I didn't plan that out very well. Sure, I was free to do what I wanted now, but where did I go? Ponies weren't my only option, and I didn't plan on going near any of them again, but I still didn't know where to find anyone else. I could go back to Lyra and ask for a map, but she might try tagging along then. Also, she was probably dead. Or maybe she wasn't, I don't know shit about what they were doing.

Still, I had to keep going, and that's what I did. I got a good chance to plot out some of the local landmarks while I was at it. I could see some trees, a forest, lots of grass, and some mountains. Well, I knew this place like the back of my hand now. One of those mountains was strange though, it was like it had a building stuck on the side of it.

I was going to avoid that place. It was pretty near to the ponies, therefore, it was filled with ponies. Not that I had anything against them, I just disliked every pony I had ever met. I may actually have had something against them.

The landscape didn't change for a while, especially the evil forest. That place seemed to be pretty big. But I did come across a quaint little cottage. It seemed to be following the ponies general theme of not destroying nature, so that was nice. Good for them, they had standards.

By the time I got to the door, I had noticed a few things: a hen-house, and a few happy old animals. They stared at me, not do anything like run or something I would have expected. They just stared, with scary looking eyes. Of course, with ponies being pretty prominent, they could probably talk. If they didn't talk first though, I wasn't going to go try.

They didn't try talking. I was kinda relieved, talking rabbits would have been disturbing. Not that talking unicorns were much better, but it was nice. It might have been the size, small things talking just seemed odd. Spike was fairly small, but that didn't bother me. I don't know why, it might have been because he never said anything to me.

I had a bit of a moral dilemma ahead of me. I could knock politely on the door, or I could just barge in. Each approach had a few advantages. But what really sealed the deal was the door not being locked. Very obliging of them. That was two door that were both unlocked. A nice coincidence.

Yet again, the place seemed to have a hell of a lot of things made out of wood. Also, some birds and stuff. They may have been living here. I really didn't want to talk to them, but I might just have to. My fears were relieved quickly though, when I spotted another pony. This one had wings, and was yellow. Because bright colors are the way forward.

I must've intimidated her, because she was freaking out. Well, she was standing still and staring at me. But I think that's the same thing. I could probably leverage her fear to have her meet my demands. Which was a map, to go... somewhere. It was a start, I suppose.

"Hello, pony," I said. I tried to go for a low and scary style. She whimpered, so it must have worked. Then she stopped looking as scared when she got a good look at me.

"I-I'm Fluttershy. I've never seen something like you before" she said, sounding awe struck by my appearance. Now it was awkward, she didn't have to go be so astounded. I must not have been scary enough, or maybe I was too scary. Yes, that must be it: I was too scary and accidentally came across as amazing. That could work.

"Okay, that's neat. Do you have a map?" I asked. She seemed fairly surprised by this. Fuck her, I think it's a valid question.

"Em, no," Fluttershy said. Well, shit, that ruined my plan.

"Fine, can you tell me where I can find things that aren't ponies?" I said. That sounded much better in my head, I sounded a bit lost. I was lost, but that's not the point. I should clear it up a bit.

"I meant dragons and stuff," I nailed it, nothing confusing about that. Dragons seemed to be a pretty manageable bunch, if Spike was a decent example.

"Dragons are mean, you shouldn't go near them" Fluttershy said, it sounded like she was a bit afraid of them. But she wasn't afraid of me, she seemed to be gaining confidence around me instead. She even moved a bit closer. "But you could stay here, I can take care of you."

Then she smiled, I think it was meant to be cute and disarming. It probably was, but I was getting irritated by these ponies. They all seemed to want me. Of course, they should want me. I'm a stud, but it's still gross.

"No, now give me a map or I'll eat you," I said as I showed off my razor sharp canines. I was terrifying, I was in control, and she wasn't buying it.

"Aw, you're just cranky," Fluttershy said. She flew up to me and rustled my hair. Her hoof was fairly soft, which was a surprise. "You just wait here, I'll get you something to eat."

I may have lost control of this. While I could hang around and wait for Fluttershy to come back, that may not be the best idea. She seemed to have some issues, any sane creature would have been at least a little bothered by me. I don't think I was doing it wrong, it was definitely her. She feared dragons, but not me. Spike reached my knee, nobody should fear that. Unless Spike was actually really scary and just didn't show off, or he was just short.

