The next day I woke up and yawned but quickly stopped yawning when the smell of hay bacon strips entered my nose, 'That smells delicious' I hurried up and got a quick shower and got down stairs to see my plate of hay bacon strips laid out on a table with Rainbow dash sitting on the couch reading a Daring Doo book.

"Mornin' Rainbow, thanks for making me hay bacon strips."

"I got up early so I thought I'd make you some" I walked over gave her a kiss which I knew she appreciated and then devoured the hay bacon strips.

"That was delicious, you're a better cook than I am... although, that's not that hard to achieve since I can barely cook." I said whilst cleaning the cloud plate

"Yeah, I am pretty good at cooking." Rainbow boasted but I just rolled my eyes and finished cleaning the plate

"I'll head out for work now I guess so I will see you later today." I walked to the door and grabbed my bow and quiver along the way since I guessed I'd need it for the job.

"Alright bye Cobalt" she then carried on reading her book as I closed the door and looked up into the sky and saw that it was about 7:00 'ish'.

I walked to the edge of the cloud and looked over the edge,' looks like nopony is flying below, which is good since I get to try out this new trick I thought of.'

I leapt off and preformed a dive that assassins used in assassins creed for about 30 meters before opening my wings and gliding over Ponyville with ease as the wind blew past me. 'note to self, always exit the house like that from now on'.

I continued gliding over all the houses in Ponyville until I reached the edge of the Everfree forest and the Warden building. I landed and trotted inside to find Shadow already there slumped in a chair waiting for me and a large orange colt with a red and yellow mane and he was the same size if not larger than Big Mac which slightly intimidated me.

"Ah, you must be Cobalt." He said outstretching a hoof which I shook instinctively "I'm Fire Bolt, your new manager." He had a commanding voice and his Cutie mark was a crossbow bolt.

"Nice to meet you" I said it nervously but didn't let it show too much.

"Now that your here you and Shadow Breeze can finally get started." At the mentioning of his name Shadow got up from the chair and he seemed like he had forgotten for now about his past which was good since nobody should feel bad all the time.

"I'll start by giving you a brief tour of where you will work though."

He started by showing us a few rooms in the building that were filled with weapons and armour which would be used in case of emergency like another changeling attack (May have forgotten to mention these events are after season 2).

Next he showed us a med bay with more than enough beds considering it was a warden building, he then lead us to the roof which looked out over the Everfree forest which could see for a fair distance. After that we made our way back down to the reception area.

"Ok, there's only 1 place left to show and that's the watch tower that is in the Everfree forest where you'll both be guarding to stop any dangerous animals venturing too close to Ponyville, but first put these warden uniforms on." He passed us brown uniform that was pretty much the same as in the winter wrap up episode except it had a small badge on it that indicated you were a warden.

"I like how it fits... shame about the colour though." Shadow nodded in agreement

"Deal with it" he replied before taking off.

We followed him out to the watchtower which was about 2 minutes into the forest and was exactly what I expected it to look like... large and made of wood with a large horn on it

"Alright, now that we're here, I want you two to start by just scouting over the Everfree forest watching out for anypony that maybe in any danger and to stop any dangerous animals from heading to Ponyville." 'Oh joy I can't wait to start doing this'

"Seems easy enough, I'll get to work right away."

"If you need me I will be back at the warden building." He replied as he took off back

I took off from the watchtower and Shadow flew along side.

"You proberably just went and jinxed it saying it would be easy?" I looked at him and knew he was right but would rather hope he wasn't

"We'll see." For the most part of the next few hours we just flew about the forest almost unable to see threw the bramble of the thick forest.

"What was it you were saying about jinxing it?" I smirked but not for long since a low cry for help was screamed out.

"You just had to go and say that didn't you."

We approached to where we thought we heard the sound coming from and looked about to see there was a clearing just over a tree line with... a manticore with blue tips on the end of its mane standing about 2 meters away from Fluttershy who had a slice down her chest and had fallen unconscious.

'Perfect... first encounter with a dangerous animal and it's a manticore that picked too mess with Fluttershy... NOPONY HURTS FLUTTERSHY!'

