I sat patiently on the couch as Sunny flittered around me, double-checking my bandages. It had been a week since I had returned home from the hospital. I still had bruises across my skin, but the only part of my body that still needed to be bandaged was my chest, hands and face. The cuts and scratches across my arms and legs were just little white lines scattered across my skin.

“Are you sure that you're okay?” Sunny asked, checking the bandages over my right eye again. “No pain or discomfort anywhere?” I shook my head, smiling weakly at the pegasus. Despite the fact that there were no complications arising from my injuries so far, she still fretted over the little things. She was hellbent on making sure that nothing went wrong during my recovery, believing that everything that had happened to me was, in some way, her fault. I had tried to explain to her several times that it was in no way her fault that I had been kidnapped, but she had insisted that if she hadn't left me alone outside, it would have never happened. After the third day of this standoff, I gave up and simply let Sunny tend to me.

“You sure you're going to be fine for the day?” she asked for the umpteenth time, her wings fluttering nervously at her sides. I nodded my head, chuckling softly at her antics. Satisfied with her work, Sunny backed up, allowing me to get up off the couch. Standing, I stretched, making my back pop several times. Rolling my shoulders to work the stiffness out of them, I turned and looked at Twilight, who was standing by the front door, watching us. She shot me a quick smile when she saw I was looking.

~What's the plan for the day, boss?~ I asked, before picking my shirt up off of the coffee table and hanging it over my shoulder.

“Well, Sunny and I are heading to the guardhouse to question some of the ponies we captured at the warehouse. Normally this would be taken care of by the guards, but I asked to be the one to question their leader. It’s personal,” she added, upon seeing my look of confusion. “Once that's done, they'll be transferring the prisoners to Canterlot for trial.” She adjusted the straps of her saddlebags. “It'll probably take most of the day, so we'll be home around the evening, hopefully in time for dinner.” Casting one last glance at me, Sunny turned and trotted over to stand by Twilight. She picked up her own saddlebags that were resting beside the door, placed them on her back, and buckled them into place.

“You'll be on your own,” Twilight continued, a hint of uneasiness in her voice. “Are you going to be okay with that, or should I ask one of the girls to come over to hang out with you?”

~Twilight, I'll be fine~ I signed, slightly annoyed. ~I doubt that anything bad is going to happen while you're gone~

“You say that, but look at what happened last time,” Sunny said, double-checking her bags. I snorted, crossing my arms and looking away. One bad thing happens, and one mental breakdown, and they act like I’m helpless. I’m not a baby. I knew that I should feel thankful and appreciative of their concern, but it was just so annoying at the moment.

“Just promise me you'll take things easy,” Twilight said, grasping the door handle in her magic.

~I promise~ I signed, rolling my eyes. With that, the two mares left the library, closing the door behind them. I stood there for several minutes, drumming my fingers on my legs as I tried to enjoy the silence. It soon became too much, however, and I grew restless.

Alright, I've been stuck in this library for too long. Time to get out and blow the stick off of me, I thought, cracking my knuckles. Heading up the stairs, I made my way towards the couch that also doubled as my bed. Tossing my shirt onto the cushions, I began fishing around behind it. Finding what I was looking for, I quickly pulled out my own bag.

The lack of pockets on my pants had frustrated me to no end, so I finally broke down and designed my own way to carry things. I had made the bag using a belt I had “found” one day when wandering around Ponyville (if Rarity asks, I was nowhere near her shop at the time). Combining it with a small bag that Twilight no longer had a use for, I had made something that roughly resembled a miniature backpack, only in reverse. Instead of going on my back, it sat comfortably on my stomach and was easy to reach, even with a shirt on.

Strapping it on carefully due to my injuries, I picked up a small notebook and a small stick of charcoal that sat beside the couch. Charcoal was messy, but it beat having to deal with ink splotches and the possibility of ruining my notebooks with it. Seriously, I think I ruined at least five notebooks before I got comfortable with using a goddamn quill, and even now I still have issues sometimes.

Making sure not to mark the notebook with the charcoal accidentally, I placed them into the bag. Once I was sure that they were secure, I picked my shirt back up and pulled it over my head. With that, the bag was hidden from view, although it caused my shirt to bulge slightly. Not that anyone would probably notice. My next stop was the kitchen, where some bits of cheese wrapped in paper, a couple of apples, and some bread joined the other things in the bag. Satisfied that I had everything that I would need, I walked out of the kitchen and into the library. Taking one last look around, I opened the front door and headed out into town.

