Snapping and snarling, the red monstrosity of a coywolf closed in. It almost seemed to be grinning, that is, if a coywolf’s muzzle was designed for smiling at you without looking like it wanted to eat you whole in one bite. If Riptalon could hazard a guess, the coywolf was joined by about nine of his packmates, all looking equally hungry.

“So, we running again?” Iron remarked groggily as he went for his pistol and put in what bullets he had left, and letting the rounds tumble in their chamber. His instincts, the kind scientists called fight or flight began to awake and his wings began to extend to their full length.

“No, I’ve had about enough of running and hiding from this pack,” Riptalon growled out, twirling his knife in his paws. “We’re going down, maybe… But we’re not going down without a fight.”

Riptalon let out a roar of rage as he tackled the coyote nearest him and plunged his knife into it’s skull before ripping it out and then whirling around and throwing the knife with as much force as he could muster up. It twirled end over end as it flew towards the skull of the pack leader, but the coywolf dashed to the left and rebounded off a yucca tree before tackling Riptalon to the ground. The knife, meanwhile, implanted itself in a boulder as Riptalon darted his head left and right to avoid it being captured in the coywolf’s massive jaws.

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a thing for me,” Riptalon snarked before headbutting the coywolf and snapping at him with his beak before balling up his paws and socking the coywolf with a hard right cross. The coywolf stumbled back rearing up on its hind paws as it howled in pain and Riptalon used the chance to scuttle away for his knife but two more coyotes leaped in, presumably to barricade his path.

Nearby, Iron flew to the left as a coyote jumped right at him before he shot it right between the eyes. Suddenly, from the left he was blindsided by another coyote, using it’s pack leader’s maneuver and flanking him as it went for the throat. Iron grabbed the jaws with his hooves and began prying them away from his vital area, before using on hoof to swiftly stir up some sand in the coyote’s eyes.

Iron dashed away and rolled for his gun before firing off two quick shots at the coyote’s legs making it stumble to the ground and it hit the side of its head on a rock with a distinct cracking sound. But the death would not go unavenged, as another coyote leaped over the body right at Iron who fired another shot between the eyes brain matter and blood flying out the other side of the hole along with the bullet in a clean through and through. However, Iron didn’t see what came next as he found himself rammed head on into a tree, the very same tree, in fact, the coywolf had rebounded off of and his pistol went flying from his hooves…

A voice cut through the air, gravely and aged, weary in its tone.

“There ain't no grave can hold my body down
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
When I hear that trumpet sound I'm gonna rise right out of the ground
Ain't no grave can hold my body down…”

The coywolf took a step back, almost as if in fear before it continued trodding forwards. This, as it turned out would be the last moves it would ever make.

As the coywolf closed in for the kill, something stopped it as a black clothed figure came out of seemingly nowhere and grabbed the pistol and fired several shots into the coyote’s brain. It was probably more than what was needed, but the outcome was still the same. Before Iron could say anything, the figure vanished as quickly as he came, leaving nothing behind but another full clip of ammunition.

Riptalon ducked as one of the two coyotes took a running leap towards him before he used his long talons to rake it’s belly, blood covering and soaking his fur. Riptalon then leaped over the other coyote and pulled the knife out of the boulder it had wedged itself in.

With a quick slice, that coyote too was felled. Riptalon smirked as he looked at the sea of snarling faces before him.

“Alright now, any of you bastards want to take me? Come on, fresh meat right here!” He taunted, narrowing his eyes at the red creature who lead the pack. He bellowed out: “You’re like sheep, following your shepherd, that mutated half-breed who leads you! Scared you into following him, when I’ll bet you’d like nothing more than to rip ‘em limb from limb!”

It was right then and there Riptalon realized he’d made a very large mistake as he heard a growling sound coming from behind him, and felt drool dripping onto his shoulders. He looked upwards and saw the telltale gleam of eyes in the dark as several more coyotes came in from behind. He remembered his words from only a few mere hours before.

