“Come on!” I shouted jumping from the leg of the mountain spider onto it’s back and bucking a offspring, sending it over the side. I did a one hoof stand flipping over one as two charged hitting each other. I turned jumping into several bolder spiders, then started to beat the bolder spiders black and blue till they stopped attacking me.
“NOW!” I shouted at them. “Ponies are not dinner! Remember that next time! If I so much as catch you coming by my cave again, I'll beat you up again!” One of them whined in a gurgle. After a while I understood their language. “I know you’re hungry, but you know I am not your food!”
They huddled scared of me and I ran to the side jumping off flipping a few times before landing cracking the hard rock’s under my hooves. I ran sending up a huge plume of dust into the air behind me. I stopped after reaching my cave. I went and pulled out a bottle of sandy water from my cooler removing my desert scarf. I sat down at my table making a light metal clink from my armor.
My whole body was covered in magic waived enhanced armor. I wore heavy tan clothes over my armor, including my helmet, which had rather sturdy glasses to protect my eyes in sand storms, which happen a lot. I got up after finishing the bottle and setting it back into the cooler, sighing as I hooked my scarf back.
I had left home as a very young filly, I hadn’t even started school yet. I couldn’t stand my mother, it was just making me sick. I wanted to strangle her after a while just to taste her fresh bloody hide.
She probably missed me after so many year. Though I would stop by once in a while in Apple Loosa dropping off a note in a mailbox, and then have it sent to her in Canterlot. She was still the best blacksmith in the entire city, no at this point the world.
“What do we have here?” I looked at a black stallion unicorn in light black armor, it had my mother’s markings all over it, no one else besides me could make armor so well. I had even made the armor I was wearing, it wasn’t my talent, but I was still great at it.
“I don’t take kindly to visitors whoever you are.”
“No offense little one, but you don’t quite have the right to say that, since this land was bought not more than a few days ago.” I sighed.
His armor was one of my mother’s normal cheap as dirt sets, probably a few hundred gold bits. An armor set like mine was worth more than several homes in Canterlot, plus enough to stay warm at night for years.
“Oh and why would anyone pay gold to buy this place?”
“Some rare minerals were found, we’re still surveying the area.” He looked me up and down. “And from your clothes, I’m guessing you’re a local from a nearby tribe. That’s going to be a huge headache.”
“I believe that there has to be more than one pony to be in a tribe.”
“You’re by yourself?!” He said a little too shocked. I groaned knowing what that meant, he wasn’t by himself, and I couldn’t just eat them without ponies coming to his aid, which would probably scare off dinner.
“Yeah I have for years, I’ve spent most of my life here.”
“Where do you come from? You don’t sound.”
“Like a nitwit?”
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“Yeah well I keep myself well read. Not that I found much out here, anyway get out of my home.”
“How about a job?” I eyed him for a few moments.
“What?”
“Well we need a guide, if you’ve been out here for as long as you say, then you must know this area pretty well, as well as being able to defend yourself. If you help us survey, you could get paid a lot of bits of gold.” I chuckled.
“Really gold, I have no use for gold, if I wanted gold I could just go mine it from Smokey Mountain. There are mounds of the stuff there, tons of it. There’s even this one solid gold piece larger than me. If it wasn’t for the fact I don’t need gold I would have brought it back home with me.”
“What?!”
“What do you mean what? I was over there to get some stupid metals, unlike there, this place doesn’t have any metal at all.” I sighed. “The trips are too long and after a while I just stopped going.”
“Nothing here? Are you sure?”
“Well I mean.” I pointed at light stones on the walls. “Other than those and some small deposits there, isn’t much here, and I’ve looked all over the place.” He swallowed. “Wait you mean you guys thought.” I started to laugh.
“Are you sure?”
“You do realize that there are some creatures out there that eat metals and gems right?”
“I, I can’t believe this.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have no reason to lie to me right?”
“Well other than to get you out of my home no.”
“Wait why would you look for metals?”
“To make my armor.” I flashed under my tan coat showing a golden weave. “I made this a long time ago though. I actually came out here first, because I thought there’d be stuff out here, but after the thrills of beating those monsters. Running for my life and so much more, I fell in love with this place. You can’t believe the dangers, it’s great.”
“You should talk to my boss, he’ll want to hear this.”
“And why should I do that? If I leave you be, you’ll all be dead by morning, that armor would only slow you down, they would open you up like you were covered in tissue paper. Hey even I could if I wanted to.” I chuckled.
“I'll give you food and water.” I paused.
“You have food and water?”
“I’m guessing that’s hard to come by out here.”
“Fresh water is, unless I go to the river, food is all over the place.” I chuckled hiding my razor sharp teeth a little. After the first few days here I was starving, and near death. I ended up eating some animal made out of meat, and ever since I loved eating them raw.
“I'll give you a few bottles of water.”
“Fine.” I followed him for a ways and we came upon a large camp at the bottom of the mountain. At least sixty ponies were doing things. A few looked at us as we went to a large stallion in black cotton making me giggle at him. He had a white coat under it covering his wings, was a pegasus.
