//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Burn the Sky // Story: Into Oblivion // by ChaosZero460 //------------------------------// I never wanted any of this to happen. I never wanted to drag her into this nightmare, I'm sure she had enough to worry about as is, what with being a new princess and all. Still though, she's the only one who could help. I couldn't risk approaching Celestia, not yet anyways. For all I knew, she'd vaporize me on sight. Twilight didn't know, I could... manipulate her. Lie to her. Dammit, I'm sounding more and more like Blackout by the day. But this is different, right? Lying for the right reason, that's ok, isn't it? Of course he think's he's doing the right thing too. When two opposing forces truly believe that they're in the right, that their cause is just... I'm not scared of much. I've already died, I'm not scared of dying. But not knowing how far this will go, just how bad this will have to get before one of us gives in... that's what keeps me up at night. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Onyx paces the the balcony of the observatory, looking out at the night sky. The full moon shone like a floodlight down onto the sprawling metropolis. The large telescope cast an inky black shadow across a quarter of the circular balcony, the stallion seemed to melt into it. He stares out at the sky, scanning the horizon. She was late. Where was she, had she changed her mind? Perhaps she had told somepony and they had convinced her not to go. Any rational pony would advise her against meeting a complete stranger in the dead of night who insisted she come alone and that lives were at risk. A flash of violet energy erupts a few feet in front of him, he throws up a hoof to shield his night-adjusted eye. Twilight stood there, changed out of her evening gown. Small bolts of residual energy pop and crackle around her. She looks up at the stallion. "You know, I wasn't sure if coming here was the smart thing to do. I almost talked myself out of it." "Glad you didn't" he replies, his smooth, suave demeanor from earlier in the night was gone, in it's place was his natural diction and personality. The alicorn takes a cautious step towards him, eyeing him curiously. "So what's really going on here? Who are you?!" Onyx leans up against the railing and sighs, looking out at the town. He looks back to her. If he wanted her to help, then she needed to know. "Have you ever heard of the Iron Guild?" She looks at him like he's from another planet. "The what?" Good, he could tell her just enough. "It's a group of earth ponies, started a couple hundred years ago. They use technology instead of magic." He begins to unwrap the tape surrounding his metal horn. "They find ponies that are beaten, broken, or in my case, worse. They take them and... modify them. Bolt on all sorts of machinery, whether you want it or not." He tosses the tape into the night breeze, it flutters and twists like a snake as it flies away. She looks at the silver spike with both confusion and wonderment. She steps closer, placing a hoof on it's cold metal surface. "You're... you're not a unicorn..." she says. "No, I'm not. I'm not sure what you'd call me." He climbs out of his tuxedo, revealing his mechanical limbs. He rubs the large scar running up his chest. She stares in stunned disbelief. "How... how is that possible? It's..." He slides off his eyepatch, the red glow of his cybernetic eye shines on her. Twilight takes a nervous step back. "I'm not trying to scare you. You wanted to know who I am, I'm letting you know. My name's Onyx, and I need your help." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Wait, he's going to blow up the entire town?! That's insane!" she shouts, not believing what she was hearing. Onyx had tried to skip over the more graphic portions of his tale, and he chose to omit the part involving Celestia attacking them with a dragon, but she needed to know what was at risk. "Trust me, if you met the guy you'd understand" he groans. "He sent me here to... disrupt the summit." Well, that was technically true. He didn't think "I'm here to kill you and the rest of Equestrian royalty" would go over extraordinarily well. She leans up on the railing with a troubled look on her face, deep in thought. "So what do we do?" Onyx sighs. "I need you to stop me." He joins her, looking out at the illuminated city streets far below. "Blackout'll be watching. If he thinks I'm trying anything, Fetlock goes up in a fireball. I need to fail, I need to make it look like you got the drop on me and killed me." Her violet eyes fall on him, glistening in the moonlight. "You... you want me to attack you?" "I have to disappear. As long as Blackout thinks I'm alive, all of Fetlock's in danger. After that, I can get started on taking him down. But I can't do it alone, I need somepony I can trust. You cannot tell anypony about this, I mean it." She nods. "Not your friends, not Celestia." Especially not Celestia. "This has got to stay between us" Onyx says, almost pleading. "Ok, I get it. I promise" says Twilight, slightly exasperated. "I just... wish I knew more about this so I could help." The black cyborg stallion's eye shoots wide. "That's not... you shouldn't, no. You aren't gonna like what you find. All I need you to do is put on a show in front of everypony, lots of flash and explosions. I'll take care of everything else." "If you say so..." the alicorn says reluctantly. It seemed as it she didn't fully trust this pony, Onyx couldn't blame her. He was being purposefully vague, he was holding back information and she