“Just hope it’s too confused by the smoke to get itself righted again!” Riptalon yelled. “But don’t you worry, there’ll be plenty more where he came from. With coyotes, there’s always one thing you need to know… They’re never alone!”

“Great, cause that makes me feel so much better!” Iron snapped back, not reassured at all.

“Right…” Riptalon muttered as the red coywolf that had bit, clawed and probably eaten its way to the top smiled at him again. If he’d had the time to, Riptalon would have shuddered. That thing, the intelligence level on it was frightening, and that wasn’t even getting into its tenacity. “The damn thing probably taught all of a wolf’s tricks to its pack. And one of those tricks was to come from behind with another group.”

Two shots rang out, and two massive gray furred bodies slumped to the sand next to Riptalon. There stood a very familiar pony, clutching a very familiar pistol gripped tightly in his hooves.

“Knew you couldn’t survive without me,” Iron teased. “How’d that song go? Oh yeah… “He's an outlaw loose and runnin'”, came a whisper from each lip “And he's here to do some business with a big iron on his hip, big iron on his hip”.”

“Just shut up and shoot,” Riptalon muttered. “Be a hell of a lot more useful than you singing like some damn fool stallion. Still not entirely convinced you’re aren’t.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Iron deadpanned before he leaped to the left to avoid the coywolf leaping at him, completely furious at the death of his pack mates and reached out and grabbed the carbine in a flurry of motion. The other coyotes leaped from out of the shadows, and gunfire from Iron’s carbine lit up the makeshift campsite as shot after shot rang out across the desert and bodies thumped to the ground. One coyote got lucky enough to weave between the bullets and his pack mates’ bodies dropping one by one and pinned Iron to the sand, the only thing between Iron and his jaws being the carbine. As the coyote gnawed down on the carbine’s casing, it took all of Iron’s strength just to hold it back before the carbine finally snapped in two, right down the middle.

There was only one appropriate reaction for this.

“Aw shit…” Iron thought as he saw the gleam of the coyote’s eyes. “Shit, shit, shit!”

Meanwhile, Riptalon and the coywolf circled each other, Riptalon’s knife drawn and the coywolf’s teeth bared.

“So, what you gonna do now that all of your little puppies are dead eh?” Riptalon taunted before he rolled to the left as the coywolf rushed him but was then blindsided from the right by the same tactic.

Rubbing his head in pain, his vision blurry from the sheer force of the hit, he saw Iron’s predicament and looked towards his knife.

“Alright then… Hate to part with you old girl… But, needs must.” Riptalon said before throwing the knife at the coyote, who by now had his jaws perilously close to Iron’s head. It impacted dead on, nailing the coyote in the side of his muzzle and Iron took the hint. With a swift movement, he pulled it out of the coyote’s muzzle and slashed it across the neck and the body hit the dirt with a loud thud.

“I want that back, you hear?” Riptalon shouted as he slashed the coywolf across the side of his face, and it howled in pain, blood dripping from the deep gouge mark. “More where that came from, asshole.”

“Not making any promises I can’t keep, I can see why you like this thing! Crude as all Hell, but damn thing works like a charm. Bet you money I could charge into a whole den of those fuzzballs and come out unscathed! Seems to work for you!” Iron shouted back, as he looked at the fallen body of the coyote with a rather sadistic smirk and thought “So the scavenger becomes the scavenged.”

“Cocky bastard!” Riptalon snapped as he struck the coywolf across the face with a hard right hook.

“Look who’s talking!” Iron retorted as he bucked the coywolf in the side sending it flying and it hit the ground, tumbling over and over, kicking up dirt as it rolled to a stop. Both Riptalon and Iron slowly and very nervously trodded up to the body of the seemingly unstoppable hunter.

“Is it… dead?” Iron asked with more than a hint of trepidation.

“Kid, after a buck like that to the ribs, I’d be more surprised if it isn’t,” Riptalon replied. And he wasn’t disappointed. Both feathered Wasteland dwellers then found themselves taking several steps back as the coywolf’s paws moved before they gripped the sand as it slowly, but surely picked itself off the ground.