While I was debating, Fluttershy had come back. She was holding a carrot in her mouth now. I guess that's the food she promised. She was angling it toward me like she expected me to take it. Yep, it was definitely for me. I wasn't really sure where I was going to get food here, or how often I could get it. So, with that in mind, I took the offered carrot. Just like I feared, it was more slimy than I had hoped. Pony saliva doesn't really have the best flavor. But it still beats starving to death, probably.

Fluttershy watched me while I ate, smiling happily. She seemed a tad obsessive. She also seemed to live with all these animals. Not smart ones either, these seemed to be the standard kind that didn't know shit, even if they were a bit strange. Also, Fluttershy seemed to be a hermit.

It was definitely time to go, before she tried sticking a collar on me or something. "Thanks for the carrot, but I'm going to leave now," I think that made it clear.

"But you can't! There's still so much we can do, don't leave!" Fluttershy shouted, reaching out to was a bit clingy. I knew she was a strange one, they all were.

"Sorry, got to go," I said as I turned to leave. I had barely taken a step away before I felt something whack into me.

"Don't go! You can stay here, I'll take care of you, and love you, and pet you," Fluttershy wailed, she was crying a bit now. Well, that was strange. I didn't think I'd make much of a pet. Maybe pseudo-slavery was the thing here, pony supremacy and all that. Spike didn't seem particularly enslaved, but he might've gotten a free pass.

"Nice offer, but I'll pass," I said. Prying her off me wasn't a very difficult task, though she had a far stronger grip than I would expect from something with four legs. Once she was off me, I once again started on my trek to find things that weren't ponies.

Unfortunately, Fluttershy had decided to tag along. I hadn't gotten very far at all before she came flying along and settled down next to me. My next intimidating look didn't scare her off. Nothing seemed to faze her. Unless it was dragons, because those things are scary. Not like me, I'm only twice her height, an alien, and clearly a predator.

"Where are you going?" Fluttershy asked. She seemed calmer now, I'm not sure what changed to make her less clingy.

"This way," I said. It was true, I was definitely going that way. But saying it out loud gave me a horrible feeling of not knowing anything.

"There are diamond dogs that way, you don't want to meet them," she said. Fluttershy started pushing at me with her wing, trying to herd me back the way I had come. It wasn't too hard to ignore. "You should come with me, I can help you."

Well, that sounded slightly better than before. She still probably wanted me as a pet, but at least she was lying about it now.

"And why don't I want to meet them?"

"They're big and mean. Sometimes, they even take ponies as slaves," she said. Well, that did sound ominous. I bet she was lying, or exaggerating. She just wanted me to go with her. I wasn't going to fall for something that simple, not a chance of that.

"They sound like my kind of people," I said. I chuckled with as much of a dark tone as I could muster. Fluttershy moved a bit closer to me, that was not what I was going for. She definitely had problems.

"No, you're nice. Not like them," Fluttershy said, nuzzling into my side. I'm not sure where she got that idea from, I hadn't exactly been trying to be friendly. "You should come back with me."

I didn't answer that, she might get the hint if I didn't. She did not, Fluttershy kept on trying as we walked. She never really tried to stop me, or just wasn't strong enough to, but she kept on suggesting it. I was lucky she didn't drug that carrot, that could've ended badly. Also, I shouldn't eat food that people offer me. Eventually, we reached something interesting.

Quite a distance away from us, there was a field. It might not have been a field, but there was definitely open space so I consider it a field. And there was something happening there. A few ponies were running about, and they looked to be fighting.

"Diamond dogs," Fluttershy exclaimed. She seemed frightened. I'm not sure why. She had plenty of opportunity to turn back, she just chose not to. It's her own fault she's here. They were a bit grotesque looking, I'd give her that. The dogs looked to be quite hunched over, but I couldn't really tell much else from here.

"Who're the ponies?" I asked. The ponies down there seemed to not be doing so well. They seemed to all look the same, and were wearing armor. Bright and gold, the armor was pretty noticeable and very shiny. Despite the armor, they were losing pretty badly. They even had spears in their mouths. Not exactly a great way to fight, which explained why they were losing. A unicorn was with them, and he had no spear in his mouth. No, he was too busy firing lasers from his head for one of those.

"The royal guard. They need help," Fluttershy said. You can go help them if you want, Fluttershy. But no, I don't see you rushing off to save them. I suppose I could go help them, but I didn't really want them to win.

So, instead of helping the ponies out, we just watched them lose. The unicorn went down last, and managed to hit a few of the dogs on the way. Not enough to kill them though, they just got back up afterwards. Eventually, he stopped firing and the dogs just jumped him.

