THIS CHAPTER IS A BIT MORE VIOLENT THAN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. IF YOU ARE EASILY GROSSED OUT, YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP THIS ONE AS IT WILL NOT AFFECT THE OVERALL STORYLINE.
Veil had chosen a thick copse of pines for his camp. He brushed away the pine needles and dug a shallow hole, then he put steel to flint and made a small fire. Squatting by the flames, he ate some chicken and watermelon, then renewed the red on his paws with the watermelon juice. He was dozing, half asleep, when two foxes arrived. Their names were Britney and Rachel. They were both wearing pink polo shirts and they had big swords. Swartt Sixclaw had kicked them out of his horde for being too preppy.
Veil felt uneasy, but he tried striking up a conversation with his uninvited visitors. "Where did you come from, friends?" he asked.
"OMG, what a loser!" Britney squealed.
"Totally," Rachel agreed. "Look, he's got fried chicken and watermelon. He must be, like, a richbeast."
"Yah, stupid, too," said Britney. "Building a fire, like, out in the open where anybeast could totally see it!"
Veil decided he could let the situation go no further. Brandishing his knife, he stood up and shouted, "Keep your mangy paws off my vittles, you shallow preps!"
The foxes worked their way around the fire until they were on either side of him. The one called Rachel bared her teeth. "OMG, Britney, did u hear that? He, like, totally insulted us!"
Britney appropriated a piece of chicken. "He's a good cook though, LOL!" she said with her mouth full.
Veil grabbed at the chicken, his voice shrill with anger. "You leave my food alone, you dirty old… Unnhh!"
The young ferret had made the mistake of turning his back on Rachel. The preppy vixen walloped him over the head from behind with her designer handbag.
Veil came to his senses slowly, groaning at the triphammer throb in his skull. Both his paws were hoisted high, tied to an overhanging pine bough.
The two foxes were eating Veil's food, cramming watermelon and fried chicken ravenously into their mouths. Struggling against the tight bonds, Veil glared hatred at them. "Blundering fools, don't you know who I am? I'm Veil Sixclaw, son of Swartt the Warlord!"
Britney tore a strip from the blanket and did a low servile bow. "OMG, like, forgive us, your highness! LOL!"
Then she gagged the young ferret firmly, boxing his ears and pulling his nose painfully. "Son of a Warlord, y'don't say! I'm, like, the cousin of an eagle an' a great fish myself. What about you, Rachel?"
"Who, me? Oh, I'm the Queen of the flowery dell, pleased 2 meet your majesty, LOL!"
"LMAO!"
"ROFL!"
"ROFLMAO!"
"ROFLCOPTER!
"XD!"
Veil didn't understand any of this drivel. Forced to stand on tip-paw, bound and gagged, he could only glare at them and make whining sobs of rage.
An even shade of gray washed the sky the next morning, bringing dim-hued clouds and a steady downpour of rain. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Joshy gathered up their belongings hurriedly from their camp on the open hills.
"We'll be soaking an' cold if we don't find shelter soon," said Twilight. "Only fish like the rain."
Fluttershy pointed to the distant pine grove, saying, "Come on, let's make for there; we can camp in the trees until the rain stops."
Joshy took off, both paws over his head, calling back to the ponies, "Make a fire an' get breakfast goin'! Chap's gotta have 'is blinkin' scoff, wot wot!"
It was dim and dry in the half light of the close growing pines. They shook themselves off and began opening the saddlebags. Fluttershy stopped, sniffing the air.
"Smoke, I can smell burning," she said.
Joshy's nose twitched. "You're right, Fluttershy, somebeast has flames burnin' somewhere."
Twilight fastened her saddlebag and shouldered it. "It may be Veil, but then again, it may not be. Let's see who the fire belongs to."
Following the aromatic smell of burning pinecones, the three friends stole silently through the grove.
Fluttershy was first to spot the glow of flames between the trees. Taking care not to step on any twigs, they stole forward, then, bellying down in the springy carpet of pine needles, they peered over a fallen trunk at the scene in a hollow below.
Rachel and Britney were breakfasting off what was left of the food and hurling bones and melon rinds at the bound figure dangling from a pine bough.
Fluttershy seized Twilight's hoof. "Look, it's Veil! Those two foxes must have captured him!"
"They look like nasty beasts. What can we do?" Twilight pondered.
Joshy studied the situation below before answering. "Hmm, they're armed, we couldn't risk an open fight. But I think I might have an idea that will work." He took a pudding out of the pocket of his robe.
