//------------------------------// // Moving on // Story: I Prefer the Term Freelancer // by One of the Crowd //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Moving on "It's good to see you again Isaac" Celestia said as the human and Pegasus walked into a room if you could call it that. The room had no walls or anything really it only had a floor. The other five ponies Isaac was supposed to be protecting were also here looking at him with mixed emotions. Pinkie was obviously still smiling after their little talk earlier at the prospect of him forgiving her though in Isaac's mind it was still rather unlikely, but it was also unlikely that he'd end up being a freelancing mercenary in a land of talking ponies wasn't it. "How you doing sunny, haven't had a face to face in awhile" Isaac said before making a chocolate cake appear out of nowhere and handing it to her. The princesses eyes widened at the cake and she attempted to take a bite only for it to puff into nothingness. She was dumbstruck for a minute before remembering she was in a dream for all of this. She smiled at Isaac as she tried to formulate a plan to get back at him when it dawned on her, socks. Everyone in the room was surprised when they all realized they were now wearing various pairs of socks. "That doesn't work on me remember" "Unless they're on Luca" Luna said which made Isaac's face seem like he had been smacked. Repeatedly. By a spatula. Before Isaac could retort about what he and Luca do behind closed doors was between them when Celestia cut in. "Isaac by the fact that the ponies are relatively close to you, I assume you have accepted the contract, am I correct?" "Nah, I'm holding them hostage until you give me my five million bits," the princess was stunned by his remark until she realized he was joking. Hopefully. "Well I wont pay a single bit if any of them are harmed" Isaac grinned at the fact Celestia was playing along. "Well I suppose I don't have to send you a message by-" "THOU WILL NOT HARM OUR SUBJECT" Luna yelled in her Canterlot voice. "Jesus, moon moon can you be any louder, we were only kidding" Isaac said as he tried to regain his hearing through cleaning out his ear. Luna tried to hide her face at the mistake of her mistaking the joke as actual aggression. "Anyway yeah, We've agreed to the contract. Let me be clear though If they start trying to start things with my friends again I am taking them to Canterlot and expect a percentage of my pay" "We did not agree to tha-" "Done" Celestia cut Luna off before she could object to the arrangement. The other ponies in the room were just watching the scene play out before them as the man talked to the princesses like they were friends and then swap to acting like they were conducting business. Twilight had to know exactly what in the hay was going on here. "Isaac why are you talking to the princesses like that they are -" "Royalty, blah blah, respect, blah blah, you do realize that they are human, sorry pony too right" "They are Alicorns, they are-" "Oh yeah they get the best of all the worlds, But just like you they were normal before all this happened" Isaac motioned with his hands toward the two princesses. "Just because you are better does not mean you should flaunt it around, these two understand that" "What do you mean by that" Applejack cut into the conversation. "What I mean my dear Apple fucker-" "I buck apple trees I don't-" "Whatever the point is those two don't have to treat you all fairly. They don't have to care about any of you, yet they do because they have realized that they can use what they have to help others." Applejack took into consideration what he just said to her and began to think that maybe, just maybe he was right about this. "Where did you learn all of this stuff anyway, Isaac" Rainbow asked after a minute of silence. "I've always enjoyed the idea of philosophy Rainbow, I never said much back in ponyville because I figured you all didn't need anything I had to say, god was I wrong" Looking up Isaac realized he was still in the presence of all the ponies when he decided now was the best time to ask. "Twilight, Do you regret trying to kill me" "What, I didn't try to kill you" Her eyes darted toward the princess who was standing a few feet away when she said, "I already know about what happened twilight, Rainbow Dash explained everything when I visited Isaac in the hospital. However I don't believe he knows about you saving him." "Wait, what do you mean Celestia? Twilight didn't save me, hell she almost killed me!" "Those chemicals would of killed you if Twilight didn't slow down your blood enough to keep them from reaching your heart" Isaac froze for a minute at this new information. He left ponyville, the only place he knew in this world because he thought she was trying to kill him, and She had instead tried to save him from certain death. Isaac slowly turned his head to face the purple alicorn in question to see if he could detect any bullshit from that statement. He couldn't see any, and it hit him one of the major reasons for hating this pony