"Well, Fluttershy, it's time for us to go say hello," I said, merrily skipping in the direction of the dogs. Fluttershy followed me, tugging at my arm. She used her mouth to pull at me, it wasn't very nice.

"Please don't. We need to go before they see us," Fluttershy pleaded. I didn't care, the dogs seemed to be a nice bunch to me. Although, they were fighting with the ponies. It probably wasn't their fault, I bet the ponies started it.

The dogs had spotted us now. Fluttershy could turn back if she wanted to, but she still seemed to be glued to me. I'm sure it'll be fine. The dogs were coming at us fairly quickly, helped along by me heading toward them. I looked forward to meeting a new species. Hopefully, they wouldn't be as messed up as the ponies.

"Hello there, everyone!" I shouted, grinning as they reached me. "So, I see you like fighting ponies. I think that's fantastic."

I'm not sure what to do now, I suppose I'll go live out the rest of my life with the dogs. It won't be a very pretty life, these guys were ugly as hell. But they seemed nicer than the ponies. There was quite a few of them too, I counted about six had stayed around to greet me. The rest had all disappeared somewhere.

Fluttershy had glued herself to my back now, trying to hide from the dogs. I had actually forgotten about her, she was light little thing. I only noticed because a dog had gotten behind me, and started pulling her off. He seemed to be having a bit more trouble of it then I was, so I helped him along with it. Fluttershy didn't seem too pleased by this, but they seemed pretty friendly. They weren't to the ponies, but they were probably assholes anyway. I'm absolutely certain that Fluttershy will be fine.

When we had pulled her off, another dog came up to me. He had some armor on him, a bit of a rarity for them. It wasn't particularly nice armor, patchwork stuff that barely looked like it fit him, but it was still armor. "You bring us pony?" he grunted out.

It seemed like a good idea to agree with him, so that's exactly what I did. "Sure did," I said. This brought a smile to his face. I don't think I wanted to make him smile again, ponies were definitely a more attractive bunch.

"Come," he beckoned. So along we went. They also gathered up the ponies and brought them along, most of the ponies didn't seem dead either. A few of them were definitely breathing, the rest probably were fine too. They also brought Fluttershy, which got me thinking that she may not have been lying about the slavery.

Despite that minor hiccup, it was too late to turn back. We were definitely outnumbered, so it's not like running would have helped that much. I probably couldn't get away if I tried anyway. Also, I gave them Fluttershy, that probably made me a slaver. Hopefully they'd accept me as one of them for that.

Through many dark and twisting tunnels we went. Eventually, another dog with a cart appeared and the unconscious ponies were loaded into that.

"So, where are we going?" I asked the armored one, who I figured was the leader. They probably liked me, so I doubt they'd care if I asked a question. Slaver loyalty was probably a thing.

"The cavern of war," he said. The other dogs seemed pretty excited when he said that, a few even barked. If the cavern of war was a big thing for them, I was a bit worried. Still, I didn't really have a response for that. Fluttershy didn't seem very bothered by it either. Although she may still have been having a break down over the whole 'selling her into slavery' thing. The cart had cleared off into parts unknown, so I'm definitely thinking they were slavers. Fluttershy got to come with us though, she should be happy about that.

We reached the end of our journey. We were standing outside a big door. The other side probably had the fabled cavern of war I had heard so much about. The armored dog opened the door, and on the other side we found... a big cavern. Except this cavern had a lot of dogs in it, and they all seemed pretty excited. I think they were easily forty or fifty dogs here. Fluttershy didn't like that at all, and had moved a bit closer to me. The dogs didn't stop her, they seemed too preoccupied with the big cavern.

"Come," their leader motioned me forward. He was moving us closer to the back of the cavern. Fluttershy got to come too, apparently.

At the back, there were some steps. Unsurprisingly, we went up them. More shockingly, they had an altar with a pretty looking sword on it. It was a very pretty sword, all shiny looking with a few gems in it. Not that I actually knew anything about swords, but I think it was nice looking. The dog picked the sword up and handed it to me. It was awfully nice of him, but he seemed to be going through a lot of hassle just to do that.

"For you, yes?" he said. I nodded and he smiled again, it was just as bad as the first time he smiled. Then, he turned toward the crowd and howled. They howled back with fervor, echoing through the cavern.

"Now," he said. "Kill the pony."

Fluttershy got pushed in front of me. The dogs were howling louder now, waiting for me to kill her. She'd given me a carrot, I didn't really want to kill her. Not to mention that this was all creepy as fuck. Of course, I didn't really have much of a choice.

That made the decision easy, really.