Old Frontier: Pony Style

     As the two mares walked down the street, Fluttershy pointed out some points of interest.

“Over there is the sheriff’s office, just a stone throw away from the barn. You could see sheriff Morningstar through the window,” She pointed and Twilight saw a gruff looking Pegasus with a dark grey coat and black mane, building a house from playing cards.

“Not exactly vigilante is he?” Twilight noted.

“No, but this place is quite peaceful, so no real need for law enforcement. Over there is our general store.” She now pointed to what seemed like a large cabin with STORE painted on the left side of the store. “The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Stock, sell tools, special herbs they grow themselves, and some of the best homecooked meals you won’t find anywhere else.”

“What about bullets and weapons?” Twilight inquired.

“Oh no, they run a small business so they can’t afford to order them. Over there is the doctor’s home/clinic.” The clinic was 5 cabins from the general store and had a large red cross painted on it. “After I brought you to my home, I brought the doctor to diagnose. He really is a genius.” As they continued their trot, someone stepped out of the clinic. At first Twilight thought he was a patient because he had to be the oldest pony she ever seen. The poor pony was shaking, as though his bony legs could barely hold his own weight, and his wrinkles were so prominent that it seemed to cover the his eyes. As Twilight was about to ask Twilight who he was, Fluttershy called, “Hello Dr.Stitches” She trotted towards him and Twilight followed. The old pony craned his neck toward the voice and stared at Fluttershy (which Twilight doubted he could still see) before saying in a wheezy but merry tone, “Why hello Butterfly.”

“Fluttershy” Fluttershy corrected kindly.

“Tis’ what I said,” Dr.Stitches then turned to Twilight and said “Ain’t you that dead one?”

“No…..” Twilight said confused. “I’m Twilight Sparkle”

“She is the one you diagnosed 2 days ago doctor.” Fluttershy reminded him.

“Well I must have done a great job” he said with a note of pride. “Well, if you could excuse me ladies, I must get back to business.” And he just continued to stand on his porch, doing nothing. After a minute, Fluttershy and Twilight slowly backed away and continued down the lane.

“He’s a genius?” Twilight said skeptically.

“His genius side pops out when somepony is in need of medical assistance. You should see him work Twilight, because he looks 20 years younger.”

“More like 100.” Twilight muttered and Fluttershy gave a light giggle.

“Over there is the mill and where we grow our wheat and vegetables.” Twilight saw what she thought was a large garden; one half grew lots of delectable veggies while the other side grew wheat. Over yonder was the mill that turned all the wheat into flour.

“That’s it?” Twilight cried as she turned to all the cabins and family of ponies. “How does this" she pointed to the garden, "feed all of them" she pointed to the ponies.

“Well, most of the people living here just recently moved in, so we decide to grow another garden.” She pointed to the other side other the lane, which had a somewhat larger patch of dirt with a couple of vegetable plants and wheat growing.  Finally, they reached the edge of town and the road continued to Celestia knows where.

“And that is the grand tour of our little slice of heaven.” Fluttershy finished as she turned around to wave at WellSpring. “The next town should be 3 hours by walking (‘so much for a hop skip and a jump’ Twilight thought savagely) and it should take 1 hour by carriage.”

“Alright then, thanks again for all you have done for me, I’ll just get my things and be on my way.”

“If you like, you can stay for dinner” Fluttershy said “It has been so long since I had someone over, I usually eat by myself.”

Twilight was about to deny when she saw Fluttershy’s face, beam with eagerness at the prospect of having some company. It made Twilight feel like a monster for even thinking of denying the invitation. “I would love to stay for dinner.”

Fluttershy was now grinning from ear to ear. “Great! I get will things ready.”

“But it’s still morning,” Twilight started but Fluttershy was already trotting to the store, getting the food ready for tonight. Twilight now had a small smile on her face as she turned and gazed at the road that would lead her to the next town.

‘I’m sure staying a little longer won’t be troublesome,’ she thought.

