Old Appleloosa:

Riptalon pulled out his knife and held it close to his face while Iron put another cartridge of ammo in his carbine as the coyote pack circled them like buzzards flocking to a kill. The Coyotes licked their chops and gnashed their fangs together, drool dripping from their muzzles.

“Well, this is a fine mess you’ve gotten us into, isn’t it?” Iron remarked as he trained his gaze and his rifle’s sights on the nearest of the mutated creatures.

“Your stupidity to not properly bandage yourself got the coyotes to pick up your blood trail, so I really should be pointing a talon at you if we’re going to be doing the blame game,” Riptalon sniped back, his eyes flicking left and right as he watched the pack circle them.

“And yet you’re the one who led us to this warehouse to seek shelter for the night and closed off the front door, ergo I should be blaming you for our imminent deaths,” Iron remarked dryly.

“Again, your blood trail. You had to go and get yourself bitten by a Rad-Roach didn’t you ya moron?” Riptalon retorted sarcastically.

“That bleedin’ rad-roaches fault, not mine,” Iron pointed out.

“Oh, so when we die you’re going to start holding up signs saying “Protect the Rad-Roaches” in the afterlife with Princess Luna cheering you on, aren’t you?” Riptalon snarked before smirking in amusement at the imagery, and Iron actually chuckled at that.

“If only to piss you off further, I just might,” Iron drawled, wondering to himself just who the Hell this Princess Luna was. “Oh, this is going to be a thing now isn’t it?”

“Probably.” Riptalon chirped in a mock cheerful tone of voice. “Thought you Trottingham types loved your hunting expeditions…”

Riptalon had to bite back the urge to say “Grand Pegasus Enclave types” instead, as he knew Iron had to be a member of the Enclave by now, he just had to be. Pegasus with no Dashite brand and as far as he knew, no Stables for miles. It all added up. The only question now was, why hadn’t Iron or whoever he really was backstabbed him?

“Probably because he knows, stupid as he is, that he wouldn’t be able to make it out of this alone. He’s biding his time, soon as we’re out of this, he’s going to kill me and make it back to his little sky-dwelling buddies,” Riptalon thought to himself. “Right now though, kept my thoughts focused on the here and now… That is, staying alive and killing these sons of bitches. I’ll worry about Iron later.”

With a sad smile, Riptalon tuned his Pipbuck to the nearest radio station and a old song began to play....

“To the town of Appleloosa rode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn't have too much to say,
No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip
For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip,
big iron on his hip
It was early in the morning when he rode into town
He came riding from the south side, slowly lookin' all around…”

“Oh, now you chose the time to play music? Now, of all times?” Iron snapped.

“If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down with a smile on my face,” Riptalon growled as he spun his knife in his paw before letting out a soft, sad sigh. He knew he wasn’t going to make it out of this, despite how much he wanted to say or think otherwise.

“This is it eh? End of the trail for me? Well, if that’s the case going to take a few of those bastards with me.” the griffon mused to himself.

And then, the Coyotes pounced. Almost in an instance, Riptalon reacted and swung his knife into a coyote’s eye even as it bit down on his arm. The hold relaxed as life left the coyote’s eyes and Riptalon kicked the body away.

Meanwhile, Iron fired off a burst of shots at a coyote, but it leaped on top of a crate and then pounced on him knocking the carbine away from the silvery gray pegasus. The coyote’s jaws began snapping and biting away and Iron moved his head left and right to avoid it being bitten clean off. His hoof went to his pistol and he fired several shots into the creature’s underbelly and it toppled to the ground with a soft whimper, blood staining Iron’s own chest.

Iron grabbed ahold of the body and shoved it aside before leaping to the left as another coyote pounced and Iron went for his carbine before firing several shots into the creature’s skull and it too slumped to the floor with a small whimper.

Riptalon extended his powerful wings and tackled an oncoming coyote and with a mighty twist of his arms, a sickening crack was heard as he twisted the beast’s head a full 180 degrees sideways. Another came from behind, but Iron grabbed it and threw it into a stack of crates before plunging his knife into its spine and ripping it open, blood and gore covering his beak and facial feathers.

