John held the lever-action rifle in his hands tightly. He waited for the approaching gang members to get 'in range' The marshal, and his deputies were standing at the entrance of the fort. Irish ran off somewhere like he always did. and Seth, and Nigel stood by Marston. They all waited for the signal.

"Fire!" The marshal yelled. Marston raised the iron sights of the winchester repeater up to his eye level, and aimed it precisely at one of the gang member's head. John pulled the trigger, and a loud bang echoed through out the fort. The bullet hit the gang member in the shoulder, instead of the head, due to bullet drop. The gang member fell off his horse, and on to the desert sand. He grabbed his revolver from his holster, and struggled to get up, but was cut back down, due to a stray shot.

John cocked his rifle, and aimed again. He spotted a sniper, who was aiming a scoped bolt action rifle. It was hard for John to aim, because every few seconds another bullet hit the cover he was behind, chipping it. The sound of gunfire echoed through the desert. John lined up the sights right above the sniper's head, and fired. Due to bullet drop, the bullet hit the sniper in the forehead. The sniper flew back, and the gun went flying out of his hands.

Nigel held up the revolver, and looked for more targets. It wasn't as easy as it would be for Marston, or Seth, because he was nearing sixty years old. His vision wasn't the best, and his hands were a little shaky, so aiming was also harder. Nigel West Dickens aimed the revolver at an enemy. He pulled the trigger, twice. Two bullets flew out of the revolver, at amazing speeds. One bullet entered the gang member in the chest, and the other in the shoulder. He fell down, dead.

Seth had a lever-action rifle. He raised it, and aimed for an enemies head. He pulled the trigger. The bullet made contact with the target... right in his neck. The enemy fell to the ground, and bled out. "I like you better dead!" Seth shouted, after seeing the gang member fall to the ground. Seth then began to laugh like a maniac. "You're messed up in the head, Seth!" John shouted over the sounds of gunfire.

"Watch out!" John heard the marshal yell. Suddenly the doors to the fort burst open. Peices of wood flew through the air. The sound of an explosion echoed through the desert. John looked down from the balcony to see the marshal, and his deputies dead. They died from the explosion that burst the door open. "Damn! The whole plan is falling apart!" John shouted, before shooting another round off at an enemy. Suddenly another explosion caused the balcony to fall apart, from right under the three allies.

John landed on the desert sand, with a thud. Seth landed about four feet from him, but had most of the balcony land on him too. A crushing sound was heard as the balcony chunk landed on Seth. John then looked around for Nigel West Dickens, he saw him, standing up as though the balcony never fell.

"Get up, John! They'll be here any second!" He said, and he jogged up to John, and yanked him up.

"The plan went to complete shit! Bill escaped, and I'm stuck with you!" John said, as they ran behind cover. John reloaded his lever-action and peeked his head over the barrel he was hidden behind, and saw about twenty gang members searching around for any survivers.

"C'mon old man, we're not dieing alone" John whispered to Nigel. They bothe gripped their guns.

"One-two-three... FIRE!" John shouted the last word, while whispering all the others. Both of the men got out from hidding, and raised their weapons. John fired his lever-action twice before getting hit in the shoulder, by a shot gun. John flew back, and hit the wall, creating a small blood splatter on the wall. Nigel raised his revolver, and shot off three rounds before getting hit. He felt the bullet enter his head, and go straight through his skull before everything turned black.
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John's eyes shot open. 'Where am I?' He asked himself inside his head. Then all of the memories flashed inside his mind. Defending the fort, death. What would happen to his family now? He couldn't answer any of these questions that bounced around in his head. He decided it would be best if he figured out where he was, first.

John was lying down on a hard surface, in a very dark room. He also didn't feel right. He felt... different. Like he wasn't in his own body. John shrugged off this feeling, and tried to stand up. He got on all fours, then he tried to stand up. He couldn't balance, and he fell back down. He cussed, and got back on all fours. It felt strangly comfortable, and natural. John took a step, it also felt natural. John took another step. He saw light about ten feet from him. It looked like it was coming from a candle, or a lantern. John started walking towards the light, He went into the room that held the light source.

