You might have noticed that I was absent from the area for the past couple of weeks; well, I apologize for leaving without notice to all you wonderful people, but I had a tip on a place that might have some interesting artifacts. Long story short, I ended up wasting my time, but I got in enough good deeds for the next couple of months.

So where was I before I left? Ah yes, right, airship over the ocean. Let’s get the questions done before I continue. Fair warning, though, this will be a very long segment. A lot, and I mean a fucking lot happened upon arrival in Tayros.

Now, how about those questions? You first.

...

Slow down there, let me get those questions straight! Right, so if you all didn’t hear in that quick span, he essentially asked a couple things regarding Fancy Pants’ insider info. I’ll answer it to the best I can, especially since that was but a passing instance.

The info, at the time was questionable, especially since Fancy gave me no real details regarding what the insider had said, nor did he give me anything more about the insider themselves. So I really didn’t have much to go on regarding the topic, but I also didn’t put much faith in it. There are always people stepping forward and warning of something going to happen, and while a lot of them are legit, a fair amount, if not the majority are those who don’t really have any connection to anything, and are just going on baseless speculation.

I don’t like to speculate on things when there is absolutely no pertinent information to go on. So instead I’ll give you a minor spoiler, that insider never came back up in my times. Yet at the same time I can easily see what they were talking about. Hell, the insider might have been vague as fuck, but they essentially called it. You’ll see shortly.

Next one!

…

Another question regarding Fancy Pants, huh? Alright, he asked what I thought Fancy Pants’ business was.

Well I kind of said it last time, but I guess the long period in between segments brings about blurry memories. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about my guess work on his business, because I didn’t speculate about it. Why, you may ask? Because I truly didn’t give enough fucks. Hell, I could have been talking to the pony version of an arms dealer and I wouldn’t have really cared. My reasoning behind that, is that it isn’t my world. Sure, me being there already changed a few things, but that didn’t give me the license to just go around, start assuming things and drag myself into every little thing. If I was asked to help, or if it directly affected me then I would get involved, but that’s it.

How about you? How do ponies scrunch their muzzles?

By breaking the laws of physics and nature. You’d understand what I mean if you ever saw a pony scrunch what is mostly bone. Trust me.

You’re next! What do I think caused that whole event between Gilda and Trixie?

Shit, tough question. I don’t really have a solid answer, as it seemed random as fuck to me but if I really had to break it down, then I can only give two possible theories. First, they had some sort of tension from the time we had spent travelling so far. If that was the case then I didn’t know about it, considering that I knew a fairly small amount them as it was. That theory has loopholes though, since I know more about Gilda than I have let on to you guys. Stuff that isn’t going to get told though.

As for the second theory … well, they were probably what a few friends used to call, and no offense ladies, ‘white girl wasted.’ So drunk and smashed that they literally had no inhibitions. When you’re at that state, anything can happen. Anything. I have seen some very, very, stupid and hilarious shit from such situations.

Last question.

…

Who would I take as a spouse if they were human?

That’s assuming I settle down and try to tackle married life. So, let’s assume I do decide to settle down … well, based upon my choices so far, it is either Luna or Tempest. Now crazy as it sounds, Tempest is actually rather high up there in consideration. Luna is very much like me, which rates highly but at the same time I think I would get sick of myself if there were two of me. Not sure, that and who knows if Luna even would feel the same.

As for Tempest, well she kind of supplements my overall lack of getting too close, and I already know her stance on me. Tough decision overall, really.

Right, let’s get to it.

The next morning I woke up a little bit later than usual, apparently the previous day had exhausted me rather extensively. I really had to stop getting used to all the luxuries of being in such a different world. When I got back home, I would be in trouble because of how rusty I had gotten. Of course, as you can see that it all worked on in the end.

So, going through my usual routine of waking up, I proceeded to pack up my gear, and ensure that it was packed up. We were supposed to be in the port by a little before midday, after all. Since I was still not aware of whether my watch was on time or not, I figured I had roughly three hours till we landed.

Yet as I was preparing myself to head out and get some early breakfast, a voice came resounding through the ship.

“We are entering Aboretia air space, please prepare for landing, and thank you for choosing the Daedalus as your means of travel.”

I stood there for a second, slowly feeling the ship loose altitude which, let me tell you, feels fucking weird when you are standing up. You almost feel weightless while it slowly descends. Still, it wasn’t the first thing that came to mind after hearing that announcement.

“I slept that fucking long?” I nearly yelled in surprise. It had been ages since I had slept over twelve hours. I didn’t know if I should have been shocked at it or thankful. For the first time in what felt like aeons, I felt refreshed!

Shortly after that train of thought, I realised that I should probably grab myself and settle down on the bed or something till we landed. Sure, in airplanes they made you sit in seats while fastened with seat belts, but a land of magic must be different.

And it was.

Ha! Fooled ya! You all thought I was going to say that it was actually the same, didn’t you? Well, nope. Their descent was smooth and graceful, despite having a ship that was probably four or so times the size of our biggest planes before The Reckoning.

Yet at the same time, it went faster than what I remember our flights were. It was a weird combination of being grateful for having it happen quicker and knowing that by the laws of physics, we should have felt a much stronger force upon us as we descended.

I don’t know what to tell you all about the descent because I was still in my room. I didn’t get to truly witness it like I did with the initial take off. So all I can say is that it felt much gentler and yet quicker at the same time.

With that, let’s move on to the moment when we finished our landing.

“We have landed in Aboretia. For those of you who are departing, please make your way to the deck in an organized fashion. If you are still staying with us, then please refrain from wandering the halls at this moment. Once again, thank you for choosing the Daedalus for your trip,” that same voice spoke from nowhere. There wasn’t a single speaker in my room, so it definitely wasn’t conventional means. Can you guess what I deduced as the reason for it?

You guessed it, magic.

I figured that everyone who wanted to get off was already up and moving around the halls, so I decided that it was time to finally get my ass of the ship. Walking out of my room, I found my two companions waiting for me as well. Damn, they were on top of it better than I was.

“You two good to go?” I asked while gesturing to the door. “Cleared the air between you two? Or do I have to sit you both down and set you both straight?”

“Pfft, as if you could influence the Great and Powerful Trixie!” said blue mare stated. I simply rolled my eyes before looking over at Gilda, who simply brushed a few feathers on her head and nodded.

“Let us go then,” I said before opening the doors and walking out.

When we got to the deck level, I noticed that there was a surprising lack of ponies waiting to leave. Perhaps they had already left, but otherwise there were only sailors and what looked like the minotaur equivalent of sailors. A few took a curious glance over at us but nothing much came out of it.

The only being that did notice us on deck was you know who. Tempest came trotting over to us in a rather professional manner, meaning that she wasn’t jumping me. “Aw, do you have to go already?”

“For the sake of my sanity, Tempest, yes I do,” I replied, much to the giggling of Trixie.

“Let me walk you down then, got to tell you something,” Tempest said before motioning over to the connected ramp. I only noticed it as I looked over, but the minotaurs had a different design than the access point in Manehatten. While the one back then was a rather tall tower that the ship docked with, this time we were docked with what looked like an entire elevated section of the city. It was as if there was a small mountain we were connected to.

I glanced at Tempest, who seemed to be looking nervously at the other two.. I can take social cues, trust me. “Hey, Gilda, Trixie, you two meet me at the dock, I need to talk to Tempest.”

They both gave me confused looks at first before sly smiles came to their faces. They left us immediately, a few giggles and chuckles coming from them as they walked away. I simply rolled my eyes before looking down at Tempest. Admittedly I was confused as to what she wanted to talk about. Thankfully, she shone some light on it almost immediately.

“I … I wanted to apologize for how forward I acted during your trip. I’ll admit that I have never acted as clingy as I did this time, but …” she said, trailing off. She looked away for a brief second before focusing her eyes back on me. “My sister’s letters painted you to be the perfect pony for me and that I should get you before another mare … well. I was so anxious to meet you and … um … grab you before another mare got there and ...”

“So, what you’re saying is that you continuously rode my back just because you wanted to ‘claim’ me?”

“Ehehehehe,” was the response that came from Tempest as she rubbed the back of her neck in a sheepish manner. I facepalmed at the response. I couldn’t really hate her for what she did because she’d had good intentions, which explained her extreme clinginess and blatant ignorance of my personal space. That, as well as the fact that there was no harm really done, just annoyances.

Still, I was a little annoyed that she did all of that instead of just talking to me directly or one of the many other options that could have been done. I guess not everyone sees things the same way though, and her own paradigm on the world told her that what she was doing was ‘right.’ I let out a deep sigh because this whole situation was stupid and unneeded entirely. I mean, it was good to be able to understand her view on the entire thing, but I had already cleared her of … well … anything. She wasn’t the worst I had ever met, but the most forward pony for sure.

“Don’t worry about it, Tempest. Just … try to not be so forward the next time we meet, alright? If you abide by that, then maybe we’ll see where this goes,” I said. It was the truth, but a very broad truth. That ‘maybe’ was a very big one, since it depended on how I was feeling within a month or so.

She beamed at me with that big smile she had before walking closer and hugging my leg briefly. “Thank you, Ryan. I’ll improve, I swear it!”

“Cool … now can you release my leg? I’ve got to leave the ship before you decide to fly off again. I think that would be cheating on our deal,” I told her, which actually got her to back off, a heavy blush adorning her face. “See you next time, Tempest.”

She didn’t reply, instead opting to blow a kiss at me. I just smiled before turning around and walking down the ramp towards the dock. She was a damn weird pony, but hell, she was growing on me. I guess I was opening up more and more in this magical land of bullshit. First it was Gilda, now it was Tempest. Trixie didn’t really count because she was kind of just there for the most part. Sure she was a decent group member, but she didn’t invoke the same closeness that Gilda did … or Tempest, I guess.

Once I was across the bridging, I saw that GIlda and Trixie were just standing around and chatting. I walked over to them and nodded to them, indicating that I was ready to go. We quickly got to walking down the dock’s massive winding road, or at least, that’s what we would have done had we not needed to go through the worst process that was ever created and somehow managed to cross the borders of space and time.

Transportation security and immigration stations.

They literally had familiar concrete-looking booths, only two of the five were active, that stopped people from passing without doing checks or whatever. On far sides of the area, there were a few armed minotaurs lounging around yet watching each visitor. Damn they were serious about shit like this.

Thankfully there wasn’t much in terms of a line since it seemed very few actually wanted to get off in Tayros. Though I did notice that the minotaur Iron Will was waiting in line as well. He was about three ponies ahead of me, and yes, ponies were the only ones standing in front of me. I think the line might have been about ten people long.

“Fuck off … immigration stations here as well … this universe sucks the big one.”

The other two just rolled their eyes at me, not really giving me much of a response but I didn’t expect them to. It was more of a general statement than one asking for a response. Either way, we just waited in line until it was our respective turns. Believe it or not, this came rather quickly, and made me have hope that Equestria did in fact know how bureaucracy should be run.

Gilda stepped up to one of the two booths first, then Trixie. For a moment I actually had a mild panic attack because I had no sort of papers whatsoever, and if they required such things, I was fucked. The only paper that acknowledged me in any standing was the ‘ticket’ from Luna. For a moment there, I had thoughts that I was going to sit in a fucking prison until one of the four princesses happened to give enough fucks about me to bail me out of such a predicament.

So you can imagine that when I stepped up for my turn, I was a little bit nervous. Still, I prepared myself to play it off and hopefully bluff my way through entirely. Not needed in the least.

“Paper’s ple-” the surprisingly skinny-looking minotaur said before looking up at me. “Ah, right. Nevermind, you’re clear.”

“Wait … what?” I asked, more bewildered than anything. “Seriously?”

“The Equestrian Government has already given us your documents. In fact, here they are,” the minotaur said before sliding a small, almost leather, probably pleather, looking booklet over to me. Hell, it looked like a passport … if any of you remember such things. “Inside you’ll find any necessary documentation for your visit. Have a safe stay.”

I wanted to shout more than a few questions at him, but he was already exiting the booth and heading over to the guards from earlier. Well … at least it was a painless process … weird as fuck, but painless nonetheless.

I walked past the booth, holding the papers in my hand, probably looking more than a little confused over the whole thing. It made me question just what the Princesses thought of me if they were willing to forward ‘official’ documentation. Mind fucking boggling, I tell you.

“Horsefeathers, well there goes ten bits,” Gilda said before forking over a handful of bits to Trixie. I looked at them for a second before facepalming, understanding what had happened. Or at least, I had a good enough idea.

“Did you seriously bet on me getting stopped or arrested?” I asked, my palm covering most of my face; thankfully my sunglasses were on my hat.

“Trixie had faith in you,” the blue mare replied with a sly grin. “Though she did not expect you to have a passport.”

“Yeah, apparently Luna is watching over me or something. Didn’t have shit until they gave it to me,” I said before deciding to open said booklet. First fucking page made me want to facepalm even harder. Somehow, some-fucking-how, Luna managed to get a headshot photo of me. I don’t remember her ever doing such a thing … and the background looked suspiciously like a pillow. Yeah, the blue dream mare is going to get what’s coming to her.

Trixie tried to pluck the passport from my hands, but I gripped that shit tighter than legs wrapped around your head as you … scratch that metaphor. Either way, she did manage to pull out a folded piece of paper that was lodged into the booklet’s pages.

“What is this, Trixie wonders?” she said as she unfolded it while floating it in front of her. After a few moments of her eyes scanning over the page, she slowly lowered it and gave me a rather … shocked glare. “How in the name of Celestia did you manage to get diplomatic immunity?”

Now, when given shocking statements such as that, despite it not being that shocking, I tend to react in one of two ways. Either I question what the fuck I heard, or I …

…

Yeah, you guessed it. I turn to snark.

“It comes from riding the sisters till they can’t walk straight,” I replied, not even realising what I said until it left my mouth. Thankfully, I managed to hide the surprise at my own statement by swiftly taking my Oakleys® and putting them over my eyes.

As for the other two, if Gilda had been drinking water, she would have done a marvellous spit take before laughing her head off. Trixie looked at me with a brief moment of shock before rolling her eyes at me. Yeah, the day was going marvellously already. No sarcasm to that statement.

Alright, so remember a few sessions back when I gave you all a little titbit of what would happen to me in Aboretia? Well, it’s coming up rather quickly. See, we ended up deciding to head out and explore the area quickly before hopping on a train out of the port town. Sure, Aboretia is a nice place, and probably had some attractions to it, but we would be returning back to the place in time, so we, meaning I, opted to skip it for the meantime.

The path from the massive dock was basically a winding cobblestone road with small, roughly thigh-high walls. To be honest, it was a rather old European-looking route, something akin to the castles that you would have seen back before The Reckoning … maybe even now.

