Hunting the 6

by Starblazer225

The First

“Golden?” I heard, snapping me out of my nap. I moved my legs over from the arms of the couch I had them lying comfortably on. I tilted my hat back from over my eyes. Starblazer stood there wearing a black trench coat that lightly drug below him. On his head a black flat brimmed bowler cap.

“We have a meeting to attend.” He said looking towards a grand red door, on either side long windows were embedded on the wall beautifully decorated with complex ironwork. Inside one of the windows was a sign that read closed, which means the side facing the outside read ‘open’. Busts of the two rulers sat in front of both windows, the fair Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

I swung my legs around and sat there on the couch. Star stood to his hind legs and leaned on the door similar to how he had before at Big Mac’s place. He had a watch strapped to his hoof, an expensive looking watch to match. He kept looking at it then to the door.

“When did th' informant say she’d be arrivin’?” I asked. He shook his head.

“The target was supposed to be here five minutes ago. Right here at the Royal Canterlot Library.” He responded looking back to his watch. I rolled my sleeve up and looked down at my foreleg’s hoof. The shiny metal weapon still stayed there silent, anticipating when we will be able to use it.

The walls were decorated with golden leaf etches along white marble walls. The smell of old paper and ink drafted through the rooms already unpleasant musk. I sat on one of the red-velvet couches placed across from the big grand entrance. Behind me was two long staircases leading up to a second deck-floor holding rows and rows of books. Directly behind me was a floral arrangement, six roses all different colors sitting in a vase. It looked new but one of the roses was wilting, still had it's color,but was near falling off. It was beautiful yet sad to see it like that. I turned to it and plucked the rose off dropping it to the soil from where it came.

Then I heard it, a slamming almost, but it was muffled.

“Hold on.” Starblazer said with his ear against the door. The door opposite to him opened. He snapped quickly back to his leaning stance, his hat pulled over his eyes. I stood staring to match the target up with the one that picture I had of her. A purple unicorn entered. Her eyes outlined with complimentary blue makeup and her hair straight but longer than the picture. It was her.

She wore a coat that was hanging on her shoulders and a long skirt around her mid section. Her hooves were strapped into leather shoes. She had a saddlebag with only one pouch hanging over her right side. As soon as her purple eyes caught mine observing her I snapped away before our gazes met. I looked down at my hooves on the floor.

“You look new here, stranger.” I heard her say gleefully. I looked back to her. She had a smile on her face and glimmering eyes that shone brightly.

“I’m here on business.” I said to her looking over to Star then back to her gaze.

“Well, I do hope everything goes well!” She said trotting happily by me. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Star looking at me. He raised his eyebrows, trying to ask me if it was her but without words. I nodded once.

“Okay then,” he said under his breath. He stuck his hoof into the windowpane turning the sign around to where the “open” side faced us.

I got up and moved towards the stairs. Walking up opened the building up to a greater room much longer and bigger than expected. Shelves with books lined on them leaned on each other peacefully and calmly waiting for someone to come by and open their old pages to new adventures. In the middle of it all was a desk piled high with books. The whole library was empty though, and quiet.

I walked slowly passed the rows of shelves of books. I caught small lines of some titles while looking for the mare. ‘The mysterious Mare-do-well’ I read from one, ‘The Classic Tale’s of Daring Doo’, all were old books that had been around since I was a just a young colt.

I turned looking around corners and down some of the rows. She was nowhere to be seen. I looked behind me, Starblazer stood by the stairs leading out of the library. I looked back to my front. She could be anywhere. The adrenaline in my veins started to push me a little harder putting my nerves on edge. I had no idea where she’d gone, I had no idea of what her capabilities were, I had no idea what to expect and that is what was putting me on edge. I watched her go up the steps she couldn’t have been far. I need to find her and I need to take her down. I turned towards the entrance again to see if Starblazer was still there. Instead I was face to face with her.

“Why are you trying to kill me?”

