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// Badlands 
// Story: Killing Time 
// by JohnnyNorthrain 
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	The scouts had spotted us near sunset. We ran through the dry creek bed as hard as we could trying to get ahead of them before they descended. Derpy flew over shouting at us as they drew closer. She dropped to the ground and ran with us around a bend in the creek before we were stopped by a cliff. Skidding to a halt I dropped the pack to the dust and hefted the staff feeling the strain in my wounded shoulder. Streaking through the sky like a black blur the first of the scouts thumped into the ground and lashed out at me with its fangs bared. Raising the staff I cracked its skull with the hunk of wood over and over again until I was sure it had died. The second scout came at us just as fast and Lyra threw up a wall of dirt with her magic. The scout was unable to avoid it and crashed into the wall with a wet crunch. The third turned and headed away as fast as it could. Derpy crouched ready to launch herself after it but I halted her and we watched it disappear from view. 
I picked up the pack and we climbed the ridge overlooking the valley below. Even if Derpy had caught up to the Changeling she had no weapons to fight it. The point of coming here was to give myself to their Queen and I wanted her to know that I was here. We started walking down the ridge towards the valley floor and I slipped on the loose gravel and tumbled down into the dirt below. Once I stopped I had to bite the stick to keep from screaming out. My shoulder had struck a couple rocks and it was shooting lances of fiery pain up my neck. I rocked back and forth trying to get the pain to subside and focusing on anything else at the moment. I’d been too damned eager and had not paid attention to where I was stepping. 
My companions came to my side with concern on their faces. I pushed away their attempts to help knowing that it would do no good. I’d not broken anything just smashed it and it would stop eventually. Slowly I used the staff to stand up and leaned heavily on it. My entire side was twitching in the aftermath of the pain and I continued on leaving Lyra and Derpy little choice but to follow. Over another ridge we went and down into another valley. This had been five or six… I was not entirely sure since one looked the same as the last. Hours we had been walking and the day was coming to a close.
As the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the mountains I heard a solid thud on the rock behind me. Turning quickly I did not raise the staff in time before two human hands shot past it and gripped my wrists. Nickolas was as naked as the day he had been born and grappling with me. Lyra struck out with her magic trying to separate us and Nick moved quicker than I could follow. One moment my partner was aglow with magic and the next she was skidding across the dust. I growled and lashed out with the staff only meeting the air and tumbling forward. Derpy raised on her hooves intent on fighting.
“See to Lyra!” I shouted at her. 
“I knew you’d come. A little bird tells me that there’s this guy in a hat walking through the badlands. I was just about to go out and kill somepony else. I would have missed your appearance.” Nickolas put himself between Lyra, Derpy and me. 
“How could I stay away? This place has been so inviting.” I was breathing hard and raised the staff again ready to strike. 
“She’s ready and waiting for you but I don’t think you’ll be making it to her. See… I’ve decided to just kill you and be done with it. Do you know how annoying it is for her to go on about you every damned day? I’m the one serving her but she wants nothing to do with me.” He approached slowly keeping out of the range of the staff. 
“It’s not my fault I’m the better man.” I moved to my left and he followed. 
“You always were at first until you decided to just ignore everyone.” He matched me as I slowly circled him away from Lyra and Derpy. 
“You aren’t a saint Nick. How many times did you screw me over and I looked the other way?”
He lunged towards me and I haphazardly swung the staff completely missing and his fist connected with my stomach. It was enough to put me on my knees gasping for air. He stood over me looking down with contempt and I moved my gaze past his legs seeing Lyra standing slowly. I lashed out with the staff again and he caught it in his palm. Wrenching it from my grasp he cracked me in the side of the head with it before tossing it away. I fell to the ground with stars in my eyes and rolled onto my belly trying to crawl away through the rocks and sand. 
I felt that electricity in the air as he shifted and a clawed foot pressed firmly into the middle of my back. It kicked and shredded the coat and my skin. I screamed out a harsh guttural cry feeling as if someone has just taken a nine tailed whip to my backside. I tried to crawl away again and something big collided with Nick sending dirt in all directions. I sat up and pushed myself up off the ground seeing Lyra with her head down in a charging posture with her horn sparking yellow magic. She had thrown a mass of dirt at Nickolas and he was just digging himself out of it the tip of his insect like head the only part showing above the pile. 
Before I could stop her Lyra ran directly towards him bringing up more scoops from the ground ready to use them as a weapon. Nickolas broke free of the pile and raced towards her using his chattering wings to give him speed. He dodged her attacks and collided directly with her sending my friend end over end into a ditch. He raised his clawed hand ready to rend her flesh with it and I screamed out with all the volume and fury I could muster. With his attention focused on me I started walking towards him. He matched my slow pace with his arms tensed at his side. Each step brought us closer to the end of this fight. I did not have much left in me and he knew it. 
A decade after the close of the war and London still had not fully recovered. There were bombed out buildings from HE-111’s and V-1 attacks. Entire sections of the city had just been abandoned and the cleanup was slow at best. It had been near one of those police boxes so much like the Tardis that I’d met Nickolas Falcon. He was from New York and had come here for the same reason I’d crossed the pond. It always came down to either business or a girl. In his case it was both and in my case it was business. We swapped stories being two Americans in a sea of Brits. I told him where to come find me if he ever headed out to the Windy City and he told me where to look him up in the Big Apple. We went our separate ways and lost contact. 
