The Knight

by Omegathelegnd

First published 27th of June, 2017

A man taken out of his world by unseen forces finds himself in a world of magic and mystical creatures. The ponies have been kind to him, kind enough to make him protective of them. So he takes it upon himself to protect them.

A man taken out of his world by unseen forces finds himself in a world of magic and mystical creatures. He's grateful for the kindness the ponies have shown him, though not all of the creatures in this world are as kind as the ponies are so after numerous provocations from these other species he takes it onto himself to protect them.

The dark tags are for some of the stuff that happens in the story but most of it won't be like that.

Introduction

Author's Notes:

I'm certain there are grammar mistakes left but I have done my best to correct them, if you see any point them out and I'll fix them as soon as possible.

Samuel couldn't have been more relieved when the princesses had decided he wasn't a threat. Of course he couldn't blame them for their cautious behavior towards him after all he did suddenly appear before them in court within a somewhat ostentatious display. Though no one blamed him for it, how could they? It's not a normal occurrence for a wormhole to appear out of nowhere and take you to a magical place filled with colorful talking human shaped ponies. At least the colorful human equines thought it was a wormhole, that was after the magic theory was disproved it was the most logical explanation anyone could conjure up.

It had been quite a shock to his system and presumably to the ponies present when he appeared. Initially he went into a panic and ran. The ponies took some time to catch him what with a mixture of fear of the human and his apparent lack of responsiveness to magic. Later on it would be discovered that he was totally immune to magic which is why the leading theory on how he appeared in this world is the wormhole theory.

After catching him he was brought before Celestia herself where she personally interrogated him. About an hour in to her interrogation it was clear that he was no threat and in fact was just as confused as she was on the whole situation, so a decision was made. Court would be cancelled for the next couple of days so that she may further understand the predicament and hopefully find a solution to it.

A year and a half later and Sam is not only up to date on where he is and the society he's in but he's successfully integrated into it, luckily it happened without much trouble too. He still couldn't believe how kind the ponies surrounding him were, yes there were and still are those that think he's a freak but the majority of these kind creatures treated him fairly and had sympathy for his situation, without that kindness the transition wouldn't of been so smooth.

Celestia had explained everything she could about Equestria over the course of a couple months before she set up a whole system to help him integrate into pony society, the plan was to get him into a normal life that he would be comfortable in while she had ponies researching a way to get him back to his world.

The first of the steps on that system was getting a job. The first option had been a secretary for Celestia in the castle but he quickly declined, despite her kindness he didn't want to be a secretary for her or anyone else. Going through a few of the choices he decided to try being a farmer, after all what's a more honest job. He currently works for the Apple family on their farm and while he can't kick apples off trees because he doesn't have the hooves to do that he does help carry apples to the barn, move hay bales, plant new trees and all the other chores an apple farm requires.

~

It was mid summer and the harvest season was going strong in fact it's been a very good season, they could work all day and barely scratch the amount of apples the orchard had.

"Hey AJ these buckets are full, I'm gonna take them to the barn!" He called out.

Turning to him she nodded,"They sure look full, make sure yer careful with em', wouldn't want a repeat of yesterday now would we?"

"No ma'am we wouldn't." Turning from his employer he began slowly making his way to the barn, careful to not damage the ripe fruit.

Applejack had been wary of him at first what with the fact that she'd never seen anything like him before but after the first couple days he proved to her that he was a hard worker and over time they had become pretty good friends often taking their breaks together and helping each other work.

The sun was almost down signaling the end of the work day, it had been a long one. He finally reached the barn and opening the barn door he was greeted with the sight of Big Mac in his signature unbuttoned flannel shirt placing hay in a pile.

"Howdy." The large red stallion welcomed him as he walked in.

Setting the buckets down with a grunt he turned to red stallion,"Hey Mac, how's the day gone for you?"

Mac stretched his back and cracked his neck then dusted his hand off on his worn jeans,"Ah it's been okay, pretty hot but what else can ya expect in the summertime."

Mac had been quiet towards Sam when he began working at the farm but after a while he'd opened up more than he had with most other people that had worked on the farm, when they worked together they would talk about a whole plethora of subjects.

"Yeah I know what you mean, it was pretty hot today I was trying to keep myself under the shade all day." The pale skinned man leaned against the wooden wall and crossed his arms.

"At least ya had shade, where I was there weren't any trees in sight!" He shook his head to show off his sweat soaked mane ,"I'm not moving hay again any time soon, might have to make you do it tommorow."

Sam chuckled,"Well maybe I'd do better in it, after all I don't have any fur."

Mac smiled,"Thats actually a pretty good point Sam, I'm gonna point that out when explaining to AJ why it'd better fer ya to work in the field than me."

Sighing Sam shrugged,"Yeah I just dug my own grave huh?"

Mac opened his mouth to reply when the barn doors swung open revealing Applejack her shirt tied up under her chest giving her stomach some air. She wiped the sweat off her brow and smiled,"Pretty good haul today wasn't it Sam."

"Yeah it was, can't say I'm unhappy that the day is over but It is nice to have something to do." He smiled,"Especially when I'm getting paid for it."

Mac and Applejack nodded at the same time,"Yeah it is nice to make money." Mac agreed.

"Say Sam have we ever invited you over fer dinner?" AJ asked tilting her head towards him and placing her hands on her hips.

Shaking his head he answered,"No... why?"

"Well how would you like to stay for dinner tonight? Granny's making a lot of food and we can't eat it all."

Mac nodded,"Yeah she makes a lotta food all the time so I think we can accommodate ya tonight, yeah it'd be nice to have ya over Sam."

He shrugged with a smile,"Well it's not like I have anything else to do tonight so yeah I'll stay for dinner."

"Good well then let's get back to the house and wash up then," she gave Sam a toothy grin and put her hand on her hips,"You can use our shower sugar cube after all I wouldn't want ya to stink up the dinner table."

Sam's eyes narrowed and his mouth twisted into a grin,"Oh so I stink so bad that I'd stink up the table huh?" Applejack smirked and stuck her tongue out at him in response,"Well I guess the element of honesty has to be honest."

He stepped away from the wall and made his way towards the barn door,"Well yeah it comes with the job." She shrugged as he past her.

"Don't worry I know where the shower is and I'll be quick so you still have some hot water, thanks for letting me use it." He left the and the door swung back in place.

Applejack turned to her see her brother who started moving towards the door,"Ah'm glad we decided to keep that boy working for us he's a mighty helpful pony."

"Person," Applejack corrected,"and yeah he is a nice guy ain't he."

~

Swiping his hand over the the fogged up mirror in the Apple's bathroom he bent over slightly and looked at himself. His blue eyes traced over the small amount of lightly colored freckles that resided under his eyes and on his nose,"Thank god, no pimples." He muttered to himself before turning his attention to his hair.

It was a dark red and kind of wavy like rocker hair. It reached down to his shoulders, generally he cut it shorter but was starting to like it kind of long,"Like a Viking." He smiled to himself at the thought of that, maybe add a braid when it got long enough or even better grow a beard and add a braid to that. He smiled at the stupid thought.

Running his hand over his chin and down his neck he concluded he would shave tomorrow. Then standing up straight he grabbed a white t-shirt and pulled it over his somewhat defined chest and toned stomach. Reaching down he grabbed his jeans, put a foot in each pant leg and lifted the pants up over his legs. Then put on his socks and shoes then left the bathroom.

Walking down the hall he heard Mac call out,"All done up there?"

"Yeah," he started down the stairs,"If you hurry the water will still be hot."

Mac got up from his seat and rushed to the stairs, passing Sam he went up. Reaching the bottom of the stairs he turned to the living room where granny sat in her rocking chair knitting something and Applejack laid on the couch almost asleep. He smelled the cooked food in the kitchen and realized they were just waiting till everyone was cleaned up to eat, so he sat down in a recliner laid back and closed his eyes.

~

Sam jolted up and which made Applejack gasp in surprise, she had been shaking him to try and wake him up,"Jeez Are ya in a hurry?"

He put a hand behind his head and smiled sheepishly,"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Ah it ain't no problem, probably shouldn'ta' spooked you like that." She stood all the way up and smiled down at him,"Now hurry up, dinner'll get cold if you don't get up soon."

"Oh yeah, thanks for waking me!" He pulled himself up in a swift motion and accompanied her through the house to the kitchen,"I'm starving!" He announced and his stomach growled as if to accentuate the point which made Applejack giggle lightly.

At the head of the dining table sat Granny, to her right Mac, to her left Applebloom. Sam sat next to Mac and Applejack sat next to Applebloom, before them lay a holy grail of food. Corn on the cob, asparagus, broccoli and even apple fritter for desert!

Samuel smiled as looked over the table and his face lit up when he saw it, he hadn't seen something like it in nearly a year. A turkey leg.

"I see how hard you been workin' out there and I heard that you eat that stuff so's I decided to make ya sum." Granny explained as you reached out and grasped the warm meat in your hands.

He smiled with joy and almost let out a whoop,"Thank you," he turned to Granny,"Thank you so much, I- you don't know how much this means to me." After all she did go out of her way for him, he didn't even know how she got the leg in the first place.

"Ah don't mention it, I really don't mind a meat eater n'fact when I was younger an' grandpa Apple was still alive we used to have a griffin workin' this here orchard." She looked to the left and out the window which granted a view of the setting sun over the orchard, a lovely purple and yellow light pouring over the trees,"I ain't as disgusted as some o' the other ponies are when it comes to meat."

"We had a griffon work on the farm once?" Applebloom piped up.

Mac nodded,"Yeah we did, from what I heard he was a bit of a troublemaker."

Granny let out a snort and turned back to the table,"He was always up to something, he loved getting your grandad riled up over anything, he thought the face grandad made was funny!" She burst out laughing and slapping the table from the memories.

"Well come on Granny don't jes' leave us in the dark like that, tell us about what he did!" Applejack exclaimed happily throwing her arms in the air.

The dinner was great, the turkey was done perfectly, it wasn't to dry or to juicy but rather just right. The corn was magnificent though it had a good amount of butter on it, almost to much for Sams liking but he endured. Yet even with the food being as good as it was the company he enjoyed, it was what made the meal it great.

Granny shared stories of the past with them, some Applejack and Mac already knew and some they didn't. Applebloom also told stories of her adventures with Scootalo and Sweetie Belle. Even Even Mac and AJ joined in and told tales of their childhood, some of which not even Granny knew, though Sam understood why they had neglected to tell her some of these particular stories till now.

Finally everyone at the table had talked about their lives, everyone except Sam.

Applebloom was laughing at Applejack's story and Sam had to admit it was funny,"So wait my sis' really did that?" Bloom breathed out between laughs.

"Yeah, I shouldn'tve' but that dang teacher deserved it." She smiled with a slightly nostalgic look on her eyes.

"I dont know if grading ya fairly on a bad test constitutes having a cow patty placed in your pillow but I ain't one to judge." Mac replied smiling through the tired look on his face.

When Applebloom had calmed down she looked over to Sam who in turn looked back with a raised brow and a slight smile,"Yes Applebloom?"

"Uh... do you mind if I... ask about when you were younger?" She grimaced as if expecting him to be angry with her for asking, it was a subject no one really touched on for fear of upsetting him.

"No I don't mind, I've accepted that I'll probably never leave this world, so it's best to accept it and try to be happy, at least that's what my parents would want." He concluded with a smile, by now the others had quieted down and were listening as much as Applebloom was,"Now, what's your question?"

"Well I was actually wondering about your family, ya know like who they were and what they did?" She asked relieved that he wasn't upset about being asked.

"Well they were conservative but not overly religious, they didn't go to church but they believed in god. All in all they were very considerate. They always told me if I had a different political opinion than them that no matter how much we might argue they would never throw me out or treat me differently." He brought a hand under his chin and leaned forward on the table recounting his memories,"I never had that trouble with them I myself tend to lean a bit more right in politics but I won't get into that or this becomes a boring rant about things that don't matter here on this world," he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest," you sure you still want to know more about me?"

Mac and Applebloom nodded while Applejack let out an affirmative yep. Granny simply listened.

"Okay, well my brother was an interesting one, he liked to collect coins and heh cassette tapes, I mean I collected records but I never got why he liked cassette tapes, ya know." He let out a breath and went on,"He was also a type one diabetic but never let it get him down and always had high spirits. I don't know if I'll ever be as strong as him." He smiled and looked at Applebloom,"Always remember to spend as much time as you can with AJ and Mac okay?"

"I will..." she nodded, Applejack and Mac smiled slightly at hearing that.

"Now my grandfather he was cool, a master blacksmith. He could make anything and man am I glad he taught me what he knew."

"Wait," Mac interrupted,"Your grandfather taught you to forge things?"

Sam nodded and smiled,"Yeah he started teaching me when I was little up till he died, I can make a whole variety of armors, weapons, shields and car parts but there aren't any cars here so..." he shrugged with a laugh.

Applejack asked,"Well what kind of stuff do you like to make?"

"Well I've always had an amazingly huge obsession with history and especially European history so I like making the armors and weapons." He answered with a smirk at the memories of things he had made.

Granny chimed in,"The question I have is can you use those weapons and such?"

Samuel smiled widely a small amount of pride making itself known,"Yes I can." He smirked at Mac's surprised look,"I took an interest in it when I was young and since I was learning to forge exactly the things I was interested in I decided to learn HEMA, I asked my parents and they agreed to pay for my lessons. So yeah I can use what I make. Effectively too."

"Uh... what's a hemuh?" Applebloom asked confused.

Sam let out a chortle at her pronunciation of it,"It stand for historical European martial arts," the looks of confusion from his friend's faces were almost comical,"It means I can use most medieval or in your case modern weapons and armor effectively. In fact I was pretty good at it when it came to sparring."

"That," Mac went on,"sounds pretty badass."

"Oh I don't know it's kind of nerdy when you think about it..."Sam trailed off.

"I don't know what your calling nerdy but in ma day we called it useful." Granny replied placing her hands on the table,"Them timberwolves and manticores was a bigger problem back in the day so we used to need stallions that could fight and we needed stallions that could forge the weapons for the fighters. You're both o'those in one."

"I've never actually killed anybody though I just trained to do it-"

"Doesn't make a difference fact is you can use a sword right," Mac interrupted,"Which is more than most ponies."

"Well I appreciate the compliments, thank you."

"Hey Sam," Applejack started,"We actually have a forge in the barn, it's from our grandad if we could clear it out and dust it off could you actually make something with it?" She asked leaning forward and placing her head on her closed fist.

"Well I suppose I could, if you get it up and running I could buy the supplies from somebody and I could very possibly make something from it." He looked at her an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Alright then its settled," she stood up and smiled at Mac,"Tommorow morning Mac and I will get it running,"she looked to Sam her going widening,"and you'll get the right stuff to make something."

"What are we doing this for?" Mac asked.

"I wanna see what Sam here can make and if he proves he can make what he says he can then I'll pay him for fixing up farming equipment and the like." She beamed at her idea," That way we won't have to buy new over expensive tools or go out of town to look for some pony who'll repair our stuff!"

"That's a might good idea child." Granny nodded in approval at her granddaughter.

"Yeah that is a good idea AJ, you get it up and running and I'll buy some supplies on my way home tonight." Sam stood up and smiled back at Applejack,"If your serious about paying me for fixing tools then I'll have a set of perfect armor and weapons ready by the end of the month to prove to you what I can do."

~

The second step on the integration system of Celetia's was to find adequate lodging for Samuel, which he did find except it was across town. At the moment he lives with princess Twilight in her castle, the origin of which he still doesn't know if he believes even after seeing what magic can do.

As he made his way there he stopped by a couple of stores before he found one that sold the right materials for his armor and weapons.The shipment he ordered would arrive at Sweet Apple Acres in the morning. It was lucky too he got there right as it was closing.

There weren't many ponies out as he made his way out of the store, a few here and there but not much and as the light finally faded away completely he couldn't help but notice how creepy a deserted town at night was. Making his way down the street he couldn't help but notice that there were no street lamps leaving him in total darkness. For a time it was deathly quiet as he slowly walked the empty streets. His footsteps were louder than he'd ever heard them in the extreme silence of the night. That was when he noticed not even crickets were chirping.

Turing around he felt the need to look over his shoulder like someone might be there everytime he looked. He was in the town square when he finally started to hear what sounded like footsteps mirroring his, not hoofsteps but footsteps. His pace picked up, the sound of his footfalls were louder than before and echoed across the whole town. He felt like something or someone was watching him as he moved and the footsteps matched his even as he ran. By the time he reached the castle he was nearly sprinting.

He ran to the front gate and hurriedly pushed it open, quickly getting inside he slammed it closed. Taking a few steps forward he let himself fall into the wall, his back to the wall while he sunk down he whispered to himself,"What the hell just happened? Why was I so scared?"

Shaking it off to the best of his ability Sam stood up and warily made his way down the hallway, he was grateful when nothing seemed to be following him. Before he went to bed he would have to go talk to Twilight, after all he wasn't here for dinner and she might be worried.

Twilight had been the second one after Celestia to show Sam kindness in this new world, she had been the one to help him learn all about Equestria and its culture. They became fast friends what with their shared interest in history, often times they would stay up all night regaling different part of each other's people's history.

Pushing the door open Sam was greeted with the familiar sight of Twilight reading a book as she often did when she wasn't fulfilling her princess duties. She sat in a nice chair with a beautifully carved wooden table by her side and she was positioned to the left of a roaring fireplace, which was odd considering it was mid summer. Her tiara was off her head and she wore a loose fitter night gown rather than her normal royal clothes.

"Twilight?" Sam tentatively called out.

She jumped taken by surprise at his presence,"Oh goddess Sam you scared the Tartarus out of me."

Sam smiled and walked into the room,"I'm sorry about that didn't mean to, by the way why do you have the fireplace going if it's summer?"

"I love the sound of it crackling and yes I know I could go outside and get the same sound but it's definitely not as comfortable out there as it is in there." She anwsered his question quickly.

"Hmm I guess it isn't and I can't fault you for liking the crackling, I do too." He took a seat in a chair adjacent to hers and yawned.

She marked the page she was on before closing the book,"So why didn't you show up for dinner?"

"Applejack had me stay to thank me for all the work I've put into the farm." He answered with an apologetic smile,"I'm sorry about that I'll try to warn you in advance next time."

"Well it's okay you don't have to, you are your own pony-re person, your just a good friend and I don't want anything bad to happen is all." She answered with genuine care in her voice.

"Well thanks for caring about me but what bad thing might happen?" Sam questioned.

Twilight sighed and looked to the fireplace,"The diamond dogs that are in the area, you remember the story I told you about what happened between us and them?"

Sam could see the fire dance in her eyes and nodded,"Yeah I do, why would they be dangerous now I thought you took care of that besides weren't there only a few?"

"Recently," she swallowed thickly,"A whole new pack moved into the old groups hideout, this group is known for its dealing in pony trafficking." She sighed and looked towards Sam,"The leaders name is Bone Claw because he uses bones he's sharpened down to razor like sharpness. Supposedly he's killed off at least two other pack leaders and taken their tribes."

"Why doesn't anybody do anything about it?" Sam asked eyes narrow amd his voice lowered to a more serious tone.

"The dogs are naturally in different packs they fight over land and each alpha wants everything, they can't get along, but one time in the past the griffons did try to get rid of them. A full scale war, multiple griffon armies organized together to defeat the dogs, at first it was working the griffons were winning but out of nowhere the dogs united, they actually put aside their differences and united. Together in one huge battle they defeated the griffons, the griffons still argue that it was the amount of dogs that caused them to lose and that may be why but the point is is if we attack one the others might unite against us and we don't know how many there really are. It could be disastrous," She finished her frustration showing clearly on her face.

Sam thought for a moment before attempting a solution,"How about mercenaries?"

"Hmm?"

"You could hire mercenaries who belong to no country, who don't have a flag that can be united against." He licked his lip and continued,"Don't go for a war just go clear one pack at a time with mercenaries."

Twilight thought about such an action for a few moments before shaking her head,"It could work but Equestria doesn't deal with mercenaries, it's a law Celestia made years ago after a band of Equestrian hired mercenaries turned on us."

"Well I'll try to think about ways you could get rid of em' and tell you if I come up with anything.",Sam stood up and stretched,"Right now I need sleep."

She nodded and let out a breath through he snout and smiled,"I have faith in you, after all from what you've told me it seems your people are good at warfare."

He laughed while heading for the door,"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Goodnight Samuel."

"Night princess."

It was a short walk before he ended up in his room and after taking off his clothes he fell fast asleep. It had been a long day for him.

A Suit of Metal

Author's Notes:

So this chapter is a bit darker than the last and Zecora is in it, I tried but I just couldn't get anything to rhyme so I gave her dialogue that doesn't rhyme, I did manage keep her in character though.

"Hey, so how's that suit o' armor coming?" Applejack leaned against the open door of the barn while the cool air of early morning fell over her. She looked over the forge that Sam was currently using.

It had taken longer then she had anticipated but with Mac's help they managed to get the forge up and running and just like they agreed Sam had started working immediately. That was two weeks ago now and the armor looked like it was coming along fine and the weapons he was making were finally taking shape.

Straightening up from his position over the forge he turned his head to Applejack,"Its actually coming along well, I'm making sure that it's high quality so it'll take a bit longer to make than lower quality armor but it's worth it." He nodded looking over his work,"I gotta thank you for still paying me while I do this too."

"Well if your as good as you say you are and that armor meets ma' standards of quality then my investment will of been a good one." She shrugged,"I trust ya though so that helps your case."

He smiled in response,"So you know I'm making the Armor to my specifications right?" Sam leaned back down and continued working,"I only knew my size and all so I hope that's okay."

"Yeah it'll be fine, fact that's how we'all test its quality!" Applejack stated, Sam looked up with his eyebrow raised,"You can wear it and we'll all hit you to see just how it is."

Sam let out a sigh that lead into a laugh,"Well that is one way to test out armor."

Applejack nodded with a humorous grin,"Yeah it is, I also got ta' ask bout the sword and stuff that your making too."

"Well what about the weapons?" He asked while working on the breastplate.

"Are they forming up nicely? Are they strong and all that?"

"Yeah the sword blade is doing good, the heater shield I'm making is doing pretty good I'm happy with the way the metal has formed," He pointed over to the shield shaped piece of metal leaned up against the forge,"And finally the pike I'm making has a good strong tip to it."

"Glad to hear that, especially since yer putting so much time into this project." She stepped away from the door,"I've got to get to work, can't wait to see the finished project."

"Yeah, see you later AJ."

He worked hard and put all his focus into what he was doing so to get the metal just right and before he knew it, it was midday. So Samuel stopped for lunch.

He sat outside underneath the shade of a nearby tree, reading a book on the griffon diamond dog war and dutifully ate at the grapes he had brought that day. In the middle of a bite he heard the distinctive flap of Pegasus wings.

"Ah great." He knew from just the flap of her wings that it was Rainbow dash.

He and Rainbow Dash had never really seen eye to eye, her brash and egotistical personality had caused more than a few fights between the two. The first time he met her she told him that she thought he was a bald ape that shouldn't be here and just how barbaric it was that he ate meat. He knew she was friends with a griffon, Twilight had told him the story and that let him know that she didn't have a problem with meat eaters but with him.

"You know," Dash landed in front of Sam," I really don't see why Applejack keeps a pet like you on her farm,"she snickered and crossed her arms over her belly, she was in full wonderbolts uniform,"I mean I understand that animals belong on a farm but generally they're useful."

He snorted and stood up carefully resting his book on the ground,"You see Rainbow I am useful, unlike a a certain blue Pegasus who's only good for parlor tricks in the air," he waved his hands in the air mockingly," I actually work."

Rainbow's smirk disappeared, in its place came a frown,"So what, are you saying that the wonder bolts who do the these "parlor" tricks are useless?"

"Well yeah, technically they aren't useful, they just do tricks, but their tricks are entertaining where as yours are somewhat boring." Sam stated in a matter of fact tone.

She growled quietly in anger her nostrils flaring,"I should beat the shit out of you for saying that," she uncrossed her arms and took a step towards him her eyes narrow and wings jittery.

Taking a deep breath Sam shook his head, he didn't want to fight with her right now,"What are you even here for Rainbow? I know it's not to stand there just so you can insult and threaten me all day."

She stared him in the eyes for a couple of seconds before huffing and letting her shoulders drop,"I came by to see Applejack and ask her if she could sell apple pie at the next wonderbolts event, Soarin really likes Apple family pies."

"There you go, why couldn't you have just asked me instead of fighting with me?" He asked incredulously.

She shrugged,"I just don't like barbaric aliens that could stab me in the back at any time I guess." She retorted.

Sighing, Sam shook his head,"She's in the southern part of the orchard where the trees are more spread out, you can't miss her."

Without replying she turned and took off for Applejack. Once again shaking his head Sam packed up his food, marked his place he was at in the book and returned to work, he had a suit of armor to finish.

~

Bone claw was in the main hall of his new hideout, he had a scar going down at an angle on his face and he wore makeshift metal plates tied into his clothes as armor. He sat perched on a rock chair shaped somewhat like a throne that overlooked the entirety of the hall. In his hand he twiddled with the razor sharp bones he'd used like knives and watched his men rape one of the mares they had managed to kidnap. Her name was Jewel Stand or something along those lines but that didn't matter, what mattered was how profitable she would be after they'd fully broken her in.

Each pony they kidnapped had no friends and either no family or no contact with their family, they were ponies that wouldn't be noticed when they disappeared. Once here they suffered a fate worse than death, the stallions are made into slave workers for the diamond dogs and forced to work in the mines digging gems for them until someone decided to make a bid on them. The mares, they were turned into sex slaves. The dogs quite enjoyed "breaking them in" and once they were ready they would be sold to the highest bidding buyer.

They had buyers contacting them for their merchandise from all over, Griffonstone, Yakistan hell they even had a contact in Canterlot and all of them were wealthy. Which was good, it meant that the initial price was high and the bids just took it higher. This alongside what they were digging up in the mines was a nice growing operation that made more and more money everyday. This move had been a good decision on Bone's part.

After killing Rock Smasher back in the crystal kingdom he had taken his pack over, that left only him in the area since he had killed tunnel digger and taken his pack too. For a while it was nice. He was making a lot of money off the crystal ponies after all they are rare and a broken in crystal slave? Even rarer. But eventually the crystal ponies got wise to the fact that some of them were disappearing and unlike most other diamond dogs Bone Claw was smart. He knew not to mess with the might of prince Shining Armor's crystal guards. So he moved.

There had been a few places he looked at before considering ponyville. Appleoosa was the first, isolated and vulnerable but the population wasn't to big and they would of been noticed quickly. Canterlot was his second choice, it housed a large population of very valuable ponies that didn't give a rats ass about each other. It would have been perfect if not for the fact that there weren't any good places to house his men there, the caverns the changeling had used were now heavily guarded. Finally even if they had found a good hideout what would happen if they got caught in the heart of the royal guard? They would be wiped out faster than they could react.

When he came to ponyville he realized just what a lucky find they had come across, a good sized town filled with ponies that were valuable, a huge place to hideout and there were barely any guards. Sure the Mane six was here and Bone was wise enough to know not to take them on but there was a better chance they could escape from them than say the entire royal guard.

Although he was aware of the fact that the princess Twilight knew of they're presence here. He learned this through the ponies he had recently paid off to tell him what was going on in town and who was a good candidate for kidnapping. This Twilight was a smart one, she managed to connect his crew to the crystal kingdom but she didn't have any proof of it so she couldn't act on it.

Because of that knew he had to keep low but recently he'd been working out a plan to get rich over the past couple days and this plan might bring more attention than he'd like but if they could get away with it...

"Red!" Bone barked out across the room his booming voice penetrating the shouts of the other dogs.

Seconds later a smaller diamond dog appeared before him his fur a tell tale red,"Yes Bone sir?" He bowed slightly showing off the proper amount of respect.

"Get the raid team together I wish to speak with them in the planning room." He snarled as he got up.

"Of course sir, right away!" Red scurried off to find the team.

Fifteen minutes later six different dogs stood in a smaller room, around a circular stone. On the stone was a crude map of ponyville.

"Alright then," Bone looked at his team and smiled,"How much do you hounds want to be rich?" He asked intertwining both hands behind his back.

"It's our only goal sir!" Each one responded in tandem.

"That's good, but tell me," he leaned over the map,"Are you driven enough to go after an element of harmony?"

The dogs looked at each for unsure of what to do but eventually they gave in, all of them turned back to him and nodded.

"Very well then, there's a certain Rainbow Pegasus who might be worth quite a bit..."

~

It had been three weeks since Sam had began his project and finally all the work he had put into it was about to come to light. In fact he was working on the last bit of it all now and there was only one thing left that he needed to make.

He stood outside over a picnic table with some measurements on paper.

"You are Samuel yes?" A strong feminine voice called out from behind Sam.

Turning around He was greeted with the sight of the zebra Zecora, she was taller than most mares he'd met so far as tall as he was and wore less clothes than most other mares. All she had on was a brown hood that concealed her face well, a brown animal hide bra and what looked like short shorts made of the same material as the bra,"Yeah I'm Sam, your Zecora right?"

She nodded flashing him a smile from under her hood,"Applebloom told me that if I could find it you would pay for cloth material that was light but thick." She held out her hands revealing a package that was concealed behind her back,"If so I have found and brought just the material that fits your needs."

Taking a step towards her Sam nodded,"Yeah I did ask Applebloom to see if you could do that for me, how much do you want for it?" He stopped in front of her and gave a friendly smile.

"I require no compensation for this the only thing I ask of you is to show me what you will do with it." She held out the package to him which he in turn took p.

"Alright if that's what you want then come over here." He motioned with his hand for her to follow.

As they made they're way into the barn he began explaining,"I'm making a suit of armor from my world." He stopped and waved his hand over the pieces of plate and chain mail scattered over the barn.

She raised an eyebrow and turned to him,"Why are you making armor?"

"If I can AJ said it'll prove to her that I know what I'm doing and she'll pay me more than my usual pay to fix and make her tools."

She hummed in understanding,"Then if you're making armor, why do you need this cloth?"

"Well," he began explaining,"There are parts to human armor that don't exist in this world. That cloth for example I'm going to use to make a padding for my upper body and legs, then I put on this here," He lifted up the chainmail cuirass and let it clink loudly,"This also doesn't exist here but what I do is put this over the cloth and now cuts from swords and arrow heads can't pierce through as easily." He then waved his hand towards the plate pieces,"That coupled with these plates and I'd be able to stop to most of the conventional weapons in this world, as long as I take care of it at least."

"That with your magic immunity would be dangerous." She agreed.

"Wait, how did you know about that?!" He asked swiftly in a concerned tone.

She let out a small laugh at his reaction,"I too am good friends with Twilight Sparkle and to me she entrusts information that I would not let public." She waved her hand in a dismissive manner,"I would never tell anyone that, after all I know how scared ponies can get over odd things."

"Oh okay, I guess that's not to bad then."

"No it is not, you needn't worry about it at all." She smiled assuringly and placed a hand on his shoulder,"Though I must admit with all I've heard about you from Twilight and Applebloom I cannot say that I'm not curious about you."

"Oh well... what do you want to know about?" Sam asked.

"Come let us sit outside at the table." She slid her arm down his shoulder and grabbed his elbow, leading him outside she sat herself down at the table and pulled him down next to her. She pulled her hood off giving Sam a look at her face and her hair which was generally straight hung down and looked more like the way other mares did their hair except shorter. She was fairly attractive to him.

"So uh..." he trailed off.

She smiled brightly at him,"I'd like to know about your world, at least what Twilight hasn't told me."

He talked with her for a long time about his world and what he knew about it, especially the history.