"I'll distract the manticore Shadow whilst you get Fluttershy out of here." He nodded in agreement and flew to the side whereas I flew head on and smacked its head from behind which made it really pissed and turn around to face me whilst Shadow grabbed the Fluttershy and began to carry her out but Fluttershy groaned in pain as she wasn't fully unconscious which made the manticore turn back to her and instantly saw Shadow helping her which made it roar and charge at him.

I landed and drew my bow and fired an arrow aimed to just miss its head so it would get distracted but it failed and it continued charging and smacked Shadow unconscious with a single blow and it turned back to face me.

"Oooh shit, attempting to distract it from Shadow failed." It now had red beady eyes that looked hungry for a certain blue pegasi.

"Come at me furball!" I intimidated it which only made it angrier, but only because I needed it to follow me so that I could get it to a safe distance away from Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy.

It glared at me with it's red eyes and puffed out steam from its nose before taking off towards me showing its razor sharp teeth.

I took off upward and it followed but to my dismay it was atleast twice my speed and was gaining quickly.

'FUCK THIS THING IS FAST!' It lunged forward to try grab my leg but i bucked out kicking it in the face partially stunning it but didn't stop it from grabbing my leg and pulling me down to face it.

"ROAR!" guess what it roared in my face (what else would you expect?)

"2 words, Breath Mints" after saying that i smacked it in the jaw which made it throw me to the ground and I landed awkwardly on my wing

"Son of a bitch hurt my wing, now it's personal." I had been attempting this whole time not to kill it but now that was seeming like an impossible task, also I had stopped caring about keeping it alive since I remembered it had already hurt Fluttershy, Shadow Breeze and now hurt my wing which is going TOO FAR.

It landed down about 10 meters away and charged at me with fire visibly burning in it's eyes 'thats just messed up... freaking Equistria makes things 10x scarier'.

Time slowed down slightly as it got closer, I had one of 2 options remaining; either it killed me or I killed it.

I drew my bow lightning quickly when it was about 15 feet from me and I got an arrow from my quiver but it saw this and bashed straight into me sending me flying backwards and dropping my bow and arrow.

It recovered quickly and started to make its way to me slowly, I noticed my arrow was on the ground next to me but my bow was much further back and any attempt to get to it would fail.

It started to charge at me whilst roaring and opening its mouth showing its razor sharp teeth.

I formed a plan quickly in my head but it was risky for too late or too early and it would most likely kill me before i killed it.

'I only have once chance at this...' as soon as it was within striking distance I grabbed my arrow that was lying on the ground and lunged forward striking the manticore straight in the head where its brain would be instantly killing it and making it fall to the side with blood spraying out of its head like a fountain and pooling on the floor around it.

'God damnit, I think I'm going to be sick... sometimes I wish death would leave me alone... make that all the time.' I took a deep sigh of relief, picked up my bow and shakily made my way over to Shadow who was starting to wake up.

"Whu-what happened?" he put a hoof to his head and just looked behind me to see the dead manticore body.

"I just killed a manticore to save you and Fluttershy."I replied whilst picking up her still unconscious body and carrying her back to the warden centre with a make shift bandage around her wound which I provided from one of the pockets the warden jacket had and thankfully the wound she had was nothing serious. 'I'd hate to tell Fluttershy that I killed an animal, even if I was doing it to defend her.'

"You think you could have hit the manticore in the head before it gave me this killer headache?"

"I was never intending on killing it, I was just trying to get it away but I was left with no choice. Now please can we stop talking about it... I'm starting to feel rather sick."

The rest of the journey back to the warden building was just Shadow groaning about how annoying his headache was.

I walked in and placed Fluttershy in the med bay and the doctor and nurse pony there got straight to work, I then turned and walked over to the manager's office and knocked whilst Shadow got his head bandaged.

Knock... knock...

"Come in." Fire bolts deep voice was easy to hear threw the door.

I opened the door and walked in feeling sad for what I had just done.

"Ah your back, so how was your first day."

