Hi everypony, welcome back for another chapter.

I'm glad the last chapter got some attention, but I was a little disappointed by the lack of reviews. Please try to review as much as possible, even if you don't have an account.

As for Shadow, I'm sorry to say you won't find out who she is for some time, I was actually saving the reveal for the highly possible sequel. But if you want it early, just wait until the end of this chapter before making a decision.

The lyrics in the song I used in this chapter have me slightly changed to makes sense with the story.

Anyway, here the next part, please enjoy.

Chapter 72: Ponies go West – Part 2

Buffalo village

Will still in an unconscious state, I soon began to see a light shine through my eye-lids. The smell of smoke and a strong warmth in the breeze overwhelmed my body. All of this was enough to make me start to slowly wake up.

My eyes opened slightly to the sight of a starry sky above me. I slowly turned my head to look over to where the warmth was coming from and saw a small camp-fire, making the area around it light u a little. As my vision became clearer, I saw large tent-like huts around the area, they kind of looked like…Indian tents.

Becoming curious as to where I was, I placed my front-hooves on the ground and groaned as I leaned up, feeling a slightly painful throbbing in my head. Once I was up, I looked down to see I was lying on some kind of blanket. It was red with brown patterns on it, bit of a distasteful piece, but it was comfy.

Suddenly, I felt a hoof on my shoulder and I froze in place. "Whow!...Take it easy, pal…you were in a pretty bad mess back there." a female voice said in a gentle tone.

The voice sounded a little familiar, so I slowly turned around and saw a familiar face to go with it. At the first sight of that little face with that short curly orange hair with two feathers sticking out, I knew exactly who it was. "Little Strongheart?" I asked with slight surprise.

Strongheart returned my surprised look, but for a different reason. "You know me? Have we met before?" she asked with a slightly confused face.

"Damn, did it again." I thought before I slowly stood up and turned around to face her properly. "Urr…no…Applejack told me about you…you're just as she described." I said, hoping she'd believe my lie.

Strongheart then rubbed her hoof with her chin. "Applejack?" she said before she looked at me again. "That's Braeburn's cousin, right?" she asked with a small smile.

I nodded. "Yeah, she brought me here on a trip to Appleloosa, but some things got out of hoof and I ended up going out into the desert with a posy." I explained as I took my time to look around the village, seeing all the other buffalo Indians wondering around.

"Really?" Strongheart said as she took a step closer. "Well what happened to the posy? How'd you get lost in the desert?" she asked curiously.

I turned my head back around to face her before I answered. "Oh…the Sheriff of Appleloosa showed up and decided to take things from there, he said he wanted me to go back to town and help protect it…let's just say I got a little lost." I said while giving her a sheepish smile.

"A little lost?" Strongheart repeated. "Apparently you were out there for a whole day with no food or water, you're lucky you didn't get sun-stroke or something." she said before a light smile appeared on her face again. "I'd say if it weren't for Shadow, the buzzards would be getting a decent meal right now." she said.

Not a very pleasant image, but I decided to forget that and focus on what she said before about Shadow. I instantly remembered her, even though there wasn't much to remember. The strange mare in a black cloak, she had such knowledge on me and the True Order, she even said that I saved her from something and kissed me for it. I took a step towards Strongheart. "You know her?" I asked, looking as though I was eager for answered.

A little uncomfortable by this, Strongheart gave me a disturbed look as she took a small step back. "I…don't know her that well. All I know is that she came here the other day, saying she was waiting for something. Then she just took off last night and came back with you." she explained.

I took this all into thought and found it very suspicious, it sounded as if she was waiting for me, like she knew I'd get lost out there. "H-How long was she here when she arrived?" I asked curiously.

Strongheart thought hard about it to try and remember. "Urr…about…two days ago…not yesterday, not the day before, she arrived on the day before that one." She said, doing her best to explain it to me.

Hearing that shocked me a little, it was exactly what I was suspecting, she arrived in this land around the same time I did. By the sounds of it, I'd say this Shadow chick was following me. "Has…she been back since last night?" I asked, wondering where Shadow may be now.

Strongheart shook her head. "No, sorry…I haven't seen her since she brought you here." she said before she walked over to me. "Is she someone special to you?" she asked.

With that asked, my eyes widened before my cheeks burned a little. "Urr…no…no, she's not, I just met her last night." I said, calming down a bit. "Besides, I'm married…I think Shadow is just a friend." I said, explaining that whatever was between me and Shadow was professional.

"Oh." Strongheart responded before she gave me another smile. "Well if you need directions back to Appleloosa, I'll be happy to show you the way in the morning. I'd take you now, but its too dangerous out there at night." she then turned around to face the tents. "You're welcome to stay here for the night though."

I then walked up beside Strongheart. "Ok." I said before I friendly panted her back with my hoof. "Thanks for helping me, by the way." I said while giving her a warm smile.

"Anytime, we wouldn't just leave someone out in the desert like that. We may be tough, but we're not barbarians." Strongheart said before she turned and started walking towards one of the camp fire. She then looked back at me with the gentle smile still on her face. "Do you want a blanket or something? It's cold tonight." she asked.

Once I heard that and thought of the feeling of being warm or hot in any way, I immediately became a little frightened. "No!...I mean, no thanks, I think I've been warmed up enough." I said, remembering back to my unimaginably hot journey in the desert.

Strongheart was a little shaken by my first response, but she soon shook it off. "Oh…ok…well, I guess the fire will keep you warm enough anyway." She said before she turned back around and continued walking towards the camp.

I stood where I was for a second before I decided to follow. I wasn't going anywhere right now, so I might as well make the best of my stay here until morning. I caught up with Strongheart and we both made our way to the camp fire to join with the other buffalo.

-Half-an-hour later-

I was now sat beside the camp fire beside Strongheart, she had already introduced me to Chef Thunderhooves, leader of the buffalo tribe. He sat on the other side of the camp, entertaining the other buffalo with a tale of how he and his father faced a creature called the Sand Serpent.

The buffalo seemed a little head-strong, but friendly in their own way. They gave me a bowl of…I'm not sure what. It was grey, sloppy, and I think there's a twig in it. I remembered it from the show, if my memory serves well, Pinkie loved this stuff. All I can say is the buffalo were lucky I was starving. I held the bowl in my front-hooves, lifting it up to my mouth so I could take small bites of the slop inside. To be honest, it didn't taste half bad…for something I think may have come from the ground.

"The serpent's mouth, full of razor sharp fangs, opened wide as it dove down to us. We barely had time to leap out of the way before its mighty head struck the ground. Father and I watched as it burrowed into the sand and prepared for a second strike, this time, coming from below." Thunderhooves told with detail in his deep voice, with the buffalo around his listening closely.

Strongheart and I stared at the Chef as I chewed the slop in my mouth. "So…how many times has he told this story?..." I said through my teeth as I kept chewing, not wanting to open my mouth while there was food still in there.

Strongheart was silent for a moment as she kept her eyes on the Chef. "…Counting this time…fifty five…exactly." She answered.

I then smirked a little as I kept watching the Chef. "And…I take this this is the only exciting story he tells about him and his dad." I asked, knowing what the answer may be already.

"Well besides for the tale of the war with the Coyote Gang, yeah, pretty much…." Strongheart answered before she turned her head to face me. "Unless you include the war with the people of Appleloosa, which doesn't include his dad and we all already know it because…well…we were all there when it happened, so…" she said as she returned her attention to the Chef as he continued to tell his tale.

I turned my head to face her, intrigued by what she said about this Coyote Gang. "The Coyote Gang?...Who are they?" I asked curiously.

Strongheart looked at me again and gave me a small smile. "You mean 'who were they?', they were nothing much, just a large gang of outlaw coyotes. They came to us to offer their protection against any threats to the land, but they wanted payment for it. The Chef's dad, seeing right through their scheme, refused…starting a war between the buffalo and the coyotes. They tended to hit hard, like raid our village with fire and attack our stampedes." She said before she grinned. "But we hit harder. We stampeded through their camps, ruined their heists on banks and other towns, the Chef's dad even did something to the coyote leader's favourite drinking cup." She said before she snickered.

A small amused smile grew on my face as I wondered what he did, I swallowed the food in my mouth before I spoke. "What did he do?" I asked. Strongheart leaned in and whispered the answer in my ear, my cheeks then inflated as I tried to hold back from laughing. I looked at Strongheart's amused face as she pulled away. "He did not…ahh! Hahaha! That's disgusting!" I laughed, thinking how the coyote leader must've reacted.

"I know, right! Haha!" Strongheart laughed as she wiped a tear away before she calmed down. "Anyway, after a while, the coyotes gave up. They figured we were too strong for them to overpower and their gang broke apart. There aren't many coyotes around here anymore." She said, sounding sure that the coyotes were gone.

I smiled as I gave her an amused huff. "Well I think there are still a few coyotes still around." I said before I brought the bowl back up to my face and took a bite out of the slop.

Strongheart raised her eye-brow. "Oh?...What makes you say that?" she asked curiously.

I chewed the slop in my mouth before I swallowed. "I saw three coyotes the other day called the Hound Brothers, they were working with an outlaw called Yodellin' Sam." I answered. "Seemed kinda dim, to be honest." I added.

Strongheart's eyes widened as she gasped a little. "Yodellin' Sam? You saw him?!" she asked in slight shock.

I gave her a shaken look. "Urr, yeah…I was in a posy to try and find him." I said before I decided to explain what happened the other day. "See this is what happened, this guy named Moneybaggs went out to make a mine in the mountains far from town, but Sam and those coyotes attacked them and took the workers. We went out to find them, but Sam jumped us in our camp and took most of the posy. The Sheriff of Appleloosa showed up and he decided to take the posy from there, he asked me to go back to town to help protect it in case Sam attacked while he was gone…that's how I got lost in the desert." I explained as my ears lowered a little. "I just hope Braeburn and the others are ok." I said, thinking about the dangerous task they took on.

Strongheart nearly jumped up in place, but was able to keep herself down and prevent making a scene. "Braeburn?!...H-He went after Yodellin' Sam?! What's he thinking?! He's gonna get himself into trouble!" she said in a slightly loud voice, trying to keep it down so the other buffalo wouldn't notice.

I raised my hoof a little. "Whow, calm down. Braeburn's a strong pony…sure, he's a little…out there…but I think with the Sheriff and his deputies, he'll handle Sam and his goons just fine." I said, not sure if I was a-hundred present sure about that myself.

Strongheart stood up and she continued to look at me. "No, you don't understand, Yodellin' Sam does things like this all the time. He'll take some ponies and then wait until they send more ponies after them, then they'll take them too! Braeburn and the Sheriff are probably walking right into a trap!" she said, gaining some attention from other buffalo.

I was a little more shaken by her sudden panicking behaviour, but I could understand it, this Sam guy did seem like a real rotten apple. "How do you even know Yodellin' Sam anyway? Has he taken any of your buffalo?" I asked curiously.

"He has certainly tried." A deep voice said. I looked and saw Thunderhooves walk up beside Strongheart. "I'm not sure what kind of magical charm he has with his singing, but it does not affect buffalo, we have been trained to resist such spells. But we know he has been kidnapping ponies and taking them to his hideout. We once offered our aid in capturing him to the Sheriff, but he addressed it as a 'pony error', something they had to handle themselves." he explained.

After hearing this, I gave it some thought and understood what the Sheriff meant. Yodellin' Sam was a pony threatening ponies, its only right that another pony should take care of him. But then again, maybe it was just the Appleloosans being stubborn, probably wouldn't be the first time.

"We respected the Sheriff's wishes, but we refused to stand by and watch ponies get kidnapped." Thunderhooves said before he looked out into the desert. "We've seen Sam attack many ponies…in camps, convoys, even mines. We did everything we could to slow them down and stop him from succeeding in his attempts, but he's proven to be…slippery." He said.

I looked at him with a curious face. "Wait…you mean you've watching Sam? Like what he does and where he goes?" I asked, hoping this would lead to where I hope it led.

Thunderhooves returned his attention to me and nodded. "Yes, I wish I could say it was a pleasant watching. He's done so much despicable things. One time, we even saw him kick an armadillo because he was bored. I mean…who does that?!" he asked, looking a little enraged by the very thought of that.

Watching him breathe deep through his nose, I moved back a little in case he was going to explode in anger. "Ok…well…by any chance, have you seen where Sam's hideout might be? I mean, he's got to be taking these ponies somewhere." I said, wondering if they had a location.

Thunderhooves kept his angry look as he kept grunting, like he was too focused on his thoughts than what I was saying. But with one touch of Strongheart's hoof against his cheek, he snapped out of it. "We haven't watched him that much, but we know his hideout is somewhere near Rattlesnake Rock." Strongheart said, answering the question for Thunderhooves.

Upon hearing that, I remembered the name clearly. "Rattlesnake Rock? That's where Braeburn and the others were going." I said before a troubling thought came into mind. "If they're heading there, they may be walking right into their den, they'll get caught!" I said as I placed the bowl down on the ground.

Strongheart then took a step towards me. "Are you sure?" she asked with a slightly worried look.

I nodded. "Yeah, Sam escaped through a mine that led right to Rattlesnake Rock. Braeburn and Silver Star said they were going around the valley to get to the Rock." I said before I took a step closer. "But if what you said was right, Sam has his hideout set up there, Braeburn and the others will walk right up to their door." I said, beginning to worry about them.

Strongheart turned around to face Thunderhooves. "Chef, we can't just let them walk into the trap, we have to help them." she said, giving him a concerned look.

Thunderhooves saw this look and nodded. "Agreed." He said before he looked at me again. "Matthew, was it? I will allow Little Strongheart here to accompany you to Rattlesnake Rock to find your friends." He said before he looked out at the desert again. "But I'm afraid it'll have to wait until morning, its too dangerous out there right now." he said.

"But Braeburn and the others might get caught by then, we can't just wait." I said as I stood up onto my hooves.

Thunderhooves returned his attention to me. "I'm sorry, but there are worse things out there than rustlers, especially at night. If you're smart, you'll heed my warning." He said before he turned around and started walking away towards the largest of the tents, which was most likely his.

My ears dropped a little as I sat back down. Strongheart walked up beside me and placed her hoof on my shoulder. "Hey, like you said, Braeburn's tough, I'm sure he can handle himself for one night….but if it makes you feel any better, I'm worried about him too." She said with a gentle smile.

I looked at her a smirked a little. "Oh that's right, I nearly forgot…you probably have a thing for the guy." I said, knowing how she might react to that.

And I was right, Strongheart's face turned red and she gave me a shocked look. "What?!...I…I do not! Why would you say that? I mean, c'mon…haha…what he and I have is nothing before a good friendly bond." she said, laughing nervously while acting innocent.

My smirk grew larger before I chuckled. "Haha, yeah, I bet." I said before I looked back down at the bowl of slop. "By the way, what is that stuff?" I asked curiously, not sure if I wanted to know the answer or not.

Strongheart looked down at the bowl. "I would tell you, but you've already eaten some and you may not like the answer." She answered.

"Fair enough." I responded. I stood there for a moment in silence before I sighed hard. "Seriously, you're lucky I'm still starving." I said before I grabbed the bowl with my hooves and started eating the stuff again.

Strongheart gave me a pleased smile as she watched me eat, but she couldn't take her mind off Braeburn, she could only hope he would survive until morning.

The next day: Moneybaggs' mine

As soon as the sun rose up, Strongheart and I set out on our quest to find Braeburn and the rest of the posy. Before we left, Thunderhooves was kind enough to lend me a saddlebag with supplies inside, like food and water.

It took a while of rushing through the desert, but we finally made it to Moneybaggs' mine. I figured it was the best place to pick up the posy's trail. Because even though we knew where they were going, we didn't know which way they went to get there, Yodellin' Sam could've jumped them before they even reached Rattlesnake Rock for all we know.

Strongheart and I searched the camp and had trouble finding the tracks. In the daylight, we were able to see all the hoof and paw prints that were left here after the other night's events, at least the ones that were left visible, the strong wind last night covered most of them with more sand, including the tracks the posy left behind when they started heading to Rattlesnake Rock, it was almost impossible to pick up their trail.

I carefully examined the sand, trying to find any trace of the tracks. "*Groan* this is gonna take forever! How are we gonna find their trail in this mess?" I asked before I turned around to look over to Strongheart who was searching the ground like I was. "Can't you just, I dunno, do some kind of mystical tracking ritual or something? Isn't that what you guys tend to be good at?" I asked as I walked over to her.

Strongheart stood up as she turned her head to face me with a confused raised eye-brow. "What kind of buffalo do you think I am? We may live off the land, but we don't read it or stuff like that." She said as she walked past me and went over to the mine entrance.

My head turned slowly as I watched her. "It mustn't be easy…living off the land like you guys do. Every day must be a struggle for survival, then there's the creatures that come out after dark." I said before I started following her towards the mine.