knew it. "I understand if you don't trust me. But I'm telling you the truth when I say this is important, and that I'm trying to do the right thing." Twilight looks out at the city once again. "I want to believe you, I really do. But you're not making it easy for me. All this talk about secret cults, cyborgs, political assassinations..." "Wait, I never said-" She gives him a sly grin. "You didn't have to. Blackout told you to kill me, didn't he?" Onyx stands there, dumbfounded. Well, she had figured it out on her own, so no point in lying. He lets out a defeated sigh. "Yeah." She takes a step towards him. "So why haven't you? This is the perfect place, there's nopony watching. I hope you don't mind me saying, but you're a terrible assassin." "Because the second I do, I'm giving Blackout exactly what he wants. I'm not gonna watch Equestria burn to the ground just because some loony old bastard gave me an order." Twilight chuckles. "You speak so fondly of him." "You can do that when you're family" he replies. She raises a brow. "Only because this wasn't complicated enough before, right?" They both share a laugh, grateful the tension had been reduced. The scene falls silent once more as they stare at each other, waiting for somepony to say something. Neither spoke. "...It's late, I should probably be getting back. The princess goes missing, the whole castle gets turned upside down" Twilight finally says. "Yeah, same here" Onyx replies. She looks at him, slightly confused. "Y'know, aside from the whole princess deal. You know what I mean." Her horn begins to glow softly. "So, what's the verdict? You trust me or not?" he says, raising his voice to combat the rising hum of the teleportation spell. Twilight gives a final grin. "I haven't decided yet." She vanishes in a blinding flash of magical energy. The wind blows past him, his dark red tail whips and twirls as the air rushes to fill the void created by the teleportation. He stares at the empty spot for a moment before slowly turning to climb down from the observatory balcony. It was time to head back and get some sleep. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ He traverses the cobblestone streets, the lamps shining golden light down onto the uneven stone path. Nopony was out and about at the unholy hour, he effectively had the entire city to himself. He couldn't place his hoof on why, but he felt... good. He felt happy. Why? What reason did he have? Twilight had agreed to help him, perhaps that was it. Certainly is wasn't the fact that he discovered a fairly significant crush on her. Of course he was mentally kicking himself for the interaction. If worse came to worse and he did, in fact, have to kill her, he just made his job a hundred times more difficult. Onyx shook his head. No, get that thought out of your head. You're not gonna have to kill her. You're not gonna have to kill anypony. You'll figure this out, and everything'll be fine. What was he doing having these feelings anyway? He and Angel Fire... well, what were they? He wasn't sure. There had been the passion-filled night in Fillydelphia, but aside from that, they hadn't been much more than... teammates. Friends with benefits. But even so, he still found himself thinking about her quite often. Was she doing the same, but merely choosing not to discuss it? He rubs his temple. It was late, he was tired. A decent night's sleep would do far more good for him than wandering the streets pondering the complexity of his love life. The lone black stallion approaches an intersection but freezes in his tracks, hearing the approach of armored hooves. He ducks into the corner, seemingly melding into the darkness. He sees two Royal Guard unicorns passing by. They had bags under their eyes, deprived of sleep. "Ugh. Honestly, she wants us out here all night? He's probably long gone by now. We should have just taken him down at the party when we had the chance." Onyx peers out, ears perked. "You heard Celestia, she didn't want to make a scene in front of everypony. I would have loved to blast a hole in his head the second I saw him" the other unicorn says as they stroll past. "I can't believe the little fucker's still alive. I figured that bomb would have blown him into chowder." His eyes grow large. He felt his robotic heart skip a beat before returning to it's metronome-like rhythm. "It would have if those idiots had timed it right. They blew it too early, they got trigger-happy." Ice flowed through Onyx's veins. If those idiots had timed it right. He felt his ears pin back flat against his head, his teeth clenched shut like a vise. They got trigger-happy. Onyx trembles, a hot, burning anger flows through him. Intense, seething hatred poured from his very soul. "Well at least they got the rest of em. It went off right under the little one, blew him clean in half" the unicorn comments with the same amount of emotion one might use while discussing the weather. He snaps. The lead unicorn spins around, hearing a horrified scream directly behind him, preceded by a wet squelch. Onyx's silver horn was buried deep in the guard's side, the enraged black pony lifts his victim up and over his head with a strength he didn't know he had. The skewered unicorn twitches and convulses, blood and internal fluids pouring down onto the stallion underneath, splattering across his face which showed only unfathomable hatred. Onyx flings the guard off to the side, his face covered in the precious life-bearing fluid. The impaled unicorn continues to writhe in agony, rapidly bleeding out from the gaping stab wound. The remaining guard