I sat there, staring at the naked human in front of me. He just stared back at me, head tilted slightly to the side. He was slightly smaller than me, with short black hair on the top of his head. He had stubble on his cheeks, and thick eyebrows above his hazel eyes. We were both sitting outside of one of the stores in the marketplace. I had found him tied to one of the hitching posts and thought that he would work for what I had planned, as long as his owner didn’t return before I was finished.

After my realization from talking with Fluttershy, I hadn’t been able to sleep for the next two nights. The fact that I had seen the red-haired girl crying, combined with the fact that Fluttershy said she had never seen a human cry before, could only mean one of two things: either the girl was from Equestria and just happened to be intelligent like me, or she was originally from Earth as well, and stranded in Equestria like I was.

Either way, she took her secrets with her to the grave when I—unfortunately— was forced to kill her. I tried to convince myself that it had been an act of self-defense, but I couldn’t get past the fact that I had possibly killed another intelligent human (which had led to another mental breakdown. Twilight had to cast a calming spell to relax me, and even that didn’t help much).

After eventually calming down enough to think rationally, I had decided to try and understand my fellow humans better, as well as the strange interest that the ponies in Equestria had for them. And if I happened to find intelligent humans along the way, well...that would be a bonus, wouldn’t it? This search would also help settle my growing curiosity as well. There were so many questions that were beginning to pop up the longer I stayed in Equestria, and I was beginning to become frustrated with the lack of answers. For one, was the girl in the pit actually sapient, or was it simply a trick played on me by my dying brain? Were there other humans out there that were intelligent, or was it just me? Could there be other humans from Earth here in Equestria and they were simply stuck like I was, wanting to stay hidden from the local populace? What the hell is up with the humans in Equestria?!

From what I had read in the limited amount of books I could find (seriously, for a race that is completely fascinated with humans, be it rutting them, owning them, or pitting them against each other, ponies don’t have that many books, or information in general, about humans.Your Human and You appeared to be the only “informative” literature about humans that they had, although they seemed to have countless comic books about humans), griffons used humans as livestock, breeding them just for food. They would even hunt “wild” humans as game. In short, they treated them just like any other animal; no exceptions. There were no records of a griffon keeping a human as a pet.

Ponies, however, were different story entirely. They viewed humans more along the lines of dogs and cats, which was odd considering ponies believed that humans were aggressive, dangerous creatures that were prone to acts of violence. Not typically a creature that you wanted living with you, or your foal for that matter. So why the interest in them? What was it about the humans that seemed to draw the ponies to them? And why the hell were most ponies hell bent on rutting one of them?!

Glancing around to make sure no ponies were watching, I reached under my shirt and pulled out the wrapped cheese and bread. The human's eyes widened as he caught sight of what I had. Breaking off a piece of bread, I offered it to him. With a low growl, he snatched the piece of food from me before shoving it in his mouth. I flinched when he lunged for the food, my eye twitching at the sudden movement. As he chewed, he eyed the remainder of the food in my hand with renewed interest. Good, I have his attention. Grabbing a piece of cheese, I held it out to him. He reached out for it, but I pulled back at the last second. He growled at me, but I ignored him. Closing my fist around the cheese, I closed my other hand and presented both of them to him. There was a brief moment of hesitation from him before he reached out and began to try and pry open the hand holding the cheese. I relinquished the morsel to him, and he consumed it quickly.

I grabbed another piece of cheese and did the same thing, but moved the cheese to the opposite hand this time. There was no hesitation as he chose the correct hand. Just to make sure that it wasn’t coincidence, I repeated the process several more times, alternating which hand the cheese was in randomly. He picked the correct hand every single time.

This continued for several minutes until I had run out of cheese. After eating the last piece, the human looked at me expectantly. Holding both my empty hands up, I leaned back and shook my head. His shoulders sagged slightly, and he slumped back against the hitch. I chewed on my cheek as I watched him, absentmindedly rubbing the fingers on my right hand together. Checking again to make sure that no one had taken an interest in what I was doing, I lifted up my shirt to retrieve my notebook and charcoal. The human perked up again as he saw the bag. I smirked slightly at this. Pulling out the notebook, I flipped it open to the next blank page and began to scribble quickly.