I gazed out upon the city as we walked, and it looked rather quaint yet busy. Tough to describe such a mix, really. The reason I say quaint is because you don’t have massive towering skyscrapers like in Manehatten, yet it wasn’t a small town design like Ponyville. Think of it as a combination. More than a few multi-story buildings, but for the most part it was either single-floored houses or two story houses from the looks of it. Each house seemed to fit the general look of a type of brick and mortar home. Something akin to Jerusalem-esque homes.

Yeah, I don’t expect many of you to know what those look like.

From the road, I could even see the train station which was on the other side of the city walls. Yes, city walls. Much like Canterlot, it was a boxed in area, though I think there were some building outside the city if I was correct in my guess. Oh, and last thing to remark about the city was that it had a rather open looking courtyard in what I assumed was the centre. Though open looking in nature, even from afar I could tell it was busy as fuck. Probably a marketplace.

So, yeah … nice city and all that, but you’re all probably waiting for me to talk about the female minotaur incident. Right, so up until our descent from the port area, I had yet to see a single female minotaur, only bulls if you want to call them that, which is fine. Not the weirdest thing per se, in fact far from it, but still, it hadn’t really occurred to me.

When we finally got to the bottom of the cobblestone road, it finally came full frontal at me. Literally … no, I’m serious, L. I.T. E. R. A. L. L. Y. Literally.

“You poor thing!” a voice came from beside me, sparking some brief interest. I turned to look, only to have my face smushed in between what I could safely assume were all natural D-cups. I admit, I was torn slightly between going with it and forcing myself back so I didn’t have a mouthful of fur … very well trimmed fur, but fur nonetheless.

Eventually I was pulled away from between her bosom, yes I said bosom instead of tits or whatever, get over it. I took a few deeper breaths, expecting to be pulled back into the rather smothering hug again. Instead, she picked me up with her hands under my armpits, with ungodly strength. Seriously, this is beyond anything I could imagine back home. Anything.

“You poor calf! Who would do such a thing to you!?” she exclaimed, much to my surprise and the mad guffawing from my two companions. I think I was actually too baffled to speak. Part of said bafflement was about the way she was acting, the other was because she was shirtless.

Hey, give a guy a break. It’s not something you see everyday, even though it’s natural and all that jazz. Either way, I managed to gather myself quickly enough to get some words in before she did something again.

“Um, ma’am. First off, I’m no calf, and secondly, could you let me down now?” I said simply. She looked at me with a confused face before lowering me back to the ground. The moment my feet were on the ground, I straightened my clothes before looking back to her and all of her six foot six or so minotaur-ness. “Thanks.”

She continued to look confused at me though, even going as far as to bend over slightly and rest her hands on her knees as if to get on my level. I felt slightly insulted to say the least, because I am not that small. “I don’t understand, child. What do you mean ‘you’re not a calf’?”

“Human is the name of my species, and despite our looks, I am no minotaur, ma’am,” I replied before taking off my hat to show her I had no horns. “See, no horns.”

Her eyes widened at my statement before her hands went up to her mouth to hide her ‘gasp’ at the statement. “Oh my! I’m so sorry! I feel so foolish now ...”

“No worries, I’m kind of used to random reactions at this point,” I said, more or less muttering the second half of that statement. I decided to test the waters with what could be said in a society that lacks the understanding of shirts. “No harm done, and as a well-travelled person of my species, I can safely say that you have a very attractive figure, ma’am.”

That earned a smile and blush, as well as a thank you. I returned said smile as well before saying, “No problem. Now I have to get going before one of these two jokers behind me bursts a lung.”

I gave a small wave before turning and walking back to my laughing cohorts, then promptly smucking both of them upside their heads before walking off down a street. I decided to keep my hat off just in case another minotaur decided to mistake me for a sick foal or something. Never know, and though I didn’t mind the face smothering, I would prefer not to have it happen too often.

“I can’t believe that happened,” Gilda said between a few errant chuckles. “I wish I had a camera!”

“Laugh it up, chucklefuck, just wait till we get back. I’ll make sure to make things even more awkward for you,” I replied before flashing her a rather diabolical grin. Her eyes widened briefly before narrowing in a ‘you wouldn’t’ type of way. I simply nodded at her, answering her unspoken question. Then I looked over at Trixie and noticed her own little snickers. “You only get away with it because you’re my personal pack mule.”

“Hey! Trixie resents that statement!” She protested but I cut her off quickly.

“Protest all you want but it doesn’t change the fact that your home is also a storage caravan,” I replied with a smirk. “One that I happen to have on my body. Trust me, I can change that very quickly.”

She glared at me in return. “And here Trixie thought you had no mean side.”

“No, you’ve just seen my non-jackass side. I can be quite the asshole if I want to be. I just choose not to be, unless I’m getting jipped or fucked with,” I replied before my grin fell into a brief frown. “I have morals though … the most you two will ever encounter is snarky replies. Don’t take that for granted, though. Now, let’s get to the train station. I hear the capital city is nice this time of year.”

So we walked quietly through the busy streets of Aboretia. Yeah, it was a rather somber affair after my little words. I could see why, though. I mean up until that point I had been an overall decent guy, minus the lewd jokes and the ‘don’t care’ attitude. That was probably the first time I had actually shown them that I can easily be a dick, even to those who are close to me. Not a great personality trait, huh?

Either way, I put the whole event behind me, not allowing myself to dwell on the possible fuck up I did. They had volunteered to come with me after all, so the least I could do was not treat them like shit. They wouldn’t hear me admit it, but it was a nice little blessing to have them with me. It somewhat made everything easier.

On the way to the train station, we happened to pass through the large market that I thought I had spotted from the hill. I was indeed correct in predicting that it was a market of sorts. Of course, it had other uses from the look of it as well.

Well what other uses do you think a giant ass open square would have? There looked to be a few restaurants and such, not to mention a fountain in the middle of it that seemed to serve as a gathering spot al-

What?

Oh … I guess I didn’t really describe it. Glossed over it when I was asked that question. Should probably start from the general makeup of it, huh?

So the market was a rather wide looking circular area from up on the hill. From there it looked like a true circle, not a single irregularity to it. Oddly enough, when we got there, it seemed to continue to portray this exact feel. It almost felt as though the city had started from this exact area. Just a general feeling, mind you.

Now, the ‘square’, as misleading as that name sounds, had many things going on in it all at once. You could easily cast a glance around and see various stands positioned, merchants trying to sell their goods to whoever would be willing to listen to them. Oddly enough, each stand seemed to be positioned right in front of the many buildings lining the square. I can only speculate as to why that was, but at that time it seemed like the people who ran the stands might actually live in the buildings. I would never properly know; I didn’t give enough shits at the time to actually ask someone.

Now, while the stands made up a good portion of the area, there was also outdoor seating for restaurants. It’s easy to pick those ones out because most restaurants want to border off their outside area so that it funnels customers in and out of their restaurant first. I can say right now that there was a good amount of restaurants set up around the square. There were few that were right next to each other, instead spacing themselves out enough to allow more stands to exist in between them.

Once you got through that outer ring of ‘vendors’ and places to eat, there was a rather open square. Now, take in mind that the entire thing was like the streets. Made of stone, specifically cobblestone. So there was a lot of empty space around. That was until you got into the middle of the area.

Sitting probably dead centre was this giant ass fountain. The thing was … well, I honestly don’t know exactly what it was supposed to be a carving of, only because we didn’t get close enough. From the distance we circled the square at, it looked like a giant Native American totem pole. The key differences were that it was made of what looked like a dull metal, and that there was intricate carvings on it. That much I could tell from a distance. at the top of said totem pole was a group of four minotaur-looking heads that spewed out water.

…

Right, forgot a key aspect of the fountain. I knew I skimmed it over when I said that last part. Anyway, despite the general look of a totem pole, every meter or so, there was a circular collecting basin that seemed to bisect the statue. The first one was relatively small, just large enough to catch the flowing water. Each basin after that was progressively large until the last one, which would then let the water spew into the actual fountain part.

Now, as for the whole “another world with magic bullshit” part, or at least I can assume so, there was something keeping the water from flowing out of each basin in a general circle. Instead, each basin had its own four sections to let water flow from it. Honestly, the fountain was a rather interesting thing to look at. I made note to actually visit it when we came back to Aboretia.

Finally, to finish up this long ass description of the market like area, standing just a little from the fountain, there were two wooden platforms on each side of said fountain. One platform was currently empty, while on the other stood a minotaur reading something from a piece of paper or whatever. Flanking him was a pair of rather heavily armoured looking minotaurs. I would later realise that they were part of the minotaur army.

…

I learned it through retrospective analysis once certain events happen, not fucking meeting them. If I had met them, I would have paid a lot more time describing them, no? If you read any stories, you notice a pattern like that, where characters that might be important later, get a little bit more detail added to them than others.

Anyway, last thing to say about said three minotaurs. Whatever they were reading out, which I think I just kind of instinctively tuned out, had drawn a surprisingly large crowd to listen. Could have been anything for all I cared; though looking back, I have a few sneaking suspicions as to what it might have been.

Either way, we walked quickly across the market, earning more than a few glances and silent inquiries. I mean, after that one female minotaur … going to call her a “sow” because that is the right term for their women, anyway, after that one “sow”, no doubt there were others that were curious as to what the fuck I was. Thankfully, it did help to have my hat off, my bald head telling them that I didn’t have horns, so I wouldn’t be put into another awkward situation like that previous one.

Gilda and Trixie were engaged in a conversation, mainly commenting on the area, though Trixie was doing most of the talking as she seemed to be a little bit more familiar with the place. Hell, more than a little bit now that I think about it. She was basically our fucking tour guide … except I was leading us.

But Ryan, how did you ever get to the train if you didn’t know the city, you may ask. Well, during that time spent looking down on the city, I took note of the general direction and the best possible route. See, Minotaurs, in their own awesomeness, decided to make their streets more like New York instead of a fucking maze, where streets were essentially straight all the way until they literally couldn’t go straight anymore. So it was damn easy to see a path to the gates. It was basically a straight shoot from the other side of the market.

Anyway, moving along with the story because we’ve had enough fucking deviation and train of thought derailments.

Once we finished crossing the market, we could literally see the gates to the city. They weren’t really anything special, just fucking massive iron or whatever gates. Seriously, this town was fucking prepared or something. A few thoughts filtered in, mainly me thinking that the minotaurs might be naturally violent or something akin to that, despite having been told that they were rather peaceful for their scientific advancements.

Still…

When we made it to the gate, I saw another fully armoured minotaur approached us, looking rather serious at us. So I did the only thing I thought to do, stare him right back and slowly pull out my documents.

He didn’t even speak to us, instead just snatching the papers out of my hand. Now, let me put this into comparison. I stand at roughly six foot, maybe five eleven, still relatively tall for my age, I thank good genes. Anyway, while I can be imposing in some ways, this massive beast of a … minotaur, was probably twice as tall as me! Well, maybe not that fucking tall, in fact it was probably more like a foot and a few inches taller, but still! Not to mention that he was fucking suited up in what looked like full plate armour. At least something looking like full plate … minus a helmet.

After a few moments of looking at my papers, he simply handed them back and turned around, still not saying a single word. Not to mention, he also didn’t even take a look at Gilda’s or Trixie’s. Sometimes you have to hate the silent types because they’re so fucking mysteriously annoying.

A few moments passed of us just standing there before the gate finally started to open, thank fucking god. Yeah, I was starting to get more than a little impatient at everything. I wanted to get out of the port city, away from the crowdedness of it. Sure I had grown up in a city, but when you live your life on the move for twenty odd years … you tend to start disliking the crowds of people.

Sure, we were headed towards the capital, but that didn’t mean we were going to stay there long. Probably just long enough to stock up on supplies if we truly needed them, then we’d be off to our walking and wandering.

I was starting to miss Fawkes. Truly starting to, only because I knew that there was going to be a lot of walking the near future.

Once clear of the gate, I didn’t bother to turn around and look at how the city’s walls were set up or whatever. My mind was focused on getting on the first and fastest train to the capital. I think Gilda and Trixie knew this as well, because despite their talking, they didn’t address me, instead once more chatting about Aboretia as it was.

The fields outside of Aboretia were very reminiscent of Arizona and Texas from before the Reckoning. Well at least the field immediately outside the gate; hell if I knew what the rest of it looked like in other places. For all I knew they had some sort of pact with earth ponies who for all I knew could terraform the land. Because fucking magic is OP and all that fucking jazz.

Really, this looked exactly like the two towns that we had walked through back in Equestria. Seriously, it was like this world had some sort of disturbing fetish for Old Western settings. At least this one looked more modern compared to the other towns. Well … about the same as Canterlot.

It wasn’t just a one building station with a platform, nope. This was a warehouse type of place, probably used for offloading goods and all that, not to mention passengers. The structure was very different compared to the houses from inside the city. It was a straight metal structure in design; something akin to warehouses … which is kind of obvious now that I think about my phrasing. Anyway, it had a main doorway that was behind another booth of sorts, with a small line of numerous races waiting in front.

By numerous races I mean there was at least a few Zebras, good amount of minotaurs, another griffon, and even a few ponies. Group diversity ahoy!

We walked to the back of the line, receiving a few glances from the ones in line but otherwise nothing like the looks I had received back in the town. When we finally settled in for the eventual wait, Gilda spoke to me.

“You alright there, nerd?” she asked with actual concern, carefully disguised in her insulting tone.

“Yeah, yeah. Just eager to get moving in the countryside once more. Too many cramped areas recently,” I replied with a sigh; it was the truth. “When we get to Calluna City, we’ll get some supplies then head out immediately. When we swing by to return we’ll sight see that city, cool?”

“Ehh, sure,” Gilda said with a shrug.

“Trixie is fine with that,” the blue mare replied as well. “Trixie knows the feeling of not wanting to stay around long. Once a nomad, always a nomad.”

I looked at her for a second before smiling lightly. “Rather poetic ... I like it.”

“You, liking poetry? Pfft, don’t believe you at all,” Gilda spoke out as we shuffled forward a little bit. “You might be a dweeb, but not one that lame.”

“You’d be amazed actually as to my variety of likes and dislikes. I happen to enjoy anything that has a deeper meaning to it, something that can be viewed in an introspective way,” I replied, arching an eyebrow at the griffon, wondering what had given her that idea.

“So you’re not just a dweeb but also a nerd?” Gilda asked with a little snicker, earning an eye roll accompanied with a grin from Trixie as well.

I simply shook my head at her before looking back to see how close we were to the ticket booth. We weren’t too far away now, the line moving rather quickly. “Say what you will, but the most well-read of any species are the ones that rise the fastest. Very few can get by successfully in life while not learning anything, or enjoying the arts. Often, poetry and stories give deep insight into the very psyche of us all, and sometimes give us a new light on problems. Don’t dismiss that which makes you better.”

Gilda looked up at me for a second, her beak moving a little, trying to form a reply but instead she just gave me an eye roll before dismissing the whole thing with a simple statement of “whatever“.

That right there told me that I had actually gotten something through to her. Sure it wouldn’t affect her immediately, but perhaps down the road she would actually take the time to learn something or increase her mind. Who knew, but as of that moment I filed the thought to the back of my mind as we were up in line for tickets.