Strongheart reached the mine entrance and placed her right front-hoof on one of the boulders that blocked the way in. "I know it seems difficult to a…how do I put this nicely…civil-living pony like you, but it's actually not that bad." She said before she turned her head around to look at me. "I've been living like this for as long as I can remember, same with the Chef and the other buffalo. We've all grown accustomed to it…I honestly can't think of any other way I could live." she said as she went back to feeling the boulder.

In a way, I could understand what she meant. She was born into that life, so she learned how to live in it. And based on what I've seen of her skills so far, both in the show and right now, she was impressively good at it. "Well you do make the whole 'Indian look' work." I said with a small smirk before I looked at what she was doing. "On to something?" I asked.

Strongheart looked closely at the boulder as she continued to feel it with her hoof. "Not sure…how did these boulders get here? Where they here when you guys came the other night?" she asked as she turned her head to face me.

I looked at her and shook my head. "No, Yodellin' Sam blew this entrance to make his escape. This is way Braeburn and the others had to go around. This mine would probably lead us right to Rattlesnake Rock, but there's no way to get these boulders out the way." I said before I turned around and looked down at what was left of the tracks. "Guess we'll just have to wing it and decide which was they might've gone, hopefully we'll chose right and-"

*CRASH!*

After hearing a loud crash, I spun around to see Strongheart bucking the boulders with her hind-legs, she gave them another strong buck before the boulders broke loose, crumbling away from the entrance until it was open again. Strongheart placed her hind-legs back on the ground and gave me a cheeky smirk.

I was left wide-eyed with my mouth hanging open. "Or…you know…you could just do that." I said before I took a step forward and looked down the mine. "Remind me never to get on your bad side." I said, looking down into the darkness.

"Noted." Strongheart said before she stepped over whatever was left of the boulders and entered the mine. "Come one, we don't have time to waste." She said as she started walking down the mine.

As I started stepping over the boulders to enter the mine, Strongheart grabbed a lantern hanging on the wall within the mine and turned to face me. "You got a light? The Chef might've given you some matches." She said while holding the lantern in one hoof.

Once I was inside the mine properly, I turned my head around to look down at my saddlebag and opened it with my hoof, I felt around inside it until I found a small box of matches. "Huh…wonder how the Chef got his hooves on these." I asked as I tried to finger out how to use them with hooves.

"Just because we live off the land doesn't mean we won't get things we really need from the Appleloosa General Store." Strongheart said as she watched me struggle to use the matches.

Eventually, I finally got the box open and grabbed one of the matches with my mouth, I held the box in my hoof as I struck the end of the match against the rough side, lighting it on fire. Strongheart opened the lantern and I lit it up. Once it was lit, I shook my head to put the match out before I spat it out.

"Ok, we're all set." Strongheart said before she grabbed the handle of the lantern in her mouth and turned away from me. "C'mon." she muffled as she started walking down the mine.

I started following her deeper and deeper into the mine, beginning our search for the back exit that would take us straight to Rattlesnake Rock. We just hoped we weren't too late.

Meanwhile: Appleloosa/Sheriff's office

Applejack paced back and forth in Silver Star's office, worried by how long we've all been gone. She was left in charge of this whole town and didn't have a clue what to do. Sure, she played the leader before, but to actually be a stand-in Sheriff of a whole town, she could only hold on to her nervousness for so long.

"Where the hay are they?" Applejack asked herself as she kept pacing around the office. "Someone should've gotten back by now…what if somethin' happened to them?" she asked herself as she began to panic.

"And I thought Twilight was the stressful one." A voice said. Applejack spun around and saw Discord, sitting on a rocking-chair with a straw-hat and playing a banjo. "It must run in the group." He said while chewing on the end of a piece of wheat.

Applejack walked over to him and gave him a firm look. "Well excuse me if I'm a little worried about my friends." She said before his swung her hoof up and knocked his hat off. "How 'bout ya make yourself useful and use your magic to find out where they all are?" she asked.

"Oh Applejack, dear, you know I would love to." Discord said as he released the banjo, letting it hover in the air and begin playing itself. "But I'm afraid I'm under strict instruction not to use any such magic in Matthew's absence. Princess's orders, after all." He said with a grin.

Applejack shook her head in response. "Ya say that as if ya don't care. I'm startin' to wonder if you're really on our side at all." She said before she resumed her pacing.

Discord gave her a displeased look before snapped his fingers, making all the things around him disappear. "Of course I care, otherwise I wouldn't be following these silly orders by the Princess." He said before he hovered over to her. "But if it makes you feel any better, I'm worried about them too." He said, giving her a humble face.

Applejack looked up at him with a raised eye-brow. "Are ya saying that because Matt's your friend…or because you'll get blamed if anythin' happens to 'im?" she asked.

Discord was silent for a moment before he raised his hands a little. "Can it not be a bit of both?" he asked with a sheepish smile.

Applejack tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't hold back a slightly amused smile. But this was cut short by the sound of knocking on the door. "Hello? Miss Applejack?" a familiar voice said on the other side of the front door.

Applejack walked over to the door and grabbed the knob with her hoof, she opened it to see Moneybaggs standing on the porch. "Sorry, was I interruptin' somethin'?" he asked, feeling as though he came at a bad time.

Applejack smiled gently. "No, not at all, Mr Moneybaggs. What brings ya here?" she asked curiously as she took a step towards him.

Moneybaggs then removed his hat and held it against his chest. "I would like to give you my humblest apologies. I should've taken better precaution before settin' out to dig that there mine. Maybe if I did, we would've seen them rustlers comin' and we would've chased them off. Then maybe no one would be out there tryin' to find 'em, including your boyfriend." he said.

Applejack was a little confused by this until she realised that he might've been talking about me. "W-What? Ya mean Matt?!" she said as he cheeks burned red. "O-Oh no! Matt's not my boyfriend! He's just a good friend of mine." She said, slightly embarrassed by this.

Moneybaggs gave Applejack a curious look. "Oh?...Ya just seemed real close to 'im as all. I couldn't help but figure that maybe…"

"Sorry." Applejack said with an embarrassed smile. "But Matt's spoken for. His wife, Twilight, is back in Ponyville. I'm just a friend who brought 'im along for the trip." She said defensively.

"Oh, I see." Moneybaggs said as he placed his hat back on his head. "Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you were ok." He said as he walked past Applejack and entered the office. "It must be quite the challenge, takin' care of this whole town by yourself." He said while looking around the room.

Applejack closed the door and walked up to Moneybaggs. "Well I'm not really by myself, I got Discord." She said as she turned her head to look over to Discord who was now sitting on the Sheriff's chair.

Moneybaggs looked over to him as well and got a simple wave from him, Moneybaggs smiled nervously and waved back. "Yeah, I see." He said before he returned his attention to Applejack. "Well if ya need anythin', just give me a holler and I'll come quicker than a chicken eatin' through a cornfield." He said.

Applejack tipped her hat with a grateful smile. "Thanks Moneybaggs, I appreciate the support." She said.

Suddenly, there was a scream outside. The three were surprised by this and quickly rushed over to the window. From there, they saw the citizens of Appleloosa running in terror from something. Applejack wasted no time in rushing to the front door and quickly going outside. Moneybaggs followed behind while Discord teleported out. Once outside, they all looked to where the ponies were running from.

That's when they saw the Hound Brothers attacking the town. Fleet was snapping his jaws at ponies, Skav was smashing through windows and chasing more ponies out of the buildings, and Griggs was knocking over stalls and laughing about it.

Applejack gasped at the chaos at this. "Coyotes? What are they doin' here?" she asked in shock.

"I dunno. But they're wrecking' the town, we have to stop 'em." Moneybaggs said, watching the coyotes make more and more damage.

Applejack glared as she gave the coyotes and firm look. "I'm on it." she said before she started galloping towards the brothers. "Hey! Get away from them, ya flee-bitten mutts!" she yelled as she prepared for a fight.

Fleet released a frightened pony from his jaws as he saw this, he grinned evilly and chuckled. "Haha, well, looky here. Looks like we got a fighter." He said before he looked over to Skav to see him standing next to the salon, carrying a bunch of bottles of cider in his arm while jugging down bottle after bottle. "Skav! The blonde pony! Take care of her!"

Skav turned his head to see Applejack galloping up towards them. He rolled his eyes and sighed as he dropped the bottles, letting them smash against the ground, before pouncing into action. He started rushing towards Applejack with a growling face as he got closer and closer to her. "By the time I'm done with ya, I'll be pickin' ya out of my tee-OH DANG!" He said as he watched Applejack spin around and buck her legs out as soon as he got too close to her.

With one strong bash, Applejack's powerful hooves struck against Skav's jaw, making him yelp like a dog as he was sent flying backwards.

Fleet watched as Skav flew over his head before he crashed into the ground behind him. Fleet spun back around to face Applejack with wide-eyes. After witnessing all of that, Griggs came over to Fleet with his eyes glued to Applejack. "Now that's a strong pony." He said, slightly impressed by her strength.

"And she doesn't look half-bad to boot." Fleet added while staring at Applejack like he was staring into space.

Griggs looked at Fleet with a confused look. "Huh?" he asked, not sure if he heard him right.

With that, Fleet shook his head to snap out of it before he looked at Griggs with a strong look. "N-Nothin'! Just get that pony!" he ordered harshly.

Griggs, too shook up by his sudden snap, didn't argue and quickly rushed away towards Applejack to carry out the order. After watching what she did to Skav, Griggs wasn't gonna fall for her trick. Once he was close enough, he punched towards Applejack with his teeth and claws bearing.

Applejack quickly leaped forward and rolled under Griggs as he pounced over her. Once she was across, she quickly got up onto her hooves and spun around to face Griggs. Griggs landed on the ground and skidded to a stop before he turned his head around to face Applejack, growling with anger.

Griggs spun around and tried to slash her with his claws, but she leaped backwards to dodge his quick strike. Griggs kept coming closer, swinging his claws around in an effort to strike Applejack, but she kept dodging and ducking until she grabbed on of Griggs arms. Surprised and caught off guard, Griggs was powerless to stop Applejack as she turned around and yanked him over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground in front of him.

Griggs weakly opened his eyes to look up at Applejack, but then grinned as he chuckled darkly.

Applejack was confused back this until she felt someone grab her from behind. It wrapped his arms around her and held her close tightly. Applejack managed to turn her head around to see Skav has returned for a second round. Doing this allowed Griggs the chance to get back up, which he took.

Griggs stood back up and prepared to try and slash her again. He raises his paw and his claws shot out, the tips glistened in the sunlight like knives. But as soon as he struck down towards Applejack, a wormhole appeared between them. Once Griggs' arm touched it, he was sucked in like a vacuum and the wormhole closed.

This left Applejack and Skav shocked and a little scared, but then another wormhole opened beside Skav. Griggs shot out of it and smacked into Skav, making him release Applejack as they both slammed into the ground hard, leaving them both in a small daze as the wormhole closed.

Applejack rubbed her chest as she took deep breaths, looking down at the two weak coyotes to check if they were gonna stay down. She then looked over to Discord to see the pleased smirk on his face, he formed his fingers in the shape of a gun as he blew smoke of the tip of his index-finger before he gave Applejack a friendly wink.

Applejack smiled warmly at him before she decided it was time to finish this, she turned around to face the last coyote, Fleet. "Ya see what happens when ya mess with the wrong town?" she asked as she walked over to him.

Fleet didn't show any sign of fright or intimidation, he just smirked as he took a few steps towards her. "Now, now, little lady. We're just simple business dogs here to collect somethin' for our boss, somethin' he's in desperate need of." He stated as they both started walking in a fighting circle.

"And what would that be?" Applejack asked, giving Fleet a daggering glare.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that, darlin'. Just let us take what we want and we'll be right out of your mane." Fleet said, keeping his smart smirk.

"Not a chance! Nothin' here belongs to you! Now beat it before I beat you!" Applejack demanded as she stopped moving and stomped her hoof on the ground.

"That's no way for a pretty lady like you to talk." Fleet said before his smirk disappeared. "Anyway, if you're not gonna step aside, I guess we'll just have to take it by force." He said before he looked behind Applejack. "Guys! Do ya thing!" he called.

Applejack's eyes widened before she spun around to see Griggs and Skav had gotten back up and were standing behind her. Before she could react, Griggs grabbed a small brown bag that was hidden under his hat and threw it in Applejack's face. Upon impact, the bag exploded in a cloud of thick smoke, causing Applejack to gag and cough loudly.

While Applejack's senses were struck down, the two coyotes rushed over to Discord and Moneybaggs with growling faces. Discord stepped in front of Moneybaggs and a pair of boxing gloves appeared on his hands. "Don't worry, Moneybaggs, I've got this." He said as he punched the gloves together, ready to fight.

But then, Griggs stopped and Skav leaped onto his back. Within that second, Skav pounced up towards Discord and grabbed the same type of bag hidden under his hat. As expected, he threw it in Discord's face and it exploded in smoke.

Discord coughed and yelled as he held his eyes. "My eyes! I can't see!" He yelled as he opened his eyes and a pair of small windscreen-wipers appeared on his eyes, moving left and right in an attempt to clean his eyes while it made a squeaking noise.

While the two main threats we down, Griggs and Skav walked up to Moneybaggs and pounced on him. Moneybaggs tried to struggle free, but their strength and his largely round figure bad it difficult. Eventually he was left hopeless when the coyotes hog-tied him and placed over Skav's back. "Let me go, ya dang mutts!" Moneybaggs yelled as they rushed towards Fleet.

"Got 'im, let's get back to base." Griggs said as he and Skav approached Fleet.

Fleet nodded before he looked at Applejack who was still coughing and rubbing her eyes with her hoof. "Nice dance, pretty lady, but I'm gonna have to run. 'till next time." He said while tipping his hat before he spun around and ran away towards the desert with the other two following behind with Moneybaggs.

It didn't take long for the Hound Brothers to get far out into the desert and disappear into the horizon, the trio and Moneybaggs were now out of sight and out of reach.

Soon enough after that, Applejack and Discord managed to regain their senses and push away the effects of the smoke bomb. Once they were properly cured, Applejack looked over to Discord to see him on his knees. Concerned, she started walking over to him to check on him. "Discord…*cough*…are you ok?..." she asked as she placed her hoof on his arm.

Discord rubbed his eyes one last time before he weakly opened them to look at Applejack. "Y-Yes, I think so…but what happened?...Where did those coyotes go?" he asked, looking around for any sign of them.

"I think they left…but why? They could've taken anything they wanted right there and then, but they only took…" Applejack said before she went silent for a moment. "Urr…what did they take?" she asked.

Discord tried to think of the last thing he saw of the coyotes before he gasped loudly, he then looked around quickly before he looked back down at Applejack. "I think they took that Moneybaggs guy." He answered.

"What?!" Applejack said loudly before she looked around to confirm it. Sadly, it was true, there was no sign of Moneybaggs anywhere. "B-But that doesn't make sense, why would they take a guy like Moneybaggs?" she asked as she returned her attention to Discord.

Discord shrugged. "I'm not sure." He said as he slowly stood back up. "But if those were the rustlers, isn't taking ponies what they do?" he asked with a raised eye-brow.

"Yeah, but why take the one? I mean, they could've taken anyone of these ponies, even me. But they only took Moneybaggs. They must want 'im for somethin'." Applejack claimed as she turned around to look out into the desert.

"Well shouldn't we go after them and try to get him back?" Discord asked as he walked up beside her. "We can't just let him be taken by those…beasts." He said, saying the only who he thought was most fitting for them.

"No, we can't…" Applejack said before she sighed. "But…we can't abandon the town either…if those things come back, they might make off with someone else…we can't leave this town undefended." She said, lowering her head as her ears dropped.

Discord gave her a shocked look. "So we're just going to let them go? Moneybaggs will be as good as gone by night fall." He said, trying to protest.

Applejack shot her head up to look up at Discord with a firm look. "I know!...But there's still a chance he'll be saved…Matt and the others will find those rustlers and get everypony back, including Moneybaggs. We just have to make sure no-one else in this town gets caught until then." She said, picking the best yet hardest option.

Discord's ears lowered a little. "I suppose that makes sense…I mean, these ponies didn't really show their toughness today, Celestia knows they'll probably be lost without us." he said with a small frown.

Applejack didn't know what to say to that, so she just let it slide. Besides, it wasn't really as important as her next task, handling the still frightened ponies that slowly gathered around behind them. Applejack sighed before she looked back up at Discord. "C'mon, we best handle the crowd before they become a mob." She said before she turned around and started walking up to the crowd.

Discord was silent as she followed behind and helped her handle the crowd. All the while, they both felt failure and guilt overwhelm them, along with discouragement. They both felt like they could've taken those coyotes out easily, but they out matched them and got away with another pony. They could only hope for the best, for everyone's sake.

Meanwhile: Moneybaggs' mine

*Bash* "Ow." *Bash* "Ow." *Bash* "Ow." I said pain every time my head or hooves bumped into a hard object.