"So this Charlemagne, I can only hope I am pronouncing that correctly, he was called a barbarian by everyone else of his time yet he was the only one that made any advancements in education?"

He nodded,"Yeah kind of ironic isn't it?"

"Quite ironic." She agreed with a slight smile.

"Say we've talked about my world a lot, what about where your from huh? What's your home like?" Sam asked his curiosity peaked.

She looked down at the ground a small grimace on her face,"I... should probably get back to my hut, there are some potions I need to brew." Standing up she stretched her back and grunted.

He knew he'd done something wrong by the face she made,"I-I'm sorry if I upset you Zecora I didn't mean to."

"No, no it's okay I do actually need to get back," she pulled her hood over her head and began walking away,"Thanks for the talk Samuel, we should do it again you are interesting."

He sighed and watched her walk off of the farm and when she was gone he looked over to the barn,"Well I'm almost done no reason to stop now." And with that he went back to work.

~

It was done. A set of armor complete with a sword, shield and pike were finally done after four weeks of work. Sam looked over his work with pride.

"This is some nice work Sam." Mac said as he appreciated the craftsmanship laid on the table below him.

They stood in the living room of the apple family house, it was the end of the day and everyone was crowded around the table and inspecting the humans handy work in the light of the evening.

"How much does this weigh? I mean how do you move in all this?" Applebloom asked looking up to Sam from across the table.

"Well the armor is somewhere between forty five to fifty five pounds and that's less than the gear than a fireman-er pony carries."

"Really?" Applejack asked a surprised expression adorning her freckled face.

"Yeah, now the sword is about two pounds and the shield around ten, we include the pike which is somewhere around five pounds that mean tat all in all its around sixty two to seventy two pounds of gear. Still three Pounds less than a firepony's gear!"

Mac continued to look it over carefully in the slow manner that he was known for,"Ah think this is enough to show that he knows what he's doing ain't it AJ?" He asked leaning forward and placing his hands on the table to support himself.

"Yeah, this is some great work Sam, next time something needs fixing round' here I'll pay ya for your help instead of paying for new tools at a shop that's trying to scam me fer tools that'll break within the month." She nodded and patted her hand on his shoulder.

"You done good boy," Granny smiled,"But we don't have place or use for what ya made so I think you should keep it, after all it fits ya right?" Sam nodded,"Then ya might need it some time." She concluded.

"I guess Twilight wouldn't mind if I stored it all in the castle, in fact now that I think about it she'd probably want to study it."

Applejack nodded,"I guarantee ya she will look over with a fine tooth comb."

"Say you gonna need any help carrying this Sam?" Mac asked.

"Well it's not that heavy, but it would be awkward to carry all of it so yeah, I could use some help." He smiled appreciatively at Mac,"Thanks."

"Yeah well," Mac straightened up and grabbed the armor,"Thank me when we get there, grab them weapons and we'll get a move on."

Picking up what he needed Sam gave his goodbyes and set off with Mac.

"Tomorrow is Saturday, how bout' you start taking weekends off."

"What, really?"

"Well yeah we only need ya to work weekends when we're in the thick of the harvesting season," He explained,"Fact' we usually don't work weekends either, except Applejack, she likes to sell apples locally sometimes."

"Well I guess if you tell them that I'm not coming in tomorrow then sure I'll take the day off, don't know what I'll do though."

"There's a lot you can do," Entering town they saw the townsponies Either going home or shutting down their businesses.

"I mean there's tha' sugar cube corner, they make a good milkshake, that's always a nice thing." Mac wracked his brain for other things to do,"You could go swimming at the lake and I'm certain Twilight probably has something for you to do if you can't find anything you want to do."

"I'm sure I'll find something to do."

They continued to talk about what activities were available in town all the way to the castle and by the time they got there the sun had set. Sam opened the door and showed Mac the way to his room where they set down all the gear on his bed.

"Thanks for helping, I'll find a place for all this later so dont worry about it." Sam smiled and put his hands on his hips,"Do you need me to show you the way back out of the castle? I don't mind if you do the castle can be like a maze."

Mac shook his head,"Nah I remember the way back, I'll see ya later Sam." Patting the man on his shoulder he turned and exited the room.

Putting his arms up and over his head Sam stretched and grunted when he hit the right spot. Looking over his room he thought about what he could do now, after all he wasn't to tired.

His bed was against the middle of the left side wall, next to it was a night stand that had a lamp and a couple books on top. In front of the bed was his closet, which wasn't very populated all he had was some different colored t-shirts, a couple pairs of jeans and at the bottom he had three pairs of shoes, one of which was on his feet right now. At the end of the room was a balcony that overlooked the western side of ponyville, he'd asked for a room with a balcony and Twilight had been nice enough to give him one.

Sighing through his nose he decided he would go see if Twilight wanted to hang out. He went and checked on the study where they had talked about the diamond dogs and where a majority of his crash course on Equestrian culture had taken place. She wasn't there so she must be in her room he concluded, making his way up the castle stair he found her room and opened the door. Not there either. Maybe she was still in the throne room?

Retracing his steps down the stairs to the main level of the castle, when he entered the throne room Twilight stood hunched over the cutie map and muttering to herself. He still didn't like the name for it.

"You okay Twi?" He asked walking in to the room.

Twilight looked up from the map just long enough to see who it was before looking back down,"Hi Sam, what do you want?" Her tone slightly venomous.

Reaching the other side of the map he frowned at her,"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something I just wanted to see what you were doing."

Sighing she stood up and rubbed a hand over the bridge of her nose as if to relieve some unseen tension,"I'm sorry Sam I've just been working on something that requires a lot of focus and attention is all, it's been really stressful because if I'm wrong then I've wasted two weeks of time on nothing," his wings fluttered in frustration,"but if I'm right..."

"What are you working on that's so important?" Sam asked raising an eyebrow.

"You want to know?" She asked looking him with an equally raised eyebrow.

"Well, yeah I'm kind of curious now." He relplied bringing his arms up and across his chest.

She smiled pleased that someone would listen,"Well I've been looking into some odd things that have been going on over the past couple of weeks," she waved her arm motioning for him to come over to her,"There's been multiple mysterious disappearances over the past month, each of them oddly similar."

"How so?" Sam asked moving beside her.

She pointed at eight marked points on the map,"These are where the ponies have disappeared, there's no similarity there but correlation is in the ponies themselves. Each week two ponies have disappeared and every time it's the same. A stallion and a mare both disappearing within two days of each other on the same days, Tuesday and Friday." She reached over and pulled a stack of eight papers each with a picture and details on the missing ponies,"So far eight have gone missing, each one of them with similar lives, not many friends if any and with no family or no contact with family." She turned her head to Sam with a concerned expression,"And Zecora has reported that every night somepony has gone missing she thinks she sees diamond dogs moving through the forest in the dark. You see the correlations in what I've found right?"

He nodded looking from her face to the map,"Yeah I do and you know I can't help but remember what you told me about the new diamond dogs in the area and how you suspect they were the pony traffickers from the crystal kingdom." He nodded and looked back to her face.

She had an excited smile,"You do too?! I've tried telling other ponies about this for weeks but they didn't believe me and told me to focus more on actual princess duties but you, you do believe me!" She pumped her fists in excitement,"Oh I know this is a serious matter and I shouldn't be happy but I can't believe that you believe me!"

Sam tried to keep a serious face but couldn't help it and start laughing at her antics,"Y-Yeah," his laughter died down enough to speak,"I-It is a serious matter and we need to treat it as such but without a little humor here and there we'd be nothing but robots."

She nodded with a smile,"That is very true."

"So what do you want to do about this?" He asked the serious tone of the conversation returning.

She sighed and walked over to her throne, sitting down she looked at him and chuckled darkly,"There's no proof of what's happening, Zecora simply seeing something at night and our speculation? That's not proof. If we attacked this group of diamond dogs for no reason, if we do the possibility of a repeat from the griffon-diamond dog war."

"But if you do nothing this will continue." Sam's tone was slightly exasperated.

"And risk a war? No I can't do that, I am being forced to choose the lesser of two evils right now Sam," She had a pained expression on her face,"Don't make it any more difficult for me than already is, please."

"So you'd let innocent ponies get sold into slavery without a care because your scared of a war?!"

"No I am scared for the entirety of Equestria Sam! If I do this then the problem is not only mine but Celestia's and Luna's as well." Her hands tensed on the the throne's chair arms,"Celestia damnit I don't want this Sam but have not her choices!"

"I know you don't want it, which is why you need to fight them!" He raised his hands up in a pleading motion,"Please for the sake of the ponies here contact Celestia, organize an army of royal guards and drive the dogs out! Isn't it better that more ponies should die defending themselves from evil rather than less dying so as to spare themselves the trouble of fighting against evil!"

She simply stared at him eyes narrowing with her,"Samuel, I think of you as a friend but if you keep pushing this I will have to ask you to leave my court."

His eyes widened at her pseudo threat, his arms lowered and his mouth remained open in disbelief of her decision,"If-if you don't do anything than it'll never stop, it's like-like with the bully at school when we were kids. All it takes is a good punch and they won't bully you anymore."

"But what if they do continue hmm? What if because we retaliated they don't stop bullying us till there is no us left?"

Huffing Sam shook his head,"I'm going to bed,ill see you in the morning." Turning around he walked to the door. Before leaving the room he stopped with his hand on the door handle and turned his head to the side,"You know you are doing a good job as princess, what with thinking of nothing but keeping your people safe but sometimes that means making some sacrifices."

Before she could anwser he left the door closing with an echo. She sighed and placed her head in her hands,"I'm sorry Sam..."

~

Rainbow woke with a start. It was dark and crickets were chirping, looking around she realized where she was, the Everfree forest. She had been practicing a new trick all day, she hadn't had much time to herself lately what with all the wonderbolts business, so when she did get time she spent it either napping, drinking apple cider or practing new tricks she comes up with.

She had spent all day over the Everfree practicing, she'd grown tired after a couple hours and decided to nap. With no clouds in the sky she settled for the next best thing a tree branch. Though at some point she must have fallen off because now she was lying on the ground yawning, she sat up and stretched. Her back popped a few times then she lifted herself up.

Smacking her lips she sniffed and looked around. The sun was down, yet the trees around her only made it darker, she couldn't help but feel something was off. She raised an eyebrow and looked behind herself trying to find what was off. She would of, had it not been for the club hitting her over the head, noticed that the crickets had stopped chirping.

Certain Death

Author's Notes:

A Broadsword
A Heater Shield

A Pike

Plate Armor

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yhhDbaah9DQ

Sam and Twilight hadn't talked for two days since they had argued. Over those two days Twilight continued performing her royal duties all with the fear that maybe, just maybe Sam was right about how to deal with the dogs in the back of her mind. It was hard for her to decide between following his advice and possibly starting a war but knowing that the enslavement of ponies would stop or not doing anything and letting the dogs get away with it without any consequences just to keep them out of a war. Now Sam had been taking his weekend slow and kept his mind off of Twilight's decision, he was certain that Twilight only wanted the best for her people but if they did nothing about the issue than it would only get worse. After all if you don't punch a bully back then they'll just step all over you and he knew that wasn't what he wanted to happen.

It was early morning when Sam woke up, five o'clock actually and because it was so early he decided he'd take a longer shower then usual. Without the a rush he took a shower, shaved and dressed himself. By the time he was done it was around six thirty, so he made his way out of the room and downstairs.

Walking into the entrance hall he had noticeable energy in his step,"Hey there Sammy!" A feminine voice called out to him.

It almost made him jump in surprise, ponies usually weren't waiting to see Twilight this early,"Good morning Pinkie." He came to a stop and turned to face her as she walked up to him.

Pinkie was a good friend of Sam's, when he first got here Pinkie had been the one of the earliest ponies in town to greet him and even invited him to a welcoming party. When they weren't working they would often sit together at Sugarcube corner drinking milkshakes and talking, everybody loved her cupcakes but he really liked her milkshakes much more. They often talked about what was going on in their lives and she would always ask if he remembered any baking recipes from back home. Though baking wasn't his forte he still remembered how to make most treats from back on Earth.

"Say do you know when Twilight will be up and ready to talk?" She asked with a smile but Sam couldn't help noticing something was off about her smile. It didn't look or feel like there was any happiness or cheerfulness in it like there was with her usual facade.

Sam raised an eyebrow,"Yeah in an about an hour, its Sunday and she usually sleeps in an extra hour on Sundays. Why do you need to see her?" He asked crossing his arms and tilting his head.

"Well," Pinkie's demeanor changed with his question, her smile vanished replaced with a worried frown and her eyes lost their usual shine,"The wonderbolts came by the other day and they were asking around for Rainbow."

"Really? Why?"

"They say that Rainbow was supposed to show up for a meet on Friday, she didn't appear then and for nearly two days she didn't show up. So they came by asking around for her." She swallowed thickly and grimaced,"Turns out the last time somepony saw her was two days ago and she was over the Everfree."

Sam lowered his hands into his pockets,"Is there a search being organized?"

"Yeah some of the townsponies were coming with the girls and I to go searching. I came by to know if Twilight wanted to join us." She looked away tears forming in her eyes,"I just hope that she isn't to busy being a princess, Rainbow might be hurt after all and if she's in the Everfree..."

Sam's expression softened at the sight of her teary eyes, he reached up with both arms and grabbed her shoulders,"How about I go talk to her for you, that way you can go start searching early hmm? In fact when I finish asking her, I'll join you in your search, okay?"

Looking him in his eyes she sniffled and gave him a small smile,"Thanks Sam."

"Don't mention it." He patted her shoulders and lowered his arms back to his sides.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug, resting her head on his shoulder she whispered into his ear,"I have to mention it, after all I know how Rainbow treats you and the fact that you can look past it and help find her speaks volumes about you." She let go of him then leaned in and kissed his cheek.

He blushed the red tone lighting up his pale cheeks,"I-I," Sam flubbered obviously not used to physical affection.

"Shh," she put a finger to his lips,"Go talk to Twilight and when all this is over I'll make you a milkshake on the house, okay?"

"Uh yeah, that sounds like a good deal Pinkie." He nodded his blush dissipating slowly.

He watched her turn then walk out and couldn't help but note just how affectionate Pinkie was,"Guess thats just how she is."

Taking a deep breath he turned to the stairs and once again traversed them, except upwards this time. Once he reached the top Sam made his way through the maze of hallways all the way to Twilight's room. He stood in front of the door, sighing he steeled himself for the talk he was about to have.

He knocked firmly on the door making sure to be loud enough to wake her up,"Twilight, I have to talk to you."

He listened for any movement or response but none came, while raising his hand to knock again the door swung open revealing Twilight. She had a white night gown on but must have just woke up because it was unbuttoned revealing her chest and upon further inspection he found she was bottomless,"What do you want?" She asked her voice groggy.

"Well I uh..." he trailed off and looked down.

"What?" She confused she followed his gaze,"Oh! Oh my!" Her cheeks blazed red and she slammed the door shut in a hurry. He could hear her running around the room,"I am so sorry about this, give me a second and I'll be ready."

"No problem, the fault is mine anyway, I woke you up." He took a breath and looked down, his hands clasped behind his back while he waited.

The door opened again and now she had pajama pants on, at least she was a bit more properly dressed.

"So uh, what did you want to talk about." She cleared her throat and leaned against the doorway.

He sighed,"It's Rainbow."

She cocked her head and looked him in the eye,"What about her?"

"She's gone missing I-"

"What?! How?! Where?! Give me the details!" She straightened her posture as she leaned away from the door and gave him her full attention.

"I will, I will just calm down and let me finish okay."

"Alright I'm sorry, ah you know what?" She looked into her room,"Let me get dressed into some more appropriate clothes, I'll meet you downstairs then you can tell me." Once again Twilight went back into her room leaving Sam in the hall.

Within five minutes Twilight was dressed and sitting in the throne room listening to Sam tell her about Rainbow's disappearance.

"In fact Pinkie tells me that there's a search going on right now, the girls are all there and the townsponies that could make it are too. She came by to ask if you would come and help." He stood in front of her, hands dipped halfway into his pockets.

She nodded,"Of course I'll help, anything for my friends." Her tone was enthusiastic,"Now let's get going, you said you'd search too, right?"

"Yeah."

Twilight stood up and stepped towards him,"Good," She smiled appreciatively,"I'm glad you can forgive her for behaving so badly to you since you got here, not many ponies can do that."

He grabbed her shoulder as she walked past him,"Twilight I appreciate the compliment but I don't think she's just missing, I think the diamond dogs might be behind this."

"What?" She stared at him for a moment,"Why? This doesn't fit their style." She shook her head looking at him with disapproving eyes,"Do you really want war this badly?"

"No I don't want a war, I want justice, so please just hear me out." He pleaded.

Pushing his hand off her shoulder she let out a breath that flared her nostrils,"Alright, why did they kidnap Rainbow Dash? An element of harmony, a national hero and friend of princess Celestia herself."

"For those reasons exactly. There's no proof of the fact that they are pony traffickers, just speculation on your and my part. So we couldn't ever go after them or even investigate them without backlash from the other dog packs and its improbable if not impossible we would ever find any proof of their actions, correct?"

She looked him in the eyes her expression hardening,"Your making sense so far and I don't like it."

Sam felt a bit of relief that she saw his logic,"Now you've told me Bone Claw has killed two other alphas for their packs. You know what that tells me?" She shook her head waiting for him to continue,"It tells me he's an ambitious leader who wants to expand his pack and profits as much as possible." He paused a moment to let Twilight process the information. Her expression grew more and more worried with every point he made,"Now think about it, pony trafficking diamond dogs with a particularly ambitious leader and dire consequences for attacking them without proof." He swallowed thickly,"Now tell me why they wouldn't kidnap the Rainbow Dash? All they need to do to get rich is hide away until the heat dies down, then leave the country and sell her to the highest bidder, whether that be Equestria or some perverted freak with a lot of money."

She thought about what he'd just said,"I... I'll go there with the girls and we'll investigate our selves!"

She tried to move but Sam grabbed her by the forearm,"And what? Let them get away? No if you want to make sure they don't have any special escape plans or keep them from using said plans then send in a battalion of guards."

She looked away eyes wide with the realization that he was right,"But that would take a week to organize getting a battalion of guards down here and what if Celestia doesn't listen to me? Oh my Celestia, what-what they might be doing to Dash right now I-I don't even want to think about it!" She fell to her knees, breathing heavily,"I-If only i had taken your advice I-I-"

"Hey." He squatted down at her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder,"Calm down Twilight, it's just a theory on my part and you know what? You are right it isn't their style I'm just guessing on just how ambitious this guy is I really don't know." She looked into his face with teary eyes and hot erratic breath that washed over his cheek,"Tell you what lets just search the forest, she's probably hurt somewhere out there and if we don't find her then we can explore the diamond dog possibility, okay?" He gave her shoulder a squeeze in an attempt to reassure her.

"O-Okay," he stood up and reached down to help her up,"I-I want to thank you Sam you, you're a very kind stall- man." Once on her feet she dusted herself off,"I suppose I'll be off to join the search then." She walked out of the room wiping her tears away and composing herself.

He stood there and gave a small smile to himself,"I'm sorry I can't join the search like I said I would Pinkie, but I've got a couple of dogs I need to put down."

~

Zecora stood over a table with Applebloom by her side, on the table was an assortment of ingredients for potions. She was explaining the effect of each ingredient and how to use them in a potion.

Applebloom had come over early this morning and wanted to know if there was a way to scry on ponies using potions since it wasn't possible with magic. After Zecora told her it wasn't possible as far as she knew, she then asked why she wanted to scry. That's how she had learned Rainbow was missing. They had spent the rest of the morning looking for potions that could help in the search.

They both jumped with a start when the door of the hut swung open and slammed into the wooden wall. Turning around as quickly as they could they were both confronted with an odd sight.

Sam stood in the doorway with a grim expression, like he'd been told he was going to die. Stepping forward they oticed he had large pack on his back that clinked with every step he took. Sam looked at Zecora,"Do you uh, do you have a map?"

Applebloom stuck her head out from behind the zebra,"O' course she does."

Zecora placed a hand over Applebloom's mouth shushing her,"Yes I have a map... what might you want it for then?"

"I don't want it, I just need you to show me a certain location."

She nodded cautiously still perturbed by the look on his face, she quickly sidestepped to the easternmost wall and grabbed the rolled up map off the shelf. Placing it on the table she unrolled it.

It's edges were rough and torn showing obvious use and the fact that the material it was on had faded in a coffee stain brown meant it was old. Areas where buildings or locations had been discovered after the map was created were marked by Zecora,"What is the location you desire to know?"

He stepped over to the table, the clanking in his bag telling Zecora all she wanted to know about it's contents,"I want to know where the hideout that the diamond dogs use is."

She placed her finger on an eastern point just before where the map ended. It was northeast of Applejacks farm and just past the forests in a rocky area. He studied it for a moment memorizing a path to where he wanted, no needed to go.

"Thank you for helping me." He turned and walked to the door,"And thank you Applebloom for being a good friend." He opened the door and walked out without another word.

His words had left Applebloom thoroughly confused,"What did he mean by sayin' that? If I dint' know any better I'd say he was marching off ta die."

"I believe he is Applebloom."

"What?! Well if he is then we gotta stop him! He's my friend!"

"He is to me as well and I don't intend to let him die." She looked to Applebloom,"I think we should follow him don't you?"

Applebloom nodded,"I think that's a mighty fine idea miss Zecora."

~

Securing the last plate of the armor he cracked his neck savoring what might be the last little pops in his neck he'd ever hear. It was a bad idea certain death actually but he knew that but if he went through with it then it would lead to one of two things, he would kill them all or drive them out and because he's a lone man the other packs would laugh at Bone Claw's defeat instead of rallying behind Samuel's assault. Now the other more likely scenario was that he'd die in his attack, but that give Equestria a good reason to wipe this pack out and since they would have good reason the other packs would leave it well enough alone.

Grabbing his heater shield he strapped it to his left forearm and his broadsword he put in it's sheath which ran along his left side, sure historically men with plate armor didn't use shields because the armor was good enough but if he was going to take on a small army he needed all the protection he could get. They didn't use broadswords either but he personally liked them.

Picking his helmet up from the ground he placed it on his head and made sure it was in place. Pikes are between ten and fourteen feet, since he was going into such an enclosed space he made sure that when he picked it up he held it by the middle of its wooden spire. It had been awhile since he last wore armor for sparing and now it wasn't to spar but to actually kill. Admittedly it wasnt like he was killing nice people but still it was an odd thought.

He gave a short prayer to God, after all he was most likely going to die and even if God didn't exist at least the thought of it helped to alleviate some of his anxiety before going in. With a last sigh he began the walk over the rocky ground between him and the cave.

Outside of said cave there were two diamond dogs standing guard. Well one was asleep on the ground, the other stood leaning downwards, a badly made spear helping him keep balance and if his eyes were any indication he was dozing off. Sam couldn't help but notice how unnaturally lucky this was, maybe God was on his side?

He stopped only about six feet away from the guards, he was amazed at their stupidity, how do you not notice a man in full blown clinking armor? Maybe he would feel bad about killing them after all.

He stepped forward with his right foot and thrusted the weapon catching the dozing dog in the throat. The dog's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the tip of a pike come out of his thoat as he fell, he would have screamed had his vocal cords not been severed. Blood poured from the wound while he writhed on the ground, grasping at his throat he made the most dreadful sound, like someone who had to throw up but had nothing to throw up.

All the while his sleeping friend didn't even stir, Sam was disgusted by this dogs lack of care for anything, which is why he didn't feel bad when he lifted his sabaton (Armor that covers the foot, not the band) and brought it down hard against the dogs head. The crack was heard just as much as it was seen forming across his skull and the dog didn't even twitch as blood and brain matter seeped out onto the dirt below.

"At least it was in his sleep." Sam muttered under his breath. Looking forward he entered the cave, his pike and shield faced forward ready for action, he walked for a minute or two with no activity before coming to a carved out room where the hideout diverged in two places. A torch was mounted on the back wall of the room and two dogs stood at attention like statues in front of the right diverging passage.

They seemed like maybe they were a little more disciplined than the last two, makes sense after all you'd want you best men on the inside to protect you. They immediately noticed him sidestep in the room pike facing them, the one on the right reacted blindly charging forward with a knife drawn.

The dog attempted sidestepping the pike as Sam drove it forward, it rammed the dog in his chest, penetrating a crude breastplate that the dog had on and ripped into his right lung causing irreparable damage. The speed of the spear forced the dog into the wall of the passage.

Turning his attention to the other dog that was charging now, Sam attempted to pull the pike from his previous victim but it wouldn't budge,"Fuck!" Sam roared as the dog raised a club above its head. Letting the pike go he made a split second decision. Bringing his shield up and charging forward the shield slammed into the dog with a loud bang and it threw the beast back a couple feet.

It lay on the ground and yelped with every attempted breath telling Sam that he tore the air of of the dog and very probably broke multiple ribs. He gave the pike a last attempted tug, when it didn't move he knew it was stuck so he gave up on that endeavor and walked over to the downed dog.

Unsheathing his sword he angled it downward placing the sharp tip on the dogs throat,"I'll give you one chance at mercy, so get the hell out here, leave the country and I won't kill you." He pressed against the dogs throat drawing a small amount of blood,"Deal?"

The dog nodded mindful of the sword at his throat, Sam stepped back but kept his sword trained on the dog. The beast stood up slowly keeping its hands above its head,"Alright I go, no loyalty for Claw anyway." Then he left running down the hall that led to the entrance.

Sam smiled under his helmet, at least he got to show a little mercy today, he turned his attention back to the decision he had to make, left passage or right? The left side passage had a light at the end and the sound of ceaseless laughter pouring from it. The right side was dark and strangely quiet, he had a suspicion that this passage might be where they kept the prisoners.

He stopped for a second thought about it and changed his plan. Now instead of die for the greater good he could see if he can rescue any prisoners and help them escape. That would be the proof he needed to get Celestia's attention and good reason for wiping these bastards out.

He lifted his sword and shield up, then began his cautious march down the dark passage, as he went the laughter from before had died away leaving only silence. He had to admit it was creepy beyond belief, but that wasn't going to stop him, he kept his eyes to the wall as he went and finally when he reached the end of the passageway he saw a carved out doorway to the right of it.

Sheathing his sword he stepped in front of the door, it was wooden with metal hinges and a small portway in the upper middle section of the door. Flipping his helmets visor up he looked in the port,"Holy shit..."

What he saw horrified him, Inside were the four mares that had been taken over the past month. Each one was nude, badly beaten and covered in a layer of dirt, his horror died away quickly replaced instead with a deep anger and hatred of this Bone Claw.

Backing up he drew his sword out it's sheath, grabbed it by the base of the blade with his right hand and lifted it high. Swinging down he brought the guard of it down on the top hinge.

The first one broke with ease making a loud sound while doing it, this didn't go unnoticed either, he could hear the mares inside shuffling about. With another strike the second hinge broke just as easily as the first, then with a swift kick the door fell, making a bang as it hit the ground.

Stepping inside he was met with the four mares standing before him,"Are-Are you here to save us?" One closest made asked, her coat was a deep blue and her mane violet.

"Yes, my name is Samuel and I'm here to save you. Do you mind telling me your names?"

"No I don't," the blue mare from before stepped forward,"I'm Violet Skies, I'm sorry but I don't know the other mare's names, they won't talk," she gestured to the other mares who were looking down, shaking and trying to cover themselves up,"But they've been treated worse than I."

"What do you mean?"

"Well they uh, they rape us daily as part of the process to get us ready for slavery, when they rape me I just lay there and don't fight back so that they don't beat me..." she shivered and hugged her herself tightly for a moment,"Eventually they get bored and turn their attention to these three who... always try to fight back, because of that they're raped harder and more viciously than me, as well as beaten afterwards." She sighed and turned to her mouth forming a halfhearted smile,"But your here to save us."

His stomach was queasy after her tale,"Damn straight I am. But I also need to save the stallions and if possible Rainbow Dash."

"Dear Celestia they have Rainbow Dash?"

"Yes and I mean to save her just as I mean to save you and those stallions." He sighed looking at the ground for a moment before looking back up,"Do you know where the stallions are?"

"Oh, w-well since I don't fight back they never cover my eyes or restrain me... when they bring me to the main hall and back, because of that I've mapped this place out a bit. The stallions are in a cell you must have missed on your way here, I... I wouldn't blame you for missing it, it is dark without a torch."

"Alright then, I'll lead you out and then come back for the stallions."

"Wait, did you... did you already kill the guards on your way here?"

"Yeah." He cocked his head at her,"Why?"

"Well I uh, I know this place well enough to find my way out and you've k-killed the guards. So I propose that while you save the stallions I lead the girls out of here, Sunday is when their leader allows them to l-let loose in the main hall. S-So we could sneak out of here without any trouble."

He frowned unsure of her idea,"Your sure that your okay with making your way out on your own?" His tone one of concern.

"Yes we-we'll be fine, just continue saving ponies okay."

"Okay," he flipped his visor back down,"But be careful."

"We will, Celestia knows we will."

They left cautiously leaving Sam alone, readying his weapons he made his way back down the hallway. When found the Stallion's cell the first thing he did was look into the port to see what condition they were in.

They were asleep at the moment but had makeshift clothes unlike the mares, the stallions were dirtier and beaten just as hard if not harder then the mares were. He opened the door in the same manner as he did with the last door, it was quite the surprise to the sleeping ponies. They jumped up confused and unsure what to make of the metal man standing before them.

"What are your names?"unlike the mares they weren't as traumatized and could still speak for themselves

"I'm Rummage Digger." A short stallion unicorn with a bland blonde fur coat said.

Another one an earth pony taller and stronger then the last stepped forward,"I'm Coin Minter." His coat was a deep red, almost like velvet.

The third one was a mint green unicorn,"Candy Maker." He said his attitude seemed to be short. Not that Sam could blame him for it.

The last one was quiet and seemingly shy earth pony,"I'm uh, stone shaper."

"Nice to meet you all, now, I'm here to save you."

He explained what was going on, the mares were free, the guards dead and he could escort them out or they could leave themselves.

"But what if we want to help you kill the the bastards and save Rainbow Dash?" Coin Minter asked.

Stone Shaper cut in before Sam could respond,"We have no armor or weapons, we've been beaten and worked to near death and you want to help him? You'd be more of a hindrance than a help."

Coin sighed and looked down,"I just... I just need to do something! After what they did to us, I have to!"

"He's right," candy maker agreed,"You would just get in the way."

"Look the best thing you can do is go with the others here, make sure they get out okay." Sam stepped forward placing hand on His shoulder,"You need to get the word out about what they do here, use your wounds as proof. That way If I die this won't have been for nothing."

Looking Sam in the eyes coin nodded,"Alright, I'll go but if your still alive after this I'm buying you a drink."

"Deal."

The stallions left their cell moving quickly down the hallway and towards the entrance of the hideout. Now Sam had to go after Rainbow Dash and she was most likely in the main hall where all the dogs were right now.

~

He stood at the end of the right side passage way before a wooden door, Rainbow was behind it along with dozens of dogs that would try to kill him the second he opened it. Deciding he should take a look through the port before charging in he grabbed hold of it and lifted slowly, trying to keep the noise down.

Inside was about a hundred dogs all around a table, on the table was Dash and what they were doing to her was... He looked away eyes closed in disgust. Taking a deep breath he steeled himself for another look, past the crowd above everyone else was a throne of rock and on it a dog bigger than the others. He wasn't taking part in the "festivities", instead he watched his men drink and rape the poor pony.

Samuel hadn't realized how badly he was shaking until now, not out of fear but because the anger he pushed down had almost become rage. Taking a step back he readied his sword and charged.

