Hunting the 6

by Starblazer225

The Story...

That night I laid in my bed my mind contemplating over the letter from my cousin. I’ve read that damned page well over a thousand times it seems. Every word written on it was another striking blow to the heart. Every dismal vision the sentences and words created left me speechless. I memorized every part of it though and in my mind I kept hanging over that letter for what seems like hours.

Dear Golden,

After I received your letter I cried for several hours thinking about how happy I was to hear from you again. You have no idea at all of the joy I felt after reading your name at the bottom of that letter. I wish I had some better news to give you, but everyone has his or her bad times. Sadly the whole family broke up. After Granny’s death the family had a sudden change of heart. Almost all of us are no longer in the farming business and have pursued careers in the city. I was surprised that you mentioned your little cousin Applebloom, but unfortunately she is no longer with us. Big Mackintosh left for the city, after that I never heard from him again. Hardly anypony lives in Ponyville any more, it’s turned to kind of a ghost town. Everypony either moved to the city or just up and vanished. I’m one of the few that stayed, I’ve been by myself for about seven or eight years now. Tending the orchards is all I do anymore, I can’t go anywhere, I have no friends and I’m just alone out here. I’m glad you wrote Golden, I thought that I had lost you too and I still am in shock that I got this letter from you. I realize that it has been over fifteen years (at least I think it is) since we last saw each other in person. Sometime when you’re not busy we should meet up at the farm, have dinner here like old times.

Love, your cousin

…

I didn’t need to say the name, I knew who it was from.

I still lay there staring at the ceiling. It was in the dead of night, the lamp by my bedside glowed dimly, lighting only a small portion of the bed I was laying on. Looking over to it the little flame danced gently in the little lamp. Watching fire always calms me, makes my mind stop for a while.

“What did she mean,” I asked the empty room.

“Why did she go n’ kill herself?”

I adjusted, rolling from my side onto my back, changing my gaze from the lamp to the ceilings pinkish-orange tint that seemed illuminated by the soft glowing light. A long silence hung in the room, one could almost drown in it. I began to put myself in a trance, a weird state of mind where I shut everything out. All that remains is my mind, I can’t feel anything, but I see everything.

I put it to work, imagining what I would have done or where I would have gone if my parents were never killed. I could have been a lawyer, or maybe worked on the farm. Male prostitute? No, I couldn’t do that, too self-conscience about myself, and not to mention, but that means there’d be a chance that I could be hired by another stallion. Not to sound close-minded but I couldn’t doo that for a living. Maybe I could have inherited the money from my parents, then just lived happily on the farm, maybe could have found myself a girl at that. That’s not how it is though, nothing ever goes the way you want it to, nothing ever does.

A knocking on my door broke me from my slumber. It took me a second to snap out of it. I looked over to the clock sitting still by the lamp. The big hand rested on the three and the small one closer to the seven, but not quite there.

“Just a sec’,” I said rolling off the bed and dragging myself to the door of the room. The light from the lamp provided a little bit of lighting so I could see where I was going. I coiled my hoof around the doorknob and opened it. A yellow pegasii stood in the doorway, her fiery orange mane was wild and slicked back towards the hallway. A pair of sunglasses rested on the tip of her snout and a big decorated military officer’s coat rested on her back and shoulders.

“Hello fine sir,” she said with a big smile and an official tone to her speech. Adjusting the glasses sitting on her nose to a higher point of her face.

“I apologize for the hour I have arrived, but I must speak with you-“ she broke off looking down the hallways in both directions before coming back to me.

“Mind if I come in?” She asked.

I reached over for a vase behind the opened door.

“What do you need to be speakin’ with me bout?” I asked gripping the vase tightly ready to strike if needed to.

“Please, if you have the time, I must speak with you personally and alone.” She said already making her own way in. I let go of the vase and moved out of her way as she entered. She thanked me before standing in front of my bed without a word.

I lit one of the lamps hanging on the wall and shed more light into the room. She took her glasses off and folded them into her navy blue jacket. I stood there still staring at her leaning against the door, watching, waiting for her to pull something.

She began to scan the room, looking from my saddlebag to my duster hanging on the wall, from there she saw my hat hanging on a separate hook next to it. She walked up and took the hat from the hanger and looked at it, feeling the brim and the crown of the hat, then putting it back on the hook and going back to the bed and sitting on it.

“So whaddaya want?” I asked staring her down. Her orange eyes held no emotion, they were completely bland, almost void of suspicion and care.

“I don’t really know your name, and you don’t know mine. I know who are, I know what you do, and I know what you’re doing.” She stated calmly.