“Who’s this, and do not tell me that’s a tribe pony.”
“She’s not from any tribe, but she’s a local.” He let out a sigh of relief. “She’s lived here for years.”
“Hey I want the water first.”
“What?” The stallion asked.
“Oh I promised her water for information, she said she didn’t care about gold.”
“There’s that much here?”
“No in Smokey Mountain,” I started and the stallion in black armor gave me the glass bottles. “Plenty of gold in Smokey Mountain, but not much here, I’ve checked for a lot of things, I normally wouldn’t care for gold, but there’s very little here, or at least that I’ve ever found. Other than small deposits of minerals, nothing big.”
“Are you.”
“This water is so clean!” I said looking in the glass seeing it perfectly clear. “Even water from the Ghastly Gorge river wasn’t this clean. How did you do this?” He stared at me and I stared at him. He dropped a quill and his jaw dropped.
“You’re serious.” Every pony around us stood frozen. “This isn’t a joke, you’re seriously telling me that there are no minerals anywhere!”
“No I told you there are small ones, you’re sitting on one right now.” He looked at a gray rock under him.
“What?” I sighed and went around. He moved. I punched the rock cracking it. I pulled ripping it open showing a ton of gems.
“You’ll find a few deposits of gems like this all over the place.” I picked up a big gem, moving my scarf eating it. “They taste great, I always wondered why dragons loved the taste, I found out when I was trapped in a small cave, with three of those gem rocks. They taste really good to.” He swallowed picking other one up and biting it.
“Oh, bucking.” He dropped holding his mouth.
“You can eat real gem?!” A pony asked coming over to us.
“I guess not every pony can.” I put my scarf back. “Anyway thank you for the water, if you need.” I paused seeing several bolder hatchlings in the center of a group of fifteen ponies. I growled jumping over the desk running over to them. “HEY I TOLD YOU, PONIES ARE NOT FOOD!”
“Those are rocks.” A pony said.
“GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” They whined getting up making every pony around them fall back shocked and scared. “And if I catch you in my territory hunting again I’m going to tell your mother!” A few ponies near other rocks backed away from them. “I swear those hatchlings are getting on my LAST NERVE!” I shouted after them. “Just because they have their first teeth set coming in doesn’t mean they can hunt in my hunting ground.”
“Hunting ground?” I looked at the boss pony very uneased.
“Hey if you guys die do you mind me taking your water?” I went up to him. “I mean you won’t need it, but that would be rude to do it without asking.”
“What do you mean hunting ground?”
“Well I got to eat something.” I chuckled. “You ponies act like you’ve never eaten meat before, I mean it’s funny.” Every pony around me backed up. “I mean you do eat meat right?” I looked around at them. “What’s wrong with you all?” I looked around unsure.
“You eat meat?” The pony in black armor asked.
“Yeah? Oh don’t worry I stopped eating ponies a long time ago, you guys just won’t stop complaining about getting eating, screaming attracting more creatures. I swear, you are just so ungrateful to the higher order.” They backed away from me further. “Okay now you’re pissing me off.”
“So what other minerals have you found?” The boss pony asked.
“Just some assorted minerals, nothing that great, I have to go all over the place to find the stuff I want. I stopped doing that after a while, going from one area to the next was almost too taxing, if there’s time to look for things, then there’s time to look for food. So, um about that water?”
“How about this, you mark on this map all the locations of the minerals, what kinds and how much, and I'll give you as much as you can carry.”
“Oh you got a deal.” I went around the desk scanning the maps.
“Um, these maps are outdated and you don’t have any of the creature patterns on this map to take into account.” He paused.
“That would be helpful, we’ll give you food as well.”
“Alright.” I took off my scarf and started to write. I drew marking all over several maps as well as writing down details on several creatures taking almost the entire day. I yawned done and stretched a little.
“Every pony we leave in twenty minutes.” Boss pony said coming over to me and his eyes went wide.
“Okay there are over ten thousand creatures and many areas you want to avoid. The most likely threat are the bolder spiders, while they can be handled normally, there are a lot of them and they have started to spread out all over the place.”
“Wow.” He said looking at the maps.
“Oh and the water and food.”
“Over there.” He pointed to crates and a boxes of food. I smiled running over and stacking as much as I could onto my back perfectly balancing seven crates of water bottles and a box of food on my head making ponies stare at me a little shocked.
“Thanks for the water and food.” I hummed a little as I walked perfectly going back to my cave unloading the water and food. I picked up a bottle looking at it. I had never seen such clear water before, this was amazing.
“Hey.” I turned looking at the pony in the black armor.
“Hi.”
“We’ll be leaving soon, and we won’t be coming back, would you like to guide us out of the desert?” I had never really left the desert, the closest I had gotten to Apple Loosa was several hundred yards to a farm house to send a letter or two. Even when going to Smokey Mountain I always took the back roads never running into any pony.