"Matt, can you be a little more careful? I'm trying to concentrate on where I'm going." Strongheart said as we continued to walk through the mine with our only sight being the dim-lit lantern held in her mouth.

"Well maybe if you waited up and let me walk in the light with you, I wouldn't keep hitting myself against a bunch of ro-" *Bash* "Ow!...ok…that one really hurt." I grunted as I sat down and gripped my left front-leg tightly with the right one, clenching it to put pressure on the pain.

Strongheart threw her eyes before she turned around and came back over to me. She held the light in front of me and saw all the dirt I was covered in, she looked down at my leg and took a good look at it. "You'll live." She said with a small smile before she turned around and resumed her walking.

I shook off the pain before I started following her, trying to keep up so I could stay in the light. "How far do you think this thing stretches on?" I asked curiously.

"Not sure, I'm just surprised those minors were able to dig this far in so quickly." Strongheart muffled with the lantern handle in her mouth. "But I know this land. Judging by how far we've walked, we should be getting close to Rattlesnake Rock, meaning we should be close to the exit." She added.

"Good, I'm sick of this mine. Its dirty and it smells." I said before I had a disturbing thought. "Oh lord, please tell me they went outside to go to the bathroom!" I said, looking down at the muddy ground with disgust.

"Ew!" Strongheart responded as she looked down at the ground as well. "Lets just get out of here before we find out." She said before she kept moving with me following behind. We kept walking through the dark mine, being careful not to hurt ourselves on any more rocks or mine-cart tracks.

It took a few more minutes, but we eventually saw a light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel. "Oh thank god!" I said before I started galloping up to towards the light.

"Matt! Wait!" Strongheart called, trying to get me to stop. She groaned lowly when she saw it had failed. "For such a smart guy, he's really stupid." She said to herself before she galloped after me.

Upon reaching the exit, I ran out into the open to see the exit led out to a large rock platform with a giant gorge beneath us. But I didn't pay much attention to that, I was too busy basking in the sunlight. After everything, I thought I'd never feel so happy to be in the Western sun. I inhaled the fresh air, taking in its freshness and sandy scent. "Ahh…that's better." I said, glad to be outside again.

At that moment, Strongheart came up beside me and placed the lantern down on the ground. "You can't just run out like that. Remember, we're trying to catch bad guys here." she said, giving me a strong look.

I turned my head to face her. "Sorry, but I couldn't stand it in there anymore. It was small, dark and it smelled…really bad. I don't know about you, but I was ready to start digging through the walls just to get out." I said in my defence.

Strongheart rolled her eyes again before they came into contact with something else. They grew wide as her mouth hung open slightly. "Well…looks like we made it." she said.

I looked over in the direction she was looking in and went wide-eyed at the sight. It was a large dark-orange mountain with two pointed tips. One was reaching up higher than the other and had a curvy shape to it, making it look like a snake body. The other was shorter and had a stack of four boulders on it, the bottom being the biggest and the top being the smallest, so it resembled a rattlesnake tail.

"Good lord…I see where they got the name from." I said, marvelling at the mountain before I turned my head to face Strongheart again. "So how do we get over there?" I asked curiously.

Strongheart looked at me. "We have to make our way down to that gorge." She said as she pointed her hoof down to a gorge below in front of us. "From there, it'll lead us right to the mountain. It would probably be foolish to go through the front entrance, so we'll take the secret one." She said before she walked up to the edge of the rock platform we were standing on.

"Secret entrance?" I asked curiously as I started following her.

"Yeah, it used to be used by minors who found a lot of gold and jewels in the walls of the mountain. They made the secret entrance as an emergency exit, but when the mine was abandoned, it was used constantly by rustlers and outlaws." Strongheart said before she turned her head around to look back at me. "In fact, when you said these rustlers may be using it as a hideout, I almost couldn't believe it, mostly because it was way too obvious." She said before she returned her attention down to the gorge.

"Well I didn't say these guys were smart." I said as I walked up beside her and looked down at the gorge. It seemed pretty deep and the way down didn't look very safe. "Urr…how do we get down there?" I asked, trying to look for a path or something.

Strongheart looked at me with a large smirk. "Just follow my lead, buddy." she said before she leaped over the edge and landed on one of the rocks by the side of the wall of the gorge, she kept hopping from one to the other as she made her way down, it was rather impressive how she did this.

I kept watching her move like a powerful mountain-goat until she finally reached the bottom of the gorge. Once there, she turned around and looked back up to me. "Alright, you're turn…I have to tell you, its not as easy as I made it look." She said with a cheeky smile.

I smirked a little at this before I decided to really ruin her moment. I spread my wings and took off into the air with one powerful flap. I then dove down the gorge until I reached Strongheart, my wings catching the air to give me a nice soft landing. Once my hooves touched the ground, I looked at Strongheart with my smirk growing wider. "I'm sorry, who's following who's lead?" I joked before I started walking along the path down the gorge.

Strongheart huffed as she frowned a little. "Show off." She groaned to herself as she started following me down the gorge to start heading towards Rattlesnake Rock.

As we would through the deep gorge, I looked around to see it was pretty dead down here. The sand and rocks had a distasteful colour, the plants were dried and shrivelled and there were a lot of bones from small and pretty large animals. I imagine some of them get trapped down here with no way out, it didn't make me feel any more confident that going down here was a good idea. "So…there's a way back up, right?" I asked, looking down at the bones while trying to block out bad thoughts.

"The secret entrance to Rattlesnake Rock is somewhere down this gorge, but its closer to the mountain itself. We have a bit of a walk ahead of us." Strongheart said as she followed behind me.

"Do you think this is how Sam and those coyotes move around unseen? How far down this gorge stretch on for?" I asked curiously as I looked back at her.

"All around the valley." Strongheart answered. "Its possible they use it from time to time, it would defiantly be a good way to get back to their hideout unnoticed." She said.

"Well hopefully we can put a stop to that." I said before I turned my head back around to face the road ahead of us.

"You must really care about Braeburn if you're going up against rustlers to save him." Strongheart said with a small smirk.

I turned around to face her again and returned the smirk. "I could say the same to you." I said, getting a blush from here. "But actually, I've only known him for a few days. I just don't want anything to happen to him, it would break Applejack's heart if he disappears with these rustlers like the others." I said.

Strongheart's smirk grew. "Oh…so you're doing it to make a girl happy." She said before she humorously rolled her eyes. "Stallions." She said out-loud to herself.

I blushed deeply at this before my eyes grew open. "No! No! Its not that. Applejack's just a friend of mine. I'm actually married, my wife is back home in Ponyville." I said before I realised how much I missed Twilight and my ears lowered. "It feels like forever since I've seen her." I said as I looked down at the ground.

Strongheart's smirk then went away before she gave me a sympathetic smile. "Hey, its ok, you'll see her again once we've finished here." she said as she rushed up and started walking beside me.

I smiled back at her in response to this. "I know…I just miss her a bit." I said before I turned my head back forward. "Only been gone a few days and I'm already missing Twilight…can you spell clingy?" I said with a slightly amused smile.

"How many tries do I get?" Strongheart asked while returning the same smile.

I chuckled at this before I looked at Strongheart in the eyes. "I can see why Braeburn likes you, you're kinda cool." I said with a kind smile.

Strongheart returned it. "I know I am." she said with a small smirk before she rushed ahead in front of me. "Try to keep up without those wings of yours." She said while looking back at me.

I smirk back before I start galloping behind her. "You're on!" I said as we both decided to race through the gorge towards our location.

-A few minutes later-

After a while of racing, I was now galloping beside Strongheart as we both eagerly tried to overtake the other. I had to admit, this rush of excitement was enjoyable, it almost made it seem like we weren't here to fight rustlers. Strongheart and I looked at each other as we both panted to keep our breath as we kept running. "You think…you can out run me?...I run for a living, city boy." She said.

"I'm not from a city, country girl." I said before I started to run harder, starting to get ahead of her.

Strongheart saw this and started running harder as well, doing her best to keep up with me and hopefully get the lead. She then saw a dead cactus with a sickening brown colour up ahead. "There…that dead cactus is the finish line. Whoever gets there first wins." She said, ready to give it all she had to reach the cactus before me.

I looked at her again and gave her a cheeky smirk. "Haha…aww…little buffalo getting tired?..." I asked, trying to tease her.

"You wish!" Strongheart said before she started to sprint towards the cactus, getting ahead of me and leaving me a little surprised.

"Whow." I said under my breath as I watched her go. I soon snapped out of it and started to run harder, trying to catch up. It wasn't long before I caught up to her and we ran side-by-side, quickly approaching the cactus with great speed.

In a matter of seconds, we both pasted the cactus, but we couldn't tell who past it first. "Ha, told ya you couldn't out run a buffalo!" Strongheart said with pride as she breathed heavily.

"*Pants* What? *Pants* What are you talking about?...I passed it first." I said, pretty sure I was the one who won.

"Urr…no, you didn't. I won. I saw it with my own eyes. You we right beside me, but a little behind." Strongheart claimed, giving me a slightly firm look.

I smirked again. "You're just saying all this because you know you lost." I said before I chuckled a little.

"Like hay I am. I left you in the dust, be a stallion and take your defeat with dignity." Strongheart said as her firm look turned into an amused smile.

As I made an argumentative response, Strongheart noticed something behind me, making her go silent. She continued to stare at it as I kept talking, but I was stopped when she pressed her hoof against the side of my head, making my head turn around. That's when I saw a large boulder with a spiral carving on it. "We made it." Strongheart said.

I turned my body all the way around to face the boulder properly as I continued to stare at it. "What is it?" I asked, looking in awe at the size and the crafting of the carvings.

"It's the secret entrance to Rattlesnake Rock." Strongheart said as she walked past me and approach the boulder. "I don't exactly remember how to open it. Just give me a second and I'll get it." she said as she started to feel the boulder with her right front-hoof.

As I waited for her to find a way to open the entrance, I took this time to look around. I turned my head a little and saw something odd, it was a small streak of smoke coming from around the corner a little ways down the gorge. I looked back over to Strongheart to see she was still working on the entrance, so this gave me enough time to go over and check it out.

I steadily walked over to the corner that the smoke was coming from. As I got closer, the smoky smell got stronger, it smelt like burning wood and food. Once I reached the corner, I poked my head around it as saw a small campsite made near the wall of the gorge. I walked around the corner and walked over to the camp.

After reaching it, I looked down at the camp fire and saw the soot covered wood, along with a small metal pan being held above it by a grid. I slowly flicked the lid of the pan off and a small cloud of black smoke floated out, revealing whatever was inside had burned to a crisp. I backed away from it a little, too put off by the bad smell of it.

I then looked over to one of the tents and saw something on the ground near it. I couldn't quite make it out from where I was, so I went over to it. As I got closer, I could tell it was a hat, but when I reached it, my heart grew heavy when I finally recognised it. This wasn't just anyone's hat, it was Braeburn's. I gently grabbed it with my hoof before I sat down on the ground so I could brush off the dust with the other. Once it was clean, I held it in my hooves as I sighed. "Oh no…what happened here?" I asked myself.

At that moment, Strongheart came around the corner and looked over to me. "There you are!" she said before she came over to me. "How about you tell me the next time you wonder off, this isn't a place to be alone." She said as she stopped behind me.

I then turned my head around to face Strongheart with my ears low. "I don't think it matters if we're alone or not, being in the group didn't help these guys." I said before I showed her the hat.

Upon seeing it, Strongheart's ears lowered as she too recognised it. "Oh no…Braeburn…" she said with concern in her eyes before she looked around the camp. "You think Sam got them?" she asked.

I then placed Braeburn's hat on my head before I stood up. "Most likely." I said as I straightened the hat so it fit right. "Looks like they had the same idea. They camped here so they could get some rest before going in, but Sam and those others must've found them." I said, giving Strongheart my best theory of what might've happened.

Strongheart was silent for a moment, trying to put aside her worries before she gave me a strong look. "Well…we best go save his flank." She said before she spun around and started making her way back to the entrance. "I got the boulder open, lets go." She said before she went around and the corner.

I gave the camp one last look before I rushed around the corner to catch up with her. Once I reached her, I saw that she had indeed got the boulder out of the way, showing a large tunnel stretching through under the gorge and towards the mountain.

"Great, another tunnel." I said with a slight groan in my voice as I looked down into the darkness.

"Stallion up." Strongheart responded before she entered the tunnel and waited for me to follow.

I sighed a little before I stepped into the tunnel and walked up beside her. I then watched as Strongheart walked back up to the boulder and stood up on her hind-legs, she pressed her front-hooves on the boulder and started rolling it back over the entrance, it wasn't long before the way out was completely blocked and we were in the darkness.

"Nice, now we're blind. You love challenging yourself, don't you?" I said as I blinked in the darkness, not sure if I was talking to Strongheart or the wall.

"Relax, this tunnel has a trick to it." Strongheart said before I heard her walk up to me and pressed her hoof against my side. "Just give it a minute." She said.

"Give what a minute?" I asked curiously, but got no response.

I stood there waiting in the silent darkness until something started to glow, I looked over to it to see it was some sort of gem stuck in the wall. As it glowed brighter, I stared at it with awe, wondering what kind of gem it could've been. But soon enough, another gem started to glow beside it, then another on the other wall, then another and another until the entire tunnel was filled with glowing gems in the wall and ground.

"Whow…what are these things?" I asked as I watched the beauty of the unusual gems. Part of me was glad that Spike wasn't here, otherwise he might end up eating these gems, then we'd really be in trouble.

"Solar Gems." Strongheart answered. "They only glow in total darkness, they light the way for us until we reach the other side of the tunnel." She said before she gave me another smirk. "You should have for faith in me." she said as she turned away and started making her way down the tunnel.

"Yes ma'am." I said with a small grin as I started following her. But then, I felt something odder under one of my hooves. I looked down and saw one of the gems was loose. I started to dig it up with my front-hoof before I could finally pick it up. With the gem now in my hoof, I looked at its beauty closely. "Pretty…this'll give Twilight something to study when I get back." I said before I turned my head to look down at one of my saddlebags and slipped the gem inside it. "Makes a nice souvenir too." I added.

"Matt, are you coming or what?" Strongheart said a few feet ahead of me.

I snapped back into focus and looked over to her. "Sorry, got a bit caught up with something." I said before I rushed over to her and stopped beside her. "Hi." I said with a bright smile.

Strongheart smiled with slight amusement. "Hi yourself." She said before she continued to walk. "Try to stay close this time." She said.

"Sure thing." I said before I started following her down the tunnel. To where though, I didn't know.

-A half-hour later-

After following the glowing tunnel for a good half-hour, Strongheart and I finally reached the end of the tunnel, showing another large boulder blocking the exit. "This is all you, Strongheart." I said, staring up at the boulder.

Strongheart nodded before she walked over to the boulder and did what she did with the last one. She pressed her front-hooves against the boulder and started rolling it aside, allowing the exit to open and let us out. Once it was open enough, we both left the tunnel and entered the inside of Rattlesnake Rock. Strongheart turned to the boulder again and started closing it.

As she did, I looked around the area. This place made the mountain look completely hollow, it was a wonder it was still standing. There were mine-cart tracks, some mine-carts, old rope and pickaxes. This place really was a mine back in the day, there were even higher levels where the tracks went in and out of the walls. The miners were ready to really pick this place clean. "This place is massive." I said.

Strongheart closed the exit before she turned to face me. "Yeah, this was the valley's biggest mine back in the day, millions in gold and jewels were found here. But its dry now, not a scrap left, that's why it was abandoned." She said before she started looking around. "So where do you think the rustlers are?" she asked curiously.

I started to wonder that myself and I started looking around for any sign of activity. A light, a sound, anything. Eventually, I saw a dim light coming from one of the mine-cart tunnels up ahead. "There." I said, pointing my hoof at the tunnel. "There's something down there." I said.

Strongheart looked over to where I was pointing and saw the light. "Good eye." She commented before she rushed on ahead. "Come on." she said a she approached the tunnel.

"Wait, we shouldn't rush into th-…and she's gone." I said as I watched her rush into the tunnel, not listening to me at all. I sighed heavily before I quickly galloped over to the tunnel, wanting to catch up to her before she got into trouble.

After entering the tunnel, I followed it towards the light until I finally came out into a new room, but not in the way I thought. I quickly skidded to a stop as I noticed I was rushing out onto a mine-cart track that stretched across and over a larger room, this track was built high up in the middle of this room.

I stood completely still as I looked down below, seeing how high up this track was above the ground. I gulped hard as my legs shook a little. "Thank God I'm a Pegasus." I said to myself before I looked away and stared down the track, seeing Strongheart standing in the middle of the track while she looked down at something below.

I took a breath and held it as I carefully walked along the track and approached Strongheart. It wasn't long before I finally reached her and I could breathe again. "Strongheart…why have we stopped here?" I asked, I little concerned with trying to keep myself on this thing without falling.

