“You you see anything?” Dash asked, they both had binoculars and they were looking toward the Badlands.

“No.” Twilight said looking at me laying on a bed with Dash. They had set up an umbrella to give us come shade, but it made us stick out from behind a small dirt wall I made to hide us. “Are you sure it’s coming?

“Can’t you feel it?” They looked around and nothing. “We have about half an hour at least before it comes within sight. It’s right on time, so don’t get hot and bothered about it coming.” They both giggled. They had loosened up considerably, they were much more open with me now. I had their basic complete trust, or at least as much as I was going to get for a while.

“So.” Dash asked laying back bored.

“This umbrella really doesn’t help much does it?” Twilight said wiping sweat from her brow.

“Hey you want to move some clouds over head?” I asked and Dash looked at me for a few seconds thinking. She looked at Twilight and then smiled.

“Why not? There’s a small one not far away, we can be back in like five minutes with clouds. You mind Twilight if we leave you here?”

“I don’t mind.” Twilight said smiling, she enjoyed the idea. We both flew into the air and Dash cheered as we went to a small cloud factory landing and ponies looked at us. We walked into the main office and a pegasus looked at us for a few seconds, taking his hooves off the cloud desk sitting up.

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah I got a princess that needs some shade, do you mind if I get some clouds to cool her off?”

“Oh of course.” He pulled out a few papers. “Just sign in, and how much you’ll need to do the job, which Princess if I may ask.”

“Four dark cloud bits, might want to water down the dust a bit, and Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Wonderful, I'll have the clouds ready for you at the gate.” She handed the papers back to him and he looked at it. He opened a window. “Hey I need four dark bits of cloud for a princess Twilight Sparkle, so rush it!” He turned back to us. “They’ll be ready shortly, hey wait aren’t you Rainbow Dash from Ponyville?”

“Yep.” She grinned.

“Huge fan, oh my gosh I got to tell the guys they’ll want your autograph, you’re like an idol to all of us, no one thought a lonely cloud worker could become the best wonder bolt in all of history! You’ve saved Equestria so many times, it’s amazing to meet ya.”

“Thanks that means a lot.” He went out the window.

“HEY RAINBOW DASH IS HERE!” She chuckled a little bit smiling as all the workers cheered. We followed him out and she was swarmed by fans.

“I'll take the cloud over!” I shouted over the crowd and she didn’t even notice talking with them. I chuckled a little taking the cloud and spreading it out over the place cooling the area including parts of Dodge which they cheered at the relief from the heat. I landed next to Twilight and she looked up smiling.

“Where’s Dash?”

“Fans, what are the wonder bolts?”

“Oh, they are like the air force, they go and fight flying monsters and such. They aren’t all that great, Dash is their leader, she is doing that with them when she isn’t around us. A lot of pony look up to her. It was the first time a pony came up big being a factory worker. Some times even when we’re in Canterlot, and there are a lot of pegasi, they will clap. She’s really loved, it’s really nice.”

“That’s great.”

“Yeah after she showed off her double rain boom skills, she became an idol. A legend like none before her. In fact all of us are famous.”

“What do you mean?”

“Fluttershy the beast tamer, Rarity’s dresses are wanted across the land by the top designers, Applejack’s brew is paid for at taverns and inns at tens of bits a shot, and then Pinky Pie’s sweats and parties are held in the best balls and homes. She’s crazy about it, I can see why you like her.” I chuckled. It wasn’t quite that, but I did love her cheerful.

“And you Princess?”

“Yep, royalty, my brother married Cadance another Princess. Though those things are what we are known most for. Over all else, we’re known as the heroes and savors of Equestria, we’ve saved it so many times.” She smiled. “There’s not one pony out there in all of Equestria that doesn’t know us.”

“You enjoy it?” She chuckled a little.

“It’s nice, at first I wasn’t used to it, but after a while it grew on me. Now I can go into any library and read any book I want to.” I laughed.

“You are such a bookworm.” She giggled.

“Hey so when is this thing going to get here?” Dash asked and we both looked at Dash hovering above us and then landing softly.

“In about five minutes.” I pointed toward the bad lands and both of their jaws dropped seeing the creature. It was over forty meter tall egg with eyes, and ears, but no mouth. “The first time around I thought, I would hate to meet the chicken that lay that egg.” I said chuckling and Dash laughed.