The humans of Equestria are somewhat intelligent, enough so that they have object permanence. The subject appears to also have a short term memory: he was able to remember what hand the cheese was in, as well as remember where the food originally came from.

At first, the humans of Equestria appear to be unintelligent, but they can comprehend how to use weapons, as well as how to kill quickly, as shown by the girl choking me, although that could just be instinctive. They also have the ability to be taught how to use tools, as shown from the mining work done around Canterlot [See entry 5 in notebook 3]. There is also the issue of the female showing sorrow from attempting to kill me [See page 15 for discussion w/ Fluttershy re: human tears]. That shows comprehension of one’s actions, as well as understanding the consequences of those actions. These humans might not be as stupid as originally thought. Further testing is needed to see exactly how far their intelligence goes.

After jotting down the specifics of the “test” I had just done, I etched out the date on the bottom of the page before closing it and quickly stowing it back into my hidden bag. After one last, quick glance around to make sure no one saw me, I threw the rest of the bread towards the human before standing. Brushing off my pants, I turned and headed off as the human ate greedily.

Rubbing my bandaged eye, I wandered through the marketplace, with no real destination in mind. I avoided the majority of the crowd, sticking to the edge of the marketplace. While I felt comfortable being by myself outside, I was still wary of the ponies. The kidnapping had heightened my paranoia slightly, and I was constantly looking behind me to make sure that no ponies were tailing me. It also didn’t help that I was still jumping at loud noises.

I glanced at a guardpony that was patrolling the marketplace. He looked back at me and nodded silently, continuing his rounds. I just kept walking, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling welling up inside of me. Twilight had told me that most of the guards had been informed of my unique qualities after the kidnapping incident, and that she had told them to keep an eye on me whenever I was out alone. While they didn’t know any real specific details, they knew that I was a special human that could understand and comprehend ponies (I have a running bet with Spike about what she told them about me. I have 50 bits on her saying that I was an experiment of hers). On one hand, this was good because the guards let me wander around by myself, and they also knew that I wasn’t going to be a problem, so I didn’t have to worry about my actions being interpreted as acts of violence. At least by the guards, that is. Plus, they were ready to defend me if anything happened again. On the other hand, I wasn’t too sure how I felt about the guards knowing I was intelligent. A part of me knew this was completely stupid, and I was being irrationally paranoid, but another part of me, the little voice in the back of my head, kept telling me that the less ponies that knew, the safer I would be.

Shaking my head to clear it, I continued circumnavigating the marketplace. It was nearing lunch time, and luckily I still had the apples left in my bag. Reaching a hand into my shirt, I covertly pulled out one of the apples and took a large bite out of it. Juices ran down my chin as I chewed happily on the delicious fruit. Say anything you want about Applejack, but she knew how to grow some of the best apples that I had ever eaten. As I ate, I continued walking through town. I was too focused on enjoying my apple to notice where I was going, which led to me bumping into a pony. Stumbling, I winced as my right leg twisted suddenly. Rubbing the sore limb, I quickly regained my balance and looked down to see who I had tripped over. I cursed silently as I saw Cheerilee looking up at me with a hint of fear in her eyes. I just stared at her, head tilted to the side, casually chewing the bits of apple still in my mouth.

“G-good boy,” she stuttered, taking a step back. “I d-don't want any trouble.” She’s still worried about me becoming violent? Geez. Huffing, I reached out and jammed the half-eaten apple into her mouth, silencing her. She looked at me in confusion, a blush slowly spreading across her face, but I ignored her. Walking around the mare, I continued on my way, wiping my hands on my pants while finishing chewing the food in my mouth. First she was trying to talk Twilight into letting her “borrow” me for a day or two, and now she’s scared of me. She really needs to make up her mind. Leaving behind Cheerilee, I made my way towards the outskirts of town, limping along.

I had been walking for several minutes before I pulled out another apple. Wiping it on my shirt, I had just sunk my teeth into the fruit when I heard what sounded like someone shouting my name behind me. I stopped walking, confused. After several seconds of silence, I heard it again, this time louder. With the apple still stuck in my mouth, I turned around, looking for the source. My confusion grew as I saw Spike running towards me with three fillies racing behind him. I immediately recognized the fillies as the legendary Cutie Mark Crusaders, three fillies that were working on getting their cutie marks. I had never seen them up close, choosing to avoid them as much as possible, but I had seen their antics from a distance.

