie Mark. Even the younger members have theirs.

“Oh, nothing Mr. Quack, I’m just bleeding.” Calling him Mister always made him upset. He grabbed my hoof and removed the rag, looking at the cut. “This looks deep...what happened?”

I blushed from embarrassment. “Its not important.” Quack looked at the head of the doll poking out of my bag and looked at me funny.

“You’re a strange kid, y’know that?”

“Just shut up and fix me.”

“Alright, just let me-” There was a knock at the door.

Quack got up and answered it. Behind it, stood Celestia and the Purple filly. “Hello,” the Princess greeted. “I believe a friend of ours is here?” Quack stood silent with his jaw practically on the floor.

Celestia and the filly walked by him and stood in front of me. The purple unicorn poked her head into my bag. “Hey!” I said, as she pulled her doll out and went back to her place hiding behind the princess.

Before I could do anything, Celestia lowered her head by hoof. Her horn started to glow, and all the pain went away. The cut had disappeared. I wiggled it in front of me in disbelief.

“How did you-” Before I could finish asking my question, Celestia spread her wings out, making me feel stupid for even asking.

“You’re pretty fast. Tell me, what’s your name?” I didn’t answer and turned away from her. “Whats wrong? Did I say something wrong?” She sounded worried.

“I uh, don’t have one..”

“Oh...”

“How about Velocity?” The Purple filly said. The Princess and I both looked at her. “Because he’s so fast..”

The Princess smiled and looked at me. “What do you think?”

“Its okay, I guess.”

“Do you live here?” The Princess asked. It was surprising for someone I just tried to rob showing so much concern for me.

“No, I’m just friends with-” I pointed to where Quack was standing, but he was gone. Some friend he was.

“Then where do you live?”

“I have a couple blankets with my name on it in the back room of the store where I-”

“Where you kidnapped Smarty Pants?” The filly said angrily. She glared at me until Celestia looked at her.

“Twilight..” The purple filly looked at the ground. So Twilight was her name.

“Is the shopkeeper your parent?”

“Nope...” Being asked personal questions by somepony who could send me to the moon was rather uncomfortable

“Your guardian then?”

“He’s more like my boss.” I explained. I never saw Brick as a father figure.

Celestia nodded and smiled. “Ever thought about joining the guard?”

The question hit me like a sack of real gems. “What?!”

“Not right now of course, you’d have to train everyday, but you’d live with us, and you’d have an actual bed..” I stopped listening after that.

I hopped up and down in excitement. “Yes! Yes!”

“Wonderful.”

After that, I went on to live with Guards. Every day, I’d train with them, learn about my future duties, ate my meals with them, and at night, slept in the barracks with them. They all treated me like I was their younger brother. I missed my friends, but it wasn’t all that bad. I wrote letters to them on a regular basis after Twilight and Celestia taught me how. I expected Brick to read the letters to them, but looking back, I doubt Brick could read.

That explain why I never got any letters back. That, or they hated me for joining the Royal Guard and abandoning them.

My guess was the latter, as much as I hated to admit it. They hated the guards, and me joining them must have been seen as some sort of betrayal. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brick burned these immediately after getting them.

When I wasn’t writing letters, or with the guards, I was spending my time playing with Twilight. We’d usually play at night, and explore the castle, playing hide and seek, or pretending I was a pirate and she was a princess. Despite my black coat, it wasn’t easy sneaking out of the barracks. My Neon Green mane and Bright Orange eyes were easy to spot, and we did get caught a couple of times. Thankfully, my past experience with being in places I shouldn’t saved us from trouble countless times.

Twilight and I were good friends up until our teenage years. Thats when Manehatton happened.

And because of Manehatton, I was assigned to the Dead Horse unit.

It was my first official posting as a guard, and it was an insult. All because I fucked up...

I met my new team in a bar in Canterlot. It was the night of the Summer Sun celebration, and the people I was going to be working with were getting drunk. I don’t blame them, I’d be doing it too if I didn’t want to make a good impression. Manehatton had given me a bad reputation amongst the guards. ‘The Butcher of Manehatton’ is what they called me.

At a table in the far end of the bar sat my team. The leader of the group, Javva, was an old gryphon and a war hero. When I heard she led the Dead Horses, I was surprised, more then I was now, catching her chugging a beer to the chant of her subordinates.

I walked over to the table. Sitting with Javva, were a tan Unicorn with purple shades and a green hat on, her cutie mark was a Bullseye. A Zebra and Diamond dog admired their captain’s drinking skills. A Red pegasus flew over to the table carrying more drinks for everyone.

“Heya J, I think that’s our guy.” The Zebra pointed to me. The Gryphon slammed her glass hard on the table and looked over at me, annoyed she was interrupted before she could finish.

“You Velocity?” She asked.

“Yes sir.” Everyone but the Captain snickered.

“Sir? Do I look a guy to you?”

“Truthfully?”

“Heh, you’ll fit right in.” She turned back to her team. “Everyone, introduce yourselves to the rookie.”

“The name’s Obsidian.” said the Diamond Dog. “And this is Syringe.” he said motioning towards the Zebra.

“I’m Dead Horse’s second in command. Now give me twenty.”

Without thinking, I was on the ground doing push-ups. Syringe and Obsidian laughed. “I want twenty bits.”

“Oh.” I blushed got up from the ground.

“Oh quit picking on the kid. He’s new.” The Tan pony said.

“Thats why we’re picking on him.” Obsidian explained.

“I’m Target, nice to meet you.” I nodded towards her and looked over to the red Pegasus.

“No point telling you, I got thirty bits that says you won’t make it to next week.” He said crossing his arms.

“Make it forty bits.” Syringe said.

“Ignore them.” Target said. “Big Red is Fuse, he’s our explosives expert.” She then pointed towards Syringe. “He’s the Medic, not the second in command. Half of what he says is crap.. Obsidian is heavy weapons.” She turned her hoof on herself. “And I’m the Sniper.”

Javva looked up at clock and grunted. “Down your drinks and hurry up. We gotta be leaving here soon.” I looked at her like she was crazy. We had a mission and they were getting hammered? No wonder we were the laughing stock of the guards. “We’re going to the Moon.”

So our team had two bullshitters, good to know.

“Celestia’s apprentice keeps telling her she’s worried something will happen. So she wants us to go there just in case she’s right and because they don’t want to use anyone important.” She was talking about Twilight Sparkle. Even now, she wouldn’t leave me alone.

“But how are we going to get there?” I asked, I couldn’t be the only one who saw going to the moon as a big deal, could I?

“What do you mean ‘How’? Magic, you idiot.” Javva spat. “You’d think a Unicorn would know that.”

“You’re not expecting me to send us there, are you? I’m not exactly Star Swirl the Bearded.”

“Who?” Fuse asked. The others looked at me expecting an answer as well. Apparently, I had spent too much time with Twilight.

“...Nobody.” Javva got up from her seat and stood near the entrance to the bar, the rest of the team left, leaving me alone with her. I sighed and followed them. This was going to be an interesting assignment, if anything else.

Before I could leave, my new commanding officer stopped me. “Velocity.”

“Yeah?”

“These runts are like family to me, and if you ever do something like what did back in Manehatton, I’ll personally rip you a new plothole.”

“I didn’t realize I was your type.” Javva pushed me out the doors.