“I know your capabilities and I know of your skills. I know what your job is and I’ve come with a warning.”

I scoffed at her. Hearing that brought me back a couple nights ago to where I had those stallions jump me on the train.

“If those were yer boys on the train, I’m sorry I kicked their asses back there. You can give ‘em my deepest apologies. ‘Cept fer the dead one o’course.” Her eyes narrowed as I said that.

“You don’t even know what you’re doing I bet.” She said as her tone became harsh and cold.

“You’re merely a pawn to try to wipe away the pa-“ I cut her off mid sentence.

“Imma hitman trying to get a decent wage.”

“You’re an idiot!” She yelled standing up. Her cool complexion broke. She exhaled hard through her nose.

“You don’t understand.” She said.

“I don’t need ta’,”

“Yes you do!” She exclaimed.

“Your ‘six targets’ are the elements of harmony, or as we like to call them, The Six.” I rolled my eyes at her words.

“So?” I asked as I started to walk to the bathroom on the opposite side of the room.

“It’s a big deal that you don’t even know who they are.”

“Like I said, I don’t need ta’,” I said turning on a lamp next to the entrance of the washroom.

My reflection looked at me, his expression was tired looking, worn, he had been through so much. Dark green eyes shone dimly against white and pink tinted eyes. The glossy mane that had once sat gently on his head was matted and untrimmed, long bangs draped in front of those broken eyes. The average to below average sized stature was built up under strong shoulders. A long pink scare ran between his right eyebrow and scaled its way down the face, finally cutting off below the burnt yellow cheek, right by the jaw line. This was me, this scared and tattered face. It wasn’t much to look at but it was me.

“Now,” I heard the mare behind me say.

“You do know why they want them dead?” She asked. I watched myself shake my head in the mirror.

“Let me ask you, haven’t you noticed the absence of two of the highest royalty in the country?” I watched a face of realization and confusion come over my face in the reflection. Where had they gone? Why haven’t I heard any news of them?

“Have you even noticed that both the princesses are gone?” she asked. I thought about it for a minute. I turned around looking at her. She had her hooves bent up at her face, looking at them, not even acknowledging I was there.

“Whaddaya mean?” I asked walking to her.

“You don’t care though.” She said firing a deadly gaze at me. My curiosity got the better of me. I pulled a chair out from the corner of the room and placed it in front of the pegasus-mare sitting on the bed.

“So you are interested?” She asked. All I did was stare, she knew what I wanted to hear.

“Very well,” She said.

“It’s kind of a long story though.” She began. She pulled the coat off her shoulders, underneath she wore a similar colored undershirt and black pants, she readjusted herself and then spoke.

“Princess Celestia, the divine and immortal ruler she was, and or is, was a great leader. She, besides that being, wanted to make her country great at any cost. I’m not sure if it affected you at all, but what she had started was a horrible dream for a better tomorrow that was corrupt, twisted, and sick.”

“After looking at the details and history with some interesting and mixed points at what make society great, she came to the conclusion that in order to make the world great, you must wipe the world of an evil that was dragging progress down mile by mile. Everyone knows that there are a total of five distinct races of pony populating the kingdom that we know of: Earthpony, Pegasii, Unicorn, Zebra, and Crystal Pony. In her mind though, she believed only two of those five had the divine right to stand amongst the rest.”

“She believed that the dominant races were the Pegasii and the Unicorn, everything else was unequal and should be eradicated. After about a month of preparation she began her removal that she called ‘The Great Purification’. She had Royal Guards load up on early firearms they crafted and dress in white and red garb, the called themselves “Purifiers”. Their job was to search for the other races out there and terminate them one by one. This, no matter how twistedly thought out it was, had some unsuccessful moments where a few slipped through death’s clutches. She had begun this away from any town or city within a hundred mile radius of Canterlot, but it stopped before it even reached Las Pegasus or Luisi-neigh-na because she withdrew the plan. The death toll was enormous, she killed nearly every earthpony that far out. She left that and moved on to other affairs.”

“Another fifteen or sixteen years went by the economy was in ruin and she thought deeply about a solution to bring the collapsing society to it’s former glory. The old ideas cane back to haunt her, she decided it would have been a genius idea to start it all over again, and run the rivers with blood. Her closest assistant, the one you’ve already killed, Twilight Sparkle saw what she was doing, but it was on a bigger scale. She was going to rid the world of the other races with a bomb that would wipe out everything that didn’t have a horn or wings.”

“All it needed was a spark from a magically able Alicorn to use it. Twilight Sparkle stopped this, but she couldn’t kill her in her current state. The elements were needed to take away immortality. With that, the elements of harmony, your six targets, turned her into a mortal earthpony. Then, the six massacred her in the thrown room.”