“Three tickets to Calluna,” I said simply to the female minotaur that was sitting in the ticket booth. She reached behind her to grab three tickets out of a locked box.

“I’ll need to see your papers, and what you’ll be paying with,” she said over her shoulder, using a key to unlock the ticket box. I grumbled under my breath at the sheer need for documentation. It was passed the point of ridiculous now that I needed to show her papers for something as simple as a ticket.

“We’ll be paying with bits,” I replied as I fished out my documents while Trixie levitated her bag of bits up to the counter. “Why do you need documentation for something as simple as a train ticket?”

When the sow turned around, she took the documents from my hand, scanning it over as she talked. “A safety policy due to the state that Tayros is in at the moment. All foreign visitors require documentation as well as any minotaur arriving from the south.”

“From the south? What’s happening in the south?” I asked, a little concerned that there was something odd going on in Tayros and that I had made the mistake of coming here. It actually brought my mind back to what Fancy Pants had said the day before.

“It isn’t my place to say. Your documents measure, the train ride is free for you and your associates. Have a pleasant day,” she said before waving us forward, moving us along so the next person in line could get their ticket.

Trixie said something, but I didn’t hear it, my mind too focused on what she had said. Something was up in this country, something that might do more than hamper my plan to explore it. There was a sneaking suspicion that this trip might need to end early, just because of safety concerns, but that was neither here nor there for the moment. Instead, I dumbly followed the girls as they made their way onto the last passenger train car.

My mind stopped wandering just before I got onto the train, taking the moment to look around at what I had missed in my little introverted stupor.

Any of you ever been to that airstrip in the distance? The one with those large hangars? A few of you? Well the interior was designed something like that, in the sense it was rather sparse in terms of looks but the thing place had all the functionalities it would need … well, minus marketable stuff and advertisements. Though I don’t think those had ever been needed, well unless the train station makes money off of them. Honestly in the end, it was looking like the Minotaurs were a rather socialist-type state.

Hey, as long as it works for them, who am I to judge … even after my rant to that wandering unicorn, though that was on communism in hindsight, there can be success in socialist states, assuming they do everything perfectly.

Moving on, the one thing I noticed that stood out amongst the very sparse looking area, was the train. Thankfully the thing wasn’t a monstrosity to look at like the one in Equestria. No, this thing reminded me a lot of the modern trains that you’d seen in Japan or something. Sleek and stylish looking, yet it still had that lack of technological advancement feel to it. The reason I say that is because of the small and thin smoke stacks that were coming out of the top of the engine at the front, as well as the open compartment style that old coal-fed trains had.

As for the compartment style for the rest of the carriages, it was very modern and sleek looking surprisingly enough. It fit in well with the rest of the train I had to say, appreciating the lack of crazy colours which were replaced with a solid iron-type grey.

Finally, I boarded the train car, filing into the very back of it. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones in the train car this time, so we had to be mindful of other passengers. I didn’t really mind though; I was planning on taking a nap. I always sleep on moving vehicles that I don’t have an active part in piloting; true story.

The seating on this train car was different then the pony one, as it was more akin to wooden benches, though surprisingly comfortable wooden benches. How such a thing existed I have no clue. So when I took my seat, I let out a relaxed sigh before turning to place my legs up on the remainder of the bench, while my back was against the outer wall and window.

As the final whistle blew for boarding, a very familiar minotaur walked into the train car. Yep, you guessed it, mister Iron Will from the ship himself. He instantly recognised me at the back and made his way to sit in the seat opposite of me. See, Gilda and Trixie chose the row that was the second from last, leaving me alone in the last row.

“It seems Iron Will chose the right car to sit in! Do you mind if I sit?” he said, being rather humble in his request. Cocking an eyebrow from behind my Oakleys®, I offered my hand to the open seat, indicating he could take it at will.

“Wait, when did we acquire a second Trixie?” Gilda said out of nowhere, earning a massive roar of laughter from myself. That was one of the best remarks and burns I had heard in a long time. Of course Trixie was not amused at such things, in fact I don’t think she even understood what it meant. Poor gal and her confused face, it ended my laughing a little short.

“Iron Will, meet the two I’m travelling with. Trixie, the blue unicorn, and Gilda the smartass griffon,” I offered, gesturing to the other two. A couple of ‘salutations’ and such were given out before everyone went quiet as the train started up.

“Well, looks like we’re off. Onward to another great adventure. Wake me when we get there,” I said as I put my hat back on and pulled it down over my face.

“Are you serious?” Gilda asked from beside me, to which I simply gave out an exaggerated snore in response. I could almost hear her eye roll, to which I actually decided to respond.

“I’ll fall asleep soon enough as it is, might as well get a head start on our … how long is the trip?”

“Three hours at most. Iron Will has taken this train many times in the past,” Iron Will spoke up.

“Thanks,” I replied before closing my eyes and relaxing once more. Though I didn’t have them closed for long, as I realised that I forgot to put in my ear buds so I could listen to music. Quickly pulling out my iPod, I checked the charge, which was a little over half, since I charged it up on the first night in the Daedalus. Yes, I forgot to mention it, so fucking sue me.

Anyway, hitting play and sitting back, I got to relax to some Dream Theater before fully falling asleep.

Alright, that’s it for the day!

…

…

Alright, alright, calm the fuck down. It was only a damn joke, you jackasses. Obviously I have more to tell. This day was a long in what it felt like.

So, skipping ahead to when I awoke next, I was nearly tossed out of my seat as the train hit its breaks suddenly, nothing like how a train would if it was going into a station. Instantly I was alert, pulling my earbuds out and pausing my iPod before pocketing it.

“Shit, what’s going on?” I asked to one of the four around me who looked just as confused as me. “What did I miss?”

“Trixie can’t tell, the train just randomly hit its brakes.”

“Iron Will isn’t sure either. First time I’ve experienced such a thing,” the big minotaur replied, a frown across his face.

“I think I see something outside,” Gilda spoke up before tapping a claw against the window adjacent to her seat. “Armoured minotaurs by the look of it.”

Swiftly, I undid the latches to my window before sticking my head out to confirm what I was seeing. Indeed, up ahead, next to the tracks was a group of maybe twelve or so minotaurs in what looked like red military uniforms, including two in steel plate. Now, I admit that I might have been jumping to conclusions at first, because I instantly prepared myself for a fight, steeling my nerves. Of course, I proceeded to confirm to said conclusions.

“Hey, Iron Will,” I asked as I let the window back down before proceeding to unshoulder my M110 and pull my CZ P09 from its holster, “what colours does the Tayros military use for uniforms?”

“The clothing is a dull yellow in colour, why do you ask?” the minotaur replied in kind, somewhat curious as to what I was getting at.

“Oh no reason,” I said as I took the scope canister off my shoulder. Since I had my long range scope on, I needed to get it off as quick as possible. Especially so since the train was almost at a dead halt. “Another question, how strong is a minotaur skull?”

His eyes narrowed at me suspiciously before answering. “The front in between the horns is thick. We minotaurs like to lock horns a lot, and I am usually the victor of said locks. Other than that, Iron Will supposes we have the same density as other smaller races.”

“I see, I see. Hey, Trixie, catch,” I said before tossing the rifle to her, the unicorn barely responding in time to catch my weapon. I proceeded to toss her the canister over as well. “Take the scope off and exchange it with the one in the canister. Back bolt of the shorter sight should be on the sixth rail. Get it on as quickly as possible and keep it under the height of the seat.”

“Wha-” was all Trixie got out before I spoke up again, this time to the entire train car.

“Just keep calm everybody, do not leave your seats, things will be alright,” I said, all the while proceeding to pull out my suppressor for my pistol and screwing it on in quick succession. The passengers, mainly ponies but also a couple of Zebra, mumbled about themselves immediately after I spoke. Then I turned my attention to the three I knew well. “That means you too. Don’t fucking move until I tell you to.”

They just nodded at me, noting the fact my voice had gone dead serious.

As the train came to a complete stop, I looked up to the entrance of the train car, just in time to see two burly minotaurs throw open the door to the train car. The first one was wielding a flintlock looking pistol while the second hefted a large battle-axe. Both of them were wearing military uniforms that were a dull red in colour, yet had a very modern look to them. They glanced about the car briefly before the first one spoke up.

“Do not worry, this is simply a routine check, please exit the train car and wait outside in an orderly line.”

I gave a brief glimpse out the window to see that the train car in front of me already had their passengers out of the car and in an orderly line … an orderly shooting line. Time to enact my makeshift plan.

“Stay in your seats, don’t listen to the cow,” I shouted out. Immediately, I knew I’d drawn the attention of the two minotaurs.

“You, in the back, stand up!” he yelled, which played perfectly into my hand. So I did as he told me to, my right hand which held my pistol was behind my back though. I gave them a nice smirk as I stood as if to tell them I didn’t find them intimidating.

“What are you and who do you think you are?” the minotaur with the pistol asked me as he stalked forward toward me. I simply gave him a tooth filled grin in response before finally answering his question.

“I’m the Grim fucking Reaper,” I said before whipping my pistol up and putting two quick shots into the throat of the fucker. The quick succession of softened pistol shots catching him by complete surprise.

He fell to his knees instantly, his hands grasping at his perforated throat, struggling to keep the blood from pouring out of the two newly created holes. Of course the struggle would be in vain, as blood quickly flowed out onto the floor, pooling around him and staining the fur on his legs that wasn’t covered by his rather short pants. The second minotaur’s eyes widened to their maximum capacity before looking at me.

He started forward looking to charge me, but I answered in kind, moving forward, firing two more quick shots into his chest to stagger him. As his head glanced down at the fresh holes in him, I body rushed him, knocking the axe out of his hands and into an empty seat. We both ended up on the ground, though with me basically straddling the form of the minotaur.

I didn’t even give time for him to look me in the eyes before I blew out the top of his head with a pistol shot from under his jaw. Despite the thick skull, it didn’t stop grey matter from leaving his head.

As I stood up, one of my feet planted on the dead minotaur, I turned around to see the one clutching at his throat. He had since fallen over into the pool of blood, staining the rest of his uniform. There was little time left in his life. I was going to spare him mercy but a loud boom resided from outside the train car.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Iron Will, grab that axe. Trixie, give me my rifle!” I said before hustling to the train car door. My group of four came rushing up, even despite the bodies on the floor. Trixie floated my rifle into my hands while I took the pistol and put it in front of Gilda’s face. “Take this. You have fourteen shots left. Pull the trigger only when you point this at an enemy, otherwise keep your talon off of it. Do not point it at anyone you don’t intend to kill.”

“What the buck?” Gilda said in a somewhat frightened voice. Another boom resounded, pissing me off even more.

“No fucking time. Iron Will, how fucking good are you with an axe?” I asked, and thankfully all he did was smile somewhat evilly in return. “Perfect. You take down the melee bastards, I’ll blow the heads of the ones with guns. Stay away from the train car, engage farther away so you don’t get in my firing lane. Kill all of yours, I’ll worry about taking a prisoner.”

He nodded his confirmation, giving me the green go to start what I mentally dubbed: Operation Fuck Shit Up.

The story is going to get rather intense here, as I can already see the whole event flashing in front of me. Expect some bloody descriptions to spew forth.

Instantly I kicked open the doors of the train car because fuck door knobs, then proceeded to hop from the train car, with Iron Will landing right beside me. About ten feet from me, to my left was my first target.

“Who the buck are you?” he managed to get out before I put a round through his thick skull, the seven-six-two round crumpling him as it blew out the back of his supposedly dense head. I didn’t stop there; hell I didn’t even take a second to pause for dramatic effect or anything.

Instead, I pivoted on my foot before dropping to a knee, yelling to Iron Will, “Go!”

The next action was putting two quick rounds into the body of the first minotaur wielding a pistol I could see. The bastard staggered back before dropping to his knees. I finished him off with a third shot through his throat, nearly taking off his head in the process … well damn close, at least.

By the time the second minotaur was lying dead, pure unadulterated bedlam spread through the ranks of the fuckers. I proceeded to go, as many from my time would describe as “full beast mode” as I snapped my sights to various minotaur targets and squeezed the trigger enough times to ensure they were dead.

Third target took a shot straight into the muzzle, turning his face into something more reminiscent of a kid seeing what would happen if you put a steak in a blender. The next target got three to the chest, all pulled with quick enough succession to have the minotaur stumble backwards until he was a couple meters from where he once stood. The top heavy aspect of the assholes made such things commonplace while a human probably would just crumple.

Another crack sounded off as another execution occurred, the pistol-wielding fuckers not even turning to face their only threat.

Eleven shots to go, I missed two as I pulled the trigger early, though I think one might have grazed a shoulder. The twelfth and thirteenth shots hit a minotaur in the upper chest region, left side specifically so there was a good chance he died from having his heart explode.

I stood from my kneeling position and stepped forward carefully, placing four more shots into another minotaur, three of them being body shots while one happened to turn his junk into something more akin to a baked potato, at least assuming so by the amount of bleeding …

The last three shots of the mag actually did take a minotaur’s head off, just as he pulled the trigger on a cowering passenger. Thankfully the shot hit the pony in the leg, and no, not an artery, but that knowledge should come later.

The entire action took about thirty seconds to complete, with Iron Will having already felled three minotaurs as well who had made the mistake of trying to focus on me. Either way, we were left with two more at the far end, near the conductors who were still kneeling. I barely had a chance to slip out my empty mag when the pistol of one of the remaining fucks went off, instantly killing one of the two minotaur conductors.

Iron Will was already charging ahead to engage a sword wielding asshole, while I had to deal with the fucker that was hastily reloading his pistol. Even at a dead sprint it was going to be a close thing.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get another magazine in while in a dead sprint so I pulled out my knife from behind me back, then proceeded to use my baseball skills in a way that I think all of my old teammates would be appalled.

With a single crow hop, a shuffle-type leap forward, I let fly my knife just as the minotaur was raising his pistol. The throw was from about twenty-five or so meters away, but I whipped it fucking hard and the sound it made as it imbedded itself in the left shoulder of the bastard proved it.

It wasn’t enough though, for the asshole still managed to get his final shot off, executing the final conductor. I shouted in indignation before leaping at the fucker, one hand driving into the knife to push it even further into the asshole.

The landing was rough and my body was going to be sore from leaping full steam at the asshole, but the satisfaction of knocking him down just so I could fucking pummel his head in was well worth it. And that’s exactly what I did.

I got to my feet much quicker than the ‘stabbed’ minotaur could, then proceeded to drop kick him in the side of the head, most likely knocking him out right there, but I just kicked again, hearing the sickening crack of his muzzle breaking.

If it wasn’t for Iron Will who rushed in to stop me, I would have just kicked the fucker until his face looked like ground beef. Hell, Iron Will had to stand in between me and the downed and unconscious minotaur.