Iron meanwhile, looked skywards and saw coyotes leaping in through the hole in the roof.

“You damn bloody fool! You Hell-be-Damned bird brained idiot!” Iron roared as he pointed to the ambush before popping a coyote right through the skull with a carbine shot, brain matter and blood splattering the ground where the body hit. Others landed on the ground and grinned at the twosome, quite pleased at the easy meal. “You’ve boxed us in and they know it! As evidently intelligence doesn’t count for much these days… Yeah, I’m so blaming my death on you when they kill us all! I can see why that bunch was after you, probably got a friend of theirs killed when you pulled something like this, you dick!”

“For the record, that wasn’t what happened and you know it… As for these coyotes… Your fault, again! You got them on our scent in the damn first place!” Nimbus said as he threw a grenade at the front door blowing it wide open in a fireball and a cloud of smoke. “There, problem solved. Now run for it!” he snapped.

“Don’t have to ask me twice…” Iron muttered, making some choice expletives under his breath as he extended his wings and flew out the front door with Riptalon very quick to follow.

The two flew out into the junkyard outside the warehouse as quick as a gale in a whirlwind.

“Keep flying, they’ll be behind us any minute now!” Riptalon ordered, and from behind him, he heard a crashing sound coming from somewhere behind them. It sounded like something very large smashing its way through a wall. And I mean straight, directly through it. At this time, Riptalon reached into his saddlebags and pulled out what looked like a needle and injected it into the leg that one of the coyotes had decided to use as his next chew-toy. It would stop the blood flow for now, but wouldn’t close up the wound completely. Plus, there was the trouble of leftover megaspell radiation from the coyote’s jaws. He’d need to find some Rad-Away to take care of that, and that might be a while, given how far from civilization he was. Not that he minded at the moment, the aftertaste he’d love to prolong for as long as possible.

“Celestia dammit, of all the times to not have a healing potion on me…” Riptalon thought to himself with a sigh.

“Yeah, tell me something I didn’t know!” Iron shouted back as he veered left past a windmill and a coyote tried to leap out at him. In midair, he bucked it towards a pile of metal, and there was the distinct crack of bone as the coyote hit a pile of junk, impaling itself on a pipe sticking out of the pile in the process.

Another coyote, the second of the two that had jumped down through the hole in the warehouse’s roof leaped from behind the junk pile. It had avoided detection, like the coyote before it, thanks to its coat blending in against the darkness of night.

Looking upwards to the nearby windmill that had once provided power to the warehouse, and how close the coyote was standing to it as it ran past, the griffon got a very nasty idea and let an evil smile climb its way onto his beak.

He quickly pulled the pin on a grenade and threw it at the base of the windmill. The resulting explosion echoed like thunder in the two’s eardrums, and then there was the cracking of timber. The windmill fell right towards the coyote, and the spinning blades of the fan severed head from shoulders in one clean cut.

“Sorry, hunt’s over for you kid…No griffon meat for you today.” Riptalon muttered to nobody in particular.

However, next thing Riptalon saw was a blur coming from seemingly out of nowhere and Iron blindsided and pounced upon by the giant red coyote that was obviously due to his larger stature and odd fur coloring that leader of the pack.

These suspicions were only confirmed when the monster of a creature tilted his head skywards to the stars and let out a long howl. It was not just a war cry of a predator’s triumph over its prey, but a call to action as more coyotes leaped out of nowhere and joined him surrounding the two reluctant allies once more.

“Folks were watchin' from their windows,
every body held their breath,
For they knew that handsome ranger was about to meet his death,
about to meet his death
There was forty feet between them
when they stopped to make their play…”

Iron, as he tried to force the set of crimson tinted jaws that were dangerously close to his face shut, looked directly at Riptalon.

“I thought you said it would take him a while to right himself and get his bearings!” Iron shouted in fear, the pack leader’s drool dripping on his face. Iron groaned in disgust as he turned his head to the side.