It staggered but still continued moving forwards and Iron went for his pistol as he tossed the combat knife back to Riptalon, who thought: “Damn thing’s just like an Alicorn, you can’t keep it down!”

“For pony’s sake… Can’t you just stay dead?” Iron shouted, completely terrified at this seemingly unstoppable killer. But nothing was unstoppable, not really. A loud, angry roar cut through the night, and it was at this moment something huge, and seemingly made of wall to wall of black fur and muscle leaped out of nowhere charging onto the scene, massive paws kicking up dirt with every stride. Riptalon, knowing that exact roar of rage pulled Iron into some nearby bushes and quickly put a paw to his mouth and hissed “Be silent.”

“Yao Gaui…” the griffon whispered in both awe and horror as the truly massive bear took one single swipe at the coywolf, who dodged to the left and tried to latch onto the bear’s front leg as it stood up on its back and roared in anger at being disturbed from its slumber. This time, however, the coywolf was the one being thrown off and it hit a boulder, and his neck snapped with a sickening crack.

“Lesson one of the Wasteland…” Riptalon muttered both to himself and Iron. “Always something bigger than you out there.”

Next, the Yao Gaui quickly began sniffing the air around it, and it’s nose quickly picked up the smell of blood and its eyes narrowed. Riptalon’s own shrunk to the size of pinpricks as the Yao Gaui began padding around the area in search of the source.

Iron wrenched away the hoof that was covering his mouth.

“Oh, you just had to go and get yourself covered in blood didn’t you?” He hissed.

“Well, it’s not like I knew that thing would show up, would I?” Riptalon replied back. The Yao Gaui continued pacing back and forth around the area sniffing, with its nose to the ground.

“And yet it did,” Iron snorted as the two began making their way through the bushes, hoping the that the Yao Gaui would attribute the ruffling to something too small to be worth noticing and therefore, killing and eating.

Suddenly, Iron let out a scream of pain as he clutched the barrel of his chest from where the coyote had rammed him previously, his battlefield adrenaline finally fading. At the same time, the Yao Gaui’s ears perked up, and it’s glowing eyes turned towards the direction of the bushes and it lumbered towards both Iron and Riptalon.

It took a swipe with one massive paw, and Riptalon and Iron ducked their heads to avoid being decapitated.

Then, two gunshots lit up the night and impacted the gigantic bear as a lone griffon appeared, armor covering her chest, and two holsters strapped to her back legs.

In her paws were two 45 calibre pistols, and her glare was as sharp as steel. Her head was covered in pure white feathers, dyed a light blue in some spots and a Golden Pipbuck was strapped to her left front leg.

“Alright you fucker, now you’re dealing with me…” The griffon remarked, before holstering her weapons and pulling out a flare, and threw it right in the Yao Gaui’s face and a bright red flash lit up the night. The pistols quickly made their reappearance as the now blinded bear roared both in rage and in pain.

She poured shot after shot into the Yao Gaui and eventually it fell to the ground with a mighty thud. Sighing in relief, the griffon pocketed her weapons and turned to both Riptalon and Iron, still hiding in the bushes.

“Well, you two idiots coming out of there, or what?” She asked snappily in annoyance. Riptalon groaned as he trodded out of the bushes, supporting Iron with an arm.

“Hello, Henri…” He sighed. This was going to be a long night.

Author's Notes:

Okay, a lot shorter than I would have liked, but honestly I really couldn't think up a good ending to the opening arc so I just went with whatever came to mind. Probably a bit of a cop-out, I know, but can't do anything about it now. Also, "Henri" is property of Mimezinga and I credit him or her with her creation. Next, huge thanks to the Stratrovarian for teaching me how wolf attacks would go down. And while I'm not sure if the story this universe is set in (Survivor's Guilt) has Murky Number Seven in it's canon, I'll just assume it doesn't and if it does turn out to be canon to that universe, this can be a branching off point from Survivor's Guilt. As a certain set of twins like to say, Constants and Variables. Constants and Variables.