“We need a prisoner, remember! Iron Will will not let you kill him!” Iron Will shouted as I struggled to get past him. Eventually I shoved off the friendly bull before fucking stomping off. I was fucking pissed, so fucking pissed.

Not at Iron Will, not the unconscious prisoner, hell not even at the fucking dead ass clowns that attacked us. I was pissed at myself because I didn’t fucking stop two more civilians from being executed. That put five fucking executions on my head. I had been too slow to stop five fucking executions.

Do you even understand how that feels? I might be a jaded old fuck, I might have seen some of the most depraved shit on the face of this earth, but few things will ever compare to knowing that if I had been a little quicker, I could have stopped five people from dying. So I had every fucking reason to be fucking pissed off at myself.

Hell, I was pissed off enough that I slammed my fucking hand against the side of the train car, causing a surprisingly loud reverberation to sound off. Each time I slammed my hand down I punctuated it by yelling out “fuck!”

Eventually Trixie and Gilda came rushing out, Gilda in the air with my pistol held loosely in her grip. They found Iron Will standing over the unconscious minotaur, rummaging through his pockets while I had my head rested against the side of the train car.

I had seen them head over to us but their first words escaped me, the adrenaline or whatever gave me a weird sense of shell shock or whatever. Happens a lot for me, I always need a second to calm down after battle, speech and all that jazz hardly reaching me. Probably would be a fucking horrible soldier because of it, huh?

“Ryan? Ryan!” Gilda yelled at me, eventually snapping me out of my ‘shell shock’ like state. I took my head of the train side before looking at them, Gilda holding my CZ P09 out, which I took and shoved it into my holster, not bothering to even remove the suppressor. I was lucky that my holster had an open area to accommodate it. “What happens now?”

I looked around at the fact there was a lot of wide eyed civilians looking between us and the dead bodies that more or less littered this little arid area. I just looked over to Gilda for a second before walking towards the civilians.

“Listen up! Does anyone here have experience in operating a train?” I started off, taking a second to see if anyone responded. Once more I was lucky that the rest of the passengers had more or less congregated towards us. Though there a few that were standing around the dead bodies of their fellow passengers. Eventually a hoof rose into the air, though the pony that rose it kept silent. “Perfect, you get to drive. Alright, I know you’re all a little shocked … fuck it, more than a little. You’re probably outright scared shitless. Well we need to get moving in case there’s more of them. I need all the minotaurs and unicorns to help me move the bodies into the last car, with our … casualties being put in the third car respectively. The rest of you need to stay near the front few cars for safety measures.”

At first the mob of civilians just looked around as though they were waiting on something. I simply sighed before yelling, “Let’s go!”

That kicked them into gear. From there on it was a rather somber affair as the minotaurs and the few unicorns did help us pile all the dead assholes into the last car. If it was up to me I would just light the fucking thing on fire then somehow drive it off a cliff, but the train car wasn’t mine to begin with.

Instead we loaded up our casualties, then finally got the train moving once more. You want to know how they got the train to stop? They fucking put a wagon in the middle of the railroad tracks, a simplistic wooden wagon. I couldn’t even comprehend how stupid that was. Either way, once it was removed we were on the move again, with Calluna City being only a little bit away, though not close enough to see on the horizon.

I had Iron Will help out with running the locomotive, while Gilda would act as a ‘messenger’ of sorts between them and me. I just stood at the front of the first passenger cars, my rifle still drawn and ready to fire with a fresh mag in.

It was a bitch, but Trixie was kind enough to help me pick up all of my casings, including the pistol ones in the last train car. I would need those later if I was able to reload them. Hell, even for when I got back home they would be useful.

The passengers were huddled together with the three other minotaurs, originally there was six including the conductors but they were part of the casualties, being the only ones that were handling the situation fairly well. They helped out the others, including a grieving zebra spouse who had their husband having been one of the first to die.

Trixie was also helping the others if they needed anything, but I hardly saw her as she was busy in the second passenger car for the most part.

Either way, it left me standing outside the train car as we rolled along, my eyes looking off in the distance until Gilda shook my leg to get my attention.

“You alright?” she asked, the edginess to her voice all but gone. I simply nodded my head and sighed. Sometimes, certain fights were tougher to get over than others. “That was … something.”

“Yeah … yeah it was,” I replied as I leaned against the train car, resting my weight to my side. What? My feet get sore as well.

“Well, I have to say for a dweeb, you were pretty badflank,” Gilda said, trying to bring a smile to my face. I snorted in amusement at that horrible pun or whatever, but other than that she barely got a response. I was thinking about things, after all.

Eventually I did decide to speak, finally bringing voice to my thoughts. “They just started pulling passengers off and killing them … what twisted fuck would do such a thing? Now I think I am starting to understand what that teller and Fancy Pants were saying. Something fucking big is happening in Tayros, something that the Equestrians aren’t aware of.”

I turned to regard Gilda before continuing on. “Prior to this, I would have turned the fuck around and left, but now … they attack civilians? They fucking threaten me and those around me? As long as I fucking draw breath, I will put a bullet into every last one of these walking wannabe cows.”

“We’re going to stay? Stay and fucking fight? Are you insane?” Gilda said, even going as far as to drop a true F-Bomb.

“I am going to stay and fight. You and Trixie will get the fuck out of here at the first chance,” I replied simply, but Gilda was having none of it.

“No bucking chance in Tartarus am I going to let you run off and get killed! As long as I am here, I’m going to ensure you live, even if it’s just to beat you up for being stupid once this is done,” Gilda said defiantly, stomping one of her talons down in an act of finality. I stared at her before giving a little ‘okay’ in response. Before she took off to the locomotive engine, she looked back at me once more. “Oh, and Trixie is staying too. We already talked about it so don’t you get any bucking ideas about turning her against me.”

Well, that was that, it seemed. My party wasn’t changing anytime soon it seemed.

As to why I just accepted what she said, well I knew better than to try and fight a woman in their decision making. It would either end up with me in pain, or with me in even more pain, simple as that. Especially if said woman had a fucking claw full of razor sharp … well … claws. It’s not that hard to understand when you shouldn’t fight back. Hell, I’d fucking take on a bunch of gun totting raiders but a pissed off female gryphon? Do I look like I want more scars?

Ha, jokes.

Anyway, I ended up staying outside for the rest of the trip to the capital, as it calmed my nerves and gave me time to think about what to do next. The plan I ended up coming up with was rather simple in its general idea. Get to Calluna City, inform whoever the fuck I needed to that a bunch of asshats wearing red attacked us out of nowhere, then get the much needed info before heading off to do what I do best when it comes to fighting; long range warfare.

Oh and get paid, that was another thing to add to that list. Heh … haha! Just remembered a hilarious meme spawned from an old TV show. Step one, get to Calluna City, step two, find out what the fuck was happening, step three … step four, profit. Good times with that show.

Anyway, getting back on track, we eventually started to roll up into the station and that’s when shit started to get real once more. Wait, I’m skipping some parts, let’s back track to actually seeing the fucking city and station first instead of skipping over that beautiful scenery and speaking filler.

So, as Calluna City started to come into view, I noticed something that seemed to be a common theme in this fucking world. It was built partially into a mountain. Somewhat … see, from the distance we were at, I could see that the city sprawled out around the base of the mountain that was facing east. Then it seemed to also climb up the side of it, though unlike the physics defying monstrosity that was Canterlot, Calluna was built into the mountain itself, making it much more aesthetically pleasing myself as well as logically sound.

The city, much like Aboretia for the oddest of reasons, was walled off with what looked like walls that could have rivalled Troy! … somehow our education works better in this hell hole of a wasteland than beforehand. Fucking mind boggling!

The train tracks lead into the city itself through what looked like a gate only way different. I’m talking ‘genuinely surprisingly smart’ different. The wall itself, probably via some intense hinges, opened up to allow the train through. Let me tell you, this was a fucking beautiful idea and that ain’t sarcasm. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the actual workings of the train wall door since I never got around to that specific side again.

I couldn’t see much of the actual city inside the walls because of the walls themselves, but I could see aspects of the mountain structures and I have to say, they were expertly crafted. You could tell that a lot of the housing that you saw, which rivaled a palace in terms of general architecture, was expertly crafted even from afar. It was hardly sparse in the intricate designs that adorned the rock face.

Now, as we entered through the wall doors, I finally got a glimpse of the interior of the city and housing that adorned it. Let me first start off by saying, compared to Aboretia, the city was fucking green. There were trees and variations of shrubs and the like all over the place. The trees weren’t just ordinary trees, hell they had flowers growing off them! Okay, so technically that is ordinary but you know what I mean.

Of course, despite the general green and beautiful entrance, I later learned that it was a city like any other city in that it still had rougher looking spots and business district-type areas, but I have to say, the entrance was fucking beautiful to look at.

And now back to what I was saying about when we entered. See, I think they could tell that something was off because there must have been a standard protocol or something that we didn’t follow leading up to our entrance, because as we slowed down to enter the station, which let me tell you had the same general style as the one in Aboretia but it was at least decorated and busy, a rather fucking large contingent of armour wearing, sword and pistol-wielding minotaurs were covering the entirety of our intended platform.

“Shit,” I muttered before pushing myself off the train car wall that I had been leaning on. I knew that if this wasn’t handled the right way then things would get messy really quickly.

When the train came to a complete stop, each of the car’s entrances was surrounded by countless minotaurs, only countless because I didn’t take the time to count. That included mine, which meant I had front row seats to the eventual shit show … at least one that would have happened if my silver tongue didn’t get to work quickly.

Well, sorta.

“Hands up now!” yelled one minotaur while pointing his flintlock looking pistol at me. I complied but decided to speak before something else happened.

“We’re survivors of an attack! Check my breast pocket! I have papers! The dead are in the rear cars!” I managed to get out before a Minotaur slammed me up against the wall of the train car. Okay, maybe not slammed but shoved while grabbing my arms behind my back. Thankfully my words got through to the one who had yelled at me. I was also thankful that whichever one that had pinned me had better decency than some fuckers I had heard of back before the Reckoning … but that’s a whole ‘nother topic that is a boiling pot of mixed ideas.

Anyway, as I was saying, one minotaur actually took my words enough to heart. “Check the last car, see if this … see if he is telling the truth. Check his pocket as well.”

I kind of want to long story short because getting felt up by retardedly strong hands that were not smooth like that sow, was a little bit awkward to say the least. At least I was having a better time than Gilda who you could have fucking heard over the train whistle.

“You bucking touch me and I’ll make sure you never have offspring! Don’t you bucking dare!”

Yeah, I laughed pretty hard at that. I hoped that they didn’t react violently to her and her policy of not liking to be touched by others … which wasn’t exactly a policy per se but something I noticed. Anyway, eventually the groping session by the minotaur ended as he withdrew the papers which I indeed had in my breast pocket. You know, now that I think about it, I bet a minotaur scout saw the blood on my clothes from handling the dead and suspected something was up. Hell, that made as much sense as anything.

Back to the story, the tight grip on my hands relaxed and I was allowed my arms back, much to my delight. My flexibility is decent but not that good. Anyway, I turned around to see a female minotaur of all people reading the papers. I mean, no offence, but I had yet to see one, and definitely did not see her or hear her when they first grabbed me.

I kept my mouth shut, and instead just rubbed my wrists at being more or less manhandled. Eventually the sow spoke up. “Well, I must say, this is a change of pace. Diplomatic immunity for the ‘human’ and his two friends it seems. Hey, Rhodes, hands off the griffon, she’s got immunity!”

I chuckled lightly at that, because I would have been more afraid for this ‘Rhodes’ then Gilda. Fucking talons and that jazz. I was about to speak up when another minotaur came running forward. “Captain, he was telling the truth! We’ve got a train car full of dead Red Coats at the back, a few dead civilians in another train car, and an unconscious tied up Red Coat.”

The sow’s gaze turned back to me with an eyebrow raised. I think she was going to dismiss me at having killed them but I caught her eyes flicker to my rifle slung over my shoulder. “Can I presume you have something to do with this?”

“Only if I can presume you’re going to fill me in on why the fuck we were attacked,” I replied in kind, hoping to drive a point across that I was eager to do this again. “I’d like to know who I have to pay back for this … attack.”

“You might have diplomatic immunity but that doesn’t mean you have access to Tayros policies and intel,” the sow stated firmly, but I wasn’t swayed.

Instead I unslung my rifle but in a non-threateningly way, gripping it by the barrel. Then I decided to bring out my professional and business tone. “See this? This is what I killed those ‘Red Coat’s’ with. I am willingly offering to be a gun for hire and help you out with this problem, but I need info first. So how about you go talk to your higher ups before denying them an asset that has twenty years of experience in long range elimination?”

The sow looked at me for a second before finally speaking up. “We’ll see. You and your companions will come with me to the Governor's office.”

I nodded my head before opening the door to the cabin of the train car, seeing that Trixie was in fact in this one, thankfully. Made my job much easier. “Trixie, we’re moving out, got an appointment with the Governor.”

“Trixie is starting to like the perks of travelling with you,” she said with a smirk as she exited the train car behind me. “Though it does have some drawbacks, namely blood in the fur.”

I merely rolled my eyes before following the Captain towards the exit of the train station which I forgot to mention didn’t exactly end, as the train seemed to go through the city as well. Pointless interjection!

We managed to pick up Gilda along the way before she tore out the eyes of said Rhodes who was trying to stay the hell away from the extremely pissed griffon. Now, while you might have thought we’d have just exited the building and continued on, we actually didn’t get far from the train before another voice spoke out.

“Hey, Iron Will took this axe fair and square from the dead,” he argued as a pair of soldiers moved to separate him from his recently acquired axe. That gave me a thought. The way he had fought out there and the way he acted without hesitation. He could be beyond useful for me, not to mention he’d have intimate knowledge of the general area.

I stopped the Captain from proceeding on, much to her annoyance, then proceeded to gesture to Iron Will. “He’s with me as well. He helped me defeat the Red Coats and recapture the train.”

I could see the annoyance written on her face - in neon letters almost. Eventually, she relented and called over to the pair to let Iron Will keep the axe before ordering Iron Will himself to follow or he would not just lose the axe. Obviously, the new addition to our group was a little confused at this change of events, but that didn’t stop him from promptly moving to follow our weird group out of the train station. Well at least it was progress, no?

So, despite all the odd looks that we got from the probably ninety percent or more population of minotaurs, we made good time through the rest of the station and eventually to the great city of Calluna! Or something like that. I was lucky to be on a decently close scale with the Captain who was leading us, which allowed me to walk but at a brisk pace. Gilda had taken to the air in annoyance, despite being ‘indoors’ while Trixie was trotting quickly to keep up with us.

Obviously Iron Will kept up well, that’s a given.

When we exited the train station, I was greeted with the nice sight of a massive ass tree with purple looking flowers hanging from its branches. This thing looked like one of those trees that would always be called “The World Tree” or such in a fantasy world. To be honest, it was quite beautiful but at the same time it was ‘wut’ inducing. Why was it just in the middle of this courtyard next to the train station? Why not somewhere more important?