“...Well, I have been wrong before…” Riptalon mumbled, a tinge of embarrassment in his voice and red finding it’s way to his facial feathers.

“...Why does that not surprise me…?” Iron muttered to himself, still holding back the pack leader’s jaws with his hooves. “Well, you gonna lend a paw, or what?”

“Ugh, fine… Near as I see it, you’d come in handy so I’m not going to let you die yet,” Riptalon muttered before ramming the coyote head-on from the side, knocking it off Iron and sending it into a roll once more. This maneuver, it wasn’t too dissimilar to how he’d faced the creature back inside the warehouse.

And just like back in the warehouse, the creature was quick to recover and came back around for a rushing maneuver, as was the favored tactic of the wolf and coyote breeds. Riptalon rolled to the left as Iron leaped onto the creature’s back, and tried to choke it. However, this was all for naught as he was soundly and unceremoniously thrown off like a simple ragdoll and smacked against a piece of plywood leaning up against a long dead Joshua Tree.

Riptalon’s eyes widened at the coyote’s behavior, and leadership skills. Something about it… It was far too intelligent, far too cunning and vicious to be your normal, run of the mill coyote. There was something… more about it.

“Let’s just hope I’m wrong here about what I think that thing is. If I’m right, we’re in for a real nightmare.” the griffon thought to himself as the coyote came around for another pass at him. Riptalon leaped to the left and tried to swing his knife into the coyote’s eye to at the very least, blind it, but the monstrosity of a coyote was far too quick and sent him flying with a smack of its paw. Riptalon landed right next to Iron and rubbed his head in pain. The coyote howled again and it’s packmates began closing in for the kill…

“Usual tactic for us?” Iron remarked sarcastically, raising his eyebrow.

“First off, there is no us,” Riptalon corrected him. “But… Yeah.”

With that, he threw down a smoke bomb and the two took to the night skies as the coyote barked in anger at the lost kill.

Traveling as fast and flying as far away from the ghost town of Old Appleloosa as they could, the twosome found themselves in a barren stretch of land, shrubbery, and boulders dotting the landscape as far as the eye could see. Above them, the stars could be seen in their full glory casting their glow across the inky black shroud and providing light for the pony and griffon duo on their journey. Riptalon kept his eye on Canopus, the second brightest star anyone could see, as his judgment for True South. Using that, he could figure out the exact direction of Junction Town… Which was exactly where he wanted to be. As far away as possible from that nightmare of a town only a few miles behind them.

Riptalon, as the ground became a blur beneath them thought back to the times when all you could see in the sky was the smog of the Enclave’s cloud cover. Then came the day known as the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, when the Enclave was given a black eye by the ghoul known as Ditzy Doo and her Sonic Rad-Boom. He still remembered the distinctive green glowing light show that could be seen for miles and the clouds breaking and scattering as the Grand Pegasus Enclave’s airships crashing down in heaps of burning wreckage.
“And yet now I’ve been dragged into another adventure thanks to my own stupidity and curiosity investigating a downed airship. Funny how that works out,” Riptalon thought to himself. “Well, you know what they say about curiosity and cats… That saying might just hold true for me sooner or later.”

Iron pointed to a small set of boulders, that thanks to their unique placement, could be used as an easy spot for defense against any attackers. And he had no doubt those coyotes were still tracking them. He had to give them props for their tenacity, that was for sure.

“There, there’s a good spot.” Iron stated and Riptalon nodded in agreement and the two both set down next to the boulders and laid down their weapons and saddlebags.

“Get some rest, I’ll keep watch for the night,” Riptalon said, picking up Iron’s carbine rifle.

“Thought there was no us,” Iron said, raising an eyebrow again.

“Well, you’d be correct. There isn’t. When we reach Junction Town, we go our separate ways, clear?” Riptalon stated, loading the carbine with a fresh cartridge of ammo.

“Quite, wouldn’t be want to stuck with such an arsehole of a griffon for the rest of my life anyways…” Iron stated as he felt his eyelids grow heavy and he soon began to fall into the land of dreams.