While waiting for dinner (Fluttershy wouldn’t allow her in until then) Twilight spend the rest of the time walking around and talking to some of the folks. It seemed that a fourth of the people living here were born in WellSpring while the rest came from Baltimare or Manehattan. Once the sun was beginning to set, Twilight trotted back to Fluttershy’s home. She first knocked and waited until she heard “Come in” and so she did.

As Twilight entered and turned left into the dining room, she expected a plain dinner, but instead she got a feast. The dining table could have fit 8 ponies comfortably, and half of it was covered in food. There was every vegetable Twilight could think of, sweet and sesame seed bread, hayfries, small cucumber sandwiches, curry, a huge steaming pot of soup, apple pie, and 2 large cups of what she knew was ice cream.

“Hope you’re hungry.” Fluttershy said as she stepped out of the kitchen, her hair tied into a bun and was hanging an apron on a hook. “I decided to go all out.” Twilight only realized that her mouth was gaping when she felt herself drooling. Quickly shutting and wiping her mouth, she took her seat at the right handed side of the head table, which Fluttershy was sitting in. Twilight was about to dig in when Fluttershy asked “Would you like to say grace, or should I?” Twilight can’t remember the last time she said grace so she said “You could say grace.”

“O.K.” Fluttershy closed her eyes and took Twilight’s hoof and recited, “We thank President Celestia for her great leadership that have given us this food we are about to devour. Now we can dig in.”

After a couple of minutes of utensils clattering and slurping noises, mostly by Twilight, the purple mare decided to take up some conversation topics. “So, I don’t suppose that you treat every guest to an amazing feast.”

“Actually, I do.” Fluttershy noticed Twilight’s raised eyebrow and added “It’s technically true because you are my first guest.” Twilight’s eyebrow was raised even further.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, you see, I’m a very shy pony so whenever I’m on the verge of inviting people, I get so nervous that I freeze up.”

“So you get nervous when talking to ponies, but not when you are in clawing reach of a manticore?”

Fluttershy gave an apologetic smile “Sorry if it seems strange, it’s just who I am.”

“So you eat by yourself everyday?”

“Pretty much:”

Twilight suddenly remembered the portrait. “What about your parents or grandfather, don’t they live here too?” Twilight suddenly craned her head in all directions, as though those ponies would suddenly manifest out of thin air. Fluttershy’s movements suddenly slowed down until she stopped and said uncomfortably, “My grandfather… he moved on to the higher planes.”

The atmosphere went from relaxing to completely uncomfortable awkwardness in an instant. Twilight felt instant guilt. “I’m so sorry. Did your parents also-” she quickly caught herself, deciding not to make the situation even more unpleasant. Fluttershy saw this and managed a faint smile “My parents are currently living in Manehattan, completely healthy. I live here because my granddad left me this house and land in his will.”

“Your grandfather owned WellSpring? Was he some business pony or something?”

“He and a group of other ponies owned this land together. President Celestia rewarded them with this for their excellence in the Sister Wars, which my granddad and dad fought on the Solar Empire side.”

Twilight remembered this war. It was years back when Luna, Celestia’s younger sister, wanted to have more recognition since she was the one who raised the moon everynight. Celestia thought that Luna was still too young and inexperienced to hold power. Eventually, Luna decided to start her own government and a large amount of ponies, who were unhappy with Celestia, followed her. So she created the New Lunar Republic and after many conflicts from them and Celestia’s side, a.k.a. Solar Empire, war was declared. The battle was brutal and fierce, put eventually the Solar Empire won by Celestia using some secret weapon. The aftermath was not pretty, but the people of Equestria pulled through. After many meetings, reconstructions, and rumors, ponies started to get along better and Luna was pardoned for her rebellion. To show there were no hard feelings, a new place in power was created for Luna; vice presidency.

“So your granddad and other elite solders got this land as a reward? Kind of weird to get a piece of land in the middle of nowhere.”

“Actually, my granddad told me legends of this part of Equestria. He said that there is something very powerful hidden around these parts.”