Other than that, the rest of the area looked somewhat like Canterlot. Buildings were nice and stylish, something you’d see in a wealth looking city. Yet at the same time, the minotaurs that looked to be walking around were … I don’t know, regular looking? Essentially, you could see that they didn’t look like the upper class snobs that I had seen in Canterlot.

The houses resembled Italian architecture honestly, in that there were many houses that were connected and they were all multi-storied. Honestly it’s tough to explain architecture to those who have no idea what the old world types were. I mean, you’ll never see anything like that around here. Okay, so maybe not never but you know what I mean.

Anyway, we followed close behind the captain as she walked us through the town though there wasn’t much to see of it, because shortly after the initial square, we took a left to cross a bridge that went over the train tracks that went through the city. I managed to catch a glimpse of things here and there but otherwise my mind was distracted.

…

I am not agreeing nor denying on that statement. I mean it didn’t go over my head that despite being in military slacks, she had a very nice ass, but that wasn’t what had my attention … mostly. No, I was contemplating what to do if I was granted permission to work as an ‘operator’ in the country. I didn’t have a lot of weaponry access nor did I have ammo, so engaging in open firefights would be a no-go. Yet sniping is tough to do when you have limited intel on targets and such. Perhaps the minotaurs had more up their sleeves that would allow me to do a better job. Either way, it was looking like minor Black Ops-type stuff. Assassinations and pinpoint sabotage.

My thoughts made me miss the probably multitude of sights that we walked passed, but once we were climbing up the side of the mountain along a guarded stone road, I started to notice my surroundings again. It was similar to Aboretia in how the road was designed but instead of a road that often double backed on itself in a snake-like pattern, this was straight up and to a point. To my right was a beautiful view of the city, allowing me to see it for all its worth, and I must say it was a very big city from the looks of it.

To the left were houses that were intricately cut from the stone of the mountain. What you would assume to be rather bland in looks considering the singular material they were working with, in fact turned out to be quite decorative as they’d added additional carvings to the faces of the house. A lot of them made no sense but every once and awhile you’d see a house that depicted a bloody battle or such.

I decided to turn my gaze towards the city to see anything of interest. From what I could see, the city layout was very circular in how it was designed. Well, semi-circular considering the city only formed around the base of half the mountain. You could see multiple instances of open courtyards like the large one in Aboretia. Not only that, but I could see what looked like a domed building as well. Perhaps a theatre or a gladiator pit? Okay, that last one might have been a joking one though, but I’m pretty sure it would be used for that as well.

Eventually our fucking long ass trek up the slope of the mountain came to the end with a fucking massive pair of wrought iron gates that had more than two guards standing outside. By more than a few I mean about six guards. All of them were wearing that massive full plate armour that I had been seeing.

The Captain didn’t even stop or pause, instead the iron gates just seemed to open for her as if they were expecting her. For all I knew, they probably were. Either way, the opening of said gates lead us to another small pathway much like the road but this was guarded by walls that were easily twenty feet high or so. At the end of the pathway was a rather beautiful looking open courtyard. Though only beautiful because it had nice green grass and mid-summer bloomed trees. I was tempted to question how they got the grass up here, either through putting a shit ton of dirt in a hole or through magic I assume, but I didn’t ask.

At the other side of the courtyard was another gate, and behind that was a large castle that was cut like the buildings leading up to this place. You could only tell it was a castle because of the windows that line the thing, and the carvings. An interesting note was that the castle had only two distinct sides. One that faced out over the mountain, and the one that faced the gate we were walking up to.

Did I forget to mention said courtyard had a multitude of minotaurs in dress uniform or armour? Well they did, and I have to admit it was a rather interesting show of force. It was as if they were trying to impress me.

Then a thought hit me. I had been given papers upon landing in Aboretia. They had been waiting for me, and they were signed off by Celestia and Luna. I facepalmed while following the captain. Of course I was being led up here, there was someone of fucking power expecting me. I mean, I doubt that Luna or Celestia had set me up but the transferred documents probably drew the eye of someone important. Well shit, that meant I needed to put on my normal and focused face.

Yeah I know I was more or less a shit show with Luna and Celestia, but I had known one of them before I had actually met them, so it made it easier to be around them knowing that they were not informal stick up their ass rulers. For all I knew, there was a minotaur statesman or something that was exactly that.

Anyway, we walked through the second set of iron doors, which lead into another courtyard but this one also had flowers and such in it, so at least the minotaurs had a taste for horticulture? Honestly I don’t know where I was going with that thought.

Moving on! I was starting to get annoyed with the amount of doors I had to fucking walk through as a third set were opened up for us, this time leading into the castle itself. And I have to say I was more or less amazed beyond fucking reason. The motherfucking halls were lined with gold. I’m talking fifteen foot walls of fucking gold. Sure they probably weren’t full gold, just a thin layer, but they were motherfucking gold! I thought I had seen it all when I used literal coinage made of gold, but nope. This was the end-all be-all of ridiculousness in terms of country value.

I made up my mind to forage around for gold if I could to bring some back to earth. As you can see, I forgot said plan and came home rather empty handed. If I could go back, I would find spend my entire time there just prospecting for gold so I could be rich beyond my wildest dreams. Fucking own a town or something, don’t know what I would do with it …

Now, for the oddest reason, the minotaurs felt like adorning the golden walls with paintings and curtains instead of just letting people marvel in the golden beauty. What a waste. Though admittedly it did stop me from more or less going blind due to the fucking shininess of the walls.

Right, so after admiring the walls much to the confusion of my group who I hadn’t talked to the entire journey up to the castle, we were lead to another fucking set of doors. The Captain stopped and turned to us. “Wait here, and I swear if you go anywhere …”

I wanted to reply with something snarky, but instead she just turned and entered the doors before closing them behind her. I stilled flipped her the bird for fun after she left. Then I turned back to my group behind me. “So, who’s with me in stripping the walls of gold and making a run for it?”

“Trixie questions your affinity for the metal,” said blue mare … said.

“If I accumulate as much gold as humanly possible, I will be a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very ver-”

“Get on with it, doofus!” Gilda said with a chuckle before slapping my leg.

“Rich man. Gold is a precious metal back home for a reason. Limited quantity and all that jazz,” I said as I moved to a wall to inspect it closer.

“Is he always this odd?” Iron Will spoke up in what could be causally defined as a stage whisper. Also known as a whisper I could fucking hear.

“You get used to it over time, though he does get worse at times,” Gilda replied back, probably just to spite me or something like that. I didn’t care too much as I was too busy inspecting the walls. Hell, I even managed to find out how thick the gold plating was! The door frame gave it away thankfully.

It was a fucking inch thick. See, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you all knew how malleable gold was, that meant that the gold that was stretched over these walls was probably enough to fucking buy a small country back before the Reckoning. Hell, I think more than a few countries would have been jealous at just this amount on the walls. I almost couldn’t wait to see what else was made of gold here.

Maybe I could ask for that as payment! My mind was spinning with ideas of how much I could make off doing such simple tasks.

“What were you doing?” the Captain said as the left side of the dual doors opened up. Thankfully I was on the right side.

“Just admiring how much gold you have lining the walls,” I replied with a small grin. Of course the Captain was having none of it, and just deadpanned me with her straight face.

“Right, well if you’re done with that, Governor Hades is waiting for you,” she replied before opening the door. Yeah it took all and I mean all of my fucking willpower to not laugh at that. A fucking politician was named after the Greek God of the Underworld. Yeah, this world had the fucking best sense of irony ever.

Hell, I think I might have been sweating with how hard I was struggling to keep my laughter in. If you knew me from before the Reckoning, I was very … dissatisfied with politicians and all the fucking stupidity that they brought upon the world. Well I might not have fully lost that hatred, so I have to admit that I had extremely low hopes going into this meeting.

Seriously, you want me to explain it? Well I guess it is kind of roundabout. Still, I hate explaining jokes. Let’s make it easier but not fully revealed. Essentially Hades, as I said, was the Greek God of the Underworld. The Underworld is known as Hell or Tartarus. In more modern days, who is usually associated with ruling Hell? There ya go. Makes sense more now, huh?

Anyways, despite thinking this guy was going to be sitting on something that Xerxes from Three Hundred would be proud of, he was actually standing of all things, in front of a table that was also surrounded by other minotaurs. Though the throne also wasn’t made of gold, instead just a nice ornate wood.

The minotaur I assumed to be the Governor was the only one not wearing some sort of military garb. Instead, he was wearing a gold coloured sash across his chest, from shoulder to waist. Seriously, these fucking minotaurs like gold and yellow.

Said assumed Governor raised his head to look at us as we entered the doors. He waved his hand and the doors closed behind us. Well, fuck, right? He then proceeded to gesture over to us as he stepped around the center table that we were all looking at. Some of the other minotaurs looked up but quickly looked back at the table, still talking in hushed voices.

The Governor looked like a typical minotaur honestly, and I bet I would sound racist as fuck for saying so but so far, aside from obvious distinctions, minotaurs were starting to look the same. I have to say though, he was the only male minotaur so far to actually have a decent amount of hair on his head. The others had short cuts or in Iron Will’s case: no mane, just fur.

“Ah welcome; Ryan, is it? The Equestrian Princesses sent good word on you. I figured I would welcome you to Tayros personally since you have such powerful friends. Though it seems you arrived at a rather unfortunate time,” he spoke, going on like any typical politician when they wanted to butter up someone up. Hell his voice was smooth and sounded like any typical charismatic fuck that tried to sweet talk you into something.

“If unfortunate means fighting off a raiding party then sure, let’s go with unfortunate,” I said with a distinctive frown across my face. Right away, I could see the Governor’s face change as he realised that I was having none of his honey covered bullshit

“Straight to the point it seems. A little unfortunate as there are so few that wish to sit and talk casually,” he replied in kind. I was getting a vibe that he was trying to play me, though I didn’t put much credence to the idea … for the mean time.

“I’ll shit and bullshit with the best, but I think we can agree that right now is not the best time for that,” I answered. Yep, I was being straightforward and kind of dickish with the leader of a fucking nation. I could actually hear the facepalming by Gilda and Trixie. It was a distinct sound that I was getting used to hearing. Iron Will on the other hand let out a low chuckle, so perhaps I was doing the right thing? Fuck if I knew.

He looked me up and down for a second before asking me the million-dollar question. “If we are going to be to the point and candid, what brought you here?”

“Well I was going to sightsee, spend some time taking in the many historical and beautiful sights your country has to offer, then move on to another country until I could finally go home. Of course, that was before the little debacle with the train. Now? Now I want nothing more than to make those fuckers pay for taking innocent lives,” I replied with a neutral voice, no venom or anything seeping in. Why would it when it’s just another normal day at the office?

Those lines caught the attention of a few of the minotaurs by the table. One of them looked more akin to a Spartan warrior than anything. Maybe Roman Legion? Not sure, probably a combination. See, he had a rather sculpted looking torso body armour, breastplate is probably the right word, that looked like it was plated gold once more. For leggings he had that Roman Legion type skirt design, and to top it off, under his arm was an exact replica of a Spartan’s helmet. If any of you have been taught history or remember old movies and such, it’s the one with horse mane or whatever standing up out of it in a … mane-type design. Probably heard the word before but I can’t seem to remember it.

Anyway, said minotaur gave a snort before voicing his own opinion. “Oh, and what could you do to help us that our army couldn’t?”

“One thousand one hundred,” I replied, baiting the question of what I meant.

“What? What does that number mean?” The Governor asked me. I was a little disappointed it wasn’t the jackass at the table.

“Meters. One thousand one hundred meters. One of the longest confirmed kills I have made,” I replied with a deadpan voice.

The minotaur general … think it was general, I truly didn’t give a shit, just scoffed at that notion, not even going as far as to reply to the statement. So I decided to just show them … sorta. I needed to switch out my magazines anyway, so I swung my M110 off my shoulder and popped off the magazine, pocketing it before pulling another one out of my pocket and shouldering my rifle once more. I walked past the Governor to the table, meanwhile pushing a round out of the magazine.

“Catch,” I said before tossing the bullet at the General. He caught it one handed like a boss before looking at it, inspecting it as if it were some foreign concept. “Your guns are horribly outdated by my standards. That seven-six-two round right there can punch through any armour you might have and from as far away as nearly a kilometer. Just imagine what it would do to your skull from that distance or more?”

I have to admit that seeing a bunch of ‘leaders’ gawking at as if it were something revolutionary … which it was, was something that almost made me laugh. The reason I didn’t was because that would ruin my badassery. Eventually the round made its way around the table, many of the minotaurs muttering about it. Before it could pass me by, I snatched it out of the hands of one of them, much to their annoyance.

“You’re not keeping this. I refuse to gift you advanced tech of any kind, especially ballistics,” I stated before slipping the round back into the magazine then slotting it into the rifle. “I offer my abilities, not my tech. Now, if you want my skills, better choose now before I decide to do this on my own.”

The Governor shushed any sort of comments from his peanut gallery before turning back to us. Yes, there is still a us, despite barely mentioning them, only because they were basically behind me for the entirety of this whole thing, they still exist! Anyway, Governor Hades spoke up finally. “While your purported skills would be useful, we can’t abide in hiring a mercenary. With that said, if you happen to bring proof of any kills to a city mayor or a Legion General, you will be rewarded with pay.”

“Contract work is fine,” I replied before remembering the most important part of coming here. “That still doesn’t give me the intel needed to help out.”

“I’m sure you can understand that as Governor of Tayros, I can’t be caught giving you state secrets … perhaps as you leave you will run into someone that will give you what you need,” he replied with a slightly mischievous grin. I swear, it was like they were reading this off a script or something, it was just too damn generic. “Now, I must get back to business. It was a pleasure meeting you and your companions.”

See, he said that yet he never got the names of the others, just me. Truly he was a typical politician if you didn’t already get that idea from what I’ve been saying this entire time. At least that feeling that he was going to do something shifty didn’t come to pass. Of course, that didn’t mean I was going to close the flap of my pistol holster anytime soon.

So the Governor turned and walked away while I did the same, and so did my friends. When we got out of the room is when they finally decided to speak up.

“How the hay did you get away with that?” Gilda said.

“Trixie is surprised as well!”

“That took big kahunas,” Iron Will said with a small chuckle.

“Seriously, do you even understand what the buck just happened?” Gilda said immediately after, not letting me answer the first question.

“Trixie admits that she didn’t expect you of all beings to be that monumentally stupid,” said blue mare exclaimed.

“You might have as well told the Governor to go buck himself!” Catbird hissed at me.

I held up my hands to cease further comments from the two, Iron Will was just shaking his head with a grin. “Alright, I’m lost. What did I do wrong? Iron Will?”

“We minotaurs are a proud race, especially in our homes. You dictated the entire conversation which would be very insulting for most other minotaurs. Iron Will can see how you got away clean, though. Governor Hades is one of the most … intricate rulers in our history,” the large minotaur replied.