Outside of the bar stood Celestia, she looked at every member of Dead Horse and smiled at all of them. All except me, and its because of her apprentice that I’m here and its because of her that I’m even a guard in the first place, and she can’t even look at me in the eye.

“Celestia.” Javva said flatly. The Princess nodded at her.

“Javva, how are you doing?”

“I’m not that old, Celestia. I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are. Are you ready?”

Javva nodded and before I could blink, we were on the moon. Never thought Celestia would send me to the moon this soon in my career.

In front of us, was an orb with a blue pony inside of it. We were in some kind of base, and were surrounded by security cameras. The door behind us was sealed shut, and overall, I felt uneasy being here, like Nopony should be here.
“All right, we’re going to be stuck in here until the Summer Sun celebration ends. I hope one of you brought a deck of cards.”

Obsidian reached into his pack and pulled out a deck. Fuse and Target sat down near him and started playing. I had the luck of attracting Syringe’s attention when I was playing with the broken hand mirror I had stolen all those years ago.

“Is that a mirror in your armor or are you just happy to see me?” he asked. I Placed the small mirror back under my set of armor. The thought of anyone knowing about my past was a scary one. I’m already seen as a monster by most people in the guards, knowing that I used to be a criminal would just make the rumors worse. “ It Looked shiny. Can I see it?” Syringe asked enthusiastically with the largest grin I’ve ever seen. I decided to show him my little treasure if it would just make him stop.

“Here,” I said pulling the mirror out. “Just...never do that again.” I asked in the nicest way I could without sounding rude. He just tilted his head and stared at me.

“Do what?” before I could tell him how creepy his smile was, He was holding my mirror. “This is fine quality...But wheres the actual mirror?”

I swallowed my spit. “I don’t know, just found it like that.”

“So why are you keeping it around? Its pretty, but its junk,”

“Its a good luck charm. I found it when I joined the Guards.”

Syringe chuckled. “No offense, but I wouldn’t consider you joining to be good luck.” I wanted to hit him so hard. “But I can understand keeping it around now. We all like to remember our lives from before we were assigned here.”

I nodded in agreement. I looked up at the orb and began to wonder what Luna was like before she was imprisoned here. Was she kind, or spiteful? Bratty, or humble? I’d probably never know, and I don’t even know why I was curious about this, Its not like I cared before coming here.

“Velocity...” My ears perked up. I didn’t recognize the voice. “Velocity...” The voice repeated. I looked around the room, and everyone was frozen still. “Velocity...” I looked up at the orb containing Luna and realized it was her calling out to me.

I couldn’t control myself. Before I knew what was doing, I was climbing up to her and was right in front of the orb. It was black, and you could only barely see her, but she was there. I touched the orb with my hoof, and the scar from when I cut myself started to glow. The orb began to turn white, and in a flash of bright light, I was sent flying across the room.

When I looked up, time had returned to normal, and everyone was looking up at Princess Luna, or what was supposed to be Princess Luna. In her place, stood a Tall, Black Mare. She smiled and vanished before we could stop her.

Chapter Two

Outcry:
Chapter two

My legs wobbled as I got back on my hooves, either from the shock of placing my country in danger, or from the blast that I swear nearly broke my spine. Syringe and Target were running back and forth in a panic. Obsidian, Fuse, and Javva were oddly calm about the situation, like they expected something to go wrong. Was screwing up this common of an occurrence? Was I going to be like this someday?

Before I could even take a step, my team had been teleported elsewhere. We were now in some kind of forest. It was misty, and hard to see. Syringe was clinging on to my neck until Obsidian could pry him off of me His whole body was still shaking as Obsidian held him up in the air.

The team formed a circle around Javva, and waited for her orders. She sat there, observing her surroundings, trying to get an idea of where we were. After five minutes, she officially declared that we were lost.

Fuse and Javva took off to the sky to try and get a better idea of where we were, leaving us to fend for ourselves. At least if anybody came along, we had Target. I had some spells that I could use, but most of them involved my speed.

“Did you hear that?” Obsidian asked, reaching for the spear on his back.

“Hear what?”

“Something is coming.” Syringe hid behind Obsidian, his shaking getting worse.

“Are you su-” Something grabbed me from behind, and placed a blade near my throat. Other ponies wearing purple armor emerged from behind trees and bushes. They were gray, and had golden eyes.

“The infamous Dead Horse unit. I was hoping for better prey. Something that could put up a fight.” said the pony behind me.

“Oh we can put up a fight.” said Syringe, coming out from hiding behind his friend. “That guy you’re holding isn’t a Dead Horse. He’s a member of the elite Alive Pony unit sent here to train us.” Some of the armored ponies backed up. Either from Obsidian’s growling or from Syringe’s lie. I hoped it was the former, as I didn’t want to be held hostage by ponies this incompetent.

“I never heard of the Alive Pony unit.” one of the soldiers said nervously.

“Theres no such thing.” said another soldier.

Syringe grinned. “Thats because they’re black ops. Officially, they don’t exist.” He was sounding oddly convincing, like he believed this himself.

“Even if that were true,” said the pony using me as a shield. “We have him right where we want him.”

“Is that so?” Syringe moved closer to the soldiers, his grin getting wider and wider. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You’ve fallen right into our trap.”

Two of the soldiers looked at each other, confused about what he meant. “What are you talking about, zebra?”

“Like I said, he trained us all. So even if you do kill him, taking you out would be a piece of cake. The only way for you grunts to get out alive is you let him go, then we’ll do the same to you.”

And like that, I was let go. The soldiers started backing up, but before they could leave, the team decided to give them their blessing. “Attack!” shouted Syringe. I bucked the pony behind me into a nearby tree, and obsidian took two out with his spear.

Target reached into her bag and started throwing rocks at their heads. Not what I had in mind when she said she was the ‘sniper’ but it surprisingly seemed to work. The thing that caught my eye most, however, was that she wasn’t physically throwing the rocks. She was levitating and propelling them at the attackers. I couldn’t see a horn on her, the hat was covering her head, but it wouldn’t be enough to hide a horn.

“Uugh.” the pony behind me moaned. I looked behind me to see him stirring, trying to get back on his hooves. I grinned at the chance to take my revenge

I used my magic to propel me towards the pony, slamming him through the tree and knocking it down. The soldier was dead, and I emerged victorious. At least the assignment wasn’t completely going down the shitter.

My team had already killed the remaining soldiers. Obsidian appeared to be looting their bodies, cheering “Woohoo! Free crap!” Disgusting, we already killed them, did we really have to steal their stuff?

Five seconds later, I became a hypocrite.

I noticed that the blade the pony was using was part of some sort of gauntlet, where the blade could withdraw and be sheathed. Without thinking, I wiggled it off of his hoof and slipped it over mine. It was a perfect fit.

“Wow kid, I heard about the rumors, but seeing it in person is-” I punched Syringe before he could finish talking.

“You’re an idiot. The ‘Alive pony unit’? Are you serious?” I said harshly.

“What?” Syringe said innocently, like he did nothing wrong, while rubbing his cheek. “It worked. Is that good enough for you?”

I couldn’t argue with him, it did work, and I still had all my blood. Considering the situation, I should really be counting my blessings. Obsidian had finished gathering everything he looted into one big pile and smiled at me.

“Hey, Celibacy. Can you help me with this?”

“Its Velocity,” I corrected him. “and help you with what?”

“You’re a Unicorn, can’t you make this stuff smaller, or lighter?” I looked at the pile of Weapons and armor and shook my head.