"Well... and so i had to kill the manticore." He instantly after hearing I killed the manticore jumped out from his chair

"THIS MANTICORE DIDN'T HAPPEN TO HAVE BLUE TIPS ON THE END OF IT'S MANE DID IT!" He pretty much shouted that

'I'm dead now'

"Ummm... yes it did..." I slowly started moving backwards

"Cobalt that manticore has been terrorizing the Warden team ever since I can remember and a few ponies have lost their lives to it. I must pay you this for killing it." he shoved atleast 1500 bits across the table toward me

"Sir, I can't accept all this." I was stunned at how much he was giving me

"Don't say that, I'm sure the ponies that had died to it would pay you for avenging them." 'when he puts it that way'

"Alright, but i'll give some to Shadow." he didn't seem to care as he replied whilst looking out the window

"Do what you want with it, you deserve every bit in my opinion though since we no longer have to deal with that evil manticore."

After that I left and saw that shadow was already slumped in a chair with the bandage round his head waiting for me.

"What did he say?" I turned and opened a satchel that had conveniently been with the bits and showed him

"HE GAVE YOU ALL THAT!" His jaw *quite literally* hit the ground

"Yeah but I feel greedy if I take all this." hinting that he should take some

"No, you deserve it." he replied

"Take some, it was my fault that you got injured anyway." he 'without hesitation' proceeded in taking 300 bits

"Thanks, im going to head back to my place now and probably sleep the rest of the day to get rid of this headache, catch you tomorrow maybe."

He took off toward Ponyville but I stayed behind remembering that Fluttershy had been injured too.

I walked into the med bay and saw that she was already standing up getting ready to leave with the doctor giving her his final checks too see if there was any pain.

'Must've just been a very hard slap from a paw that cut her and knocked her out.'

"Looks like your all good to go Fluttershy, it will heal up within a couple days, that I can assure you." Fluttershy then proceeded to trot over to me

"Hey Fluttershy, you alright?"

"Yes... is it true, did you kill the manticore?" 'how the hell does she already know that... Shadow...'

"I'm sorry Fluttershy, I had to because it left me with no other choice, I wasnt going to let it even have a chance at hurting you again, please forgive me for killing it." I looked away from her to avoid her gaze.

She trotted closer to me and kissed me which caught me completely by surprise, "It's ok, you were doing it to save me after all, if you hadn't... I wouldn't like to think about what would have happened." she put on a smile and blushed after kissing me

"Heh, we should be heading back now." I was also blushing deeply and trotted over to the door and opened it for her to exit.

"I'll be heading back to my house, I'm sure the animals are worried sick without me."

"Bye fluttershy" She took off to her house and I headed on back to Rainbow dash's house to deposit the bits

I trotted into the house and deposited most of the bits but kept some to buy myself something to eat since I hadn't eaten since breakfast.

1 short flight scene down to Sugarcube Corner later...

I landed and walked into Sugarcube Corner and was instantly greeted by a over excited Pinki- "HI COBALT!"

"You don't have to shout I am only standing a few feet away." I replied whilst rubbing my now pain stricken ear

"Sorry... so what can I get for you? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Is the-" Before I could even finish what I was going to say she passed me a menu of everything they sold "Thanks"

I looked at the options they had and I instantly came down to the large chocolate cake and the chocolate and strawberry sunday 'which to choose, which to choose...' (/watch?v=u2mqqCMu-LM type that into youtube and play through it once for a laugh and picture Cobalt looking between the two.)

I was abruptly stopped from this phase when Pinkie shook her hoof in my face saying "Uh hello? anybody there? I've been waiting for like 10 minutes."

I quickly came to the decision of a large chocolate cake to go and she dissapeared into a cloud of pink smoke and returned seconds later with a chocolate cake.

"I will find out how you do that Pinkie pie... anyway goodbye" I exclaimed to her with a sincere look on my face

"Okie dokie lokie Cobalt, see ya soon." with that i left and flew back up to the house and left the cake for later. Of cause I took a small slice first though to cure my hunger for a while.

I stretched out when I exited the house and was instantly landed on by Rainbow dash.

"Sorry Cobalt, one of my tricks went slightly wrong." she got off of me and I got up with my eyes still rolling around in there sockets.

