//------------------------------// // Rage of The Devil // Story: From Savage to Civil // by Discorded SheepcityUSA //------------------------------// The very same party of unicorns that had gone after Steven Magnet had long fled the Everfree Forest from the savage little colt that’d brutally injured one of their own. One time was enough to scare them absolutely shitless into abandoning their mission and returning to their boss. Though a lot of them feared that what the boss would do to them if she knew about what happened. This thought is exactly what kept them from entering Moxxy’s hotel room and just left them standing outside of it, a few of them shivering in pure fear and anxiety. “We’re only delaying the inevitable everypony, l-let’s just calmly explain to her what went down and maybe she’ll go easy on us.” One of them suggested. “No offense but, are you out of your fucking mind? Moxxy’s completely unmerciful to ponies that fail her. If we tell her a COLT of all things stopped us, she’ll turn US into throw rugs.” Another one said. While a few of the ponies were talking amongst themselves over what to do, the stallion that had had his horn chomped off by Timber simply stood there, eye twitching a little bit. One of the mare unicorns of the group looked over at him. “Oh stop being such a baby, it’ll grow back.” She groaned. The stallion though, was not amused in the slightest at the mare’s tone and stared daggers at her. “Oh that’s sooooo easy for you to say. Did a crazy kid jump on YOUR head and violently rip off your horn? No? Then until that happens to you, don’t give me any crap.” He growled. It wasn’t just the fact that this stallion had been hurt and humiliated on this level that made him angry. It was the fact that he had been hurt and humiliated on this level BY A COLT that really made his blood boil. A different unicorn stallion out of the group groaned loudly. “If you guys are just going to be wimps about it, I’ll go in and tell her what happened. Are you all satisfied now?” he asked with an annoyed face. The rest of the unicorns nodded before the stallion rolled his eyes and trotted slowly into Moxxy’s hotel room. It was evident almost the second he entered that he was in over his head. The room was very dimly lit to the point where almost the only thing that was visibly bright was the embers of Moxxy’s cigarette that she held in her magic. She was sitting in a chair that was faced toward the door as if she’d been sitting there staring at it for hours on end waiting for him to enter. The darkness didn’t make her usual death-glare any less terrifying though. Her chilling, light blue eyes stared right through the stallion, making him shiver with anxiety. It was said that a pony’s eyes are meant to be the windows to the soul. Well, these hunters had seen Moxxy’s eyes several times, and in looking at them, they were thoroughly convinced that there was no soul to be found in her. Pansy, standing right by her chair looked utterly pathetic in comparison. She always had a look of really uncomfortable anxiety and fear about her, like she never wanted to be in the situation she was in. Looking at Pansy and Moxxy side by side like this, it only made Moxxy look all the scarier. “You know…” Moxxy said slowly and calmly, lightly dusting off her minx coat. Pansy had gotten it back to her after cleaning the mud-stains out and it looked as elegant as before, if not more so. “It’s never really a good sign when only one pony shows up out of a party of a few dozen.” Moxxy said, smiling a little disturbingly. In the stallion’s mind, this was already off to a bad start. Moxxy only smiles on few occasions, one of the most prominent being when she has a new fur to wear. This was clearly not the case here. “W-Well ma’am I do actually have something to tell you.” He said, gulping a little. Moxxy waved a hoof, gesturing him to continue, but at the same time, blowing some of the smoke from her cigarette his way, making him cough. “Well don’t keep me in suspense. Go on, tell me.” She said. The stallion was still coughing when he tried to speak, but did manage to recover after a few seconds. What was with her and smoking? It almost seemed like she went out of her way to find cigarettes that smelled the absolute worst just so she could blow it in ponies’ faces. “Y-Yes ma’am. Our team came up short in our hunting tonight. We were on the verge of getting that serpent’s mane that you wanted, b-but…we ran into some complications.” Moxxy raised a curious eyebrow. “Complications? Don’t tell me some animal got the best of you, that’s what you have magic for. I told you if you ran into any Timberwolves to just blast it non-stop, it will leave you be eventually.” Moxxy said before growling to herself. “Fucking useless beasts. Only there to interfere and they’re not even good for hunting. Nopony wants clothes made out of wood.” She grumbled. The stallion shook his head. “N-Nothing like that ma’am. It wasn’t animals that gave us problems.” As Moxxy looked ever more curious, Pansy started to