“No, I don’t know how.”

“Then what good are you?” The diamond dog went back to trying to fit what he could into his pack.

“Its not going to fit.” I informed him as he tried to stuff every helmet into his pack.

“I’ll make it fit. I’m not going to leave this stuff behind. Think of the money we could make!” I decided to leave him alone after this. Dealing with a crazy Diamond Dog wasn’t my idea of fun. Target was levitating the rocks she had used and was putting them back into her bag. Curious about how she was doing this, I went over to ask her.

“Oh, hey Big V!” she greeted warmly. I was rather taken back by the nickname, and remembered that she called Fuse something similar. She noticed the way I was looking at her and explained herself. “Oh, its uh, kind of my thing. I was the smallest in the family so I called everypony ‘Big something’. Its just my thing, ya know?”

“Uh huh...” I nodded. “Say, how are you using magic?”

“With my horn, silly.” she giggled.

“But, you don’t have a horn.”

“Oh, you noticed that, did you?” She stopped giggling and started to blush from embarrassment. “You see, I have a broken horn...” She took off her hat to show what looked like a horn that had been crudely snapped in half. It was painful just looking at it. “I had an ‘accident’ a while back, and before I could do all sorts of spells. But now, I can only use levitation, and even then, it hurts just to do that.”

“Oh,” I said sympathetically. I wasn’t sure of what to say, and felt bad for even bringing it up. “I’m Sorry.”

Target smiled warmly and waved her hoof. “Oh no, Its no trouble. I can’t blame you for being curious. Besides, the hat keeps most ponies from noticing.” She looked behind me, her eyes getting wide with excitement. “Hey, Big Red is back!”

She ran past me and went to where Javva and Fuse were hovering. They looked worn and tired. I guess we weren’t the only ones who had a rough time.

“So? Where are we?” asked Obsidian.

“I don’t know.” Javva said with a defeated tone in her voice. “We didn’t get far before we spotted an army of soldiers flying west of here.” The old gryphon looked around and saw the bodies of the soldiers we encountered. “I guess they’re groundside as well.”

“So whats the plan?” asked our silver tongued medic.

“We saw a cave not far from here, we saw some of the soldiers go inside of it. I think we should go there next.” Fuse said, looking towards Javva for approval. She nodded in agreement and before waiting for the others, he walked off towards the cave. Target was right behind him.

“Do we really need to go where all the bad guys are gathering?” Syringe complained. “Can’t we go somewhere nice instead?”

“We can leave you here, if you prefer.” Javva said as she walked off. I chuckled at the terrified look on the zebra’s face as he ran behind Javva.

Obsidian looked down at me with anticipation. “Ready to knock some skulls, kid?”

“Its my job to, isn’t it?”

The diamond dog laughed and slapped me on the back. “Thats the spirit.”

_________________

It felt like we had been walking through the forest for hours. Syringe had convinced Obsidian to carry him, squealing from happiness when he agreed to it and Javva had resorted to flying to give her old bones some rest.

Up ahead, was a large bridge built over a river. On it, was an old earth pony wearing a straw hat, taking a nap until we approached him. He didn’t look like one of the soldiers, but Javva woke him up just to be sure.

“Hey, get up.” Our leader nudged the old pony. Yawning, he looked up at us standing over him and smiled greedily.

“Ah, so you want to use my bridge do you? The toll is five bits.”

Javva turned to Syringe. “Pay the man.”

“What? Why me?” Syringe asked as though Javva insulted him.

“Because I said so.”

“Well, if you remember, we all spent our bits at the bar. All except the new guy...” The group then turned to me to fix their problem. Remembering that I had used my spare bits to pay for some armor to cover my flank, I was as broke as the rest of them.

“Don’t look at me, I can’t pay.”

“Oh forget this.” said Fuse, who was losing patience with the old pony. He flew up and grabbed the pony, throwing him off the bridge and into the river. Everyone but Fuse and I carried on.

“Was that really necessary? He could die out there!”

“We get to cross the bridge don’t we?”

“Yeah, its a good thing you got that old man out of the picture. We couldn’t possibly have just walked off or anything.” I said sarcastically.

“If I go back and fish him out, will you quit complaining.”

“For now, yeah.” A grin grew on my face as Fuse flew over the river and scooped the old man out, bringing him back to the bride. getting an old pony killed was not something I wanted on my conscious. I already have enough restless nights to last me a lifetime.

The old pony’s teeth were chattering, he was cold and scared from what just happened. Fuse stared at him with disgust before reaching into his bag and pulling out a small blanket and draping it over him, and tried placing something under the blanket without me knowing. I didn’t get a good look at it, but whatever it was, it was small and yellow.
I smiled knowing at my co-worker wasn’t a complete sociopath. We began walking across the bridge, neither one of us saying anything. Trying to break the awkward silence, I attempted to start a friendly conversation with him. I might as well get to know who I’m working with.

“So, Fuse is it? Your cutie mark is a stick of dynamite. I guess you’re good at what you do.”

“Did you doubt me before?” growled the red pegasus.

“N-no!”

“Good.” he said sharply. He was intimidating, more so then Javva. “Whats your cutie mark?” I suppose he was trying to be friendly.

I froze up and started to sweat. Fuse stopped and looked at me. “Well?”

“Uh, its super awesome! Its a uh...”

“Eh, I don’t really care anyways.” Fuse kept walking. we were pretty far behind the others at this point.

I started to relax and wiped the sweat off my head.. I caught back up to Fuse and was walking side by side with him again. The rest of team had stopped up ahead, and we were able to see them in the distance.

Me, being the idiot that I am, had to speak before I could think. “Were you really just going to let him drown?”

“And If I was?” Fuse snarled. “What were you going to do about it?”

Again, I’m an idiot.

I decided that Fuse seemed to be the kind of pony that respected action, and strength. So me, being the stupid pony I was, tried to out macho him. “I’d have kicked your plot.”

Fuse scoffed. “With what?”

I brandished my blade and grinned, thinking I had won. Fuse saw the knife and tackled me, pinning me up against a tree. He struck me in the face and yelled at me.

“If you’re going to pull out a weapon, be prepared to use it.” Something in me snapped and I socked him in the stomach. He let go and and backed up. Once again, I thought I had won. Fuse laughed, and while I was still up against the tree got a low blow off me. I fell to the ground and watched him walk off.

Wanting my revenge, I used my magic to knock him to the ground as I got back up. Before I knew it, Fuse had gotten back up as well and was charging at me. I swore there was fire in his eyes. I moved out of the way and he slammed his head hard against tree.

Fuse rubbed his head while growling at me. “Damn Unicorns...” he charged at me again and again, each time dodging him, and each time just making him more enraged. “Stay still!” he shouted.

We must have gotten the attention of the others, because out of the corner of my eye, I saw Obsidian running towards us. He lifted us up both by the collar of our armor, his eyes telling us how disappointed he was.

“Would you two stop acting like children? We got a job to do.” Obsidian pleaded. Fuse wiggled his legs trying to get to me then let his body go limp. Maybe he was finally calming down? The diamond dog gently put him back on the ground, then me a few seconds later.

The pegasus was still glaring at me, but he at least kept his hooves to himself. When we joined the others, Target joined Fuse in giving me dirty looks. Great, the only one that wasn’t annoying, greedy, or unlikable thought I was a brute who started fights with his teammates.