A year later he was in Chicago beat up and bleeding. He stumbled into my office with an envelope of cash and half a bottle of Jameson. The guys who came in after him left on a stretcher after the ambulance had to haul their asses down stairs. It was because of that fight that we became fast friends. He relocated to Chicago and we were in trouble nearly weekly with someone. As the years passed I stopped seeing him and we grew apart. 
It was then that I introduced him to the girl. They hit it off that night and again that morning and once more that evening. I’d only learned about it because she let it slip on accident. I threw her out of my life and I asked him to come to my office. We’d been up and down those stairs a thousand times outside of the small cramped room. I shouted at him and he threw a punch. I kicked his butt out of the office and drew my gun ready to shoot him. He grabbed my arms and threw his weight forward. We tumbled down those damned stairs and by the time I woke up I was cold, bruised, battered and in the company of a pony. 
She was on the ground and struggled to get up. I couldn’t help her right now even though every part of my body wanted to rush to her side, pick her up and get her the hell out of here. I couldn’t see Derpy and I hoped she had run away. If I failed to stop this… thing… this creature here and now then he’d kill both of my pony friends. He’d also kill more in his vain attempt to gather the favor of a Queen who could care less about him. What else did he have now that he was one of her brood? As he approached I steadied myself and drew in a deep breath trying to calm the fear in my heart. I did not care if I died but I’d be damned if he would take Lyra with him. 
I rushed as fast as I could towards his mutated form and he laughed and met me head on. Our arms outstretched collided and our palms interlocked. He was pushing me back and my feet scraped over the rocks. I had nearly no strength to fight back against him and the force of his arms felt like they were pushing my shoulders out of my sockets. Our faces were inches from each other and his green eyes narrowed as he pushed harder. My resolve was ready to crumble into dust and I reared back my head. He took it as a sign of my defeat and pressed with more intensity but stopped cold as soon as I threw my head forward and slammed it into his. We both staggered with the head butt and I flicked my wrist freeing the switchblade from the hidden pocket. Through the stars running around my head I saw him clearly enough to flick open the blade and sliced his forehead with it. 
He growled and stepped back with green blood running down his face. I’m not sure where he had been keeping it but he drew my snub nosed revolver and fired a shot at me. He shouldn’t have missed but the blood in his eyes was blinding him and the shot tore through my hat only half an inch from my head. I wrapped my arm around his and he slammed the pistol into my face. It hit hard against my cheek but before he could pull the trigger I brought the switchblade up then down with all my force into the base of his neck. The skin gave way and it sunk up to its full length in his artery. He dropped the gun and kicked me to the ground.
I fell against the top of a cliff. While I had been trying to get him away from my friends he had pushed me up against the edge without me knowing it was even here. My was head suspended over the abyss and my hat fell off flying down into the darkness beyond. I sat up but his foot kicked against my chest and he pinned me to the ground. With his hand shaking he drew the switchblade out of his body and dropped it with a clang of metal on stone. He leaned over me with his fangs shining in the moonlight and threw his mouth towards my nose. This was pretty much it. He had vicious enough teeth to tear apart my face and end my life. I had nothing left to fight with and I braced myself for the oncoming bite. A fraction of a second before he would have connected with my flesh he was suddenly wrenched backward and there was a loud crunch and pop that echoed through the badlands. He screamed the most unnatural sound I’d ever heard and turned quickly forgetting me. Both of his wings were gone and blood was pouring out of the empty holes. He started running away from me and towards something yet he was hit directly with a boulder and both Nickolas Falcon and the rock flew over my head. I could see the details of the claws in his feet and the structure of his half insect and half human leg as he went past me. The rock had sent him into that dark abyss and I heard them hit the bottom. I’ll never forget what a body sounds like when it’s crushed by a rock like that. There was no doubt in my mind that Nick had not survived. 
I rose to my feet with every part of my body wanting to give up. My blue eyes saw Lyra Heartstrings grunting with foam coming from her nostrils. She had used every ounce of magic possible to tear Nick’s wings out then hit him with the boulder. They lay between us like two translucent oil slicks. I stepped over to her dragging my body and wrapped my arms around her. She collapsed in my embrace and we both lay on the hot ground not moving. I tried to look around for the gray Pegasus but I couldn’t see her. She had to have run away during the fight and I thanked Celestia that she was not in the same state as the two of us were. Lyra licked my nose and I tried to laugh but I hurt too damned much. 
“I’m sorry.” She said so quiet I almost missed it. 
“You did what you had to. For me… for us.”
“I love you.” She whispered in my ear. 
“I love you Heartstrings.” I told her. 
After laying there for what seemed half an hour I eventually gathered the strength to push myself up off and get both of us to our feet. My former friend was a mass of goo at the bottom of the cliff and here I was with my best friend in a worse state than if I’d been struck with a Ford while trying to cross the street. She looked up at me with a smile then her expression turned to horror as I was enveloped in green fire. The circle spread around me and I thrust my hand through trying to reach her. The fire burned off the hair on my arm and singed my skin. It drew me out of sight and I thought I could hear my partner scream.