However, his sleep was not to last as he clutched his head in pain as another memory hit him like a tidal wave...

“You’re a determined one, aren’t you? Tenacity should be a reward in itself in this group of ours, always keep trying to escape like a rat,” A voice said. Iron’s eyes widened, it was that same voice he’d heard in his first memory flash. “Celestia’s given you gifts, and I must admit… You do know how to use them. Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity. I’d suggest you’d head my advice.”

“F-Fuck… You.” Another voice coughed out before the sound of hoof hitting flesh was heard and then a scream of pain and the sound of a bone cracking joined it.

“One buck goes into the waters of baptism. A different buck comes out, born again. But who is that buck who lies submerged? Perhaps what it is, it’s that swimmer is both a sinner and a saint, until he is revealed unto the eyes of ponykind,” The first voice commented. “No animal is born free, except the for us, the pegasi. And it is our beast of burden to care for the rest of creation. Do you understand now? Our duty?”

“Again… Fuck you.” the second voice rasped out before the first voice sighed.

“Oh well, I tried… You could have been a good soldier for us, but it seems not all can be… turned.”

Next thing that was heard was a gunshot and the rest was silence.

“No… NO!” Iron screamed out in terror as he came back to the real world, and found he was clutching the Lyra doll to his chest like a lifeline. Nearby, carbine resting on a rock was Riptalon, his eyes peered out to the horizon beyond and ears listening for even the faintest trace of the coyotes. Paws snapping twigs, yelps, growls, anything.

“Nightmare already?” Riptalon asked as he turned his head back to face Iron. His grenade belt had been set aside laying on a small rock.

“Yeah, that’s all it was. A nightmare, simple as that.” Iron stated as if he was trying to force himself to believe it. Riptalon’s eyes looked at the Lyra doll and he burst out laughing.

“Really, one of those things? You’re such a little filly,” Riptalon teased. “Need any milk to go along with it?”

“Screw you, there’s a reason I’m holding onto this. Although a keg of whiskey would be nice about now really, definitely works better to calm the nerves than milk ever did for me,” Iron shot back.

Riptalon eyed the Lyra doll in interest. Why was it so important to the pegasus? It certainly wasn’t his own, these things hadn’t been made in years and it was very well kept after to be sure. Not even one of the hairs was out of place and the Cutie Mark of a small golden lyre was still very visible.

“Sadly, or perhaps not, I don’t have one of those,” Riptalon deadpanned. “Still curious as to why you’ve got a brushable doll though,”

“I’m holding onto it for somepony, simple as that,” Iron stated with a huff.

“Yeah yeah,” Riptalon muttered, not believing him for an instant. “Suit yourself.”

“While we’re off going on asking personal questions about each other, suppose I should probably be a bit of a clever clogs myself and start asking about you,” Iron commented, still panting and sweating heavily from the memory flash. He wanted to tell himself it was just the temperature, but he knew that was wrong as it was freezing and even if it was still hot, he probably wouldn’t have believed himself anyways. “Listen, like it or not, for who knows how long-”

“Trust me, it won’t be that long,” Riptalon interjected.

“As I was saying, what got you into that little mess with those arseholes back in that town? It can’t be just plain stupidity, well probably some of it is knowing you, but why do I get the feeling you did something you shouldn’t have?”

Next thing Iron knew, Riptalon was holding his knife dangerously close to his throat.

“Listen, if you value your next breath, I’d advise you not to say anything more. What’s my business is my own,” the griffon growled out.

“Funny thing coming from you,” Iron commented. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you eyeing me up as a potential threat. Sharpening that knife when you think I’m not looking, ready to stick it into me. Either you’re completely paranoid, or completely psychotic. Could be one or the other. Maybe it’s both,”

“Shut your trap okay?” Riptalon growled. “Alright, I admit it. I trust you about as far as I could throw you,”

“Well, clearly,” Iron deadpanned. “So why are you so keen on protecting me?” He inquired.