Strongheart looked at me with a slightly concerned look. "Look down and see for yourself." She said as she pointed her hoof down at something.

My ears fell as I stayed still. "I'd rather not, to be honest." I said, not wanting to look down again.

Strongheart then gave me a firm look. "I'm serious, look!" she said with a strong tone.

I gulped again before I carefully looked down below again, but this time it was for a good reason. Down below, I saw an entirely decorated room with a large table full of papers, a sofa, bigger railroad tracks build near the wall leading out of the in and out, a long black steam-train on the said railroad tracks, and a hell of a lot of cells. I looked at the cells and saw that they were all full of ponies, they looked so dirty and weak, like they had been in there for ages.

My eyes then turned to the large pit dug deep into the ground, inside where more ponies. Some were trying to climb out, while others just sat there hopelessly.

This was it, Yodellin' Sam's hide out.

Speaking of which, I heard someone laughing and saw Sam walking up to the pit of ponies. "Aww…what's wrong, fellas? Not likin' your stay?" he said before a devilish grin grew on his face. "Don't worry, ya won't be hear long. The train should be here soon." He said before he took out a flask of water and drank it, leaving the ponies watching with dry throats.

"So…" Strongheart said with a sharp glare in her eyes. "That's Yodellin' Sam…doesn't look so tough." She said, not taking her eyes off him.

"It's not him we have to worry about." I said, thinking about his goons.

Meanwhile, Sam walked around the pit as he looked down at the ponies. "Ya see, this is what happens to trouble-makers in my hideout. Ya get the pit. But enjoy your relaxation while ya can, I assure ya, it won't last." He said with a glare.

"Neither will your crimes!" A voice said in the ponies. Right on cue, Braeburn stepped forward, filthy and hat-less. "Ya may have got us, but you won't get us all. Someday, someone's gonna take you down, Sam! I'll make sure of it!" he said with a strong tone.

Upon seeing him, Strongheart's ears perked up and it looked as though she was ready to leap down off this high track to reach him, but I made sure she didn't by sticking my arm out in front of her. She looked at me and understood it wasn't time yet, so she stayed low with me and continued to watch.

Sam laughed at this. "Haha…you're that punk pony from Appleloosa, aren't ya? Well from up here, ya don't look so tough." He said before he kicked a small amount of soil off the edge and it hit Braeburn in the face. "As for what ya said, I'll make sure ya don't stick around long enough to cause any more trouble than ya already have." he said.

Braeburn wiped the dirt off his face. "I'm terribly sorry about that…how about ya come down here and teach me a lesson like a real stallion would." He said with a smirk.

Sam glared down at him. "Don't tempt me, boy!" he said before he turned and walked away. "Just stay down there and shut up!" he said as he walked over to his table and sat down in front of it, looking through the papers on it.

Suddenly, Strongheart and I heard some strange noises coming from one of the tunnels that led into that room. Soon enough, the three coyotes emerged and ran into the room, it looked like they had someone with them.

"Who's that?" Strongheart asked as she tried to see the mysterious pony better.

I did the same until I eventually recognised him. "It's Moneybaggs. The guy who owned that mine we went through. Why did they bring him here?" I asked as I continued to watch what was happening.

The three coyotes walked over to Sam's desk as they panted hard. "Boss, we got Moneybaggs." Fleet said before he turned his head around to face Skav and nodded.

Skav returned the nod before he threw the back of his body up, making Moneybaggs spring off his back and hit the ground beside him.

Sam got off his seat before he walked around the table to reach Moneybaggs. "Be careful with him." he said before his horn glowed and the rope tied around Moneybaggs' legs started to untie itself.

"Sorry boss, but he's kinda heavy, I nearly threw my back out." Skav said as he sat down and started rubbing his back with his paw.

Once the rope was untied, Moneybaggs stood up and faced Sam. "So…this is where you've been hidin' out?" he said as he looked around the hide-out.

"Yeah, Mr Moneybaggs…ya like it?" Sam asked with a large grin.

Moneybaggs looked around the hide-out more as he responded. "Like it?" he said before he returned his attention to Sam and, shockingly, grinned back. "It's perfect!" he said.

Sam and Moneybaggs then laughed loudly before they hoof-bumped. "You were right, big brother! This scam is a hoot-and-a-hatch!" Sam said as he patted Moneybaggs' back.

"I told ya it would work. I stack 'em up, you knock 'em down." Moneybaggs said before he turned around to face the pit. "So, lets see our latest catch." He said before he and Sam made their way back over to the pit.

Strongheart and I watched this and I was in complete shock. Moneybaggs was working with Sam this whole time. "That fat back-stabber." I growled under my breath, thinking about how much this kind of thing has happened lately.

"Geez, you don't know who to trust these days." Strongheart said in response as we continued watching.

Moneybaggs and Sam walked over to the pit again and looked down at all the ponies trapped down in it. "Hoo-wee! That's alone of stock." Moneybaggs said as he looked at each pony until he saw Braeburn. "Well, well, if it isn't Braeburn, haven't seen you in a while." he said.

Braeburn looked up at Moneybaggs and was shocked to see he was with Sam. "Moneybaggs? You're with them?" he asked.

"Of course I am, Sam's my little brother." Moneybaggs said before he chuckled. "Sorry for the trickery, boy, but business is business." He said with Sam nodding in agreement.

"What business?" Braeburn asked. "What kind of money-making scam involves kidnappin' innocent ponies and holdin' them here?" he asked in a firm tone, demanding an answer.

"One that's important to our survival." Moneybaggs started. "Let me tell ya a story. Almost a year ago, Sam and I wondered into the Badlands of Equestria and stumbled into a nesting ground of dragons. They would've made meals out of the two of us, that is, if it wasn't for my cunning talent of bargainin'. I promised the dragons that if they spared us, we could bring them more ponies to eat, enslave or whatever they want with them. The alpha dragon was suspicious at first, but he accepted and let us go, but if we messed up, he'd come after us. It's a routine we do, I sent ponies out into the desert, Sam rounds 'em up and brings 'em here. That brings us to this part right here, ready to ship all of ya to the Badlands and offer ya up to the dragon pack." He explained with a large despicable smile.

"You're tellin' me you're doin' all this just to pay off a debt? To save your own flanks?" Braeburn asked, giving them an angered look.

"Of course not." Sam said, stepping forward. "If we take ya to the dragons, they'll give us all their gems they use for nests. We'll be richer than we ever have been!" he said, sounding a little excited by that part.

"Of course, there's always riches involved somehow." Braeburn said before he looked at Moneybaggs. "Ya won't get away with this! If I don't get outta here and stop you myself, someone else will! There's loads of people in Appleloosa who will notice the Sheriff has been gone too long and come lookin'." He said.

Moneybaggs let out a single laugh. "Ha! And how will they know where to look? Didn't think about that part, did ya?" he said with a smart smirk.

"Matthew went back to town, he knows where we were headin'. If Sheriff Silver Star doesn't return to town soon, he'll tell another posy where we went and they'll come here." Braeburn said, returning his smirk. "Forget about him, didn't ya?" he said, quoting what Moneybaggs said, but differently.

Upon hearing that, Moneybaggs' smirk went away. "Matthew? That Pegasus from the train?" he said before he turned his head to face Sam. "Did you see a Pegasus in the posy when you rounded these guys up?" he asked, sounding like he was starting to panic.

Sam though at this before he shook his head. "No, I only found those first three at the camp and then this guy with the Sheriff afterwards." He stated.

Moneybaggs then grabbed Sam by his neck fur and yanked him up to his face. "That Matthew guy was in the posy with the first three, includin' this guy! Why didn't your yodellin' draw 'em out?!" he asked loudly.

Moneybaggs grew a slightly frightened look due to his brother's sudden rage. "I dunno, maybe they didn't hear it or somethin'." He said in his defence.

Moneybaggs rolled his eyes before he pushed Sam away. "Should've known your technique would backfire eventually." He said before he straightened the bowtie on his suit and walked away from the camp. "If Matthew tells the other ponies where our hideout is, we'll have the law down our throats more than fresh cider!" he said.

"So what are we gonna do?" Sam asked as he bushed the fur on his chest.

Moneybaggs turned his head around to face Sam. "Just get these ponies on the train and get 'em to the Badlands. You'll have to bring the train back for the rest." He said before he walked over to Sam's desk and opened a draw in it, he pulled out a saddlebag and started filling it with supplies. "I'll head back to town and make sure that Matthew guy doesn't open his big mouth about us."

Sam walked over to the desk and watched Moneybaggs pack things in the saddlebag. "Sure, but are ya sure that's a good idea? What if some of the ponies there start catchin' on?" he asked curiously.

"Don't worry, I'll just stall 'em until ya get back. Then come into town and start doin' ya yodellin' thing, we'll take the entire town and no-one will know a thing." Moneybaggs explained before he finished packing and threw the saddlebags over his back. "Don't mess it up, Sam." He said, giving Sam a firm glare.

Sam gulped before he nodded. "S-Sure thing, Moneybaggs." He said as he watched Moneybaggs walked past him and make his way to the tunnel that led to the exit. Once Moneybaggs was gone, Sam turned to face the coyotes. "Well what are you three standin' around for?! Get as many ponies as ya can onto the train!" he said with a loud growl in his voice.

This made Fleet and the other two jump in fright. "Ah! Oh, yes boss." Fleet said before he and the others quickly went over to the first of the many cells and opened it, they started to heard the frightened ponies out of it and take them to the one of the train cars.

While they worked, Sam walked over to front of the train and entered it, he then closed the door behind him to make his way to the engine room. That's when we heard the whistle of the train go off.

"Right then." I said in a whisper before I turned my head to face Strongheart. "We have to stop them from taking those ponies away, otherwise they're as good as dead." I said, unable to imagine what kind of torment awaits them in the Badlands.

Strongheart looked at me and nodded. "Yeah, but how are we gonna do that? There's four of them and only two of us." she said, looking back down at the three coyotes that were herding ponies out of the cell.

"Yeah, but we've got better skills than them. We just need to get them out of the way and then deal with Sam." I said before I looked down at the gang of bandits. "Unless you're too scared to take them on?" I said, growing a sly smirk,

Strongheart looked at me with a silent raised eye-brow before she too smirked. "Scared? Get me down there and I'll really show you what I can do." she said.

I nodded before I spread my wings out and quietly flapped them. I lifted off the track before I flew over Strongheart's body, I lowered myself down onto her and wrapped all four of my legs around her body. I then lifted her up and started to gently hover down towards the hideout, being careful not to make any noise that would gain the attention of the Hound Brothers.

All the while, I couldn't help but feel weird about this. "…Is it weird that I'm holding you like this?" I asked silently as I continued to hover downwards.

Strongheart blushed a little as she continued to look down. "Just get us down there fast, ok?" she said, trying not to comment.

"On it." I said as kept moving downwards with Strongheart in my grasp, trying to ignore the awkwardness this was giving off.

Within a moment, we finally reached the ground before I released Strongheart and landed beside her. We both looked at each other and nodded before we started to make our way over to the coyotes, wanting to sneak up behind them and take them out as quietly as possible.

Fleet stood by the entrance of the cell while Gragg and Skav shoved some ponies out of the cell. "Come on, get movin'! We haven't got all day, ya know!" Gragg said as he pushed one of the ponies with his paw hard, making him fall to the ground.

A mare rushed up to the pony and helped him up, but they didn't have much time to recover as Skav snapped his jaws at them, aggressively telling them to keep going. The ponies gave him a frightened look before they weakly kept moving. Soon, the small group of ponies left the cell and we forced to make their way towards to the train.

Strongheart and I looked at each other again before we started to sneak up behind Fleet. Being as quiet as I could, I rose up behind me and quickly grabbed his head with my hooves. Before he could react, I slammed his head into the side of the still open cell door, knocking him out.

Unfortunately, with dogs having sharper hearing, Gragg and Skav heard Fleet's head hit the door and spun around to find us. "A pony got loose!" Gragg said in surprise.

"And he has a buffalo with 'im!" Skav said before he turned his head to face Gragg. "What are we gonna do?" he asked.

Gragg looked at him and took his hat off before whacking Skav on the head with it. "What do ya think? Get 'em! We can't let 'em ruin this! The boss will have our tails and make 'em into key-rings!" he said firmly.

With that, Gragg and Skav returned their attention to us and growled viciously as they approached us. Strongheart and I stayed close together as we watched the two coyotes separate and circle us. "Think you can handle one of them?" I asked Strongheart while we stood back to back.

"You kidding? I've dealt with worse than one dirty mutt." Strongheart said while keeping her eyes of Skav.

"I bet." I said before I looked at Strongheart through the corner of my eyes. "And it probably makes it easier that they're not that bright." I added with a slightly amused smile.

"We can hear you." Gragg said as he walked around in front of me to face me.

I looked at him again and smirked. "…I know." I said before I motioned my hoof to tell him to 'come and get me'.

With that, Gragg growled before he charged towards me and pounced with his jaw open wide, showing his sharp teeth ready to rip into my flesh. But I was quickly to respond, I threw up my two front-hooves and placed them against his belly and chest, I then threw him over my head and made him smack into Skav just as he pounced towards Strongheart.

The two coyotes fell to the ground before they quickly got up, growling with anger as they faced us again and charged towards us.

Strongheart looked at me with a strong look. "Matt, turned around and get ready to buck." She said. "And when I say so, buck them forward!"

I didn't know what she had planned, but I nodded and did as she said. I spun around and held my hide-legs back, ready to buck them out. Strongheart then leaped up and soon enough her hid-hooves made contact with mine. "Now!" she said loudly.

Once I heard that, I bucked my hind-legs forward and Strongheart was launched off them, sending her shooting towards the coyotes with her front-hooves sticking out.

Gragg was quick to duck out of her way, but Skav wasn't so quick as Strongheart shot into him and they both fell to the ground. Strongheart locked Skav in her grip as she quickly did a back-roll and then through Skav towards a wall once she was back on her hooves. Skav hit the wall hard before he fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

I was kind of impressed by her fighting skills, so much so that I was too distracted by it to see Gragg pounce on me and bite his teeth down into my shoulder. I yelled in pain as his jaw tightened on my skin. I lifted my front-hooves and grabbed his body as I tried to throw him off, but it only succeeded in making the pain on my shoulder greater.

I eventually stopped trying to push him off and find a new way to do it, that's when I noticed his ear was near my face. Going with my gut, I quickly shot my head towards it and bit down hard on his ear. Doing this made Gragg yelp in pain and release me. Once he was off, I quickly pushed him away with one hoof before I punched him across the face with the other.

Gragg stumbled away while holding his ear, he growled at me before he heard someone grunt behind him. Gragg spun around and saw Strongheart standing behind him, ready to fight back at any time. Gragg turned his head back around to see me ready to do the same. Knowing he was out-numbered, Gragg could only think of one thing to do. "BOSS!" He yelled before he shot off towards the train. "Boss! Get outta here! There are intruders in the hideout!" he yelled.

Strongheart gasped at this before she rushed after him to stop him from alerting Sam of our presents. Strongheart moved as fast as she could towards Gragg before she leaped over him and landed in front of him, spinning around to face him with a glare. "Going somewhere?" she asked.

Gragg skidded to a stop and back away a little. And upon, turning back around, he was shocked to receive a powerful punch in the face by me, making him stumble backwards towards Strongheart who threw her hoof down hard onto his head, knocking him out cold.

I breathed heavily as I walked over to them. "Good job, Strongheart." I said while looking down at the unconscious coyote.

"Don't mention it." Strongheart said before she raised her sights up to see me. "Are you ok?" she asked in concern as she walked around Gragg to come towards me.

I nodded. "Yeah, I've had worse." I said before I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and clenched it with my hoof. "But the bite I probably could've done without." I said before I started to rub it to try and take some of the pain off.

Strongheart walked up to me and gently moved my hoof away to look at the bite wound. "Hmm…don't worry, it's nothing serious. I'll give you something to heal it when we're done here." she said with a small smile.

I returned it. "Thanks." I said before I turned my head to look over to the train. "There's only Sam left, then we'll deal with Moneybaggs when we get back to town." I said, giving the train a dedicated glare, knowing my goal lied inside it.

"Noted…but I think he would be easier to deal with if we had a little help." Strongheart said as she pointed her hoof over to the pit.

I looked over to it too and got where she was coming from. "Oh, gotcha." I said before I returned my attention to the train. "Best make it quick though. If Sam notices us, he'll take off in the train." I said.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Strongheart said before she started making her way over to the pit with me soon following behind, we made sure to be quiet so Sam wouldn't hear us and check what was going on.

We soon made it to the pit and we both looked down it to see all the weak dirty ponies trapped inside, including Braeburn who looked a little worse-for-wear. He hadn't noticed us yet, too busy looking down at the ground while trying to think of a way out, I couldn't help but smirk the sight of this. "Well, I'd say this could've gone better." I said down to him.