“Really?” Twilight leaned forward, intrigued “Just how much power are we talking about.”

Whatever Fluttershy was going to say, Twilight didn’t find out as there was suddenly large amounts of whooping and laughter coming from outside. This wouldn’t be cause to worry, except for the tone that the laughter was. It was excited, arrogant, and evil. Twilight has become familiar with these events so she knew what to do.

“Fluttershy get down!” Twilight got up from her chair and, ignoring Fluttershy’s bewilderment, grabbed her by the neck and flung her and herself to the floor. A moment later, the air was filled with the sound of gunshots and a couple of the bullets peppered the dining room window. Twilight had, unluckily, been in this situation before. All she needed was her revolver, which was all the way at the end of the hall. As she got up and rushed to the living room, the front door was kicked open. Twilight thought fast, she used her magic to levitate the pot of soup, and as the bandits head came through the door, she smashed the pot into his skull. With a loud clank, the bandit was knocked out and Twilight reached down and took his revolver and rushed outside. As the last bit of the sun’s light was disappearing, she still managed to see the scene of the town, and it was not pretty.  She counted at least 15 bandits and all of the town people were being corralled near the well. Many of the folk looked scared and were trying to calm the cries of their children. Near the group, there was a smaller group of stallions being beaten by a couple of bandits, no doubt they were the ones resisting. She could see the sheriff was the most hurt from the group, he had a busted lip, swollen and cut cheeks, and two black eyes full of hate for the bandits. Forgetting that she was outnumbered and out gunned, Twilight rushed off the porch and headed toward the group. She didn’t get 10 feet from the house before she had 5 Winchester rifles pointed at her. She raised her gun, ready for a fight, when she heard scuffling from behind. She craned her head slowly and checked what that racket was. Behind her, she saw the bandit she attacked with the pot, awake and very much pissed. In one hoof, he held a hunting knife, and with the other hoof, he was holding Fluttershy by the neck looking scared.

“Drop it,” he said. Glaring at him, Twilight slowly and reluctantly dropped her weapon and let the bandits herd her and Fluttershy to the group. As the two were pushed into the group, the bandits were circling around, making sure that there were no heroes in the group. This worried Twilight; the only thing worse than a bandit was a calm and well-organized group of bandits.

“Are you O.K.?” Twilight whispered. Fluttershy only nodded. Then they heard hoof steps and a pony was trotting to the group. What struck Twilight as odd wasn’t his cowboy hat or his blue scarf; it was the moldy looking black suit he was wearing. He looked at the group with a big smile on his face, which made him seem even wicked.

“No need to look so frightened,” he said in what had to be the most arrogant tone twilight ever heard. Well, second most arrogant. “My name is Wilson Beckon, your friend, and I’m always looking for my friends’ best interest. As you all know, WellSpring is quite a nice piece of land. Of course, all of you think of just the underground spring, but my employers know of some things more valuable in this land, and they have asked me to secure WellSpring. So, unlike other bandits who would use barbaric tactics to get what they want, I will let you all go.” He turned his gaze amongst the faces of the ponies. Some looked relieved while most looked worried and cautious.

“What’s the catch,” Twilight said, since everypony else was unsure if they could talk. Wilson turned to her, “No catch, all I ask is that in the next 5 minutes, you all leave this town and never comeback. To me, that seems very fair.” From everyponys’ point of view, this was nowhere near fair, but only one pony spoke out.

“You’re bucking crazy!” Sheriff Morningstar said in a strained and angry voice. A nearby bandit gave him a swift kick in the head, but it didn’t stop Morningstar. “We created and took care of this town, our home, and spent too much blood, sweat, and tears to watch some piece of scum like take it all AWAY!” He finished with a shout. Twilight and all of the folks gazed at Morningstar with admiration in their eyes. Meanwhile, Wilson reached for his holster, took his fancy swing out cylinder revolver, pointed and shot Morningstar in the stomach. He cried out in pain and Fluttershy and others had to avert their eyes from the horror. Wilson just laughed.