“You’re a good fighter with that carbine you so graciously let me borrow, and I can use you as a meat shield if worst comes to worst and we run into more Raiders,” Riptalon replied. “Now, you going to shut that mouth of yours before I shut it for you?”

“Oh, come off it. Somehow I don’t believe you,” Iron commented as he set a certain doll aside.

“Yeah, yeah, believe what you want,” Riptalon said, with a roll of his eyes. “You’re just a hired hand, and I don’t care jack-shit about you or your well-being got that?”

“Well, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander I suppose…” Iron mumbled to himself.

Once again, Iron felt his eyelids growing heavy. Then, he shivered from what he knew had to be the cold this time, and with a sigh of disgust, Riptalon pulled the pegasus into his chest feathers. Riptalon just looked skywards when he saw Iron nuzzle into it like a pillow and mumble “So warm…”

Iron on the other hand just continued to snuggle in deeper and smell Riptalon’s scent. It smelt of blood from his recent excursion, but it also smelled like desert wildflowers and other things as well.

“You gotta be…” The griffon muttered to himself as he shook his head before saying “Just don’t get any ideas, okay?”

To his shock, he found himself wrapping a giant black feathered wing around Iron protectively and pulling him in closer. Riptalon got a good smell of Iron as well, the smell of old booze and desert sand. Not quite as pleasant as Riptalon smelled to Iron, to be sure.

“Celestia dammit all, can’t be growing soft, and I certainly can’t be actually enjoying this Enclave Soldier’s company,” Riptalon mused to himself. “He’d sooner slaughter me than do anything else. But the question remains… Why hasn’t he?”

What was worse, in fact, was that Riptalon owed him his life. Without his fighting skills, Riptalon would have been slaughtered by that group of Raiders back in Old Appleloosa.

“For Luna’s sake, probably best for me and my sanity that I keep my promise and dump him in Junction Town as soon as we get there,” the griffon continued to muse. It was then he spotted something curious on Iron’s right lower foreleg. It was a brand, one with the letter “C” and then an “S” following it.

Riptalon chuckled to himself. So he did have a brand after all, just not the type he was expecting Iron to have.

“But why…? What’s so important about it? It’s probably a pair of initials, that’s a given. But for who? Wife, child?” Riptalon mused and then chuckled again as he looked at Iron, still snuggled into his chest feathers and mumbling an incomprehensible name in his sleep. “Husband?”

Then a low growling sound reached Riptalon’s ears and his eyes narrowed. Company. He very quickly shook Iron awake and tossed him his gun.

“Sorry to disrupt your beauty sleep, but we’re not alone anymore,” Riptalon said gruffly as he pulled out his knife. Sure enough, from out of the shadows was the pack of coyotes and leading them was that red-furred monstrosity. All the while, Riptalon’s thoughts were running wild. He’d never known any breed of coyote to track a target this far or to be this bold in fact. There was something off about that pack leader, the way he lead them. There was only one type of creature that could lead a pack of canines that well and that efficiently. Only one type of canine that had mastered the nighttime hunt so well.

The pack leader rushed towards him again in a blur of speed, but this time Riptalon was the wiser and scored a slash on his side. During that pass, he noticed something that proved his theory. It was the way the coyote’s muzzle and eyes looked. They weren’t that of a coyote’s not fully. No, they were more… wolfish.

Author's Notes:

Okay, so really, not much to say on this one. By now, I suppose it's fairly easy to guess who Iron Skies is an Expy of. Also, speaking of expys, that pack leader of the Coyotes is one himself in a way. I saw this Justice League episode a while back (Hereafter), and basically what happened there was after a battle with a group of villains devoted to killing the Man of Steel, Toyman accidentally sends Superman 30,000 years into the future. Elsewhere, all the while, the whole world mourns the supposed loss of Superman and the Justice League learns to fight without him. Anyways, enough episode summaries. What my point is, basically at one point Superman, under a red sun, is forced to contend with a pack of wolves lead by a red furred wolf, which inspired the beast and it's pack here.