This gained Braeburn's attention and he looked up to see me. "Matt?!" He said in shock. "What are you doin' here? I thought ya went back to town." he said. At that moment, his sight shifted over to Strongheart standing beside me. "Little Strongheart? You're here too?" he asked, sounding even more surprised.

"Well I was on my way back to town." I began. "But I got into a bit of trouble and Strongheart helped me out of it. I filled her in on everything and we decided to come help you." I said before I looked round for a way to get him out of there. "So how do we get you back up here?"

"There should be a rope-ladder somewhere around there." Braeburn answered before he gave me a firm look. "But ya shouldn't have brought Strongheart here, its too dangerous." He said as he watched me walk around the edge of the pit as I searched for this rope-ladder.

"Hey! It was my idea to come! Besides, I can take care of myself, thank you!" Strongheart said strongly in her defence.

"What she said." I added before I finally found the rope-ladder lying on the ground near the other side of the pit. It looked like it was nailed into the ground, so finding something to keep it secure wouldn't be necessary. I walked over to it before I pushed it off the edge and into the pit, it unravelled as it fell down until it came to a stop at the very bottom. "Ok, come on up." I called while looking down at him.

Braeburn then walked up to the ladder before he carefully started to clime it. It didn't take long until he finally reached the top and saw me reaching my hoof out to him to help him up. At first, he hesitated, but then he slowly grabbed my hoof with his and I pulled him up out of the pit as Strongheart came around to join us.

"I told you I should've come along." I said. "I don't know why exactly, but Sam's singing doesn't affect me. I could've helped you and the Sheriff." I said, thinking how all of this could've possibly been avoided had they trusted me more.

"…I know." Braeburn said as his ears folded back a little.

"I know you have your personal opinion of me, but shouldn't come in the way of – What?!" I said in wide-eyed shock over what he just said.

"I know, Matt." Braeburn started while giving me a look of small sorrow. "You saved me from being captured back in that camp. After that, I should've trusted ya. But I just let my own suspicions get the better of me and that's why we sent ya away. Havin' ya along probably would've been a big help, what with your unusual resistances to Sam's magic…so I guess what I'm trying to say is…I was wrong and I'm…kinda sorry." He said as he looked down at the ground.

I gave him a small smirk-ish smile as I took a step closer. "Ah, don't worry man…if I was in your position, I probably wouldn't have trusted me either…not sure if I do anyway, if I'm being honest. But here's the deal, lets bag these rustlers, get back to town, and get some fresh cider, my treat." I said, giving him a hard pat on the back.

Braeburn chuckled as he gave me a slightly uneasy look. "Haha…ok…" he said.

Suddenly, Strongheart darted forward and hugged Braeburn closely, making me step away and watch as Braeburn was caught by surprise by this. "I'm just glad you're safe, I was scared something had happened to you." she said as her head nuzzled into the side of his neck.

Braeburn's eyes shifted to me. I stepped back a little and looked away as I used my wing to cover the side of my face so I wouldn't see what they were doing, I just thought they could use some privacy.

Braeburn's attention returned to Strongheart before he placed his hoof on her back, hugging her back. "Well I'm fine, Strongheart. It'll take more than a few rough rustlers to take me down." he said with a small amused smile.

Strongheart's head pulled away before they both looked at each other in the eyes deeply. But this moment was ruined when I cleared my throat. "*Clears throat* Ok, well…this is very touching and you kids probably want to some time alone. But how about catch the bad guys now, hugs of passionate romance later?" I asked as I walked back over to them.

Braeburn and Strongheart looked at each other with blushing faces before they broke apart, both laughing nervously as Braeburn rubbed his leg with one hoof and Strongheart dragged the tip of her hoof against the ground. "Haha…sure…" Braeburn said while still blushing.

I nodded before I remembered I was still wearing Braeburn's hat. "Oh, this is yours." I said before I reached up and grabbed his hat with my hoof and then placed it back on his head. "What's a cowboy without his hat, right?" I said with an amused smirk.

Braeburn adjusted it until it fit right on his head. "Thanks Matt." he said before he looked over to the train and gave it a strong glare. "Now, let's finish this." He said.

I looked at the train with the same glare. "Gladly." I said before I turned my head to face Strongheart. "Strongheart, I need you to stay behind. Braeburn and I will handle Sam." I said.

Strongheart gave me a shocked look. "What?!" she said loudly. "I've told you, I can handle myself. I'm not afraid of some guy with magic vocal-cords." She said in a firm tone.

"I know you can, but look around." I said before I looked around at all the cells with ponies trapped inside. "All these ponies need to be freed and taken somewhere safe, we need someone to help them back to town safely. And honestly, I can't think of anyone more qualified right now." I said before I looked at her deeply. "Please Strongheart, you need to help them."

Strongheart was silent as she thought about this. She knew I had a point, someone needed to help these ponies while someone took care of Sam. "Ok…just be careful, the both of you." she said.

"We will, as long as we looked out for each other." I said before I turned my head to face Braeburn. "Right?" I asked.

Braeburn looked at me and smiled confidently at me. "Right." He said.

With that, Strongheart turned and took off back towards the pit to start helping all the ponies out of it. All the while, Braeburn and I returned our attention to the train and started making our way over to it. Sam was aboard it and it was time for that basterd to pay.

Meanwhile, Sam waited impatiently in the train. He was still under the impression that Fleet and the others were still loading ponies into the train. Eventually, he couldn't hold in any longer and grunted in frustration. "What's takin' so long out there?!" he called before he walked over to the window of the engine cart. Once he reached it, he looked out of it expecting to see the three coyotes struggling with the ponies, but was shocked to see me and Braeburn coming towards him. "What the hay?!"

"Crap! He saw us!" I said loudly before I turned to face Braeburn. "Come on!" I said before I sprinted towards the train with Braeburn following behind with the same speed.

As we approached the train, Sam used his magic to grab the lever near the controls and pushed it forward, making steam escape from the wheels under the train. The gears started to grind as the wheels started to turn, the train was started to move along tracks to leave the mountain.

Seeing this, I started to galloped faster as the train started to pick up speed. Once I reached the train, I managed to hop aboard the back of one of the near-end cars before I turned around to watch Braeburn try to catch up with me. Braeburn panted hard as he struggled to keep up his pace, galloping as hard as he could.

I walked up as close to the edge of the platform as I could before I reached my hoof out to him. "Braeburn! Grab my hoof!" I said loudly as I felt the train pick up more speed.

Meanwhile, while we were trying to get on the train and Strongheart was freeing the ponies, Fleet woke up from his unconsciousness and shook his head. He weakly blinked his eyes opened before he tried to make sense of what happened. Soon enough, he saw Gragg and Skav unconscious on the ground and wondered what happened. Then, upon hearing the train whistle, his focus shot over to the train and saw me and Braeburn trying to stow away onto it. Once he knew what we were doing, he growled darkly with a sharp glare in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Braeburn started to run faster as he slowly got closer to my hoof. Part of me was scared that I would screw this up and Braeburn would never get aboard with me. But soon enough, Braeburn leaped towards me hoof and grabbed it with his mouth tightly. "OOOW!" I yelled in pain as his teeth pressed hard into my flesh. "I meant with your hoof!" I said as I tried to fight the pain.

Even with his jaws clamped onto my arm, Braeburn kept running to keep up with the train. But soon, he stopped running to try and climb onto the train. Doing this added more to his weight as it nearly pulled me off the train, but I used my other hoof to grab hold of a handle to keep myself restrained. I kept my grip tight on it as Braeburn pulled himself up on the train, I was glad when he finally got up and released my arm from his teeth. "*Pant* Thanks Matt." he said while trying to catch his breath.

"Don't mention it." I said while sitting down and holding my hoof, looking down at the teeth-marks on it while it pulsed in pain.

Braeburn panted a few more times before he stood up. "Ok…lets finish this." He said before he turned around and entered the next car. "We'll have to go through all these train cars to get to the engine room, no way I'm going on the roof at this speed." he said while looking back at me.

"Fine by me, I wasn't planning on doing that anyway." I said as I stood up and started following him into the next car. We both started to make our way through the car to reach the entrance to the next one.

-A few minutes later-

The train left the mountain and was moving through the hot desert at great speed. All the while, Braeburn and I had made our way through car after car to reach the engine room, this train was honestly longer than I thought, I was so focused on jumping onto the train before than I didn't take into notice how many cars had passed before I jumped onto it.

As we made our way through the train, we noticed something very unique about this train. It wasn't made for passengers, it was made for shipping not just supplies, but life-stock as well. Most of the cars had chains and cages in them big enough to imprison Celestia herself, I didn't want to think how they were planning to used them on all those ponies back in the hide-out.

Once we reached the end of the car we were currently in, Braeburn grabbed the handle of the door to the next car and pulled it open. "I think we're nearly there." he said as he entered the car.

"I hope so, all these cages and stuff are really freaking me out." I said as I entered the car with him. After that, I was a little surprised to see more cages stacked on top of each other in this car. "And of course, there's more of them….great." I groaned as we started to walk across the car.

"I thought you were supposed to be the Element of Bravery." Braeburn said while looking back at me as he continued to walk.

"I am, but that doesn't mean I can't get creeped out." I said as I looked over to one of the cages and saw the chains and shackles inside it, making a shiver go through my body. "Good god." I said to myself under my breath.

"Well lets just be glad we stopped 'em from loadin' any of the ponies onto this thing." Braeburn said before he turned his head back around to face the way ahead in front of him. "And lets be sure to stop 'em from tryin' it again." he added.

"Yeah." I said with a not. "But what I'm really glad about is that Sam and Moneybaggs only had those three coyotes as goons, otherwise this train could've been crawling with bandits….In fact, I honestly thought this would've led to some kind of big battle before finally reaching the main guy…but I guess that only happens in the movies, right?" I said with an amused smirk before I let out a small chuckle.

Braeburn returned my amused smirk before he finally reached the end of the car, he pulled the door open before he walked over to the entrance of the next one. As I followed him, I looked down to see the ground speeding past as the train kept moving, the bumps that made the train bounce a little made me a little nervous, like we were going to hit a big one strong enough to make me stumble and fall off, but I made sure to stay inside the car I was already in to keep that from happening.

But once Braeburn got the door to the next car open as he started to walk inside, something leaped down from the roof of the car and dropped in front of me with his back turned to me, he pounded forward and tackled Braeburn to the floor of the next car.

"Braeburn!" I yelled in shock before I quickly rushed into the next car and grabbed the creature by his tail, I swung him around and smacked him into the wall of the car, making one of the windows crack before he fell to the floor.

While the creature was down, I heard a groan and turned around to see Braeburn slowly pick himself up. I went up beside him and helped him up. "Braeburn, are you ok?" I asked in concern.

Braeburn stood up back onto his hooves before he turned his head to face me. "Yeah…" he said while rubbing his head with his hoof. "But what hit me?" he asked curiously before he looked back to see the creature.

I did the same and we both watched the creature get up, groaning in pain, before he turned around to reveal himself as Fleet. He growled angrily as he stepped away from the window. "What?...Think you were the only ones who could catch up to a movin' train?" he asked as he got into a fighting position.

"So much for this bein' easy." Braeburn said as he kept his eyes on Fleet.

"Welcome to my world." I commented while doing the same. "I'm getting pretty sick of these guys, what's say we take him out of the game once and for all." I said, thinking of how much trouble he and his brothers had caused us for the past few days.

"Couldn't agree more." Braeburn said before he turned to face me. "But we can't let Sam get away…can you handle this?" he asked with a raised eye-brow.

I looked at him and gave him a confident smile. "Like a pro…go get Sam, I'll keep this flee-bag busy." I said in a quiet voice so Fleet couldn't hear me.

Getting a nod from Braeburn, we both returned our attention to Fleet and we all just stared at each other in silence, waiting to see who would make the first move. After what seemed like a long moment, Braeburn turned and sprinted away down the car to get to the next one so he could reach Sam.

Knowing what he was planning, Fleet tried to rush after him, but I shot forward with the help of my wings and smacked into him, sending us both flying out of the current car and back into the previous one.

Once we hit the ground, I didn't have time to make my next move as Fleet threw his paw up and whacked me in the face with it, knocking me off him. While I was down, Fleet rolled over onto his feet before he tried to resume his chase after Braeburn, but I quickly got up and grabbed his hide-leg with my hoof. I yanked back on it and pulled Fleet back over to me.

Fleet looked back at me and growled in frustration as he kicked his other hide-leg back, I turned my head as his foot kept hitting my face hard. But despite this pain, I refused to release his leg. As he kept kicking me, I quickly grabbed his leg with my other hoof and pulled hard on both, making Fleet fall back down onto his belly.

I then pulled back on him until I was above him and roughly rolled him onto his back, I then proceeded to punch his face repeatedly with both front-hoof. "You!...Have been!...A bad!...Dog!" I said between each punch.

After a sixth hard punch, Fleet looked up at me and growled before he quickly grabbed my arm with his paw as I tried to threw another punch down at him. Caught off guard, I was able to react quick enough as he pulled my arm close to his face and he bit it hard with his sharp teeth. I yelled in pain again as I used my other arm to punch his face more, trying to get him off.

This didn't seem to work as Fleet threw one of his clenched paws up and it struck against my stomach, making me weaken a little. While I tried to recover from this, Fleet quickly got up and did a round-house kick into my face, making me fall hard against one of the cages. I gasped and coughed at the pain all this caused me and I weakly dropped to the floor, holding my stomach with both hooves tightly.

Fleet panted before he snickered. "Not as tough as I thought, boy." He said before he turned and started making his way back into the next car. "Now where did ya little friend go?" he asked as he left me in my painful state.

Hearing this, I breathed steadily as I used all my strength to pick myself back up. There was no way I was going to let my friend get hurt by this mutt. I started to walk after Fleet as I saw him enter the next car, then I started to rush towards him before I quickly tackled him.

I pinned him down to the floor before I grabbed his head with both front-hooves and started to slam his head down against the metal floor. As I kept doing this, Fleet's elbow quickly swung up and struck me against my face, making me fall off him. Fleet used this time to get up before he growled down at me.

I tried to get up quick, but Fleet's paw suddenly shot down and pressed against my throat, I gasped and struggled to breathe as Fleet's grip on my neck tightened and he slowly picked me up by my neck. Fleet pulled my face right up to his as he growled loudly. "Ya want me to deal with you first, huh? Fine by me." he said before he tossed me down the car, expecting me to hit the floor hard.

But before I could, I spread my wings out and caught the air, allowing me to flip over and land safely on my hooves and slide along the floor a little. I then gave Fleet a sharp glare before I charged towards him.

Fleet smirked before he charged as well, but as we were about to make contact, Fleet leaped aside and grabbed my wing with his jaw, he kept running to the end of the train car with me in his grip before he finally came to a stop and he threw me out onto the platform between the current car and the previous car.

Fleet quickly got over to me and grabbed me by my neck again before he pulled my head over the edge of the platform, he then used both paws to press down against my head to try and push me down against the desert ground speeding by. I tried to push him off, up he was firmly planted in place. I could soon feel the tips of the spikes in my mane brush against the sandy surface as my head got dangerously close to the ground.

But then, I threw both hooves up between his front-legs and spread them apart hard to push his paws off my head. Once that happened, I grabbed his head with both front-hooves and threw my head up against his, making my head and his bash against each other. True, it hurt me too, but it messed Fleet up more. I used this change to threw another punch up at him, hitting him right in the face and making him stumble backwards a little.

Fleet then felt his paws reach the other edge of the platform behind him, which he nearly fell off but managed to keep his balance. But while he was busy doing that, I got up and flapped my wings to jump up into the air. As Fleet returned his attention to me, he was surprised to receive my own round-house kick to his face, sending him flying back into the previous car.

After hitting the floor hard, Fleet shook his head and quickly got up. He spun around to see I was flying towards him, but before I could strike, Fleet slashed his sharp claws against my chest, leaving four painful scratches against my chest. This made me yelp in pain and I quickly moved backwards, I looked down at the cuts to see they were starting to bleed.

Fleet saw this and chuckled darkly. "Does it hurt?...Aww…don't worry…the pain will stop once you're dead!" he growled before her pounced at me again.

Still put off guard by Fleet's sudden claw attack, leaving me open for his pounce, I was then pinned to the floor by his powerful paws and Fleet gave me a crooked smile, showing his sharp teeth. His jaws opened as his head shot down to mine. Seeing this, I quickly moved my head aside as his jaws snapped beside my face. I used this time to place both my hind-hooves up against his belly and kick him away, allowing me to quickly stand back up.

Fleet fell to the floor again before he got back up, he gave me another glare as he snapped his jaws. I watched as he slowly started to walk over to me again, preparing for another attack.

I was starting to get tired of fighting this flee-bag, so I decided to end it. I started walking over to him until I felt one of my hooves kick against one of the cages. At first, I was frustrated, but it soon gave me an idea. I returned my attention to Fleet before I kept going towards him. I soon stopped beside one of the open cages, I waited and watched Fleet approach me until he stopped. Fleet snickered as we both started to circle each other.