“S’c-s'cuse me?” I asked hesitantly.

“I said, why are you trying to kill me?” I was a little shocked by the question, how could she have known what I was trying to do?

“I can read your thoughts,” She said.

“That’s how I know that you want to kill me.” She took a step closer.

“Now, before I decide to use some real magic on you, why are you trying to kill me?” Finishing in that her horn grew a bright purple haze around it. It held bright and shone throughout the library, brighter that most of the lights inside already. I had dealt with unicorns before and the easiest way to get close is to break their horn. I’d have to be either really accurate to make that shot or I’d have to get close to her.

“Listen Golden,” she said. The color around her horn faded and she began a slow trot towards me.

“I don’t want to hurt you, what I have done was for the best for everypony.” She said backing off a little.

“I-I didn’t want to do it, honestly, I knew she would hurt a lot of ponies and I wasn’t going to just sit by and watch.” A tear formed at her eye.

“I didn’t want to hurt my teacher, but I had no choice.” She dropped to the ground. Her head faced the floor, her face digging into her forelegs,she started to cry.

“I wanted to do what was right, I-“ She was silent for a moment. Then she looked up to me.

"Mr. Golden, you've never watched anyone close to you get hurt, have you?" She asked. A certain fire blazed inside my heart and kicked my mind in the balls.

"I watched my family die before ma very eyes." I said to her harshly. The memory fell back and created a glacier of ice ran all down my spine creating a sudden chill.

"You didn't kill them did you?" She asked. I stood there dumbfounded, confused by the statement.

"You never watched them so hopeless that all they could do is stand there in shack and awe as you struck them down without hesitation. I killed her, I murdered her in the courtroom, right as she was supposed to raise the sun. I did it." A stream of tears rolled down her cheeks, a small smile crossed her face before she spoke again.

“I’m not even going to fight it,” She said weakly with a little chuckle.

"I know what I did, and now, for that, I must pay." I looked out to Star for an explanation across from me. I'm not sure what to have done. He had his hoof in an open part of his coat, probably around some kind of pistol, just in case things got complicated. I walked closer to her; she laid there, her stomach on the ground and her legs bent inward under her. I placed my hoof on her head, the gun was itching me forward to pull the trigger. Instead I lifted her chin with my hoof to look at her in the face the barrel was facing below her chin, if I were to fire it would have gone straight through her brain. I released the switch trigger back into position putting the safety on, letting the gun be dormant until I needed it, if i needed it.

“Why are there ponies that wanchu you dead?” I asked. She sniffed, then took in a deep breath and looked up to me with a smile and tear stained eyes, pulling her chin off my hoof and staring at me tears pouring down her face now.

“Because I did the right thing.”

Bang

I felt something just then, like a force that threw my foreleg back, the one the gun was mounted on. A loud crack rang through the empty room. Her head whipped back to the floor, slamming hard against the marble ground. I looked down, a purple aura faded from the gun around my hoof as the smoke resonated from the barrel of it . The same aura that had once surrounded the unicorn’s horn. I couldn't process this, did I fire that shot? No, I couldn’t have.

Starblazer rushed to my side.

“Did y-“

“No.” I said cutting him off.

“I-I think she done killed herself.” I said looking at my hoof, it was painted with flecks of blood. Smoke faded from the barrel of the gun.

“She pulled th’ trigger.” I said quietly under my breath. A pool of blood was below her head and surrounded her body. The red puddle gleamed against the white marble floor.

“Did you hear any of that?” I asked Star. He shook his head.

“Now that I look at her though,” He said kneeling close to her.

“I think I knew her.” He brushed her mane away from her face revealing closed eyes and a red hole centered in the forehead.

“I do know who that is. Her name is Twilight Sparkle.” He began as he rose back to his four legs.

“She had a much shorter mane way back when. She was one of the elements of Harmony, really brainy girl, always reading books and stuff. Why would the boss want her dead?” Star questioned letting her hair fall back onto her face.