______________

Soldiers were starting to become a frequent sight, and we we nearly caught a few times before Obsidian suggested he dig a tunnel and we pass by undetected in the safety of the earth. It was a good idea, there was no need to risk attracting unwanted attention to ourselves.

Watching a Diamond Dog dig was a fascinating sight. He worked at amazing an amazing speed, and thats coming from the fastest Unicorn alive. Obsidian never slowed down, never took a break, he just kept working, I hoped I get that kind of stamina one day. The tunnel was dark, and I used my magic to light up the passage. It was silent, peaceful even, until Syringe couldn’t take another second of not hearing his own voice.

“You know what this is like?” Syringe started. “A field trip.” Target and I looked at each other and shrugged.

“A field trip?” I asked quizzically. I thought Field trips were supposed to be fun.

“Yeah, Javva is the grumpy old teacher that likes to give us extra homework, Target is the teacher’s pet, you’re the new kid nobody likes, Fuse is the one that sits in the corner looking pissed off all the time,” Fuse glared at him when he mentioned his name.

“I am not pissed off.” he claimed, hitting the ground with his hoof. Yeah, right, and I’m the prince of equestria.

“Obsidian is the fat kid.” the zebra continued. Our tunnler’s ears perked up and frowned.

“I’m not fat, am I?” he asked anyone who was listening, not taking his eyes off his work.

“Well, you’re the heaviest one here. That makes you the fat one.” Syringe pointed out.

“And what does that make you?” Target asked. I guess she didn’t mind being the Teacher’s pet. I certainly didn’t care for being the ‘one that nobody liked’ but I kept my mouth shut.

“I’m the popular, funny one.” Syringe stated with way too much pride, grinning like an idiot.

Javva looked back at him with a surprised look on her face. “Wow, Syringe. I’m impressed.”

“With my dead on comparisons?”

“No, that you went to school.” We snickered at Syringe’s expense. He blushed and fell back slightly from the rest of the group.

It was nice to laugh. About the first time I actually relaxed since I joined the Dead Horses. A shame really, from what I’ve read, the Dead Horses used to be a respectable force a thousand years ago. Most of us died in some battle, and the survivors were said to be cursed with unbelievably bad luck. Those who died were said to have joined the stars and the survivors
wore bronze stars on their armor in remembrance ever since.

My stars, were stickers I found that were dropped by a rather strange pink pony who was visiting Canterlot, however. I used up most of my money for the flank armor and this was the best I could do. Nobody really seemed to notice, or if they did, they didn’t care.

Thankfully, nobody mention why I bothered to mention why I got my flank armor, but I knew it was only a matter of time before Syringe found out and decided to tell everypony he knows. There was no point thinking about it now, however. I might as well enjoy the privacy while it lasted.

Eventually, Obsidian’s tunnel crossed path with another tunnel. We weren’t alone. Cries of someone yelling for mercy could be heard. There were three branching tunnels, one on the left, middle, and right.

Obsidian instinctually ran down the left. Javva ordered us to follow him, and off we ran. We started finding torches on the ‘walls’ that appeared to have been put out recently. Several Hoofprints were left in the ground along with Obsidian’s tracks.

We could hear our friend shouting something unintelligible. When we reached our destination, I thought I was going to be sick. The bodies of Diamond dogs were scattered everywhere, with deep lacerations covering their bodies.

Our teammate was cornered by the same soldiers that were topside. I guess nowhere was safe from them. We jumped after them, joining the fray.

These soldiers were more experienced then the last ones we encountered. They were faster, and better equipped. All of them wore the gauntlet I nabbed off the one who nearly slit my throat.

Javva slammed the head of one who was charging at Obsidian into a wall and drove her talons into her skull, piercing the helmet. She did this without any reaction on her face. She remained cold and emotionless as she fought the next pony in her line of sight over and over again.

Target stayed in the back and threw her rocks. These soldiers were more heavily armored and were simply annoyed by this, but it work as a decoy so I could stab them without much resistance. Using the blade was surprisingly easy, and felt natural.

The last of the soldiers fell to the floor as one entered the room. He had a brown coat, and cold, silver eyes, and didn’t seem to be phased by us killing the others. “These tests are going better than expected.” he remarked as the body of a diamond dog laid in front of him. He didn’t seem to notice us. “Hmm. Tranquility will be pleased, at least.”

“Who are you” Fuse ordered. The stallion’s eyes shot up at us. They looked dead.

“I am the Nurse, and you are Burning Fuse of the Dead Horses. You were put in this unit for assaulting Prince Blueblood and while growing up, you were a member of a Pegasus supremacist group. Shall I continue?”

Fuse was taken back by this and looked to Javva to an explanation.

“Why did you kill them?!” Obsidian shot out at him. The Nurse’s face remained neutral to the Diamond Dog’s judgement.

“Experimental gain, its the same reason why we attacked you in the forest. You see, these aren’t ordinary soldiers. We can change how intelligent, strong, and fast they are as we please, however, they risk insanity and will go beserk, ignoring our orders, unless we ease them in.”

“And why are you telling us?”

“Because I want you to. I want you to know about this, about these soldiers, and what they’re capable of. I’m a sporting man, I like to give my a small chance. After all, what's the fun of cat and mouse if I catch you as soon as the game begins?”

“What are you talking about? Whats going on?” asked Target, levitating a rock just in case this Nurse character tried something.

“Nothing, yet. All we’re doing now is population control for the wild life.”

This snapped something in Obsidian. Having his fallen kinsmen being called animals made him lunge at this Nurse. Baring his teeth and spear, he almost got a hit in on him. Despite being an Earth pony, the Nurse used something that resembled my kinetic magic, and kept this up until Obsidian was trying to catch his breath. Then he appeared in front of me, mouthing the words “Surprised?” quietly. His face changed emotions for the first time since he entered the room and smirked when he saw the startled look on my face. Fuse put himself between me and the nurse and squinted his eyes at him. I don’t know what confused me more, that an Earth Pony was using my magic, or that Fuse of all ponies, was the one to be protective.

“Look,” Syringe tried pushing Fuse and me away from the Nurse. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“I do.” Fuse growled.

“I agree with Fuse!” Obsidian pointed out while leaning on his spear, resting. He was seriously out of shape. How could someone that was just digging for miles without breaking a sweat, unable to swing a spear around a couple of times?

“Come now, theres no need for such barbarism.”

“I disagree.” Javva pushed herself in front of Syringe, pushing me back even further. I was confused and annoyed at this train we formed. “You killed these Diamond Dogs. They were citizens of Equestria, its our job to deal with ponies like you. Now, we aren’t exactly good guards, so we might forget that taking you in is an option.” I wonder how silly that sounded to the Nurse with half of us sitting in a line behind our leader.

“Don’t be so quick to through your men’s lives away, I expected this from Velocity in the back, but I suppose you aren’t a stranger to sacrifice, are you, captain?” Javva swatted at him, and the Earth pony seemingly teleported on the ledge. He smiled down at us and went through the way we came in.

“Come on!” Javva ordered us to follow her as she flew up to the ledge.

“Uh, sir?” Target interupted. Javva looked back and saw Target pointing to Obsidian looking over the corpses. All of Javva’s lust for battle faded away as she saw her friend standing there. She flew down next to him and silently sat next to him with her head bowed, mourning the dead.

