Chapter One: An Eventful Evening

It was a beautiful, clear night in Ponyville. The sun had been down for just a few hours, and the moon was rising, full and magnificent through the evening sky. Luminescent enough tonight to render all but the brightest stars invisible. Bright enough to clearly illuminate the mob, and the frightened grey pegasus mare they had been pursuing since her panicked flight from Canterlot.

She didn't know why they were after her. What she had done to anger them all. What she did know, was that she was terrified. Terrified, and exhausted. Her wings had cramped up a few miles outside town, after being pushed harder and faster then at any point in her life. Since then, she'd been fleeing from them on hoof. She had a decent lead, but was almost at the end of her endurance and the mob seemed not to tire. Their shouts still carrying the same anger and vigor she had first heard over an hour and many miles previously.

Running blindly, she ducked between two homes, breaking the mobs line of sight, her blond mane and tail streaming out horizontally behind her. She clearly heard the sound of a train whistle, the 9:15 from Appleloosa pulling into station as her keen pegasi vision saw a chance for refuge behind Sugarcube Corner. Finally slowing, she ducked into the shadows cast by the large bakery and a neighboring restaurant. Showing an uncharacteristic grace, she slipped between a stack of empty produce crates and a teetering tower of drained cider casks, shrinking back into the concealing darkness as far as possible.

A scant few moments had gone by before she saw over a dozen ponies jog by the end of the alley, the torches they were carrying in mouth and the predatory looks in their eyes giving them away as part of the mob. They had ceased their yelling, apparently not wanting to draw the attention of the entire town, and were now hunting for her methodically. As she hunkered down, her body trembling from both exhaustion and fear, a single figure stepped into the mouth of the alley.

It was a unicorn stallion, short, and so thin as to almost look diseased, his mane long and unkempt, stringy and clumped. His narrow set, rat like eyes scanning for any sign of her. A faint, dirty yellow glow began to emanate from his horn, matching the color of his coat. A tight beam of light issued from it, and panned back and forth. It ran over the crates, the barrels, the fence blocking off the alley, even up the sides of the buildings, checking the overhanging eves. After a few more moments, the magical aura faded and he moved away, farther down the street and out of view.

Derpy let out the breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding since his appearance. She inhaled deeply a few times, to catch her breath and try to slow her racing heart. She rose on shaky legs, determined to make good her escape now that the mob had passed by. She backed up, planning to take a short flight/hop over the fence, instead backing directly into the precariously stacked tower of empty casks. With a rumbling crash, they came tumbling down, smashing apart on the hard packed earth, the cacophony of splintering wood echoing off through the darkened town. The pile of debris shifted, and she stood up in the middle of it, miraculously unscathed.

"Wow..." she uttered, taking stock of the wreckage she had inadvertently caused.

Her inspection was cut short by the rapidly approaching report of galloping hooves. The rat faced pony came into the alley at full speed, skidding to a stop as he caught sight of his prey, knee deep in shattered wood. He grinned. It was a cruel, sadistic smirk.

"Heh heh, there you are you little bitch", even his voice was vile. He slowly stalked towards her, that sickening grin never faltering. "You led us on a merry little chase, but I've got you know..."

She whimpered in fear, scrabbling backwards over the rubble, her hooves slipping and sliding beneath her as they try to find purchase on solid ground.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere," he leered, his horn glowing brightly, a bolt of pure magical energy shooting down the alley, hitting Derpy in the chest with enough force to lift her bodily off the ground and slam her against the fence, the shoddy construction creaking from the impact.

"No bitch, you've done enough running for tonight, you an me, we're gonna have us a little fun before I call the others in here to finish you off."

She had never known pain like this before, her whole body throbbed, the pain in her back only exceeded by the stabbing pain in her chest. Looking down, she saw a small, smoking black hole burnt through her lovely grey coat, and a slowly growing circle of crimson emanating from it. She tried to stand, to escape, but her body wouldn't obey, all she could do was look in terror as the sadistically grinning unicorn walked slowly towards her.

"Im gonna take my time with you," he said, not noticing the faint sound of air being pushed by large, heavy wings. "yeah, this is gonna be good, you're gonna be begging me to kill you before we're do-AAAAAGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!"

His screech of pain reverberating out into the night as a massive, cobalt blue pegasus stallion landed full force on him, one well aimed jet black hoof smashing into his jaw, the other high up into his ribs, crushing rat face into the hard packed earth under a body easily three times his size.