“Better question m' friend, why did she go on n' kill herself?” I asked along with him, he shrugged, not taking his eyes off the body. The whole room was quiet, silence stayed suspended over the scene in the middle of the library. Two stallions standing there standing and pondering over a dead mare in between them, her eyes closed as a hole leaked blood onto the white floor coming from her forehead and the back of her skull.

I played those last moments back in my mind.

“Why are there ponies that wanchu you dead?”

“Because I did the right thing.”

Bang

What could she have meant? What could she have done? Who did she kill exactly?

Baritone backed away from the body.

“We better get going.” Starblazer said quietly. He turned and began to trot back to the entrance.

“We gotta leave before anyone sees us.” I heard him say. I nodded even though he probably didn’t see me. I turned away from the scene and walked towards the door. Why did she do that? Go and kill herself like that, what did she mean by “Because I did the right thing”?

As I walked out of the library I turned and looked back at the bouquet of flowers all resting in that vase. One was lying in the dirt below, red petals surrounding the end of the stem. It was wilted, but still had it’s color. It was going to die so I just pulled it off before it could turn brown and wilt away completely. There were still five resting peacefully over there. Up until someone like me comes along and plucks it off.

Comments

[La Barata]

Well shit.

And we have plot!

One quick thing, you might want to put that little flashback in italics. The second time you repeat the "Why do folks want you dead" part.

[Starblazer225]

2655356was it a little bit of a curve for you? I'm sorry about the italicize part, i meant to do that but i was a little too caught up with writing this. Thanks for pointing it out!

[La Barata]

2655484 Oh, don't worry about that, I'm just trying to help with some suggestions.

But yeah, that was a bit of a curveball, and an interesting one at that. We've now got timeline established, and a whole slew of questions, first and foremost being:

Is the reason it's been so grey all the time because there's no more sun?

[Starblazer225]

2655568 looks like you got it

[La Barata]

2655796 Ha!

Wow, Twilight. What a bitch.

[Starblazer225]

2656081Don't be so sure about yourself, there's a lot more to it than you think and it might change everything for you. Just wait until the next one

[Starblazer225]

2657528First and foremost, I apologize to you personally for how bad this is. Writing is not my strong suite, as you an see. It's more of one of my many hobbies I enjoy doing, a friend suggested I put some of my work on this site and i did. So far I am fairly satisfied by the fact that I have ten people who enjoyed this story so far (that is not that impressive but it makes me fee pretty good deep down).

I understand that i am kind of breaking tradition with how dark this story is and how everything will unfold later is going to be pretty dark as well, but i do think that the more abstract of an idea and the more you toy and twist the reader's mind the more memorable a story is (in which i plan to do in the future installments).

I apologize about the OC thing and I do understand what you're trying to say. The main character (Golden) is one of the OCs i've created, the other (Starblazer) is a secondary or minor character to the story since he is more of an assistant and will not be carried on throughout the story. Within all the fics I'm working on currently I am going to include him in the story or plot in some way as I am also working on his own story as well that will have no relation to the other stories he's been in.

The justification on how and why the main characters are being hunted for a bounty-like prize will come soon within the next few chapters (but i don't think you will even read any further i don't see why I am even going to tell you that). I wanted to hold a very macabre steam-punk like world that this was occurring in with some more futuristic technology at work similar to (if you've played/heard of it) Dishonored.

Dialog and descriptive detail is a big flaw in everything I do unfortunately and has always been a major pain for me and with that I will have to work on. I do need much more practice considering I am an amateur at best if a lot of my minor flaws are looked over.

The advice you've stated was incredibly helpful. I will work on those aspects as best I can. I don't think you have much more to worry about though since on how unimpressed you seem I don't expect you to come back to this story at all in the future. I thank you for the criticism that you've provided despite how much of a blow I've taken it as and I hope i can make it much better than how it is now.