“Aren’t we going to catch this guy?” I asked, not understanding why were worrying about dead Diamond Dogs who we never met before instead of doing our job.

“The dead come first.” she said without looking back at me. An odd thing for someone who about a minute ago completely forgot about the dead to go chase him, but I bit my tongue. When the two were done, Obsidian started digging graves, and it was up to me to fill them.

We all sat by the graves as Javva went by each grave and drew a marking in the soil with her talons.

________________

After the funeral, Obsidian was able to make an exit, and as luck would have it, the cave was in eyesight. It wasn’t guarded, atleast, from what we could tell. Who knew how many of them were in there. I wasn’t worried though, if this Nurse fellow was being serious about wanting us alive, then whatever was in there would be easy to take down.

We crept towards the cave, with still no sight of any guards. Our backs hugged the rough exterior of the cave. It was dark, and we couldn’t see anything. Javva smiled maliciously and looked at me.

“Velocity, you’re fast right?” I didn’t like the way she asked that.

“He actually seems kinda slow, ma’am.” said Syringe. I sneered at him.

“Yeah, I’m fast...” I said warily,

“Then go in there and scout out the area, if you see anything, come back and tell us. Then we can think of a plan.”

“One problem with this,” Besides me being the guinea pig. “How am I supposed to see with no light.”

“You’re eyes will adjust.” the captain said while pushing me into the cave as I resisted. She ran back to the others when I was far enough in. I gulped and looked back at the bastards who were sending me into a place that was dark, and I couldn’t see. It wasn’t ‘Basement with the lights turned off’ dark, it was ‘I couldn’t see my hoof in front of me’ dark. Anything waiting in there could jump out at me anytime it wanted. Breathing got harder just thinking about it.

My eyes were slowly getting adjusted to the darkness, and I could see a little better, but not much. I started walking until my eyesight got better, then I was confident enough to run. The cave spanned longer then I thought, but after about thirty seconds of running, I ran straight into something hard, knocking me to the ground. I rubbed my head and got back up on my hooves. I placed my hoof on whatever I ran into. The texture felt....odd.

I created a light so I could see what I was touching. I was touching scales. Moving scales.

I looked up and saw a large, black dragon looking down at me like it was hungry.

Oh, fuck my life with a soldering iron.

Without hesitating, I ran away screaming like a little filly. My eyes were closed and I unconsciously started cursing out my team. “Fuck you, Javva, for sending me in here. Fuck you, Fuse, and your overly high testosterone levels. Fuck you, Syringe and your stupid jokes. Fuck you Target, for using dumb rocks to fight, and fuck you Obsidian for using that damn spear, you’re the heavy weapons guy, and thats your weapon?!” Shortly after this little outburst, I realized that even though my legs were still moving, I wasn’t on the ground anymore. I opened my eyes to see the angry faces of my team. I looked up to see Obsidian who must have picked me up when he saw. “Oh, fuck.” He dropped me hard on the ground. Sometimes I hated how fast I was.

“Permission to kill him, ma’am?” asked Fuse, as the entire team circled me while I was on the ground. I forced a smile to try and make them think I was joking. Besides, they wouldn’t really kill me for something like this...

“Granted.”

Fuck.

Before the subject matter could continue, we could hear the large thuds the dragon was making as it was coming after us.

“I know that sound...” Javva said with a hint of fear in her voice.

The dragon emerged from the darkness of the cave and looked at us with curiosity. We stared back at it. Javva’s legs were trembling worse then Syringe’s. I wanted to know what was wrong with her, but I figured asking why they were scared while they were being stared down by a thousand pound lizard would be a stupid question.

Cocking its head at us, the dragon didn’t look all that intimidating anymore. Perhaps it was friendly. That was, until it looked at me. “What is your name?”

“V-v-v-v-v-velocity.” I stammered.

I really wish I knew how to shut up, as when I answered, it breathed fire at us. We scattered and circled him. Obsidian charged at the dragon and gored him with his spear. Target threw rocks at its head to try and distract it. Fuse reached into his bag and started throwing bottles that exploded at his feet. Syringe ran over to Fuse and started chucking those bottles as well. I used my speed and blade to lacerate the creature on the opposite side of where Obsidian was stabbing. Javva took to the air and started clawing at his eyes. There was a certain synergy among us.

Seeing Javva fly around gave me an idea, I ran over to Fuse and tried to get him to help me. “Fuse! I need you to fly me over the dragon.”

“What? Why?”

“Just trust me.”

“You better be on to something.” He scooped me up and flew me above the dragon. “This good?”

“Higher! High as you can get me!”

“You’re not using me to get out of this fight are you?”

“Just do it!” I shouted at him. He complied, and flew miles above the dragon. I looked up at him and smiled. “Now drop me!” I exclaimed. He did so without a second thought. I was hoping for a ‘What? are you crazy?’ or ‘No, you have too much to live for!’ but I should have known better then to expect that from Fuse.

I used my magic to propel towards the dragon. This was the fastest I had ever gone, and if this didn’t work, nothing would. I brought out my blade and used my magic to make me go even faster. I was inches away from the Dragon’s spine.

My blade pierced his hide, and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded in blood and guts. I was inside the dragon. I could feel the fat bastard wobble around and fall over on its side. The overflow of blood carried me out of the wound I had made. I was covered in..well, I really didn’t want to know.

The entire team was standing in front of me, still not believing what they just saw. Syringe was laughing uncontrollably. I looked over at him and realized he was at my side, and the armor that was covering my flank had been destroyed.

“Blank flank!” He said pointing to where my cutie mark would have been if I had one. I blushed as he fell to the ground, rolling back and forth, trying to gasp for air. The cat was out of bag now. I didn’t have a special talent, and soon, the entire guard would know.

“You...killed a dragon.” Target said, still in shock of what just happened. Obsidian’s jaw was on the floor and even Fuse looked impressed. Javva smiled warmly at me and helped me up.

“Could have used you during the Dragon War.” Her smile, though nice, seemed kind of forced. Like she was trying to hide some other emotion. From the pain in her eyes, It had to be sadness.

“Augh.” The dragon behind me moaned. My ears perked up in fright. It still wasn’t dead? That didn’t kill it?!

The dragon didn’t move as we approached his head. He followed us with his eyes. “This...changes...nothing. Tranquility will...avenge me.”

Tranquility. First the Nurse mentioned this name, and now this dragon? “We have planned for thousands of years. We will purge you mutants, and ascend the worthy. Your equestria will burn, and from the ashes, an empire, built on all of your strengths and none of your weaknesses, will rise.” the dragon said, using his last amount of strength before gasping for air. He was in unimaginable pain because of me. I felt it right that he be put out of that pain by me. With Javva’s permission, I slit the dragon’s throat.

___________

“You’re saying there were soldiers in this cave?” asked Celestia. We learned that while we were trapped in this forest, Twilight Sparkle and five mares from Ponyville used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon, and turn her back into Princess Luna. About the only time since Manehatton that I’ve felt glad to hear Twilight Sparkle’s name.

Javva nodded. “We saw soldiers enter this cave, but this ‘Nurse’ must have warned them and left the dragon for us.”

“And they both worked for this ‘Tranquility’, Is that correct?”

“Yes, your Highness.”

“I will have this looked into. If they were speaking the truth, then this is a threat I cannot ignore.”

“Do you want us to help in the investigation? We do have the most experience with them, maybe we could help.”

