“Nobody said that you had to be ‘whole’. Maybe you’ll be more cooperative after I pick out one eye or maybe both.” He lifted up both index and middle fingers and neared them towards Sombra’s eyes.
Sombra tried to struggle but it was futile. He had lost and everything was lost. All he could do now was to plummet to a life of Eternal Darkness.
“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” a feminine shout came from behind the thug who was not ready for any sort of surprise attack like this one, making him receive the full impact of a broomstick to the side of the head. The blow alone was enough for him to release Sombra and make him stumble several steps to the side and onto the ground.
“You…” Sombra couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw who interfered with his fight. “What do you think you’re doing, woman?” said complained as he used his remaining strength to stand up from the ground.
“Do not speak like that to the Great and Powerful Trixie! After she just saved your sorry butt!” the platinum haired girl declared with the wooden stick she used to save him still in hand.
“Sombra did not ask you to interfere!” Really, was she incapable of doing anything he asked of her?
“Well to bad! Trixie does not follow commands from anyone but hers!” Seriously, was he incapable of not being an ass for just one minute?
Before they could start the same argument they had been having for the last couple of hours, the angry voice of the Gas Mask brought their attention to him as he tried to pick himself up.
“YOU B*TCH!” That last blow not only was very low and underhanded but it f*****g hurt so much! “You will pay for this!” he did his best to stand up but his head was killing him and felt very dazed.
Trixie instinctively took a few steps backwards at the intensity of the thug’s words and anger emanating from him. She was no stranger to getting into verbal fights and being scream angrily at, but this was on another level of fury she’s never experienced before. After her third step she felt herself collide with something, no better said, someone.
“This is not your fight.” Sombra told her again but this time his voice wasn’t angry or condescending. “You’ve…done enough…” he said above a whisper. “You brought me a sword and for that I commend you.”
“Sword?” She repeated confused that is until he took the broomstick from her hands and swung it like one would do a sword. “You’re not planning on fighting more, are you?” Quite frankly he looked like a beat up mess not ready for another round. “He’ll kill you!” And that wasn’t an exaggeration when moments before, his opponent was clearly about to blind him forever.
“I’m not afraid of death.” Sombra declared ominously before turning to his opponent who looked about ready for to start again. “In glorious duels, it is common courtesy to introduce oneself for the opponent. I would ask you to introduce yourself to me and give me your real name. But honestly, I care not for the name of a dog.” These words only served to infuriate his opponent even further despite this not being his intention. “A stranger you shall remain!”
“Do you really think you can beat me with a damn stick?!” His opponent was very offended by the mere delusion of self-grandeur Sombra seemed to believe.
“When you’re in hell, or worse…the hospital, tell them that Sombra sent you!”
“You piece of sh…!” The Gas Mask was ready to attack again, stick be damned, but suddenly his vision turned red. Literally! “What the…?!” He rubbed the red off his eyes with his sleeve only to have his vision slowly blur and turn red.
It was a cut above the eye.
He must’ve gotten it when the Sombra’s b*tch hit him with the damned broomstick.
“This isn’t over Sombra!” he growled before he ran away to leave the place entirely. The wound itself wasn’t life threatening but he wasn’t gonna risk fighting Sombra while half blinded and a probable concussion. “We’ll meet again!”
“Yeah! You better run!” Trixie yelled back at him as he was retreating. Though she appeared sure of herself, inwardly she was glad that the whole thing was over. That is until Sombra dropped to the ground again, hurt and tired by the fight.
“Hey! What’s wrong?” Trixie quickly kneeled down to check on him.
“Nothing…just a flesh wound…” Sombra said trying to appear tough but he wasn’t very convincing.
“I better call an ambulance.” She went to grab her phone from her pocket but Sombra’s stopped her.
“No…no hospitals…” Sombra said clearly in pain.
“Are you insane?! Look at yourself! You need medical attention!”
“Why…can’t you ever do what I say…woman…”
“Stop calling me that! My name is Trixie! Trrrriiixieee!” She repeated her name for the twelfth time that day. “And I don’t take orders from anybody!”
“Wom…Trixie…no hospitals….” He insisted again, making Trixie hesitate for just a second.
“Why? Why don’t you want to go?” She was very curious the reason why he was so adamant about this.