"It's alright, it's probably just a minor case of broken spine." I joked as I was now able to see again.

"So, how was your first day." she inquired

"I surpose it depends on how you see it." I said remembering that I had killed a manticore that had killed some other ponies

"what do you mean 'It depends'?" she cocked an eyebrow at me

"Well I killed a Manticore that was going to kill Fluttershy, Shadow and me but I could have kept it alive if I'd have been faster."

She didn't seem to believe me but didn't speak up waiting for more. "On the otherhand the manticore had already killed some other ponies so I was technically doing something good and i was paid 1500 bits for killing it." She grew wide eyed when I told her how much I got in one day

"You're kidding me right?!" She responded stunned at the amount I was given

"Nope and that was the reaction I gave to my boss when he shoved the bits at me."

"That must have been some manticore."

"Meh, It really wasnt that hard to kill, but since I was easily beaten in speed by it I thought i'd practise my flying."

"Well I guess i'll see you later since I'm going to take a break for the rest of the day."

"If you want anything to eat theres a cake inside." she was about to fly off to a cloud to rest but insantly turned and bolted inside.

'I have no idea why I told her that.' I proceeded to fly off and practise flying between Clouds to improve my speed.

*A couple hours of training later making it near night*

'That's enough training for one day, I'm about to die from tiredness' I cleared up the clouds that i had set up and made my way back and noticed that Equistria nearer night time is as awesome as the daytime Equistria.

I opened the door silently and trotted through the house normally since cloud doesn't make much noise when you step on it.

While creeping through I noticed she had eaten the remainder of the cake..."Damnit Rainb-" 'I just said that outloud...woops.'

After a little more creeping I got to mine and Rainbow's room and opened it to find her still asleep.

'Phew...' I climbed into bed and she instantly wrapped around me without opening her eyes and said. "Goodnight, loud mouth."

'Critical mission failure...' "G'night rainbow."

After a few minutes I fell into a deep sleep.

.

...

.

I woke up the next day lying in the middle of Ponyville with buildings and trees turned upside down, 'What the hell?!' I looked around for anypony and then I saw something that made my heart shatter. Rainbow Dash lying down lifeless and turned grey.

"NO!" I ran over to her side and checked if she was alive... she was not.

Tears started brewing up in my eyes but I was stopped as an evil laugh escaped from nowhere, I looked about for the cause and was surprised too see nopony around.

"Oh look, I missed one." I looked around and still saw nothing but then I looked down and saw my shadow was not my own but rather was growing into Discord's shadow.

"DISCORD YOU SICK BASTARD, YOU KILLED HER!" I shouted in rage.

"Oh pish posh. I killed everypony in Equistria... well except you it seems." I became more enraged at that. He emerged from the shadow and became his life sized form and with his evil crooked smile on his face.

"You will DIE for this." I charged at him and swung my hoof at him but he simply held out a finger and stopped me and all the momentum I had.

I tried again at punching him but he simply evapourated and reapeared behind me and smacked me across the ground, I started getting up but he grabbed me by one of my hooves and lifted me off the ground before slamming me into it again and I was sure that a few ribs had broken.

Despite the pain I got up and faced him and threw a hoof at him but he with little effort grabbed it.

"Are you already done? My turn." He brought his other hand up and brought it down on my hoof snapping it at the joint which got a cry of pain from me. He laughed and proceeded to pick me up again bringing me infront of his face.

"Your as pathetic as the rest of them, any last words?" I just simply spat in his face as a response.

"So be it." He threw me to the ground and formed a giant boulder in his had.

"Goodbye." He brought the boulder down on me.

...

"GAH!" I looked about and saw I was still in bed with Rainbow Dash.

"Something the matter Cobalt?" she said after being awoken by my shout.

"No, no it was just a bad dream." I took a deep breath in and fell back in bed

She kissed me on the cheek and replied "It's nothing, aslong as im here nothing bad will happen." I looked at her and remembered from the dream her lifeless body which sent a shiver down my spine.

"Y-yeah." I went back to sleep after that with no more nightmares following.