The door bursted open and Sam came through giving a warcry, it probably wasn't a very good one but it didn't matter. The first dog in front of him was turning to see what was happening right as Sam swung his sword in a cross cut on the dog's unprotected back.

Blood spurted from the cut he'd just inflicted on the dog and the dog fell down screaming and grasping at his back. The laughter from before became yelling and shouting as Sam drove his sword into the side of another dog that was to his right by the door.

A dog charged him from the left side in an attempt to tackle him. Sam wrenched the sword out of his last kill, the body slumping to the floor and he simply swung his sword to the side in an arc. The sword cut across the dogs face and right over his eyes. The now blinded dog back pedaled and grabbed at his eyes blood coming through the spaces in his fingers.

Turning forward he saw one dog in front of him standing his ground while the others ran in a blind panic unsure of what was going on, the dog in front of him lowered into a fighting stance. Sam just smiled and stood up straight, then motioned with his right hand to take a swing. Which is what the dog did, the dog stepped forward wounded up and threw his punch.

Upon contact with the breastplate of his armor the dogs hand broke,"Grahh!" The dog stepped back cradling his hand. The armor wasn't even marked, with a shake of is head Sam put his left foot forward and thrusted his sword into the side of his neck, this knicked his cartoid artery. Blood sloshed out and onto the ground, the dog gurgled and fell face first into the floor.

A powerful blow to his back made Sam tumble forwards slightly, it was going to bruise later but he payed that no mind, spinning about he saw a dog with a hammer raised above his head. He took note at the stupidity of these dogs in the way they fought.

Shooting outwards, the edge of his shield hit the dog in the left arm, the dog howled and dropped his hammer. Sam then sliced his sword diagonally from below which ripped the dogs stomach open, guts flowed out of the wound along with copious amounts of blood.

The dog looked down at his own guts then back up to Sam his eyes wide and mouth agape. Letting out a last breath he fell backwards.

"Come back here you cowards!" Sam turned back towards the throne, only a few dogs remained the rest had run deeper into the hideout.The dog who had shouted was the one on the throne, Bone Claw.

Marching towards the six dogs that stood in front the the table Dash was on, he stopped just out of swinging distance,"Surrender now and I'll let you live."

"No! Do that and you won't make any money!" Bone stepped down the small stairway that led to his throne, he stopped behind the six dogs,"Who is this creature that thinks he can come in here and kill us all then steal our hostage?! Hmm? You filthy mutts are going to let this short piece of shit just take everything?!"

They looked at each other unsure of what to do,"So this is how you want to die?" Sam questioned,"In a dark and dingy little hideout at the hands of a single opponent?"

"Exactly he's alone, rush him!" Claw barked angrily.

One of the dogs in front of Claw raised an eyebrow,"One warrior kill many, we no fight him." The other dogs nodded and lowered their weapons,"You give word to not kill?" The dog from before asked Sam.

"I give you my word." He nodded.

Bone Claw's eyes widened in disbelief as the dogs in front of him ran past Sam and out of the hideout,"H-How," he shook his head,"No it doesn't matter I'll get them after I kill you."

Sam got into a combat stance. Claw brandished his little bone knives, placing them in between the spaces of his fingers like brass knuckles and lowering himself. Sam made the first move swinging his sword in a downward arc, Claw stepped back just barely missing the tip and in retaliation swung his hand. Grabbing the shield he he yanked on it and pulled himself right past Sam, he managed to get behind Sam totally and with a spin he threw his deadly fist towards Sam's back.

The only mistake he made was in underestimating Samuel's speed. Before he hit him, Sam swung his shield to the left and spun around at the same time, the shield rammed Claw right on his left side and threw him to the ground. It hadn't knocked the breath out of him like Sam hoped it would but he still got a hit in.

"Come on, why are you doing this?" Claw asked picking himself up and getting in a defensive posture,"Some conceived notion that you might help make the world a better place?" Samuel advanced and Claw backed up,"You think I'm evil don't you, taking ponies and selling them." Sam kept moving forwards and Claw kept moving backwards,"Well let me tell you the world is a cruel place and I'm not scared to admit that! I'm just doing what I have to! You though you're only doing this because your scared to face reality!" He backed into the wall.

"Really?" Sam asked smirking behind his helmet,"If I'm so scared then how come your the one who's running?"

Claw lashed out in an attempt to get at Sam's helmet, Sam simply brought his left arm higher, the claws hit his shield and at the same time Sam thrusted his sword forward from below his shield. The sword plunged into the big dog's left thigh, yelping Claw dropped his knives and slumped down grabbing at the sword in his leg.

"Your just a scumbag that tries to justify his actions by claiming that "that's the way of the world" well let me tell you something," he twisted the sword, Bone looked up at him with tear in his eyes,"The world has a way of taking care of people like you and I'm about to show you how it does that."

He wrenched out he sword, blood began spewing out of his thigh,"Oh I must have hit an artery, guess I don't have to kill you myself after all." He watched Claw do everything to stop the bleeding, he pinched, grabbed and even tried sticking his finger in the wound like a plug but in the end his breathing slowed and he visibly went pale.

"You... are a bastard." And with that he went limp, Sam smiled.

"Yeah I'm a bastard, but your a dead bastard." Turning away he looked to the table where Rainbow Dash was laid. He swiftly made his way over and looked her over, she was nude, covered in bruises and cuts. Her arms and legs were tied down to the sides of the table. She had a blindfold over her eyes and her ears were plugged, as of now she was breathing steadily.

He grabbed her blindfold and gently pulled it off, she blinked wildly looking around, when her eyes landed on him she screamed,"Get away from me!" She struggled in her bonds trying to fight back.

He pulled his helmet off and grabbed her shoulders, she looked at him in surprise,"It's me, it's Sam I'm here to help." He yelled so she could hear through the plugs.

Her breathing calmed down as she listened to him,"S-Sam? R-Really?"

He nodded and pulled the plugs out of her ears, moving to hers arms he used his sword to cut the ropes. She sat up quickly and tugged at the ropes around her feet,"We-We gotta get the hell out of here!" He grabbed her shoulder and she looked at him,"What?!"

He pointed towards the bodies around the room, her eyes widened at the sight,"Take it easy, I understand what's happened to you but we aren't in any immediate danger." He patted her back,"So please slow down, you could hurt yourself."

She sighed and nodded,"Okay I'll calm down, I just-just... did you kill them?"

He began helping to remove the ropes on her feet,"Yes, yes I did." He waited for a response.

"That's," she slipped her feet out of the bonds,"Pretty badass actually." He smiled, still the same Rainbow Dash.

helping her off the table she stumbled slightly, he wrapped an arm under her shoulder to hold her up,"Can you walk?"

"Yeah," she brushed him off and stood up straight with out support,"I'll be fine now let's get out of here, if you want to that is." She joked and he almost laughed.

"Yeah, I know the way out, follow me."

She followed him closely through the door and into the passage way. They quickly walked into the room where everything diverged, Rainbow smiled when she saw the impaled dog against the wall,"I see this guy gave you trouble huh?"

"Nah he was a terrible fighter." She laughed at his comment.

"Fucker got what he deserved."

He led her down the entrance passage and when Rainbow saw the light of the outside world she took off in a sprint. Sam followed her outside and he found her stretching her wings and floating in the air,"I-I'm outside I, ha, I never thought I'd see the sky again!"

He stood there outside the cave entrance smiling and watching her fly about. She flew down in front of him her smile going away some,"Sam I-I want to apolo-" she was cut off by a noise in the cave, turning around they were met with the sight of dozens of dogs charging at them from the cave.

Pushing her behind him he drew his sword and readied his shield,"Finish talking to me later, I'll fight them off just get back to town."

"What?!" She grabbed his shoulders from behind,"You can't do that, you'll die!"

"Maybe, but it's better then letting them kill us both." He remained facing the horde that was approaching.

"N-Not if you run and I fly!" Her tone was pleading and frantic.

"No they're quicker than I am and your not strong enough to carry me. Just go I'll be fine."

"Promise me you won't die!"

"What?" He looked to the side at her, she was crying.

"Promise me you won't die! You saved me and I haven't made it up to you yet!"

"I... okay, I promise to not die." He laughed under his breath at how stupid that sounded.

She let go of him,"Good... I'll see you later." Turning away she flew up and out of sight.

Making sure she was gone he turned back to the cave, which he noticed was cramped and from what he could see the dogs were all bunched up. The entrance was small it would force the dogs to come at him two at a time at most, this was a bottleneck position, maybe he had an actual advantage.

The dogs were here now and two lunged at him at once, he killed one with a sword thrust to the gut, the second one's head was cracked on Sam's shield.

Two more appeared right after and attacked the same way, slamming the shield into both of them they were thrown back, he took a step forward and in one swing slit both their bellies.

The next wave of them stopped for a second and the right one pointed at him,"You kill boss! You Take slaves! We kill!" And yet again charged. This was going to be a long fight.

~

Sam didn't know what time it was, the sun was dipping below the horizon so it must be evening. His arms felt like lead, his legs burned and everywhere he had been hit hurt beyond belief but none of the wounds were fatal, thanks to the armor. Drenched in other people's blood he stood there, the fighting had ceased a couple minutes ago and he couldn't tell whether they gave up or he had killed them all. He still couldn't understand it, all they did was charge him two at a time. It was like they wanted to die, he didn't want to think about it now.

Unsteadily walking over the bodies he finally came to a patch of ground that wasn't tainted with blood. Falling to his knees he took off his helmet and dropped it, his breathing was slow and heavy.

"Samuel!" He looked up slowly trying to see who called to him through the blood over his eyes.

Zecora ran towards him with Applebloom in tow,"Oh, hi Zecora." He responded.

They fell to their knees in front of him, Zecora grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye,"Samuel I-I saw what happened are-are you wounded?!"

"Oh," he swallowed thickly and laughed,"Just fine, though I think I'm gonna pass out..." he slumped forward onto the ground bloody armor rattling loudly.

"Oh ma Celestia, we need ta get him to a doctor!" Applebloom yelled worriedly.

Knighted pt.1

Author's Notes:

This is the first part of a big story chapter, at first I wasn't going to split it in two but it would have been huge if I hadn't. The next part of this chapter should be out sometime soon and it will have a lot more happening in it.

Opening his eyes the first thing Sam saw after waking up was a faded white ceiling, he groaned and sat up all the muscles in his body burning. He let out a sigh and looked around, he was on a bed in the middle of a room and to his left was a window that overlooked Ponyville. Under the window was a table, on said table all his stuff was layed out, armor, weapons and clothes all layed out and cleaned. His sword was dulled, pike tip bent and the armor had numerous dents. He'd fix it all later.

Looking to his right he saw the exit to his room, a wooden chair, a counter with medical supplies on it and a clock that read seven forty six. The only explanation was that he was in a hospital it was after all the only explanation as to why he had a patients gown on. It occurred to him that he wanted to know what had happened after he passed out, sighing he decided to start waiting for a nurse to make a check up on him, maybe she knew would know what happened.

He sat there for about ten minutes before the door to his room opened. In walked a nurse with pinkish red hair done up in a bun and she had her face buried in a clipboard, not even noticing Sam.

He couldn't help but smile about the fact that she was wearing the uniform of a nurse from the fifties, he always found those uniforms aesthetically pleasing,"Oh!" Her eyes widened when she saw him and she smiled brightly,"You're awake."

He smiled back,"I am, uh," he looked to her name tag,"Your're Redheart correct?"

She nodded,"Yes it is, I've taken care of you since your arrival."

"Thank you for that, now, do you know what happened to me? I can only remember what happened before I passed out."

"Well of course I know," she lowered her clipboard and took a seat in the chair,"Everypony knows about you." Redheart laughed,"You're a Celestia damned hero!"

"I don't know about that..."

"Hey don't sell yourself short big guy, you single handedly rescued nine enslaved ponies, including the Rainbow Dash," she crossed her legs and leaned back into the chair,"All of them are in this hospital under treatment for their wounds and such, so don't worry about them."

Sam nodded glad to here they were okay.

"You also killed one hundred and thirty four diamond dogs possibly more, the guards are still finding bodies."

Sam choked on his own spit,"What? Oh my god..."

She let out a laugh and continued,"Zecora found you outside the cave, dirty, wounded and exhausted. She brought you back to town, where you were inducted into the hospital and put in here."

"How did everyone react to what I did?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well most ponies reactions were to, rightfully, call you a hero but some think that what you did just means you're a threat and that you should be locked up." She frowned,"Most of those ponies are pig bastard nobles and that's just like them, you save ponies and thats what they think of you!" She shook her head,"They probably would of tried to cut a deal with those diamond dog scumbags."

He sighed and grimaced a bad feeling in his gut,"Well I can see why they might think that, I mean, I single handedly killed a hundred and thirty four people, plus my immunity to magic..." He looked down at the sheets pondering over the point he himself raised.

"Yeah you are dangerous I suppose, in fact princess Luna came out and said she thinks you're a threat that needs to be locked up and investigated right away."

He let a breath out through his nose and nodded,"Of course she does, she never liked me, always thought I was a beast from another world that needed to be and I quote,"Put to the slaughter like the dangerous animal you are." He smirked grimly tilting his head,"She's not really worried about me being a meat eating alien, but rather scared of my immunity to magic and because of that she's not the nicest pony I've ever met."

Redheart nodded sighing,"Well you don't gotta worry about it," she leaned forward, grabbed his shoulder and looked into his eyes assuringly,"You have princess Celestia on your side, she came out and personally commended your actions. She even said that when you woke up she would come to the hospital to commend you herself."

"Really?" Sam's eyes widened in surprise, a wave of relief washing over him.

"Yep she did, now, your awake which means I need to run some tests on you then I'll put the word out that your awake," she stood up,"Unless you don't want any visitors for a while?"

"No it's okay, my friends are probably worried about whether I'm okay or not."

"Yes they are worried but remember to take it easy, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself after just waking up." She went over to the counter and picked up a stethoscope,"I'm going to need you to move the top of your hospital gown away so I can listen to your heart beat."

He complied pulling the top half away from his body and waiting. He got a look at his skin and noticed just how bruised everything was, it was like he had purple skin. Redheart sat on the bed dangling her legs off the edge, she turned her upper body towards him and held out the end of the stethoscope while putting the listening buds in her ears.

He loooked out the window absentmindedly while she placed the device against his chest and waited for her to finish. She looked at his chest a small blush on her face, he wasn't beefy, in fact he was fairly skinny but he was toned and the muscles showed through,"Your uh," she cleared her throat,"Pretty fit huh?"

He shrugged,"Yeah I guess so, I probably wouldn't be as fit if I hadn't of started working on the farm." He kept looking out while she performed all the necessary tests she was required to do. His heart beat and breathing was normal, at least from what she could tell. All they had to go by was the medical knowledge of humans Sam had brought with him when he arrived.

Retrieving a Manuel blood pressure monitor, she grabbed his arm and wrapped it around his bicep, latching it in place she began to pump the bulb. Blood pressure was normal too. Removing it she placed the device back on the counter top, turning to him Redheart smiled,"Thankfully theres no immediate health concerns but I would like to keep you here till tomorrow morning, just in case."

"Alright then, thank you for your care Miss Redheart."

"No thank you for everything you've done, especially for being civil about having to stay here overnight," She chuckled," Most ponies raise a fit when they hear that."

He smiled and watched her leave the room, now alone he tried to find something to do to occupy his time while he waited for a visitor. Rummaging through the nightstand next to his bed he found a book on the biology of dragons, it was recently published what with all the new information about dragons that had come out since Ember became dragon lord. The book seemed interesting so he layed back and began reading.

~

It was around ten o'clock when the door opened again, looking up from his book Sam saw none other than Twilight. Sitting up he put the book down, pages first so that it would save his spot.

She had a guilty look on her face as she stood in the doorway, her arms crossed,"I'm sorry Sam."

He paused in confusion and raised an eyebrow,"What? What did you do?"

"I," she let out a shaky breath,"Its all my fault, if I had just taken your advice a-and killed those, those fucks," Twilight's hands lowered and formed clenched fists, she was almost yelling now,"If I had killed them then you wouldn't be here and Rainbow," she looked at the ground anger and sorrow overwhelming her,"Rainbow wouldn't have been r-raped and those other ponies might not of been enslaved." Tears ran down her face and off her chin.

Grunting as he jumped off the hospital bed he rushed over to her place in the doorway despite all the pain in his sore legs. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her in, shutting the door behind her so as to give them privacy. He guided the sobbing princess to the wooden chair and sat her down. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Twilight, Twilight look at me." He placed his other hand on her cheek and pulled her head up. Twilight locked eyes with him,"None of this is your fault, you didn't follow my advice because you cared for your people, you feared this would bring a terrible war. Had you gone in there waving the Equestrian flag your fear of a war might have become reality."

she wiped her face with the back of her hand as the tears slowed down,"Alright, alright that makes sense, but I want you to know that what you said about how it's better to die fighting evil, that has been on my mind these past two days and you were right about that. I-I don't know how to apologize for not listening except promise that next time I'll listen when you advise me on something." She sniffled the tears finally stopping and her composure returning.

He smiled and let go of her shoulder,"I'm glad you understand what I mean't but as it turns out me going in there instead of you and a bunch of guards was a good thing, eh?"

"It, it was, since you aren't tied to us the other dog packs didn't have a reason to feel they were at war and they in fact claim you have earned respect because of your deeds." She smiled,"You've become a legend Sam, what you did has either impressed or scared everypony who hears about it."

He shrugged with a sheepish smile,"Well I dont know about a legend, I was just doing what had to be done, but thank you for calling me one nonetheless."

"You are!" She smiled,"I'm very glad your okay," Twilight stood up,"Anyway I just came by to clear that up and see how you were doing, uh, when do you get out?"

"Oh tomorrow morning."

"Good, I'll come by tonight to keep you company and I'll make sure to sneak in some vanilla ice cream too, the kind they have here is terrible." She smiled uncharacteristicly mischievously.

"That sounds really good right now," He laughed.

She smiled and paused before leaving,"By the way Starlight Glimmer might come with me tonight."

"Really? I haven't seen her in a while."

"Well since she and her friends beat Chrysalis she's gone from town to town giving speeches on friendship and all that." She smiled," I need to go now so I'll see you tonight Sam."

"See ya." He watched as she walked out.

Reaching over he picked up his book, as it just so happened right when he found his spot in the story the door opened again. Setting it back down he looked up to see Applejack, Big Mac and Applebloom.

"Hey Sam!" Applebloom was the first one to greet him as she walked into the room, her older brother and sister came in after her.

"Hey you three, how are you doing?"

Applebloom hopped on the bed and sat up against him,"Ah've been doing fine Sam, least after we got you here. You gave me a big scare you did."

He smiled reached up and tussled her hair a bit,"Well don't worry, I'm not planning on doing that again."

"Well I certainly hope not!" Applejack stood in front of him arms crossed,"What you did was right selfish."

He looked Into her frowning face,"What?"

"You go in there without a care for yourself and simply take on a small army, if you hadn't of lived how would we have felt, huh?!"

"I-I'm sorry," he stuttered,"I didn't want to fight a small army."

She sighed looking down,"I know you dint' mean to and you was just trying to save Rainbow but don't do it again okay? Ya scared me half to death there when Bloom and Zecora brought you back. All I saw was you covered in blood and ya weren't moving none, I thought you were dead."

"Yeah she cried really hard." Applebloom chirped in nonchalantly.

"Shut it you." Applejack snarled her cheeks turning red in embarrassment.

Sam sighed feeling guilty for making her worry,"I'm sorry Applejack, I really am, but because of what I did those dogs aren't around anymore and we're all safe."

"I know," She sighed and shook her head,"I gotta thank you for saving Rainbow too, I know she ain't the kindest mare but you still did it, so thank you." She smiled and stepped away letting Mac who was by the door see him.

"Hey Mac what have you been up to while I was out?"

"Nothin' much just moving hay and collecting apples, what you did sounds a might more exciting than that though."

"Well yeah," He laughed,"It was pretty exciting."

"Oh, by the way,"Applebloom started,"Granny was sorry she couldn't come by but her hips been killing her today so next time you come by make sure to talk with her."

"Alright I'll make a point to talk with her when I get out tomorrow."

"Oh! I also wanted to tell you that Zecora an' I have been experimentin'."

Sam raised an eyebrow a smirk on his face,"What do you mean experimenting?"

"Yeah," Applejack looked at Applebloom with an eyebrow raised,"What does that mean?"

"Well since y'all will probably be using that armor and fighting something again, what with how crazy this place is, Zecora and I decided to make a whole arsenal of poisons for ya. We're even experimentin' with explosive potions a bit!" She had a proud smile plastered on her face.

"Explosives and poison!?" Applejack crossed her arms,"Im going to have a talk with Zecora about this and you are in trouble!" Sam smiled enjoying the heated exchange between siblings in front of him. It reminded him of the fights he had with his brother back home.

"Come on AJ," Mac cut in,"She's with Zecora and she wouldn't let anything bad happen to Bloom."

Applejack narrowed her eyes and stared at Mac for a moment,"Fine you can still do alchemy but I swear if anything bad happens it's yer responsibility Mac!"

Mac nodded accepting Applejack's decision, he looked to Applebloom and smiled which she reciprocated in appreciation of his help.

Sam tapped Applebloom's shoulder gaining her attention,"Remind me to tell you how to make dynamite when I get out of here okay."

She nodded,"I sure will Sam, thanks." He smirked at the thought of being irresponsible with dynamite.

"Well," Applebloom slid off the table and moved to the door,"I hate to leave but we should get back to the farm, daylights burning."

"Since when did you give me orders?" Mac asked leaning away from the wall.

"Macs right when did you start givin' orders?" Applejack asked walking up to her,"Even if your right I'm the one who gives the orders round here, ain't that right Mac?"

He just nodded,"Eeyup."

"Good, now, sorry Sam but daylight is burning so we better leave or we'll get behind on our apple harvesting."

"Alright, I'll see you later!" He waved as the sisters left. Mac didn't leave though he instead came over to Sam and patted his shoulder.

"I'm glad your alright Sam, I'm glad your alright." Turing about Mac left, the door closing in his wake. Smiling to himself he reached over and picked up his book, resuming where he left off.

~

It was two another hours before any other ponies arrived and this time they gently knocked on the door instead of just walking in, not that he minded it. Sitting up he set down his book, which was almost done with and called out,"Come in!"

The door opened to reveal Pinkie Pie, she walked in excitedly with a smile,"Hiya Sammy!"

He smiled at her joyful bubbliness,"Hey Pinkie how are you?"

"I'm doing great, after all your okay!" She plopped down on he bed and wrapped him in a hug. He smiled before noticing that standing in the doorway was Fluttershy and behind her... Rarity?

Fluttershy was a friend of his, when he first came to ponyville she was ecstatic about him, after all he was a whole new never before seen creature. She was extremely curious about everything to do with humans and constantly asked him questions about it his life and he was happy that she didn't mind him eating meat. After the initial excitement of his arrival and everything calmed down they didn't see each other as much, she was always busy taking care of animals, even on her off days she took care of animals.

Rarity though had been scared of him when they first met, she like Rainbow Dash hadn't trusted him. Except where Dash had a more logical reason for not trusting him, Rarity didn't really have a reason. He noticed she would avoid him, not make eye contact or even say hello, he came to the conclusion that she might be somewhat xenophobic towards him.

He let go of Pinkie and pulled away from her hug,"Hi Fluttershy."

"Hi Sam," she walked in and smiled,"I'm glad your okay, especially since you did all that uh..." she looked down obviously trying to avoid the topic of death.

"Yeah I know, I killed a lot of dogs, but you understand they left me no choice right?"

"Oh of course they didn't, I know you wouldn't of k-killed them without good reason Sam, it wouldn't be like you to do that. It's just sad that so many of them decided to throw their lives away like that." She looked down sadly.

Pinkies hair lost a little poof at her comment,"They... they made the choice Flutters, you and I couldn't stop them and we can't change what's been done. So don't think about it, it's in the past now and we don't have to worry about them being a threat anymore."

She sighed and nodded,"Your right Sam, I'm sorry I brought it up." Her tone was soft and quiet.

"No I get it, you don't have to apologize." He smiled assuringly at Fluttershy who smiled back. Looking over to Rarity who still stood in the doorway he raised an eyebrow,"So Rarity, what are you, uh, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to thank you Sam," She stepped into the room, her arms were crossed and she had a guilty looked on her face,"You saved one of my best friends so I wanted to thank you."

"Oh well, your welcome I guess, I mean I just did what anyone else would have done-"

"No, nopony else would have done something like that and you know it." She uncrossed her arms and looked him in the eye,"I also came by to apologize for my behavior towards you over this past year," Sam didn't see it but Pinkie and Fluttershy smiled at their friend's words,"I wish to make it up to you, maybe we could have lunch together sometime this week, get to know each other a bit?" She finished hoping he would forgive her.

He was taken back by her genuine apology,"I... yeah that sounds like it would be nice Rarity."

She let out a breath, a relieved smile forming on her face,"Good, come see me after you get released from the hospital and we can work the details out then darling."

"Alright that sounds like fun to me," He smiled at her,"Now Pinkie," he talked to the pink pony sitting next to him,"I believe we had a deal that you would make me a milkshake when this was all over and seeing as it is I wanted to know when I could expect that milkshake."

Pinkie's smile faded, losing some of her joyful demeanor,"How about tomorrow? We get fresh ice cream shipments in every Wednesday and tomorrow is Wednesday."

He nodded,"That sounds good to me." Turning to her he saw Pinkie's eyes tear up and her hair got somewhat straighter,"Hey what's wrong?! Are you okay Pinkie?!"

"Yes, I'm fine, it's just," she let out a laugh as tears started rolling down her cheeks,"It's funny that you bring up t-the milkshake thing now because when I was told what happened to you the pony telling me made it seem like you were dead," She wiped her eyes with her forearm and sniffled,"All I could think about was that you would never get the milkshake I promised you." She took a deep breath and her tears slowed down some,"But your alive, your right here now, so it's okay again."

He didn't even know what to say, the guilt of what he did to her was overwhelming. So he did the only thing he could think of. Wrapping an arm around her shoulder. In response she leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder,"I'm sorry for being so emotional Sam, your just one of my best friends is all." He held her there for a while, the other girls stood watching and giving them a respectful silence.

Nearly ten minutes passed before one of them said anything,"Pinkie," Fluttershy spoke up in a quiet manner,"I need to go now, I've got to feed the birds soon and I'm already late for feeding the fish."

"I, um, also need to go, there's a dress order I have to work on," Rarity quietly said,"The customer I'm doing it for is an important pony and she wants it by Friday."

Pinkie sighed into his shoulder,"I guess I should go too, the bakery probably needs me,"She pulled away from him, hopped off the bed and went to the door,"I'll see you later Sam."

Pinkie left quietly and Rarity followed. Before leaving, Fluttershy stopped and turned around a small smile adorning her face,"It was good what you just did for Pinkie, she needed that." She walked out before Sam could respond.

As soon as the door shut behind her Sam looked over to the window, he'd have a lot to do this week what with going to work, helping make dynamite, talking to granny, getting a milkshake and now going to lunch.

~

Sam woke up to a loud knocking coming from the door, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Judging by the last glimmers of light coming over the horizon and shining in his room, Sam concluded that it was around twilight time. He didn't know when he fell asleep or how long he'd been out. The knocking persisted, groggily he looked to the door,"Come on in already!"

The door opened and Sam snapped from a tired slump to an attentive straight posture almost immediately after recognizing who was at the door. In walked princess Celestia, flanked by two royal guards,"Hello Sam, I was told you are awake and healthy?"

Sam never found ponies attractive, the closest to attractive he had come across so far was Zecora. But Celestia from the first day was beautiful to him. She had a perfect almost amazonian figure, gorgeous magenta eyes and she never made him feel as though he were an outsider like some of his friends, even if they didn't mean to, sometimes did. Since she had taken him in after his arrival he had spent more time with her than with anyone else.

Celestia had let Sam stay in the castle for a while while he adjusted to the change of a new world and helped him get through the loss of his family. Back then he often woke up at night in hysterics from nightmares about leaving his family behind and when he did Celestia would always hold and comfort him till he calmed down.

She also always had him eat dinner with her, no matter if there were guests or foreign dignitaries at the table, he was there and she made a point to get him meat. That had helped him settle in a lot, especially when there were foreign dignitaries staying at the castle, it helped him to understand the politics of this world and introduced him to a lot of the species this world had.

Then even after all that she made sure to get him a job and even a place to live. She was the best friend he ever had, Sam trusted her more than anyone else and yes sometimes he thought about trying to ask her out but always dismissed those ideas as something that would never happen. After all how could she, a princess of a Equestria possibly even entertain the idea of accepting a date from him, an alien, especially when she could have anyone she wanted. The only way he could see possibly making it with her was if he improved his status to that of a noble but he didn't know how to start doing that.

"I am in good health your highness, how are you?"

She stood before him in a simple white dress, hands behind her back and a bright smile on her face,"Please Sam call me Celestia, after all you are a my friend and technically not a citizen. Now to anwser your question I am very good, if not somewhat worn out, the day has been tiring." she turned to her guards,"Stand outside the door and make sure no one comes in while we speak." They obeyed without question and quietly left the room.

"Why do the guards need to leave?"

She sat down in the chair, crossing her legs,"So we can talk freely like friends?"

"I guess that makes sense."

She nodded,"Your actions have caused quite the stir Sam and I must say they impress me." She raised her brow,"In fact I just now overheard a nurse downstairs talking about how "hot" you were."She smiled at him and leaned back,"I don't think she would have said that, had you not defeated a small army on your own."

He shook his head blushing,"I refuse to believe that someone called me hot, I'm as far away from hot as it gets."

She laughed,"Sam after knowing you for nearly a year and a half now and with your recent accomplishment, I must say you have all the qualities that make up someone who is attractive. Your Brave, intelligent and extraordinarily kind, those are all qualities I find attractive about yo-" her eyes widened her composure slipping some,"I mean that a mare like me might find, um, attractive." He couldn't see the small hint of red on her cheeks.

"If you say so Celly." He shrugged.

She giggled in a very unprincess like manner, she liked that he called her Celly it was unprofessional and sometimes being princess to everyone made her want to be unprofessional,"You know Sam we haven't seen each other for what? Six months?"

"Oh yeah," He nodded,"it's been a while since I moved here, what of it?"

"Well why don't you tell me about it, have you been able to fall into a nice routine?"

He smiled,"A very nice routine. I've got a lot of friends around the town and unlike in Canterlot the ponies here don't look down on me."

"Good, good." She leaned forward,"Do you mind bringing me up to speed on everything that's happened since you came here?" She uncrossed her legs, leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees,"I am just curious as to how you got to the point of becoming a hero is all."

"Well I guess I could tell you, how much do you want to hear?"

She shrugged,"I dont know, how about everything up to you passing out two days ago? That's a lot I know but I am curious."

He looked down and chuckled,"That is a lot of information, but, I'll try to compress it." He smiled and shook his head.

Sam spent a while telling Celestia about the events of the past few months, she interjected now and then but generally remained quiet and listened. He told her about his first day here, getting his farmhand job, meeting his friends and how he came to make his armor.

"I've told you all about my life, how about you tell me what's been going on in your world huh?" Sam asked tilting his head.

She smiled and shrugged,"I don't know what there is to tell you, uh, the king of Griffonstone, king Carolus has an illness, it's slow but he'll most likely die." She sighed,"Its a shame he's been the most cooperative griffon king I have had to deal with and unfortunately His oldest son prince Magnus is ambitious. He wants to conquer and expand, make a name for himself, plus he hates ponies."

"Oh that guy sounds like a lot of fun."

She shook her head with a grin,"Oh trust me if you enjoy being insulted and told that you will be conquered then I'm sure you would love to meet him."

