Chapter 20
64 POV
I was still running.
Even while going through the underground passages I still had the stench of blood in my nose. All I wanted to do was take a dive into the nearest lake and stay under until the stench was gone, but sadly there isn’t much water underground to bathe in. I felt a burning in my chest but I didn’t care, all I wanted to do was get as far away from the stench as I could.
“How much longer Vi?” I said with a pant, exhaustion finally catching up with me, forcing me to slow down to a halt and put my hands on my knees.
“About a 15 minute walk, take it easy from here, I think you’ll be fine walking.” Vi said, sounding a bit bored.
I could understand her boredom, sometimes being inside of a realm which can bend to your every whim could be boring….
Wait.
“Vi? You ok?” I asked, wondering what was up.
“I’m not sure that’s the question which needs answering right now, the question should be, how are you doing?” Vi asked.
I honestly had to take a few moments before I was able to answer that question. I didn’t know how I was doing right now; I was feeling a mix of emotions. I was glad that I was able to outsmart Knight once more, but I felt horrible that the dying Guard decided to give up, one of the things I vowed never to do. But I also felt happy, happy that whatever the Guard was suffering from couldn’t hurt him anymore.
“I’m feeling…… Alright. That’s the only word I can use to describe myself.”
I felt a small weight being lifted from me as I thought of the Guards suffering leaving him for good, leaving him in the afterlife.
“Well that’s good, it looks like all you need to do know is climb up to the Cherry Farm and get to the local Saloon. Cherry Jubilee still remembers her deal right? It seems as if you have a deal with everypony in this city.” Vi said, asking me about my history with the town.
“She should, and if she doesn’t the sight of me will definitely make her remember.” I said, pulling the Brown Cloak out of my satchel and wrapping it around my shoulders. I climbed the ladder, and opened the covering, climbing out into the Cherry Factory. I immediately saw Cherry Jubilee counting the daily quota sheets before I cleared my throat, not bothering to crouch down into my Cloak.
With a gasp she turned around and saw me, and laughed with a smile.
“Oh 64! What a mighty pleasure it is having you back again! You know I still haven’t repaid you for clearin’ out that one pack of Timberwolves that mosied on over through the desert! Still can’t get over how far those things will go to get a few chomps outta mah Cherries!” Cherry said with a laugh.
I chucked at her enthusiasm, “Well it’s fine seeing you again ma’am, but I need a place to lay low for a while. You know the usual scuffle with a bit of guards from Celestia, only for about a week.” I said with a wink, knowing she knew what I meant.
“64, shame on you! You know better than to go provoking her purposefully! Other than that, you know this city is in your debt, we won’t speak a lick of anything that has happened.”
“Thank you kindly ma’am.”
Dodge Junction was the only town in Equestria which everypony knew what I was, but they didn’t give a damn, not after I saved them from a pack of Timberwolves wanting to get a mouthful of Red and Yellow cherries. After that, I made the entire city of Dodge Junction Outpost #13, the absolute safest haven I could have. If I needed to, I could easily call this town Home, but I know better than to think wishfully.
If Celestia or Knight got wind of my attachments here, is raze the entire city to the ground, and blame it all on a group of bandits trying to rob the place, so I tried to keep my visits here to a minimum.
“Well I think I’ll go take a walk through town, go say hi to Topp Off over at the Saloon. We still haven’t had our drinking contest yet, and I plan to wipe the floor with him. If you need any help don’t be scared to ask.” I said walking out of the barn towards the town.
“Will do sugar! Bye now!” Cherry yelled before turning back to her paperwork.
Immediately when one pony caught sight of me, they yelled for others, and soon enough a small crowd of ponies surrounded me, giving me hoofshakes and pats on the back.
“Nice to see ya 64! Been awhile since we seen ya last! Any idear why?” Topp Off yelled through the crowd.
Flashback 7 Years
Topp was a nice enough pony, and he was one of the first to accept me when I crawled through the desert towards the nearest town, dying of thirst and exhaustion. The first drink he shoved in my hand was Whiskey, but I didn’t care at that point, I just wanted something to drink. After coughing up a storm from the first gulp, it slowly got better, until it ended up in me and one of the locals drinking each other under the table, and I woke up face down in a watering trough.
Flashback End
“Well, it’s nice to see everypony again, but I need a favor Topp, you still got my room behind the old Saloon?” I asked.
“Well yessir! Haven’t had reasons to get rid of the thing, so we usually just stuff the old drunkards in there after they’ve had enough.” Topp said, leading me towards the Saloon. I followed and waved to the various townsfolk waving at me. I had forgotten how nice everypony was here, and it was such a nice change from running around the last 2 years.
Once we made it to the Saloon, we didn’t go inside; we just went around and went to the back. There was a small cellar door right behind the Saloon, and I opened it up. It was pretty much exactly how it looked like last time I had slept there, except the blankets were hung up in the stairwell.
“Heh, remember what ah said about them drunkards? Sometimes they made a bit of a mess on yer sheets.” Topp said nervously.
“It’s fine Topp, it’s all I need, thanks. I’m only gonna be here for about a week before I’m off, so I won’t be much trouble.” I said, taking a few steps down the stairway.
