Outcry: Dead Horse

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.