“…” Sombra went deathly silent, his eyes looking at nothing in particular for a few seconds before he managed to get out a response. “I don’t like them…”
“That’s no reason for you not to…” Trixie was firm on calling an ambulance and dismiss his “reason” so Sombra did the unexpected.
“You can keep the book!” He almost shouted. “Keep the book…just don’t take me to the hospital.” Now this gave Trixie a pause.
He was letting her keep the book? After all this time? After all the hours they spent shouting at each other? He was letting the issue go? As simple as that?
“You…you must really hate Hospitals…”
“You have no idea.”
[x-x-x]
Tirek jumped behind an apple tree seconds before the heavy chain struck the place where he was just standing.
“Oh how the mighty have fallen.” The thug with the chain mocked as he pulled back the chain and ready it again. “The so called ‘Strongest in St. Everfree History’ hiding like a coward behind an apple tree.” He said making the remaining thugs laugh. “Come and fight us like a man!”
‘Says the one who attacked me with weapons from long range with nine other people.’ Still taking cover behind the apple tree Tirek rolled his eyes at the hypocrisy of these idiots, but he wasn’t gonna give him the satisfaction of an answer. What he was gonna give him was a one way trip to the damn hospital.
“Have it your way then!” With a simple signal the remaining thugs moved to the side in order to flank him and force him out of cover and into the range of his chain.
Seeing the other mobilize, Tirek dashed out of cover and went directly towards the Chain Thug.
“So predictable!” The thug jumped backwards to gain some distance and unleashed his chain once more forcing Tirek to jumped sideways to dodge the attack yet he didn’t stop moving forward. “Idiot, you’ll never catch me!” The thug recalled his chain back as he kept jumping away from ever being inside Tireks range. “You are just a brute with freakish strength!” He attacked and recall his chain once more “You only know how to punch things.” He kept on jumping side to side. “You are too dumb to realize this battle is futile!” He laughed and laughed until his back impacted with something.
“What the…?!” He turned his head only to find he had his back against an apple tree.
“And you don’t pay attention to your surroundings.” Tirek coldly said standing right in front of his now unmoving opponent.
“Wait! I was just …” The thug tied to plea but his words were cut short after Tirek delivered a blow to the gut, followed by a straight punch to the face, then another one, and another one, and another one and so forth.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Unleashed a mighty roar as he kept pummeling his opponent’s face. After he was done his opponent’s face was so banged up that not even his own mother could recognize him anymore.
“Holy F***!” A terrified voice sounded yelled from behind, making Tirek turn not before he wiped away the blood on his fists, which wasn’t his own.
“I told you…If you dared to attack me than I would CRUSH YOU!” Tirek reminded them of his words as he stomped his foot in front of him, making the other thugs step back in fear. “Who’s next?”
[x-x-x]
Sunset never felt this helpless before. Not even when she came from Equestria to this world through the mirror when she didn’t know anything about the world or had a place to stay. She had always been smart, cunning, capable to adapt to any situation. That’s how she managed to become the Queen Bee at her school, managed to move people like pieces of a chessboard for her ultimate attempt at power and conquest.
Sure, she began turning a new leaf and now she couldn’t imagine a life without her friends, but that strength and viciousness of character was something that didn’t disappeared like dust in the wind.
So then, why? Why did she felt like this? Why did she end up like this?
At the mercy of a man, a hostage to be used as a shield or a bargain chip against the boy she foolishly decided to follow from school. How she regretted her decision and blamed her stupid suspicions getting the best of her.
This was truly the worst feeling in her life.
“So? Do I have yer full attention, Discord?” The hat wearing thug that had her captured by the hair asked confidently, feeling that he had complete control of the situation. “Now let me introduce myself; my name is King. King Longhorn, leader of the Mad Bulls from Canter Creek!” The he pulled Sunset by the hair and lifted her head so Discord could have a clear view of her distressed face. “Now why don’t cha put down whatever ya have in yer hand and surrender? Otherwise this pretty girl will have to suffer!”
A cold silence fell upon Discord and King after the later made his threat. The only sounds that were heard were the groans of pain of the already defeated Mad Bulls and the quiet whimpers from Sunset.