As they reached me, Spike collapsed in front of me, breathing heavily. The fillies just stood there, staring up at me in wonder. At least, two of them did. The third, a white unicorn filly, hung back slightly, looking at me timidly.

“This is who we were looking for?” one of the fillies, an orange pegasus named Scootaloo asked, cocking her head to the side. “He’s a human!” Ignoring the girls for now, I returned my attention to Spike. Kneeling down by the panting drake, I poked that back of his head with a finger. When he raised his head to look at me, I cocked my head to the side, an eyebrow raised.

“I’ve been looking everywhere f-for you,” he wheezed, still trying to catch his breath. “W-we need your help.” I tensed slightly as I looked at him with a worried expression. Did something bad happen? Was Twilight and Sunny alright? Spike seemed to notice my worry, as he shook his head and added, “We need you to escort us to Zecora's in the Everfree Forest.” I deadpanned at that. Seriously? They want me to babysit them? I snorted around the apple and stood back up. The unicorn filly flinched slightly as I rose to my full height.

“Spike, why’re ya talkin’ to a human?” the last filly asked, a yellow earth pony with a pink bow in her red mane. Applejack's little sister, Applebloom, if I remember correctly. I grasped the apple and finished taking a bite out of the fruit. Lowering it from my mouth, I chewed slowly as I looked at Spike with a “you've-got-to-be-shitting-me” look.

“Please dude,” he pleaded, looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. “I wouldn’t have come to you if there was another way. We've already asked everypony else, but they're all busy. We just need an adult, and you're as intelligent as anypony here. Besides, the trip isn't that dangerous,” he added, noting my look. I stopped chewing and stared at him incredulously. Reaching into my shirt, I pulled out the notebook and charcoal. Unlike Twilight, Spike was not able to understand hoof-language. He was slowly learning it, but I still had to communicate with him via notebook.

Placing the apple back into my mouth, I quickly scratched out a message. Finishing it, I flipped the notebook around and handed it to the young drake. The fillies' eyes widened at the action.

+The same Everfree that Twilight said was “filled with monsters and I should never, ever go there ever”?+ Spike looked back up at me, grinning sheepishly.

“It's not that bad,” he said, handing the notebook back to me. “Zecora lives right on the edge, so we wouldn't have to go far.” I leaned back on my heels, crossing my arms and glaring at Spike. It probably would have worked better if I didn’t have a half-eaten apple in my mouth. The fillies just stared at us with wide eyes, their jaws on the ground. There would be hell to pay for this later, but I’d deal with that when the time came. Luckily, most ponies tended to ignore the Crusaders most of the time.

“Spike,” Scootaloo said tentatively. “What’s going on here?” Spike flinched and looked over his shoulder at them, chuckled nervously, then turned back to me. I already had my response ready. Handing him the notebook again, I continued eating my apple as I leaned back and sat down on the ground. Spike grasped the notebook in his claws, glancing at what I wrote.

+You dug your own grave with this one. Time to get yourself out+ Spike groaned and hung his head. Dejectedly, he turned back to the Crusaders.

“Well, you see,” he began, shuffling awkwardly in place. “This here is Max. He lives with Twilight and me at the library—”

“We already knew that,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes. “Why are you talking to him, and why,” she leaned in and took a closer look at the notebook, “is he able to respond?”

“Max is, um…” Spike glanced back at me, chewing his lip, “...unique.” I snorted, nearly choking on my apple as I laughed. “He isn’t like other humans. He’s intelligent.” The fillies tilted their heads in confusion. “He can think like a pony!” Spike huffed, crossing his little arms and rolling his eyes. The fillies all gasped at this, and the white unicorn shrank back even further. Their gaze turned to me, their eyes scouring my body. I just sat there, chewing my apple. I should probably be more upset that they now know, I thought, working a piece of apple out from between my teeth with my tongue, but at this point I really don’t care anymore. Applebloom approached me tentatively.

“So, y’all can understand us?” she asked, gazing up at me with bright, orange eyes. After several seconds, I nodded and took another bite of the apple.