We both stared into each other eyes as we walked around in a circle, waiting to see who was making the next move. Eventually, I stopped behind the open cage and got ready for the next stage of the plan, I could only hope Fleet would do what I wanted him to.

Within that instant, Fleet growled loudly before he suddenly pounced at me again, claws and teeth baring, ready to rip me to shreds. As soon as he did that, I quickly ducked and rolled under him as he jumped over me and landed straight into the cage, leaving him in a state of surprise as he hit against the back of the cage.

Fleet shook his head as he slowly got back up, but once he saw what he was in, he quickly spun around and tried to rush out of the cage. But I was quick to fly over to the cage and slam the cage door shut, smacking the door bars against his face in the process. Fleet was left in a dazed state until he finally collapsed.

I breathed heavily as I looked down at the unconscious coyote within the cage, relieved that the fight was finally over. "And this time…stay down!" I said before I started to make way out to the next car to catch up with Braeburn.

As I left the car and entered the next, I felt a strong wave of pain in my body. The bite and slash wounds were a little deep, I could see some of them bleed as I kept walking. But I knew Braeburn would need help, I couldn't let a few cuts stop me now. Besides, I had worse and still kept going, this was nothing compared to those other times. I kept going through car to car to make my way to the engine room, it wouldn't be long now.

-A few minutes later-

After walking through like 5 more cars, I finally reached the entrance to the engine car. Behind this door was the guy we had worked so hard to catch, finally this whole thing could end.

I weakly placed my hoof on the door and pushed it open. The door slowly swung open and I looked inside, but there wasn't anyone inside. There was the engine, the piles of coal, the controls, everything put Sam or Braeburn. I slowly entered the room car and looked around, it was a lot bigger than your average engine train car, this one was big enough to fit a dinner table.

As I walked further inside, I suddenly felt something hard hit the back of my head and I feel to the floor hard, hearing a loud ringing in my head. As I faced down at the floor, I slowly lifted my head up to see a hoof step in front of my site, I heard a dark chuckle as the coal shovel fell down in front of me. "That looked like it hurt, son." A voice said, I looked up to see it was Sam, giving me a twisted grin. "Though your stronger than your friend what I hit 'im with that thing." he said.

After hearing that, I slowly turned my head and saw Braeburn's unconscious body lying in a pile of coal. I then returned my attention to Sam and gave him a hateful look.

"Your friend gave me the exact same stare until I clobbered 'im, looks like I'm gonna have to teach ya some respect." Sam said before his horn glowed and the shovel lifted off the floor. He held it up and swung it down towards my head.

But before it could hit my, I quickly shot my hoof up and grabbed the shaft of the shovel, I grabbed it with my other hoof before I stood up and yanked it towards me, pulling Sam towards me as well. Once that happened, I threw one of my hide legs up and kicked Sam in the chest hard, making his release the shovel.

I tossed the shovel aside before I charged at him, I then tackled him and pinned him against the wall as I started to repeatedly punch his belly, making him grunt in pain with each punch.

Sam looked down at me with a glare before he forcefully pushed me away and punched me across the face, making me fall to the floor hard. While I was down, Sam took this chance to leap up and land flat right on top of me. Being as big and fat as he was, it was like having a bear jump on my back. I let out a wheezy gasp before one of Sam's front hooves slammed down on top of my head, making my head slam down against the floor hard.

I gritted my teeth as his hoof pressed harder down against my head, like he was trying to crush it, I could even feel the blood in my head start to pulse as it become harder for it to flow. In that moment, I threw up my hard and struck him with my elbow, making him stumble away and remove his hoof from my head. I quickly got up and spun around to face Sam.

But instead of seeing just an angered Unicorn, I was met with that and the shovel held in his magic as he quickly swung it at me. I quickly ducked as it swung across over my head, but he retracted it and attempted to swing it downwards at me. Seeing this, I dropped and rolled aside just before the shovel slammed down against the spot where I was just standing.

Sam growled in frustration as he lifted the shovel back up. "Hold still, ya little varmint!" he said before he took a step towards me and tried to hit me with the shovel again.

I kept dodging his attacks, whenever he swung the shovel at me or tried to slam it down on top of me, it never hit its target. Sam was too slow to hit me, I was starting to think this was too easy and I should just end this now. But this train of thought was proven wrong when he tried to swing it down at me again. Of course, I avoided it, but instead of lifting it back up, he quickly swung it sideways and it smacked into my body. While this threw me off guard, he quickly spun around on the spot and bucked me with his hide-legs, sending me flying and crashing against the wall of the car.

I groaned in pain as I slowly started to pick myself up. But before I could get up, Sam came over and struck me in the side with one of his front hooves, making me fall back down in pain. "Haha…not so quick now, huh?" Sam said before he slowly hovered the shovel above my head. "Don't worry…this won't hurt much…" he said before he paused. "Oh wait…yeah it will." He said before he quickly raised it up and prepared to throw it down at me.

But just as Sam was about to, Braeburn leaped on his back from behind and wrapped his arms around his neck. "Get away from 'im!" he yelled as his arms gripped his neck tighter. Sam tried to pry his arms off with his hoof, but Braeburn's grip was too strong around his neck, so he decided to try and throw him off. He started jumping and kicking around like a mad bull in an attempt to throw Braeburn off his back.

While Braeburn had Sam distracted, I weakly picked myself up off the floor and rubbed the part where Sam hit me to try and rub off the pain. I soon opened my eyes and looked over to where Sam was, that's when I saw that Braeburn had awakened and was holding him off, but this didn't last long as Sam raised the shovel to Braeburn's level and used it to smack him off his back, making him fall to the floor.

Sam rubbed his neck with his hoof as he turned around to face Braeburn. "I've had about enough of you, boy!" he said before he once again raised the shovel to try and strike him down with it. But I was quick to act by grabbing the shovel from behind Sam and pulled it out of his magic grip. Wondering what happened, Sam spun around in time to see me throw the shovel like a spear towards one of the large windows. Upon impact, the glass of the window smashed and the shovel fell through it off the train.

Sam was left with his mouth hanging open before he looked at me with a glare. "Hey! That was a new shovel!" he said loudly with anger.

"Well don't go trying to kill people with it next time!" I said loudly in response, giving him a firm glare.

Sam growled in anger before he charged towards me and tackled me towards the furnace, the fire inside burned brightly inside as Sam tried to push me towards it. Being so large, Sam had a lot of strength, so I was starting to move towards it slowly as he kept pushing. It wasn't long before I felt the heat from it against my flank. "You and your friends have been tailin' us for far too long! Its startin' to get on my nerves!" he said as his forcefully pressed his hoof against my face to try and move my head closer to the furnace.

I grunted as I felt the area behind me get hotter, it wouldn't be long until my body would press against the hot metal surrounding the roaring flames.

"Yeah…but like I tell everyone else who says that…I have that effect!" I grunted before I quickly grabbed him by the neck with both front hooves and bashed my head against his. While he was stunned, I got free of his grip before I moved aside and grabbed his suit with my hooves. I then threw him forwards towards the furnace and his head was shoved inside, but he quickly recovered and pushed himself out before he could be badly hurt.

Sam rubbed his head to shake off the daze before he noticed that his head was a little hot. His eyes shifted up and noticed his top-hat had caught fire while in the furnace. Panicking, he quickly knocked it off and started to stomp the small fire out. Once it was out, Sam used his magic to pick up his hat to see the large burned hole at the top. Sam gritted his teeth in pure anger before he looked at me with a hate-filled look. "Why you…" he growled before he strongly threw his hat back into the furnace so it could burn.

Meanwhile, Braeburn had recovered from his fight with Sam and walked up beside me. "Don't worry, Matt…this time, we'll take 'im together." He said while keeping his focus entirely on Sam.

I turned my head to face him and gave him a small smile. "Thanks…but who said I was worried?" I said before I returned my attention to Sam while getting a small smirk from Braeburn.

Sam's eyes shifted from me to Braeburn before he grinned darkly. "Haha...ya should be worried…because now I'm endin' this little game." He said before he cleared it throat. We both watched as his horn glowed as he took a breath and started to yodel loudly.

My eyes widened at this before I spun my head around to face Braeburn. "Braeburn, cover your…" I then stopped when I saw it was already too late as he once again fell under Sam's spell. "Great." I groaned as I closed my eyes half-way. Sam continued to yodel as Braeburn turned to face me and, surprisingly, threw a punch towards me. I quickly leaped backwards to avoid it. "Braeburn, what the hell are you…whow!" I yelled as I avoided another one of Braeburn's punches.

I wondered what was going on until I fingered it out. Not only did Sam have the ability to make ponies follow him with his singing, but he had the power to make them do whatever he wanted with it. In this case, make Braeburn fight against me. "Braeburn, stop! I don't want to hurt you!" I said, trying to get through to him as he kept trying to hit me.

Suddenly, Braeburn tackled me hard and pressed both his front-hooves on my throat. I gasped and choked as I tried to push his hooves off my neck, but he was very strong. I could feel the pressure in my throat start to rise from the lack of air. I looked up at his face, the look in his almost blank eyes told me there was no way to get to him by talking. I closed my eyes tightly as I knew only one way to stop him from strangling me to death. I quickly threw up my fist and punched Braeburn across the face, making him fall off me.

I took this time to get back up and face Braeburn again. While he was recovering from my attack, I tried to come up with a plan to stop this. I knew he was being controlled by Sam, so I had to take him out to stop Braeburn. I turned my attention to Sam and rushed towards him.

Sam saw this and starting yodelling a different tune. Once that happened, Braeburn got up faster and turned to face me. He ran up towards me as faster as possible and pounced at me. But I knew this was happening, I quickly spun around to face Braeburn before I threw both my front-hooves up towards him. As he landed on my hooves, I gripped his body hard and held him over my head.

I grunted as I turned back around to face Sam before I used all my strength to throw Braeburn at him. Sam stopped yodelling and yelped as Braeburn landed hard against him, making them both fall back hard against the controls of the engine. I heard a strange metal-y snap, like something broke, but I was sure it was nothing.

Without Sam's yodelling, the spell possessing Braeburn was broken and he snapped out of it. He blinked his eyes open as he groaned and lifted himself up as he rubbed his head with his hoof. "Ahh…what the hay happened?" he said before he looked beside him and saw Sam lying against the controls. "Sam!" he said in shock.

I walked over to them and looked at Sam, he seemed pretty out cold, but I wasn't sure. "Think he's down for now?" I asked curiously.

Braeburn carefully got up and stepped away from Sam as he stared down at him. "I dunno, I'll get some rope and hogtie 'im, just in case." He said before he walked away from me to find some rope.

As he did, I heard a groan and looked down to see Sam start to wake up. "Urr…that hurt…" he said as he rubbed his head with his hoof.

I shook my head before I noticed he was lying right now to the furnace, with the hatch-door attacked to it open next to him. I thought about it for a moment before I made a decision. I walked up to Sam and placed my hoof under his chin, I lifted his head up as my other hoof grabbed the furnace's hatch-door. "Not as much as this will." I said before I quickly moved my hoof away from his chin and pushed the hatch-door open hard, making it slam against his face and knock him out cold.

Sam's unconscious body flopped down in front of me as Braeburn came back with some rope in his mouth. "This otta hold 'im." He muffled before he spat out the rope and placed both front-hooves on Sam's body, he grunted as he rolled him over onto his back. I continued to watch as Braeburn picked the rope back up and began to hogtie Sam's legs, followed by wrapping some cloth around his mouth so it would gag him.

Once he was done, Braeburn stepped back beside me before he turned to face me. "Looks like we did it…now we just have to deal with Moneybaggs." He said with a small smirk.

I looked at him with a not-so confident look. "But how will we do that? The whole town's gonna be there and I don't think they'll like us just pointing hooves at someone. Don't we need proof of Moneybaggs' involvement?" I asked, wondering how this type of thing works here.

"We don't need proof. Around here, everyone knows I'm as honest as they come. If I say somethin', everyone knows I'll be tellin' the truth." Braeburn said before he smirked again. "Besides, Moneybaggs is an Earth-pony, how much trouble could he be?" he asked.

"I don't know, it takes more that brawns to win a fight. He might have something planned. We should be ready for anything, just in case." I said before I walked over to the controls and looked at them. I could see the needles on temperatures rising, the steam from the chimney start to shoot out of the smallest cracks faster and it was starting to get really hot. "Umm…I'm not sure if its supposed to be doing this, but it seems kinda…wrong." I said, beginning to get nervous about it.

Braeburn came over and saw the same stuff I did, he grew the same nervous look before he walked over to the window and poked his head out of it. He held his hat down against his head with his hoof as the speed passing air blew harshly against him. He looked down at the ground below and saw it was starting to pass by faster and faster with each moment.

Braeburn came back in and rushed over to the controls and tried to work them. "I think the train's goin' faster!" he said as he tried to find a way to slow it down.

I walked up beside him and started to examine the controls, wanting to see if I could find anything that could help. "Can't we just hit the breaks or something?" I asked as I kept looking through each of the controls.

After hearing that, Braeburn started looking from the breaks until he found it. Unfortunately, there was a problem. "Urr…good idea, but I don't think that's gonna work." He said while pointing his hoof down at something.

I looked to where his hoof was pointing and saw that the lever which worked as the break was broken off right behind Sam's body. That's when I remembered the metal-y snap from before, it must've been the break lever when Sam fell back against it. "…Oops." I said as my ears dropped in slight fright.

"Yeah, big oops…" Braeburn said before he took a step closer to the breaks and looked down at where it was set. "And look what else happened." He said before he step aside to reveal that the breaks broke off while setting to the train to maximum speed.

I gulped hard at this before I returned my attention to Braeburn. "Ok, so what do we do?...We can't just wait for this thing to run out of steam, it'll take too long." I said while hoping Braeburn would have some kind of plan. I tried to think of a way out of this too, but I fingered Braeburn would know a better way.

Braeburn took a moment to think, we paced back and forth for a minute or so before he stopped and looked at me. "Ok, this train is followin' the tracks, so maybe we'll just ride it out until it passes the train station in Appleloosa. Then we'll just jump or somethin'." He said, telling me his so-called plan.

I gave him a discomforted look before I spoke. "Jump of a speeding train? Are you serious? What'll happen to this train? What about Sam and that coyote, we can't leave them on this thing." I said, protesting against the plan.

"We'll put Sam in one of those cages back in those other cars and then we'll detach them from this one just as we approach town, then we'll jump off and collect 'em once we've dealt with Moneybaggs." Braeburn explained before he raised his eye-brow. "But if you have a better plan, please let me know." He said.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out as my mind went blank. Instead I closed my mouth and sighed. "Fine, we'll go with your crazy train-jump stunt." I said as I waved my hoof.

"Good, now lets get this crook into a nice cage." He said before he walked over to Sam's body and started to try and lift him up.

"Sure…I'll probably break my back, but sure." I said before I walked over to Sam's unconscious body and tried to pick him up, but he was so heavy.

Braeburn and I struggled and felt like we were about to break something, but we managed to lift him. We both held him up on our backs as we started to carry him out of the car and into the next one. "Oh god…I think something inside me is collapsing…AH!...yeah, it's a lung." I said as I struggled to hold him up.

"Just keep goin'…lift with ya knees…" Braeburn said as we carried him across the next car.

It wasn't easy, but we finally made it back to the car where I locked up Fleet. We through Sam into one of the cages next to his and made our way back to the engine car. We had to straighten our backs back out, but we recovered by the time we got back to the engine car.

But upon returning to the engine room, we were shocked to see the engine was getting over-heated and going crazy. Braeburn rushed over to it and reached his hoof up and grabbed one of the switches, but quickly retracted it when there was a small sizzle sound. "Ahh…that's hot!" he said while shaking the pain off his hoof.

I rushed up beside him, but had to step back from all the heat the furnace was giving off. "What's going on?" I asked as I used my arm to shield my face from the heat.

"The engine is workin' too hard, its over heatin'. Its reachin' a point where it'll be at top speed, so fast it will jump the tracks if it has the chance." Braeburn said as he grabbed his hat with his hoof and used it to try and fan away some of the heat around him.

Braeburn and I kept moving backwards until we were a safe distance away from the furnace. "Think it'll blow up or something?" I asked, worried that the engine wouldn't be able to hold out any longer.

"I don't think so. But as long as we stay away from it, we should be fine until we reach Appleloosa." Braeburn said before he looked over to the window and walked over to it. "Who knows, maybe we're already there." he said before he poked his head out the window again, holding his hat down with his hoof like last time. But suddenly, he let out a gasp. "Oh hay-seeds!" he said as he began to panic.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I walked over to him and poked my head out the window again. The strong amount of window blowing in my face made it hard to see anything ahead of the train, but I managed to see we were approaching a cross-road in the tracks. One was leading towards the mountains and the other led down towards the direction to Appleloosa. "What's that?" I asked.