“So what do we do?” Dash asked.

“How many times do you have in you, and do you want to show off?” She grinned knowing factory workers had come hiding in the clouds watching from above.

“Oh yeah, I’m even better than last time, watch this.”

“Hey wait.” We looked at Twilight and then looked out at where she was looking, I stepped back seeing a second Egg Con, but this one was pure black.

“This is not good.” I growled as three more came into sight, pink, red and yellow.

“We are supposed to beat those things?!” Dash shouted, her jaw dropped. Even Twilight became nervous.

“Do your thing Dash, we can’t waste a single second, don’t use all your shots on one of them, just try to make cracks in their shells.” She took off making the ground crack. She flew up into the air and ponies cheered for her. She took off into the sky causing a single rain boom just going up and they went wild.

“Twilight if you would.” I held up a large gem. “Everything you got please.”

“I’m starting to think you don’t want me to fight.” I chuckled.

“No, I just need your power.”

“Didn’t you say you could unlock some power?”

“I’m saving that power for later, when I do unlock it I get a massive burst of energy for a short period of time, and I want to save that for when I need it.”

“Fine.” She fired into the gem, and I looked up as Dash sent double rain boom blast, after blast, landing after a cracking all of their shells a little, she was dizzy and tired. She laid down breathing hard next to Twilight.

“Sorry that’s all I got in me.” Twilight stopped blasting the gem and I ate it.

“That’s good enough, thank you.” I walk forward and clapped making a white ball appear in front of me. “Let’s have some fun with this.” I grabbed the ball and punched it into the ground planting it. I jumped back as a large plant gun battery grew out of the ground.

“What is that?!” Twilight asked.

“Magic gun battery, you might want to cover your ears.” I got into the seat and fired one round causing the ground to shake. A large shell popped out as one of the Egg Con exploded when the round hit dead center.

“THAT’S LOUD!” Dash shouted

“I can’t miss once, so quiet!” Every pony around covered their ears as I fired another round hitting another one in the head just a bit too high, but it still ripped apart. I fired again and they jumped out of the way making me miss.

“CRAP!” Dash shouted.

“Not good!” I fired three more times and missed each time. They had learned after the first two shots to get out of the way, there were three left.

“What now?!” Twilight asked.

“Don’t worry I got this.” My magic gun battery withered away. “This is going to go old school.” I ran boosting my speed and once I got far enough I grew to my real form and let out a roar making the Egg Cons pause for a moment, but then they started running toward me.

I growled a deep chuckle as I started running. One jumped at me pulling out a sword, but I grinned as it forgot air was my battlefield. I jumped myself spinning around it wrapping my tail around it’s body, and cutting like a saw ripping it in half.

The red and pink Egg Con stopped pulling out swords and shields of their backs. At least they learned how not to die. The pink one sliced at me and I caught it’s handle surprising it, but a wide swing was easy to counter. I sucked in air and blew fire melting through its shield easily and starting to cook it.

The red one sliced at me and I moved switching spots with the pink roasted one and it cut it in half cleanly. I grabbed it and kneed it in the face ripping through its head. The body fell to the ground. I chuckled making the ground quiver. This was so much simpler than I thought it was going to be.

I grabbed the bodies and started dragging them back into the badlands doing my best to clean up the mess. I dug a huge grave for them throwing them inside of it. I buried it before changing back and sitting down in the nice sun light.

“May you rest in peace Egg Con. For there is nothing left for you here in this world, not a body, mind or soul.” I got up and flew back to Twilight and Dash. Ponies cheered and I sighed sitting down.

“Wow,” Dash said. “You could have just done that from the start.”

“No I couldn’t have, their shells were cracked thanks to you, if they hadn’t been cracked this would have gone a lot differently for me. Those rain booms are powerful, I can’t even punch with magic that hard.”

“Sweet.” She said with a smile.

“Well that was impressive,” Twilight said. “But I’m getting the feeling I’m only here because you want to use my magic power.”

“And?” She paused.

“Alright I guess, so what did you do with the bodies? Why did you clean it up, I mean it was nice, but why?”