“Huh, well I’m still standing so it seems all worked out,” I said with a shrug, probably almost causing Gilda to get an aneurysm from the way her eye was twitching. I often refuse to admit my stupidity, and only now am I telling you that looking back on the whole thing, I probably should have known better than more or less challenge the ruler of Tayros like that. Of course, I wouldn’t show that to Gilda; didn’t want to give her any ammunition, after all.

Trixie just shook her head before speaking with a resigned voice. “So what now? Should Trixie be worried about what you plan to do next?”

“Not really. We’re sticking with the same plan as before, just going to take a few detours into wherever those Red Coats are coming from, then pop a few heads and then get back to normal. It’ll be like it never happened, and you won’t have to get your hooves or claws wet.”

“Trixie is starting to regret staying …”

“You can leave whenever, you know?” I replied before starting to walk off. I admittedly wanted to get the hell out of the place, because the fucking gold on the walls was tempting me.

“And miss a great story to use with her show! Trixie thinks not!” The blue mare replied indignantly.

I simply shrugged in response before turning around and walking backwards while looking at Iron Will. “What about you? You can do whatever you want, I mean I just grabbed you to get you out of that mess with the soldiers.”

“Iron Will was already thinking of joining the Tayros Legion as it is, but I think more can be done without the restrictions and rules that are imposed on soldiers. Iron Will will join you!” He exclaimed rather loudly. I’ll admit that there was a part of me that was saying I should remind him that I never actually invited him, but he had been useful in fending off those asshats. That and I think I might have said this already, but his knowledge of Tayros would help greatly.

“Well, that means we’ll need to stock up more supplies. Next stop is going to be the marketplace or whatever. After that we’ll hit the road, deal?”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Gilda asked as she hovered beside me, her arms crossed in annoyance.

“You signed up for this willingly, Gilda. Who the hell knows why you would do so but you did,” I said with a smirk which just earned me a hard stare from her before a sigh of reluctance. I reached out and pet her on the head, “that’s a good catbird.”

She of course slapped my hand away from her with a grumble, but thankfully that was it and she didn’t bring out her claws to take a piece out of me. That would have been a nice little addition to the story, adding on tonnes of extra story telling about how I had to go to a fucking hospital. Either way, we eventually retraced our original route all the way through the castle back to the entrance, where there was a rather lean female minotaur waiting for us.

Yes, she was topless, you fucking pervs. I like tits as much as any other guy but that doesn’t mean it was the first thing I noticed … sigh, no she wasn’t as busty, much smaller in size. Christ.

Can I fucking move on or are you guys going to obsess about mythical creature boobs? Seriously, this is fucking amazing that you can possibly be so single minded.

Whatever, I’m going to move on. The sow walked up to us with a generic looking vanilla file folder clasped in her hands below her waist. She had a serene smile on her face, though for all I knew she could have fucking hated her job so much that she wore a false mask like that.

“I am tasked to give this to you. My boss would like to thank you for your compliance in ensuring said documents never leave Tayros. Have a pleasant day,” she said before handing over the file folder to me, which I instantly took, before walking away down the hall we had just came down.

I looked down at the thing in my hands for a few seconds, a little baffled that such sensitive documents had been forked over so quickly and so easily. I wanted to believe that there was some kind of trick here, but for the life of me I couldn’t think of anything. Well aside from the most obvious.

Without speaking, I rolled the folder up enough to create a decently tight cylinder shape before stuffing it into my pack. The others looked at me oddly for a second.

“And you are hiding it because …,” Trixie offered as she rolled a hoof, gesturing for me to complete the sentence.

“Imagine being seen reading it by those who don’t know about said deal? I don’t feel like actually being arrested,” I answered before opening the door to the palace. “After you?”

Trixie, Gilda, then Iron Will walked out the door, with me in tow this time, though that didn’t stay that way for long as Trixie paused in the middle of the courtyard, turning to look back at me.

“Where are we headed next? Trixie has little clue as to what plans you have,” the blue mare snarked with a smirk on her muzzle. I rolled my eyes in turn, though my sunglasses obviously didn’t let them see it.

“We need supplies for the wagon, ones for Iron Will that is. We might need a map of Tayros if possible. I doubt the Governor was nice enough to include such a thing in these documents. Iron Will, got any idea of the best place to get food and general survival gear for yourself?”

“Iron Will knows many places like that,” he replied, but that topic of conversation took a screeching halt as Gilda interjected.

“Wait a sec, why is your name Iron Will? I’ve never heard a minotaur name like that before!” Gilda spoke up, poking Iron Will in the chest with a talon.

“And how many minotaurs do you know?” Countered the bull. Yes, bull is the general term for male minotaurs. Sigh, yes I know it is just like cows … can I move on?

Gilda faltered at the line briefly before resuming, “I’ve known enough to know that your name is nothing like theirs.”

“And you are right, griffon. Iron Will is simply the name I adopted during my stay in Equestria. It helped me market myself to ponies. It has stuck ever since,” he replied with a smirk on his face, and in a surprisingly sly voice instead of his typical brash one.

“What is your real name then?” I questioned, not really liking this ‘disguise’ stuff.

“Iron Will likes to keep secrets as well, little man,” he answered, returning to his brash way of talking. Honestly, I wasn’t even mad at the little quip at me. Why the fuck would I be when it is literal in every sense. Still, I wasn’t sure about the whole idea of him withholding his name, but if that was what I had to put up with in order to have a guide and an ex-soldier amongst the group, then I would easily deal.

“Understandable. Now, if there are no more questions I would like to get us out of the city before the sunsets,” I said while gesturing for us to start moving.

“That’s about six hours away, doofus,” GIlda snarked.

“Exactly, my point. So, lead on Iron Will before the guards start thinking that we’re trespassing or something like that, so chop chop,” I stated before clapping my hands a few times as if to scare them into moving like you might a pet. Of course all I received was odd stares and eye rolls at my little antics.

Eventually they started to move though, Iron Will at the front of the group while Gilda more or less flew above our heads, though not high enough to warrant her flying over the walls. She was doing that weird ass hover shit where she barely flaps her wings yet somehow manages to stay in the air. You remember that, right? How Rainbow Dash the walking skittles bag somehow defied physics by staying in the air even when laughing? Well it seems that Gilda decided to do it as well because fucking reasons! Now, they know that I wasn’t from that world so I’d probably be fine with asking such a question, but at the same time I’m pretty sure that they would just laugh at me for asking it. See my conundrum?

So I just kept my mouth shut and shook my head at all the ridiculousness that I had been through already. Sure it was probably going to get worse the longer I stayed in Candyland, but maybe my sanity would crack by then and I’d just accept things for once? Pfft, yeah fucking right.

The walk back down from the castle was surprisingly quick compared to the walk up, though that could probably be attributed to the fact that going downhill is much, much easier than uphill when faced with a twenty fucking degree slope. Oh god, walking up that thing brought back old flashbacks of travelling when I was a kid.

Eh, sure, I’ll tell you this brief one. It’s an amusing memory to say the least.

So basically my parents and I were in Europe for vacation when I was younger, maybe twelve. We were in a small town that had a rather beautiful castle nearby but not right in town. My dad wanted to visit said castle so we start to walk inland a little, as the town was along a river. Well in his infinite wisdom, he decreed that we’d go up this two-mile hill that was at a twenty-degree slope. I told him that I was sure that the castle was the other way as a sign basically said that way to the castle.

Being the young kid at the time, my dad was obviously the more knowledgeable in this aspect, so we followed him. Long story short, we found nothing up the hill except exhaustion, then proceeded to cross through two farm fields and finally down a forty degree, tree-filled hill which ended up depositing us right next to this little restaurant that was at the entrance to a five mile walk to the castle. In the end, walking to and from the castle was a good thirty mile walk. Remember, I was twelve back in a time when cars were the most common method of distance travel.

Yeah, it was hell, but looking back it helped me somewhat prepare for my life now. Though I did luck out by finding a still useable bike to ride on. And I am not going to tell you where it is. I am smart enough to know not to keep it anywhere near my camp near the city, almost learned the lesson the hard way once … but that’s another story for a different time.

I’ve deviated enough in the side story. Either way, after retracing our route back to the bridge and all that, Iron Will led us through the city in earnest, probably taking us in the direction of one of the market plazas that I had seen from the mountain road.

It was a nice enough scenery to actually pay attention - no real metropolis feel to it where there were sparse natural plants while the buildings were overwhelming and overbearing. Somehow the city kept a rather smaller town feel, despite there being a lot of minotaurs and other races walking the streets, and the houses were closer together. It was an odd place really, kind of looked like a utopia in a sense. No doubt there was some parts of the city that were shady as shit, I mean there is not a single place in existence that doesn’t have an area that is more or less looked down upon by everyone who lives there. It’s like a natural law or something akin to that.

With that said, I still admired that the minotaurs put up a great look to the city. The actual residents followed along the same lines in a way, in that they were nice enough in outwardly appearance but I could tell from the sideways glances that they were more than a little curious and slightly skeptical of who we were. Honestly, that was the one downside to the minotaurs. They seemed to be curious of those who are different, while the ponies … at least the ones I encountered more or less didn’t give enough fucks about your looks. Maybe that was just how it seemed.

Eventually we reached a store that was named Ferox’s Outfitters. The store itself looked like a general supply store, though one that obviously didn’t sell food by the looks of it. If the displays were any indicator, this was essentially the Cabella’s or general sporting store of Tayros … yeah I figured none of you would understand that reference.

I opted to wait outside while Iron Will and the others went inside to see as to what they needed. While I was the outdoorsman and survival expert for the most part, giving Trixie a little bit of credit, I had no need to actually enter the store and peruse the merchandise. Everything I needed was either on me or in the caravan.

Yeah, I guess I could have gone in and given some advice to what we needed but honestly this was me evaluating Iron Will and his capabilities a little. A lot can be said about a person by what they buy and deem necessary. You’ll often encounter those that get items that are more of a burden than anything. It’s not as common in our world now but back before The Reckoning … it was rampant. I won’t get into the sheer amount of absurdity I saw … maybe it was just me and my personal bias towards how stupid we were during that time period. Doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?

So, as I leaned up against the side of the store’s brick structure, I decided to take out the folder and at least do an initial look through on what we were dealing with. Sure I’d explain it all to the rest of the group, which I will tell you about in detail, I needed to know at least enough to construct an idea.

I’m going to save the details for later but from my initial look … essentially a minotaur civil war was the big issue going on. And it wasn’t a pretty one to say the least, with the major breakaway faction being the ones who attacked the train … obviously. Hell, this was looking like a very twisted American Civil war. North versus south in a grudge match over ideals. And probably just like the civil war, the shown ideals from both sides were most likely rather impressive fronts.

Christ, somehow I’m starting to become my father, spinning everything into politics or other controversial stuff. Thankfully I can give you a reprieve from personal opinions here and move the story forward a little. I ended up spending more than a little bit of time ‘glossing’ over that document. Hell, I would be re-reading it in its entirety to the group. So when they came out, I had already put the document away and was waiting patiently for them.

Now, while it obviously became apparent that Iron Will was anything but an idiot when it came to survival shit, the initial look I got from the gear he had purchase was impressive. It looked like he was ready for basically any conditions that we encountered. In my mind that was already a check for him being a perfect fit into this group.

Let’s see, from what I could see that wasn’t stowed away in the backpack, he had a nice new utility belt that was now carrying a canteen of sorts which might or might not have been filled up, couldn’t really tell. On the other side he had a decent looking knife in a sheath that wrapped around the upper leg of his pants. Thank god for the fact that minotaurs had skinny ass legs compared to humans, because that would have been one large holster for that knife. Also, well he had a compass attached on another little loop, and in his left hand he was carrying a map which I could easily assume was of Tayros. Even homegrown ones need directions, you know?

And honestly, other than that he just had a large ass backpack. So I guess I couldn’t really be impressed by what he was carrying at the moment but I gave the benefit of the doubt in that he knew what he was doing. I mean the stuff I could see was already pointing in a good direction for him to be of the smarter class of people. If he had anything less than what I could see, I would have doubted his time in the military.

“So, all set?” I asked the trio, noticing that Trixie and Gilda were carrying what looked like saddlebags on their backs, ones larger than previous ones I had seen. I was going to inquire, but my question got answered in short order.

“Iron Will is good to go!” The minotaur boomed with a smirk. Trixie and Gilda just rolled their eyes, Gilda not even bothering to respond, but Trixie added onto the declaration.

“For a store with that name, Trixie was surprised to learn they sell groceries as well,” the blue mare stated. “Can Trixie assume that we will be opening up her wagon when outside the city?”

“Trixie is right in her assumptions,” I replied back, earning a nod of agreement from her. “Iron Will, lead the way.”

“With pleasure,” he said before taking point and more or less marching us through the large traffic. Large in the size sense, not amount. Though it wasn’t like Gilda had any issue as she lazily hovered over us. Even being weighed down with groceries in her pack, she still managed to make flying look like it was nothing more than just flapping her wings every now and then. I can imagine all of the jealous birds we have.

I just shook my head at the thought. It wasn’t going to be the last time, mind you.

Iron WIll did an expert job in leading us through the city, and soon enough we were standing at the foot of a very fucking large set of gates, much larger than any of the previous ones. Hell, the wall itself must have been at least fifty feet high, while the gates were probably three quarters or so of that. Whatever they had going in and out of these walls, must have been something to see.

Like all the other gates, the guards there were cautious as fuck and looked armed to the teeth, so we went through the usual looking over of papers, though it took a little longer because Iron Will wasn’t exactly covered in my documents, so we had to wait for him to be cleared through the ‘checkpoint.’

Due to his hold up, we decided to wait outside of the walls, just to the left on a patch of dirt that was rather empty. See, the outskirts of the walls weren’t just open land, nope. There were numerous tents and the like out there of what I could only assume were either refugees from down south or those who didn’t have the right ‘credentials’ to make their way into the city. Of course by credentials I mean money. Though that’s all speculation without any sort of basis other than the document in the folder.

We decided it was the best time to get Trixie’s caravan back up and going, and it couldn’t have been timed any better as Iron Will was just walking up as I placed the tiny ass thing on the ground in front of Trixie.

“Watch and be amazed!” Trixie more or less shouted before charging her horn up, before letting loose a purple coloured beam at the tiny thing. With a brief flash, the caravan was standing in front of us once more, in its large wooden glory. I looked over to Iron Will, who was just shaking his head.

“Unicorns and their magic, such a cheap way of doing things,” he said, not even that surprised by the ‘trick’ that Trixie pulled. I reached up and patted him on the shoulder.

“I know the feeling, bro,” I said before walking back to the caravan. Trixie and Gilda were already inside sorting things out. You know, I don’t think I ever really looked into it until this point, and I know that I definitely did not describe it to you all.