“After that Twilight relieved herself of immortality and went back to being a normal unicorn. Princess Luna saw what had happened to her sister and wanted to start what she could not finish, but a more of a cost. She was led to the idea that all the races except for Alicorns were the problem and they ALL needed to be slaughtered. Once again, they had to do what they did before to her sister.”

“After that, we needed them to be relocated since that they would have been hunted down.” She gestured to me.

“We now know one of the heroes that saved this world, our world, is dead. And we do believe that you were the one who pulled the trigger and you were the one with blood on your hooves. We do know you have five more targets, we know you can best our agents and troops, and we know you will continue your mission, or ‘job’ of you prefer.”

“So what’s the point o’ comin’ here an tellin me this?” I asked cutting her off again.

“Well, for one so you might see what you’re dealing with, and two to warn you.” She said putting her glasses and jacket back on.

“Warn me ‘bout what?” I asked.

“That even though you might succeed,” She said as she began walking out of the room.

“We won’t make it the slightest bit easy for you.” With that she slammed the door shut and her steps echoed down the empty hall. Now I was left myself here by myself again. My mind was contorting, trying to understand what was I really doing. Am I really going to kill the other five ponies that rescued the world, or should I walk away from this now while I’ve only just barely started?

Comments

[TyTyTech]

This story just got a whole lot better! Also loved the chapter and I hope to see more!

[Aatxe360]

This entire chapter felt non sequitur.

This encounter(with Spitfire I can only assume) is pretty detracting. Why didn't her compadres just break in and take him out while they were talking? Unless she wants him to succeed...? She did give him a warning and put him on alert.

He could have looked quite a bit of that stuff up in the local library, or talked to a newspony without giving away the game. His obsession with Applejack is a little unnerving as well. Maybe he'll foist some of that emotion that's about to break into Colgate.

AJ's letter there is pretty bland and generic despite what all she's been a part of. I'll surmise that since Golden isn't aware of the Element Bearers(or of Twilight), his history with AJ predates 'season one: episode one.'

All-in-all, still very interested in the story and will continue to watch to see how it all goes down.

[Starblazer225]

2702309AJ is the only family he has. It's not unnerving, it's the only friend he'd ever really had and with that he feels really attached to her (it's like your closest friend you've known since you were like six) . Think about the only connect you have is to a cousin that would be heart broken if anything happened to you and with that she thought you were dead for over 17 years. She has no real emotion anymore (hence why she seems so bland and when you meet her in person she is very dismal and grey, not physically but emotionally), her younger sister died in a horrible train accident (if you didn't know about that I'm sorry), Granny died two months previous to that, and Macintosh moved to the city before that. So if you think about it since Applebloom died she's been living on the farm my herself around no one besides herself.

In this Spitfire is not part of the wonder bolts in this (yeah i know, bad me for doing that), her warning to him was hoping to use fact and guilt to fight him. That maybe if she told him the truth that he would have denied the mission and moved on or quit. She did not have any intention of taking him there that night.

As for the library thing, to Golden it's all the same to him and he doesn't need to know what happened. He doesn't care and to him when that happened with Twilight it was just a job, right now though he's contemplating wether or not he should proceed with the mission.

And i don't intend for the relationship between AJ and Golden to be anything like with Colgate and Golden, so that idea goes right out the window.

[Starblazer225]

2701919Aww, thanks dude!

[Aatxe360]

2702440

I didn't mean to imply the relationship between Golden and AJ meant anything physical. My apologies for implying anything of the sort. It feels like any time Golden mentions her, he gets on a one-track mind. I understand losing touch with family(I have a brother that refuses to acknowledge me or our mother since his wedding....) and it being a small family, that makes it all the more difficult. How I cope is pretty much not think about it and sometimes pretend I don't have a brother(Not that I haven't tried to contact him, but there hasn't been any kind of response in a long time). Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get along and live my life.

I didn't know the specifics in how AB perished(unless you wrote it in there and I missed it), but I kinda assumed it happened a little something like this. Just the first chapter to get what I speak of...

Maybe AJ needs to watch some pon-wait a minute... No, she can't. Unfortunately. I guess PP gave up trying to cheer her friends up?

Have a

[Starblazer225]

2705379It's no worry, I can understand that I miss read that(my fault).

(it is explained in chapter 5 as well in AJ's letter) Later, I'm thinking the fourth or fifth target, was a witness as to what happened EXACTLY with what happened to Applebloom, but she basically fell in front of a train while it was speeding through the station