"It's a turnin' point in the tracks." Braeburn said before he looked down at the tracks at the cross-road and saw it was set to go the opposite direction. "Those rustlers must've set the tracks to go off towards the mountains. If we don't do something to change the track, we're gonna go off course." He said.

"Well how do we change the tracks? There's usually a lever or something, right?" I asked, trying to think of a way to fix this.

Braeburn nodded as he kept looking down the tracks. "There should be one right by the turnin' point, but the train usually stops so somepony can change the tracks. We can't stop, so we can't change the tracks." He said.

I then pulled my head back in before I looked around the car, that's when I saw the broken lever on the floor. I rushed over to it before I picked it up with one hoof. "What about this?" I asked as I turned back around to face Braeburn. "When the train passes the lever to change the tracks, I'll hit it with this and it'll change them to go the right way."

Braeburn looked at the lever before he shook his head. "That won't work. The lever is right next to the turnin' point. Even if ya did hit it, it wouldn't change 'em in time." He said.

With that idea flushed down the toilet, I threw down the lever before I tried to think of a new way to do it. It took a moment, but I finally thought of something. "Alright, I've got a plan." I said as I walked over to the Braeburn again.

Braeburn pulled his head back in before he stepped aside from the window. "What is it?" he asked curiously.

I stopped in front of Braeburn before I gave him a small smirk. "If I don't get back on, just get back to town in one piece. I'll meet you there." I said, knowing he probably wouldn't like it if I told him.

Braeburn gave me an uncomfortably curious look. "Urr…what do ya mean?" he asked.

I smirked again before I quickly rushed towards the window and dove out of it, leaving Braeburn shocked and confused. He rushed over to the window and looked out of it again to see me flying as fast as I could ahead of the train to try and reach the cross-roads before it. "That's one crazy guy…" Braeburn said under his breath before he grinned. "But it's a good crazy."

My wings flapped hard, as hard as I could move them to try and keep ahead of the train. I was starting to get tired out already, but I couldn't afford to stop now. I kept flying hard as I started to get closer to the cross-roads. Finally, I reached them and saw the lever build into the ground to change the tracks. I took some quick breaths as I looked back to see the train was approaching quickly.

I then rushed over to the lever and gripped it tightly with both front-hooves. I pulled hard, but it wouldn't budge, it was like it was rusted or something. I looked to see the train was getting closer, I began to panic as I pulled more and more on the lever. "Come on…you…little…git!" I grunted as I pulled as hard as I could.

But soon enough, I figured this wouldn't work, I had to try something else and soon, I was starting to run out of time. I quickly got on the other side of the lever and gave hit a hard buck with my hind-hooves, it moved a little, but it still needed more. I gave it a few more bucks as the train got closer, but after I gave it my hardest buck, the lever finally moved all the way and switched the tracks just in time as the train reached it.

The train screeched as it made a rough turn past me. The engine car had already past me, so I had to try and get on one of the other cars. They were all passing pretty fast, but I soon found one that I could jump onto easily. I waited until it was about to pass and then I pounced forward, leaping onto the platform between two cars until I was back aboard the train.

I sat down for a moment, trying to settle myself down from all the excitement. I took steady breaths and I kept my heart beat start to ease down. This had been one tiring day, so much traveling and fighting, it was enough to run a normal person down. Luckily for me, I wasn't exactly normal. After gathering back my strength, I got up and opened the door to the car in front of me and started making my way back to the engine car.

I would say it was smooth sailing from here, but I knew very well that it wasn't. There was still the fact that the train wouldn't stop and we still had to deal with Moneybaggs if we managed to get off this thing.

Meanwhile: Appleloosa

While the ponies continued their average daily activities in town, Moneybaggs poked his head out from behind one of the buildings as he snickered evilly. "Haha…Its almost too easy foolin' these chumps." He said before he scooped up some sandy dirt in his hoof and started rubbing it against his suit to make it look all dirty.

Moneybaggs kept doing this until he was in a mess that would make Rarity faint at the very sight of it. He raised one of his arms before he gripped a piece of his sleeve with his teeth and tarred it off, leaving a large hole in the sleeve. The next thing Moneybaggs did was raise his hoof before he hit himself across the face with it, leaving a large bruise on his cheek.

Once he looked the part, Moneybaggs started to fake-limp into the town. "Help…somepony…help me." he said while panting, like he was too weak to even stand. Eventually, these cries for help got the attention of some of the ponies and they rushed over to help.

While this was happening, Applejack and Discord came out of the saloon and saw something was going on. "What's goin' on?" Applejack asked as she watched ponies gather around something.

"I'll check it out." Discord said. With his feet still on the ground, Discord's body stretched up high in the sky. He then grabbed one of his eyes and stretched it out until it was as long as a telescope and looked down at the commotion. Upon seeing Moneybaggs in the centre of all the ponies, Discord gasped before he pushed his eye back in his head before his body lowered back down until he was at his usual height. "Its that Moneybaggs guy, he's back!" he said.

Applejack was surprised by this. "What? But we saw him get taken away by those coyotes! How could he be back?" she asked, wondering what could've happened.

"Well I didn't get a good look, but I'd say he got away from them." Discord said before he returned his attention to the crowd of ponies. "But if you want to ask him yourself, feel free to." he said.

Applejack then also looked over to the crowd before she decided to do just that. She and Discord made their way over to the crowd before they started to walk through it. "Excuse me…pardon…" Applejack said as she walked through the crowd.

Eventually they made it through the crowd and saw the state Moneybaggs was in. "It was horrible…those coyotes took me half way across the desert and tried to eat me." he said to a pony standing in front of him before he noticed Applejack. "Applejack! Thank goodness you're ok. I was worried those vicious mutts hurt ya." He said, sounding like he was truly concerned.

Applejack stared at him with a raised eye-brow. "Urr…yeah, I'm fine…but how did ya get away from those coyotes?" she asked curiously.

"An excellent question." Discord said before he snapped his fingers. In a flash of light, Moneybaggs was lying on a therapist bed-chair and Discord sat beside him with a pencil and a note-pad. "Now, tell me what happened out there, and remember…you're in a safe place." He said in a soft voice.

Moneybaggs rolled his eyes before he decided to play along. "Well…those coyotes took my out far into the desert before they stopped to make camp. They were talking about eatin' me, but I managed to get free of my ropes and get away." He explained, hoping they'd believe his tall tale.

"Uh-huh…very interesting." Discord said while writing something on the note-pad. Although, he wasn't really writing, he was playing Xs and Os…and losing. Discord snapped his fingers again before everything disappeared. "Your story checks out." He said with a simple smile.

Applejack stepped forward towards Moneybaggs. "They went through an awful lot of trouble just to get somethin' to eat, are ya sure that's what they wanted ya for?" she asked, feeling something was out of place.

Moneybaggs chuckled nervously as his eyes shifted left and right. "What do ya mean? What else would they want me for? This was just a random act of savagery, nothin' else." He said before he pretended to flinch in pain. "Now can ya be a dear and take me to the doctor? My hoof is in mighty pain." He said while lifting his presumably hurt hoof.

Applejack still felt like there was something wrong, but if Moneybaggs was really hurt, she couldn't just stand by and keep asking question. "*Sigh*…come on." she said while using her hoof to motion him to follow her.

With that, Applejack led Moneybaggs out of the crowd and down the street to take him to the doctor's office.

Meanwhile: Train

As the train continued to speed across the desert at a rapid speed, Braeburn did his best to try and cool down the engine, but it was a hopeless effort, especially since he was using his hat to try and fan it. "Aren't these trains supposed to have water or somethin'?" Braeburn asked as he kept fanning.

"I don't think that's doing much, buddy." I said as I paced back and forth around the car. "How long now until we reach Appleloosa?" I asked, beginning to get nervous about all this.

"It shouldn't be too far now." Braeburn said before he placed his hat back on his head and walked over to the window. "Hey! I think I can see the town comin' up!" Braeburn said as he looked out the window and saw the town coming up.

"Thank Celestia, I thought we were never getting off this damn thing." I said as I walked over to him to look at the window with him. Indeed, I could see the town getting closer. But soon something else caught my attention. We weren't going straight towards the town, the tracks leading to the town were going in a different direction than we were heading in. "Is there a turn or something?" I asked curiously.

"Oh yeah, there is. Don't worry, there's no different tracks we need to change, it's just one turn but it's kinda…." Braeburn stopped talking before his eyes widened in fear. "Sharp." He finished before he quickly poked his head out the window again and looked down at the tracks ahead.

I did the same and saw the turn up ahead, it was very sharp like he said, like it was a sudden turn that no one would expect while in the passenger seats. "This is bad, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah…it is." Braeburn said, not sugar-coating the answer. "Usually, any train can go along just fine. But at this speed, we'll never make it…the train's gonna jump the tracks!" he said before he went back into the car.

I pulled my head back in before I watched him start to panic. "Braeburn, we have to stay calm, we knew something like this could happen." I said as I walked over to him to try and calm him down.

"Stay calm? Stay calm?!" Braeburn yelled as he looked at me with wide eyes. "I can't stay calm, we're gonna just the tracks! We might get killed! Or worse! I can't die here, I need to…I need to…" he said as he began to panic more.

I listened to this for a moment before I slapped him across the face with my hoof. "Get a hold of yourself!" I yelled to him. "Now listen, you know how to deal with this kind of thing, now try to think of a way to get us out of this mess." I said, trying to get him in the right state of mind.

Braeburn rubbed the cheek I slapped with my hoof before he finally got his right mind back. Once he did, he looked at me with a firm face. "Ok…ok, first…we'll need to disconnect the rest of the cars from this one, we may not be able to stop this engine, but we can keep it from makin' a bigger mess. Then we can either jump or hold on and go along with the crash. Either way, we're not getting' out of it unscratched." He said.

I gave this some thought as well, either option seemed dangerous. If we jumped from the train, the landing could really hurt us. But if we went along with the crash, we could break something or get even more hurt. "I guess…jumping is the better option." I said.

With that, Braeburn nodded before he turned to face the window. "Ok, go detach the other cars from this one." He said as he pointed his hoof at the doors. "I'll stay here and try to get rid of some of the broken glass around this window." He said as he walked over to the window and used a piece of coal to knock off the broken fragments of glass around it.

I nodded and made my way out of the car until I was standing on the platform between this car and the next. I knew, underneath this platform, was two hooks that connected these cars together. I looked around for anything that would detach them until I saw a small lever on the side of the wall. "Well, here goes." I said before I grabbed the lever and pulled it.

There was a loud metal-y clank until I could see the car in front of me start to move away along with the rest of the cars behind it. As the engine car kept going, the other cars slowed down and were left behind.

Once that was done, I went back into the engine car and saw Braeburn had finished getting rid of all the glass. "Ok…I hope you're ready for this." Braeburn said as he turned his head around to look over to me.

I walked over to him and smirked. "I've had worse…can't say I ever jumped off a moving train before though." I said as I stood in front of the window and prepared to leap out of it.

"First time for everythin', right?" Braeburn said, returning my smirk before he looked up at the window. "Ok…on three, we jump…one…two…three!" he yelled before he leaped forward and dove out the window.

As soon as he made it clear out the window, I flapped my wings once to help me leap forward and jumped straight out the window. I felt the strange air blow me down and down towards the ground before I crashed hard into it, I tumbled against the sandy surface as I slowed down and came to a stop. I laid there for a moment before I slowly got up and rubbed my head with my hoof. I looked over to the train engine and watched as it reached the turn on the tracks.

The jumped the tracks roughly and skidded across the sand until it slowed down and then fell over onto its side. From there, it didn't look so bad…until it blew up on the inside. "Holy crap…" I said to myself as I saw a big cloud of smoke rise up from it.

"Looks like jumpin' was the best idea." A voice said behind me. I turned my head around and saw Braeburn walk over to me. He looked a bit dirty and bruised, his hat was a little torn, but he looked fine. "You ok?" he asked.

"Never better." I said before I slowly got up onto my hooves and stumbled a little. "So…ready to take on Moneybaggs?" I asked as I looked down the tracks towards Appleloosa.

"I've been ready since this whole thing started." Braeburn said while glaring at the town.

With that, we both started to make our short journey towards the town. We were pretty beaten and bruised, but we had come too far to not finish this.

A few minutes later: Appleloosa

Braeburn and I continued to weakly walk as we finally made it to the streets on Appleloosa, we both had the same goal in mind, to take down Moneybaggs and end this whole thing. As we walked through the streets, some ponies noticed us and wondered what happened. One of the ponies watched us for a second before they ran off towards the Sheriff's office.

Within the Sheriff's office, Applejack sat behind Silver Star's desk while Moneybaggs sat on the other side. "The doctor said I didn't have any damage, but I should take it easy from now on." he said while looking down at his hoof before turning his attention to Applejack. "But now, what are ya gonna do about these coyotes? By now, ya must see that somethin' needs to be done." He said.

"Moneybaggs, I know ya went through a lot out there, but I'm just a step-in until Silver Star gets back, I can't really make those kind of decisions." She stated.

"Oh." Moneybaggs said before looking back down at his desk. "I just figured ya for the…strong leader type…but I've been wrong before." He said, making Applejack feel a little unconfident with herself.

At that moment, the pony burst through the flapping doors and looked over to Applejack. "Applejack! Braeburn and that Matthew guy just got back! They look like they're in bad shape!" he said.

Upon hearing that, Applejack gasped and sprung out of her seat while Moneybaggs was left a little shifted by it. He knew that we knew his secret and threat we were most likely here to call him out.

Applejack and the pony left the office and looked down the street to see me and Braeburn limp through the streets. She gasped at the sight of the mess we were in and quickly came over to us. "Matt! Braeburn!" she said before she skidded to a stop in front of us and quickly wrapped both her arms around our necks to pull us into a tight hug.

However, due to the bruising we had suffered, her hug was a little more painful than pleasant. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Applejack!" I said as I tried to gently pull away.

Hearing me in pain, Applejack quickly released us and stepped away. "Sorry." She said before she gave us a concerned look. "What happened to ya both? Ya look terrible!" she said.

"We'll get to that later, right now we need to know where Moneybaggs is." I said. All this commotion was getting the attention of more ponies as they began to gather around and watch us.

Applejack was about to answer until Moneybaggs stepped forward. "I'm right here, son…something wrong?" he asked, playing innocent.

Upon seeing him, Braeburn and I glared hard. "Figured you'd be more surprised to see us, Moneybaggs…considering the mess and trouble you left us in." I said, not taking my eyes of his bandit.

Applejack was a little confused by this before she took a step closer. "Matt, what's goin' on?" she asked curiously.

Braeburn then turned his head to face Applejack and gave her a soft look. "Applejack, Moneybaggs has been in league with Yodellin' Sam and the coyotes from the start. He's behind this whole thing!" he said while pointing his hoof at Moneybaggs.

"Nonsense!" Moneybaggs yelled while stomping his hoof on the ground. "That's a dirty lie! I was just kidnapped by a bunch of coyotes! Why would they do that if I was in league with them?" he asked, acting offended.

I stepped forward. "Because you wanted to check up on all the ponies you captured in Rattlesnake Rock! Once you were done, you left to come back here! Probably with some crazy story about breaking free or something." I said, telling everyone around what I saw.

"Do ya have any proof that it was me there? Or do we just have to take your word for it?" Moneybaggs asked while giving us both a harsh glare.

"We don't need proof because it's the truth." Braeburn said before he turned to face the other ponies. "Everypony, ya know me, ya know I'd never lie to ya about stuff like this. You've always believed me, but know I need ya to believe me when I say this stallion is a bandit trying to play this town for a fool. He set up that whole attack on the mine to draw more ponies out into the desert so Sam and those coyotes could take us away. They were plannin' on takin' all the ponies they taken to a mountain full of dragons where they could sell them for gems!" he said strongly.

"I would never do such a thing! This is all words and no proof! Ya can't just come into town and start pointing hooves at whoever ya want!" Moneybaggs said angrily as he walked over to him.

Braeburn ignored him and kept speaking. "He told me this himself! And if Sheriff Silver Star was here, he'd tell ya the same!" he said in a loud tone.

"Well he's not here, so I guess you and your friend are alone in this little argument." Moneybaggs said, giving him a smart-ass smirk.

"But I am here!" a voice said behind the crowd, we all looked to where it came from and saw Silver Star, the deputies, the rest of the posy, Strongheart and all the other ponies from Rattlesnake Rock coming up the street. "And I can tell ya all right now that this guy is the crook we've been lookin' for! Sam was just the rustler, but this guy was the brain behind it all." Silver Star said while pointing his hoof at Moneybaggs. "And these guys are more than willing to testify." He said before looking behind him and nodding to some ponies.

With that, both Gragg and Skav were thrown forward, tied up tightly so they couldn't move. "Hey! I told ya what ya wanted to know. Moneybaggs made us do it! J-Just don't put us away, I've been in jail before, almost all my fur fell out last time." Skav said in fight at the thought of being locked up.