“Now remember 64, it don’t matter none how much you think we’re in danger, you can stay as long as ya like. Enjoy yer time here though.”
Topp walked back around the corner, back into his Saloon. I chuckled and walked down into the Cellar, seeing the Bow I had mounted on the wall. I grabbed it off of the wall, and gave the bowstring a pluck. It hummed like an angel, and I mounted it back on the wall.
“I remember when they gave me this bow, right after they saw me kill all of those Timberwolves right? I was so scared that they would try to get rid of me as quick as they could, but they ended up rewarding me with secret asylum in the city. I didn’t think they would give me a bow as a token of appreciation.” I thought aloud.
“That’s when you started to take up archery, and Lucky Arrow had to pull an arrow out of his flank after you managed to wing him, how do you even shoot someone who is behind you?” Vi laughed.
“Oh ha ha…” I muttered.
I threw my Satchel onto the floor, and dove onto the bed. Although it didn’t have any sheets, it was still the most comfortable Outpost cot I had, so I was gonna enjoy this. I pulled Peacemaker out of my waistband, and entered.
“So 64, what do you want to do?” Vi asked.
“Start up the Reaction Time Sim, I think I’m getting slow.” I said, getting into a ready stance.
“Starting up Reaction Sim.” Vi said before she dematerialized, and ring of small red rings surrounded me.
A few rings turned green, so I threw punches at them, turning them back to Red. As the green rings started to appear, I started to throw punches and kicks faster and faster, feeling the burn of my muscles slowly starting to ache at the speed I was trying to reach in my attacks.
The rings receded, until a ring of Greens surrounded me in a wall, forcing me to throw punches in perfect form, and much much quicker.
Looks like I’m gonna be busy for a while.
Knight POV
I stared at the mirror as I looked at the small cut I had on my cheek, courtesy of a Rebel’s near strike to my face. I still couldn’t believe the skill the followers 64 had gathered, and that worried me. If 64 had more rebels, what’s stopping them from attacking Canterlot and trying to kill me?
“No… no 64 wouldn’t do that… he wouldn’t dare come anywhere near Canterlot…. I’m safe in Canterlot……….”
If scaring me was Project 64’s goal, then he had succeeded beautifully. I was incredibly scared, near the point of running to my office and locking the door ten times over so no one could get to me. I had traveled back to Canterlot the next morning after returning to Ponyville to collect my things, and call for a Royal Guard Search Party to look for Project 64.
Amazingly 64 had managed to clean up the dead bodies of the 4 Rebels my men had killed, even getting rid of the blood in the dirt, so there was little to no evidence for me to work with. I couldn’t even use my dead men; for Celestia would find out I tried to confront 64 under her nose, so I reported that they were a small band of Rogue Guards.
Currently I was in my room, sitting at a desk trying to wrap my head around why anypony would actually follow that hairless ape. All he had were his words, yet he still got 10 willing Ponies to fight and 4 actually dying for him.
“Knight, you seem troubled, might I offer any advice?” The Guard in my room asked. I scowled at him, and he got the message I was trying to send.
A spark ignited in my head.
Send a message. That’s it! I couldn’t let Project 64’s little mind games get the best of me! I had to hit back harder, and a lot more aggressive. I had to think, what I could use against Project 64 which would practically break him, make him simply become a husk of his former self…
The Clock Tower……
“You want to play hero 64? I’ll give you something to be a hero about……”
All I needed was a simple spark…
Vi POV
I once again formed the Reaction Simulator for 64, each level getting more and more difficult as he was forced to go faster and faster. There were even Purple rings he was forced to avoid hitting, forcing him to pick his shots a bit more often.
At last I heard 64’s voice ring through the Peacemaker.
“Vi! I think that’s enough!” 64 yelled as he slumped to his knees in fatigue. I dispelled the Simulation, and 64 got up fit as a fiddle once again.
“Man, that’s disorienting how fast I go from exhausted to fine in a second. Like how you can turn off gravity in here and stick to walls and stuff.” 64 said getting up and stretching a bit.
“Well if you want to run another Simulator just tell me and I’ll get it for you. Is there anything else you want to do?” I asked making seats for both me and 64.
“Yeah, our endgame. This game of cat and mouse has gone on for long enough in my opinion, so we need to find what the grand finale is going to be. I suggest confronting Twilight Sparkle and finally getting some answers about what is going on with Celestia. In fact I was thinking about making a run to Ponyville after this anyway, I forgot to thank Fluttershy for allowing me to stay at her Cottage overnight.” 64 said, kicking his feet up on a small stool I made and relaxing a bit.
I nodded at his idea, knowing we had to plan before making move.
“Ok, I’ll set the quickest route back to Ponyville when you are ready to leave, for now let’s enjoy the small downtime we have” I said.
“How about we switch up our old Chess game today, make it a bit more interesting?” 64 said, before he snapped his fingers, forming a gigantic chess board underneath our feet, with Chess Pieces the size of us.
I gawked at the simple solution to my boredom, and I quickly leaped over to White side, moving my pawn forward two spaces.
“Your move 64.”