//------------------------------//
// The Demise 
// Story: The Poncho Chronicles I: The Beans 
// by BRyeMC 
//------------------------------//

	Cannon remained distraught over the fact that he had to manually kill his fallen comrade, and a best friend, who was still lying on the ground unmoved. He looked back at Charles who was still laughing. “I’m not doing it.”
Charles, who knew he was going to reply like that, said, “Oh, yes you are, my dear good sir. You have killed the current Champion, as much pain as it brings me to say that aloud, so there has to be a coronation to the next one in line.”
“You can’t make me kill a friend! Besides, without him, we would’ve never gotten this far-”
Charles laughed. “I never wanted you to get this far!” Anger was magnified in his voice. “Do you think I wanted you to kill my own flesh and bone! Of course not! You will battle your friend whether you, or he, like it or not.”
Cannon looked back at Clyde, who was still on the ground. “He’s not even in fighting condition!”
“Then you shall have no problem winning and becoming the new champion. Now, for the final time I will ask you, kill him please and let’s move on with our lives. I have matters to attend to today. Very important matters.” Charles took a sip of wine from his goblet.
“No.”
Charles coughed up some of his wine at the response. “No? Xarlin did he just say no to me?” Xarlin nodded his head and Charles continued his rant. “Fine, since you don’t want to take this the easy way out, I’ll show you why you don’t toy with me!” He gave a whistle and all was silent for a few moments.
Before Cannon could figure out was exactly was going on, he heard a scream from the crowd where his friends were. From what he could see, a masked pony in black was behind Poncho and the others. The masked pony was carrying a giant battle axe and was about to swing downward. In his reaction, Cannon was about to yell look out, but he was just too late. The massive bulk of the axe had already entered the shoulder of Patel. The incision of the axe left blood splattering everyone in the vicinity and most of the crowd fled the scene. The masked pony picked up Patel’s body and threw it over the stands, onto the floor of the arena. He gingerly picked up his axe and watched over the others with vigor. 
Cannon ran over to Patel’s dead body. He closed his friend’s eyes and fought back some tears. He looked back at Charles who had a devilish grin on his face.
“I told you boy, do not toy with me! Now, before I kill any more of your friends, which I might have to kill one of your female friends this time, kill the other!” 
Before Cannon could respond back, an arrow whizzed by his leg from behind. He turned around and saw Clyde breathing heavily with a limb covering his ghastly wound that was received by the impact of his own arrow. The remaining crowd gasped.
“Go ahead...I don’t have much time left anyway....” Clyde stumbled back down and the crowd gave out a gasp. He slowly got back to his feet. Blood, at this point, was leaving his body through the wound at a faster pace. The poison of arrow also was making the wound turn a sickly color. 
Cannon rushed to his friend’s aid. He knelt down beside him. “I told everyone in this arena, I will not kill you.” 
Clyde sat back down, “I’m not going to let you endanger the others because of your stubbornness. I told you, might as well end it now than to prolong this blasted poison....” He coughed up some blood and spat it out. “If you stab me with an arrow, you can leave the arena.”
Cannon with tears in his eyes looked at Clyde. He saw that Clyde wanted him to do it, and he knew it was the best choice instead of delaying the inevitable, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He picked up an arrow, that was wiped clean of poison, and held to Clyde’s chest. Before he could plant it, Clyde grabbed Cannon’s arm and thrusted the arrow into himself. 
Jolted by the sudden movement, Cannon yelled out, “You idiot!” Clyde grinned and closed his eyes. In his sad filled rage, Cannon looked up at Charles. “You happy now?”
Charles grinned, “Of course. Being a Champion requires sacrifices for their great journey to supremacy. You may leave now, and take your friends.” He glided off his seat in the booth and disappeared in the crowd, his staff in hand. 
As Charles departed, Cannon quickly picked up Patel and Clyde and hurriedly rushed out of the arena gates and back to the lobby. He put both Patel and Clyde on the floor. He stripped Clyde of his damaged armor and threw it across the room. Before long, the others ran into the lobby. The others all looked around to both Patel and Clyde. The room remained silent. 
After a long period of silence, Cannon got up, “Might as well give these two some proper last words.” He stood up on a platform that always had Clyde’s and his armor on it. “Not only were these two my friends, they were my best friends. I’ll always remember our awesome scary movie nights, especially when Poncho was there. Farewell, fair cruelty.” He stepped off the platform, showing tears in his eyes.
Tyrone walked up to the platform. “Sheeeit...I never thought I would have to be the one givin’ the speech about a friend dyin’. I always thought I would die first then the others...I guess you will be playing basketball, dishin’ out da dimes and lobbin’ it, up there with Rivs and Sticky. I’ll always love you guys....” Tyrone stepped down, sobbing.
Poncho nervously walked up next. “Uhm, well, you guys were always there for me.” Tears began to flow down his face, “I know you guys always joked around and had fun, but I enjoyed being made fun of. I only wanted to make you guys laugh when I made a big deal about everything. I’ll always remember what you meant to me.” Poncho quickly ran down the platform and began sobbing loudly. 
Next, Twilight and her friends began some last words. Because they really didn’t know them as much as Cannon or the others, their comments were short and sweet. Finally, after Pinkie’s, sad, yet always somehow amusing, comments, Rarity’s turn was up. Instead of following the procedure like the others, she walked past Patel, ignoring him completely, and slowly walked up to Clyde with tears in her eyes. “You promised me...” she said softly. 
Upon hearing the voice of Rarity close to him, Clyde coughed and spat out blood beside him. “I did, didn’t I?...” His voice was weak.
Everyone in the room became silent and shocked. Rarity started to cry. “Y-You’re alive?” She gave him a soft hug.
“Not for long...” He looked around the room and stopped at Cannon. “Make sure you kill Xarlin and Charles for me twice....” He smiled then grunted in pain as the poison grew stronger. 
“I will, I’ll finish this, whether it’s the last thing I do.” Cannon wiped off tears in his eyes.
Clyde closed his eyes from the increasing pain. “As long as everyone makes it back home, I don’t care what happens...” He looked up at Rarity who was still trying to fight back tears. “Well...it looks like it’s that time for that goodbye I promised....”   
She began crying again and tears poured down her face. “N-No Clyde, please don’t leave me. The last few days that I spent with you were truly magnificent. You made me extremely happy during this whole disaster of a trip. You are the gem I never tried to find....” Her voice was shaken and her tears were pelting Clyde's chest below her. 
With the last amount of strength he had left, Clyde tilted his head upwards and kissed her on her forehead, the spot right below her horn and above the middle of her eyes. She gasped and started to cry louder as he painfully lowered his head back down. He then closed his eyes for the final time.
At that moment, Clyde passed into the void.
“Clyde!” screamed Rarity as she put her head on his chest and started to sob. She held onto his body and sobbed as much as she could.

All was still except the sound of death