“This. Is. Awesome!” Scootaloo cheered, her wings buzzing happily. “Not as awesome as Rainbow Dash, but definitely awesome!” Zipping up to me, the eager, young pegasus held out her hoof, a large smile on her face. “My name is Scootaloo!” Staring at her hoof for several seconds, I slowly reached out a shook it up and down. Her smile widened at that. Applebloom appeared beside her, hoof outstretched as well.

“My name is Applebloom,” she said, giggling slightly as I grabbed hold of her hoof. When I let go, both of them turned and looked at the white unicorn expectantly. She shied back under their gaze, shivering slightly. She squealed loudly when her friends grabbed her legs and pulled her forcibly forward. She gazed up at me with terror in her eyes as her friends draped their legs over her shoulders.

“And this is Sweetie Belle,” they chimed, oblivious to their friend’s fear. “And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, yay!” They then went off on a tangent about different things they have done to try and get their cutie marks, and what they could possibly do with me to get them. I barely registered what they were saying, however. I was too busy staring down at the shivering form of Sweetie Belle before me. Closing my open mouth, which had opened in shock, I swallowed audibly as I looked down at the filly. So this is Rarity’s sister. Leaning forward slowly, as to not spook the scared unicorn, I peered down at her inquisitively.

At a distance she looked fine, but upon closer inspection, I could see the damage that had been done to her. She had pale scars running through her coat, almost unnoticeable against the white fur. The tip of her right ear was tattered slightly, giving it a worn look that had no place on a filly her age. Her eye was the worst though. The left one was bright green and full of life. The right one, on the other hand, was dim and lifeless. The green was dull and there appeared to be a thin, milky film over the entire eye. I felt my stomach tighten at the sight. I had just met her several minutes ago, but I could already tell that the eye was completely useless. I instantly felt my heart go out to the poor filly. No one that young should have to deal with something like that.

“So, are ya gonna take us tah Zecora’s?” Applebloom asked, hopping around me, her shyness forgotten. Blinking, I tore my gaze away from Sweetie Belle. Glancing over at Spike, I stared at him for several seconds, his eyes silently pleading me to agree. Closing my eye, I sighed heavily before opening it again and nodding. Scootaloo and Applebloom cheered happily. Sweetie Belle just whimpered quietly, her ears splayed back. Spike smiled, clapping his hands together. I just sat there, grumbling to myself, my right eye twitching under the bandages.

Twilight sat down slowly in the chair across the table from the chained stallion, her eyes never leaving his face. She held a cup of steaming hot coffee beside her head, grasped firmly in her magic to prevent spillage. Placing a recording crystal down upon the table, she took a sip of the coffee, only to wince as the hot liquid burned her tongue. Placing the cup down gently on the table, she licked her lips to try and clear them.

Glancing at the stallion, she cleared her throat.

His blue eyes flicked up but other than that he didn’t move.

In the silence, Twilight studied the stallion closely. His coat was a dark red color, practically crimson. His black mane hung in front of his face, unkempt and greasy. The horn on his forehead sparked slightly, an inhibitor preventing him from using any magic.

Opening her mouth, Twilight drew breath to speak, but the stallion beat her to it.

“What reason does a princess have,” he asked, a steely tone in his voice, “interrogating a lowly prisoner?” He leaned back slightly in his chair, chains clanking together as he moved. He gave her a contemptuous look. “Last I checked, it wasn’t seemly for a princess to demean herself by talking to the scum of the land.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she managed to keep her composure. Ruffling her wings into a more comfortable position, she cleared her throat again, and spoke.

“When you take something that belongs to me, it becomes my problem,” she said, lifting the coffee to back up to her lips. Blowing softly on the liquid, she took a tentative sip before lowering it back to the table and continuing. “The human, Max, is mine. That means you not only are in trouble for human fighting, illegally selling and acquiring humans, running from the guards, and resisting arrest, but now you also have stealing from royalty on your record.” She raised her eyebrow at the stallion, but he just stared blankly back, no emotion on his face. Twilight waited several seconds before sighing.

Leaning back in her chair, she crossed her forelegs. “You know, this could go a lot better for you if you simply cooperated, Mr.…?”

The stallion’s ear twitched once, his brow furrowing slightly as he glanced off to the side. Other than that, he gave no indication that he was listening. Silence fell over the room for several minutes, neither pony moving.