It was only a single candle. Set on a small table, but atleast he could see the room, he was in, now. He was inside what looked to be a abandon house. He was inside a kitchen, and there was a door to the right of him. Light shined from under the door. John walked slowly over to it. He searched the door for a door-nob but there wasn't one, so John pushed on the door. It actually worked. The door creaked open, and John was eye-raped with very bright sun-light. After his vision went back to normal, he observed his surroundings. What he was looking at looked VERY much like Armadillo, except... PONIES, so many ponies. Some had wings, and could fly, and others had horns, and it looked as though they could levitate things. Then there are ponies that had neither of those attatchments.

John's jaw dropped.

"Hey there, mister! Welcome to Apploosa!" Someone with a texan accent said,

Nigel started waking up. Everything was very blurry. He also felt weird, really weird. He suddenly heard a voice from behind him. "Hey, are you okay?" The voice belonged to a female. Nigel responded with a mumble.
"I better get you to the hospital" The same voice said. Nigel then fell back into uncounciousness.
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Nigel's eyes slowly opened. From what he saw he was in a hospital room. He still had the strange feeling from before. He tried to move his fingers, but nothing happened. Nigel West Dickens brought his hand up to his eye-level to make sure it wasn't bandaged, or amputated.

He jumped back when he saw that he didn't have a hand anymore. There was a hoof there instead. Before he could freak-out, a voice said, "Oh, you're awake" Nigel quickly turned his head to see a white pony, with a pink mane. Nigel was speechless.

"Now that you're awake, I'm going to need your name, and age" The pony said. Nigel decided to play along, and find out what was going on later.

"My name is Nigel West Dickens, and I'm sixty-three years old" Nigel said to the nurse. The nurse giggled, then started laughing hysterically. Once she was finished, she looked at Nigel, and said,

"Don't mess with me. There's no way you're sixty-three" Nigel grunted, and looked at the pony.

"Then what is your estimate of my age, nurse?" He said narrowing his eyes at the pony.

"You can't be more than twenty-five years old" The nurse said chuckling. Nigel grunted, and narrowed his eyes.

"If you don't belive me you can look in the mirror that's on the wall right over there" The nurse said pointing to a mirror hanging on the wall, about six feet from the bed.

"So I'm allowed to get out of bed? The last hospital I was at didn't let me even move..." Nigel mumbled the last sentence.

"Yes, we made sure you were healthy while you were asleep" The nurse responded. Nigel nodded, and got out of the bed. He remembered that he was now a pony, and walked on all fours. It felt strange at first, but he got used to it, very quickly. He stepped up to the mirror, and inspected himself. The nurse was right, he looked about twenty years old. He was light blue, and had what looked to be a tattoo on his flank of a dollar bill. He had a black mane, with some green in it. His tail was the same.

"Okay, now what's your real age?" The nurse asked. Nigel paused for a second, thinking of what he should tell her.

"I'm twenty-three..." Nigel said, while turning away from the mirror. The nurse nodded, and pointed to the exit.

"You're free to go, you're perfectly healthy" The nurse said. Before leaving Nigel asked the mare something that had been on his mind ever since he woke up.

"Hey, who brought me in?" He asked the nurse.

"Twilight Sparkle, she owns the library in town. It's hard to miss" The nurse told him. Nigel nodded, and walked out the door.

A/N: I know it's short, but remember, it's just an intro, the real chapters will be much longer.

Nigel left the hospital behind him, as he approached the town. He was still trying to figure out why he was younger than he used to be. The dirt road crunched under his blue hooves, and the sun was high in the sky. It was hot, and Nigel was sweating. He stopped right outside of town, and brought his hoof up to his forehead, and wiped away the sweat. He put his hoof back on the ground, and continued into the town. Nigel was greeted by almost every pony that was there at the time. 'people are sure nicer than they were in New Austin... Nigel thought as a pony said 'hello!' to him for the 20th time.

Nigel turned to see a pink pony, with a pink mane. She stopped infront of Nigel, and looked at him for a second. Then she jumped up in the air, gasped, and zoomed off. Nigel sat there for a few seconds, processing what just happened. After a minute he came to a conclusion, ponies are weird. He started walking again until he saw a tree. Not just a normal tree, a hollow tree, with a door, and windows. There was also a sign that had two books on it. If anything, it was a library. Nigel walked up to the door, and knocked on it, using his hoof.

"It's a public library, you don't have to knock!" A annoyed voice yelled from inside. Nigel made a troll face, and knocked again.
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A/N: I SWEAR TO GOD, THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE OVER 1000 WORDS.