Rat face looked up into the mismatched eyes, one vibrantly gold, one stark white, bisected by a long scar running from the center of a broad forehead, slanting down through the right eye and continuing down along a thick jawline. He looked into this face, and knew gut wrenching terror so complete he didn't even notice the impact of a significantly smaller prism tailed pony landing next to the scowling, midnight blue monstrosity. The beast spoke.

"Miss Dash, get her out of here, please, take her to someone who can fix her up. Not to the hospital, they'll look for her there," his deep, sonorous voice calm and level, at odds with the fury his glare was displaying. "We're going to have alot of company in about fifteen seconds."

"Gotcha big guy, I know just the place!!" Rainbow Dash replied as she hurried over to the injured grey mare.

"Ohh....oh dear Celestia..." she murmured as she got a good look at Derpy. "What did they do to you?" As she began gathering up the disturbingly limp, bloodied form, she turned back to the imposing stallion she had arrived with.

"Wait, what about you Behemoth?"

"Someone is going to need to slow them down, give you a chance to get her to safety," he replied without turning around, the intermingling sounds of angry voices and galloping hooves approaching quickly.

"There's like, thirty of em, no way you can handle that!!"

"Thirty two, actually," Behemoth said quietly with a glance at the broken, mewling form beneath him. "Well, thirty one now."

"That's crazy, c'mon we can make it if..." Rainbow began again.

"No, we couldn't, not with you carrying her," He stepped forward over the flattened unicorn as the first of the mob stormed around the corner. "Go, now."

Dash's eyes widened as she got a visual representation of what exactly thirty blood thirsty ponies looked like. She settled the weight of Derpy over her shoulders and flaps laboriously into the air.

"Good luck, big guy...you're gonna need it," she said as she cleared the fence and steered out, gaining speed and a little altitude as she made for the edge of town.

The mob howled in collective fury at the sight of their prey escaping, all interest in subtlety gone, as they surged forward en masse. A single pegasus leapt into the air out of the herd, clearly intent on pursuing the wounded mare and her rescuer. He didn't make it. A single downward thrust of his massive wings propelled Behemoth up into the air directly into the path of the would be pursuer. A over head blow from both gigantic fore hooves smashed the pegasus out of the sky, into the ground in front of the mob with a dull thud.

Behemoth dropped heavily back to the ground without anything remotely approaching style or finesse, landing just in front of the finally stirring unicorn. Who was swiftly and completely silenced by a backwards stomp of a rear hoof hitting the center of his forehead with a crack, snapping his horn off clean at the base. A puddle of diffusing multicolored magical essence spilling from it as the front ranks of the mob pounded forward.

The first up was a large dark brown stallion. He took a hoof straight into his yelling mouth, tumbling to the ground amidst his own raining teeth. A yellow coated mare was the next to go down, taking a broad edged wing to the throat, dropping gagging and coughing as the others surged around and over her in their fury. A second pegasus tried to take to the air in pursuit of the still faintly visible Rainbow Dash. This one made it no farther than the first before his tail was caught in Behemoths teeth, and with a single sharp downwards jerk any lingering dreams of maintaining flight potential were interrupted by a sudden earth related encounter.

This momentary distraction was all the mob needed, a downpour of blows from half a dozen assailants hammered into Behemoths large frame. He felt the familiar sensation of a rib giving way under a fierce double legged buck, and his vision exploded into white as a hoof connected just behind his good eye. He struck out blindly with both fore hooves and both wings, all destined to connect with something in the wall of advancing flesh.

He took the the air with three sweeps of his massive wings, moving back down the alley a few yards, the buffeting air and the prone forms of their comrades slowing most of the mob down. Most. A large, muscular earth stallion plowed his way through the crowd, lowering his head and charging straight at the similarly large cobalt pegasus before he could recover.

Behemoths vision returned just in time to see his latest attacker, he didn't have time to evade, but moved just enough so that instead of taking the massive lowered head to the gut, he took a shoulder. The impact lifted him clear off his feet, the momentum carrying them both through the fence at the end of the alley, smashing the flimsy wood into splinters with the impact of hundreds of pounds of flesh.