“The bodies would start to rot, it would cause a major infection later on, and with that many bodies it would be worse. I cleaned it up and buried them. Rather a creature is an enemy or a friend, no one should ever be left to rot on the surface.”

“Right,” Dash said eyeing me a little. “So now what?”

“We can go home or enjoy the rope egg festival.” I said smiling and Twilight grinned at the thought.

“What the hay, we got time.” Twilight said.

We spent most of the rest of the day and night playing in the town enjoying everything they had to offer, before ending up back onto the train for the ride back to Ponyville. Dash and Twilight fell asleep easily, and I went up sitting on the roof of the train feeling the air rush around me.

I enjoyed the feel of the magic powered train, and apple wine in one hand. The train didn’t burn oil, wood or coal to make it move, it was marvelous. Though considering by this time in my world, we had a faster better one already on the tracks.

“Hey.” I looked at Lilly as she climbed up to me.

“Hi.” I said.

“What are you.” I caught her before the wind could blow her off putting her into my lap, keeping her with one arm and keeping my bottle of apple wine in the other. While such a small amount of apple wine did nothing to get me drunk, it burned and that felt nice.

“I should be asking you that little one, do you have a death wish or something?”

“No, I just almost die a lot, I’m called the silly filly at school.” I chuckled drinking down some more apple wine. “That’s not funny’.”

“In a few years it will be.”

“Oh and you would know?”

“Little one, I’m a old dragon, I know a surprising amount of knowledge. Like in a few years time you’re going to meet some nice stallion, and he’s going to be the world to you, you’re going to be happy. You might have a filly of your own.”

“What, that’s gross.” I chuckled, such a filly response.

“Yeah it is, growing up is gross, but it’s fun.”

“Fun? How is it fun?”

“You get to do so much, just look at your parents.”

“They fightin’ all the time.” I frowned.

“Well I can’t help you much there, I never knew my real parents. Only ever had a mom and she never got married.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, so where you guys headed?”

“Ponyville.”

“Me to, it’s a nice place.”

“That’s grand, but I don’t think it’ll be any bit better for me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I was picked on at my last school, they didn’t like me, always hittin’ me and called me names, it got so bad we had ta leave, or so my parents told me. This is the third time to, my parents are just fed up with it.”

“Now why would any pony do that?” I started to drink

“It’s because I’m small for my age, I’m a midget’.” I choked on the apple wine coughing a little bit. “It’s alright to laugh, I should be a mare by now. I’m old enough to be one, but I still look like a filly, even sound like one.” I wiped my mouth, that was hard to believe. She was most likely lying, the memory of her mom hitting her came to mind.

“Really? How old are you?” I coughed a little bit.

“About fifteen’.”

“You look like your five, and you don’t have your cutie mark.”

“I know.”

“How about we go find your parents.”

“They’re asleep I hope, they get really drunk sometimes.”

“I see, well I can’t just filly-nap you.”

“Hey!”

“Even if you’re a old grandma it would be filly-napped, it’s just how you say it, now come on.”

“Wait, my parents are just gonna hit me again.”

“You don’t really get it, if I get caught with a filly and a bottle of apple wine, ponies are going to die.”

“What?!”

“I’m a dragon, I get mad easily, and of course I wouldn’t hurt a pony. I just helped to save you lot. Would be a little pointless to kill you all now, though I guess tipping the train would be simple enough to kill a most of you.”

“Don’t do that mister dragon.”

“You’re cute like this, now let’s go find your parents.” We started going up the carts, Twilight and Dash were on the last one. We went up a few, she had actually gone pretty far from them. I stopped four carts from Twilight and Dash.

I paused looking at her parents and a smell filled my lungs, the smell of pony blood and flesh. I sniffed around and then leaned in smelling her parents. I groaned seeing into their mouths, they were wearing pony suits.

“What is it mister dragon?” She asked whispering.

“I was wondering why they smelled oddly before, come on.” We went back to my cart and I sat down in the walk way. “Twilight.” I said making her grumble. “I filly-napped a filly named Lilly.” Lilly giggled a little bit.

“What?” She asked tired.

“I filly-napped a filly.” She grunted turning over to see me holding Lilly.

“Why?” She asked still half asleep.