"Is he short?"

She looked up at him confused,"What?"

"If he's short then he might be trying to compensate for his height, of course if he's tall then he might be compensating for something else." He grinned.

Celestia chuckled at what he was hinting at,"He is actually tall for a griffon so he must compensating for the later." She sighed and looked up at Sam her smile disappearing,"Tell me Sam, I've been dying to ask you how you felt about having to kill. You haven't told me about what that was like and I know It's not an easy thing to do, at least it wasn't the last time I had to do it."

Sam paused, he hadn't expected a question like that to come out of the blue,"I... don't regret it if that's what your asking, the dogs I killed were all dangerous scumbags that deserved what they got." He looked down at his hands and bit his lip in thought,"I made this town safe because I killed... I helped protect innocent people, there's not much I'd regret doing if it meant saving innocent people."

She smiled at his anwser,"That's a good attitude Sam, it's one I try to keep when my hand is forced such as your's was." She sighed and looked him in his blue eyes with her magenta eyes,"My little ponies may be kind but they can sometimes be to kind for their own good, you though, you understand when to leave a situation alone and let it solve itself, then you know when it is time to fight."

He opened his mouth to say something but stopped,"Thank you Celestia, that... that means a lot coming from you."

She nodded,"It's for those reasons that I think your courageous actions have warranted a reward."

He cocked his head in confusion,"What kind of reward?"

She smirked and her eyes narrowed teasingly,"Something you with your love of history couldn't refuse."

He returned the smirk,"I'm pretty dead set on not accepting money or anything in return for what I did."

She chuckled,"No I won't give you any money, what I plan on doing is knighting you."

He froze in place,"Did you say you were going to Knight me?"

"Well of course," She smiled knowing he would love this,"You would gain the title of sir Samuel, as well as being the first creature knighted by me in nearly five hundred years, a pretty historic event, should you accept."

His eyes lit up and huge smile made it's way onto his face,"Of course I'll accept!" He laughed,"What dumbass would refuse the title of knight!"

She laughed as he jumped up and pumped his fists,"Now just so you know, if you accept this, it means I would expect you to help me eliminate threats that can't be handled by Equestria."

He stopped and looked at her,"Now I'm going to accept this offer no matter what but I have to ask, doesn't becoming an Equestrian Knight imply I'm tied to Equestria?"

She nodded understanding what he was getting at,"Your still not a citizen," she explained,"So while we recognize you as a knight, other countries dont operate that way so thay won't acknowledge your connection to us, therefore they would be unable to declare war on us should you offend them."

"Huh, that's different than I thought it would," He shrugged,"But hey if that's the way it is."

Celestia was about to speak up when one of her guards came through the door,"Your highness, princess Twilight and Starlight Glimmer are at the door, they wish to come in and visit with Samuel."

"Oh yeah! Let em' in Celestia, they were going to come by tonight, I totally forgot about that." He sat back down on the bed still overjoyed at the thought of becoming a knight.

She nodded to the guard,"Let them in, and bring some more chairs for them to sit on."

"Yes ma'am." He marched out, Twilight and Starlight entering shortly after.

Twilight's smiled when she saw Celestia,"It's so nice to see you princess!" Twilight walked over to Celestia and gave her a hug which Celestia returned.

"It is good to see you Twilight."

Sam looked away from them and to Starlight,"What's up Star."

She shrugged,"Not much, though it seems like you've gotten a lot of attention in while I was gone."

"Yeah, I guess I have huh."

The guards entered the now clustered room with two chairs, they placed them down next to Celestia's chair and returned to their posts. Starlight took a seat and Twilight pulled away from Celestia to do the same.

"So-"

"Hey Twilight did you bring that ice cream?" Sam asked cutting off Celestia, which made Celestia snort indignantly.

"Oh uh yeah, I also brought bowls and spoons." She pulled up a small pouch and removed the ice cream carton, along with bowls and spoons.

Sam was about to question it before remembering magic would probably be the anwser,"My Twilight, that was kind of you to bring him ice cream." Celestia gave her input.

"Oh yeah well like I told Sam the ice cream here isn't very good."

Starlight nodded,"Yeah I had to stay here once and let me tell you it's like they forgot to put vanilla in the vanilla ice cream."

"Hey," Sam spoke up,"We have an entire gallon here, why don't you have some Celly?"

"I uh, I don't kno-"

"In fact why don't you invite the guards in, I'm sure they'd enjoy some ice cream."

Celestia chuckled, nobody would even think of cutting her off but they were close enough that he didn't even think about now.

"Guards!" Celestia called out,"Come in!"

The door opened and her guards came in, they stopped together in uniform motion. They were about to speak up but Sam cut them off,"You guys want some ice cream?"

They looked at each other breaking the serious thing they had going,"Yes?"

"Good!" He patted the other side of the bed,"Sit down and relax."

They looked to Celetia silently asking if it was okay. She nodded giving permission, they let out a breath and removed their helmets went to the bed and sat down.

"So," Sam opened up the ice cream carton and started scooping vanilla into the bowls while looking at Twilight,"Did you know Celestia was going to knight me?"

Twilight nodded with a smile,"Yes I did, she told me through a letter once she got word of your exploits."

"I didn't know that!" Starlight said as she accepted a bowl of ice cream from Sam,"There hasn't been a knight in what, five hundred years? That's amzingingly Sam."

"That is," One of the guards spoke up,"Pretty amazing, but Sam did pull off an amazing feat."

"When will the ceremony take place princess?" Twilight asked.

"This Friday is when I wanted to hold it, I'll put the word out tommorow so that ponies know in advance."

They talked and enjoyed ice cream well into the night. Eventually everyone grew tired and said their goodbyes, when they left Sam fell asleep around well into the night.

~

Deep in the Equestrian wilderness a beast of immense proportions flew undetected in the night. She was looking for a something, something important.

She spotted what she was looking for and swiftly made her way to it. Landing in front of a large cave on the top of a mountain she smiled showing off her razor sharp fangs.

"Just the perfect place for a nest..."

Knighted pt.2

Sam opened the door to Sugarcube Corner and stopped for a moment to take a look at his surroundings. There were a few scattered ponies sitting around the place, though he didn't expect it to be really full yet, it was still early morning after all. He made his way to the register and seeing as no one was there he did the most logical thing, rang the little bell and waited. He could hear movement in the back room, Pinkie came out of the door and looked to the register to see who it was.

She smiled upon seeing Sam,"Oh your here early!" She walked over to where he was across the counter,"You want to have a milkshake now? It's kind of early don't you think?"

He shrugged,"Yeah I know it's early but I've got a lot to do today so I decided I'd come in early."

"Oh, well go take a seat then and I'll come back out in a little bit with our shakes, you like chocolate right?"

He nodded,"With whip cream and a cherry on top."

"One chocolate shake coming right up!" She turned about and went back into the bakery. Sam tapped his hand on the counter and looked for a place to sit, spotting a booth against one of the windows he made his way over and sat down. It wasn't long before Pinkie came back out with the milkshakes.

"Here ya go!" She set it in front of him and plopped herself down across from him.

He took a sip and smiled,"Just as good as always Pinkie."

She slurped a large portion of her shake down in one gulp,"Thanks Sam, what was it that you need to do today anyway?"

"Well you heard I was getting knighted right?" He took another drink.

"Yep, it was all over the paper this morning, it's amazing Sam you'll the first knight I ever get to meet, if not the only one!" She grinned giddily.

"Yeah well for the knighting ceremony I need to wear my armor, have my shield on my back and my sword at my side. Problem is it's all still scratched and dented from my fight, so I have to fix it up before this Friday."

"Ah I see, I'm sure you'll get it done in time."

"Oh no I will, I'll be a hermit working on it for the next two days but I'll finish it," He sighed," The problem is that in between that time I promised Rarity I would go to lunch with her, then I have to teach Applebloom how to make dynamite." He shook his head looking down,"I talked with Granny Smith this morning so st least that's out of the way."

She looked down at her milkshake which was nearly done already,"Oh... what's dynamite?"

He chuckled at her question,"Nitroglycerin, some kind of sorbent and stabilizing materials. It makes a big boom and destroys everything around it."

"It explodes?"

"Yes." He nodded.

She cocked her head and lowered her brow,"Why do you need to blow stuff up?"

Sam shrugged,"Well I'm being made a knight and if I ever fight again then I'll need every edge I can get. That's the justification Applebloom gave me anyway, but It's also fun to blow things up sometimes." He smiled.

She chuckled for a second and looked up to him with an idea,"Why don't you just write down how to make it and give that to Applebloom? That would give you time to work on the armor right?"

He thought about it for a moment and smiled,"Pinkie you are a lifesaver sometimes."

She shook her head with a smile as he finished off his milkshake,"Tell you what, when she and Zecora finish making your dynamite and if you let me join you, I'll find a place where we all can mess around with it."

He nodded and grinned,"That sounds like a good deal Pinkie."

"Alright good, I already have a place in mind..."

Sam stood up out of the booth and leaned back in a stretch,"I'm sorry to cut this off Pinkie but I should start getting to work soon."

"Oh it's okay, I understand why you need to go, good luck on finishing that armor!"

"Thank you Pinkie, never stop making these great milkshakes." He walked to the door and made his way out.

~

Applebloom walked over the dirt path leading to the barn, reaching the it she opened the big door a crack and slipped in. She saw Sam by the forge overlooking his stuff. He layed out his mail shirt and looked it over, he ran a hand over it feeling the little interconnected rings,"At least there's no rivets missing here." He muttered quietly.

"Uh, Sam?" He jumped in surprise and spun around.

Sam saw her and sighed. He leaned back against the table,"Good lord Bloom don't do that to me."

She smiled at him sheepishly,"Ah'm sorry but I wanted to ask if you would show me how to make dynamight like you said you was gonna"

He smiled and nodded,"Yeah I wrote down how to make it at least, come over here." He waved his soot covered hand gesturing for her to follow him. He walked over to a table up against the side of the eastern barn wall.

She followed close behind him and getting up against the table alongside him took a look at what was on the table. There was a piece of paper with multiple ingredients, directions and pictures scrawled out across it,"What's this?"

"It's all the materials you'll need and how to make the stuff," he carefully rolled up the paper and handed it to her,"Now when you press the mixture into the paper mold make sure it's lined with paraffin, that'll keep it from getting moist and ruining the whole thing. A lot of people forget that and I don't want you to as well."

"Wait," She frowned,"Ya ain't gonna make it with us?"

He sighed and shook his head,"I'm sorry Applebloom but I'm really busy here, I need my stuff fixed by Friday and I still need to smooth the shield, plus the helmet has a scratch that it needs worked out of it." He smiled kindly down at her,"Now I've given you the paper that tells you all you need to know, take it to Zecora and follow the directions very carefully." He reached down and tussled her hair,"Ya got that?"

She swatted his hand away and frowned indignantly,"Yeah, yeah I got it Sam."

"Good,"He started making his way back to the forge,"Pinkie said when you finish the dynamite she'll find us a place to try it out."

Applebloom smiled excitedly,"Really? That's great!"

"Oh yeah but when your making them, make sure to make one for her too, she's going to come with us when we test all of it out."

"Oh, okay, I'll tell Zecora that." She moved swiftly to the door and held it open,"Tell Pinkie thanks for me will ya Sam?"

"I will." He started the forge up as the door closed and resumed his work.

~

It was evening time on some desolate dirt road in rural Equestria, the sun's light was just dying off and rays of reds, purples and blues shone from the east. All around for miles were nothing but fields of grass and wheat, trees were a scarce sight. Off in the far distance one could spy a lone mountain against the dark horizon, it was a nice view too, the white top of the mountain was beautiful in contrast to the dark black that made up the rest of it.

On this desolate road a wagon was pulled along by two earthponies flanked by four armed guards, the side of the cart read; Coin Minter's Banking Transport. This cart had come from Los Pegasus and was headed for Vanhoover, the trip had been going for two weeks now, they expected it continue for two more.

Normal procedure for moving money long distances like this was to do it by train, but it was becoming increasingly popular for criminals to rob trains in recent times so ponies that could afford to pay the expenses of moving it by cart had started requesting that their money be moved in that manner. Unlike what you might think, criminals didn't even bother to rob these carts, after all the real money was in the trains because since most ponies couldn't afford to have it moved by cart the trains had exponentially more money being transported on them.

The day so far had been peaceful, they would have to make camp soon but as of now they were enjoying the cool evening air. The idea that they were in danger was as far from them as could be, after all with four of them being unicorns that were trained and armed no one would be stupid enough to attack the cart. As if anyone would anyway.

She watched the fool ponies march along in complete ignorance of her presence. She had been watching them for the past couple days, waiting for the best chance to ambush them. She was after all a master of the hunt, she remained stealthy when she chose even though she was gigantic. No creature her size had ever mastered speed and stealth like she did, they usually just used their size to catch prey. That was a reason she was feared among her brothers and sisters, for not even Torch could best her in a fight.

When hunting ponies It was always best to let them fall into a false sense of security, they would become confident and not pay as much attention as they should. That was how she liked to hunt, the look of surprise and fear on her victim's faces was worth the arduous hunting for days on end.

The moment was near, she would gut these pitiful creatures as though they were nothing. She jumped into the air and with a silent flap of her gargantuan wings and took off into the sky. Following an air current through she circled the above cart deploying her normal course of attack.

It was fortuitous that ponies so rarely looked into the sky otherwise they might have seen her huge form diving down, she let out a roar just before slamming down on the cart instantly crushing the two that were pulling it.

She pulled herself back up and swung around to face the other four ponies. One of the private guards screamed and fell backwards, she smiled gleefully and stepped forward, crunching his legs beneath her claws.

She felt a sting in her left hind leg and looked behind in annoyance. It was one of the guards, obviously braver than the others, he had stabbed her with his small sword right in the back of her ankle. She gave him credit for trying before kicking him with all her force, he flew through the air at least twenty feet and his neck snapped when he landed head first on the ground.

Turning to the others who were running the other way down the road she stepped forward placing her front legs an equal distance apart, then lunged forward. She ran a short time and jumped, using her wings she flipped in the air and landed directly in front of her victims. The fear in their eyes made her heat beat in excitement, they charged their horns quickly trying to cast a spell that might help them but she wasn't going to allow that. Drawing her head back she let in a breath of air and spewed her deadly flames outwards.

The singed bodies of the stallions stood for a moment before losing balance and falling into the soot covered dirt below. She laughed joyfully, it had been a good hunt and now she would claim her prize. She walked back down the path, the ground around her shaking with each heavy step she took.

The cart was already partly destroyed when she reached it, ripping the roof off of it she reached a claw inside and pulled a large chest out. Setting it down she used her teeth to gingerly break the lock on the latch, opening it up she smiled. Soon she would have a hoard of gold to rival even Ember.

Closing the lid she picked up the chest and extended her wings. Just before she was about to take off she heard a noise from behind, turning she saw the pony who's legs she had crushed earlier pulling himself along. She walked over a cruel smile on her face and lowered her head to look him in the eyes.

He looked up tears flowing over his bloody face,"Why?"

She cocked her head, why? That was an odd question to ask before you die in her opinion but she knew the anwser to it,"Because you had something I wanted, there's nothing more to it than that."

He opened his mouth to speak but she quickly brought herself back up and stomped him, it was merciful in her opinion. After all who would want to live as such a weak creature.

~

Sam stood among his friends as they waited outside of the train station, it was early Friday morning and he was to be knighted at one o'clock sharp today but he was needed to be there by ten so he could prepare. He had managed to get all of yesterday to work on repairing his stuff, since Rarity hadn't minded moving lunch to next week.

His armor was in a case he carried along side himself and he was proud with the shine he managed to get out of it. Sam got it to have the same silver color that it had when he first made it. His sword, which was the hardest to fix, was razor sharp again and it looked great alongside his smoothed out shield. Unfortunately he couldn't carry those with him while on the train so he had them put in the cargo section of it.

Everyone was going with him, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Twilight, all the apples and just about half the town as well. He was amazed that this many people were coming to see him, he never expected anything like this to happen to him in his life. Of course he also didn't expect to end up in Equestria either.

Sam was excited to see what the day would bring, after the initial ceremony there would be a celebration with a feast held in the castle. The best part was Celestia ordered meats from all over just for him and he couldn't wait to see what she got, hopefully there was steak, he loved steak.

"So Sam," Rainbow's voice grabbed him from his thoughts,"When your a knight are you gonna go on kickass adventures like us?"

He shrugged,"If I need to, I'd rather not get myself killed."

"Makes sense," She nodded,"But it'd take a lot to kill you wouldn't it."

He smirked and shrugged. The train whistle went off and a white stallion with a curly mustache leaned out of the train,"All aboard!"

Sam followed behind his friends as they entered the train one by one. He was the last in and had trouble getting through the cluttered bodies in the train, especially when they recognized him. He didn't know how many autographs he had signed when he reached the cabin that Rainbow and Fluttershy were in.

He pulled the door open and stepped in,"Can I sit in here?"

"Yeah man of course." Rainbow responded.

Sam looked to see Fluttershy's response but she just nodded gently,"Alright, thanks guys, the others are in nearby cabins right?"

"Yeah, Applejack and her family are across the hall from us." Fluttershy explained,"Twilight, Starlight and Zecora have the cabin next to us."

"Ah, okay," he sat down across from Rainbow Dash and next to Fluttershy, he looked up and asked,"Do you mind if I sleep here?"

"Nah, but be warned Shy and I will probably talk the whole way there."

"That's cool with me," he smiled and looked at Fluttershy,"Do you mind?"

"It's okay Sam, I don't mind."

He leaned against the wall of the cabin,"I'm sorry I just didn't get much sleep last night is all."

He closed his eyes and shut out the rest of the world, he fell asleep quickly enough. The trip to Canterlot from Ponyville wasn't a very long one, two to three hours depending on how fast the train is going. Today it went a bit slower allowing Sam to sleep in for longer than he intended, not that he would mind.

The train pulled to a stop in the Canterlot station and Fluttershy gently shook Sam awake. He sat up and stretched,"What time is it?"

"Around ten or something." Rainbow stood up and opened the door,"I'm gonna go meet up with the other girls, you coming Shy?"

"Oh yes, what about you Sam?"

He grabbed his luggage off the rack and stood up,"I need to get the rest of my stuff from the cargo car, then I'm supposed to go to the castle so they can "prepare" me for the ceremony, whatever that means."

"Okay then I'll see you soon Sam." She walked out with Rainbow.

Sam came out not long after and went down the length of the train. Reaching cargo he retrieved his weapons, making his way back to the front of the train he exited out onto the street. He saw the castle off in the distance and sighing began the trek there.

~

Sam stepped into a room with a chair on a swivel in front of a mirror, a high class mare stood beside it an irritated look on her face.

"Do you even know what time it is?! It's eleven ten, where were you?! No never mind just sit down here Andy let me see if I can make you look presentable!" She grabbed his arm and pulled sat him down in the chair.

"Um... I'm sorry I'm late, I got lost, now what is it you wanted with me?"

She put her hands on her hips,"I'm here to trim your hair up anyway you want so tell what kind of hair you want and I'll do my best, Celestia save me."

"Okay," he gulped,"I guess I like my hair long like it is but it does need some trimming around the edges."

"What about that scruff?"

"Uh, just shave it off." He shrugged,"That's all I really need done right now."

Her mouth fell open in an exaggerated manner,"Really that's all you want? You have one of the best hair stylists in Equestria and simply ask for something that something a barber could do?"

He shrugged and let a small laugh out,"I'm not a really choosy guy."

She sighed and shook her head,"At least I'm being payed to do this."

~

Sam tugged at his breastplate in nervousness, he waited before a door that entered into the side of the throne room. Celestia was giving a speech on why he was being knighted in there and at some point during the speech he was supposed to walk out onto a yellow carpet that led from the door to the throne and that's where she would Knight him.

He waited for a while before he was given the que to walk in. He pushed the door open and put on the best confident looking face he could, Sam stepped into the room and couldn't believe his eyes. There must have been at least a thousand people in here and all for him? He let out a breath and walked forward along the carpets path.

The carpet came in from the left side of the room and went right into the middle of all the seated ponies before taking a hard left and leading to the throne. He noticed heads starting to turn towards him and murmurs about him as he walked, before long he could hear Celestia's speech. She stood in front of the throne with Luna to her right and Twilight to her left, two guards were at either side of the princesses while Celestia talked to the crowd.

"I now present to you the hero of the hour, Samuel!" She gestured towards him a pleasant smile on her face,"He's here to be knighted, in fact he will be the first knight in four hundred and eighty six years."

The crowd cheered and clapped for him,"This man," She emphasized the word man,"Is the definition of a hero, he single handedly saved nine ponies from diamond dog slavers, including the element of harmony Rainbow Dash herself!" She shook her head,"Then in an epic standoff to keep the angered dogs from taking the ponies again he killed one hundred and thirty four of them!"

The crowd started cheering again louder this time, Sam felt thoroughly embarrassed by the time he reached the marked point on the carpet and stopped in front of the throne,"Sam is the very definition of a hero, he put his life on the line for helpless ponies and didn't expect anything in return. That is why I have decided to Knight this brave man today." She smiled and looked down at Sam with a smile.

"Step forward Samuel," She motioned her hands back and he complied stopping just three steps away from her,"Now please kneel for me and I will Knight you."

He nodded and knelt down on his left knee, he lowered his head and looked to the ground. His sword just barely touched the ground. Celestia held out her hand and the guard on her right held up a gold ceremonial sword that was emblazoned with the sun in the pommel.

She lifted the sword in the air,"This sword has not seen the light of my day for hundreds of years, you are the first generation to see it since that time, remember it well for you it may not be seem for another five hundred years. It is all thanks to Samuel." She lowered the flat blade of the sword onto his right shoulder and then over to his left one,"I dub thee Sir Samuel of Earth, hero to all Equestria."

~

The crowd burst into cheers around Valkyrie, she joined in the cheering with a huge smile on her face. Her off white coat was cleaned and combed thoroughly, she hadn't done much with her light blue mane, just added small braids to the hair that hung down in front of her ears. She spent nearly half the money she had saved up over the past couple years in just a few days, what with getting this seat, buying a nice dress, paying for the ride here and now all that was left for her to pay was the hotel. But it didn't matter, now she was here and she had a purpose, there was to be a celebration after the ceremony and that's when she would talk to Sam.

Once the cheering had died down the celebration started, the castle was opened up allowing for access to the courtyard, gardens and such. Food and drinks were brought out, fireworks were set up in the courtyard for tonight and an orchestra started playing sweet melodies while everyone mingled.

Valkyrie enjoyed the wine that was placed out, there was nothing like wine where she was from and so it was a very enjoyable experience for her.

She walked walked out into the courtyard with her wine and looked around, she saw Sam standing in a patch of flowers and talking to yellow mare. She let out a breath and shook her head, it was now or never.

She walked over, dodging the multiple ponies in her path. She stood behind him now and saw that he had changed out of his armor into something a bit more casual.

"So what kind of animals hang out in the gardens here?" He asked the yellow mare beside him.

Valkyrie politely interrupted the conversation by clearing her throat, Sam turned around and saw the Pegasus stand with her hands clasped in front of herself,"Can I help you?"

She nodded,"I wanted to know if, you would show me how to fight like you do."

She watched him raise an eyebrow, he turned to his friend,"Will you excuse me for a second Fluttershy," Her name was familiar to Valkyrie," I need to talk with this young lady." He turned back to her,"Follow me."

Valkyrie nodded and followed him as he walked away from the crowd, they stopped at a bench hidden from the view of the castle,"What's your name?"

"Valkyrie sir." Sam nodded and smiled at her.

"Alright Valkyrie, nice name by the way, you can call me Sam, now, tell me why you want to learn how to fight?"

She adopted a determined look on her face,"I've always wanted to do something more with my life than what was expected of me, my parents wanted me to be like them and become a fisherpony, but that's not at all what I wanted. I want to help ponies like you do and what better way to do that then learn to fight the creatures that cause trouble." She hoped he would consider taking her under his wing.

He looked at her in thought,"So you want to help ponies?"

"Yes I do." She nodded.

"Ah, okay. So how old are you? You seem young."

"I am, I'm nineteen why?" She cocked her head.

He sighed and shook his head,"Then I refuse to teach you, can you imagine what your family would feel if you died? Especially if your a runaway, which I know you are, they'd feel that they drove you away and to your death." He crossed his arms.

"B-But-"

"No, beyond all the family problems, what would be in it for me, where's my incentive to teach you? Where would you live while I train you? How would you pay for a place to live and all the necessities of life in the first place?"

"I'll find a job! Then I could get a place to live!" She grew frustrated and her voice rose.

"No," He stated firmly," I'm sorry, I won't teach you." He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes,"I am sorry, I understand what your trying to do and I don't fault you for it, but please leave it be." He turned away. let go of her and walked back to the crowd.

She stood there for a few moments, wanting to scream obscenities in anger. After all, she spent so much time and money only to be rejected, she closed her eyes and just barely fought off the anger. Clenching her teeth together she let out a shaky breath. She would simply try asking him again later, this time she would offer all the money she had now, plus she could work for him for free. He couldn't turn that down, right?"

~

Eris watched the human, Samuel, sit and talk with Celestia while eating... some revolting meat. She stood from the top of a castle tower looking down at the celebration. Never mind the princesses, elements of harmony or even discord, this human could be the only one capable of upsetting the plans she and her beloved had been oh so carefully laying over the past couple years. After all she could defeat the other threats with magic if she had to, but he wouldn't be so simple.

"I shall keep my eye on you, colt." She narrowed her eyes, snapped her fingers and disappeared leaving only the night sky in her wake.

~

Stepping off the train Valkyrie looked around trying to find her bearings. It had been a few days since she went to the knighting ceremony, she had spent those few days finding out where Sam lived and when she did she took the first train to ponyville that she could get ahold of.

The first train just happened to leave late Monday morning, it was early afternoon now. She walked out into the street, it was nice to be in normal clothes again, the dress in Canterlot was comfortable but it wore thin after awhile. Spotting an odd confectionery themed building with the name Sugarcube Corner over the entrance Valkyrie decided to go there, maybe somepony in there would know where to find Sam.

Opening the door she saw a pink mare with an odd head of hair working the register. She walked past the line and stopped next to the pony in front of the register, the pink mare looked up at her with a raised eyebrow,"You can't just cu- Wait your new in town arent you!"

"Uh, yeah I am..."

The mare began giddily bouncing up and down behind the counter,"Oh I love meeting new friends! What's your name? Mine is Pinkie Pie!"

She once again recognized the name,"I'm Valkyrie and I came to this town to find Samuel the knight."

She smiled at Valkyrie,"Oh really? He's one of my best friends."

She cocked her head, smile disappearing,"He is, do you know where he is now?"

"Yeah, why do you want to see him?"

"I just want to talk with him is all."

Pinkie shrugged,"If you say so, he should be at work now but he might also be at lunch with Rarity right now."

Valkyrie nodded, deciding to try looking for him at work first,"Where does he work?"

"Sweet Apple Acres, do you need help getting there?"

"Yes actually, I could use some help."

"Alright well you head down the street and..."

~

The pathway to the farm was beautiful, the river went along it for a time eventually giving way to trees and bushes. The sight of a red barn, a nice little house and fields of apple orchards that stretched off into the horizon came into view, there was nothing like this back home. As she approached the land she saw an orange mare in a flannel shirt and jeans carrying a bucket of apples, Valkyrie sped up into a fast walk to catch up to the mare.

The noise of her coming caught Applejack's attention, she turned and watched Valkyrie run up to her. Valkyrie watched the mare raise an eyebrow and set the bucket down,"You want a job here or sumthin'?"

"No, I uh... actually, now that I think about I might later on, but first I wanted to know if Sam was here?"

Applejack shook her head,"Nah, he's over at the Gilded Crest restaurant with Rarity, It's some fancy place she likes, why do ya need to see him?"

"I just wanted to talk with him is all."

Applejack shook her head with a smirk,"I'm sorry but I can smell a lie from a mile away, what do you really want?"

She sighed and frowned unhappy with this mares question,"I want to ask him if he will teach me how to fight."

"Oh, that's a nice idea, maybe if you can get him to he'll make ya some armor too." She gave a friendly smile," By the way I'm Applejack," She stuck her hand out for a handshake,"Just come by again if you decide to try and get a job here, cause' it looks like you got some strength in those arms of yours and we'll use any help we can get."

The name Applejack was the third familiar name she heard in three days,"Alright Applejack, my name is Valkyrie, thank you for your help."

~

Valkyrie had seen the Gilded Crest on her way to the farm so it wasn't much of a hassle to find it, the hassle was getting in.
She had to push her way through a waiter that kept telling her she needed a reservation for the place. He walked off after she shoved him out of the way, muttering about getting the guards. She walked into the main restaurant and looked for Sam.

The place had dim lights and smelled like hand sanitizer. Everything was painted either black or white, it was quite the annoying color scheme. Straining her eyes she looked around the room and spotted Sam sitting at a table with a white mare,"That must be Rarity." Valkyrie went around and kept from running into multiple tables before reaching her target.

"I'm grateful that your doing this for me Rarity, it's really nice of you to pay for me." He said looking at a menu.

"Oh don't mention it darling."

Valkyrie walked up to the side of the table and stood between the both of them, Rarity was the first to notice her when she looked up, from her menu,"Oh , hello there, who are you?"

"What?" Sam looked up from his menu, he sighed and looked back down when he saw Valkyrie standing there,"Why are you here again?"

"Who is this Sam?" Rarity asked looking back to Sam.

"This is Valyrie, Valkyrie this is Rarity. I met Valkyrie here at the castle the other day, she wanted to meet me." He explained without looking up from the menu,"I think I want the salad with bleu cheese dressing."

"Oh that was a very nice little celebration don't you think dear?" Rarity asked Valkyrie.

Valkyrie nodded,"I thought it was nice, especially the wine."

"Oh yes, Celestia never skimps out in the wine department dear." She laughed and placed and hand on the table,"Did you come here for any other reason then to talk? If you dont want anything besides a talk then please grab a chair, I'll pay for your meal dear." She offered with smile.

Valkyrie didn't know how to respond to such generosity,"Well, I uh, thank you Miss Rarity for offering but no, I came by to ask Sam for something."

"Oh and what might that be?"

"The other night I asked him if he could teach me to fight, I've always wanted to help ponies in trouble out, maybe even alongside Sam."

"What an admirable goal, I quite like it, Samuel did you say yes to her request?" She looked to Sam expectantly.

He looked up eyes wide in surprise,"I, uh, what? No I-"

"What do you mean no?" She cocked her head at Sam and gestured to Valkyrie,"Can't you see she wants to help?" Valkyrie smiled, she was liking this mare.

He sat up in his chair,"But wait if I take her in, then everyone will want me to do the same, that's a lot of people! Not to mention she's run away from home, what would her parents think if she died helping me?!" Ponies started to look over at the commotion Sam was causing.

"Oh hush darling , your causing a scene over such a small problem, with such an easy solution."

"And what's the solution then?"

She smiled,"Teach Valkyrie here to fight."

He sighed and growled,"Fine, I'll teach her to fight." He looked up at Valkyrie,"Meet me at Sweet Apple Acres at five and I'll start showing you to fight. You know the way there?"

"Yes I went there to look for you and the mare there, Applejack, offered me a job, so that takes care of the income you mentioned I would need. I also saw an available apartment in town that I can just barely afford right now. So that takes care of the living space as well." She smirked at the look on his face, Rarity smirked as well.

He looked back to the menu, letting a frustrated breath out of his nose he stood up,"I need to go to the bathroom."

Valkyrie turned to Rarity as he walked off,"Thank you for helping me so much, but I have to ask why?"

Rarity shrugged,"If he's ever going to fight again then I want him to have somepony at his side to make sure he doesn't die."