get even more scared. She was secretly happy that the hunters hadn’t managed to get their hooves on that serpent, but she dared not speak her mind in front of Moxxy. “O-Oh? Well then what happened?” Pansy asked. The pony before Moxxy gulped nervously again. “W-We were ambushed. This insane, ginger colt dropped on one of our hunter’s heads and ripped his horn off with his teeth. I-It was so gruesome it made me want to vomit. W-We had to get out of there for the sake of the rest of our horns, surely you understand.” He said nervously stuttering. Moxxy cringed only ever so slightly at the thought of a horn being snapped from a pony’s head. The thought was truly unnerving to just about any unicorn; the same with pegasi and the thought of their wings being broken off. Nevertheless, Moxxy managed to keep a straight face. She slowly stood up out of her chair and walked around the stallion, circling him and making him feel even more terrified than he was. “…So…a group of highly trained and magically skilled unicorn hunters were reduced to being afraid to subdue a child for getting in the way of the hunt, is that what you’re telling me? The reason I don’t have serpent scale boots right now is because of some brat you were too afraid to fight?” Moxxy asked with her usual unreadable tone in her voice. Her tone of voice may have been hard to interpret, but the words she was saying clearly showed her displeasure at this new development. “U-Ummm….that’s a negative way of putting it but…yes.” The stallion said quietly. The room was eerily silent for a few moments. The stallion was completely scared out of his wits now as Moxxy stared at him, surely contemplating what she was going to do to him. If Moxxy was not above killing a family of rabbits to make slippers, she would certainly not be above shooting the messenger of bad news such as this. The last thing the stallion expected was for Moxxy to chuckle. “Oh I understand you and your comrade’s fear just fine. You witnessed your friend being mutilated before your very eyes, that’s naturally a cause for alarm.” Moxxy said calmy, again chuckling between words. The stallion was nothing less of shocked at this. Moxxy wasn’t known for being this overly understanding. “W-Wait, really?” He asked. “Of course, you poor things must have been absolutely terrified.” She said, trotting over the table beside her chair where there was a glass of wine waiting for her. She held her cigarette away from her mouth with her magic and then proceeded to pick the wine glass up with more magic, slowly bringing it to her lips and taking a sip out of it. While the unicorn seemed to be calming down now, Pansy was more terrified than ever. She knew Moxxy for years now, and her being this calm and collected over something like this could only lead to terrible things. She really didn’t want to be right here. Moxxy stopped drinking her wine once the glass was empty and said nothing for a few short moments, her back facing the stallion in the room. “…Of course…you should know by now that I don’t tolerate failure…especially under circumstances like these.” “Wait wha-“ The stallion didn’t get to finish his statement, or even express a look of confusion. As soon as Moxxy had finished her sentence, she turned around and hurled the glass at the pony with her magic as hard as she could. The glass hit its mark and smashed against the side of his face, leaving shards of broken glass stabbing into his cheek and blood trailing down his wounds. “AAAAAAGH!” The stallion screamed in pain. Moxxy didn’t seem to acknowledge the stallion screaming whatsoever and simply opened the door to her room and shoved him out into the hallway, making him fall on his stomach. The other unicorns were waiting outside when this happened and gasped in fear as they saw what Moxxy did to this one. Moxxy then trotted outside, now all traces of composure completely gone from her face. Her nostrils were flaring and snorting hot air out of them, her mane was frizzled, teeth clenched, and eyes bloodshot. All of which was in uncontrollable rage. “LET THIS SHITHEAD BE AN EXAMPLE FOR THE REST OF YOU! IF I HEAR ABOUT SUCH A PATHETIC FAILURE OUT OF YOU AGAIN, I WILL SHOVE ALL OF YOUR EMPTY HEADS UP YOUR OWN ASSES!” Moxxy screamed at the top of her lungs. She slammed the door as hard as possible, leaving the terrified ponies outside. Moxxy, then looked at Pansy, who was shivering in fear at the sight of her. Even though Pansy had seen Moxxy like this several times over the years, it never got any easier watching every time it happened. Moxxy could be completely calm one moment, and then screaming and yelling the next, especially if things don’t go according to plan. “M-Miss Moxxy, c-could you calm down please? Ponies might file noise complaints against us.” She said meekly. Moxxy put a hoof to her head and smoothed her mane back out. She quickly then took to returning to her cigarette, inhaling and exhaling the smoke from it. Pansy could never tell what it was about those that relaxed her, but she didn’t want to