backs away, horrified at the blood-soaked monster bearing down on him, pure murderous rage in his eyes. He tries to ready a paralyzing spell, but the spell fizzles out. He couldn't remember how to summon it, it was basic spell casting. Every Royal Guard unicorn is required to master the spell the very first week of training. But here, at this moment, fear had completely overridden training and instinct. The black and red stallion roars as a savage blast of energy explodes from his horn, slamming into the pony who immediately explodes like an over-inflated water balloon. Bits and pieces splatter across the street, staining the gray and white stones underneath their hooves a dark crimson. "Over here!" "Move! Move!" Onyx turns to look behind him, there were at least ten more guards coming his way. Good. A beam of magic shoots through the night air, Onyx's own beam ruptures the magic instantly. Another beam is fired at him, it's shot down as well. The black pony slowly walks towards the incoming Royal Guard, an almost tangible aura of malice burning from him. His pupil had shrank almost to the size of a pinhead. Scalding, boiling hatred flowed through his veins. The unicorns take their positions, the ones in front kneel down to allow all present to line up a shot. The blood-soaked stallion doesn't move a muscle, instead choosing to line up a shot of his own. Five crosshairs appear in his vision, falling on the lead ponies. With a furious scream, five bolts of cyan lightning crack across the sky and detonate the guards in a shower of gore and fluids. The remaining ponies stand in shock, their comrades dripping off of their coats and armor plating. Onyx prepares to fire again, but a red flashing message in the corner of his vision manages to catch his attention. Power Cells Depleted He gallops towards the guards at full speed, closing in on them like a freight train. The nearest unicorn hardly had time to react as Onyx's horn sinks into his neck. He gives a gurgling cry as he slumps to the ground, the rampaging stallion charges the adjacent unicorn who manages to nail him with a paralyzing spell. Onyx falls to the ground, motionless. The surviving unicorns let out a ragged sigh. "Holy shit... Thought I was a goner..." Blue bolts of energy spit and pop around the statue-like cyborg. He explodes up off the ground, spinning and kicking his metal hooves into his attacker with every ounce of strength. They punch right through his golden chest plate, as well as his sternum and ribs. The dark gray unicorn staggers back before falling to the street. "What the fuck?! How did-" Onyx didn't give him an opportunity to finish the thought, a powerful kick snapping his neck like a twig. The one remaining guard turns to run, but Onyx closes the distance, his glowing cybernetic eye flashes a bright, angry red. He tackles him, knocking the fleeing unicorn to the stone roadway. Sitting on top of him, Onyx punches down with his metal foreleg. A sickening krakk echoes off the buildings lining the dark street. Onyx continues to pummel the guard long after all that remained of his face was a bloody sludge. He finally stops, panting heavily. Each breath had to be forced, he gives short, sharp gasps as he sits there. He looks around, surrounded by death and gore. The road and sidewalks had been turned into a butcher's table, something out of a horror movie. The streetlamps continue to glow with indifference, shining down on the scene. He rises to his hooves, the silver metal splattered and stained red. He can feel his face and mane dripping. His chest heaves as he continues to pant, looking at what he'd created. It all felt surreal, like a dream. A terrible, terrible dream. It had to be, he couldn't have done this. He didn't have that kind of evil in him, did he? His stomach suddenly starts turning knots, he leans down and vomits, violently emptying the contents onto the street. He stays leaned down for a moment, world spinning. Onyx spits and wipes his mouth before getting back up. He gives a final glance at the scene. What had he done? Onyx turns down the street and runs. He didn't know where he was going, he didn't care. He just needed to get away from here. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ He slowly, carefully opens the room's door. Drops of water fell to the carpet underneath him, having jumped in the large fountain out in front of the hotel to wash himself off. To his surprise, he sees Angel Fire standing there. Bruiser was on the ground, a blanket draped over his lower half. As usual, he was sprawled out, taking up as much space as possible while snoring loudly enough to give a dragon a run for it's money. Onyx's gaze falls to the mare standing in the dark, she knew something had happened. There was a heaviness in his eyes she hadn't seen before. "Onyx, what happened?" He says nothing. His mouth opens, but no words find their way out. Without warning, his legs buckle underneath him, dumping him to the floor. It was like his body had just quit, somepony had unplugged him. Angel rushes to his side, placing a hoof at his side to steady him. "Breathe, just breathe" she instructs. His eye squeezes shut, he grits his teeth as tears flow from his one natural eye. He desperately tries to stop, this was not the time for a breakdown. Not now, not here. Not in front of her. She brings his head to her chest, holding him close. He coughs for breath, trying with all his might to just man up and get over it. Dammit this was embarrassing, he had just murdered twelve Royal Guard, and here he was. Crying, getting held by a mare. Like a foal.