“I wanted to eat her.”

“Can’t it wait till morning? I mean really.”

“Nope, wake up.” I growled and she snapped awake sitting up yawning. “I’m not joking around, I’ve just filly-napped this filly from two monsters wearing her parents skins.” I paused for a second. “Wait open your mouth Lilly.” She did. “Yep she’s pony.”

“Wait what?” Dash asked getting up as well.

“There are two Oaka on the train with us, they eat pony, they killed this filly’s parents, skinned them and put on their skins like suits. I think they are going to eat this filly and I’m filly-napping her.”

“What is an Oaka?” Dash asked.

“Ugly hairless, purple skinned, bone skinny, spikes on its spine, at least five rows of inward pointed teeth like a saw blade, and black beady eyes. They seriously piss me off, I wanted to just kill them, but then that might be a little bad for ponies to wake up to, so, I’m asking what I should do.”

“You have to be kidding me.” Twilight grumbled. She took out a piece of paper and wrote on it detailing a few things. “Can you send this to Celestia?” I took it and blew it causing it to disappear into the air. We waited a while and I spit out a letter. Twilight took it reading it.

“Well?” Dash asked wiping her eyes.

“The Oaka are a highly dangerous race of creatures, dispatch with them however you please, just ensure they are dispatched properly with the removal of their head! Ensure safety of filly above all else, but attempt to be discreet, do not let escape under any condition. Please send letter once completed, will be waiting for a swift reply.” Twilight paused. “Dearly yours, Princess Celestia.”

“What?!” Dash said taking the letter and looking at it.

“It has her seal of approval.” Twilight said.

“Is that a shocking order?” I asked, and both of them paused.

“Not really,” Dash said. “We just aren’t used to her using the word dispatch, killing is normally never a first choice. They must be really dangerous for her to want them killed off without question.”

“Well we did probably catch her asleep.” I smiled a little. “Also these things do eat pony and hide inside their skins. So I think it’s perfectly justified, this little filly no longer has family or a home.” Twilight sighed tired.

“Give her to me,” Twilight said. “You can go do whatever you what.”

“First, no.” She looked at me a bit surprised. “Second I’m keeping this filly close to me till they are finished, they have other magic that you don’t know about. Any filly they touch can be pulled to them, only I can stop that magic. You two have to deal with it.”

“Well I can’t,” Dash said tapping the wall. “Enclosed spaces, I can’t do really much in here and I have no gear, Twilight you’re going to have to.”

“I don’t know if I can.” Twilight said looking away.

“You wanted to kill the Egg Con but not these things?” I said and she frowned.

“Well this is different, the Egg Con were huge monsters, and these things are inside ponies, if it got around about me just cutting off heads of pony, how do you think that’ll make me look? I also don’t forget things. That’ll give me nightmares.”

“Fine,” I said sighing. “I'll just have to hold her while I fight them.”

“Hey wait,” Dash said. “Why isn’t the filly crying?” We all looked at her. “I mean didn’t we just tell you that your parents are dead?”

“They’ve been dead for awhile I think,” Lilly said and they paused. “They’ve been hittin’ me for a long time, and I had no clue why. I’m not happy my parents are gone.” She smiled as tears went down her face. “But I’m happy they didn’t become monsters that hate me and hit every day.”

“Okay screw that I’m killing,” Dash said getting up and stretching. “We just need to remove their heads right?”

“It’s not that easy,” I said. “You have to completely remove their heads, they are very fast so you can’t use your wings, or they’ll snap them. Also you will have to use something else to cut off their heads. Are you any good with a sword?”

“Never held one before.”

“How do you defend yourself then?”

“Buck them and stomp on them.”

“They have claws, they can grab.” I sighed getting up. “You won’t be able to simply kill them like you are now, I need to teach you combat training. Otherwise you’re going to get me killed one day.”

“Yeah and I’ve been asking you for training.” I chuckled.

“Not this kind of training you haven’t. Anyway Dash I'll need your help to hold Lilly when I need to get rid of the bodies.”

“Right.” She followed me to the cart and I grunted seeing the father awake. He sighed seeing us.

“There she is, oh it’s you two.” He said with a smile.