"Valkyrie smiled,"Then I promise your help won't be in vain, I'll make sure he doesn't die."

~

Sam stood outside the barn in a white t-shirt and work jeans, wooden stick in his right hand. Valkyrie stood across from him with a stick in her hand as well. Valkyrie rented the apartment on her way here and Applejack had hired her when she got here, her first day of work was tomorrow.

"Now I'll make some wooden swords later, for now we'll just use sticks alright?" She nodded to him,"Good, now if you get good enough I might make you a set of armor and weapons, but you have to be good. Understand?"

"Oh I understand, now, how about the training?"

"Well right now I want you to try your best to hit me, after the first try I'll teach you the proper way to attack, then in your next tries point out your mistakes and help you fix them. We will do that till you get how to do it, then move on. It will take awhile to master it but you will."

"Alright I got it." He lowered himself down and held the stick with both hands in a defensive stance, she copied him.

"Now you can attack."

She smiled and lunged forward, her stick shot out. He simply stepped to the side and left his foot out to trip her. She hit the ground with a grunt and looked up to see him standing there with a smile,"Come on," he kneeled and held out a hand which she gratefully accepted. He pulled her up and patted her shoulder,"That won't do, come over her and I'll show you to lunge."

She stopped him,"Wait, real quick, I've always had an idea for war paint do you mind helping me find the kind of paint that's good for that tomorrow?"

He shook his head a small smile on his face,"Sure why not, let's teach you to fight before that though, eh?"

She knew this was going to be fun.

~

Hark waited outside his father's cabin, today was particularly cold even though the sun was out now. Hark was the son of general Reddick of prince Rutherford's army was his father, he was well respected by the other Yaks for his actions in battle and deeply trusted by Rutherford.

Hark wanted to be like his father, that was his only aspiration, to bring glory in battle and gain not only his father's respect but everyone else's as well. He had arrived at his father's home about ten minutes ago and was still waiting for the guard to return with his father.

The area they lived in was beautiful, the town had been built at the mouth of a bay from which they launched trading ships. In ancient times they used to launch raids from here into the Celestial Sea. Bigtooth Aspen trees surrounded the town, all of which had dark wood. Which meant that all the wood buildings in the village were a nice dark color including Reddick's cabin. The cabin was just out of town and slightly elevated, it was not built in the typical Yak style. It had a stone wall around it with a metal gate and was built like a pony log cabin with overplayed wooden logs. It gave a nice view of the bay and of the mountains in the distance.

The front gate opened and a guard stepped out,"You may enter, your father is in the hall."

He nodded,"Thank you," he stepped past the guard and into the yard, walking to the front door of the cabin he stepped into the hall.

"You wanted to see me son?" His father sat at the end of the hall in a Yakkish chair, in front of him was a long feasting table.

"Yes father, I have a request to make." He walked over to the table and took the closest seat to him.

"Well let's hear it."

"You believe we should return to the old Yak ways, right?"

His father nodded slowly,"Yes, Rutherford's recent decision to be peaceful and follow the ponies example is disgraceful." He looked to his son,"You already know that, why do you ask again?"

"I wish to lead a raid." He stated with confidence,"If it is successful then perhaps we can show our people why the old ways are best."

His father narrowed his eyes and stared Hark down,"Do you know what you just said?"

"Yes I do."

Reddick let a breath out of his nose,"To do this then you would need to plan it very thoroughly, but if you pull it off...," He drew in a breath,"Many of us still believe we should go back to the old ways, if you can pull it off it will be easy to "force" Rutherford to change his mind in his decision." His father smirked,"Take a ship and find a place that's easy to raid, in a years time I will have three hundred men trained and equipped in secret. You will take them and pull off this raid.

Hark smirked back,"I will do everything I can father."

"And son," Reddick smiled,"When you come back, you will be made a general for this and I will be proud."

Author's Notes:

I know the yaks are out of character but wanted enemies with a little bit of intelligence and I based Valkyrie off a character I saw on derpibooru, here's a few pictures of her.




If your curious the artist is d-lowell, he's pretty good

Black Wings In The Sky

The banking companies had tried many different things to get through her land undetected, whether that was sending more guards, painting over the tell tale writing on the carts or any number of different schemes. This one though was a bit smarter, in that they simply tried a different, albeit longer, route. In her three months patrolling the area, none of these fool ponies had tried anything as simple as taking a different path. It didn't change anything though she would still kill them and take the gold for herself, she only hoped they would continue to send ponies this way.

The path this convoy traveled went over the eastern side of her territory which was a cold area populated with small hills and dense pine trees. If you were to stand atop one of these hills you could still see her beautiful mountain in the distance. She was perched on a hill that overlooked the ponies below, they had made the decision to camp at the foot of this hill.

The ponies were wary of everything during the day, keeping their eyes to the sky, ground and horizon so she had to keep low during the day. But at night they had to sleep, everything had to sleep eventually, even she had to sleep and that was when she decided she would strike.

She knew they weren't sure of what it was that was attacking their gold carts but they equipped them with better weapons and more guards each time they came again, what she didn't know was that the companies were trying to keep her attacks under wraps so they wouldn't lose business.

The ponies with this group had come with spears which were much more effective on dragons than the swords they normally used, the only reason spears were so effective was because the way the penetrated her thick scales allowed them to be driven deeply into her body causing fatal damage. This was another reason she decided to wait till night to attack, if they could get their spears and use them effectively then she might obtain some more than painful wounds.

She had been watching them from the top of the hill since the last light of the sun disappeared and one by one over the next couple of hours they fell asleep, even the guard they put on watch duty fell asleep. The only reason they didn't notice her was because of something she learned long ago, her dark scales were a blessing. It meant she could fly unnoticed in the night sky and in situations such as this, she looked like a part of a hill when against the moonlit night sky. The hill they were sleeping by was an odd one, it was mostly normal except that the side facing the path was like a cliff in that it had a dirt cut off.

The last pony below her finally fell asleep, which signaled to her it was time to strike. She counted the amount of ponies under her and found that there were ten in all, five of which slept on her side of the path up against the dirt wall of the hill. The rest of the ponies slept next to the cart opposite of her on the path. They had no idea what was coming.

She thought about pouncing on the ones below her, then got an even better idea. Positioning herself sideways along the side of the cutoff she dug her tail beneath the grass of the hill and swung outwards. More than six hundred pounds of dirt and grass fell on the ponies below, the ones that weren't crushed would suffocate in a few moments.

"What the fuck?" The noise of the falling debris woke up the pony that was supposed to be on watch across the path, taking instant action she jumped off the hill and swooped down. The pony stood groggily and rubbed his eyes, turning he saw the back of her throat through her gaping maw.

She clamped down on her target before he could react and flew up. His legs hung out of her mouth kicking wildly. Biting down her teeth ripped through his body, blood splattered outwards and the flailing form inside her mouth ceased moving. Satisfied he was dead she let him go, his body falling through the air. Turning herself around she positioned her wings back and dived down at the ground quickly speeding past the falling body.

She picked out her next two victims, they were sleeping next to each other in front of the cart. Diving and crushing was her favorite way to kill prey, the spray of bloody mist that came up from their bodies when she landed on top of them made her ever so excited. Before landing she threw her lower body weight down maximizing her strength. The sound of her hitting the ground, accompanied by that delightful blood spray was much to entertaining for her and so she let out a joyous roar. The remaining two ponies who were already awakened by her initial landing shot up on their feet at sound of her deafening roar.

They looked around eyes widening at the sight before them, she could tell they were about to run. The body of their friend landed in front of them with a satisfying noise and they took off without even looking back,"Like frightened children," She muttered, if there was one thing she hated it was cowards. It didn't matter that they weren't even an eighth her size, cowards were cowards in her eyes.

Breathing in she pulled her head back before thrusting it forward, her flames coated the fleeing figures and they didn't even have time to scream before being incinerated. All that was left of them was ash that drifted off into the wind.

Turning herself to the cart she quickly retrieved the chest of gold off the back of it, the ropes snapping sharply. Tucking it under herself and holding it against her chest she took off into the night. Her hoard was growing at an exhilarating rate, hopefully it would attract challengers. She wanted a good fight.

~

Valkyrie had progressed well over the past three months, she could use a sword and shield fairly well. Her skills in parrying, cutting and lunging impressed him, normally it took longer for people to learn those skills but she was a quick learner. Sure she was nowhere near ready for a real fight but give her six or seven more months and he will have made her a proficient fighter.

Since she had been doing so well he made good on his promise and forged her a set of armor with weapons. He made her padding and a set of chainmail like his, she got Rarity to make her a dark blue surcoat to go over the chainmail along with a thick red cloth that she wore around her neck to protect it.

Sam even managed to get his hands on real leather for her gloves and boots, allowing her to learn mordhau. Now since she was a Pegasus and couldn't wear a full suit of plate armor on top of what she already had without giving up the ability to fly, he only made plate armor for specific areas of her body. He made her a set of pauldrons (Shoulder plate armor) and her legs had plate grieves on top of her leather boots that led up to her knees.

Valkyrie was fairly well protected from arrows and sword cuts what with the chainmail and padding but to compensate for the small amount of plates Sam made her a roman stlye shield. When on the ground it came up all the way to her waist, providing her with adequate protection when she used it.

Since she preferred short swords to long or broad swords Sam gave her two choices when it came swords, a Roman gladius or a Roman spatha. She chose the spatha over the gladius for the fact that it's a dedicated cutting sword that's extremely dangerous in close quarters and she preferred cutting to thrusting.

They'd had fun making her gear, she liked watching him use the forge and he enjoyed teaching her how to look for good armor as well as how to look for bad armor. Sam had to admit that he was enjoying her company more than he initially thought he would.

Right now it was early September and fall was setting in, Sam trained Valkyrie every night after work for at least two hours and sometimes even five hours at a time. The farmwork had suited Valkyrie nicely, it was similar to the work she did back home and because she worked so hard the Apple family quickly befriended her. In fact most of the girls had become quick friends with her, she was especially good friends with Rarity ever since Rarity had helped her get Sam to train her.

The day was overcast and Sam was trying to fix a broken wood bucket, since the harvest season was over the work became more of just maintenance on the farm and such. This bucket had broken after it fell off a shelf in the barn and it was giving him more trouble than it was worth.

"Sam!" Applejack's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

He looked up to see Applejack coming towards him from the orchard, her expression doleful,"Yeah, what is it?"

Applejack stopped in front of him a few feet away, crossing her arms,"Princess Celestia is in town right now, she's staying at Twilight's castle."

He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head,"Okay, uh, I'll say hi if she's still there after work."

Applejack shook her head,"She came to town to look for you." She pointed at him,"Said she had something she wanted you to do."

"What does she want from me?" He pointed to himself.

She shrugged,"I don't know, Rainbow flew over while I was working the orchard and told me she was looking for ya." She lowered her hands to her hips,"Ah think it'd be good if you headed over there now, it might be something important."

"You sure about that? There's nothing you need me to do?"

She shook her head and smiled,"You can always take care of the bucket later, but other than that there ain't nothing that we can't handle, if I really need help I'll just go get Valkyrie and Mac ta help."

"Alright then, if Valkyrie wants to know where I am just tell her for me would you?" He set the bucket down against the barn wall.

"I will Sam," He turned around and started walking, she grabbed his shoulder as he walked by to stop him and her expression became one of concern,"If she wants you to do somethin' like fightin' in that armor of yours again then make sure you tell us, last time you dint' say nothin'."

"I...," His features softened at her concern,"I will."

She nodded and let go of his shoulder, a faint smile making its way onto her face,"You better, cause' if you die without saying goodbye, I'll kill you."

Sam smiled wryly and turned to go on his way.

~

"How can you be sure of this princess? What if your right and it kills him?!"

"Twilight please, I simply want him to investigate the area, it's only a hunch and I could very well be entirely wrong."

Sam brow furrowed when he heared the two princesses arguing from the other side of the throne room door, Twilight almost never argued with Celestia. The royal guards Celestia placed at the door stepped aside and let him walk through the door.

Twilight stood at left side of the cutie map, she was bent over the map with her arms supporting her and her face bore a frustrated expression. Celestia was on the other side of the map arms crossed, she had a neutral look on her face. They both looked over when Sam opened the door.

Twilight straightened up and cleared her throat when he entered and Celestia's mouth twisted into a pleasant smile,"Samuel, It's so nice to see you again, Twilight and I were just talking about you."

"Oh uh, it's nice to see you too Celestia," he stepped over to a side of the map where he was positioned between the two princesses,"It's good to see you as well Twilight."

She nodded and sighed,"Hi Sam."

"So," Celestia maintained her smile and clasped her hands in front of her stomach then cocked her head,"You heard I was looking for you correct?"

"Yeah, I was going to ask, what did you want to see me for?" He looked at her unsure of what she might want.

"Well before I tell you what I want, I believe Twilight might need to explain the situation first." She smiled politely,"Otherwise you would be completely lost as to what we're talking about."

"I guess I should tell you, here's what happening," She pointed to an area on the western side of the map, in between Los Pegasus and Vanhoover,"In between these two cities is an area used by banking companies to transport money by cart for their more wealthy customers, customers who don't wish to have their money moved by train."

"Why do they want their money moved by cart instead of by train?"

She looked up from the map,"Well recently there's been a great increase in train robberies, so money moved by cart is more safe than it used to be because criminals are more focused on trains," Twilight explained,"And so if you have the money to pay for it to be moved by cart than it's a much safer bet than using a train to move it."

Sam nodded,"That makes sense."

"Now right here," she circled an area with her finger,"Is a four mile radius in which they all go through, the banks after failing to make a delivery in the past three months have finally released the information about why they failed to be delivered last week. Every gold convoy passing through here has been destroyed." She let a breath out through her nose," we've sent guards to search the areas of the destroyed cart and from the details of the reports, we have found that all the escorts sent with them have been found dead in varying states and the carts they were escorting smashed to pieces." She straightened up and crossed her arms," The gold being transported was taken, at least that's what we believe, the chests that the banks generally put them in haven't been found. Which is why I believe it's common criminals doing it." She looked at Celestia with a frown,"The princess belives it's something else."

Sam looked to over to Celestia with a raised brow,"What do you think it is?"

She smirked,"A dragon."

"A dragon?"

"Yes, that is what I believe."

"And it's a totally unfounded belief!" Twilight cut in,"Ember doesn't allow dragons to attack ponies!"

"Twilight please, let me finish," she held her hand up with a patient smile,"Sam, I believe it's a dragon because of the states of the poor victims of these crimes."

"The bodies? What states were they found in?" He asked.

"Some were crushed by extreme weight, others look as though they were flung hundreds of feet into the air and a few were completely incinerated by extreme heat." Her face became deathly serious,"I have only ever seen bodies like that after a dragon attack."

He lowered his hands halfway into his pockets,"Your convincing me so far, but I have to ask why would a dragon attack these men and steal gold, especially when lord Ember forbids dragons from attacking ponies?"

"Well," Her eyes became grim,"They were all carrying gold, dragons have an odd need to build a hoard and fill it with exotic or valuable items. What's more valuable than gold?"

He sighed, looking at the map,"Your still convincing me."

"Now, I have heard some dragons never accepted any of the dragon lords that have come into power. These dragons are supposed to be extremely dangerous because they have to fight with the dragon lord and win in order refuse them." She looked to Twilight,"That is why I think it's a dragon, because Ember may say what she want, but if there are dragons that don't follow her, then they won't listen to her."

Twilight's eyes widened and she opened her mouth in realization of what Celestia was saying,"I... I didn't know that," she looked down,"Maybe, maybe your right, I mean the rest of your argument makes sense and if what you say is true..." She looked up and snapped her fingers,"I'll send Ember a letter, maybe she can tell us if what you've heard princess is true. Maybe we can work the problem out!"

"That's good idea Twilight." Celestia smiled,"I'm glad you understand what I'm getting at now."

"Princess, I'm sorry for getting so upset with you, I just thought that every dragon listened to Ember is all." She stepped back from the table,"I just didn't think that dragons would do that till you told me otherwise."

"Oh it's no trouble Twilight, now go and write your letter." Twilight nodded and turned to the door.

"So Sam," Celestia looked to him while Twilight left,"I wanted you here because I know that it's a dragon, I didn't come here to figure it out, the bodies and missing gold told me everything I needed to know. I just needed Twilight out of here so I could talk to you."

He nodded,"Alright, so there's a dragon that doesn't follow the dragon lord and it's decided to make a home in Equestria. What do you want me to do, kill it?" He smiled while chuckling,"Cause I don't know if I can kill a dragon."

She shook her head a smile gracing her lips,"No I will not ask you to kill it, I want you to investigate the area to see where the dragon is so that I may send my guards to kill it."

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow in thought,"Before I accept or decline, I would like to know a few things."

She nodded,"Of course you do, I wouldn't expect you to put yourself in danger without knowing why first."

He smiled at how understanding she was,"So why can't you just solve this by forbidding ponies from entering the dragon's territory anymore?"

Celestia lowered her hands to her hips,"Well," she looked off and continued,"If we do that then the dragon might go farther off looking for gold and what with two cities so near, it could be disastrous."

He nodded,"Alright I'll give you that, now my next question is why do you have to kill it? Why can't you send Fluttershy with your guards to stare it down like she did to the one here?"

Celestia smiled and bit her lip to hold back a laugh,"Now Fluttershy's stare is very powerful but... that dragon was total puss," She broke out into laughter and had to place a hand on the cutie map to steady herself.

Sam smiled and laughed along with her,"S-So," Their laughter slowed down,"He was a puss, that answers that question." He smiled, shook his head and let out a sigh,"Now what if I run into the dragon and it tries to kill me?"

Her smile disappeared, replaced by a grim look,"Then you run."

He swallowed thickly as the humor from before drifted away,"Okay." He nodded looking down.

"Is that the extent of your questioning Sam?"

"Uh, no, of you don't mind telling me, why did you choose me to investigate? Wouldn't a guard be more qualified to find it?" He looked up at her with a curious look.

Celestia sighed and looked down,"I'm not one to immediately send my best friend to his death, but the dragon knows what our guards look like. It hid itself when my ponies checked the area out and trust me it knew they were there." She looked back to Sam,"The dragon doesn't know what you are and will most definitely check you out in curiosity." She smiled weakly," Plus you've already demonstrated your abilities once and because of that I believe you can survive this mission."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at the spot on the map where the dragon resided,"Alright, your logic makes sense so... I'll do it."

She gave a slight smile,"You understand this might take you weeks right? Will you still do it even if it takes weeks?"

He nodded and looked up,"I will and I'll find that dragon for you."

She smiled at him,"Good, I'll arrange a train for your transportation to Los Pegasus tomorrow."

"Alright I'll get my stuff ready tonight."

"Yes you'll have to and I will have to ask that you don't tell anypony about what your doing unless you have to, that would attract a lot of unnecessary attention to the both of us."

He nodded and let a breath out through his nose,"Can I tell Applejack? I'll make sure she doesn't tell anybody else, I just promised her last time that if I ever did something like this again I'd tell her."

She sighed and shook her head,"Yes, if you have to."

He smiled appreciatively,"Thanks Celestia," He stuck his hand out to her offering a handshake,"I'll get that dragon for you no matter what."

Celestia took his hand and with her other hand grabbed his shoulder,"Don't get yourself killed okay Sam?"

He smiled,"Can't promise that I won't but I'll sure as hell try not to."

They parted and as he made his way to the door Celestia spoke up,"By the way Sam, I'd like you to take your apprentice with you."

He turned around and furrowed his brow at her,"What? How do you know about Valkyrie?"

She smiled,"Twilight told me through our correspondence."

He could understand that much but taking Valkyrie with him? Sam looked up into her in the eyes,"But, Valkyries nowhere near ready for something like this!"

"How will she ever be ready if she doesn't get any experience?"

"I-I..."

"Good," She clapped her hands,"You will both have transportation tomorrow morning and together you will find the dragon!" She walked over and placed a hand on his back to push him towards the door,"Now go on you've got some preparation to do."

She pushed him through the door and smiled,"I've got plans for you Sam..."

~

"Valkyrie!" Sam walked down the orchard path towards the dead tree Valkyrie was attempting to remove.

"Oh, hey Sam," She set her axe down, leaning it against the tree and looked up to him,"What's up?"

"Well," He stopped in front of her and placed his hands in his pockets,"You know how you wanted to help ponies?"

"Yeah?"

"Here's your chance, Celestia has asked me to scout out an area on the west coast and find the lair of a dragon."

Valkyrie's eyes widened,"Really, princess Celestia herself asked you to find a dragons lair?"

"Yep and she asked me to see if you wanted to come along, you know help me find it."

She smirked,"Well of course I'll come, but you're going to have to explain a little bit more about what's going on first."

"Alright so..." Sam explained the situation to Valkyrie making sure not to skip any details. He told her what's been happening with the banks carts, why the dragon was doing it and that they couldn't tell anybody.

"Well, where are we supposed to going tomorrow?"

"We're going to Los Pegasus, then we have to find our way there."

"You've got an idea on where to go?"

"Yeah, I saw the path I wanted to take on the map in there, we can buy a map in L.P. then follow the path I have in mind."

"Good!" She smiled widely and rubbed her hands together excitedly,"I'll finally get to see some action!"

She walked forward, as she passed Sam he grabbed her bicep and turned his head to hers,"Valkyrie... we could do what Celestia wants us to do about it, or we could do what I want to do about it."

She shook his hand off and looked to him with a smirked,"What do you want to do about it?"

"I want to kill it."

"Kill it? You want to kill a dragon?" She widened her eyes in surprise and she snorted into a laugh,"Are you insane?!"

"Come on, Valkyrie just bear with me until I'm done explaining." He pleaded with her.

She sighed and shook her head with a mocking smile,"Sure I'll listen to ya."

"Alright, I know that taking a dragon on directly is a terrible idea,"He swallowed noisily,"So I propose we buy a cart, place the type of chest that they use to transport gold in on top of it and use that to attract the dragon."

"Okay and?" She leaned forward,"What next?"

"You remember the dynamite we screwed around with?"

"Yeah," She smiled at the memory,"That was a hell of a lot of fun."

"It was fun," He smiled back,"Now if we place whatever Zecora has left of it in the chest, then attach a minute long fuse to it, we wait till the dragon appears then light the dynamite. It lands on the cart like it did with all the others and boom, we kill it or fatally wound it."

She stared at him the mocking demeanor she had before gone,"That sounds... like a good idea, one I'm willing to try. But why do you think we should be the ones to take it on? Wasn't Celestia going to send guards?"

Sam nodded,"She was, but they don't have the dynamite that we have. More of them would die fighting the dragon than is necessary."

"Alright you've got me on your side, should we bring weapons and armor? Just in case?"

"Yeah, if it come to that though we'll probably die but it's better to go down fighting I guess."

Nodding she patted his shoulder and smiled enthusiastically,"Let's slay us a dragon!"

~

"You need what?"

"All of the dynamite you have left."

Zecora's eyes were narrowed and her mouth agape,"What do you need it for?"

Valkyrie frowned,"Look I'm sorry but we can't tell you what we need it for, we just need it and trust me when I say it's for the good of Equestria and everyone in it."

She looked at Sam suspiciously,"It's for good?"

He nodded,"Yes and I am really sorry that we can tell you but we need it, we need it badly."

She stared at them both for a time before sighing,"Fine, I'll give you your dynamite, but first you have to promise to tell me what you needed it for when your done using it."

"I promise to tell," Sam said as she pulled a wooden box out from under her alchemy table.

Handing him two sticks of dynamite he took them,"That's all that's left, I hope you know you are the only one I would give these to Sam."

"I know," He smiled.

Valkyrie sighed gaining his attention"We got it, now let's go Sam, we still gotta figure out how to get your pike in the train."

Dragon Slayers

Looking up from a newly bought map Sam nodded,"We're on the right path Valkyrie."

"Good, now if it's not to much trouble please grab your side of the cart and pick up the slack!" She barked back.

He sighed and shook his head,"Oh take me with you Sam," His voice was sarcastic as grabbed his side of the cart and lifted it,"I'll be helpful, I'll make sure to yell at you the whole time." He gave her a shit eating grin and stuck his tongue out.

She couldn't help but smile slightly,"Well I'm sorry, but the thought of running into a dragon has me just a little paranoid!" She shook her head and they started pulling again, the chest on the back rattling with every bump on the path.

After getting the sticks of dynamite from Zecora they quietly got everything packed and in the early morning, left. Sam made sure he had told Applejack, he didn't tell her what he was really doing just what Celestia wanted him to do. She understood and wished him good luck before sending him on his way.

Once in Los Pegasus the two bought a cart, a gold chest and some warm clothes for the trip. They only really needed new jackets, so Valkyrie bought herself a brown duffel jacket with a hood, he thought it went well with her white fur. She thought the olive drab field jacket he bought looked good with his Red hair, he only liked it because it looked like an old U.S military uniform.

After setting up the cart and tying the chest with dynamite inside to the back of it, they rigged up a fuse that allowed them to light it from the handles they were pulling without attracting attention to themselves. It was like Sam wanted, Stealthy and dangerous.

They carried their armor and weapons on their backs in heavy packs, his pike was placed on the underside of the cart because it was so long and cumbersome. Then following the map Valkyrie bought from some store, they pulled the loaded cart out of the city on the path that the bank's carts used.

It had been two days since the city fell out of sight and another two days since they left Ponyville, the area they currently traversed was hilly, filled crab grass and barren of trees. To their right the horizon was empty but to their left they could see the smokey mountains. It would be at least a week before they passed the mountains and another couple days before they entered the four miles that the dragon had claimed.

~

Celestia sighed as she took off her shoes and layed them at the foot of her bed, the day had been long and filled with problems that her little ponies needed help with. She loved them but sometimes they could wear her out.

Yawning she slipped her dress off and placed it on the night stand, opening the wardrobe she pulled out a golden yellow night gown. After donning the gown she sat on a chair in front of her vanity mirror and began removing her jewelry.

She lifted her necklace over her head and placed it down on the mirrors table. Gingerly pulling her tiara off so as to not pull any of her ethereal hair she rested it on the top of the mirror at an odd angle.

Cracking her neck she stood up and lifting her arms, grunted as she stretched her back. Turning around she walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, she was going to enjoy sleeping tonight.

Pulling the blankets over herself she closed her eyes and smiled, it was wonderfully comfortable. Just as she started drifting away, a knocking came at the door. Sighing in annoyance Celestia pulled the covers off, sitting up she swung her legs over the side of the bed then stood up. Making her way to the door she grabbed the handle and opened it.

Her annoyed expression softened when she saw it was Luna that stood in the doorway,"May I come in dear sister?"

"Of course Luna," She stepped to the side, allowing Luna to walk in. She closed the door behind her sister,"What is it that you wish to see me about?"

Luna stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed,"Have you heard of what's happened in Zebrica?"

She shook her head carefully,"No I have not," Celestia raised an eyebrow and walked over to Luna,"What has happened?"

"Do you remember Lokely? The youngest son of king Uzbeka."

Celestia snorted and shook her head,"Unfortunately I do, why are you asking me this?"

Luna narrowed her eyes,"Lokely, is now prince Lokely, heir to the Zebrican throne."

Celestia's eyes widened,"What? How did he become prince? He had three older brothers did he not?"

"All of them have been killed in what seems to be accidents."

Celestia narrowed her eyes,"They're more than that are they not?"

"That is an interesting question, my spies have been watching the Zebrican government and Griffonstonian government since I returned." She swallowed and looked to the fireplace in Celestia's room,"In each government there have been numerous political assassinations all passed off as accidents, none of them are similar in any way shape or form except for one aspect."

"And what is that?"

"They have moved individuals that would see us conquered and subjected before their feet, up in rank." Luna took a deep breath,"The majority of generals in the Griffon military and the Zebrican military, now want to expand, preferably on us."

"Then that means..."

"Zebrica will soon be controlled by Lokely, Griffonstone will soon be controlled by Magnus and both of them hate us. Pair that with the majority of their advisors and generals hating us as well you get war."

"Gods above..." Celestia looked away in thought,"Could we somehow turn their people against them? Keep them from attacking by making them fear backlash from their populace."

Luna shook her head,"Recent polls show forty eight percent of griffons and fifty two percent of Zebras have an unfavorable view of us."

Celestia looked to her in surprise,"What have we done to gain that?"

"Don't you remember? The first Zebro-Pony war?"

Celestia nodded warily,"Yes, I suppose I could understand that, but why do the griffons hate us? We have not had a war with them."

"No we have not, it's simply cultural differences. They believe in strong military and aggressive expansion, we are a generally peaceful country and don't have an exceptionally strong military. Which means we have not earned their respect." Luna explained.

"Damn... why is this happening?"

Luna narrowed her eyes and scrunched her mouth,"I believe it is not coincidence that has led to this, but rather somepony is doing it."

"Who?"

"I don't know but it seems as though this is planned, does it not? I mean, it's only happening in two countries, both of which have a hate for us and both of which border us."

Celestia frowned, her eyes turning grim,"It does sound like somepony is controlling this..."

Luna nodded,"I shall keep my spies watching this and we shall see where it leads, now, I should attend my nightly court."

"Yes you probably should," Celestia gave her sister a grateful smile,"Thank you for informing me of this, it is something for me to ponder over."

Luna returned the smile, walking over to the door she opened it,"Goodnight Celestia."

"Goodnight Luna."

~

"Pull!" Sam shouted as he and Valkyrie attempted to get their cart out of the mud.

"I am pulling!" She yelled back frustration clear in her voice.

It had been raining for the past two days, both Sam and Valkyrie were soaked to the bone. It was miserable, especially since the rain had turned everything to mud, the only good news was that they had managed to pass the smokey mountains before the rain had set in. Another positive side of this was the shared experience the both of them were having, it was a hardship they were getting through together and in fact their trust for each other had already gown over this past week.

The cart's wheels had become stuck in the mud along the path, they had sunk about a third of the way into the ground and it was a pain in the ass to try to pull out. Valkyrie had positioned herself at the front of the cart to pull the handles forward and Sam was at the back pushing upwards from below. They were attempting to coordinate his pushes and her pulls at the same time.

"Look, when I say now, you pull!" Sam yelled out digging his bent legs into the mud and strengthening his grip on the underside of the cart.

She gripped the handles as tightly as she could and leaned forward,"Alright, I'm ready, just give it your all!"

Nodding to himself he took a deep breath,"Okay, one! Two! Three! Go!"

He pushed and she pulled at just the right time and the cart came up out of the mud going forward a few feet.

"Thank Celestia we did it!" She cheered while coming around to where Sam was.

He sat in the mud, a smile on rain soaked face,"Yes we did," He sighed and sat up, not bothering to try wiping his jeans off,"It's late, we should probably try to find unsoaked ground to sleep on and to store the cart on."

She nodded,"Yeah," She looked down the dirt road and put a hand above her eyes,"I can see a tree about a hundred and yards down the path, I can't tell if it's wet or not but it's better than sleeping in the rain."

"You can see that far in this rain?"

"Well yeah, I'm a Pegasus, we can see really far, kind of like birds." She explained with a shrug,"I don't know why that's the way it is but I'm thankful for it." She smiled.

He smiled back, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to bring her along after all...

They grabbed each of their respective handles Sam on the right and Valkyrie on the left, then pulled it down the wet path. Loud squelching sounds came up from the turning wheels as they plowed through the mud. When they reached the tree Sam untied the camping supplies he had placed next to the chest and layed them out under the tree.

The ground under the tree wasn't totally dry, the rain came through some of the branches, but it wasn't soaked either for the rain slinking through was much less than outside the trees circumference. So it was good enough to sleep on as well as keep the cart from sinking.