Well it looked like a regular RV-type setting to me. Which I guess is tough for you all to imagine when most of you probably either never heard of an RV or never owned one. Essentially it was symmetrical in the design for the most part. The initial entry way was flanked by closets, but immediately after that there was two couches that I guess were also fold-out beds in a way. After those couches there was a little section that had a mirror and a general purpose desk on my right, with another closet behind it. At the far end was a room with a closed door, so who knew what was behind it. Gilda and Trixie were currently rearranging the groceries into the closets and on the couches.

“Mind if I put my pack in here?” I asked, causing Trixie to poke her head up from what she was doing. She squinted her eyes at me before looking around. Eventually she pointed to the first closet on the right.

“Put it in there,” she said briefly before going back to what she was doing. I simply shrugged my pack off and gently opened the door to said closet. It wasn’t exactly filled but in there were other bags that were filled and not filled. Schrodinger’s bag if you want to be nerdy about it. Either way, I managed to fit the large ass thing inside before closing the door.

Once fully back outside, I did a series of stretches, much to the curious eye of Iron Will. I simply ignored his looks for the moment as I managed to pop both my hips, multiple spots in my back, a couple of neck pops, and even a shoulder one. Eventually I managed to stop groaning in relief long enough to see that Iron Will had an eyebrow propped in complete bemusement at my actions.

“When you get to my age, sonny, you learn that stretching and cracking your joints feels as good as sex,” I answered, which earned a good hearty snort from the bull. And honestly, if it didn’t sound like he was going to burst out laughing I would have wondered if he was going feral or something on me.

Sure I had dealt with those buffalo pretty decently, but compared to me they weren’t that big … while Iron Will was obviously a fucking giant. Yeah, I would stand in front of a charging buffalo any day instead of a minotaur. But that is neither here nor there.

Almost immediately after that, Trixie and Gilda reappeared. “Trixie has gotten her trailer sorted and is ready to go. Perhaps we should start walking before discussing what that folder has?”

“Let’s get out of this place, already. Some of these minos are looking to get sliced,” Gilda muttered from her perch on top of the trailer. First time I had heard someone use a shorthand term for minotaurs. Also one of the first times that Gilda actually looked a little concerned about a place, though I could easily see why, as more than a few minotaurs were eyeing us with what were implied to be not happy intentions.

I didn’t even need to vocalize my agreement, instead taking up point alongside Iron Will as we walked down the main pathway, which had turned into a dirt path the moment we left the city. You can see the hard earned minotaur taxpayers’ gold at work right there! Ha!

The entire time we were walking through the ‘shantytown’ I kept one hand on my pistol at all times. I wasn’t going to give anyone a chance to jump me, and while it might sound like a fucking horrible stereotype to some, it is necessary now. Even back home here I do it in certain areas. You all have got it good with a decent life and a decent community. Europe not so much; Berlin is the best example of such a place. The areas that are more or less still standing are ‘decent’ in a fucked up kind of way, but when you find yourself in the very rundown areas … always be ready to get jumped by some desperate person.

So I take that mentality into any shady as shit area that don’t have a clear guard patrol or some sort of armed presence. The reason I wasn’t jumpy in Equestria is probably because pastel coloured ponies look harmless as fuck. Sure, I bet a good enough unicorn could literally turn me inside out but with the amount of friendly smiles on their faces no matter where you went, I don’t think you’d often encounter such types. Well, that and all the places I visited were rather decent communities most likely … minus that gang.

Eventually we managed to get out of that place and were once more into the open grassland areas that I miss. Back home here we see too many deserts between the massive forests, and even in Equestria there had been many arid and dry lands. I was happy to finally see that there was indeed a sprawling grassland. Well, at least somewhat sprawling. Actually, I’m being too kind. There was some grassland, and to the northeast there was more grassland but unfortunately I was dictating our direction as south east which I could already see as turning back to an arid looking country. Oh fucking joy.

Still, got a little bit of grassland.

“So, doofus, going to tell us what’s in the folder?” Gilda asked from her perch. Trixie and Iron Will chimed in with their own curiosity.

“One day that smart beak of yours is going to get you in trouble, catbird,” I replied. “As for the document, well it’s pretty straightforward. Tayros is in the midst of civil war.”

Introducing the mixed race chorus of ‘what’ shouted at me. Not deafening, hardly even a competition when you have heard a fifty cal. shot fired from right beside you. Still, it was a decent yell by them all, though I think Iron Will was the most ticked off out of all of them. They chattered at me for a moment, shouting all sorts of questions, and damn was I tempted to fire a shot into the air to get their attention … then I realise my pistol was still suppressed.

“Shush,” I said, just loud enough for them to hear me. It wasn’t instantly quiet but they quieted down long enough for me to talk. “Good, now let me explain before you start assaulting me with your voices once more. I don’t feel like being molested in that way today.”

In a great feat of simultaneous eye rolling, I was given the floor to speak about what I’d read thus far. I started speaking as I passed the folder to Iron Will, “I’ll hand the folder around now, but I’ll give you a brief synopsis. Roughly two months ago, a form of what I would label as neo-fascists minotaur supremacists, or what you all label as the evil pricks, essentially seceded the entirety of the south cities of Tayros. Any city that is south of Ishtar is more or less at war with every city north of Ishtar. While the Governor hasn’t really given me much of the details that are probably known to them, he has given me a general unit placement map as well as a list of high ranking leaders along the southern group. Oh, forgot to mention but they’ve taken to calling themselves The Red Banner, which is a fucking retarded name, but still one that is apparently powerful enough to spark a civil war.”

“Now, aside from the basic overview, what I’ve read basically states that they are more or less based out of Ephyra, where their leader, a minotaur by the name of Hannibal, which is somewhat ironic, is their leader. Not much is known about him aside from the fact he somehow managed to deceive half a fucking nation with delusions that every other race is inferior. So with this info, and that list in the folder, all we’re going to do is just wander around like a bunch of fun loving travellers, and set up camp in certain tactical locations so as to put a few red x’s through that list if you know what I mean.”

They looked at me for a few seconds, the obviousness of the entire statement going right over their heads, much to my dismay. Everything just works out so much better when people just understand what I’m talking about. That’s why this has dragged on for so long, because I have to explain a shit tonne of stuff to all of you; not that I entirely mind in this situation. At least when I explain stuff, it needs to be explained because most of you would have no chance in hell of knowing about it before me telling you. Some shit is just like that.

“I take my rifle, put a bullet through their thick skulls, then we get to put a giant red x … or whatever colour of ink we have, through their profile showing they are dead,” I slowly explained to them, which in turn caused them to finally come to the conclusion of what I was talking about.

“Is that it?” Gilda eventually asked from her perch on top of the trailer. Lucky bird was probably light enough to hardly make a dent in Trixie’s carried weight.

“Is what it?” I asked, legitimately confused as to what she was implying.

“Your plan, is that all? Seems stupidly simple,” she stated with a scoff.

“That’s the overarching plan of attack, yes. I’m not going to devise specifics this far ahead. The smartest people know that no plan survives first contact,” I replied with an air of superiority around me. A self-put air, mind you, hoping to see if she got the little jab at me.

“Smartest? Coming from the same dude who nearly got knocked unconscious back in prissy, prissy Canterlot,” Gilda responded with a raspberry.

“What’s that? I can’t hear you over the sound of you trying to fly through a tornado,” I answered in turn.

Her eyes bugged out for a second before she dove at me. I like to think it was all in play fighting and the like, but damn did she look scary in that moment. Also I was not prepared to deal with those talons in the least bit. Hadn’t really put much thought into it, because we had a pretty good run of not coming to blows despite the barbs thrown at each other.

Thankfully the Great and Powerful Diplomat stopped us … mainly her. By stopped her, I mean she literally halted Gilda in mid dive with her magic.

“Now, now. As much as Trixie would love to see who wins in this fight, we can’t have you tearing out each other’s throats just yet. Let’s save that for the grand finale to this little adventure, yes?”

She displaced Gilda back up onto her perch on the trailer. It gave me an idea to bring up but I didn’t get the chance to change the subject like a smooth devil, instead having to listen to Gilda confirm that we were going to go at it once this is done.

“Sure, I’m game to teach this dweeb a lesson once we’re done,” she said with a smirk on her beak. I looked at her with scrutiny for a second, trying to see if I could glean anything from her. Didn’t manage to that time, her poker face was good … or true.

I simply shrugged my shoulders in response before giving a very non-committal ‘sure’ in response. Trixie looked pleased enough. “Excellent! Until then, let us refrain from attacking each other … Trixie would prefer not to have to field dress wounds.”

There was a minor chuckle that went around through all of us, including Iron Will who had been rather quiet during this little segment. Though he was also in the process of looking through the folder … again, I think. Don’t really blame him, after all it was his country that was currently in the midst of being torn apart.

Thankfully I did manage to bring forth my idea before I forgot. “Hey, Catbird. You’re currently the highest up out of all of us, not to mention you fly …”

“What’s your point?” Gilda cut me off.

“As I was about to say, why not act as our scout. I bet your eyesight is better than any of ours … or probably all of ours put together. Either way, it would be a shame to let your natural skills go to waste.”

Gilda rolled her eyes at that statement; who wouldn’t, honestly? “Don’t try to butter me up, doofus, I’m still going to teach you a lesson later.”

“You wouldn’t dare to hit an old man, would you?” I responded in kind. She just blew me another raspberry in response. “Anyway, if you go into my pack, there should be a pair of spotting binoculars. While I know your eyesight is probably ‘the thing of legends’ those binoculars would make it even more impressive.”

She proceeded to tap her claw against her beak for a few moments, as if she was actually thinking as to what she was going to do. Hell, she still had a smirk on her beak basically telling me that she had made up her mind but was hoping to see me walk backwards and trip on something.

Oh, yeah, I was walking backwards while talking to her and the other two. Better to talk to their face in my books.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” She said before lightly hoping off her perch and darting into the doorway of Trixie’s trailer.

When I saw that, a stray thought crossed my mind. She had been sitting in that open doorway the entire time we had been travelling from Appleloosa to Ponyville … that would mean the entire time she had a front row seat to Trixie’s ass. I bet there were countless guys on the planet that would have given an arm or a leg for such a view.

…

It’s a fucking expression! Yes, prior to all of this nonsense … no, not Equestria nonsense, The Reckoning, nonsense! Anyway, prior to this, that was a saying when you wanted something very badly that someone else could either get easily or was just lucky enough to have. Yeah, we had a bunch of fucked up sayings; that was our great society for you! Just you all wait, in time, you’ll develop your own sayings that will make no sense … assuming shit changes…

Whatever, let’s move on.

So once Gilda came back out from the trailer, she had my spotting binoculars hanging from around her neck. She actually had a smile on her face as she moved them up to her eyes, looking ahead. I wondered if she had ever looked through such things before.

“I have to say, these are pretty cool. Gotta say, they actually do enhance my vision,” she said as she looked around with the binoculars raised.

“Wait, what?” I asked, a little confused.

“Every one of these I looked through before were lame, but these things are pretty good. Can see a blade of grass at about two kilometers away,” she said casually as if what she was saying made complete sense.

See, despite how good spotting binoculars are, they are not that fucking good. So what she was saying made sense in only one fucking way. Can anyone here guess what that one answer is?

…

Yep, you guessed it, mother-fucking magic. Yeah, I didn’t even bother to ask how the hell she could see a blade of grass that fucking far away. But I can guess that by the look on my face, the rest of them were confused as to why I was confused.

“You okay, human?” Iron Will asked.

“Yeah … yeah … yeah,” I simply said as I shook my head. I really wanted to try and understand the bullshit that I was being handed constantly, but at the same time Luna had already told me that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Speaking of which! We’re actually getting rather close to another dream thing with Luna. Yeah, she visited me in my dreams that night despite being absent the past few. Though that was probably due to me more or less closing myself off.

Anyway, we’d been walking for a while, and you wouldn’t have even known until I told you because I made some smooth ass transitions of time without explaining it. I mean, how many times do you want me to say ‘yeah I zoned out and let them talk for a while?’

Exactly.

So, after the whole binocular thing, we were looking at about seven o’clock and the sun was going down over the rolling-type hills in front of us. It was probably about time for us to post up and make camp. Sure we had been following the road, but we’d need to find a decent spot.

“Hey, Gilda. Pick out a spot for the night,” I called up to her, getting a thumb up in response.

After a few minutes of circling, she flew over to the left, just off the road that was by a couple of bushes, shrub like in quality if I do say so myself. Overall it was probably the best spot in general, only because it gave something to the area besides open and arid-looking plains. Sure there were bushes and the like elsewhere but these were of decent height, that being waist high, and enough to ensure we were somewhat enclosed.

It had probably been used before, based at least by the fact the bushes looked to be cut. So that means we claimed a decent spot after all.

“Good choice, Catbird,” I said which earned me the typical raspberry and eye roll combo that she had been doing for a while now. It was becoming a typical sight to see Gilda do such things. I think it was something akin to a natural response when she didn’t have anything to say in reply to witty comments.

Things were pretty quiet for the first half an hour or so as we set out about preparing for dinner and staying here. Of course my mind wandered while I was setting my stuff out for the regular inspection.

Gilda was doing the prep for our food that night. Trixie of course had her own food to look after, and by the looks of it, she was probably preparing for Iron Will as well; no real surprise that he was an herbivore. So yeah, that happened for some time, and eventually it got all the way to us actually eating before a word was spoken … to me! Fuck, I keep forgetting to mention that.

Yeah, it’s never dead silence, but I tend to tune out things not directly focused on me, only because it allows me to be more aware of my surroundings and the like. It’s like the reverse of tunnel vision, except that it’s blocking out the things that would distract me from noticing the big picture.

Anyway, as I was saying, finally someone, specifically Iron Will, actually turned a question to me. “So, human-”

“Ryan,” I interjected, to which he paused for a second before fixing his previous start.

“So, Ryan, Iron Will is curious as to why you want to get involved in my country’s problem,” he asked, looking across the fire at me.

Quick description interlude! Trailer was facing the fire but sitting off to the eastern side of the camp. I was sitting on a sitting pillow while facing south, and towards the small fire pit we had built in the middle. Trixie was sitting in front of her trailer, while Gilda was directly to my right.

I put my food down on my plate and then took a sip of my water before looking back and vocalizing my answer. “The situation of my world has made my base nature of being sympathetic take a nice little spike. That isn’t to say I am blinded by such feelings, but I will help whenever I can. Of course I also tend to seek out fucking revenge when I feel personally wronged. So you could say a little of column ‘A’ and a whole fucktonne of column ‘B.’”

“That only makes Iron Will more curious about where you came from. It sounds like an interesting story to say the least,” the big minotaur replied, and while I was slightly annoyed that I was having to explain this all again, I shrugged and decided why the hell not.