“Dash sit down, I want to talk first.” She sat down on the filly’s cot and I went up to him making him swallow a little.

“If you over react and try something stupid I’m going to kill you, not an if, and, or but, I will, now sit.” He sat down sweating a little. The suits of the Oaka are really well made and mixed with magic to allow for things like sweat to escape.

“What’s the problem?” I sat down next to Dash.

“I know both of you are Oaka.” He froze and then went to wake up the other stopping when I narrowed my eyes.

“So you just going to kill us?” I shhhed him.

“Wouldn’t want to wake any pony up.”

“Wait I saw you with those huge egg creatures, you could kill us in seconds, why haven’t you?”

“I want to know if those are this filly’s parents.” He paused. “This filly has a horn on her head, you both are wearing earth pony suits. I want to know if they are alive and if so where are they?”

“This is her father’s, but she was too young to realize that she isn’t her mother’s skin. A different one of my kind has her mother’s skin.”

“That’s good to know, now then tell me where are the others of your kind?”

“We are heading to them in Ponyville.” He covered his mouth. “Wait I didn’t mean to say that.”

“The second we entered this cart you were dead, so was she. I’m just keeping your bodies alive while I take information. Now where in Ponyville and why are you there?” He tried to move his hoof but couldn’t.

“We are planning on merging into the village, my wife is one of the last female of our kind, but they need to eat a filly to be able to lay eggs. I don’t know where, we were meant to meet up at the train station in Ponyville.” He said through gritted teeth.

“But a fifteen year old filly won’t work for that.”

“Fifteen?” Dash asked.

“She’s six years old.” He said. “I know for a fact she is.”

“And you wouldn’t leave that to chance.” I looked at Lilly.

“I might have lied, I was trying to escape, gosh.” She looked away. “I figured you’d, I don’t know, turn me into an older mare or somethin’ it would be easier to escape. I saw your magic, you could’ve done it.”

“Eh I didn’t believe you in the first place, so no I wouldn’t have, or I would have while we were on the roof.” She looked at me pouting. “You said something way too filly to be anything but a filly. Now back to the questioning, how many are in your group?”

“Twenty nine.” He said.

“Twenty nine is easy.”

“Hundred.” I frowned.

“What?” Dash asked and I sighed.

“That means they’re mostly males,” I said frowning. “That means you have an entire army worth of dangerous males.”

“Wait you don’t know? I mean didn’t that happen in your world?”

“I didn’t live in Ponyville in my old world at this time, but in that world it’s possible that this filly died yesterday, and then they couldn’t find the right type to replace her in time. They were probably wiped out because finding the right kind to eat is very hard. They have a narrow window to breed in, if they don’t breed in that window they have to wait ten years, and the females don’t live more than thirty years in a row.”

“We try to keep our numbers low,” he started. “But we ran into problems, we’ve had two generations of only males. It’s not uncommon, but having two generations of males makes some major problems.”

“I figured, I had to deal with a colony of your kind in my world, I learned all this from them, but they came from another land.”

“Wait what?” Both Dash and it said.

“You mean their not the last?” Dash asked.

“Of course not, you have several colonies across the world right now. Of course I’m going to end up wiping them out as they all converge onto Equestria in a decade. There were millions of them.” His eyes went big and then tears went down his face.

“My race is still alive.” He cleared his throat. “I can’t believe it.”

“Not for long.” He frowned. “Your race took some good friends of mine, and then had the nerves to try to sneak past me in their skins. You smell like rotted pony to me, you have no idea how much I hate your kind. I'll be wiping out your entire little army myself. None will live pass tomorrow. I can promise you that. Now then, you have no other information for me?” He swallowed.

“Nothing that would help you further.” I held out my hand and a normal sword appeared in my hand. I held it out to Dash.

“He can’t move, you can’t miss, if you would like to do the honor.”

“I, I changed my mind.” I held the Lilly to her.

“Cover her eyes for me.” Dash turned away covering Lilly’s eyes. I swung the blade as Dash fully turned away cutting his head clean off. I used my magic to levitate it so it didn’t make any sound. “Do not look right now.” The female floated into the air and started to panic not having been able to move.

“Please.” I closed her mouth.

“Now tell me, anything to add?” Her head shook no and I smiled cutting it off, catching the body as well.

