Author's note: Apparently now I take requests... v_v Lol Angel Lionheart asked me to write a chapter about the people who read this, so I did something like that........ No Paul again, this is my third chapter of the day, though, so I can do whatever I want!
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Angel Lionheart is just an ordinary meat beast (earth pony). She (because the name sounds like a she) has a main and tale that are whatever color you imagine. I'm simply not creative enough to come up with a character design. Now that all that explanation is out of the way, we can get down to business.

She was walking around in Muletown one fine summer evening. As the name would suggest, mule town is a town filled with mules. It's a disgusting place where things like 'sanitation' and 'health care' are just a myth. Angel trudged on down the muck filled streets regardless, she had a goal and nothing would possibly keep her from it. Not even the horrible smell of mold and decay that hung in the air.

You see, she received a very peculiar book from her grandfather when he passed away several months ago. It was a book about spiders and what happened to the ponies after they died. Angel had never even heard of the ancient spiders before that, though that's probably because the princesses keep all that information hidden away in the restricted area of the Canterlot archives. Needless to say, now that she had this information she became obsessed and had to see if it was all true for herself. The reason why she came to Muletopia is because the book mentioned something about a race of ponies that used to live in the caves here.

She didn't expect to find anything special, just maybe some pottery or artifacts from a long lost civilization. Maybe even a skeleton if she was lucky. She just hoped that it wouldn't be alive. Her older brother used to always tell her stories about how skeletons would come out of the ground at night and eat ponies. Now that she's older she knows they were just to scare her, but she still has a phobia of murderous skeletons regardless.

Maybe I should explain what her cutie mark looks like. It's basically a very detailed picture of a heart with a pair of small, white angel wings on the sides. She got it after she ripped the heart out of the chest of the pony that insulted her in foal school with her bare hoofs. It was impressive, to say the least. Anyways, she hid the body in a hole under some abandoned house so no one ever found out.

Angel couldn't help but gag as she continued to trudge through the sludge that composed the streets of the Muletown. She couldn't help but wonder how much of it is mud and trash, and how much is raw sewage. Thankfully the constant drone of flies buzzing helped drown out those unpleasant thoughts. If she had thought ahead she would have probably chosen to traverse the forest around the town instead of coming anywhere near it, but at the time she was scared she might get lost.

"Hiya there miss." Angel turned her head to see a flee-bitten mule who was missing most of his teeth. "You want to buy something!?" She looked past him at a plastic table set up next to one of the alleys. On top was a pair of what she assumed was at one point socks, and the dried husk of a ruh-coon that was covered in flies. At least she thought it was a ruh-coon.

Instead of saying anything she simply picked up her pace and refused to look back. At least she wouldn't be in town for much longer. The locals were absolutely disgusting and she wanted nothing to do with them. Of course she couldn't get her wish as a particularly wrinkly mule exited a building near her. It seemed to take it a few seconds to notice her there but once it did it ran up to her.

"Hello ma'am, how are you doing this fine day."

Angel Lionheart wasn't in a very good mood but she decided to humor the mule if only to make him leave her alone. "I'm doing fine, thank you."

She continued walking along hoping that he would continue on his way, but she wasn't so lucky. He trotted up beside her and began to speak again. "I'm Rasping Leech. Nice to meet ya'..."

He let the end of the sentence drag on, obviously hoping that she would give him her name. After a few seconds she reluctantly spoke to him again. "The names Lionheart, Angel Lionheart."

"That's a mighty pretty na-" He was interrupted half way through his sentence as it looked like he was about to vomit, but he swallowed it down much to Angel's revulsion. "Anyways, that's a pretty name miss."

"Thanks." She started trotting a little faster hoping that he would get the hint and leave her alone. He didn't and instead trotted the same speed as her.

"Where ya' going in such a hurry."

This is exactly why she wanted to avoid the locals, well part of the reason why. The other reason is that they are just gross. She couldn't actually tell him where she was going, if she told him he might go find the pony relics and take all the credit. There was no way she was going to let anypony else get credit for this! This was her one chance at fame. Without this her life is going nowhere. She works as a waiter for Celestia's sake! It turns out being able to punch other ponies' hearts out isn't a sought after talent.

"Just going for a walk." She finally said.

He looked ahead, down the road, and then looked back at her. "You're walking strait fer the forest ma'am."

She rolled her eyes. "You don't say."

"Well ya' can't go into that ther forest, it's gone be dark any minute now and yall get lost." Angel looked up and noted that the sun was still pretty high in the sky, it was no later than 3:00 in the afternoon. "Perhaps ya' should get a room for the night."