question her about it for fear it’d somehow set Moxxy’s temper off. “…I am too perfect to be angry, I am too perfect to be angry.” Moxxy repeated to herself several times, her eye twitching a little. A few more seconds of trying to relax later, and Moxxy exhaled deeply, followed by smoke coming from her mouth. “Well this was a disappointment” Moxxy said with an annoyed sigh. “Whoever that colt was that stopped my hunters will surely tell everypony about them. They’ll be onto us now.” “S-So…now would be a good time to just call off the hunt and go home, right?” Pansy asked with a hopeful smile. “Of course not. I will not be undone by a child Pansy, come now.” Moxxy said. “Though, my hunters will need to lay low for a while. Like I said, ponies will start getting suspicious of us. Have them stand down until further notice…meanwhile I’ll see what I can do about our little pest problem.” She snickered sinisterly, a small smirk beginning to grow on her face. “I’ve already got something in mind. It will take a while to fully develop but once it’s ready, the payoff will be glorious~” Pansy’s ears folded to her head and she swallowed, only imagining what horrors Moxxy had concocting in her head. “O-Oh…” “And Timber just jumped out of the tree and SNAP! Off with the guy’s horn!” Scootaloo exclaimed, making a motion with her hooves as if she was breaking something in half with them. Rarity and Critter had been listening to what the Crusaders were telling them for the past half-hour or so regarding what happened in the Everfree Forest. They were absolutely stunned over the entire scenario. The kids having gone into one of the most dangerous places in Equestria by themselves, poachers trying to kill Steven Magnet for some unnamed boss, and Timber behaving much more like a vicious animal than usual to stop them. “G-Gracious that sounds dreadful! Are you certain you’re all okay?” Rarity asked, very obviously concerned. Unsurprisingly the thought of a horn getting broken off made Rarity a little queasy, but that was the least of her problems right now. The fillies nodded. “We’re just fine. It’s Timber we should be more worried about. He got hit with some magic by those unicorns and it really looked like it hurt!” Sweetie Belle said, looking at Timber. While all of this was going on, Timber had not made a single sound. Not talking was expected of him since he was incapable of doing so yet, but not even a growl, snort, snarl, or anything passed his mouth. He just sat on the couch staring at the ground with an angry, unblinking stare, contemplating who knows what. “Those ruffians hurt Timber?!?!” Rarity’s voice increased in volume and she clenched her teeth in anger. Just the thought alone of anypony hurting the colt she’d grown to care so much for made her very close to going over her boiling point and going to hunt down those monsters herself. Critter flinched a little at how angry Rarity looked all of a sudden. After seeing what Rarity did to that Manticore after she saw it fighting Timber in the Windless Woods, he was fully aware of just how terrifying Rarity could get under those conditions. He quickly took measures to help Rarity relax by gently rubbing her back. “Rarity you’re entirely in the right to be angry, hell, I’m engulfed with rage myself. As someone that’s a big animal lover, I’m gonna say right now that I can’t stand poachers in the slightest. All they do is kill animals for their own selfish desires. It’s not cool. But we can’t go after them right now. There’s too few of us, and from how the kids are describing, way too many of them.” He said, still rubbing her back and trying to calm her rage. This worked only to an extent, as Rarity did calm down a little, but was still quite angry. “…Then what do you suggest I do? I simply cannot allow something like this to happen again!” Critter exhaled a little and thought to himself before answering. “Your friend’s a princess, she could have some guards do some checking around to see if they find anything.” He said. He then seemed to think again for a moment. “Is there anyone else that lives close enough to the forest that could help us keep an eye out?” Apple Bloom’s ears perked up a little at that, and she saw her chance to make a suggestion. “Oh! Our friend Zecora lives in the forest, she could tell us if somethin’ happens!” She said, smiling. After a few more seconds of Critter’s massaging and hearing what himself and Apple Bloom had to say, Rarity managed to calm down enough to speak softly. “…Alright, that sounds fine…” she said, looking at the fillies. “But don’t think I won’t be telling Applejack and Rainbow Dash about you going in that dangerous forest alone.” She said. Scootaloo groaned a little. “Dang it.” Apple Bloom made a very similar noise and looked at the ceiling. “Rats.” Rarity rolled her eyes and looked at Timber and Sweetie Belle lastly. Sweetie Belle had a bit of a guilty look about her over this whole thing, while Timber continued just staring at the ground, angrily. Rarity hadn’t seen Timber behave in such