Celestia smiled. “No, but I do have another assignment for you and your team. My apprentice, Twilight Sparkle, has decided to live in Ponyville to be with her new friends. I’d like your team to be her bodyguards.”

“Her bodyguards?”

“Yes, I’m afraid that over the years, Twilight has been the target of many who would use her to get to me.”

“Are you sure you want us to protect her and her friends?” Celestia looked over to the dragon and laughed.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

Javva bowed at the princess. “Then its decided.”

“One more thing,” Celestia said like she had almost forgotten. “You have to be discrete. Twilight cannot know she has bodyguards. She doesn’t know that some ponies would want to harm her, and I don’t want her worried.” Unbelievable, she wanted to make our job harder just so that spoiled brat Twilight wouldn’t be scared? I don’t know why I was surprised, I was aware of how Twilight’s guards worked, I just hoped that Celestia had learned something since last time.

“It won’t be a problem.” Celestia smiled at us and teleported away.

“Ponyville huh? Fluttershy lives there.” remarked Fuse.

“Whose Fluttershy?” asked Syringe.

“His sister.” Target said matter-of-factly.

Oh great, another ticking time bomb of pure rage to deal with.

Javva joined us and showed us a map. “Celestia gave this to me, it should lead us out of here, then we can make our way to Ponyville.”

Great, after a night of near death experiences, my reward was guarding the pony I hated most in this world. At least ponyville was supposed to be peaceful. We followed Javva out of the forest, leading us to our new home until we either died, failed, or got reassigned. I prayed for the latter.

Chapter 3: Pariah

Chapter Three:

Pariah

Life is like a drunk carriage driver. Never quite sure where its going to take you and all you can do is hope it doesn’t get you killed along the way. Unfortunately. I decided I wanted to spend my life as a soldier defending ungrateful ponies who decided to spend their lives in plot fuck nowhere.Not the smartest choice I’ve ever made. I really shouldn’t complain though. I miss the days when I was a hero, and little colts and fillies admired me for defending their village. Now they just throw rocks at me, or run away screaming when they see me.

On our way to Ponyville, we made a stop in some village I can’t even remember the name of, so for now, lets just call it Plot fuck Village. Because who wouldn't want to live in such a lustrous community? If I had grown up there, I’m sure I would have been a much more productive member of society. Or I would have just grown up to be a bigger asshole.

You see, non-ponies aren’t usually looked at with the highest of opinions. Zebras like Syringe are sometimes seen as evil witches, who curse entire towns. You see enough headlines in the papers to know that non-ponies getting blamed for a problem, then killed by an angry mob is a common enough problem to make people demand that the Princess do something about it, and to be fair to her, she has. Relations have improved over the last fifty or so years. But hatred is a hell of a thing to let go, especially when its blind hatred, because then it doesn’t know where to go.

I’ve heard enough of Fuse’s mouth that he and his family were some of these ponies. Syringe and Obsidian seemed to ignore him, mostly because he rarely had anything to say about zebras and Diamond Dogs. Griffons were another matter. Javva usually beat him down whenever he said something though. And it didn’t bother him that much, since he respected Javva’s every order and talked about her like she was a hero. Pegasi and Griffons were old enemies with the occasional raid on Cloudsdale sparking a genocidal war. Now, Griffons are a bit of a rare sight and still haven’t fully recovered. Griffons are now citizens of Equestria, and are a minority population in Cloudsdale, living in the ‘ghettos of the skies’.

Who's to blame for the war is still up in the air. The Pegasi say they did it to stop any further attacks on their home, while the Griffons claim they did it to stop the Pegasi who were hunting them and selling their pelts and feathers to the aristocrats in Canterlot. In the old days, having a griffon feather in your hat, or rug made of their skin used to be the hot shit, It was a status symbol.

When the Griffons were nearing extinction, Celestia stopped the Pegasi, and forced an alliance between them when she declared the Griffons to be citizens of Equestria. Celestia was away from Equestria during the time this happened, and didn’t learn about it until she came back accompanied by a personal guard of the Griffon’s mightiest warriors; The Ebonhart Rangers.

They were an order dedicated to improving themselves. They lived under the idea that if they went even one day without taking the life of someone or something that could match them, they would start to grow weak. Some protected the innocent, some attacked them to provoke stronger prey. Many just offered their services as blades and guns for hire, but all would come when they heard the call for war by their grandmaster.

Most of the Rangers were killed fighting two wars at the same time. One in foreign lands, and the genocidal war here in Equestria. The remaining Ebonhart Rangers had been assimilated into the larger Equestrian army, and officially didn’t exist any longer. Most of them didn’t respond too kindly to this. The ones who wanted to maintain their independence made a large scale assassination attempt on the Princess’s life, only to all be killed single handedly by the former grand master and personal body guard of Princess Celestia.

It was said that the Grandmaster took the bodies of the traitors to one of the mass graves made during the war near the outskirts of Equestria and buried them with their fallen brothers, and placed the blade used to slay them there before taking her own life, an act that was considered dishonorable amongst the Rangers.

Nobody has heard about them since, leaving the Griffons without a protector, and with barely an identity. Without a home, they migrated to the capital of their conqueror to be segregated from the rest of the populace. In certain parts of Canterlot, you can still find Griffon rugs for sale, really all thats changed is that we smile when we kill them now.

Integration was something Celestia was desperately trying to accomplish, and was slowly but surely happening. It was just happening unbelievably slowly. Only recently have Griffons and Pegasi been allowed in the same schools, beyond that however, things are pretty much the same. The prejudice and bigotry still weighed heavily on most Pegasi minds.

A prime example of this was Plot fuck village. It was a small community, moslty composed of Earth ponies with a small, but we would later learn, vocal minority of Pegasi who acted as the village’s self appointed militia. The Earth ponies didn’t really care, and protection from monsters this far away from any nearby town was welcome.

Normally, you’d think they’d love to see a team of soldiers going through their town even for a little while incase of a bandit raid or something, but the sad thing is, stupidity is genetic, and the pegasi here were the children of those who fought in the war. With our leader being not only a griffon but also old enough to have fought in them, we got a ‘warm’ welcome to say the least.

A pegasus patrolling the outskirts of the village saw and shouted “Carnivore!” a remark on how Griffons prefer the taste of meat, an act considered by the herbivore ponies to be disgusting, vile, and barbaric. Javva didn’t seem to pay much mind to it, but we did hasten our pace as we walked to the inn. We could hear the Growls of Pegasi and a few Earth ponies as they glared at us with hatred in their piercing eyes.

The Inn wasn’t much better, we obviously weren’t wanted, but the innkeeper accepted our bits regardless. Its comforting to know that no matter how bigoted a pony can get, in the end they’ll still give you what you want for your money. Its rather strangely beautiful that two ponies that hate each other can still work out a deal.

We were all placed in different rooms. I was stuck with Syringe, or rather, he volunteered to be my ‘roommate’ while Obsidian went to bunk with Fuse. The girls decided to use the same room as well. Syringe was way too excited to hang out with me, and I couldn’t decide if this was a good thing. On one hoof, I had the feeling most of the squad didn’t like me, so knowing one did made me feel a little better about being placed in this unit, but then again, the only one that liked me was an annoying bastard who made me want to go AWOL.

I miss him terribly.