“Dash, once I leave, take the filly back to Twilight and wait for me, these creatures still have a magic hold on Lilly. I have to cut it a certain way or they’ll just pull her to their graves and hold her till more of their kind can find her.”

“Even though they are dead?”

“Look at Lilly.”

“Let me go.” Lilly said with a dead voice. I got up making sure not even a drop of blood was spilled onto the carpet. I walked silently and opened the door floating the bodies out of the cart and closing the door. I jumped off the train flying a little before landing softly I looked around.

I was near the crossing between Apple Loosa and the Dodge City tracks. That just meant there weren’t any ponies that would come by to see me burying the bodies. I changed my size and started to dig quickly but without any sound. I dumped the bodies inside making sure to dice them up just in case and pour the bodies into it, burying them completely.

“Do not worry, you won’t be alone in that grave for long.” I growled with a chuckle. I changed to my normal form and stretched a little bit, I was tired. I needed to get battle ready, or the things that were coming were going to end up killing me. The fact I had missed the Egg Con as many times as I did was proof of that.

I pulled out a blue gem and wrote a few symbols onto it. I picked my claw and wrote another symbol onto it before blowing fire onto it. I crushed it and sprinkled it over the grave making a ruin over the grave itself. I blew fire glassing over the area and engraving the symbol into the ground. I flew up into the air flying back to the train going into Twilight cart, and they looked at me.

“Hey.” Dash said holding up Lilly, she looked fine.

“Good, now then.” I went over taking her and sitting in my bed. “This will hurt a lot, but I have to crave a symbol into your forehead, and it will scar.”

“What? Why?” Twilight asked.

“While I disconnected the hold that those two had, it can easily be reopened by others, he said she was one of the last female of their colony. That means they’ll be panicking when this little one doesn’t show up. They will search for her without pause and fight to the death to get her again.”

“Wait but you said they didn’t appear in your world.” Dash said.

“In my world she probably died and they told them that. So they spent most of their time looking for another. Which means till either the females die out, I wipe them out, she dies, or the females die. She won’t be safe, and they will attack.”

“Then why don’t we tell them?” Twilight asked and I paused.

“What?” I asked.

“We say they sent us to tell them that she died, and they said they were looking for something.”

“Won’t work, they have a physic connection, the fact that they are dead won’t get pass them. They will also know that she’s alive, even with this mark they will be able to sense her if she’s alive.”

“Then what?” Dash asked.

“I keep her close, so long as she’s without a certain distance of me I'll be able to keep her hidden from them, even if they are right next to her. So long as I do that they won’t be able to find her easily. Also with spells I can hide her for a short period of time without needing to be next to her every second of the day.”

“Easily? What do you mean, they will still be able to?”

“More than one knows what she looks like. So simply keeping her close might not be a choice for us. Write to Celestia and tell her all this, also did Dash tell you all the other information about what happen?”

“Yes.”

“Good, now then.” Lilly looked at me nervous, I licked my lips and she shivered scared of me. I started to crave into her head making her bite down on my hand. If her back wasn’t against me, she would have ran, and craving a symbol upside down on a filly in pain, is harder than beating any monster. Mostly because you can’t just break its neck.

“Does it have to be so deep?” Dash asked biting her lip. Lilly whimpered crying in pain as I made sure it was craved her skull, not just her skin.

“I’m engraving it on her bone. If it’s just her skin it’ll heal, I can’t just do a tattoo either, it has to be a permanent scar.” I growled a little. “I don’t want to do this, but it has to be done, or she’ll get killed, and I'll have to deal with another freaking army.” I stopped after a while and tapped her forehead making it heal for the most part, but leaving a clear still bleeding scar on her forehead.

“It still hurts.” She said with a sore throat.

“I know.” I kissed her forehead. “But that’ll die down in a few hours, you’ll feel just fine like it never happen. Bite on my hand if it’s too much.” She bit my hand again and I pulled her closer to me. Twilight and Dash stared at us. “If either of you speak of this, I'll shave you so well you never grow hair again.” They looked away from me.

They fell asleep and the train kept going. Lilly fell asleep after a while, still in pain, but I cooled her dreams letting her sleep in peace.