After 20 seconds of full silence, Discord finally broke the stillness of the situation.
“Really?” He asked half appalled half incredulous. “I mean, really?”
“What? You think I won’t hurt her?” King pulled Sunset once more making her cry to prove himself. “I’m not joking! I’ll do terrible things to her!”
“No, no, no. I do believe you are that kind of scum.” Discord shook his head from side to side. “What I’m asking is if you honestly believed that trick was going to work on me?”
“What do you mean?”
That same question also rang inside the poor girl’s thought too.
“I mean, if the hostage were a family member or a friend, it might’ve worked” Discord pointed out much to Sunset’s horror. “But this girl? I don’t even know who she is!”
Was…was he serious? Did he honestly could care less what could’ve happened to her? He may not be the Magical Tyrant that she initially suspected him of being, but he was still a monster.
“You actually don’t care?” King asked a little bit surprised by Discord’s answer.
“For a complete stranger? I don’t give a hoot!” The dishevel boy shrugged his shoulders, dooming Sunset at the hands of the Mad Bull. Said girl was about to shed tears, fearing the fate that awaited her. “Heck, I might’ve even care if she were a classmate or, I don’t know, a little stalker who had been following me around ever since I got out of detention with Ms. Harshwhinny. But she isn’t any of those things.” He smiled when he saw the look on the redhead’s face when his words dawned on her.
“The hell are ya babbling about?” Thankfully King didn’t understand Discord’s words nor saw Sunset’s reaction to them. To him Discord’s words were a non sequitur.
“My point is that this trick is useless!” Discord declared. “Now where do we go from here?”
“Heh, didn’t expect this…” King admitted two thirds exasperated and third impressed. “The rumors of St. Everfree students being cold-blooded and ruthless do ring true. Not caring for the safety of an innocent girl… you truly are heartless.”
“And you are the garbage that decided to take an innocent girl as a hostage. So in a sense, everybody wins…except her obviously.” Discord pointed out sounding almost bored of it all, yet Sunset could see otherwise on the look he furtively gave to her. “So, what now? Girl or no girl I’m not gonna surrender.” i.e. he was going to kick ass no matter what.
“I see…” King closed his eyes for a second considering his options. Despite his appearance, he wasn’t an idiot, there’s no way anyone could take Discord’s word as true; so a little extra push was needed to see whenever to believe him or not. “If ya don’t care about this girl, then you wouldn’t mind if I have some fun with her, right?”
Now this sent a cold shiver down Sunset’s spine.
“You see back home they don’t make them girls as pretty as this one right here…” King then brought her near him and took a big sniff of her. “She even smells delicious.” He said making the poor girl’s stomach churn.
“Wow, you suddenly got creepy…” Discord commented trying to liven up this sick scenario playing in front of him. “I should advise you against wasting your energy before a fight…” he left the sentence pending hoping to dissuade him without coming off as an obvious ploy.
“Are ya sure you don’t care?” King asked as he traced a finger across Sunset’s delicate and smooth skin, inwardly making it crawl in disgust as she struggled against his grip. “Are ya gonna just stand there and watch?”
“Whoa there! I am no voyeur!” Not to kink-shame anyone. But he wasn’t interested in that sort of thing specially when the circumstances where as messed up as this one.
“Or maybe you want to join me…?” King made the sick offer and Discord had to struggle to keep up his act and to even get his next words out of his mouth.
“No man, she’s all yours.” He said as aloof and disinterested as possible.
“Well then…”
“Hey girl!” Discord interrupted whatever King had to say and spoke directly to Sunset with a very serious look. “Just so it doesn’t hurt so much… close your eyes and think of home.”
“Wha…?” Did he actually say those horrible words to her? Didn’t he care? Were his words from before just mixed messages he was misinterpreting because of her desperate need of help?
“Ah! And don’t forget to take a big breath too!” He added to the list. Though his words were outlandish Sunset felt the intensity of his gaze. Could she actually believe in his words? Could she actually believe in him?
“Trust me, everything will be fine.” Discord said as he slowly opened his hand that had been holding his little “surprise”.
With everything to lose, Sunset put her faith in Discord and closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
[x-x-x]
Despite seeing first hand his strength and how they could’ve end up as when, not if, when he gets them on his reach, the thugs attacked Tirek instead or running away to fight another day. If anything, the Red Giant commended them for their dedication to their cause. It wasn’t any less stupidly reckless but he fully admitted they had some guts.