Syringe had reached into his pack and pulled out a deck of cards, begging me to play with him until eventually he broke my spirit. I’ll admit though, the game was kinda fun after he taught me the basics to it. though the entertainment value was lost on me whenever Syringe looked at me with his dumbass grin and muttered “You just activated my trap card.” The frustration of it was enough for me to lose any enjoyment of the game after fifth time this happened.

As I was looking closely at the few cards I had left at my disposal, Syringe decided now was the perfect time to bring up an uncomfortable topic. “So what happened at Manehattan?” My eyes went wide at the question and I looked up at him. The grim look on my face must have scared him, because when his eyes met mine, his ears flopped down, and he started to move away from me.

“You know what happened, everypony does.” My eyes flashed back at my cards in a mixture of agitation that he would even bring something like that up, and shame from what I had done. I didn’t look back at Syringe, and I guess without him being under my gaze, he was able to regain his composure, because he decided he had the balls to keep pressing the subject.

“Well I know what the report said. But I don’t know why it happened. Care to share?” I sighed and looked up at him. It wasn’t entirely unreasonable for him to ask, especially after what happened. I’d be curious too, and more than a little cautious.

“I lost somepony important to me, and because of that, I caused myself to lose many more.” Syringe quickly lifted an eyebrow.

“You lost somepony? Who was it?”

“Somepony now dead and forgotten.” I glared at the Zebra, and he got the hint to stop, but sadly not stop talking. He thought for a moment for another conversation topic to talk about. His eyes lit up and his frown grew into what was now a large grin.

“So what made you decide to fight and die for your country?” Great. Another uncomfortable question. I shifted my body and looked at him. He was trying awfully hard to be friendly with me, and I couldn’t tell if he was legitimately trying to become my best bud, or if he was planning something else.

I decided to put some trust in him, but only if he gave some trust in return. He could at least know this if I wasn’t going to tell him the whole story about Manehattan “I’ll tell you if you tell me.” We found ourselves smiling and he agreed to my terms. “Alright, I was a thief, and I mugged Celestia. I was just a kid at the time, and well, it ended about as well as you could expect. I didn’t even have a name, and Celestia found me. She gave me a home in the guards, and her apprentice gave me my name.” He wasn’t expecting this story, thats for sure. His mouth hung agape, and I wasn’t sure whether he believed me or not. “What about you?”

“...Free College...” He muttered. I couldn’t help but laugh. The look on his face combined with his answer just killed me. He didn’t have a reaction to making me laugh, which made me laugh even harder. I had finally found a way to shut him up.

We went to sleep after swapping stories for an hour or two.

___________

“Hey, wake up!” I blinked my eyes up at Target who was now violently shaking me. “Somethings going on outside.” There was a distinct look of panic on her face that worried me. My first thought was that Javva was being attacked by some of the Pegasi outside, but Javva would be able to hold them off, so it couldn’t be that. My next thought was that Fuse finally snapped and went on a rampage through the village. The sheer thought of anypony feeling his wrath made me jump from my bed and use my magic to storm down the stairs with Target following me. The bar was empty, and I could hear a lot of yelling outside. This wasn’t a good sign.

I burst through the front door and saw a mob gathering around something, screaming unintelligible words. The rest of the Dead Horse unit were watching them b the entrance of the inn, so I didn’t have to worry about Javva or Fuse anymore. When I asked them what was going on, they claimed not to know, and that it was really none of their business. Target still kept a look of concern on her face, and so did I. Whatever it was, I wanted to make sure it deserved this response. I pushed my way through the crowd, trying desperately to get to the center. An Earth pony with a braided mane and coffin as a cutie mark kicked me in the jaw by accident, or at least I hope it was by accident.
When I reached my destination, I saw the weirdest group of travellers since well, my weird group of travellers. Their leader was a gryphon that was easily twice the size of an average one, practically a mountain of muscle. His wing appeared to be plucked, and replaced with giant sheaths for his weapons of a Sword that was surprisingly bigger then him, and a Rifle that read ‘Godslayer’ on its stock.His eyes appeared to be completely different, with one of them looking like it belonged to a bat pony. Around his neck dangled horns that were longer than a Unicorn’s. The most peculiar thing about him however was his left claw. It had been replaced with a metallic one, with his claws resembling small drills. Slung over his back was a Cream colored pegasus with a bloody bandage wrapped around her eyes. Her ears appeared to be crudely sliced off as well. It was a sight that made my stomach turn.

Beside him, was a dark blue crystal pony that appeared to be enjoying the attention he was receiving. He had a light blue mane, and a small beard that he was rubbing with his hoof while smiling. On his back was a shotgun with a circle shaped lever at the front of its handle. He had a grey cowboy hat and a red bandana wrapped tightly around his neck. His cutie mark was replaced with a branding of a symbol I had never seen before. Most of his body was covered in leather armor that looked like it had seen better days. Next to him was a small timber wolf who was growling at the crowd in front of him.

“What did you do to her, Carnivore?!” A pegasus floating above me demanded to know.

“Put her down. No.” Ordered another.

I was starting to see why everypony was upset, but they were also quick to the draw. Why would a Gryphon torture a Pegasus and bring her here? An earth pony left the safety of the crowd to try and take her away from him. His eyes flashed with anger and shoved the metallic talon inches away from his face, with each of the claws spinning rapidly. “Don’t touch her.” he said in a gruff voice. The Earth pony stood his ground and stared at the gryphon. “Don’t you ever touch her!” He shouted at him, finally causing him to return to the mob. The gryphon slowly placed his talon back to the ground.

“Easy big guy.” The Crystal pony placed a hoof on his Shoulder. The angry gryphon looked down at him and sighed heavily. The Crystal pony then turned to the crowd. “You don’t have to worry every one, she’s our friend. We just want a place to nap and get hammered, now thats not so much to ask, is it?”

The crowd had none of it, and were still shouting at them to drop the pegasus. I knew how it felt to be blamed and everypony hating you for it. I foolishly stepped in to help them, and that would later come to bite me on the ass. I walked over to them and turned around to face the crowd. “This group is under the protection of the Equestrian Guard. If any of you continue to harass them, you will face Celestia’s punishment. With Luna now back in Canterlot, there sure is a lot of room up there thats just waiting to be filled.”

The thought of dealing with the Equestrian Guard made the whole situation more trouble than it was worth, and caused more than a few headaches. I received a hard pat on the back by the Crystal pony. He had a grin that could match Syringe’s. “Thanks Soldier boy. We owe you one. The name’s Sapphire Blitz, what’s yours?”

I noticed that a long scar went up his leg and went under his armor, where it dropped back down to the other leg and circled around to go back up. It was the same with the other legs as well. I stared at them a moment before responding. “Velocity.”

“Well Velocity, my big friend over here is Runt, the pegasus is Sunflower,” Sapphire then started to pet the Timber Wolf beside him. “And this little guy is Oak.” The beast looked up at him with a tremendous amount of affection in it’s eyes. I’d never heard of someone keeping a Timber Wolf as a pet, or even one being docile.

I looked over at Runt, his eyes fixed directly on me. I had a hard time reading his expression, and it was starting to make me nervous. I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze until he started to walk past me into the inn, completely ignoring the rest of the Dead Horses. Sapphire followed him and nodded to the rest of my team before going in after him. He shot a quick glance at me and smiled as he was walking through the door.