After finding a small dry spot under the tree he layed down a small amount of the kindling he brought. Then laying down some of the dry wood he had in his bag of camping supplies, he pulled out one of the many matches he had brought with him.

Striking the match he lowered it to the kindling, with Valkyrie's help, they managed to get a small flame going. Pulling some packaging off the cart Valkyrie opened it and removed two potatoes. She began peeling them while Sam retrieved a pot and a water bottle.

As soon as the water came to a boil and the potatoes were totally peeled, Valkyrie cut them into pieces small enough to eat. Sam placed them in the pot along with some salt to give it a bit of flavor. They sat down and rested their weary feet while they waited for the food to finish.

They talked for some time about what they would do when the dragon was dead, Valkyrie convinced Sam that if they did kill it then they would take some of it's teeth as souvenirs. The food was done by the time the light of day was gone, the nights out here were really dark but the stars always came out giving a small amount of light. With the stars blotted out by the clouds it was nearly impossible to see.

Sam pulled the potatoes out of the boiling water with a knife and together they ate,"So you think we'll really find a dragon Sam?"

He looked down at the fire and shrugged,"Maybe, Celestia really believed so and she made a good argument for it, so yeah I think we might."

She nodded and followed his gaze to the fire,"You know, we might end up like that wood in the fire there," She cocked her head,"That's an odd thought, facing danger like that."

"Well," He leaned back against the tree and looked at her,"There's always going to be danger like that, you'll get past that fact quickly enough in your first fight." He looked back to the fire as it crackled, a piece of wood shifting slightly,"The thing you have to worry about is fear."

"Fear?"

"Yeah," He sniffed and looked out beyond the rain and into the darkness.

She raised and eyebrow and shifted closer to him,"Why do we need to worry about fear?"

He smiled and twisted his head to look at her,"Fear is what gets you, like say we find this dragon, the first thing you'll do is freeze up and think about how you might die," He leaned toward her a bit,"Then you'll push through that fear to fight the dragon, that's not facing danger, that's overcoming fear in the face of danger."

He leaned back while she stared into the fire processing what he said,"Oh, that makes... a lot of sense actually." She let out a breath,"Sam, your cold and tired too, right?"

"Well of course I'm cold and tired, hell freezing and exhausted is a more accurate way of describing it."

"I uh," she scooted up against his side, her back against the tree trunk,"I've heard it's good to be near each other so you can preserve body heat." She had an uncharacteristic blush on her face but maintained eye contact.

He looked down at her,"It does preserve heat."He nodded confirming what she had said.

"Then maybe it'd be good if we uh," Valkyrie looked down,"Stayed close together like this."

"If you're fine with it then I wouldn't be opposed to some extra heat." Without saying anything Valkyrie wormed an arm behind his back and wrapped the other arm around his waist. Holding him she leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder, he had to admit it was warmer.

Looking down at her to see if she was comfortable he could finally see her bright blush in the light of the fire, chalking it up to not being used to physical contact like he was, he brushed the matter away and looked back out into the night. Before long she fell asleep against him, with the heat of her body and the fire against him he closed his eyes and listened to the rhythm of the falling rain while drifting to sleep.

~

The hills started to flatten out into grassy plains, small areas of scrub oak started to appear here and there and the Smokey mountains were no longer on the horizon. It had stoppped raining last week and while there were still patches of wet ground it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.

The couple were lucky enough to have found a small clean pond near the path, there were a lot of dirty ponds but this one was clean and so they took a whole day to wash their mudddy clothes, along with themselves. The clothes were relatively clean now and they were happy to have gotten the chance to bathe, no matter how cold the water was.

Sam made sure the dynamite wasn't wet, which it wasn't, the chest had provided good protection over it. The only thing he had to dry out was the fuse, which wasn't a very difficult operation at all.

Now they traveled an interesting area where the hills turned to flattened bumps and every mile traveled the bumps got flatter, the are was becoming a valley. The whole land was filled with tall grass, obviously it was happy with the rain it had just experienced and now it was growing in thicker and stronger then ever.

The road itself was changing slightly, it raised upwards by a small margin every couple miles and the edges flowed down the sides of it. This was intentional of course as it kept the roads from flooding and Sam hoped, might offer some cover from the dynamite if they got the chance to kill the dragon.

"Sam do you know any songs?"

"What?" He looked over at Valkyrie as they trudged along with the cart trailing behind.

"Do you have any, ya know, human traveling songs or something that you can sing?" She shrugged,"It's boring out here doing, nothing to do but pull a cart."

He looked ahead and scrunched his face in thought,"I guess I have some songs I remember, but they don't sound good without a band and I can't sing for shit."

"I don't care that you can't sing, pick out a song that doesn't need a band and sing it!"

"I guess there's one that kind of comes to mind..." He tapered off.

"Then sing it, I don't care how bad of a voice you have, maybe you could even teach me how the song goes and we could sing it together." She smiled mirthfully and looked at him,"Songs always sound better when sung by more than one pony."

He shook his head,"I guess you have a point, besides it is pretty boring out here huh?"

"Oh yeah, I mean sure it's a beautiful chunk of land and all, but there's nothing to do."

He nodded and sighed,"Well I guess I'll try singing."

"Please do." She grinned.

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth,"Here's forty shillings on the drum, for those who volunteer to come!"

Valkyrie looked forward to the far horizon and listened to him over the creaking wheels,"To 'list and fight the foe today, over the hills and far away!"

"O'er the hills and o'er the main, through Flanders, Portugal and Spain. King George commands and we obey, over the hills and far away!"

"When duty calls me I must go, to stand and face another foe, but part of me will always stray, over the hills and far away!"

She joined in when he went over the chorus again,"O'er the hills and o'er the main, through Flanders, Portugal and Spain, king George commands and we obey, over the hills and far away!" Their voices echoed over the disappearing hills.

She stopped when he continued the main lyrics,"If I should fall to rise no more, as many comrades did before, then ask the fifes and drums to play, over the hills and far away!"

They went through the chorus once more before he stopped singing, they both had smiles on their faces,"That was pretty good Sam! Your voice was shit like you said, but it didn't matter when I joined in."

He laughed and shook his head,"I know I can't sing, but I do know an ungodly amount of songs."

"Well then your going to have to teach me to sing at least that one, I liked it."

He nodded,"You do have a good voice, so I can teach you the lyrics with the knowledge you won't butcher the song like me."

They grunted when the cart went over a particularly big indent in the dirt road,"So where did that song come from Sam?"

"Oh, it's a variation of an old English song from the Napoleonic wars. I got it from a T.V. show called Sharpe's Rifles."

"T.V. show?"

"It's like a story in a book, but you watch it instead." He explained with a small laugh, he never thought he'd have to explain what a T.V. show was to anyone.

"Sam?"

"Yes?"

"What were the Napoleonic wars?"

He laughed,"To explain that, I would first need to explain the French Revolution as well as what led to the French Revolution." He turned to her,"That's kind of boring, until you get to the guillotine and Napoleon's battles at least."

She shrugged,"Well I'm interested and we have a while to talk, so just tell me about it I guess."

He smiled,"Alright then..." As he told her about seventeenth century France, the top of a lone mountain appeared on the horizon.

~

She watched the cart speed along the roadway, this was an odd attempt to cross through her territory. There were only two ponies this time, perhaps they were trying to make it through quickly and avoid her attention? If so that was an admirable idea, but she already had them in her sights.

Watching from the fields in a small area that scrub oak had claimed for itself she netted herself in, this cart had just exited the hills to the south of her territory only a couple hours ago. But since she hadn't seen any prey for at least two weeks she was on high alert and spotted them immediately.

Looking closely there wasn't much out of the ordinary with the cart, it had a chest, camping supplies and the rest. It was just odd to her that they would only send in two escorts this time, especially since they had sent more and more ponies with the carts every time before. It was even weirder when she got a better look at the ponies pulling the cart.

One was a pegasus, which she hadn't seen any of with the previous carts and the other was... she wasn't quite sure what it was. She had a suspicious feeling about the whole thing, they had packs on their back to carry... some kind of supplies and that was odd because they carried them rather than storing it all on the cart.

That's when she realized, it was a ruse. The ponies that sent this cart were trying to confuse her, make her think it wasn't a gold convoy but just travelers that happened to be traveling this stretch of land. She snarled to herself, she would kill them slowly for this act of cowardice.

Slinking down even further and tucking her wings in, she kept her yellow eyes on the road.

~

The land was now completely flat, tall grass surrounded them and more frequent patches of scrub oak showed up now and then. The road was now raised a couple feet off the ground and had recently dried, meaning they no longer had to walk through any mud.

They pulled the cart along now on more steady ground than before, the sun was in the middle of the sky and it beat down on them relentlessly. It almost made them wish the rain hadn't of stopped, the saving grace of it all was the cool breeze that flowed over the valley.

They went on silently, Valkyrie looked off absentmindedly. She could see a patch of trees and thought about all the little animals that probably live in it, she froze when she saw the whole clump of vegetation move.

Sam continued pulling till the cart bumped into Valkyrie and stopped,"Hey what are doing?"

She held up and hand and squinted her eyes in the direction of the trees. Letting go of the cart Sam stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder,"What is it you see?" He spoke softly.

"There's a patch of trees out there..." She let out a breath and shook her head,"I thought I saw them move."

He nodded,"Well how about you keep your eyes on it, just in case?"

"Okay, I will, it might just be a trick of the light though." She grabbed her handle and he grabbed his.

"Yeah," They started pulling again,"But it's better to be safe than sorry."

~

She froze, her eyes on the Pegasus. Had they seen her? No that's not possible, unless...

"I will need to finish you off quickly... Oh, this will be an interesting challenge indeed."

~

It had been nearly two hours since Valkyrie thought she saw movement, they had moved quite a ways and by now the patch of trees was nearly out of sight. The two of them felt a little more at ease now that nothing had happened.

The couple kept quiet though, listening for anything similar to the flap of wings, they didn't hear anything like wings but they did hear the sound of their feet and the cricks of the cart and the sound of Valkyrie tripping on a rock.

Sam droped the cart handle out of reflex and caught her before she hit the ground, she didn't even stop to thank him but rather shot up and out of his arms to look back at the trees.

"S-Shit Sam the trees are moving!"

~

The Pegasus tripping gave her the break she needed to unfurl her wings and jump into the air. Trees flew outward from the force and speed of her wings slamming into them. Propelling herself upward, she made sure to hit high altitude before her prey had a chance to look back at the swaying trees.

She flew straight over the two ponies and circled them once, it took the Pegasus a moment to realize where she was. Shouting the weird one looked up then looked back down to fiddle with something on the cart,"What a fool!" She snarled and roared.

Setting her wings back she flung herself downward as quickly as possible, she would crush these ones like she had the others. The Pegasus began shouting and tugging at her compatriot, he stood at the cart unrelentingly standing his ground, his friend eventually let out one last yell before he turned and threw her back to side of the road.

She dived straight down, her fangs bared in pure hate, she would teach these cowards in disguise what fighting was. The weird creature looked up just as she hit the twenty feet mark, she smiled grimly in anticipation of seeing the fear on his face and when she did see his face, it wasn't fear but a... joyful smile?

"You really fucked this one up!"

~

"Sam it's above us!" She grabbed his shoulder and tugged,"We need to get down!"

He grit his teeth and attempted striking the match in his hands,"I know!" It didn't work on the first try, so he struck it again,"Get to cover Valkyrie!"

"I can't leave you behind!" She kept tugging at his shoulder, the gear on his back rattling the whole time. He struck the match once more to no avail.

He turned around and with one hand grabbed her, collar then threw her backwards. He was stronger than she ever could have ever imagined and it surprised her beyond belief, his eyes were narrowed and his mouth twisted,"Get to cover!" He shouted in the most commanding tone she had ever heard.

She looked up at him her eyes wide and mouth agape,"O-Okay, just," She stood up quickly, back pedaling while keeping her eyes on him and as she opened her mouth to speak again, fell down the side of the road into the thick grass.

Turning back he slid the match across the wood once more, it let out a single spark. The snarling growl of the beast above him became audible,"Come on you piece of shit!" With one last strike the match lit up and without wasting any time he lit the fuse.

A joyous smile graced his face, he looked up into the yellow eyes of the dragon. It's snarl disappeared slightly when it saw his smile,"You really fucked this one up!"

~

She saw his smile and panicked, slowing down slightly her whole body fumbled in the air, this gave the small form below her time to dive off the road. With a loud crash her body landed on its side.

The cart snapped down the middle lengthwise, splinters flying upwards and a few embedded themselves her side, luckily they were small ones. She groaned and growled while laying in the rubble.

Snorting she shook her head and rolled over. Lifting herself upwards, she looked forward and spotted the chest. Taking several cautious steps she placed her right claw on top of the chest and used it to lift herself up higher then looked down at the road.

She smiled when she spotted the faces of her two victims below her. They had propped their heads up on the edge of the road, she took a shaky breath,"I will give you this, you managed to trick me and make me panic, not many hav-," She stopped when she noticed a quiet burning sound.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw the faces of her prey light up,"What are y-"

~

Sam placed a hand on Valkyrie's back and forced her down into the ground along with him, the explosion rocked the whole area around them, shaking the grass and throwing the dirt high into the air along with the resulting smoke. Shrapnel and debris from the cart shot outwards in all directions, one piece flew straight over Valkyrie's head making her gasp.

After waiting a moment for everything to settle he cautiously lifted his head up. Sam peeped over the side of the road, his eyes could see the remains of the cart through the dust and smoke. On the other side of the road, the body of the dragon rested there.

He narrowed his eyes and licked his lips,"Valkyrie... stay down," He patted her shoulder,"I'm going to make sure it's dead." She nodded with a thin lipped smile and sat up to peak over the edge of the road like he did.

Swallowing thickly he placed his hands on the top of the road and pulled himself up, stepping forward he stood all the way up. Taking a cautious step he kept himself low, looking over what was left of the cart he spotted one of it's sides still intact and it just so happened to be the side he stored his pike under.

He took a breath and slowly made his way over to the piece of debris, when he reached it he lowered down and grabbed ahold of the end of his pike. Sam slowly slid the weapon out, a little sound coming from the wood as it slid out. Finally pulling it all the way out he held it against his chest, looking back to the where the dragon was last he realized that the settling dust now fully obstructed his view of the creature and so he reflexively decided to try standing up to get a better look.

He quickly stood all the way up, just as he stood up a large black claw flew out of the dust and just barely knicked his cheek, he fell backwards with a surprised yell. Sitting up as quickly as he could he saw the beast shove it's head through the dust,"You," Her voice was rough but distinctly feminine,"You did this to me!" Her wings unfurled with a roar,saliva coated fangs were displayed to him and the settling dust was thrown away with the powerful gust of wind that came from her wings.

Lowering his arms away from his eyes he saw just what the explosion did to her. Her jaw had a large piece of wood lodged in it's side, the underside of her belly was littered with small pieces of shrapnel sticking out and her left wing was ripped slightly. The real damage though had been done to her right claw.

It was completely gone, bone and flesh stuck out pulsing in a fairly horrible manner, her severed arm gushed blood with each pulse all over the ground beneath her. She growled an expression of rage overtaking her features, her eyes dilated and she shook uncontrollably,"I will kill you for this!"

Taking immediate action he pulled himself up and took a few steps back, lowering the long weapon he narrowed his eyes and gave her a snarl of his own,"Then kill me."

She roared and unlike her previous behavior, acted in a reckless manner, she instinctively lunged foward and swung her good claw down on him. He jumped to the side barely dodging her attack. Her whole body lost its balance without the help of her other claw and fell forward into the dirt. Regaining his footing Sam watched her attempt to pull herself up from the ground.

She growled as she struggled to lift herself up, placing her good claw beneath her chest she pushed, her whole body shaking at the strain. When she finally managed to stand all the way up she turned her head to look at him,"I will find you and kill you!"

Her wings stretched out and she used her back legs to jump into the air, with a couple pathetic flaps she finally pulled herself up to a good enough height and took off into the sky.

"Holy shit!" He looked back to see Valkyrie pulling herself up onto the road,"Sam are you okay?!"

He nodded,"I'm fine but the dragon isn't, she's wounded beyond belief and might even bleed out."

"Really?! That's great!"

"It is but, we can't leave that to chance, get your armor and your weapons ready, we are now hunting a dragon." He smirked at the look on her face and looked back around to the small black blur landing on the distant lone mountain.

~

Sam and Valkyrie abandoned the road, opting to go straight for the mountain. The ground wasn't as even as the road, but it was a valley so it was flat enough to traverse without much trouble. It took a couple hours of wading through tall grass and avoiding mole holes before they reached the base of the mountain.

The mountain itself was a dark black color and it went high into the air. It wasn't as steep as some mountains but it would still be a challenge to climb if they had to. Sam decided to send Valkyrie to fly around the mountain and save the time that would normally be needed to find the dragons lair.

She went up and not even a minute later came back down,"Sam, there's a huge cave entrance just like, thirty feet above us."

"What really?" She pointed up and he followed her fingers to a difficult to see indent in the mountain side.

He scrunched his eyes,"It's totally hidden from down here..."

She laughed,"Yeah well, it goes along with the slant of the mountain so it's an understandable oversight. Now, it's not that long of a climb so I suggest we start right now and take advantage of her wounds."

He nodded,"That's why we're here so let's get to it." He pulled his pack off and opened it up, he layed out all his armor and weapons, he'd need his pike the most.

In a short amount of time both of them were fully armored up and ready to fight. He carefully climbed up the side of the mountain, it might not have been that steep of a hill but it was unsteady. Valkyrie got to the entrance first, because she flew and when Sam was just under it she offered him a helping hand.

He grasped her leather covered hand with his gauntleted one. With a grunt she helped hoist him up and into the mouth of the cave.

He placed a hand on the ground and picked himself up,"Thanks Valkyrie, I owe ya one."

She lowered her plumed helmet's visor,"Yes you do."

He shook his helmeted head and turned to look into the cave. It wasn't really dark, there were fires in it, but it wasn't really bright either. Taking one last look out the cave at the setting sun he took a deep breath and gave a small prayer to God, after all it seemed like he listened last time. Turning about he boldly walked forward into the cave with Valkyrie trailing behind.

The first thing they noticed was the abundance of gold bits scattered about the place, it wasn't unexpected after all she did take it all, but it was still an interesting sight. They followed the natural curve of the cave a couple hundred feet before reaching the end of the cave. The end of it was an entrance to a large cavern.

"You think she's in there?" Valkyrie asked drawing her short sword and pulling up her shield.

Sam shrugged,"I guess we'll see, huh?" He gripped his pike and readied it, he left his shield on his back. After all it would only get in the way if he they fought with her, which seemed an inevitability now.

He stepped forward cautiously in a low stance and she did the same, it was like he taught her in training he gave her. She kept her large shield in front of her lowered body for full protection and her sword to the side of it in a readied position.

The first thing they noticed was the huge pile of gold in the middle of the cavern. It looked to be eighteen feet high and twenty across! It was an incredible amount of wealth she had built up over these past months. They walked deeper into the room. The whole room had large rock chunks laying around, it Sam a second but he realized it was because she dug this hole out herself.

Looking from side to side Sam didn't see the dragon anywhere, so he decided that she might be at the back of the gold. He chose their path quietly and began to walk around the left side of the gold pile, each step he took was a calculated one and he avoided anything on the ground that might alert her to their presence. Valkyrie followed his example and made sure to examine the ground beneath her before taking a step. She was impressed at how silent Sam was being, especially with his armor on.

As they cautiously rounded the corner Sam froze in his steps, Valkyrie almost ran into him but looking forward figured out why he stopped, at the back of the pile lay the dragon. Her eyes widened and she almost yelled, but he raised a hand in the air to stop her. She narrowed her eyes and observed the dragon again, it was asleep, Valkyrie was relieved at the lucky break they'd caught.

The beast rested on her side, her severed arm faced upwards so as to avoid the pain. It had stopped bleeding but the flesh was still red and puffy, the wound still looked beyond painful. Further inspection of her body showed that she had removed the wood that had been lodged in her jaw, a nasty hole still remained but the wood was gone. Most of the debris that had been imbedded in her belly was also removed, a few pieces remained sticking out here and there but she had done a good cleanup job.

Sam narrowed his eyes, he turned to valkyries and whispered,"Go," He pointed to one of the rocks,"Get behind that, you'll have the element of surprise if it comes to a fight."

She nodded and stepped back slowly over to the rock. When she was safely hidden behind it he turned back to the sleeping beast and walked forward,"You have a very impressive lair here."

The creature snorted awake, she let out a deep breath and lifted her head up to look at him. Her yellow eyes scrunched,"Thank you, though it's odd that you would compliment me after trying to kill me."

He nodded and shifted his feet,"And it's odd that you haven't attacked me yet."

She turned her head to the side and swallowed, wincing as saliva came out through the hole in her jaw,"I will attempt to in a few seconds, but I wish to talk with you before I do so."

"You do?"

She nodded,"I wish to compliment the trick you used, I may have been angry back there but, now that I am of a more stable mindset I will tell you that it was a smart move." She wiggled her stump of a leg,"You knew that you could not face me head on, so you tried to kill me in one quick blow." Grunting the mighty beast rolled onto her stomach,"It is the tactic I would use if I was your size and you used it very effectively."

She raised herself up on her legs and balanced the weight on her good side,"If I am to die by your hands than, at least it is by your hands and not a pathetic ponies." She smiled,"Might I ask as to what you are?"

He nodded, surprised at how well spoken she was,"I am a human, my name is Samuel."

"Human... hmm ," She shook her head,"I am Bayghur, it is nice to meet a hunter like me."

He blinked in confusion at her politeness,"Uh, its, nice to meet you too."

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow as she listened, this was not going the way she anticipated it would.

"So, how did you come to know of me?" She cocked her head,"I thought I was in the middle of nowhere and my prey did not seem to important."

"Well I came to know of you through princess Celestia, word of the gold have stolen spread quickly and she deemed you danger to the cities in your surrounding area."

"Celestia herself sent you to hunt me?" She smiled widely,"What an honor, though I'd never be foolish enough to attack a city, I'll take it as a compliment."

He cocked his head,"You respect Celestia? I thought your view in ponies was that they were pathetic."

"Ponies now, are weak and gutless. But many, many years ago they were not, Celestia and her sister led those ponies once and put us dragons through a war we shall never forget. That is why I respect her."

Sam nodded making a note to ask Celestia about that. Sighing, he frowned,"You seem like very reasonable dragon, is there any way we could avoid a violent end to this ordeal? Perhaps we could find you new territory?"

She shook her head,"I am agraid its to late for that, you have taken my arm and some of my wing, I will never recover from this. It would be against my honor to simply leave, I must fight you to the death."

He looked down and drew in a breath,"That's... to bad."

"Yes, it is." She flared out her wings and stood tall giving him the signal to step back and ready his pike.

She separated her lips to show off her teeth and threw herself forward, he dodged to the side, the bits under his feet clinking. Sam could hear her massive body impact the ground behind him, gold was thrown everywhere. She roared and lifted herself up enough to crawl forward as quickly as she could.

He could hear the snap of her jaws behind him, his heart rate shot through the roof. He ran towards the rock that valkyrie had hid behind, just barely holding on to his pike,"Thrust your sword in the air!"

She looked up just as he threw himself over the rock, she understood what he mean't right as the dragons body came over the rock chasing him. She was under the beasts vulnerable belly with a sword, that's what he meant.

Valkyrie gave a yell and thrust her sword up, just like Sam wanted, the blade bit deeply into the the dragons belly. Bayghur continued crawing over the rock doing the work for Valkyrie, her sword sliced along as she moved towards Sam.

Bayghur screamed at the unexpected pain in her stomach and jumping sideways, rolled on her back. She hissed and craned her neck to look at her new wound. The cut was long and deep, blood quickly seeped from the slice.

Valkyrie pulled herself up to see what she did, standing on shaking feet she saw the cut she had inflicted. Then looking down at her bloody sword she smiled weakly and laughed,"I did it..."

She felt a pat on her back and looked over her shoulder to see Sam,"And you made a damn good job of it."

She smiled proudly and turned back to the dragon,"Once again you trick me!" She growled and flipped up on her belly, forcing more blood to come from the wound and pool on the ground. Her wounds from before were reopening with each movement, blood began coming from her arm again and the hole in her jaw started bleeding consistently.

Sam narrowed his eyes, she would die soon, after all she had lost so much blood earlier that it wasn't possible for her to survive with all her wounds bleeding again. But she wouldn't let that happen without one last hurrah and he knew it.

She leveled her gaze at Sam, snorting. With a loud wheeze she drew in her breath, rolled back her eyes and pulled her head back, Sam's eyes widened,"Jump!" He ran into Valkyries, wrapping an arm around her side as they plunged sideways.

Just as the two of them jumped into the pile of gold, her flames bathed the ground they just stood on, coating it with soot. He could feel the heat of her fire from his position on the gold, it was worse than any heat he had felt before and he burned himself on the forge constantly.

"Keep your head down, I have an idea!" He yelled over the roaring flames to Valkyrie, clenching his teeth, he pulled himself up the pile of gold, bits sliding down around him. He got pushed his legs beck and pulled his arms up, it was like climbing up a hill that fought back every step of the way. When he reached the top of the piles he stood up unsteadily. Then putting his left foot forward he lowered his pike and aimed for her side.

Closing her mouth Bayghur rolled her eyes back forward and observed her work. The sound of metal clanking to her left made her head swivel towards the noise, she saw Sam sliding down the pile at an alarming speed and before she could react the his pike ripped into her side.

He managed to get the pike aimed just right and it penetrated her armor in side of her upper chest, the pike kept going deeper tearing into the sensitive flesh of her lungs. It kept going until Sam himself ran into her side, he fell back slamming into the ground.

Her jaw hung open, she stepped back a few paces and looked down. The pike was driven all the way through her, the metal tip stuck out her right side and the wooden end stuck out her left end. It had ripped through both her lungs and pierced the upper area of her heart.

Unsure of what to do she looked forward at the metal coated figure pulling itself up off the ground, his Pegasus friend threw off her helmet and ran down from the gold pile, slowing down to stand next to him. Bayghur coughed violently, blood coming up from her throat.

She looked up her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open,"I believe you have killed me sir..."

Valkyrie held his shoulder and put an arm around his back to help him stand up, together they watched the beast hold an arm to her chest and fall forward into the ground, dust flying and gold rattling along with her.

"Y-You okay Sam?" She turned her attention to Sam and placed a hand on his breastplate.

"Yeah," His breathing was heavy,"I-I'm good."

She patted his chest and smiled,"We killed it, Sam, we really killed it."

He smiled along with her, still catching his breath,"Yes we did, you did great Valkyrie, I'm beyond proud of you."

"...Thanks Sam." He pushed on her arm and she let go of him, he walked forward and up to the dragons head. Leaning against the head he placed a hand on her snout, using his other hand he drew his sword and used its tip to wrench it's lips up and give him a view of her gums.

"What are you doing?" Valkyrie came over and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm pulling some teeth out, like you wanted." He spotted a pair of smaller teeth in the back of her jaws and shoved his sword into the gums above them. Valkyrie wordlessly watched Sam cut out the teeth of the beast, holding catching them for him when they fell out.

Author's Notes:

The song Sam sings here:Over The Hills And Far Away

Development (With a Hint of Filler)

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter took awhile to finish, I was binge watching Twin Peaks with my friends all week.

"You took on a dragon by yourself?!" Celestia stared at Sam, slight disbelief and anger In her eyes.

Sam cringed," Well... I wasn't alone..."

"You might as well have been!" She fumed,"I just sent you to scout it out! Do you know how I would have felt if you had died?!"

The two of them stood in Twilight's throne room, Twilight was absent because she was currently sending a letter to dragon lord Ember in an effort explain what happened and why she should pay more attention to her fellow dragons.

He sighed and looked down,"Look I'm sorry, it's just... how many of your guards would have died fighting that dragon?"

She narrowed her eyes down at him and flared her nostrils,"At least a quarter of a battalion according to our most reliable projections."

"Exactly!" He looked up to her,"Valkyrie and I killed the dragon without the any unnecessary loss of life, don't you think that's better that we took a risk rather than let a quarter of a battalion die?"

She gave an emphasized growl and crossed her arms,"Yes, it is better." She relented looking to the side.

"Thank you." He smiled.

"I'm still upset that you disregarded my orders," She looked back to him her expression softer than before," But I'll forgive you for it. After all you did save me the guilt of sending ponies to their death."

He nodded,"And I'll apologize for my decision to go against your wishes."

She smiled,"Apology accepted, now that it's behind us and I believe we should discuss the impact of your actions."

"Okay, well, what's the impact of killing the dragon?"

"Ponies will want to see you and Valkyrie rewarded, I also wish to reward you for despite my earlier reaction I am deeply impressed and indebted to you."

He frowned,"You know I don't really need a reward, I was just doing the right thing."

"And in doing the right thing you took on one of the most most dangerous creatures on the face of Equis for the safety of my little ponies." She chuckled slightly,"It's really quite a romantic story when you think about it, the first knight in centuries and he fights a dragon in its lair to save ponies. The only thing missing is a mare in distress."

He looked away and smiled with a sigh,"I didn't think about it like that, but I can see what your saying."

She shook her head with a smile,"I know you won't accept any rewards that contain money or property, but I could offer you tickets to next years Grand Galloping Gala? I would think that you've gained enough status as a hero to be invited and it is a very nice party."

He twisted his mouth and looked down,"I... I don't know, that's a very generous offer but, are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, you've done enough to be invited to a party at least."

He nodded,"I guess I can do that, I'll need to get a nice suit though."

She waved a dismissive hand,"Oh that should be easy enough what with a friend like Rarity."

"All right then, I'll go to the next one, when is it?"

"Next New Year's Eve, you'll get a ticket either in the mail or from Twilight." She smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him into a hug,"Thank you for what you've done Sam, I really am glad your okay and I'm glad you managed to kill the dragon, I think it will be the talk of Equestria for a while."

"Well, it was no trouble, really."

She pulled back and smiled warmly,"Keep telling yourself that Sam, now, I must leave," She looked over to the throne room door,"I do have responsibilities back in Canterlot."

"Oh, yes of course, don't let me keep you." He smiled.

Before she left he spoke up,"Wait, will you be here for Nightmare Night?"

She cocked her head and looked back to him,"Normally I don't do much that night, why?"

"Well, I don't have any plans for it and it's in a week or so, would you like to come and celebrate it together or?"

"I suppose I could."

"Good, I'll see you on Nightmare Night then."

She nodded,"And I will see you too."

Celestia left closing the door behind her, he stood there for a moment, looking at the cutie map. Right as he decided to leave Twilight walked through the door.

She stepped in looking at the ground and muttering to herself, Sam watched her with a small smile. She stopped at the map and looked up,"Oh! Hey Sam, is Celestia still here?"

He shook his head and leaned forward placing his hands on the map,"No, she just left."

"Oh, what did she want to talk to you about?"

"She gave me an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala, for fighting the dragon that is."

She nodded looking back to the map,"Good, that's always a fun event something odd always happens there. You know I still can't believe you decided to take on a dragon."

He sighed,"Yeah, how does Ember feel about that?"

"Well as she put it,"It was a necessary action"." She smiled as she walked around the side of the map and studied another location.

"That's like Fluttershy's reaction, except Ember probably didn't tear up about it." He smiled and shook his head.

"Yes that sounds like Fluttershy, though no one can say you didn't try to reason with... Bayghur right?" She looked up with a raised brow.

"Yeah that's what she claimed her name was," He nodded,"It is kind of sad, she seemed reasonable for a short time in the cave."

"Yeah that is upsetting, say how did the others react? We were all kind of worried when you disappeared without a trace."