“HAHAHA! You ponies are so dramatic.” He heaved a sigh. “Don’t worry about Morningstar, the bullet was a blank.” Ponies quickly looked at the sheriff, clutching his stomach, and thankfully there was no blood. “The rest” Wilson quickly reloaded a new bullet he got from his suit’s pocket, “are very much real. Now I don’t want no more scolding or someone trying to be the hero.” He said in a final tone “I got another group of bandits not far from here who would simply love for an excuse to put a bullet in you."

“He is right, you know,” Twilight said. Everypony looked pleadingly, not wanting her to get shot, but Twilight had enough with this bastard. “Anyone who takes joy out of other ponies’ misery is scum. Actually, make that worse than scum.”

Wilson rolled his eyes. “You know what, I had enough of…” he slowly stopped and stared at Twilight. “Wait a minute” he said slowly “Don’t I know you”

“I doubt it; I would have remembered a giant douche like you.”

Wilson ignored here comment and continued to stare at her. “Mulberry coat” he mumbled “sapphire blue mane with violet and red streaks, unicorn, wait a second” he checked her flank “And a star shaped cutie mark. I know this, give me a sec…” Then he clapped his hooves together and had a triumphant grin “Now I remember you, you’re…” he stopped and stared at her again. Then his grin was gone and his eyes were full of hate as he pointed his gun to Twilight’s head. “YOU’RE TWILIGHT SPARKLE.” Everypony was taken aback by this sudden outburst and so was Twilight, so she responded lamely “um, yeah.”

Wilson licked his lips. “Before I kill you, I should at least tell you why I’m doing this. Do you remember Michael Beckon?” Of all the things she could have said, she picked one of the worst.

“Who?”

This respond rewarded her with a pistol- whip from Wilson. “Twilight!” Fluttershy said frantically, checking to see if she was O.K. Twilight saw stars and she checked her forehead, which was currently bleeding over her right eye.

“Don’t play dumb. Michael Beckon,my little brother, was a civilized bandit, until you wrongly landed him in jail. Now he is rotting away in a dark cell because of you.”

“Listen,” Twilight was slowly getting up, dazed “I capture a lot of people with bounties, so sorry if I don’t remember your brother.”

Wilson looked ready to give her another smack, but then stopped and turned to his bandits.

“Change of plans boys; because of Ms. Sparkles smart mouth, we will burn everything.”

Everypony gasped. ”You can’t do that” Twilight quickly said. “It’s me your angry at so why take it out on these people?”

“Because they know you!” he responded, Twilight started to notice he was losing his cool, and maybe even his sanity. There was sudden light as the bandits started a large fire. “Start with the barn.” Wilson told them and they all trotted, each carrying a torch.

“NO!” Fluttershy cried “Please don’t do it.” Twilight had to restrain her from rushing to the barn. For a timid Pegasus, Fluttershy was stronger than she looked.

“Please don’t do it.” she repeated, putting up a good fight against Twilight. “The animals are still in there, at least let them out.” She was sobbing at this point.

Wilson looked straight into Fluttershy’s eye, not even a hint of unease at her tears. “Well you should have thought of that before helping this piece if filth.” He pointed at Twilight. The next couple of seconds were passed in silence until everypony heard screaming and the bandits who went into the barn were stumbling out, terrified.

“What’s wrong with you? Can’t you do anything right!?!” he said angrily. The 3 bandit were panting and trying to say something in frightened voices.

“Mant… Mant… Mant”

“Spit it out already!” one of the bandits took a deep breath and yelled

“MANTICORE! MANTICORE IN THE BARN!” Suddenly, all of the bandits were quickly stepping back from the barn, each looking very discouraged. Twilight suddenly had a brilliant idea; if they could use their fears against them, they will run out of here with their tails between their legs. But then Fluttershy, sweet, kind, caring, and lovable Pegasus, spoke.

“Don’t hurt Jamie!” she yelled. All the bandits looked at her, wondering who Jamie was.