Guts that they were going to spill all over, courtesy of his power.
Tirek ran towards the foolish thugs that dared attack him, his visage not unlike a freight train that was about to run over them.
“I just need ONE shot!” One of the thugs shouted, mostly to pump himself up and not give into the fear. “I’ll take him down, just open him up for one second!” He pronounce as he began swinging his sling preparing for a shot.
“Right!” One with the steel pipe valiantly ran to intercept Tirek and break his guard enough for his companion to have a clear shot. Once he was at the appropriate distance he jumped as high as he could and brought his pipe downwards to smash Tirek’s head.
“OUT OF MY WAY!” Tirek growled as he swung his large powerful arm sideways and swap the thug out of the air as one would to an annoying fly, sending the thug crashing unceremoniously to the ground while continued forward. Unfortunately for him that’s what the Thug Slinger was looking for.
“THERE!” He released the tap of his sling at the perfect moment, firing the projectile with the speed and precision of a bullet and enough force to knock out a large animal just like ancient warriors did when hunting for the mighty jaguar on the South American Jungles.
The stone flew and hit Tirek directly in the face, right in the middle of the eyes, sending his head backwards and making him stop dead on his tracks and sank unto the ground just a few feet away from the shooter.
“YOU LIKED THAT?!” The thug shouted euphorically, his system filled with adrenaline. “DIDN’T THINK A STONE COULD KNOCK YOU DOWN? WELL THINK AGAIN!” He was so pumped up that he couldn’t help but jump up and down in victory
He took Tirek down! HE took TIREK down! THE TIREK! The strongest student in St. Everfree History! He a simple soldier of the Dark Queen’s army defeated the Red Giant! It was as if the old legend of ancient lore was brought back to life once more.
“Yes! Just like in the ancient legend, I shall become King!” He could already see himself leading the armies with the Beautiful and Voluptuous Chrysalis as his Queen and consort! “I shall rule over Everfree! And lead the cause to a prosperous future or my name isn’t…”
“Shut up!” a deep scary voice that was very familiar said from behind, and by the sound of it, he wasn’t very happy. “That f****** hurt!”
“Tirek!” The now scared thug managed to scream before he was lifted by the ankle turning his world literally upside down. “W-what are you doing?”
“Taking you for a spin!”
“Was…that a qui…!?”
“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!” Tirek began spinning around holding firmly the thugs leg as he slowly gained more and more momentum.
“I GONNA BE SICK!” The poor thug shouted as he felt his stomach revolt inside of him causing him nausea. Thankfully he felt himself stop spinning but now he was on a one way trip towards an apple tree where he crashed head first, knocking the daylights out of him.
“WHO’S NEXT?!” Tirek shouted into the sky adrenaline coursing through his veins fueling his rampaging ire.
“US!” Two other voices called out as Tirek suddenly felt his arms and legs being bound faster than he could blink then he fall to the ground again like a tree that had just being cut down.
“WHAT?!” The fallen giant looked down at his bindings and saw that he was brought down by thick cords connected by heavy spherical weights at the end.
“Damn they really worked.” Another couple of thugs came and looked down at their handy work. “I thought Bolas were just an exaggeration created by cartoons about Action Man. Man, you remember Action Man? Good show with kick ass action figures and toys. Not to mention the comics that…”
“They worked that’s all I care about!” The other said ignoring the other’s tangent about Cartoon Characters from Childhood. Then he looked at the downed red giant. “You f****** assh°le, you had to be a pain in the ass don’t you?” He sneered furiously. “You’ll pay for all of this!”
“Yeah, when we bring you up to Queen Chrysalis you’ll wish you’d be dead!” The other agreed with his partner but said partner didn’t look pleased by his words.
“F*** that! We kill this f*****r now!”
“Dude, remember our orders!”
“F*** the orders! Do you think the two of us can even carry his piece of sh!t back?!” He pointed out. “No! This f*****r dies today! He’ll pay for everything he had done to us!”
“But…!”
“No But’s! I’ll kill him right now and don’t you dare stop me!” His partner seeing that he couldn’t convince him otherwise; he stepped back and let him have his way.