"Well, Applejack was fairly amazed, she knew I went but she didn't know I was going to kill the dragon." He crossed his arms,"Dash thought it was awesome and she wants to buy me a drink. Rarity got upset with me but didn't stay angry, luckily."

"What about Pinkie?"

"She wants to throw a celebration party for me."

"Good, I'm glad they're not angry." She sniffed and cocked her head at something on the map,"Now that I think about it Bayghur is not a common dragon name, in fact it's an old dragon name, did she mention how old she was? I have heard that some dragons are older than Celestia and Luna."

"No, though she did mention that there was a war between the ponies and dragons before."

Twilight's eyes widened in curiosity as he got her full attention,"Really? That war was... that would mean she was at least... three thousand years old. That's amazing!" Twilight rounded the table getting up in his face,"Did she say anymore? Maybe a first hand account of the war? Or no, maybe she actually fought in it! Did she?"

He put his hands up,"Woah, Twilight come on, she only mentioned it offhandedly before trying to kill me. If you really want more info on it than ask Celestia next time you see her, she probably knows more about it since she was there and all."

Her demeanor visibly deflated,"True she probably does know more, but it's still a shame a creature so old had to die."

He nodded,"It is a shame, now, not to be rude but I need to go, Valkyrie is at the farm working already and I'm here."

She smiled,"Oh no, it's okay, I get it, in fact I think Applejack and Big Mac needed your help fixing a support beam in the barn so you should get going."

"Alright, see you later Twilight."

~

The next couple of weeks were somewhat normal, the only odd thing about them was the feeling of excitement in the autumn air. Nightmare Night was coming and Sam was excited, he could see the obvious resemblance to Halloween and he always liked Halloween.

It was such an odd holiday, dressing up and scaring people, then getting candy? It was weird but really fun. For Nightmare Night he had, with Rarity's help made a practical rather than fantastical black cloak and a very realistic looking set of ribs to wear across his stomach.

The cloak shadowed his face and ran all the way down to his knees, with the cloak on and the cover of darkness his costume was fairly creepy. He couldn't wait to see Celestia's reaction to it, from what he could tell ponies didn't really make costumes as scary as the one he made.

Before he knew it October twenty second, Nightmare Night, was upon them. He was working on covering up the farm equipment, it was supposed to rain that night according to the weather team.

He pulled a light blue canvas across the top of the apple cart, it hadn't been used in a while but they didn't want to risk damage to it. Securing the tarp with rope tied to hooks duh into the ground, he look turned to the barn and started walking.

Pushing the barn doors open he stopped and looked it over. The roof wasn't leaky or anything but it was just a precaution to make sure the tools and other equipment are covered. Nodding in confirmation to himself he closed the door and turned.

Not sure of what else to do he made his way to the farmhouse, maybe Applejack had another task for him. From what he was told they were going to start preparing the trees for winter, that included pruning them all and walking the fields everyday to make sure they were all okay.

Apparently the winter was good for Apple and other orchards, according to Applejack snow is good for insulating the base of trees because when the snow falls it blankets the ground keeping the roots from freezing.

Pushing the front door open he stepped inside, Applejack stood over a table to his right, she looked up and smiled at him,"You got all the stuff in the barn covered up?"

"Yeah, is there anything else you wanted done?"

"Nah we got everything done for today, how bout' you leave early, it is Nightmare Night and everyponys gotta get ready with their costumes and all." She looked out the window,"Sides' I already let Valkyrie leave early, ah think she went to Rarity's so they could do something with her costume."

He smiled,"Alright then I guess I'll leave early, thanks Applejack," He raised an eyebrow,"You have a costume?"

She chuckled,"Yeah but nothing quite as scary as yours."

"Well not everything has to be scary, after all none of the colts or fillies would come out if all of us were terrifying."

She smirked,"Yeah but compared to yours my lion suit is fairly kooky."

He shrugged with a smile,"Not to kids in the dark."

"True," She straightened her back,"Say can ya make sure to scare Applebloom for me tonight, she needs a good scare, specially' after spiking my drink with such an odd potion the other night, it made my voice three times as high as before."

He raised an eyebrow,"Really? Hmm I understand that you want to get back at her," He looked down,"But," He smiled,"I, a full grown man, scaring young children and teenagers? Especially when it's Applebloom, one of my best friends? I don't know about that..." He chuckled under his breath.

"There's nothing wrong with a little fun on Nightmare Night, even if your a, uh, grown adult as ya put it."

Still smiling he shook his head and sighed,"I suppose I could take some time away from the festival to scare her tonight."

"Thanks," She smiled,"Now shoo we've got a full night of wearing stuffy costumes and entertaining foals ahead of us."

He nodded and smiled,"See you tonight AJ." He stepped back through the door and looked up at the gathering clouds, he could smell the moisture in the air. It was going to rain just like the weather team said, that would make tonight even better scaring people.

~

Eris pulled herself into his side, mashing her breasts against him. He smiled showing off his fangs and his red colored eyes moved to look down at her. Sliding a claw up his bare stomach and onto his chest she giggled,"Our plans are falling into place quite nicely my dear king."

They lay on a red velvet bed, the room was dim, the only light source was a fireplace in the corner. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and the musk of sex. Eris Held onto the black stallion's right side, an arm around his back and a claw on his chest,"They are? Lokely is set to be on the throne?" His voice was rough and very masculine.

"Our spies have ensured Lokely his place on the throne," She confirmed giving a sultry smile as she pulled herself up and onto him, making sure to wrap her naked legs around his waist, leaning forward she gave him a teasing kiss,"With Magnus ready for the throne and with all the support they need, it is almost certain that there will be war on Equestria."

He grinned deviously,"And the princesses? Do they suspect anything?" He slid his hands up her sides, making sure to give her buttocks a squeeze,"After all, these events would be odd to even an untrained eye."

Dragging herself downwards on his body, she pressed her cheek to his neck and licked at the fur over his artery,"My sources say they've noticed it, but we have done so well that we are wholly untraceable." She giggled a second time as he ran a hand up her body and grabbed one of her breasts.

"Good," He smiled and looked up at the dark wooden ceiling,"It won't matter if Equestria wins or loses because even if they succeed in defending themselves, a war on this scale will weaken them to the point of collapse." He tightened his grip on her,"Then we will take their country." His eyes began to ooze purple magic like smoke. They always did that when he was excited with the thought of conquering.

"Of course we will," She pushed her hips against his,"We will be able to defeat them with no problem, we have the soldiers to conquer the land and the magic necessary to destroy the princesses where they stand."

He looked into her eyes his breathing slowing,"I love you so much, without you none of this would have been possible." He sat up slightly, pulling her up with him,"I cannot thank you enough for planning this all and setting it up so perfectly." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a kiss.

Their lips met, parting immediately after contact. The lover's tongues came together, furiously fighting for dominance,"Mmm," Eris moaned, eyes closing while she ran a paw through his thick black hair. She got lost in the methodical exchange of love, her mind almost fully drifted off but she suddenly remembered an important thing she needed to tell him. Her eyes widened and she pulled away with a gasp, Eris panted as her face became concerned,"There is one possible problem we may need to pay attention to."

He frowned eyes narrowing at her,"And what might that be? It must important otherwise you wouldn't have killed the mood so willingly." He sounded frustrated.

Gulping she looked to the side,"The human creature..."

"What of it?" His voice dripped with annoyance,"We have already agreed that there is only one of him and magic immunity or not we could easily crush him, after all killing a hundred stupid diamond dogs is not impressive." He sneered eyes narrowing even more,"He is not something to worry us."

She sighed and nuzzled into the crook of his neck,"I know dear, I know, but he's becoming more and more dangerous with each one of his "adventures"."

"Adventures? As in more than one?" He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow,"Has he done more than the simple dog slaughter?"

She frowned and nodded,"He successfully killed a full grown dragon," She slid her hands up his arms and gripped his thick biceps,"It was one of the dragons that openly disobeyed the dragon lord."

He twisted his mouth and flared his nostrils,"...That is impressive."

"Yes it is... should we assassinate him?" She questioned.

"No, there's still only one of him and with his fame, his death would only attract attention. No one knows about us yet, but they will if we do that." He shook his head,"We will deal with it later though I can promise you that."

She smiled appreciatively,"Thanks for listening dear, I'm sorry for killing the mood I just thought-"

"Don't worry, I'm glad you brought this to my attention, now how about we rekindle the mood?" He gave her a suggestive smile his voice's tone getting low.

She returned his sultry smile,"Yes please..."

Their lips met right as a knock came from the door, growling Sombra pulled away from her,"What do you want?!" He barked angrily.

"Sir! Your the hunters have returned, they have brought a hundred fresh corpses with them!"

He sighed and looked to her,"I am sorry Eris but should go check it out."

"Oh it's okay," She placed a hand on his chin and pulled her face close to his,"More soldiers is always a good thing..."

~

Sam sat on his couch reading a book titled, The Rise and a Fall of The Northern King, he was killing time while waiting for Celestia. He wore his full costume, the hood down so he could see. The balcony was open letting in the dim light that broke through the grey clouds, it was drizzling lightly obscuring the view of the town that he normally had.

Flipping a page and cracking his neck, he let out a breath. Looking up he jumped slightly, Celestia's tall figure stood before him with a wide smile,"Samuel it's good to see you!" She wore a casual pair of jeans and a long sleeve buttoned up white shirt.

He let out a sigh and looked down with a slight smile,"I'm glad you came Celestia but please don't sneak up on me like that."

"Oh I'm sorry," She scrunched her face,"I didn't want to attract attention to myself or you so I made my way up here as stealthily as I could."

"No, no, it's okay, I just- Wait did you fly up here?" He noticed her mane drip onto water the stone floor.

"Yes but it's okay, no one saw me fly up here and I didn't bring my guards, they think I went to bed early." She smirked,"Not even Luna knows I'm here, tonight we can have as much fun as we want and nopony will interrupt us."

He smiled,"Well I'm glad you did all that for us, but won't ponies notice you when we're out there?"

She smirked,"Because of your immunity to magic you are the only one to see me as I really am, to other ponies I look like a normal sized mare with a green mane and white fur." She stepped over and sat down next to him, she shook her rump slightly to settle into the cushion,"It's a nifty little spell Thorax taught me."

He smiled and set his book down on the little table next to the couch,"Well that's handy, did you bring a costume?" He gestured down at himself,"As you can see I have mine on."

She nodded,"And it is a creepy one I see, the ribs look very real." She smiled,"Im glad you chose a scary costume, so many ponies in these modern times go with joke costumes, it's nice to see somepony go with the old traditions." She looked down at herself horn beginning to glow,"I have one too, hopefully just as creepy."

Her horn let out a yellow flash blinding him for a second. It disappeared to reveal her in a convincing zombie costume, her cheeks convincingly looked like they had been torn out and her fur was matted with brownish makeup that looked liked blood.

"Not bad," He nodded,"I like it, the cheeks are very well done."

"Really? You think so? I spent a lot of time on it." She smiled and looked down at herself.

"It's great! The clothes go perfectly with the green and brownish blood on the fur." He complimented.

"Well good, I've never really taken part in Nightmare Night, I always felt it would be in bad taste since I banished my own sister and all." She explained,"So I've never worn a costume like this before, I'm glad you like it."

"Of course I like it, it's very good for your first costume." He nodded," It makes sense that you've never done this before though, I wouldn't of either had I been in the same situation, but Luna is back now so it's not as bad, right?"

She waved a dismissive hand,"Yes it is better that she's back, now, I shall finally be able to have fun without the guilt." She smiled happily.

"It should be a lot of fun if Twilight's stories are anything to go by," He smiled and looked out to the balcony,"The sun is almost down, not that I don't expect you to know that already since that's your specialty," He stood up and looked down at her,"But I think we should go check out the festival don't you?"

"Why yes," She placed her hands on the couch cushion and pushed herself up,"Yes I think we should, though I will need your help through the castle, it's layout still confuses me." She gave an apologetic smile.

"Oh that's no problem, just be careful when we reach the stairs." He talked as they made their way to the door,"They're steep and I've almost fallen down them multiple times."

Over the next hour the two of them made their way down and out of the castle, once in the town they walked around the main part of the festival taking part in the activities the townsponies had layed out. The cold rain kept falling but it didn't stop anything, in fact since the rain made it harder to see, it made some of the costumes he saw more convincing than they would have been in any other light.

They walked in a crowd of costumed ponies down Mane Street looking at the activities ponies had set up,"Hmm, have you ever bobbed for apples Sam?" Celestia asked, stopping to look at him.

He looked away and scrunched his face up in thought,"No, I can't say I have." He shook his head as he looked back to her,"Why haven't you?"

She shook her head,"Well, the activity has existed for a very long time but I've never had the time to take part in it."

"Would you like to?"

She nodded,"Oh yes I would love to, it is an odd thing to do but it looks fun." She stated excitedly.

"Well then," He turned to the side and narrowed his eyes, scanning the street he found the apple bobbing bucket that he had seen earlier,"There's a couple of buckets over there." He pointed to a line of buckets under a tent in between a couple of other activity booths.

She gave an excited smile and without saying a word grabbed Sam's forearm, he couldn't help but notice how out of character she was acting as she pulled him along. He couldn't help but feel bad that Celestia had never taken part in Nightmare Night, but now that she was she seemed to be enjoying it. He was glad that Celestia was having a good time, she was almost never able to take time for herself and act like a normal mare since she always running the country.

The pony at the bucket was a light brown mare with a big pouch at her side, her face lit up when she saw the two run up and up to her. As they stopped in front of her she smiled brightly and placed her hands on her hips,"Well hello there! If you want to take a try at getting an apple in this here bucket it's one bit per five tries."

Sam nodded,"Alright," Sam dipped a hand under his cloak and into his pocket, pulling up a bit he handed it to her,"There you go."

"Thank you," she smiled at them both then turned to Celestia,"Say I don't think I've met you before, are you new around here?"

Celestia smiled mischievously at Sam and he returned the smile, this mare didn't even know who she was talking to,"Why yes I am, I won't be here long though I'm just on vacation. Sam here was nice enough to agree to show me around the town while I'm here."

"Ohh, how nice of him," She smiled politely,"I recognize you though mister, your a real tough guy from what I heard."

"I... guess you could say that." He looked down and scratched the back of his neck.

"Now I hope you won't think I'm rude but I thought you'd be a little taller." She noticed him frown and she shrugged,"Not like it matters or anything," The mare opened her mouth to speak again before noticing something,"Id love to talk with you more but I need to leave for a second, there's customers at my other buckets right now."

"Oh that's no trouble at all." Celestia nodded.

The mare gave a thanks and quickly rushed off, Celestia turned to him with a raised eyebrow,"I thought you'd be taller?" She wore with a humorous smile.

He scowled and narrowed his eyes,"Yeah, yeah whatever."

Shaking her head and chuckling Celestia wasted no time in lowering herself to her knees. Reaching up she grabbed ahold of Sam's hand and with a pull he voluntarily came to his knees, they both looked down at the apples on the waters surface scanning for which ones they would go for.

"I'll go for the big one on the left." Celestia bent her back a bit.

"Alright," Sam looked to the the right side,"I will go for the small one there."

She nodded as he bent down to her level and together they plunged into the water. It was impossibly cold, but they expected it, he closed his eyes and tried to bite into the apple there. He bit at the red object multiple times but before long he ran out of breath and pulled his head up.

Looking to Celestia he was greeted with the sight of her pulling a third apple from the bucket,"Jesus, you did all that in like six seconds."

She spit the apple down next to the others and giggled,"What can I say, I'm good with my mouth." She wiggled her eyebrows.

He chuckled at her suggestive joke,"I have never heard you say anything like that before."

She shrugged and smiled,"Of course you haven't, most ponies never will hear me say that." She leaned towards him and smiled widely showing off her amazingly perfect teeth,"I'm usually always around stuck up ponies that hold me to high moral standards because I'm their leader, so I can't joke like that."

"Yeah, that makes sense I suppose."

She nodded leaning back,"But right now I'm with you," She shook her head and looked off,"And you don't hold me to any standards, you like me for who I am not because I'm a princess, that's why you're my best friend Sam."

She smiled happily and looked back to see him staring at her with wide eyes,"I... wow that's..." He swallowed and looked down,"Thank you Celestia, you-your my best friend too." He hadn't expected her to say something so heartfelt.

She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in,"Well of course I am, now how about we find a game that lets us win a prize, I really want a manticore teddy." She stood up pulling him with her, letting go of him she looped her arm through his and smiled at his surprised face.

"Wha-?" He looked down at her their intwined arms then back up to her with a light blush.

"It's getting darker and what with the rain, I wouldn't want to lose you in a crowd or anything." She explained with a happy smile and a wink when he looked away.

"Oh, okay, uh," He turned his head to the street,"I don't remember seeing any games with prizes like that, but I'm sure if we look we can find one."

The two walked back out into the crowd which remained blissfully unaware of the fact that their princess was among them.

~

"The element of honesty, Applejack, asked you to do this?"

"Yeah she did, don't worry about it." He assured her waving his hand.

They crouched in a bush outside of Apple farms, the rain had only gotten stronger over the past couple hours. It was nearly midnight and Applebloom was supposed to be home by midnight, so Sam decided to scare her here and chase her all the way back to the farm.

Celestia had agreed to help him scare Applebloom, mainly because he explained why Applejack had wanted him to do it. She understood why she wanted revenge, after all Luna pranked her when she was young too.

The trees around them rustled in the rhythm of the rain, they had been waiting for about ten minutes in total silence. Celestia had placed a spell on herself to keep the rain from soaking into her fur, Sam was surprised at how much rain and mud the cloak kept out. He decided he would use it more often.

Sam let out a breath and shifted his foot slightly, Celestia placed a hand on his shoulder and placed her head on his other shoulder, angling her chin so that she could look out into the dark. She pushed her body against his back, the two didn't say a word, they might not have been wet but it was still cold and the shared body heat was appreciated.

It was another four minutes before they heard someone coming, keeping as still as they could the two looked down the path and tried to make out who the two silhouetted figures approaching them were. As it got closer Celestia who he figured must have pegasus like eyesight, whispered,"It's Applebloom and... Luna?" Her eyes narrowed and her head cocked.

"What?" He raised an eyebrow and shifted forward to get a better look.

Sure enough the princess of the night walked and talked with Applebloom, she held an umbrella up keeping the two from becoming soaked,"Luna!"

He turned and watched Celestia stand up, she walked forward onto the path and waved. The oncoming ponies stopped and looked torwards her,"Who goes there!" Luna shouted with an authoritative tone.

Walking forward her horn glowed and a yellow fire traveled down her body, it changed nothing to Sam but let the others see her as Celestia,"It's me Luna."

Luna's voice lowered,"Celestia?" She narrowed her eyes and cocked her head.

"Yes it's me," She stopped in front of them and smiled,"Hello Applebloom."

"Hey princess." She gave a little bow.

"What are you doing here sister? Why are you in costume?" Luna scrunched up her muzzle,"You have led me to believe you don't partake in Nightmare Night."

"Ah, well Samuel, who didn't have any plans, invited me over so that we could celebrate the holiday together." She explained.

Luna's features became visibly agitated at the mention of his name, as she opened her mouth to speak Applebloom unknowingly cut her off,"That's mighty nice of him but, where is he?"

He stood up and stepped out onto the path,"I'm here."

They looked to him as he came up to Celestia's side,"What were ya doing in that bush?" Applebloom smiled,"You wouldn't be hidin' in that bush so you could jump out an' scare me in that fancy getup now would ya?"

He smiled mischievously,"Now why would you think I'd do anything like that?"

She shrugged with a smile,"You're here to be with this beast?"

Turning back to Luna she glowered at him,"Sister please do not call my friend such names, he's very nice once you get to know him."

"No it's okay Celestia," Sam raised a hand,"I don't mind it, after all I am a potential threat to her."

Celestia sighed,"No you aren't," She looked Luna in the eye,"Look you may not like him, but I do. So can you please just act civil around him? For me."

She looked at Sam with a frown and held his gaze for a moment before responding,"I will, but only for you sister."

"Thank you Luna, now, Sam I believe we should be getting home soon."

He nodded,"Sure, it is late I guess."

Luna gave her sister a single nod,"Yes it is late, I will see you at the castle later Celestia, but first I promised to escort little Applebloom here home."

"Well, I'm going to walk Sam back to his room in Twilight's castle, I will bid you goodnight Luna."

"Goodnight to you too sister."

Sam remained quiet and watched the two pass by him, waving goodbye to Applebloom he and Celestia began making their way down the path.

"Samuel?"

"Yes?"

"I hope you will forgive my sister," She sidestepped a large root that held onto the road like a leech,"She just doesn't understand you very well."

"Why? I mean I've never done anything to her and yet she still thinks I'm some kind of monster." He shook his head,"I don't particularly care since she's one of a a few ponies that believes that but still, it's upsetting."

"I don't know Sam," She sighed,"I think it's more than she lets on, but I can't be sure." Celestia let out a breath and a smile worked its way onto her face.

"I must ask though that since she agreed to be nice to you next time you see her you are nice to her."

"I haven't been an ass to her yet, have I?"

"No but you will see her again soon."

He tilted his head,"When?"

"Would you like to come with Twilight and her friends to celebrate Hearths Warming eve and day at the castle?"

He smiled and nodded,"Yeah, that'd be fun."

"Good, I'll tell Twilight and have a room prepared for you when the time comes."

"Thanks Celestia, have anything in mind for a present?"

She smiled,"As long as your there I'll be happy."

"No I have to get you a present, it's the point of the holiday to show generosity."

"Fine then Sam, how about you just surprise me..."

Bad Tidings

"So, after considering the options we have in taking on the challenges ahead of us, I have chosen what I believe to be the best course of action."

The seated dark blue alicorn across the long stone table raised an eyebrow and cocked her head,"What pray tell might this course entail sister?"

"Well," Celestia shifted in her seat, placing her elbow on the arm of the wooden chair and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. She looked down at the beautifully hand drawn map before her, the black lines that traced the coastlines drawing her attention,"We need to prepare for war." Her tone was somber and her demeanor grim.

Luna leaned forward and crossed her legs, then gave a quick nod,"Good, I agree with the course you have chosen to follow," She rested her elbows on her thighs and interlocked her fingers,"So how do you think we should begin these preparations?"

Celestia's eyes traced the illustrated waves on the map, she couldn't help but note how talented a mapmaker the pony that drew them was,"We need to start recruiting more soldiers, which means we need more training camps, barracks, gear, rations and everything else that comes with raising an army."

Luna nodded and narrowed her eyes,"All those preparations are necessary yes, but I believe we should do it all quietly, if we start recruiting and training en masse then it could start the coming war much earlier."

Celestia looked up from the map and raised her brow,"How so?"

"Well if our enemies notice that we are recruiting and training soldiers, plus manufacturing weapons and armor, then they would likely start the war early so as to stop us before we are truly ready for a war on this scale."

Celestia narrowed her eyes,"On this scale... have your spies discovered our enemies numbers yet?"

Luna nodded,"Yes, as of now the griffons have a military might of three hundred thousand, most of which are veterans of the yak wars."

"And the zebras?"

"Well," Luna looked away in uncertainty,"We cannot be sure, but we estimate they have at least one hundred and sixty seven thousand, they have begun conscription and if my sources are reliable then they have large population of which to conscript into fighting for them." She sighed,"The only disadvantage they have is that none of them has any fighting experience."

Celestia looked back down at the map with a frown,"That means together now they number around four hundred and sixty seven thousand," She sighed,"And if we barely number one hundred and twenty thousand with both of our forces combined, then we could not survive the war at our current standing, even if Cadence sent some of her soldiers to help." She swallowed thickly,"So yes, you're right, it will be a slower process to prepare if we do this all quietly, but the risk of the war starting sooner will be much lower, we should definitely proceed with this military buildup quietly."

Luna smiled at her sister's understanding,"Alright then, my ponies will handle the recruitment of soldiers." She lowered her arms back down below the table,"My ponies can do it very quietly."

Celestia nodded,"Good, now, my ponies will handle locating and purchasing the property on which we will build the training camps and weapon forges."

Luna pulled her head back and raised an eyebrow,"Why? My spies can do that as well you know."

Celestia gave a small smirk,"Me being princess of the sun and therefore the pony that knows where the sunlight hits the ground for the majority of the day, means that I know where the most promising agricultural land is." She brought up her hand and placed it on the map,"Since I know that, I can publicly claim that we bought the land for simple farming purposes."

"Lie?" Luna smiled slightly,"You would lie about that? I have never known you to purposely lie."

Celestia's eyes narrowed somewhat and her face became determined,"To ensure the survival of my little ponies and their way of life? Yes I would lie, I would lie a thousand times to save them."

"That... is good to hear, if not slightly ominous." She took a breath,"I am proud of you sister, I know it is not easy for you to lie about anything."

"Hmm," Celestia looked back down and noticed how nice the little buildings drawn in populated areas were, this map was something she had never really payed much attention to before,"Luna I wish for you to handle the hiring of blacksmiths so we can work the forges that are to be built. I also desire you to contract all the the farms you can get ahold of to make rations for us, can you do all that quietly?"

"We can do it all quietly with ease sister, I shall have the necessary ponypower ready within the year." She nodded,"Though I must ask if you want us to contract construction ponies too, after all we will need somepony to build everything we are discussing."

Celestia shook her head,"We can use the royal guard and night guard engineering corp for that part, it will save us money and provide some experience for the corp." Celestia explained.

Luna's eyes widened in surprise at her logical thinking,"That... that's a very good solution, you surprise me with that idea sister, I didn't even think about that!"

Celestia smirked as her eyes scanned the upper part of the map,"I'm glad that even after a thousand years I can still surprise you sometimes."

Luna smiled,"Yes you can... so when do you estimate the land for all this training and manufacturing will be ready?"

"I can have the land needed for our enterprise ready in about two years, maybe less."

"Goo-" The muffled sound of far off holiday music started up and interrupted her. Looking to the wooden door she frowned,"It seems the Hearths Warming eve celebration is beginning."

"Yes, it is," Celestia slid her hands back along the table, gripping the edges of it she pushed herself back and stood up with a grunt,"We can discuss this matter further at a later date, we have a play to attend."

Pushing herself up Luna nodded,"Yes we do." She sighed and let out a deep breath,"I shall go to my room and prepare myself for the night, I'll join you again later."

Celestia nodded and watched her sister walk over to the reinforced wooden door, as she gripped the cold cast iron handle Celestia raised her brow suddenly in remembrance,"Luna I forgot to tell you, my friend Samuel is coming along with the elements of harmony tonight," She saw her sister pause her movement and listen,"I would like it if you could at least try to be civilized with him, it's only for tonight."

Luna sighed and looked down,"Well you don't have to ask, I'm going to have to treat him kindly, after all a public incident that involves me insulting the creature that the majority of our citizens see as a hero would make me look terrible."

Celestia scrunched up at her anwser,"I am sorry Luna, I know you dislike him but I really like him, he's a very good stallion when you get to know him."

"I know you think so sister." Luna said before swiftly moving through the door, which slammed behind her leaving the princess of the sun alone in the dark room.

Looking down Celestia sighed, once again her eyes were drawn to the expertly done map,"I will have to hire the pony that made this, they are very good..."

~

Sam could hear the crunch of snow under his feet with each step he took, the harsh cold air around him found a way through every opening in his coat and bit into his skin. He made sure while he walked to keep up with Twilight, after all he didn't want to lose her in the thick falling snow.

They were on their way to the Canterlot theater, since it was Hearths Warming Eve the Hearths Warming play was to take place tonight. The princesses were going to meet him there along with the rest of his friends, his friends were also going to participate in the play.

Twilight that was to take part in the play too, she just wanted to show him the way to the theater so he wouldn't get lost. Between the thick snow, the patches of celebrating crowds and the fact that it was night time, it was very difficult to find his way around and he was grateful for Twilight's help.

As they walked he couldn't help but think about a question that had been plaguing his mind for the past couple months, he thought over it for a moment before deciding to simply ask Twilight,"Twilight, how has Rainbow been since the diamond dog incident? I haven't really gotten to talk with her about it."

"She's... doing pretty good considering what she went through." Twilight looked over at him,"Its only every once in awhile that she wakes up at night in screaming fits and that's about it, she hasn't even had one panic or anxiety attack."

Sam grimaced and looked down at his snow covered shoes,"That's still bad though."

"Oh it's always a terrible thing when she has a fit, but, the frequency of her fits have slowed down significantly. She also has no problem with going into public places or participating in other social activities, which is odd, ponies that go through what she went through generally have a lot of problems with being in public and yet Rainbow seems to have no problem with it at all."

"Really? Do you know why?" He asked with a raised brow.

Twilight gave a slight smile,"I have a theory that the reason she's doing so well is because she watched you single handedly wipe out all of the creatures that raped her."

Sam looked forward and shrugged,"That... might have something to do with it, but I'd argue she's doing well because Rainbow's got a really strong will."

"Oh I'm certain thats part of it, but seeing justice done always helps."

"I definitely agree with that... I'm glad she's doing good."

"As am I Samuel." She responded with a reassuring smile.

As they continued down the snow ridden sidewalk Sam looked to his left side away from Twilight and couldn't help but notice the soft glow of the Christmas or as the ponies called it, Hearths Warming, decorations that were quite literally everywhere. The soft reds, greens and blues were quite beautiful and in the falling snow they almost looked like twinkling stars.

"The decorations are really nice, is the whole city covered in lights like this?"

Twilight smiled,"Yes it is, this is a holiday that ponies just love. You should see manehatten this time of year, it's beautiful."

"I'll have to check it out next year."

"If you don't mind the rest of the girls and I could come along with you, in fact Applejack has an aunt that lives down there." Twilight shrugged,"Maybe she'd let us stay?"

"I hope, that would certainly cut the hotel expenses down." He nodded.

Before long he could see the giant lit up sign above the theater, the line outside was huge and were it not for Twilight being part of the play and a princess, he would of had to wait in line to get in. Swiftly passing through the crowd Twilight led him through the double doors and into the theater.

They walked through the lobby and into the main show room, he stopped for a moment to observe the massive space in which he had walked into. He looked over the hundreds of seats all lined up in front of the stage, glancing over he saw that the maximum occupancy sign said that this place could seat ten thousand ponies.

Giving a whistle at the number of ponies it could contain he shook his head and turned around. Seeing that he had lagged behind he picked up the pace to catch up with Twilight. Coming in alongside her they walked alongside the back wall of the theater and before long they came across a door that led into the wall.

Opening the metal door she ushered him through, she stepped in after him and closed the door behind them, then once again took the lead. They went through a hallway that had multiple doors along it, presumably for the staff that worked there. At the end of the hallway was a set of stairs that went upwards, Twilight walked up first and he followed.

When they reached the top of the stairs he found himself before a set of curtains, Twilight pushed them open to reveal a small balcony that looked over the whole of the theater. Sitting before them were Celestia and Luna.

The wooden chairs they sat on faced the stage, the two monarchs turned to looked over their shoulders at him. Upon seeing Sam Celestia's face grew a happy smile and Luna gave a polite, if not strained, smile.

"Hello Sam, it's good to see you again," Celestia gestured to the chair next to hers,"Please, have a seat."

Nodding he walked forward and pulled the seat back, sitting down he scooted himself forward so that he was next to the white alicorn,"So, hows life been to you?"

She shrugged,"Challenging enough," She paused and looked back over her shoulder,"Twilight, you can sit if you'd like, we won't chase you away."

Twilight shook her head,"No I should get backstage, I'm not even dressed for my part yet."

Luna spoke up,"That is no trouble Twilight, just make sure you greet us after the play."

Celestia nodded,"Yes Luna is right, make sure to talk with us after the play, we can even go get some donuts after this."