“Well you gave me a ton of water.”
“Once we get out you can have the rest.” I stared at him.
“How much is left?”
“Ten times what you took at least.”
“You have yourself a guide.” I followed him and we went back to their camp site. I went over to the boss pony.
“Glad to see you back, also any way to get you to tell me about Smokey Mountain?” I chuckled a little.
“The dragon there is really nice, when I first saw him I bit him. He was so startled that I had done that. He actually screamed as I tried to eat him. He had so much meat on him. He finally told me to stop. Ever since then he has always was uneasy around me, and never really bothers me anymore when I want to take from his horde. I though often times added more to it than take away from it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah he’s a big guy, but he’s not mean, and I wouldn’t want to just use him, that would be rude.”
“Is there any way you could get me a lot of gold? I have things better than water and simple food.”
“You keep making these offers I might just have to taste you. You make things sound really good.” He swallowed.
“Yeah well, I, um don’t go outside of my species.” I chuckled at him being so oddly disgusted.
“I was born in Canterlot, I’m the same species as you, I just don’t live in a city. Though I haven’t been in one since I was a filly. I think my mother still lives there, I bet she misses me now though.”
“You, seem so different though.”
“Different? What do you mean?”
“Well it’s not normal for ponies to eat meat, and be able to eat gems like candy. That’s not a normal thing to do.”
“I guess, other than one or two ponies that I find, you guys are the first in a long time. So I guess you would know if that was weird.” I yawned. “Oh man I’m getting hungry again, I hope we get attacked on our way I’m really hungry today, or tonight.” I looked at the setting sun.
“Is it more dangerous at night?” I looked at him.
“Ah, no and yes, yes as in there are a bunch of different creatures, but no at the same time, more as in the mountain spider sleeps during the night. I don’t think I could stop her from eating you all, so night time is better for traveling in a large group.”
“Mountain spider?” Another pony asked putting a pack on a cart.
“Oh yeah there she is right now.” I pointed at her and they stared. “She’s a bit shy till you get to know her. Though, her hatchlings have been getting annoying. You saw them earlier actually. The bolder hatchlings, they are finally getting their first set of teeth, so they tend to go further away from the mother to hunt.”
“Every pony ready?!” The boss pony shouted and everyone nodded. “Okay so take us the safest path out and to, I’m guessing Los Pegasus.” I paused.
“I’ve never been there before, but I can get you to the dirt road which leads there.”
“That’ll be fine.” I went and jumped onto a wagon looking around at all of them. I counted. Sixty three of them.
“Alright every pony pick a partner, you are to scream if your partner disappears. We will have stops every once in a while for breaks. Speak up if you get hurt, blood will attract creatures for thousands of yards so I need to know right away.” They paired up. “Okay now then stay in a tight group, we want to seem like we’re a big creature, the bigger the better, they will leave us alone then, just try not to make noise. No food is allowed to be in the open.”
I hopped down and they huddled together. We started to move walking at a good pace, stopping a few times to let them rest. I sat at the head of the group humming the pond trapper melody.
“Hey what’s that song?” I looked at the pony that had come to my cave, he was in tan clothes, no longer in his armor. I looked around and every pony in the group was paying attention to me.
“The pond trapper melody, you’ve never heard it before?” He shook his head no. “It’s a sad song, the pond trapper can’t leave his pond and gathers riches, hoping for a mate to one day reach it’s claw into the pond to be found.”
“That’s, okay.”
“I'll feed him gems from time to time and he sings so wonderfully.” I started humming again.
“We’re ready to move.” Boss pony said after a while and I got up.
“No we’re not.” He looked at me a bit confused. “My dinner arrived.” They looked at a small herd of large scorpion beetles. They stared at me smiling. “Oh I haven’t seen you beauties in a long time!”
“By Celestia!” One of the ponies shouted. I appeared in front of the scorpion beetles stopping them, and digging into one of my now meals, ripping it apart as I sunk my teeth into its moist body. Red blood splashed the ground as I ripped into them. One tried running toward the ponies and I jumped onto it’s back crushing it’s spine.
“Oh no you don’t blue delicious.” I dragged it back to the other and started to eat, I stopped when only bones and some bad parts were left. I walked back over to them hanging my scarf again over my mouth, shaking off the blood off my clothes.
“Yeah.” Boss pony said looking a bit green. I looked at them and all of them were scared, of me? I didn’t know why, but it wasn’t my problem that they hadn’t enjoyed a meal of a scorpion beetle before. It was always juicy and filling.
“Are you alright?” I asked and one of them puked making me eye him. “Are you hurt or did you get stung?”
“No,” the boss pony said. “Every pony’s fine, we’ve just never seen a pony devour creatures like that before.”
“You guys really don’t eat meat, how weird. Oh well, let’s keep moving.” We started moving and three days later we got to the road. I had actually run into really good creatures to eat, it was wonderful. Though they never spoke to me much, I never really asked them why though.