Behemoth hit the ground hard, pain shooting up his spine from the impact, he used this to his advantage, pushing up with all his strength, using the earth stallions momentum to send him sailing overhead. Without any way of controlling his impromptu flight, he soared head first into a stone flower box, the collision shattering the box, and ending the aggressors consciousness quite decidedly.

Shakily, the battered blue pegasus got his legs under him and rose to his feet. His left foreleg hanging limply, he slowly stood to his full height, his legs spreading apart for balance, his head lowering, wings straight out to either side. One noticeably shorter than the other, ending in a knurl of scar tissue a good twenty percent shorter on the right side. He fixed the alley mouth with a one eyed stare and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

The mob, in twos and threes, picked their way through the debris and stood in a cluster, eyeing their opponent warily. None of them seemed willing to be the next one to charge forward.

Breathing heavily, his normally scarred body covered in a whole new set of bruises and abrasions, bleeding from over a score of fresh wounds, his eye scanning back and forth across the mob, he spoke.

"Come on then, you haven't beat me yet."

He wavered on his feet, casting some doubt on his own statement. Still, they milled about, none advancing.

- - -

For once in her young life, Dash was flying as carefully as possible, speed being less important than keeping from causing her passenger any more harm.

"Just hang in there Derpy, we're almost there..." she knew the grey pegasus was out cold, but could still feel her reassuring heart beat against her back...along with the warm, sticky wetness that told her Derpy's bleeding hadn't stopped.

She had been heading in the direction of the Everfree forest since leaving the stallion she had met at the train station to, she was sure, a painful demise. But as she rounded one more of Ponyvilles signature top heavy homes, she caught sight of her goal, a large cottage on the edge of the forest, covered in a colection of bird houses or various shapes, sizes and colors, and sped down towards it.

"We're here, Derpy, she'll fix you up, you're gonna be just fine."

- - -

The mob parted, as somepony pushed their way out of the press of bodies. It was a rust red, heavyset mare, her pigish little eyes and scowling mouth almost disappearing in the folds of fat consuming her face.

"Alright you brute," her voice haughty and dripping with disdain and self importance, "you've had better explain yourself, there are thirty of us-"

"No. There WERE thirty two of you, now there are twenty three." Behemoth interrupted, his voice quiet, but demanding her silence none the less.

All eyes focused on him, none in the mob notice that what was a clear night was quickly turning overcast. Dark, menacing clouds rolling in from all points of the horizon, but leaving a perfect circle around the resplendent moon.

"And I don't give a bearded damn how many of you there are, being a mob doesn't make your actions any less reprehensible."

She responded with a snort, "You fool, you're barely on your feet, and you dare still stand against us?" her wet, slobbery voice growing in pitch and volume, as a breeze picked up. "Now, step aside, or we shall tear you apart."

With a sudden, fierce gust, the mobs torches were all extinguished. As were all other sources of illumination in the area. Street lights, window lights, porch lights, all flicked out as if on a single switch. The only remaining light cast by the moon, and the clouds began swirling in to cover it as well. Behemoth slowly smiled.

"No, you wont." His shining golden eye, and his blood stained, grinning teeth the last things visible as the final vestiges of moonlight faded to black. Speaking from the darkness, his voice rung out above the wind. "You've got her attention. I'd flee now, if I were you."

A bolt of lighting split the sky, a sky that, five minutes ago was clear, illuminating the mob, and the single, large pegasus standing against them for a split second. A second bolt hammered across the heavens almost immediately. The half second of illumination revealing two bat winged pegasi, in full, silver plate armor and crested helms. Flanking the ponderous pegasus, two steps to the side, and two steps forward, hooves apart, wings out and level, heads down. Grinning just as he was, posed just as he was, standing half a head shorter then him.

The shock of sudden new arrivals proved too much for many in the herd, they broke and fled into the darkness, their mob mentality over ridden by their cowardice. The few who had stood their ground had their will broken by the third flash, and the new arrival it illuminated.

Standing in front of and between her two guards, towering over even the imposing stature of Behemoth, in full terrifying splendor, was Nightmare Moon.

"YOU HAVE AWAKENED MY WRATH YOU FOOLS, AND NOW YOUR JUDGEMENT IS NIGH!!!!"

The mob's will snapped. Some running blind as the cloud cover pulled back, exposing the moon and illuminating the scene, others falling to their knees in terror. The fat, loud mouthed mare unceremoniously soiling herself and running, screaming off into the night.