"Turns out all it took was a little threat of being locked up for a life-time to get this mutts tongue wagging." Strongheart said with a smirk.

The crowd began to chat among themselves as they all stared at Moneybaggs, wondering how he'd react. Knowing his cover was pretty much blow, Moneybaggs reacted by quickly grabbing Applejack and holding her in a held-lock. "Don't move! No-pony move! Or the girl gets it!" he said.

While the crowd gasped, Braeburn and I got ready to fight until his grip on Applejack's neck tightened. "I said don't move!" he warned aggressively.

Braeburn and I stopped where I was and watched as Moneybaggs started to back away with Moneybaggs in his grasp. "That's good…now I'm gettin' outta here and this little apple is comin' with me for insurance." He said.

Applejack grunted as she tried to break free. "Ya think I won't fight back, ya varmint?" she said before she tried to struggle free.

Moneybaggs continued to back away as he struggled to keep hold of her. "Lively one, ain't ya? Don't worry, I'll teach ya some manners when we get…" he then stopped as his back hit something hard, he slowly turned his head around to see Discord standing right behind him.

Discord glared sharply down at Moneybaggs with his arms crossed. "You're not going anywhere with my friend." He growled.

While Moneybaggs was intimidated by Discord's approach, Applejack took this chance to stomp one of her hooves down on Moneybaggs' and he yelped in pain as he was forced to release her. While he was focused on his injured hoof, Applejack quickly bucked him in the chest with her hind-hooves and he was smacked against Discord's body.

Discord also took this chance to snap his fingers and an anvil appeared above Moneybaggs' head, which then dropped down on top of his head and sent him in a daze. "Urr…tarnation…" Moneybaggs groaned in a daze before he fell down to the floor unconscious.

Once he was done, everyone relaxed and I walked over to Applejack and Discord. "Wow…that was one way to do it." I said before I looked up at Discord. "Good job, Discord." I said while giving him a small smile.

Discord waved his head. "Oh it was nothing, I've actually been wanting to do that to somepony for some time." He said before he looked down at Moneybaggs. "Besides…I felt there was something off about him." he said while giving Moneybaggs a hard glare.

"So did I…" Applejack started. "That story about escapin' from the coyotes didn't fit right…but I had no idea it meant he was involved in this whole thing." she said.

"Well…its over now." I said before I turned around to face Braeburn. "Looks like we did it buddy." I said, giving him a small smile.

"Yeah, I guess we did." Braeburn said while returning the smile.

Braeburn and I both took a step close to each other and shared a hoof-bump. Seeing this, Applejack smile warmly. "Hey, since when did you two become friends?" she asked curiously.

Braeburn and I looked at Applejack before I smiled at her. "Lets just say this whole thing has been full of weird stuff." I said before I looked at Braeburn. "Which mostly involved us helping each other and realizing its better to work together than apart." I said.

Braeburn returned the smile and it felt like a touching friendly moment, until Discord appeared between us. "So you two had a bonding adventure without me? Oh, I feel hurt…this is so unfair, why am I even here anyway?" he said in a huff while crossing his arms.

I rolled my eyes at this before I looked up at Discord. "Because you're bound to me, Discord…Princess Celestia wanted you to stay with me at all times, remember?" I said, trying to jog his memory.

Discord was silent for a moment before he spoke. "Well…still. I want to be on adventures too, but instead I was stuck here looking after the town, I've never been so board in my whole life." he said as he began to ramble.

We stood there listening to Discord's complaining for the last few minutes until we decided to start rounding up the rest of the bandits and finally put all this to rest. It was all finally over, no more ponies would suffer the fate Moneybaggs had planned for them. The pony rustler bandits where finally gone and the West could be at piece.

That night: Saloon

After defeating Moneybaggs, Braeburn and I told Silver Star where he could find the remains of the train where Fleet and Sam where locked up. It didn't take them long to find them, and with all the bandits rounded it, they were sent off in a prison carriage to a jail far from here.

Once that was done, the town rejoiced as the terror Moneybaggs and his bandits caused were finally over, even some of the ponies that were taken from other towns stayed to join the celebration. They partied, they sang, square-danced. But most of the partying happened in the saloon. Everyone was drinking Cider, including Silver Star. Attractive saloon-gals danced on the stage and everyone was having a good time.

Braeburn and I sat by the bar as we both had a cider in our hooves. All night, we had ponies come up and say thanks for dealing with Moneybaggs and the other, Applejack and Discord were getting some praise too. I lifted my cup up and taken a big sip before I dropped it down. "I have to tell ya, Matt, I don't think I'm used to bein' thought of as a hero." Braeburn said as he took a sip of his drink.

"Trust me, its not something your get used to…but it makes you feel like you've done something right and you've helped a lot of people by doing it, that's what matters." I said before taking another sip of my drink.

"Yeah." Braeburn said before he wiped the cider foam off his mouth.

At that moment, Strongheart came up beside Braeburn and placed her hoof on his shoulder, getting his attention. "Hey Braeburn, I was thinking maybe…later…we could dance or something…what do you think?" she asked with a small slightly embarrassed smile.

Braeburn blushed a little at this before he gulped and nodded. "Yeah…sure Strongheart, I'll be do that." He said.

"Cool, I'll be waiting." Strongheart said before she walked away backwards, which led to her awkwardly stumbling over a stool leg. "Oh…sorry…didn't see that there." she said as she turned around and fast-walked away.

Once she was gone, Braeburn turned to face me and saw the smirk on my face, receiving a blush from him. "Looks like you helped save the land and you got the girl, now you really are a hero." I said while taking a sip of my drink.

Braeburn rubbed the back of his head with his hoof. "Yeah…by the way, I never got to say thank you…ya know…for coming after me. Celestia knows where I'd be now if it weren't for you and Strongheart." He said with a kind smile.

I put the cup down and returned his smile. "Well…what are friends for?" I said. With that, we both raised our cups and carefully clonked them together before we both took a big sip to empty them.

In that moment, the music playing from the stage stopped. Braeburn and I turned around to see Silver Star on stage as he walked up to a microphone and spoke. "Howdy Appleloosa! I'm pleased to announce that the terror of the Pony Rustlers is finally over!" he said, getting a loud cheer from the crowd before he continued. "But we have a few folks to thank for this great day. First off, I would like to thank Applejack and Discord for personally takin' care of the town during my absence." He said.

Everyone looked over to Applejack and Discord as they gave them a good cheer. Applejack waved humbly as a spotlight shined down on Discord, he was holding a small golden stature of himself like an award while blowing kisses to the crowd. "You love me! You really love me!" he said while getting teary eyed.

Silver Star cleared his throat before he continued. "Then I have to thank Little Strongheart who save all the trapped ponies that the rustlers kidnapped in the past and brought then safely here." he said.

Everyone looked at Strongheart and cheered while she shyly rubbed her hoof against the floor.

"And lastly." Silver Star continued. "I would like to thank the two ponies who made off of this possible, the two who took out the bandits and identified Moneybaggs as the boss behind it. Matthew and our very own Braeburn." He said.

With that, everyone looked at us and cheer. Braeburn waved while I lifted my cup to the crowd.

"You two, come on up here so I could thank ya properly." Silver Star said.

Doing as he said, Braeburn and I got off our stools and went over to the stage. Once we reached it, Braeburn and I went up onto it and the crowd cheered again before the Silver Star looked at us and spoke. "Matt, Braeburn, no words can tell ya how grateful we are for all ya did to help us get rid of those rustlers. All the ponies who were taken are indebted to ya, ya saved them from a horrible fate and they owe ya their lives…" Silver Star said before taking off his hat and holding it against his chest. "As do I…so I'm rewardin' ya both with the Appleloosa medal of honour." He said before looking back at his deputies and nodding.

With that, the deputies came over with golden medals in their mouths before they placed them gently over our heads until they dangled around our necks. "Awesome." I said as I lifted the medal up and read the engraving on it. "Appleloosa hero of honour."

The crowd cheered again as the spotlights shined down on us. Braeburn and I waved as we smiled at everyone. "So this is what its like after you've beaten folks like those Alicorns?" Braeburn asked while keeping his eyes on the crowd.

"Pretty much." I said as I kept waving.

As the crowd began to calm down, there was a flash of light in front of each of us and two microphones on stands appeared in front of us. I looked over to Discord to see he was giving me a thumbs up before he disappeared in a flash of light. In another, he appeared behind us along with a few other ponies with country-based musical instruments. He gave me a large grim before he started playing the banjo.

As the tune started to kick up, Braeburn and I looked at each other and smiled before our bodies started to move to the tune. When the time was right, Braeburn started the song off.

Braeburn: "There's a moment in this journey that I gave up…my hooves just could walk another mile…

And that cloud above me had no silver linin'…I couldn't buy a break with my last dime…

Oh but when I saw you standin' in the corner…I'da never thought that you would have my back…

Then we rolled in like the thunder and the lightnin'…threw some punches then we had a laugh…

Just some rooooooghed up desperados…

Hangin' toooooough through thick and thin…

Kickin' up duuuuuust wherever we go…

I can see that you and me are gonna be friends."

Me: "Who'da thought we'd wind up here together…its crazy that we're standin' side by side…

Fightin' just like two birds of a feather…who's gonna tell us now that we can't fly?...

Just some rooooooghed up desperados…

Hangin' toooooough through thick and thin…

Kickin' up duuuuuust wherever we go…

I can see that you and me are gonna be friends

To the end, you and me are gonna be friends."

Discord then started playing his banjo like a guitar, which was odd. But knowing Discord, nothing made sense.

Braeburn: "Here we go!...Hey, hey, you and me, different as different can be."

Me: "You like to rock, I like to roll."

Braeburn: "You take the high, I'll take the low!"

Me: "Whow…whow-oh (whow-oh) Whooow, whooow-oooh."

Braeburn: "Just some rooooooghed up desperados…"

Me: "Hangin' toooooough through thick and thin…(With Braeburn) Kickin' up duuuuuust wherever we go…

I can see that you and me are gonna be friends…

To the end, you and me are gonna be friends…

I can see that you and me are gonna be friends…yeah…"

As the singing came to an end, the music behind us soon followed and the crowd cheered as the song came to an end. Braeburn and I smiled at them as we once again waved at the crowd.

Applejack smiled warmly as she watched us finally getting along. All the while, Discord looked confused. "But I don't understand, how can they suddenly become friends? Braeburn despised Matt just the other day." he said.

Applejack turned her head to face him and looked up at Discord. "It was just a little misunderstandin', Discord. Just because they have a little disagreement doesn't mean they have to be enemies. Like you and Celestia for example, you two didn't see eye-to-eye at some point, but now your friends…I know it's a bit complicated right now, but I don't think she's holding a grudge." She said.

Discord was silent as he crossed his arms. "This friendship thing is more complicated than I thought…and I thought it was me who didn't make sense." He said as he and Applejack continued to watch us on stage, taking in all the cheers from the crowd.

The next day: Ponyville train station

After spending another night in Appleloosa, we all agreed it was finally time to return home. We all wished Braeburn the best before we boarded the train and left to head home.

With all that's happened, I swore to myself to that I would stay off a train for at least a month. All the moving and bouncing on the tracks was really starting to make me sickly. I was relieved when we finally returned to Ponyville, I could finally go to my real home and see Twilight again.

As we left our seats and made our way down the car, Applejack walked up beside me. "Ya know, the folks of Appleloosa aren't the only ones who grateful to ya, Matt…I love Appleloosa like it was another home to me. Ya saved all those ponies and got rid of a great threat to it, I really owe ya one for that." She said with a kind smile.

I looked at her and smiled kindly. "No you don't, I don't do it for favours, I do it because I want to help. I mean, yeah, all the cuts and bruises I could've lived without…but I couldn't let all those ponies get made into dragon slaves." I said as we approached the exit to get off the train.

"I know, and…I'm glad I took ya there. I just wish that…ya didn't have to go through this sort of stuff all the time. Ya may be strong, but you're some kind of crash-test dummy. None of us want ya getting' hurt." Applejack said while giving me a concerned look.

I stepped off the train and onto the station platform as I turned around to face her. "I know Applejack, but I guess these things just happen from time to time…its just weird how I'm always there when it does." I said.

Applejack was silent as she stepped off the train and joined me on the station platform. Unlike the rest of us, Discord didn't follow the path to the exit. Instead, he walked through the wall of the train and onto the station floor. "Ahh, that's better." he said as he stretched his arms out.

As the train began to start up and move along the tracks to leave, I soon noticed a group of ponies rushing over to the station. Applejack and I watched them get closer until we could identify them as the rest of the Mane 6. I was overwhelmed to see Twilight again, but the concerned look on her face had be a little worried.

My smile went away and I started rushing over to her until I stopped in front of them. "Twi, is everything ok?" I asked, wondering what was wrong.

Twilight was about to speak until Pinkie sprung up in front of me with a panicking face. "Matt! It's horrible! I mean, it's not horrible, its actually really, really great, but we need to hurry and get over there like right now!" she said impatiently before she leaped in the air and shot away like a bullet.

After that, I shook off whatever that was and returned my attention to Twilight. "Twi, what's wrong?" I asked before I looked down at her belly. "Twi…is it time?..." I asked, feeling that this could finally be it.

Twilight shook her head. "No…at least, not for me." she said while placing her hoof on her belly.

I was confused by this before Rainbow hovered above me. "Its Mrs Cake, she's at the hospital going into labour! Mr Cake is already there, but he's not doing so good." she explained.

"We were on our way there, but then we saw the train and decided to come get you two so we could see them together." Fluttershy said with a small smile.

Applejack and I went wide-eyed at this. "For real? Mrs Cake is finally giving birth?! God, we have to get over there!" I said in a slightly loud tone.

"Well what are we waiting for then?" Rainbow said before she spun around and shot off in the air towards the hospital.

As we were about to set off, Discord appeared in front of me. "So I guess you wouldn't want me to come along, my face would probably give the little one nightmares, not really something it should go through on its first day." he said while tapping both his index fingers together with his ears down.

I thought about this for a moment before I sighed. "If you behave yourself and stay a good distance away from the baby, you can come." I said, giving his strict instructions.

Discord smiled brightly at this before he picked me up and hugged me. "Oh thank you Matthew, you won't regret this, I promise." He said before he released me and I dropped to the ground hard. "Hey, maybe this could be practise for me. I need to learn to become a good godfather after all." He said.

I got up and looked up at him firmly. "I don't think Mr and Mrs Cake would like that very much. Just stick to being a godfather to our kid, ok?" I said.

Discord's smile went away as he crossed his arms. "Fine…" he said before pouting his lip.

Suddenly, Pinkie zipped back between us all with a slightly annoyed look. "Urr…maybe I didn't make it clear. Mr and Mrs Cake, baby, hospital, RIGHT NOW!" She yelled before shooting off again.

With that, we all started to gallop our way to the Ponyville hospital, eager to see the Cakes and they're baby. Me and Fluttershy could've easily flown there, but Fluttershy wanted to stay while us while I wanted to stay close to Twilight.

This was defiantly a surprise to come back to, but I wondered why Twilight didn't ask about the trip or what happened to get me the medal around my neck, its like she didn't notice. But I suppose her mind was too set on this at the moment, which I could understand perfectly. Oh well, I guess it would have to be a story for later on.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Well that's it for a bit, I'll be heading off to New York by the time you read this part and then heading to Baltimare…I mean, Baltimore from the BronyCon convention. I'll only be going on Saturday. I know I'll probably see at least one friend there, but I hope to see many others.

The she song I used in this chapter is called "Friends" from the "Angry Birds Movie". I don't own anything.

-Pony News-

Season 6 DVD has been announced and released onto Amazon, I'm planning on ordering my copy when I get back. I know, you're probably all like "You're going to BronyCon, just get it there, you stupid idiot!" Well even though it would be nice, I like to think ordering them off Amazon is traditional for me. I got the first 5 seasons of Amazon. Besides, I doubt it'll be there, it came out too soon.

Speaking of DVD news, I think those three EG specials are now available on DVD on Amazon as well. I'm planning on watching them online before I get them though, even though I'll probably get them whether I like them or not. That's what a true fan does, happy with what he's given if he likes it or not, be it a bad episode or a bad movie.

Also, the MLP movie DVD is expected to release in 2018 along with an EG YouTube series. I know, I was pretty shook up when I first heard it, but I'm good with it being a YouTube series.

As for Season 8, musical numbers have already been recorded for it and here's what to expect from it. More reformed Changelings and more Yaks.

-End of Pony News-

-Poll-

As I said, I'm not sure whether to reveal Shadow in this story or the next, but maybe you guys can help me make a decision. Should I reveal Shadow in this story or the sequel?

1: Reveal her now!

2: Save her!

Go to my profile to vote now.

Please remember to review and PM.

The next chapter will be up as soon as possible.