She almost blurted out a solid 'no' but managed to contain herself. "That won't be necessary." It was bad enough just walking through the streets, she didn't even want to imagine what horrors awaited her in the cess pools that they call buildings.

"Well if you insist on going into that forest on your own than I insist on coming with you." Now he was trying her patience. The last thing she wanted was a companion that had probably never bathed, let alone seen running water. He would probably smell horrendous if the horrible smell of the town wasn't drowning it out.

"I wouldn't be going in on my own if you came with me..." She grumbled.

"Excellent, I knew you'd want me to come along." Clearly her words didn't have the desired effect. She just stopped and looked at him contemplating whether or not to tear his heart out to save the trouble of putting up with him. No, she decided, the last thing she needs right now are murder charges. Besides, there's too many witnesses. Looking around she saw an old mule sitting on the porch with such a wrinkled forehead that his eyes were completely covered blowing into a pot.

Ok, perhaps there aren't too many witnesses, but she still wouldn't feel right with murdering him. Perhaps she could talk him down from joining her. "I would really rather go alone." Despite not wanting him along for the ride, she wasn't known for being rude and didn't know how to tell him she thought he was disgusting and she didn't want to be anywhere near him.

"Nonsense! I'd be happy to go with you." Angel scrunched up her eyes and looked at him. Not sure if really stubborn or just stupid, she thought to herself. "Now let's get goin', we're burnin' day light."

She sighed, it looks like she would have to be really blunt to get the message through to him. "Listen. I don't want you to come with me." She said in an uncertain voice. He was already trotting off down the road, though, and seemed blissfully unaware of what she said.

After getting halfway down the street he turned his head back to her and yelled. "Aren't ya' comin'?!" Unfortunately, he wasn't looking where he was walking and tripped on an old wagon axel that was lodged into the sludge. Needless to say, he took a nose dive into the green much.

"Well if he wasn't going to smell bad before, he sure is going to now." She said to herself as she continued walking. "Maybe if I'm lucky he'll get eaten by a bear. Then again what bear would be starving enough to eat something so fowl?"

He got up and was now even more covered in mud. Now that she looked at him more closely she could see there was already a dried layer of substance on his body which could probably be said for most of the native inhabitants. She decided not to dwell on that too long and just continued to walk towards the tree line. Perhaps if she ignored him he wouldn't be too annoying. And maybe the woods will smell better than the town did. A fresh pine scent would be a welcome reprieve right now.

Unfortunately, she was not granted such things as her mule companion kept talking all about the town, and the trees smelled like rotting wood. For the first time, she was starting to think maybe this trip was a bad idea. She quickly pushed those thoughts aside and just focused on getting there so she could leave this hell hole of a country.

"And then Fungi done told me he caught a fish what had two tails in the town water supply. He said he sold it ta' chunky fer two big brown rocks that tasted like dirt. It has two tails so it's worth two rocks I spose'." Rasping Leech continued to talk to himself while Angel tried her best to ignore him.

Thankfully, it wasn't a long trip and she soon found the caves she was looking for. They were spread out along a cliffside and all looked like they went in pretty deep. Of course she went to the biggest one thinking that if there was anything it would be there.

"Why are we at these big caves for anyways?"

"I saw them while we were walking and thought it would be cool to check them out." She said hoping he wasn't smart enough to see through her obvious lies. Especially since she was pulling a short torch and matches from the saddlebag at her side.

"Well ok, I'll come in with you so nuthin' happens."

She quickly lit up the torch and held it in her mouth, it was pretty uncomfortable having the fire so close to her face and she definitely wouldn't be able to talk with it there. Then she got a brilliant idea. She grabbed it with a hoof and turned to her unwanted companion. "Hey, ugh, Leech. Could you hold this for me?"

"I recon I could." He said without making any move to grab it. She motioned it towards him a few times but he didn't seem to comprehend her question and just kept staring at her, or rather through her.

"Will you hold this while we go into the cave?" She finally asked hoping the specificity would help.

"Ok." He finally grabbed the torch out of her hoof-grip with his mouth.

Satisfied that she was able to at least use him for something, she trotted on into the cave. It was very damp inside and she was instantly walking through pools of stagnant water from the dripping stalactites on the ceiling. It barely came up past her hooves, though, so she continued onward. The cave seemed to stretch pretty far back so she could see how ponies could have made their homes here.

