Déjà vu
Corvo gave a pained groan. His head felt like it was in a vice, and his feet fared no better. But worse than that was his side. The pain there was almost indescribable; he felt like he had been burned, shocked, and stabbed multiple times. In actuality, the grenade explosion had done just that, ripping up the muscle and embedding fragments of steel and iron within his hip.
Giving another groan, he gritted his teeth and attempted to ignored the searing pain in his side, choosing to concentrate on getting to his feet.
The process was slow going, but he was getting somewhere. Finally after what seemed like hours of work, but was only about two minutes Corvo found himself in a sitting position. As he sat he attempted to remember exactly what had happened to put him in such a sorry state. Not remembering a single thing he shook his head.
‘Something to dull the pain would be nice... ’
Sighing he looked down at himself. He was still bleeding from his side, and many of his clothes were ripped in places. The parts of his clothes that had survived the violent explosion were dirty and beginning to smell. To top it all off, Corvo was thirsty, extremely hungry and feeling pain all over.
‘Oh great, by the looks of it my feet are tied up.’
Shaking his head Corvo slowly brought up his hands, to apply pressure to his wounds, however before he did he caught sight of the Outsider’s mark on his hand.
‘What in the name of... How did I get this?’
As he continued to stare at the mark he didn’t notice the three fillies that were staring at him through one of the intact bushes.
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Scootaloo turned toward her two accomplices “What do you think it is?”
Applebloom kept her eyes glued to the creature. “Ah don’ know, but I don’ like it.”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “We found it like two minutes ago.”
Applebloom continued looking at the creature, then slowly shook her head “Let’s wait for it to leave so we can go help AJ and the others.”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at one another. Shrugging their shoulders, they continued to watch the creature as it got to its feet, clutching a hand over the bloody wound on its side.
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Celestia flew over the lands at a breakneck pace, followed by multiple guards. She had just received the letter from Spike telling her of the events that had transpired in Ponyville. Just thinking of the letter made her worry even more. There wasn’t much written, but that wasn’t what disturbed her so much. The condition of the letter was what ailed her mind.
When it had arrived, Celestia had just finished raising the sun. She had watched the smoke excitedly as it flew toward her. Once it stopped, however, the smoke didn’t form a neat little scroll like it usually did; rather, the paper had been practically crumpled into a ball, and burnt at the edges. But out of all the things about the letter, the blood stains near the signature were the most worrying.
‘Hold on a little longer, Twilight! I’m coming!’
With another mighty beat of her wings, she sped off, the royal guards behind her struggling to keep up.
Ponyville soon came into view... And so did the smell of gunpowder and burning.
‘Whale oil? That hasn’t been used in- Unless the creature... No!’
Beating her wings harder than ever, Celestia flew in the direction of Twilight Sparkle’s library.
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Arriving on the scene, the alicorn gasped at the destruction.
There was a small blackened crater in the yard. The door to the library had been blown off its hinges and there were blood splatters all about walkway. A large rock about the size of two ponies sat in between what looked to be Rainbow Dash and the rest of the wreckage. Out of the whole thing, the four limp bodies near the crater were what bothered Celestia the most. That, and the lack of any sign of Twilight outside.
The wreckage had unfortunately also been noticed by the residents of ponyville. Many ponies were standing just outside of the gate and fence of the library looking at the destruction that now dominated the area.
Biting her lip Celestia teleported to the ground and took a good look around. Spike and Twilight were inside the library and, although they were passed out, this brought much peace to the alicorn’s mind. At least her student was fine! The others seemed to be (mostly) fine, minus Pinkie Pie, who was a bloody mess. By the looks of it, she needed some serious medical attention or she’s going to die.
Galloping over to Pinkie, Celestia began concentrating energy in her horn. Bending over, she touched the party loving mare with the tip of the glowing appendage. There was a small flash of light and the blood flowing from the mare slowed.
Breathing a sigh of relief the princess turned and began walking toward the library, when she was stopped by a loud, deep voice.
“Wait!”
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“Wait!” Corvo shouted “I need help! I don’t know what happened, I’ve been tied up, and I’m injured! Please!”
Slowly the white mare turned around, her eyes widened in shock. Then her face morphed into one of anger. The regal looking pony walked over, and stared down at Corvo.
“You. You did this.”
Corvo looked around at the destruction. “You think I caused this?”
The pony’s gare grew from angry to threatening. “I know you caused this. The energy around this place resembles yours to a point where denying it would be foalish.”
Corvo shook his head and looked around as he looked at the devastation. A part of him was disgusted that he had to see this. But another part of him, a darker, more spiteful part relished the pain he has supposedly caused. A small voice in his head urged him to say he caused the misery, and that he would make the pony in front of him suffer much worse than those that were unfortunate enough to be here.
Shunning that part of his mind Corvo looked up at Celestia. With a calm tone, he slowly, almost uncertainly said “I didn’t do it. I don’t remember doing it.”
The princess slammed a hoof into the ground, making it quake. Then with a voice louder than thunder she shouted “You mean to tell me, that you are not the one responsible for this?”
Taken aback by her shouting, Corvo steeled himself and slowly nodded.
“You lie. Your magic is painted all over this place.” she whispered.
With shaking hands, Corvo brought his feet close to his chest and untied the ropes binding his feet. Then, holding back a pained cry, he got to his now freed appendages.
“I. Did. Not. Do. This.” he said, gesturing to the wreckage, pausing at each word.
‘Why does everything here seem so familiar? It’s as if this happened before...'
The princess stared at him with growing malice. As she stood there, large pegasus ponies began dropping out of the air. They were clad in golden armour and were wielding short spears. All of them were pointing their weapons at Corvo.
‘I will not be accused of something I didn’t do!’
‘Kill them!’ said a small voice in his head. It was the same voice that encouraged him to threaten the pony.
‘Then they’ll have an actual reason to convict me though.’
‘They can’t convict you if they’re dead. Kill them.’
Corvo continued arguing with himself, should he kill them? What would he gain? By this point, the voice hadn’t given up, it was still encouraging him to murder the ponies, and in all honesty he was seriously considering it. Getting to his feet, he pulled out his sword, and twirled it around, flipping open the blade using his thumb.
‘This feels unusually natural.’
He looked up from his hands. The princess was glaring at him, teeth clenched, horn glowing.
‘No. I can’t kill them. What would Emily say if I did?’
Slowly Corvo held out his weapon, and dropped it in front of Celestia.
“I know when I can’t win. But I want you to know one thing; this isn’t over, I want a fair trial.”
The mare stared at the assassin in surprise. Quickly regaining her composure she responded. “I thank you for your cooperation.” then slowly she levitated Corvo’s sword into the air, and handed it off to one of her guards. “Please wait here, I must attend to my injured ponies.”
Corvo made a confused gesture. “...Injured ponies?”
When Celestia gestured toward the tree, crater, and the unconscious bodies, Corvo could only thing one thing. ‘How did I miss that?’
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Corvo sat in a jail cell attempting to remember what had happened in the small town.
‘Everything is so fuzzy. I feel like I’ve forgotten something important.’
Thinking back, he tried to work with what he already remembered...
The princess, after thanking him, asked one of the guards to get a chariot from some place called Canterlot. After that, Corvo had been ‘escorted’ (shoved) inside it. Celestia had then gone to help “her little ponies” and had brought them to the medical wing of the castle for “advanced magical treatment.”, as she put it.
Then, they had him flown here and locked him in the jail cell where he sat now.
‘I’m starting to regret not listening to that insane voice in my head...’
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Happy Halloween all. Be safe. This is my 'treat' to all of you. Sorry about the title, FIMfiction doesn't like accent marks.