"That sounds good," She nodded,"I think you'll enjoy this little Equestrian tradition Sam." She smiled at him before stepping back from the doorway and letting the curtain drop back down.

As Twilight disappeared Celestia turned her attention back to Sam and smiled,"I'm glad you were able to come Sam."

"And I'm glad you invited me," He smiled,"I've also got to thank you for letting me sit up here."

"Oh, that's no problem," She smiled,"You're my best friend and a hero to my little ponies, the least I could do is let you sit with Luna and I."

"Yeah, so when does everything start?"

"In half an hour the doors should open and ponies will start seating themselves, once that's done it should start."

"Alright, that sounds good."

She smiled and cocked her head,"So, Sam how has work on the farm been?"

"Oh it's been fine, there's just one annoying thing..."

~

Magnus looked down at the stone floor beneath him, the crackling of torch fire filled the stone corridor that surrounded him. He stood outside the wooden door to his father's room, his feathered cheeks were moist with tears. Crying was considered weak by most griffons, but it was acceptable if say a family member was to die and that was exactly what was happening.

Magnus loved his father, Carolus, more than anything else on the planet, after all his father had taught him everything he knew. When Magnus was young Carolus had taught him how to fight, not only with a sword but with his mind as well. His father had made a point to teach him how to write and read. At first he had hated the reading and writing, but as he grew he came to understand it's value, he even planned to institute schools that normal citizens could go to into griffon society once he was king.

His father also stressed the importance of keeping up with the activities of other countries, after all you could tell what a country's intentions were by they're actions and thus prepare yourself if an invasion was imminent. For example if he was to notice a country that was already at odds with the griffon kingdom preparing for war, then he could either take a preemptive strike against them or conduct negotiations.

One of the most important things Magnus had been taught was battle strategy, the way he had been taught was a long and arduous process. Carolus would throw random battle situations at him and force Magnus to come up with counter maneuver. Eventually, when Magnus grew older, the situations became actual mock battles between his father and himself, rather than simple figures on paper.

The most important thing Carolus had taught him though, was to never remove the Old Guard from the island of Griffonstone. The Old Guard was the nickname given to the oldest unit in the griffon military, they were the army that the first griffon king led into the island and since then they have remained on it.

During wartime and peacetime they stay on the island, their role is to protect their homeland no matter the cost. They are especially useful when the country is at war, for when in a war the rest of the griffon military is generally off fighting in foreign lands and that leaves only the Old Guard on the island.

There are multiple instances throughout history were an enemy of the kingdom has tried to invade Griffonstone when the main griffon force is away. All of the invasions were stopped by the Old Guard, with each new invasion the armies had grown bigger, yet the Old Guard always won.

Eventually their enemies stopped trying and since then the Old Guard has only grown, in fact it's considered the largest and most formidable army in the griffon military. It numbered thirty thousand strong, all of which were veterans of the last yak war. They also had the most well made weapons and armor in the military, plus they were very well supplied with everything they needed.

Magnus' father made him memorize the history the entire history of the Old Guard and all of the reasons why they were so important. Needless to say they would never be removed from the island.

There was only one flaw he saw in his father, his tolerance towards the Equestrians. Since they had become involved with the griffons politics they had slowly tried to integrate their drastically different ideals of peace and friendship into griffon society. Almost like a slow cultural genocide.

After a while of not making any advances in their cultural war the ponies grew frustrated and in spite, tried to get the griffons to give back the land they had conquered from the dragons in ancient times as well as the land they conquered from the yaks. Even though both of the wars that led to their acquisition of that land hadn't even been started by the griffons!

His father had stood firm and never let himself be put into a position were he would have been forced to give it back and yet he remained on friendly terms with princess Celestia, but that wasn't what upset Magnus. It was the fact that no matter how much his people requested it, he never went to war with Equestria. They had the griffonpower and what with the recent unicorn noble families that came over, they had protection from magic.

About twenty different noble unicorn families from Equestria had come to Griffonstone, each one angered with the princesss. Some were upset with the fact that the princesses treated the ponies they considered to be "peasants" as well as she treated the nobles. Others simply wanted to overthrow them and fight over who got the throne.

All of them had been pushing for the war for a long time, assuring the griffons that they could a spell that would shield their soldiers from spells and such. Of course they couldn't protect the soldiers from magically thrown objects or say the area around them being magically altered, but they could keep harmful spells from killing the griffons.

Even with all the unicorn support, the support of his citizens and military and their numerical superiority his father still wouldn't declare war on Equestria. That was the only thing Magnus saw wrong though, other than that he was one of the greatest kings the country had ever had.

He was a tall griffon, skinny but strong and he stood at six four. He was seventy one years old as of now and had ruled them for about forty six years.

He had led them through the yak wars, back before the yaks gave into the ponies and changed their "ideals", that was thirty years ago now. The yaks had raided sea side villages a couple times, he managed to defeat them and then worked out a peace treaty.

As soon as he was back across the island they broke the treaty and raided again. This happened twelve times, there was twelve peace treaties, twelve chances that his father had given the foolish yaks before finally he had enough.

When they broke the twelfth treaty he went down to the coast like he did the past twelve times and once again successfully defended their country. What the yaks didn't expect was that instead of creating another treaty he launched a devastating counter offensive that cost the yaks all the islands they had in the Celestial sea.

He almost wiped out the entire yakkish navy before they surrendered the islands to him and once on those islands the only yaks he spared were the children. He killed all the adults, then sent the children back to their homelands. It sent a clear message to the yaks and they never again showed any aggression towards the Griffon Kingdom.

That was only one of his deeds, another example of his great leadership was when he built the first college in Griffonstone and spread the idea of education for everyone. Education was the only pony ideal that Magnus liked, after all education had proved to be a practical and useful thing that helped many of the griffon citizens.

That was only two of his deeds, he did much more than that though, like reworking the corrupt griffon church, getting the griffons recognized as more than barbarians in the eyes of many different countries and opening up trade routes that ran across the world. Needless to say his people loved him. He was a great king and he would be remembered for his great deeds.

Carolus at his old age, was sick with pleurisy and there was no known treatment for it, Magnus currently waited outside the room his father was in as a doctor looked over the dying king.

He stood there silently looking down at the stone floor and softly sobbing to himself, he had an odd mix of emotions. Anger that such a strong griffon could be destroyed by a simple sickness, depression at the thought of his father's impending fate and confusion as to why it was happening.

He wiped at his cheek and drew in a deep breath. The door to his father's room opened and he looked to see the doctor standing in the doorway, a pained expression on his face.

"Prince... your father is... he won't make it through the night, in fact I'd be surprised if he made it through the next two hours." He swallowed thickly and looked down, he tried to speak again but choked up. Shaking his head to clear his mind the doctor looked back up with watery eyes,"He wants to talk to you, now if you'll excuse me I... need a moment."

Magnus watched the doctor sniffle and walk off silently, he turned to the open door and stepped forward. He paused a moment before walking in, he took a couple deep breaths and with his claw wiped the tears off his feathery cheeks. He made sure the tears had stopped falling and with one last breath walked into the room.

It was dimly lit, the only source of light was a torch at the end of the room. It smelled stale, like bread that not even a griffons beak could break. Before him, on the bed, lay his father.

He uneasily resting beneath a thick dark brown fur blanket, walking forward the prince sat down on the bed next to his father. The kings eyes opened and looked to his son, the dark grey feathers around his beak moved as the king smiled weakly,"Magnus, son, I'm glad you're here."

Magnus gave a weak smile back and nodded,"I'm glad to be here to father."

Carolus' head came up as he coughed violently, when he stopped his head lowered back to the pillow,"Son, you know that you will become the king in the next couple of hours, right?"

"Y-Yes," Magnus' eyes stung as he held back the tears,"I know that I will become king, I don't want to though."

The king gave a raspy laugh that ended with a cough,"Of course you want to be king, you just don't want to become the king through my death." He shook his head,"It doesn't matter what you want though, i will die and you will be king. That is what I must ask you to hold your anger towards the ponies back."

"W-What?"

"I-" He went into another coughing fit, Magnus reached out and took ahold of his fathers hand as the fit slowed down,"I know you hat them for what they tried to do, please, I beg of you not to start a war with them. Fighting with Equestria will only result in catastrophe."

"But- But, what they tried to do to you!" His voice rose and tears began to fall down his face again,"What they did to us!"

He gripped his sons hand tightly,"I know, trust me I know son, but they believe they are doing good and in their society they are." He took a deep and scraggly breath,"Just so long as you continue to remain civil with them and deny all of their advances them you will win. Trust me."

Magnus looked into his fathers eyes with his tear filled eyes,"B-But..."

"Son," Carolus let out a strained grunt and brought his other arm over, placing his hand on his sons shoulder he smiled,"I am glad that you are my successor, I couldn't be more proud of you. I love you Magnus, you are the best son a king could ask for." He smiled for a moment before losing his strength.

Magnus watched his father's arm slip off his shoulder and fall back to the bed. The king's eyes closed and his other hand lost its tight grip, were it not for his breathing Magnus would have thought him dead.

Magnus remained at his fathers side over the next couple of hours, he held onto his father's cold limp hand the whole time. Just as the torch in the corner burned out, the kings breathing hitched and became labored.

Magnus reached over and placed a hand on his father's shoulder. The king opened his eyes and gave one last smile, then with a hitched breath his chest stopped moving and his eyes glossed over.

He shook Carolus' shoulder and began to cry harder than before,"F-Father?"

Magnus sat there for a moment taking in what had just happened. It was another ten minutes before he was able to gather himself together, with one last sniffle and a pat on his father's shoulder he shakily stood up,"Goodbye dad."

"He's dead?" Magnus turned around and blinked a few times at the bright light his eye met. When his pupils adjusted he saw a guard in the doorway, he held a torch and his face was one of concern.

"I... yes he is."

The guard opened his mouth to speak then looked away,"He was a great king."

Magnus nodded somberly,"And a great father."

"So, you are the king now."

"I... yes, it would seem so."

The guard smiled weakly,"Congratulations your majesty, you need not worry about your father here, we will take care of his body and the funeral preparations."

He rubbed his eyes free of tears and smiled,"Thank you."

"It is my honor to help with the with the burial of him your majesty," He stepped into the room and his smile disappeared,"I wish to ask you one thing before you are officially coronated."

Magnus looked into the guards steely eyes and raised an eyebrow,"What is that?"

"Will you... go to war with Equestria?" The silver feathered guard's posture became rigid.

Magnus looked down and twisted his mouth,"Do you want me to?"

The guard nodded in confirmation,"Yes, I and the rest of the country wants you to sir."

Shaking his head at what might be a terrible decision he sighed,"Alright then, once I'm ready, I will."

Author's Notes:

So what's you're opinion of the griffons? They aren't necessarily bad.

The Small Village Of Hoofden Pt.1

Author's Notes:

So for anyone who doesn't know I changed the magic deterring potion to unicorn family's that left Equestria for Griffonstone.
They've been supporting the idea of war with Equestria too because they detest the fact that Celestia treats commoner ponies just as good as she treats them.
They want to overthrow her and then fight with each other over who gets the throne, till then though they are working together.
They can use powerful shielding spells to protect the griffon armies from other magic, obviously outside forces influenced by magic can kill them but no spells or anything can stop them.

Hark stepped away from the unforgiving cold of the outside world and into the welcoming heat of his father's hall, closing the door behind him he turned to find Reddick standing before the fire with his hands behind his back. As Hark made his way towards his silent father he noticed that the crackle of the fire seemed to be amplified in the enclosed hall.

Coming to stand beside Reddick, Hark was slightly off put by the expression across his father's face. His father glared into the fire, his eyes reflecting the orange blaze. He had a slight grimace across his face and his brow was drawn down. Hark knew he was in deep thought and decided it best to leave him to his thoughts rather than to interrupt him.

Hark joined his father in the act of watching the fire and before long became lost in his thoughts as well. He couldn't help but wonder about what was to happen over the next few days.

The plan was that over the next few days Hark would lead a raid into Equestria, it had to be in Equestria since the ponies had been the ones who convinced Rutherford to accept weak ideals. They also had to make sure to attack only a little unimportant village, after all war with Equestria was the last thing anyyak wanted.

Obviously afterwards, if the raid was done successfully and no one knew who had committed the raid, Rutherford would have a meeting with the ponies to assure them he would find the yak responsible for it. That would keep Equestria from interfering for a while.

In the time Rutherford was gone Reddick would convince the other yak generals, who were still upset and unsure of Rutherford's decision to be peaceful, that the old yak ways were still best. Reddick would use Hark's raid to bring the point up that the ponies weren't able to defend themselves due to their ideals and that the yaks should try to avoid that by returning to their old ways.

They were sure that this alone would tip the delicate balance of who the yaks would listen to and or follow into Reddicks favor and then he would convince the other generals that they should give Rutherford an ultimatum. If he decided to reinstate the old yak ways then nothing would happen, if not then the yaks would rebel against him.

Reddick had made clear that he disliked the possibility of a rebellion for since he was the most experienced, successful and therefore respected general in the yak military then he would be the one elected to lead it.

He didn't want to lead a war against someyak he thought of as a friend, after all they had fought side by side in the griffon war back when the old king, Rutherford's father, was still alive. Reddick genuinely hoped that if the plan got that far then Rutherford would simply change his mind rather than fight back.

Rebellion also meant that since Rutherford had no legitimate heirs then once he was diposed then Reddick would also be the next candidate for king and as much as Hark liked the idea, his father didn't. He considered it to big a responsibility for himself and wasn't confident in being able to lead his country to prosperity.

He may be good with an army but not a country, at least in his own opinion. Hark thought he would make a good king what with always placing the good of the country before everything else.

Now the really hard part would be after this was all over. That was keeping Equestria quiet, they had invested a lot of time, effort and money into Yakistan. What Reddick and Hark were planning would undo all of their work and could possibly bring war if diplomatic relations weren't handled properly.

That's wh-

"Oh Hark! I didn't realize you'd come, I didn't keep you waiting did I?" His father's voice jolted Hark out of his thoughts.

Blinking rapidly Hark smiled and looked to his father,"No, you didn't, I only got here a couple minutes ago."

"Good, I'm sorry about that I just need a moment to think about things sometimes." He looked down with a scrunched up face, his braided beard twisting. He shook his head and turned around, then gestured to the table,"Would you like a seat?"

Hark twisted his mouth,"Ah no thank you, I prefer to stand." He shifted his weight to his left foot,"I'm more observant when I'm upright... and the fire is nice."

Reddick nodded with a small smile,"I prefer to stand, keeps the blood running in this old body of mine." He gave chuckle.

"Oh I don't know, I'd wager that you could take on every young warrior in the country at once and not even break a sweat." Hark smirked,"After all my father is one of the greatest warriors to ever live."

Reddick shook his head and maintained his smile,"That is true but, you may be just as good, if not better." His father gave a proud smile,"I have seen you when you train and believe me you are very good."

Hark's eyes widened at his father's compliment, it meant a lot coming from him and opened his mouth to speak,"T-Thank you father."

Reddick didn't critique the fact that Hark had stuttered, since he was a child he had a problem with stuttering and his father had been sure to correct him every time. Stuttering showed fear is what Reddick had told Hark and it wasn't until Hark was a teenager that he grew out of it.

In fact Reddick didn't even blink at his slip up and instead smiled,"That's why I'm putting you in charge of our raid, I have faith and confidence that you can lead my soldiers without failing."

Hark felt no small amount of pride at his father's words, his chest swelled slightly, but he kept silent as Reddick continued,"The three hundred soldiers I promised are ready, I have personally trained them all and my personal blacksmiths have equipped them with all the gear you'll need."

Hark raised his brow,"Is there any way the gear can be traced back to us should a soldier die and drop say, a sword?"

"No," Reddick looked to the side and into the fire,"I gave the smiths explicit orders to keep our family crest off of everything, in fact I even made them copy the pony style of swordmaking."

In yak society a lords army wore his family crest on their armor and their weapons have a different style of hilt, both of these things are done for the purpose of distinguishing one yak army from another.

"Good, what ships am I to take? Do we still need to procure any ships?"

Reddick shook his head and gave a smirk,"No Hark we don't need to get any ships, if you remember I own a small fleet."

Hark's mouth dropped and let out a gasp,"You're letting me use those ships?!"

Reddick gave a firm nod,"You will have four skeid ships, that should carry all the yaks you need."

(The skeid is the biggest type of Viking longship and can carry anywhere from seventy to eighty men.)

"Yes that should... just about cover it." Hark couldnt believe that his father would give him ships from his own fleet.

Reddick waved his hand dismissively,"Of course four ships will cover it, now, tell me about this village your targeting."

Hark quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head,"What do you want to know about it?"

"Everything." His father's smile became a thin line and his brow lowered, he took on a serious demeanor,"After all you need to know everything about the location you intend to raid before raiding, that way you can expect just about anything."

Hark nodded as he remembered the old saying, knowledge is power,"Well it's on the coastline next to the northeast border of Equestria, just above Manehatten on a map, It's fifty miles from any other village or town."

Reddick's eyes narrowed,"What's the population like, are there any unicorns?"

"No, I checked out the ponies at were when I was scouting it out." He twisted his mouth,"Just about all of them are earth ponies, unicorns don't live there because it's mainly a farming community and the uppity bastards feel that they're to good for that kind of work."

"Hmm uppity bastards indeed, how would they eat without someone to farm for them... are there any pegasi?"

"No, there was one female pegasus a couple years ago, but she died."

Reddick's smile came back slightly,"Good, no unicorns means no magic and no pegasi means no way for them to quickly send word of the attack." He cocked his head,"You mentioned that they farmed, what do they farm?"

"They farm grain and fish for oysters."

Reddick narrowed his eyes,"Oysters? Ponies don't eat oysters."

"No they don't, but they do have restaurants that serve griffons, this is a village that helps supply those restaurants."

"So this village supplies restaurants... how perfectly unimportant." He smiled,"Now for the important question, how's this villages defenses? How many guards does it have?"

"Well it's got about fifty guards," Hark held back a laugh,"After getting one of them drunk in the village's only tavern I learned that they have no experience or any loyalty for their princesses."

Reddick let out a laugh,"What a miserable bunch they must be, is that all the defense they have?"

"No, there's one more thing that will make the raid difficult," He swallowed,"Theres a stone wall that surrounds the village."

"Hmm, a wall... well how many entrances does it have?"

"One, it faces northward and is made of reinforced wood." He shook his head,"The wall is also more than ten feet thick, making the use of siege equipment to break through all but pointless."

(Typical castle walls like I'm describing are about ten feet thick and thirty nine feet tall, this varies greatly though as Conisbrough Castle had seven feet thick walls while Dover Castle walls were twenty feet thick.)

Reddick huffed,"That is an interesting problem," He looked to the fire with a low brow,"You don't need many men to use a wall well, especially when the wall is that thick and as you said siege equipment would not only be impossible to sneak out of the bay but it would be impossible to break through the wall as well..."

(Sieges didn't usually end with a wall being destroyed like you see in movies, after all how do you break through a twenty foot thick wall? With a trebuchet? Those was great when they were first invented, but after it became popular and more people began using them castle builders compensated by making thicker and sturdier walls.

(That's why siege towers and battering rams, which were old inventions by the time of the trebuchet, remained in use. You see instead of destroying the wall people used them to break through the gate or get over the top of the wall. Once the gates broken or wall secured the sieging army could storm the castle or town.)

(Sorry for the history lesson, I've got all this knowledge on history that will most likely never get me anywhere. If you want to know more about castle defenses then watch this video here.)

"I'll send a battering ram along with you, that's small enough to sneak out of the bay. Other than that you'll have to count on the inexperience and disloyalty of the ponies manning this wall, hopefully at the sight of your forces most of them will desert." He looked back to Hark and smiled,"Now I will have the ships and yaks ready for departure tonight, can you leave tonight?"

Hark shook his head,"Yes sir."

"Good I want to get this over with as soon as possible, now that we've got a plan worked out though how about we get something to eat, I'm starving and you need a good meal before you go." His father paused,"Before that I would like to know the name of the village your raiding." Upon noticing his son's confusion he explained,"I'm just curious."

"Oh," Hark shrugged,"It's called something like..."

~

"...Hoofden." Valkyrie smiled as she placed another couple apples in her bucket.

Sam raised his sweat soaked brow and turned his attention to her,"Hoofden? I've never heard of it."

"Well it is a really small village..."

Sam grunted as he lifted his heavy bucket and placed it on a wooden cart,"So you want to go back?"

"No I don't want to go back," She glanced up at the blazing sun,"I was just thinking about how hot it was here, that led to me thinking about how cool it usually is back home."

"Yeah, coastal places are generally nice during summertime," He smiled,"My grandparents had a vacation house on the coast of Northern California."

Valkyrie nodded,"It is nice during the summer, you know it's been nearly a year since I left my village..." She scrunched her face,"I really miss the place, it might not be that big, but I do have a lot of friends there."

Sam smiled and walked back over to her,"I understand what you mean, I felt like that when I first got here."

"Yeah..." She looked down,"You know you were right about me running away..."

Sam nodded with a toothy smile,"I thought as much."

"Yeah, I... I left my dad behind, he's... probably worried sick about me."

Sam narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, seeing as she had never really talked about herself he decided to listen,"Now that I think about it... I really just kind of left him alone..." She swallowed thickly,"And what with my mom dying only a couple years ago he must be lonely."

Sam made up his mind and questioned,"Valkyrie, why are you thinking about this? You never seemed to mind leaving your home before."

She shook her head,"I don't know why I'm thinking about it, maybe it's because you just finished training me?"

"Why would that make you think of home?"

"Well, I guess it's because ran away to learn how to fight and now that I've accomplished what I set out to do I'm reminded of why I left in the first place." She gave best explanation with a shrug.

He stared at her for a second, she almost sounded like a therapist that had analyzed herself,"Okay, uh, I thought you set out to help protect innocent ponies from danger? What happened in your village to make you want to do that?"

She let out a breath and looked away,"Are you sure you want to listen to a long story?"

"Well you have made me curious."

"Alright then." She looked back to him and scrunched her muzzle up,"When I was a kid our village used to have bandit problems, they drink until drunk then cause brawls, extort from the few small businesses in the village and even raid the grain stores that we relied on for food. At one point one of the outlaws actually tried to rape a mare, that's when the ponies in Hoofden requested help from princess Celestia."

"That sounds like a serious problem, what did she do to deal with it?"

"What you could expect from a busy princess, she stationed fifty guards there and sent a couple of the royal engineers to build a defensive wall around us." She huffed,"I remember asking one of them what good that would do and he said that beyond being a good defense, the intimidation factor of a wall would probably make the bandits think twice before coming back." She frowned,"He was wrong though, instead of stopping the bandits it only made them angry."

Sam saw her tense up, he knew this story probably didn't end well,"They came into town one night, right under the guards noses, they kidnapped twenty ponies, including my uncle, aunt and grandparents. Then they went back out of the town the same way they came in. Celestia's guards claimed they didn't notice that either."

Sam scoffed,"They don't sound like very good guards."

"No they weren't, in fact when it was all over Celestia replaced them with another set of guards because there was evidence of corruption." Valkyrie grimaced and shook her head in disgust before continuing,"The morning after we woke up to find the bodies of our relatives and the rest of the villagers."

"What happened to them?" Sam asked quietly.

She tightened her lips and lowered her brow,"Each mare had been raped then got their throats slit and the stallion were whipped to death. We discovered the bodies just outside the village gate, they had been hung upside down under trees like-like how griffons hang chickens to drain their blood."

The imagery of what she described made Sam cringe,"That afternoon the townsponies gathered together and decided to take the matter into their own hands. My parents made me stay behind while they went with the group to hunt the scum down, at the time I was angry that I couldn't go help avenge my family. Now I understand though that I would of just been a hindrance."

"Were they able to find the bandits?"

"They did, they found their trail a short way off in the woods and followed it all the way to a cave that was being used as a hideout. The only noire village stormed in and were able to take the outlaws by surprise, when they came back to town they had all thirty six of the bandits with them."

"Captured?"

Valkyrie nodded,"Some were dead, some were alive. It didn't matter though, they were hung by the neck that night."

Sam shook his head,"It's a shame that it had to come to that, but at least some amount of justice was served."

"Yeah, you see that's why I came here though. After seeing all and not being able to do anything it made me angry." Valkyrie looked up to Sam with a smile,"So I decided that one day I would learn how to fight so I could defend innocent ponies, like the ones in my village, from bandits and the like."

Sam sighed and smiled back,"Out of all the reasons to learn how to fight that's a fairly noble one," He turned and looked out over the orchards,"Can't say that story hasn't made me curious about the town though."

She cocked her head,"Why? It's just a small place that did what it had to do."

"Yeah but ponies generally don't take things like that into their own hands, they always get help from the guards or something."

Valkyrie shrugged,"I guess so."

Sam looked of in thought,"You know Valkyrie we've worked up a couple vacation days, if you want then we could tell Applejack tonight that we want to take the rest of the week off and take a trip to Hoofden."

She was taken back by his suggestion,"Really?"

"Yeah," He shrugged,"Why not."

Her face lit up at his anwser,"I'd love to go back and see my dad but, are you sure you to go? It's a small and boring place."

"Of course I'll go, I enjoy the coastal air and some rest in a boring little town might be nice after all this work in the heat, besides I'd like to meet your dad."

She smiled,"Well alright, but we'll have to take a train to Manehatten then walk for at least two days before we reach it."

"A little walking never hurt anybody." He replied.

~

The sound of waves lapping against the hull of the ship was calming to Hark, he preferred it to the constant grunting of the yaks assigned to rowing. As of now though the rowing had stopped, they were gliding along the surface attempting to find the shore through this thick fog. His father was right, sailing through fog was like sailing though soup.

They crew knew they were near land, after all before the fog had set in they could see the shore on the horizon. Now though they had to be cautious for they could accidentally ground one of the ships and pulling a grounded a ship back out to sea was difficult as well as time consuming.

Hark stood on the starboard bow looking forward into the grey fog for any sign of the previously spotted land, he had been at the edge of the ship for nearly four hours now and he was starting to see things in the fog. Hark knew it was his imagination but he sometimes thought he saw what looked like shapes in the fog, most were blobby and grey but some of them were more distinct than others.

Sometimes he saw what looked like trees, those were bad because it made him think that they were about to run into the shore. Those weren't the only things he believed he saw, Hark also saw things like the outlines of other ships and sometimes what looked like jagged rocks coming up from the water.

The at least he thought most of the jagged rocks were his imagination, some looked very real. Luckily though most of these things disappeared before he could panic and shout for the ships to stop.

Hark was leaning over the railing when he decided that his strained eyes would only hamper the raids progress, so he would go and get another yak to take his place. He was giving his last visual sweep over the obscured water when he saw it.

As soon as he spotted it his breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened, he felt an overwhelming sensation of totally irrational fear take hold of him. The sight of the shape made him feel cold and he didn't know why but he couldn't will himself to move or speak, he couldn't even breathe.

The shape he saw off in the distance looked bipedal, but it had no distinguishing features on it. From what he could tell it was completely wrapped in rags, even its head was covered. It was extremely detailed unlike the other things he had seen, the weirdest part was that Hark could almost swear he saw it moving.

It looked like it raised an arm and with a hand that was distinctly skeletal pointed back past the ships, as though telling him to go back the way he came. Like some kind of warning.

Then it was gone as soon as he saw it, he could move again and the fear left him entirely. The whole ordeal must have lasted only a couple of seconds but it felt like a lifetime to Hark, he stood straight up and took a couple steps back.

He looked off into the fog for a second trying to understand what just happened, before he could truly comprehend what he had seen though a strong gust of wind hit him. The warm wind broke him out of his stupor and drew his attention elsewhere.

"We got a southwind, The fog'll be gone soon sir!" One of the crew yelled.

Hark smiled to himself and turned about, walking across the ship he passed the many yaks waiting for the orders to begin rowing again. He reached the portside and found his second in command standing there and overlooking the crew.

"How soon before the fog is gone Ralof?" Hark questioned the hardened sailor.

The grey yak shrugged and looked at Hark with his good eye,"Can't quite say, sometimes it takes awhile. But this wind seems strong and constant." He looked back out to the ocean,"Might be able to see in twenty minutes if we're lucky." The scar that twisted along his cheek and over his lips stretched with each word spoken.

Hark nodded at the anwser,"Good, have a map brought up here, I want to see where we are when the fog clears."

"Aye-aye sir." Ralof nodded before walking off to complete his orders.

Over the next hour the fog cleared and the ships pin pointed their location on the map, they were a few miles up the coast from Hoofden. Hark decided he would land somewhere in this area so that there was no chance someone from the village could spot them before they began marching.

Ralof spotted a decent landing spot and Hark gave the order to bring the ships in. Once anchored the small army slowly made it's way onto the beach, the hardest part though was bringing the supplies on shore with them.

They had all the supplies they needed for any possible situation that might occur. They had food to last for a year, camping supplies should they need to camp, each soldier had his own set of armor, a round wooden shield and his own sword or axe depending on his preference.

Hark stood atop an uneven volcanic rock and looked over his soldiers while they organized themselves. The beach he had landed on was covered in grey and black colored rocks, Hark liked it because while yes it made the ground uneven and harder to traverse, it didn't get in his boots like sand did.

The rocky shore was surrounded by a large pine forest, the darkness under the trees cut off all sight past the beach and Hark had to admit it was a little unnerving. The thought that something could be watching them did occur to him and the eerie sound of the trees rustling in the still strong wind didn't help.

It made him think of the figure he saw in the fog, his father had always told him the sea was a strange place and odd things happened in it all the time. Once again disregarding the notion that the figure in the fog was real he turned from the forest to his now organized forces.

"Yaks!" His voice boomed out and echoed across the beach.

Snapping to attention his soldiers all jumped up and faced him,"Yes sir!" They shouted in unison, their combined voices were music to Hark's ears.

His eyes swept over the faces of the soldiers before him, some were young, some were old and all of them came to fight. Which was why his next words were upsetting,"I need volunteers to stay behind," He could see the yaks eyes widen, none of them wanted to stay behind when the others were off on a raid,"I need sixteen to be exact, four to guard each boat."

The whole army stood there for a good couple of seconds without saying anything. Sighing Hark opened his mouth to explain why it was important but Ralof, who stood beside him, cut him off,"Look we know that the lot of you want to go off and earn glory, I do too. But if we take the risk of leaving our ships alone then who knows what could happen. What if a storm comes along and smashes our only way out of here against the shore? What if a pony comes along and figures out what we're doing? What if a simple fire starts and noyak is here to stop it?"

He stared out into the yaks with his one piercing eye,"Look you may not realize it but those of you that stay behind will have the most important job, as well as the most profitable." He smiled at the looks of confusion on their faces.

"What do you mean most profitable job sir?" A yak from the front asked.

"I mean exactly what I said, if you stay behind you're guaranteed to get paid from the captains own pocket, after all you protected his ships didn't you?" Hark smiled at what Ralof was doing, he didn't mind if he had to pay a couple yaks if it meant keeping his father's ships safe.

"But, how's that more profitable?!" A yak farther back had questioned.

"Well think about it, if you come along with us you get to take home whatever loot you find. But what happens when you don't find any because the rest of it has been taken already?" Looks of realization spread out across the many bearded faces and hands began to shoot up all across the crowd.

Before long half the army was volunteering to stay behind, but as Hark had said only sixteen were needed and before long he chose all that were necessary. Hark was happy though, not only did he get his volunteers, but now the yaks here would fight harder so they could have a chance to get some loot.

Then with a shout the yaks formed a marching column, lines of five yaks across, sixty lines deep. Hark stood at the front left and alongside him was Ralof, after glancing at the map the new commander confidently began marching his army into the forest and towards his objective.