“Fluttershy, shut-” Twilight tried to say but Fluttershy kept going.

“He is really docile. He’s so scared that he wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Twilight looked at the bandits, hoping no one will make the connection. Sadly, Wilson made it and he trotted to the farm.

“Sir what are you doing?” one of his cronies asked. He ignored him and entered the barn. Everypony waited in silence, until there was an ecstatic yell. Wilson came out of the barn, beaming widely, and he was a holding a rope with his teeth. Tied to the rope was a very petrified manticore.

“JAMIE!” Fluttershy sobbed and now every bandit made the connection and they burst into laughter.

“Can you believe it boys, a terrified manticore in a place like this? Oh I must have been good in the past life to get this as a reward.” When he stopped moving, Jamie dropped down to his stomach and covered his eyes, shaking all over.

“So what do we do now boss?”

“We continue with the plan, burn everything down. Then we take this big lug to the underground auctions, and give him to the highest bidder. You’d be surprised how much someone would pay for these guys. I even heard people find them quite… appetizing.” Fluttershy was now using every last amount of her strength to get loose from Twilight.

“What about them?” one bandit asked as he pointed to the folks.

“Oh right, everyone, I have great news.” Wilson addressed the town. “After finding this manticore, I decided to let you all live. Now get the buck out.” He finished in a happy note.

All of the town ponies, their spirits crushed, very slowly turned around and began to trot. Twilight was dragging Fluttershy now. “Come on Fluttershy, we got to think of a plan and not going running to a death trap.” Fluttershy was sobbing hard now, and in one last desperate effort, she chomped down on Twilight’s hoof.

“OW!” She let go of Fluttershy and the Pegasus went running to the manticore saying “Jamie don’t worry, I’m here” The manticore removed his hands from eyes and saw Fluttershy barreling toward him. As she passed Wilson, he sighed and calmly aimed his revolver at Fluttershy’s head. Time seemed to slow down to Twilight. She had to think of something fast. In her panicked stricken mind, only one good idea came up. She quickly used her magic and, instead of getting Wilson’s gun like a sane pony would, she tripped Fluttershy. Fluttershy fell faced first on the ground and the bullet went harmlessly over her head. Now Twilight had to think of another good idea as to get Fluttershy out of the certain predicament, when the air was filled by a vicious roar. Then came a pained scream.

Everypony looked as Jamie the manticore viciously clawed a nearby bandit. To everypony else, Fluttershy ran, then fell as a bullet went harmlessly over her head. To Jamie; Fluttershy, the pony who loved and cared for him for years, was running toward him when a gunshot was heard and now Fluttershy was on the floor. Now there was only one thing on his mind, revenge. So now there was a frenzying manticore in the midst and everypony was terrified. As Jamie was taking out some bandits, Twilight took this opportunity and charged at Wilson. She quickly head-butted him, took his revolver while he was dazed, and pistol-whipped him. Instead of finishing him off, she turned to the bandits still near the rebels and took them out. The sheriff quickly grabbed a revolver the bandit dropped, yelled “CHARGE!” to the town folks, and opened fired.

The ponies got their spirits back and were charging at the bandits. The stallions and mares tackled the bandits and wrestled for their guns while the children rushed to their homes to get the family gun or any form of weapon. Jamie was still dominating the bandits, as they didn’t know whether to fight or run. Twilight quickly made her way to Fluttershy as ponies fought everywhere.

“Fluttershy, get up, we got to get you out of here.” Fluttershy then stared at Twilight with pleading eyes and a bloody lip.

“Please Twilight, help Jaime. Manticores may be tough, but even they have their limits. You have to help him. Please!” she finished with a cry. Twilight saw ahead and noticed the bandits were getting over their fear and were now fighting. Jaime was still going strong, but she knew Fluttershy was right about him not surviving long.

“O.K. you go and help some of the town ponies, I’ll help Jaime.” Fluttershy gave her a hug of thanks and Twilight ran into the firefight, guns a blazing.