As her light bearing companion followed her she looked around all the corners trying to find anything reminiscent of a long lost race of ponies. Unfortunately she couldn't find anything so she just kept going in deeper. They were in there for at least twenty minutes before Leech finally decided to ask a question.

"What are ya' doin'?" As he said this the torch that was previously held in his mouth fell down into the water and was snuffed out. It instantly became pitch black in the cave.

"What did you do?!" Yelled Angel in a mixture of fear and frustration.

"I think I done' dropped the torch."

"Well feel around for it. It's soaked in oil so maybe we can light it up again." They began splashing around in the water for a short time until she felt it. "Got it!"

As soon as she said that she heard a strange hissing noise and some splashing a little ways away. Angel instantly froze up. "What do ya' suppose that was?" Asked Leech.

"Shhh shhh!" She shushed as though whatever it was might not have already heard them. Her heart was racing and she twisted her ears around to try to find any other sound. After a few minutes of silence she finally relaxed enough to move. She put the torch in her mouth (ignoring the fact that it was in Leech's mouth before) and reached into her bags and began fumbling with the matches. You have no idea how hard it is to use matches with hoofs.

Eventually she lit one and was able to light up the torch. It wasn't as bright as before as some of the oil seemed to have been washed away, but it was good enough to get out of the cave. "Aha, I got it!" She yelled victoriously before looking around. Her heart practically jumped out of her chest when she saw the thing standing on the edge of her field of light.

At first glance it might appear to be a dark teal pony, however it definitely wasn't just a pony. For started its bottom jaw was larger than that of a normal pony and revealed a row of sharp, pointed teeth. Its eyes were almost the same shade as its coat and the pupils resembled that of a goat. Then she noticed it had two pairs of tentacles that were lazily swinging around in the air on its sides.

They just sat there and stared at each for what seemed like forever to Angel. She had never been this terrified in her life. Then it opened its mouth and to her surprise, spoke. "Hi, I'm NobodyPro, and I'm gone eat you!"

That was enough to finally startle her into submission and she turned and sprinted towards the light that signified the entrance to the cave. Behind her she could hear Rasping Leech screaming as the monster began tearing into his flesh. She didn't care though, she was too scared to even dare look back. Surprisingly, she didn't trip on anything on the way out, and made it to the entrance in record time. She didn't stop there though, she continued sprinting through the forest at speeds that would make an olympic athlete jelly.

She ran for at least a half hour and only finally stopped when she reached the town and ran out of adrenalin. She would have collapsed there in exhaustion if the ground wasn't covered in the horrid sludge. Instead she braced herself up with her four hoofs and panted for a few minutes. "I could really *breath* use some *breath* water." She said to no one in particular.

"You need water?!" She looked up to see a mule with little black hairs sticking out all over his face. He was holding a see-through bottle with some kind of sludge inside.

"Nope nope nope!" She yelled, suddenly finding the energy to get away from this horrible filthy place.

She continued walking until she got near the train station which was a little ways out of town. At least that wasn't AS bad as the rest of the place. Thankfully, they had benches there for her to rest on while she waited for the next train. She continued to sit there for about an hour and was starting to doze off before someone said her name. She practically jumped up fearing that the monster had come for her flesh.

"Are you miss Angel Lionheart?" She looked around and saw a male pegasus nearby holding a letter in her hooves.

"Ummmm, yeah, whos asking?"

"Dr. Awkward, nice to meet you!"

Angel looked him up and down. "You don't look like a doctor."

"And you don't look like an angel, or a lion, or a heart." I guess he has a point.

"Alright, what do you want?"

"I have this letter for you. Apparently it's pretty important if they made me come all the way out here to find you."

Angel grabbed the letter and looked at it for a moment while Dr. Awkward flew off. She literally had no idea what it could possibly be, so she opened it. Inside was a nicely written letter inviting her to some party hosted by a Mr. Paul. The name didn't seem familiar, but it must be important if he would send her a letter about it.

At least it's better than staying in this hell hole. She was pretty surprised that no huge mosquitos had given her all kinds of diseases yet. At least she hoped they hadn't. That would really put a damper on her evening. She was also pretty excited to get away from that monster. No doubt it would haunt her dreams for years to come.

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This came out better than I thought it would. I had no idea what I was gonna' type about until I started so it was kinda' weird. Anyways, thanks for commenting, it fills my heart with sunshine sunshine every time I read them.... That awkward moment when you realize that only four different people have commented on the last ten chapters.... (That made it easy)