Taking her eyes off of the stallion, Twilight glanced back over her shoulder. Behind the tinted glass on the wall behind her, she could see Sunny watching, along with several of the guards. Sunny was staring at the stallion, the hatred clear in her eyes as she shook her head slowly.

Turning back to the bound stallion, Twilight sighed again, and proceeded to rise from the chair. Levitating her coffee beside her, she made her way towards the door.

“Well, if you aren’t going to help me, I’m not going to help you. Enjoy your time in Canterlot’s—”

“Darkflare.”

Twilight paused, her hoof on the handle. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked back at the stallion.

“Pardon?” she asked, lowering her hoof slightly, though she still remained by the door.

“My name,” he growled through clenched teeth, “is Darkflare.”

Turning, Twilight walked slowly back to the table, letting a small smirk gradually spread across her face.

“There,” she cooed, setting her coffee back down on the table. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Darkflare grumbled under his breath, refusing to meet her eye. Adjusting the recording crystal slightly, she smiled at the stallion. “This should go a lot more smoothly now, and your punishment might not be as severe. Now with your help, we can wrap this whole thing up quickly and—” she stopped as Darkflare began chuckling to himself. Twilight’s ears flicked once, a confused look flashing across her face for only a second. The dark chuckle slowly grew into a laugh that chilled her blood.

When Darkflare finally looked at her, his eyes flashed, the smirk still growing on his face.

“You seriously think this whole thing is over?” he asked, the dark mirth evident in his voice. Lifting up his bound hooves, he placed them on the table with a loud ‘clack’.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as he continued to laugh.

“We have you,” she replied, her voice neutral. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. “And we have somepony who can confirm that you are the leader of the gang, so I’m fairly certain it’s over.”

“It’s not over,” Darkflare laughed. The cold smile on his face was really starting to creep Twilight out. There was no warmth in it whatsoever. It was that kind of smile that shouldn’t ever be a smile. “Unfortunately for you, this is simply the beginning.”

“Beginning of what, exactly?” she asked, her voice sounding strained. She cursed silently, not wanting to let him win this battle of wits.

“There’s something big brewing in Equestria,” Darkflare said, idly studying one of his hooves. The horrid smile was still on his face.

Twilight growled at him, which only caused his smile to grow.

“You’re crazy,” she muttered, beginning to stand back up.

“No,” Darkflare said, shaking his head. “I’m not. I’m probably one of the only sane ponies here, especially in this backwater town.”

Twilight growled again, the ends of her mane beginning to smoke. “How dare you insult—”

“It amazes me that you, of all ponies, haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Figured what out?” Twilight asked, gritting her teeth; this was not going how she had planned. “What are you talking about?!”

“And, of course, what is to come,” Darkflare continued, ignoring her question, “will completely change all your pathetic lives when it is over.” He leaned forward, the smile growing on his face. “And I do believe that you will have more problems than me by the end of it.”

“And why’s that?” Twilight asked, her voice soft as her temper slowly died out. Her throat was starting to feel tight and the room had a chill over it. She had to keep reminding herself that Darkflare could do nothing to her; his magic was sealed and his hooves were chained. Plus, she had her royal guards nearby. So why does he fill me with such fear? Twilight was pretty sure that he was just spewing nonsense, but some part of her feared that he knew something that she didn’t, and he was acting on it. Like a horde of rats abandoning a doomed ship.

“Because I have some idea of what’s coming,” Darkflare said, light glinting in his cold eyes. “Plus, while it is true that I may have been the leader of the little group you arrested—” leaning forward slightly, red sparks flashed from his bound horn as he spoke “—and it may be true that we have been illegally handling and selling humans that we have stolen, found, and bargained for. And yes, we have been on the run from the guards lately, but all that doesn’t really matter.

“You may think that that you’ve won, and you can go back to your normal lives just because you’ve caught me, but half of my gang is still out there.”

“So we’ll track them down too,” Twilight huffed, one of her wings twitching involuntarily by her side.

Darkflare shook his head and laughed.

“You can hunt them down to your heart’s content, but that won’t stop the ‘illegal’ activities. In the end I may have been the leader of this organization, but that doesn’t mean that I was the one in charge. There is always a bigger fish out there.” He leaned forward more, practically placing his entire weight upon the table. His blue eyes stared at her, unblinking, seemingly looking into the very depths of her soul. “For, you see, I was hired.”