“I’ll keep it short-ish and sweet, kind of like all the other times. Maybe if you catch me when I’m sufficiently drunk you’ll get more, but for now … picture a world that first off has no magic yet has the scientific drive to expand and innovate. That was us before the event we called the Reckoning. Now imagine an entire species that somehow manages to hate and love each other at the same time, thus allowing multiple world wars. Said species then proceeds to create destructive weapons called nukes that could level an entire city in a flash. Yet we don’t … until one day where something sparks a global bombing by all nations that own such weapons. Following said bombing, we’re still alive and kicking and even ready to put this in the past. Then the entire planet says, ‘fuck all ya’ll’ then decides to basically change the laws of physics for a three-day span which turns our planet into a weird mutant of what it used to be.”

I took another sip of water before continuing on. “Now after all of that, we went from a global population of roughly seven and a half billion to maybe a billion at best, which can only be guessed. And the reason for that is because each country fell apart except for maybe two countries and they only survived because the earth apparently didn’t hate them as much. That left us in a state of constant struggle to live each day. I went through my own hell and now you see a forty-some-year-old jaded man who prior to this couldn’t kill an unintelligent animal, but now can kill another person if they are a legit threat.”

Another sip of water was had because it feels like a decent way to punctuate that I wasn’t exactly done. “So, yeah, that’s my situation prior to being here. I mean, you probably already knew ahead of time that I was unique in ways that spoke of me being not of this planet, yes?”

“Anyone could have seen it a mile away. I just chose not to speak about,” Iron Will stated smugly. It was a good cover and even I couldn’t see if he was bluffing. I simply shrugged in response before taking my dish and placing it on the steps to the caravan. And yes, they were actual dishes! Apparently Trixie knew cleaning spells, or at least I assumed she did.

When I came back to my spot I returned not with empty hands, but instead was cradling my final bottle of Ambershine. There was no way in hell I was going to share such a prized possession. You can be sure of that. Yet I could feel their eyes looking over me with curiosity as to whether they would get a drink.

“No.” I stated, not even bothering to specify as to what I was speaking about.

They looked about each other as I prepared to pour myself a cup. I looked up at the perfect time to see Trixie raise a hoof and open her mouth.

“No,” I said once more, before finishing pouring my cup and tightening the lid back up. Sure she could use her magic but I countered it by placing it in my lap, if she was going to try and grab it, she would be more or less be touching my junk as well. I knew that would be a line she wouldn’t cross anytime soon. “This is my last bottle; I’m not letting you moochers get any of it. Buy your own bottle next time we’re in town.”

Eye rolls all around; well, minus Iron Will who simply chuckled at the statement. That guy probably understood what I was talking about.

So we more or less sat around the fire talking for the rest of the night. Well they talked for the most part, Trixie asking Iron Will some questions, and the reverse happening. Most of it was about the life of a travelling performer slash advice giver. It was actually somewhat interesting to listen to as it gave me an idea of what some people actually went through prior to the Reckoning. Sure, we had the modern tech to help us along but most likely the idea was the same.

Of course, it also helped me realise the troubles a few people go through each day during the Reckoning. There are still travelling performers out there you know? Yeah they actually wander our new piece of heaven in search of settlements that need a little uplifting. Of course, they do have armed guards, seen more than a few in my days. But even then, sometimes they just disappear off the face of the earth, never seen or heard from again. It’s a sad little thing.

Eventually, as night set upon us, I stood up, a little tipsy but hardly anything since it was only a third of the bottle I had drunk over the span of a couple of hours. “Listen, I would suggest you all getting sleep. We’ll be up in about eight hours and going again, nice and early. We’ll do watches in two hour shifts from now on, cool? I’ll take first shift. Iron Will, the roof should be able to hold you … assuming you’re not over three hundred pounds or something like that. Trixie?”

“Trixie can assure you all that the roof of my trailer is sturdy enough to handle anything now!” She declared with pride, pointing a hoof up in some sort of declaration way? No idea what it was supposed to be.

“Now?” Gilda asked, her eyebrow perking up in curiosity. That earned a very quick fake yawn from the mare before she scampered out of sight into her trailer with assurances of how tired she was. I simply shook my head at the odd actions. Gilda chuckled a little before following the mare towards her trailer, giving me the best opportunity for a great quip.

“Hey, Gilda,” I said, preparing my awesome jab at how she had ‘spent’ a night with Trixie already. Yet when she turned to look at me with a questioning look, I just couldn’t do it. Perhaps I was actually feeling bad about all of the teasing that I had been putting her through. Of course I know the actual reason but I’m not going to tell you, because that’s up for you all to figure it out based on me as a character. Either way I rather lamely added, “have a good sleep, you’ve got third watch.”

“Whatever,” she said before walking through the trailer door and closing it behind her. I sighed loudly as I stood to pop my back. I looked over to Iron Will’s spot to find he was already on the move to the trailer roof. No good night or whatever … not like I really cared as it was. Iron Will was still somewhat of an outsider to the group. He’d need a few more days to fit in, and he’d get it … assuming he stayed alive and that jazz. Yeah, I know that sounded dark but that was probably going to be the reality of our situation.

I didn’t tell the group obviously, but things were never going to be as easy as I described. I knew this before everything that happened because, as I kept saying, ‘no plan survives first contact.’ There was going to be times where we’d get into situations that actually required we fight our ways out. I only had so much ammo to use, so we’d need to be smart and fight cautiously. I’d need to get myself a sword or something as well, just in case.

As the rest started to fall asleep, most likely, I sat down on the steps of the trailer and leaned softly against the door of the cabin. My mind was working overtime in thinking of what to do in general. I was trying to do that ‘three steps ahead’ planning idea, where you prepare for every situation, and while I was coming up with some good ideas, I was generally thinking more about ensuring that none of the group dies. I think it was the general animal-esque nature of them that made their survival more important to me. Somehow they seemed more important than all my other companions … could also be that they didn’t seem to be as capable in defending themselves.

I had to get the thoughts out of my head for the mean time, I couldn’t stand to speculate the entire night, since it was regarding them … they needed to hear it. So I decided that I should do the most efficient thing to pass the time, patrol the perimeter. If you want to pass the time when dealing with a menial task, a long task, or no task at all, you need to keep busy. Find something you can do to add to your job, or lack thereof, and it’ll make time fly by.

Trust me on this one, time flies not just when you’re having fun, but also when you’re busy as fuck. I remember back when I was working electrical, there were days when we literally had jackshit to do because the other crews were behind in their jobs and they were playing catch up. Well those days went by really slowly, but when we were busy and working hard, it seemed like the day passed in an instant.

And that’s my big tip for the day. Sure I’ve given you other little tidbits of advice, but that is the big one. Now back to the story.

Well, sorta, since this part is a transition to the ‘final scene’ of the day, which only came after I fell asleep.

…

Yeah, you all guessed it, another dream sequence visit by the darker and larger blue mare herself. Anyway, let me finish off this transition part.

So I spent the better part of the two hours, patrolling the night, listening carefully for the sounds of things that should not be wandering out in the middle of the night, namely minotaurs. Of course it was all quiet as far as I could tell, minus the howls in the distance and the chirping of grasshoppers and the like. Yeah, I was a little surprised to hear them despite the aridness of the area.

I made probably six full passes around the camp during the time, with each one taking twenty minutes of my time. In the end, my shift was dull, just like it should be. So when my watch beeped since my timer went off, I sighed in relief and made my way to the side of the trailer.

Using one of the wheels to help prop me up higher, I nudged Iron Will gently until he finally awoke. I didn’t want to shove the guy off, mainly because I didn’t know him well enough for that, and also because I didn’t need to frighten him before his watch.

When his eyes opened, he groaned deeply but surprisingly quietly before slowly slipping off the roof with murmurs of ‘I’m up, I’m up.’

“Nothing happen, and it’s looking quiet. Fire is still going well, but might need stoking,” I said before slipping the watch off my wrist and adding a six-hour timer to the thing. I tossed it to Iron Will who looked at it for a moment. “Wrist watch, has built in timer. I put six hours on it so when your shift is done, just hand it to Gilda and tell her the same shit I just told you.”

“Iron Will understands,” he said before yawning and stretching. I simply shook my head before taking the pillow he had been using and placing it under my head. I gave one last look up to the stars, then decided to try something. I flipped the night sky the bird before settling in for my portion of sleep.

One little black sequence followed by some lucid dreaming later and I was sitting in a kitchen, preparing some tea for the inevitable arrival of Luna. I only knew it was inevitable because I had basically left my dream open, as weird as that sounds. I mean, Luna still had yet to tell me how she finds my dreams but I left a door for her to use so perhaps that was the way. I made a mental note, or in this case a physical one, to ask her about that … and to see if she could use the stars to see me.

A couple of seconds later, there was a knocking at the door followed by a certain pony’s head peeking through the doorway. I simply smiled and gestured for her to enter. “Come on in and grab a seat. Tea?”

“You do know that’s not real, right?” She asked with a grin on her face, probably expecting me to answer in my normal sarcastic way. Well I would hate to disappoint.

“What? It isn’t? Has my entire life been merely a fragment of some twisted game? Everything I knew is a lie!” I said in a very monotone way as I grabbed some coffee cups, yeah not tea ones because reasons, and poured the tea into them. “Honey, sugar, whiskey?”

“Honey and some sugar are fine,” she replied. After making up her tea, I pulled out a flask of imaginary Ambershine and then poured the entire bottle into my tea cup, using my awesome dream bending ways to ensure that it never overflowed. That of course earned a snort giggle from Luna. Eventually I brought the tea over, and sat down to have a nice yet eventually serious conversation with her.

“I must ask, but have you been avoiding me?” Luna spoke up, surprising me slightly.

“No, just needed some dreamless nights, shut down the mind and not have to worry about stuff for a while, you know?” I replied, to which she just nodded her head before sipping her tea. Perfect time for a topic transition. “Though speaking of dreams, how do you even find me each time?”

“When anyone in Equestria dreams, I can feel it as innately as if I had simply looked outside and saw them. For me it is as simple as walking through a doorway,” she said.

“Called it,” I muttered under my breath before letting her continue following and eye roll by her.

“When I entered your dreams for the first time, it gave me an ‘intimate’ knowledge of what your dreams felt like. From then on I could find your dreams easily. Even when you are out of Equestria, there is still a way for me to find you, but it means I must push a little bit further to find your certain signature.”

“Besides the complete lack of personal privacy, that actually sounds pretty cool,” I said as I took a swig of my whiskey and tea. Tasted awesome by the way. Luna just rolled her eyes and smirked at my statement, probably having heard something like it before. “Can I assume that you dumbed down the entire explanation because magic?”

“I wouldn’t say dumbed down … how about ‘simplified it for the less magically inclined’?” She replied, causing me to eye roll this time.

“Har har,” I mocked before taking another swig. Time to pull out the big topic. “Unfortunately I didn’t leave this dream open just for a nice meeting, I’ve got something serious to talk to you about. Or rather, to show you.”

“I’m listening.”

“Not yet you’re not,” I said as I made a piece of paper poof out of nowhere. “Read this and sign it first.”

Luna wearily looked at the piece of paper handed to her. She glanced over it quickly while keeping it afloat in her magic. After a few moments, she slowly lowered it and quirked an eyebrow up at me. “A non-disclosure agreement?”

“What I am going to tell you does not go any farther then me or your sister. No one, whatsoever, not even those who it affects. I’ve been given very private knowledge and I need an agreement that you will not speak a word of what I am going to tell you or show you,” I spoke in my serious voice, removing my glasses to directly look at her.

She glanced back at the document one more time, before giving a ‘harumph’ and conjuring a quill to sign it with. When she floated it back to me, she looked bemused by the idea of such a thing. “You do realise that this is simply a dream and such documents would never hold up in court.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t take you to court. You glanced the document over too quickly, Luna. Fine print is fun to mess around with. And I quote, ‘if said signee breaks the non-disclosure pact at any point, then said signee is subject to one day of humiliation as decided upon by the other signatory.’ I think that’s a pretty sweet deal,” I said with a smirk.

Luna looked at me for a few seconds, probably deciding what to do next. Hell, if I was her, I would simply make the document explode, but then of course she didn’t exactly know that my nanites give me a rather eidetic memory. Eventually she scrunched up her nose before saying, “fine.”

“In all honesty, the agreement is more for me than anything because I know that this information is valuable,” I replied, trying to sooth her pain of being bested.

“So are you going to tell me what said information is?” She inquired, obviously growing curious about what I was going to divulge.

“Earlier today, our train from Aboretia to Calluna City was attacked by a raiding party of minotaurs. They sought to execute everyone that was on the train. Myself along with another minotaur that was with us, repelled the attack with only a few casualties,” I spoke, earning a massive look of surprise from Luna, followed by one of outrage. I gestured with my hands for her to calm down. “It was a random attack perpetrated by a faction called The Red Banner. They are an extremist group of minotaurs that have more or less taken control of half the country under the idea of eradicating everything but minotaurs. Essentially, Tayros is in a state of civil war, and I plan to help speed this war along.”

Luna looked baffled at the info I was giving her. Well, not necessarily baffled but she didn’t have the right words to say. Her face looked hardened and mad but at the same time she kept trying to bring words yet was at a loss for them.

“Gilda and Trixie have agreed to stick around and help in any way they can. Essentially, Luna, I’m going to be a hired assassin for the Tayros Government, not out of monetary greed but out of sheer spite for this other side. Do you see why this info is sensitive?”

She took a second to ponder all of this, her mouth no longer moving in search of words. Eventually she found what she was looking for. “We are … I mean I am not surprised since there has been odd reports from Tayros. Still … my sister and I will need to talk about this new development.”

She looked around for a few seconds before standing up from her seat. I knew what she was doing; the news was important and she needed to relay it immediately. I didn’t even try to talk her into staying any longer, or even question as to why she was leaving suddenly without hearing all of it.

“I will visit you tomorrow night. We will have much to discuss,” she said before exiting out of the door, leaving me alone in my dreams.

I sat there for a few seconds before simply saying, “well, that went about as well as it could go.”

And with that, this segment is done! Sure, I went on to dream more, but that isn’t important.

Been a long one? Well, the next part should be more jammed pack for the extent I will be telling. I mean, I’m going to basically be condensing about three days of activities in one part since two days were basically spent walking and doing nothing.

Though you all might have to wait a bit for that part, might be heading out as part of a trading caravan within a few days. Apparently my old man skills are very valuable.

With that, I’m kicking you out of my temp home, don’t let the door slam into you on your way out!

Author's Notes:

1 Day late because i completely forgot to post it yesterday ... ugh ...

With this chapter, the 4 week stretch of posting is done once more, and I will need a bunch of time to properly get two-three chapters done. So, essentially this story is going on a 'hiatus' but only so I can write more of it. Status won't change so don't worry at all; just giving a heads up.

Also shit's going down! Ryan's pissed and ready to wreck shit as best as he can. We've just started the climb to the climax!

This chapter's song is the pulse pounding Forward March by Exodus!

Thanks to all who read and comment. As well thanks to AuthorGenesis, Doctor Candor, PhiliChez, and Word Worthy!