"Have you been carrying that around this entire time?" Twilight asked.
"Aye, marm. I always keep a bit o' puddin' in me pocket, wot!" Without another word, he threw the pudding at Britney. It hit her right on the nose and stuck there. The vixen was not pleased.
"OMG! Who threw that? Rachel, come over here and help me 2 get this pudding thing off my nose!"
"Well, like," Rachel said, looking at her companion rather dubiously, "I don't know if I can,but I'll like, try."
But instead of wiping the pudding off, she took her sword and tried to cut it off. She got the pudding off Britney's nose, but she accidentally hacked off the nose too. Britney saw her severed proboscis on the ground and screamed.
"OMGWTFBBQ! U cut off my nose!" She drew her own sword and chopped off one of Rachel's paws.
"U ruined my manicure!" Rachel screeched. The two of them started to fight and cut more parts off each other. Behind the log, Fluttershy and her friends averted their eyes. Even Veil was feeling grossed out.
The combat did not last long. Two heads soon fell to the forest floor, followed by two bodies.
"Well, I say, I didn't mean for that to end in such a final an' gory way," Joshy said after a pause.
"What did you think was going to happen?" Twilight panted.
"I suppose I didn't really think about it. I'm sorry."
Fluttershy uncovered her eyes. Trying not to look too hard at the ground, she flew to the tree where Veil was tied and freed him. "Veil. Poor Veil," she cried.
Veil tore away the gag from his mouth and yelled angrily at the Pegasus. "What in the name of blood and fur are you following me for?" Ignoring the hurt in Fluttershy's eyes, he continued. "Why don't you just leave me alone!"
Fluttershy was dismayed and puzzled at Veil's attitude. "But… but… we saved you from those evil preps! They might have ended up killing you, Veil!"
The young ferret stormed about the hollow, rubbing life back into his paws, which were still numb from being bound. "Well, I didn't need saving, see! I was ready to slip those ropes and grab one of their swords. I can look after myself without you running around trying to nursemaid me."
Just then, Joshy bounded over the log and retrieved his wand from Veil's pocket. "Never stow a wand in your pocket, laddie. Good way to lose a buttock, wot. An' you ought to be more grateful to Fluttershy here. She never did ought but good for ye."
"That's how much you know," Veil sneered. "If it wasn't for Fluttershy, I wouldn't have been kicked out of Ponyville in the first place."
Fluttershy placed a hoof gently on his shoulder. "Oh, Veil, you're so wrong. I've always been your friend. I care for you more than any creature living! I wouldn't have tried to get you in trouble on purpose… although you did poison Princess Celestia."
He shook her hoof off and leapt up. "Get away from me! Go on, get back to your precious Ponyville and spend your nights talking about me and what a bad lot I was. Veil the vermin Outcast!"
Twilight ran between Veil and Fluttershy. "You're nothing but a villain, with all your bad talk!" she shouted.
Veil was livid. "You see? You see how it is, Fluttershy? All these ponies hate me. They don't want me to come back. And I don't want to go back! I'm destined for better things than making muffins and cupcakes all day in a town where all the creatures are completely different from me."
"But you can't join up with your father!" Fluttershy sobbed. "All he thinks about is war and killing! You don't want to be like him, do you?"
"You knew…" Veil growled. "You knew who my father was all this time. And you never told me!"
He rushed at her, but Twilight knocked him back with a spell. "Stay away from Fluttershy!"
"Yeah, that's right. Everybeast wants to hurt Veil the Outcast."
"I don't want to hurt you," Fluttershy said.
Veil got up. "Princess Luna said my name means evil. Well, she's right. Anyway, it's not like I can just turn into a pony."
"Well, y'know, old chap, I could turn you into a pony if you wanted me to," said Joshy.
"Really?" A light gleamed in the ferret's eyes. "Okay, why don't you try it?"
"Ok," the hare wizard said as he stepped forward. He held up his wand.
Twilight could tell Veil was up to something and she called out, "Joshy, don't!" but it was too late. Before Joshy could do the spell that would turn Veil into a pony, the ferret snatched the magic wand and ran off into the trees.
"Oh, corks, he's done it again!" Joshy groaned. They tried to catch him and take the wand back, but Veil was too fast for them. As he ran, the ferret wondered if his father, the one called Swartt, was as tough and cunning as himself. Mentally Veil wagered that he wasn't.