After 5 minutes of fist fighting, the battle between the bandits and WellSpring became a no-holds-bar gun fight. The only thing ponies could here were shouts of pain and gunshots. Turns out, Wilson did have some reinforcement and all the bandits were firing from the barn side of town. The town ponies were now on the garden side of town and were slowly heading toward the barn. It would have been over by now because of the bandit’s reinforcement, but the ponies also had some advantages. The rest of the animals from the barn were awoken by the fighting and now joined in aiding the town ponies. The land animals were biting, clawing, and kicking at the bandits while the winged creatures were dive-bombing them. Their next advantage was over 550 pounds of muscle and anger. The manticore was still going strong, but it was mainly thanks to Twilight’s assistant. She was the closest to the bandits and was taking cover behind a cabin. She was also currently concentrating with all of her might on a shield for the manticore. Magic shields are effective against physical attacks, but not against bullets since the bullets are incased in special material to punch through magical shields. Twilight had to focus on protecting Jaime’s body and head while she also repaired the shield, which took even more concentrating. She did leave his claws shieldless in order for him to attack.  Any magic shield takes large concentration so Twilight was only able to do the occasional blind fire.

After about an hour of fighting and many injuries from both sides, the fight was dwindling. Any bandit left alive or unharmed saw the nearing town ponies and the unstoppable manticore, just ran away and didn’t look back. Twilight stopped her concentration when she heard roars of delight coming from near the barn. She peeked around the cabin and saw a view that plastered a grin over face. The town ponies were shouting delightfully and victoriously as the last of the bandits ran.

“Don’t come back now!” shouted one of the ponies “Let everyone know we won’t take kindly to bandits.” said another. Twilight was now walking toward the group when she noticed something, Fluttershy wasn’t amongst them. She looked amongst the group, but didn’t see her. Twilight turned around, hoping Fluttershy wasn’t injured somewhere. She didn’t get a second to look around as her view was suddenly obscured by a black mass and she was knocked to the ground. She cried in pain and looked up, only to see a hate-filled, now sporting a bloody forehead, Wilson holding a knife to her throat. He laughed as though all of his dreams came true and that attracted the attention of everypony. Next, Twilight heard the sound of guns being cocked and being aimed right at her assailant.

“Let her go Wilson, you’re finished.” said a voice in a deadly tone that Twilight recognized as the sheriff’s.

“No, I might die here tonight, but I’m going to take this bitch with me!”

“LET HER GO!” Morningstar shouted. Twilight tried to lift her hoof holding the revolver, but he pinned her hoof with his free hoof. Wilson swung his knife above himself and Twilight braced herself. Once the knife was over Wilson’s head, it was shot out from his hoof and Morningstar quickly rushed forward and connected the butt of his revolver over Wilson’s head, who then went crashing to the floor. Morningstar held out a hoof that Twilight took.

“Thanks sheriff, that was some nice shooting.”

“That wasn’t me.” And he pointed behind Twilight. She saw a unicorn with a light brown coat and graying mane. He was probably late 40’s or early 50’s and had a muscular build. He was holding a smoking LeMat revolver and beside him was Fluttershy.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy ran and gave her a big hug. “Are you O.K, you’re not hurt are you?”

“I’ve had better days” Twilight said with a grin “But I’m fine thanks to your friend there. Who is he anyways?”

“Twilight Sparkle” said the unicorn in an elegant manner “I must pardon myself for my earlier behavior. I hope you are not a pony that relies too much on first impressions.”

“Uhhh” Twilight tried to recall who this pony was.

“Maybe this will help” the unicorn showed her his cutie mark, which she saw was sewing thread. She tried to think of any sowers she knows, but nothing came up.

“My cutie mark is medical threads, if that’s any use, which it should be.”

Then it clicked, and Twilight gasped in what was a somewhat rude manner.

“Dr. Stitches?!?” she exclaimed.

“Evidently, you do rely on first impressions.” The unicorn, Dr.Stitches, said with a joking smile.