“Hired?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening.

Darkflare nodded once.

“Yes,” he growled. The smile on his face could rival Pinkie’s, but it was by far much more sinister. “By somepony in Canterlot.”

As we walked through the dark forest, I couldn’t help but stare incredulously at the three fillies and dragon trembling by my feet. Ever since we had entered the Everfree Forest, they had been looking around, shivering in what I could only assume was fear. Apparently the forest made them feel uneasy. I couldn’t sense it, however. The forest looked normal, maybe a little on the dark and creepy side, but besides that it felt normal to me. Actually, it felt almost like home. It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling, but it almost felt like I was back on Earth again.

As we trudged through the gloomy environment, I noticed that even though the fillies were staying close, Sweetie Belle was still trying to maintain a distance from me. As she walked along, she limped slightly, favoring her back right leg. I could see a particularly large scar on her right flank, and I hazard a guess that the limp was probably permanent. The human she encountered really messed her up. She cast a fearful glance at me, and I felt a pang of sorrow for her as I realized that at the moment, the one creature she feared the most was the one who was supposed to help her through the evil forest. I quickly made a mental note to treat the fillies when we got back. Maybe I could convince Pinkie to sneak us some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner when no one was looking.

Ducking under a low-hanging branch, I pulled out my notebook and scratched a message out for Spike.

+How much further do we have to go?+

“Just a little further,” the young drake said, glancing around at the surrounding trees for the umpteenth time. He was practically glued to my leg. All four of them flinched when a low growl sounded out nearby. I froze, my senses going on overdrive. Swiveling my head around, I silently cursed. Due to my eye being bandaged, my field of vision was essentially cut in half. There were several tense seconds of silence, followed by another low growl.

“Scootaloo, I thought I told ya tah eat before we left,” Applebloom whispered, her backside pressed up against my leg. “Tell yer stomach tah knock it off.”

“T-that wasn’t me,” Scootaloo said, her wings hanging limp at her sides. Both girls turned to look at Sweetie Belle. She looked back and forth between the two of them before shaking her head. If it wasn’t any of them, that what was it? I thought, swallowing nervously. I reached for my notebook, intending to ask Spike what he thought, but I stopped when I saw the look on his face. He was staring at something over my shoulder, his pupils were shrunken and his mouth was hanging open. My heart dropped into my stomach at the horror on his face.

My breath caught in my throat as something rustled in the vegetation behind me. I suddenly became aware of the fact that it was almost deathly quiet: the birds had stopped singing. Slowly, with great trepidation, I turned my head to glance behind me. My mouth dropped open and a gurgling cry escaped my lips as I saw what was there.

Three large creatures were slowly emerging out from the underbrush. The beasts were huge; looming over me by at least 2 feet. They looked like someone had taken a giant lion and slapped a pair of bat wings and a scorpion tail onto it. All three of them were glaring down at us, a hungry look in their blood red eyes. Their mouths were open, fangs gleaming in the dim light as drool fell to the forest floor below. As I stared up into the faces of death, I was dimly aware of my companions, even Sweetie Belle, pressing up against my legs, and the sound of whimpering reached my ears.

Images of blood and death flashed before my eyes as my mind screamed at me to run, but my body wasn’t responding. The creatures growled again, sending a shiver through my entire body. We have to get out of here! Despite my fear and instincts yelling at me, I still couldn’t move. My injured leg was beginning to tremble violently, and I was having a difficult time remaining upright. One of the manticores, the one on the right, snarled, snapping its tail behind it. My body unfroze instantly and I took a step back. Thoughts immediately flooded my mind on how I was going to get the fillies out of this mess.

As I quickly flipped through plan after plan, the little voice in the back of my head spoke up. Just leave the fillies and run. You can get away while they are being devoured. I wanted to argue with the voice, but something within me kept insisting it was the correct course of action. They’re ponies! They’d do the same thing to you if they were in your position. You don’t mean anything to them! I took another step back. Glancing down, I realized that Spike and the Crusaders hadn’t followed me. They were too busy staring up at the manticores, trembling in terror. Now’s your chance! Go! NOW! I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, but was unable to. RUN! As I fought with myself, the lead manticore, apparently growing tired of waiting, took a step forward.

Before I realized what I was doing, my body reacted.