a way prior to this and she started to become worried. “…Timber sweetheart?...are you feeling alright?” Rarity was only met with silence from Timber. Sweetie Belle started to become just as concerned as Rarity over the matter and her ears folded to her head. “T-Timber?” Critter looked at how Timber seemed to not even be moving as he sat there, glaring. Whatever happened in the forest clearly had some kind of effect on him. Given what those unicorns were doing, and how he responded, he had a pretty good idea about what it was. “…I could be wrong, but just hear me out here. Imagine you thought you were a completely different species than what you really are for your whole life. Out of nowhere, something shows you that you aren’t what you thought you were and you’re a different species altogether. Now imagine you and your confused as hell self watching another member of that species doing something horrible. I’d think that’d leave you with a bad impression of said species and possibly yourself.” He said. It wasn’t a certainty, but he wouldn’t very well be able to get a clear answer out of Timber on it, so it was the best Critter had. Rarity, now more concerned than ever, picked Timber up and hugged him. “Oh my poor colt. Timber don’t get the wrong idea because of what happened tonight. Not all ponies are good, but not all ponies are bad either. With the way you were willing to protect something that you don’t even know, I would say that makes you a very good pony.” She said, lightly nuzzling his cheek. Timber looked up at Rarity, no longer with the angry look on his face that he’d had before, but genuine fascination. He’d seen ponies do some pretty terrible things tonight, and he had to be as strong and wild as he could be to stop them. But he needed to remember that even though that the world had some ponies like Diamond Tiara and the poachers, there were always ponies like Rarity. He could admire this very greatly. “…Rarara.” Timber growled a little as he hugged Rarity back, a smile starting to come to his face. Rarity had just put Timber and Sweetie Belle to bed after Apple Bloom and Scootaloo went home. Timber was staying in the guest bedroom because after seeing the way Timber reacted to Sweetie Belle rubbing his wings, there was no way she was going to risk those two sleeping in the same room. She just could not allow it at all. She began to think to herself as she trotted back downstairs of how complicated things had been getting lately. First she finds a feral colt in the middle of a very perilous jungle, then poachers show up seemingly out of nowhere in the Everfree Forest, and things weren’t looking like they were going to get any simpler from here on out. “Oh goodness Rarity, what have you gotten yourself into?” she said to herself. After she got back downstairs, she looked at Critter, who was now asleep on the couch, a little bit of drool dripping from his mouth as he laid down, snoring a little. Rarity rolled her eyes a little at this. “Very charming” she said sarcastically. She could seriously not believe that she’d kissed this same stallion only an hour before now. If she was honest with herself, she wished it would’ve lasted longer than it did. Though unlike most times where Sweetie Belle interrupted her during something important, she could not get angry at her for it this time. It was too serious a situation for Sweetie not to tell her. Rarity started to think about her own feelings though. She started to remember the fact that Critter would have to leave the next morning for Canterlot. The idea of that being only the next day really did not sit well with Rarity at all. Looks like she was going to have to consider this being yet another big complication. Then without any warning, she felt a pair of hooves wrap around her and pull her back toward the couch. She squeaked a little and surprised and quickly looked down at her “attacker”, when all she found was Critter looking back at her, smirking a little and a slight tinge of red on his cheeks. “…Heeeey. That look on your face says everything. You didn’t think you were getting rid of me that quick did you?” He said, still smirking a little. Rarity, with a similar blush coming to her face, was getting a little flustered and confused over Critter’s statement. “W-What? What are you trying to say darling?” she asked. Critter snickered a little. “I’m going to be conducting some “extended research” on Timber’s case. From a scientific standpoint, he’s practically a miracle of nature vs. nurture. I’ll be allowed to stay in Ponyville on those grounds.” He said. “…Are you absolutely positive that research is the only reason you’ll be staying?” Rarity asked, starting to look a little offended. Critter rolled his eyes. “Well, there may just be a few other…“ Critter stopped midsentence and looked at Rarity, lightly squeezing her belly and nuzzling her mane. “…Determining factors” he finished. Rarity squeaked a little at Critter’s sudden affection and blushed even deeper. Things were indeed going to get more complex.