Behemoth watched them go, then limped forward until he was standing next to the imposing Princess of the Night. "You always did have a flair for the...theatrical, didn't you your Highness?"

She looks over and down at him and grinned, glowing a bright blue for a few seconds, she shrunk down to her normal size and shape. Still standing taller than her guards, and still a bit taller than him, she started laughing quietly.

"Well, I saw you in trouble and figured if I was going to get involved, I might as well have some fun with it," she looks to her guards, "Nightfall, Darkness, bring in a squad, take them all into custody." They bow without a word, and immediately set to work.

"So..." she walked with him as he limped over to a nearby tree, "Do you want to tell me why it is you decided to savagely bludgeon a dozen of my subjects into various states of unconsciousness on what was supposed to be a lovely, and peaceful, evening, on coincidentally, the very same evening where you have been retired from my service for a grand total of six hours, no less?"

"It was only nine of them actually, but of course your worshipfulness, just...give me a moment here.." he leans his impressive bulk against the tree, the shoulder of his limp fore leg pressing against the rough bark.

"Wait, are you going to...?"

He reached his good leg across his chest, adjusting the position of the dangling appendage. He took a deep breath, leaned off the tree about a foot...and with a single blow that shook the tree to its roots, slammed his shoulder into the tree, and his leg back into its socket.

"Yes...you did."

The princess looked on, momentarily stunned into silence. In more years then she would ever publicly admit, she had never witnessed something that..she didn't even have a word for it.

After the span of ten seconds or so, his eyes opened, seeing the look of shock on Luna's face, and the rather comical fact that her mouth was hanging halfway open.

"Ow."

She blinked a few times, realized she was gawking and did her best to regain her regal composure.

"Well, that looked...umm...unpleasant?"

"Just a bit," he replied quietly through clenched teeth, "Just a bit."

He took a few more deep breaths, before hefting himself off the beleaguered tree. He tested the newly seated leg, slowly applying more and more weight to make sure it would hold up.

"Are you going to be alright?" Luna asked, her brow furrowed slightly, "I could've done that magically, it probably would've hurt less."

"No, no. I appreciate the thought, but these things I prefer to do without any mystical assistance."

"Why?"

He took a moment before replying, raising each leg one by one, rotating ankle, knee and then hip, stretching and contracting legs muscles slowly and methodically, testing his body to see what else was damaged.

"As a lesson to myself. To remind me what mistakes not to make next time."

She blinked rapidly a few times, processing what he said.

"Well as enlightening as that little tid bit happens to be, it seems we've wandered a bit off topic. I distinctly remember you were going to tell me what started this little fracas in the first place."

He shook his head. "I really don't know. I've been in town less then half an hour. A local that ran into me, well, flew into me, offered to show me to my sisters home as way of apology. As we were flying there, we saw the mob, and that little yellow bastard attack Derpy. I landed and... reeducated him, then the others got involved. That's all I know. "

Luna listened in silence, watching as his systematic flexes and stretches continued through his monologue. Her attention drawn, as it always was around him, to the truncated nub of his right wing as he spread them wide, testing their full range of their motion. She found it morbidly fascinating. He had never told her how it had happened, but knowing first hand just how sensitive pegasi or alicorn wings were, she could imagine how horrifically painful it must have been.

She caught herself staring as those powerful, thick wings fold back down along his flanks, snapping her eyes back up to his face. Blushing profusely at the slight, knowing smile he gave her as their eyes met, trying to forget the way his powerful muscles moved under that scarred, dirty coat, just a shade darker than her own.

"Oh, I uh...ahem," she regained control for the second time in just a few moments. "I'll have an investigation started, there is no excuse for that kind of attack. I promise you, we'll find out what started this madness."

"Thank you for that," he replied, bowing slightly in acknowledgment, "What I'd really like now though, is a hot cup of tea and a nice, long shower. Do you think they're still open?" He nods towards Sugarcube Corner.

"What about your sister?"

"Well, I have no idea where Miss Dash took her, I've been gone the better part of a decade, so I'd have no idea where to even start looking." he began walking towards the warmly lit store front "but, something about Dash seemed trustworthy, loyal even. I know, somehow, that my little Derpy is being taken care of."

Luna shrugged, trotting a bit to catch up to her imposing companion and lightly leaning against his side. "Makes sense I suppose, and a cup of coffee does sound pretty good right now...that name does sound familiar though..."