“Just so you know, I think this is f***ed-up! This is something a Cobra Terrorist would do!”
“You are comparing me to members of the most famous terrorist groups of the 80’s?”
“If the shoe fits, man!”
“I don’t give a f****!” He finally turned from his partner and towards Tirek as he brought up a steel pipe. “Any last words?”
“Go f*** yourself.” Tirek spat, before the steel pipe came down hit him in the face.
“Just for that, I think I’ll make you suffer a bit!”
[x-x-x]
Discord smiled when his little stalker closed her eyes and took a deep breath like he hinted. And just in time too as he perform his signature move on King who just looked confused.
That confusion wouldn’t last long because soon his entire being was filled with dread. He didn’t know what was going on, but he could tell the source of this terror stem from Discord’s gaze. Those eyes, they were like a void. He felt as if he was staring back at Darkness Eternal and the Darkness was staring back, not at him but through him. Looking, judging his innermost core, his very soul.
The sheer terror he was experimenting was enough for him to loosen his grip on the girl without noticing it. Then without warning the world around him turn dark and breathing became difficult as soon as whatever Discord released from his hand made contact with the ground.
At that moment he didn’t know it, but Discord had used a powerful smoke grenade.
As he was struggling to regain semblance of his surroundings, King felt a sharp pain in the knee followed by the intense feeling of something cracking one of his ribs and finally a blunt blow to his jaw knocking him to the ground as a sack of potatoes.
From the alleyway filling with smoke, Discord jumped out of it carrying the girl Pack-Strap Style on his back; with her arms around his neck and her legs carried by his arms “You can start breathing again!” Discord said as he kept on running.
“HA!!!” Sunset took a lungful of air before she started breathing at a normal pace. “Wh-what happened?”
“Told you that everything would be fine!” He laughed as he kept the fast pace of his escape. “So, do you have someplace safe I can deliver you to?”
Sunset wanted to tell him to get her home, but went against the idea and told him the nearest place she could think of that was safe too. “The…animal shelter…”
“Good Idea, Miss Stalker! We could rent a pony and make a quicker escape.”
Sunset didn’t know how to respond to that, especially after mentioning the word pony. Instead she decided to correct him on the only thing she could. “Shimmer…my name is Sunset Shimmer.”
“Nice meeting you Sunny! The name’s Discord but I let cute girls call me Dissy!”
[x-x-x]
“How you like that, F****r?!” The thug gasped rapidly for air after hitting Tirek over and over again with the pipe.
“By the almighty, can’t you stop?” his partner said disgusted. “Look at the guy, he already suffered enough.”
“You’re right…” The pipe wielder said looking at the bloody visage of Tirek, who against all odds, remained conscious but his struggles to break free finally ceased. “It is getting old… I better put this guy out of his misery!”
“Dude! I will not let you kill the guy!”
“You hypocrite! If you can’t stomach this then why are you here?”
“One thing is to beat up someone and another to outright kill them!” He said as the only sane man here. “And even then, this is brutal! Inhuman! Kinda like the Inhumanoids!”
“Shut the f*** up!” The pipe wielder swung his weapon and smacked his partner with enough force to knock him out. “That ought to shut you up. Nobody wants to hear you talk about sh!tty cartoons made to sell toys to stupid kids!” Really, what sort of assh°le spends his time obsessing over dumb cartoons? “Now is your turn Tirek!”
He slowly lifted up the pipe as high as he could, enjoying the moment to its fullest and burning this whole thing into his memory as best as he could.
“Burn in hell, Tirek!” As he was about to deliver the killing blow, the thug felt something took a hold of him. “What the…?!” It was all he could utter before he was violently yanked from atop Tirek and unto the ground.
“Not so fast, feller!” A distinct voice with a country accent made itself known. “We don’t take kindly to people like you! Especially when their trespassing mah property!”
Tirek who was barely holding to consciousness couldn’t believe who just saved his life.
And neither the attempted murderer when he turned around and saw an old lady holding a lasso, the thing she used to yank him like a rag doll. “Who the f***?!”
“Everyone calls me Granny! But you, sailor mouth, can call me that woman that tanned yer hide!”
[x-x-x]