The team followed them in and I stood there in the middle of the dirt road, a little fearful of going in there. Not because of the bigass Gryphon whose was packing more weapons then our entire team, but because I had a bad feeling of Syringe and Sapphire being in the same building together.

I just knew it wouldn’t end well.

_____________

As soon as I walked in, I could hear Syringe and Sapphire laughing at each other’s jokes as Syringe tended to Sunflower. I noticed that she had a scar like Sapphire did, and was curious as to why, but decided to hold my tongue. Asking personal questions of people with guns and were now getting drunk seemed like a bad idea.

I sat at a table with Runt and Javva. Runt was constantly looking over his shoulder to look at Sunflower who was laid out on a table while Syringe rebandaged her as Sapphire told him a joke about two Gryphons getting lost in the wilderness. It was easy to tell that this Sunflower was important to him.

“So, who are you guys anyways?” Javva asked, making Runt take his eyes off the blind Pegasus, and looked a bit surprised that Javva was even there.

“We’re the Ebonhart Rangers. We’ve come to Equestria after hearing about the return of Luna.” Javva’s eyes lit up with nostalgia at the mention of the old order. She was old enough to remember them, and even be part of them. It was no surprise she reacted like that.

“The Rangers are gone.”

“Maybe to those like you who submit.” Javva ignored him and looked over at the Crystal Pony and Pegasus. “Are they Rangers too?”

“We’ve had to change with the times.”

“Way to keep tradition alive.” Despite the back and forth, I got the feeling they were actually enjoying each other’s company. Must be a Gryphon thing.

“So whats that thing on your back?” Syringe asked. Guns were a rare sight in most of Equestria. Special divisions of the guard used them, but considering we’re at the bottom of the military food chain, it didn’t surprise me that Syringe had never saw one. Even I was surprised by it, most guns I’ve seen you had to fire with your mouth, this seemed to be handled for the legs.

Sapphire grabbed the gun and stood up on his hind legs, and fitted one of his legs through the lever while using the other to keep the gun steady. He smiled at Syringe with a large grin knowing that his prized possession was being admired. “I call ‘er the Thunderclapper. Its a shotgun that was designed by a genius that travels the outskirts of Equestria in a tank. You push the lever up when you want to fire, and you pull it towards you when you want to get up close and personal with a fucker.” A small blade popped out of underbarrel of the shotgun. Syringe looked at it with awe. I could tell he wanted one, which all in all wasn’t a bad idea. He wasn’t much of a fighter, so something he could easily use at a range would do him so good. These things were unbelievably expensive, so unless Shining Armor decided to drastically up our funding, he’d have to sit there being jealous.

Obsidian and Fuse were completely ignoring our new friends to get drunk at the bar. They were busy seeing who could out drink the other. Part of me thought I could take them, but I wouldn’t want to beat Fuse at anything, He’d probably just attack me again, and getting kicked in the crotch again wasn’t worth proving I could drink faster.

“So what happened to you guys?” asked Javva. Runt looked at her with animosity and silently growled at her under his breath.

“Thats none of your business.” Javva wasn’t going to accept that as an answer.

“It isn’t? We’re the guard, and you coming here with a wounded pegasus seems awfully suspicious.”

Runt narrowed his eyes at her. “Have you ever been betrayed?”

“More times than I’d care to admit.”

“Then you’ll know why I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll tell you this however, the pony responsible for us will suffer. We will find the Stallion we called our brother and give him scars to match the ones he gave us. We were cast out of the only home we have ever known, but when we return we will shall with an army.”

“A-and w-whats with the h-h-horns?” Target’s voice trembled as she stared at the rather impressive collection of horns Runt had collected. Fuse stopped drinking, his ears perking up and him turning around to face her and make sure she was okay. The sight of it must have brought back a lot of bad memories for her.

Runt looked up and saw Target’s horn. She had forgotten her hat in all the commotion this morning. He realized why she was worried, and tried to reassure her. “Theres no need to worry. These aren’t unicorn horns. No, these belong to the Alicorns I have slain.”

This caught the attention of everyone in the room, with Sapphire yelling at Runt for mentioning that while they’re in Equestria. Runt smiled and looked at us, waiting for a response from one of us.

“Why are you guys in Equestria again?” Obsidian asked.

“To add to my collection.” Javva stood up and held her claws to Runt’s throat.

“If you think we’ll let you harm our leaders...”

“Do you think you’ll stop me?”

“If I need to.” Runt regarded her for a moment, then looked over at me with a wicked grin on his face. I wasn’t liking where this was going, not only did I save potential terrorists, but now we’d be fighting them when they had much superior weaponry.

“I won’t go after Celestia and Luna, but only if he can survive three days out in the wilderness against me.” He was pointing at me. We were all curious as to what on earth he had against me, but the he explained himself. “You’re the only here who went against the entire town for complete strangers. That takes balls, and you’re going to need them if you want to survive against me.” I glanced at his sword and gulped. I was afraid I’d lose them.

Still, Its not like I could let him go after the Princesses, and we couldn’t fight here with so many villagers. I really didn’t have a choice, it was either let him go off to kill the mare who saved me from a life of crime, or face an incredibly dangerous gryphon thats killed multiple alicorns and had a sword that could cut through a house, and long ranged rifle, compared to my single blade that required me getting as close to him as possible..

I really hate my life.

Prologue

To whoever is reading this

I don’t know why I’m writing this, I don’t have any friends or family to speak of, not anymore, not after what I’ve done. I hope writing this will give me some sort of solace, but I doubt it. Nopony is even going to read this, and if they do, it’ll probably just be considered the ramblings of a mad stallion. The rambling of a terrorist...

If you’re reading this, it means I’m dead. The seal on the envelope will only be broken when I die, I used my magic to make sure of that. Which means you just looted my corpse, and you should feel terrible for that.

I am, or was a member of the Dead Horse unit. The Canterlot guard’s most highly trained, experienced, and incompetent ragtag group of Expendable Ponies for the past thousand years.

If I succeed, which will mean this letter will be pointless and forgotten, Dead Horse will be remembered for more than that.

If I fail, then I will have died for my country as I fought against it.

Enclosed with this note is a sort of ‘Journal’ I’ve kept over the years. It has detailed my life since before I joined the Dead Horse unit.

I will let it tell my story, for what i’ve seen can’t be forgotten.

Not again.

-Velocity

Prologue: Director's Cut

Until I finish the next chapter (It'll happen....eventually) Enjoy this little nugget:

To whoever is reading this

I don’t know why I’m writing this, I don’t have any Fuck buddies or Sex slaves to speak of, not anymore, not after what I’ve fucked. I hope writing this will give me some sort of erection, but I doubt it. Nopony is even going to clop to this,

If you’re reading this, it means I’m Clopping. The seal on the envelope will only be broken when I Masturbate, I used my magic to make sure of that. Which means you just looted my porn collection, and you should feel terrible for that.

I am, or was a member of the Dead Whorse unit. The Canterlot guard’s most highly trained, experienced, and incompetent ragtag group of Horny Ponies for the past thousand years.

If I don’t clop,, which will mean this letter will be pointless and forgotten, Dead Whorse will be remembered for more than that.

If I fail, then I will have been fucked for my country as I fucked against it.

Enclosed with this note is a sort of ‘Journal’ I’ve kept over the years. It has detailed my sexual adventures since before I joined the Dead Whorse unit.

I will let it tell my story, for what i’ve fucked can’t be forgotten.

Its that good.

-Velocity