was a lie he told himself for the past year and a half. "I tried to tell you it was an accident, but you were avoiding me so I was never able to apologize and tell you the truth" "I think I need to lie down a minute" Isaac said before summoning up a couch and lying down on it. He just gazed up into the abyss above him as he thought over all of this. He was completely unreasonable about the entire thing, but he was scared that twilight really had intended to kill him. The more he thought about it he realized something, and that something was he'd of never met any of his friends if twilight hadn't accidentally almost killed him. Slowly Isaac sat back up and looked back toward the Purple princess before he said "Thank you." "WHAT" "WHAT" "WHAT" Everyone in the room said had the exact same reaction to Isaac saying thank you to Twilight. "If you didn't almost kill me i'd still be in ponyville, I'd of never met Luca or Silver or any of them really, so thank you Twilight" Twilight didn't know how exactly to react to Isaac just forgiving her for almost killing him, but he did say that she was the reason he met all of these ponies. The world around them started to shimmer and the ground started to shake. "someone is trying to wake us up" ***Back in reality*** "WAKE UP ISAAC, WAKE UP" Luca was slapping Isaac's face repeatedly to get him up to help deal with the current situation. "Ah, Luca that hurts, whats the emergency anyway" "Oh, i don't know maybe it's the ominous cloud of darkness over the horizon" Luca said pointing through the tent's door toward exactly what she was talking about. "Shit, Luca I want you to get everyone up and have them meet me by the fire pit" Isaac commanded with which Luca gave a salute before she went off to get everyone. Isaac however walked over to his bed and reached underneath it to find his trusty crossbow with the engraving 'The last thing you never see'. Isaac looked at the engraving before saying to himself "Accurate, and so am I" Before he left his tent for the fire pit where Luca had already gathered everyone. "Isaac you know what that is" Sombra said trying to keep his nerves under control which was understandable considering that thing enslaved him for at least twelve-hundred years. "I know Sombra, I know" Isaac then looked toward everyone that was standing before him as the wind started to kick up dust around them. "All right everyone we can't fight that thing head on, If we tried I'd only force us to fight each other. Now,Sombra I want you to throw up a shield and lead everyone toward the cave you scouted yesterday, it's our safest bet." Sombra did as he was told and threw up a bubble around the group. "Alright, now I'm going to try and Slow it down" "WHAT" Everyone yelled in unison. "Well if it follows the rules of most things that are made of pure evil then it should hate light so I'm setting the camp on fire" Everyone stared at Isaac for a minute contemplating his crazy plan to burn everything they owned down to the ground. "I recommend getting everything we can now it'll be here in a couple minutes, and it's minions-" Isaac shot a bolt through a random shadow pony that had started running toward them. "- are already here" he finished. Everyone started taking what they could carry with them mostly what they needed or had sentimental value when Flim and Flam came up to Isaac. "Hey Isaac we got something for you," The two ponies levitated some strange device that was made of wood and metal. Isaac grinned at it before pulling a piece of metal on it back letting of a 'click'. "Just call me Edward Kenway cause bitches about to be shot, hallelujah for the the flintlock" Isaac placed his crossbow on his back before testing his new weapon on a nearby shadow creature. "You guys are geniuses" "We know" the brothers said simultaneously as Isaac admired their handiwork. Once everyone was packed and ready to go the cloud was only a few yards away from them when they realized it was time to book it out of there. "I have to set the fire" Isaac aid as he rushed over toward one of the tents. He began attempting to light it with flint and steel when a fire appeared out of nowhere near him. Looking up Isaac saw Twilight's horn was glowing And that more fires were sprouting up around the camp. "Good job, Twilight." Twilight smiled at that though the strain she was putting on herself was making things rather difficult for her when a tendril from the darkness grabbed onto one of her hooves. "GAH, ISAAC" Twilight yelled as the darkness began to pull her toward the cloud to absorb her. Isaac knows exactly what would happen if she was taken so he did what he thought would work and fired a bullet at the tendril. It released twilight but another one wrapped itself around Isaac's waist before pulling him toward the cloud. Twilight saw what was happening and tried everything she knew to free Isaac from the tendril but nothing would work it would just go right through it. "Twilight, you have to go" Isaac grunted as he tried to pull away from the darkness that was now beginning to surround him. "No, I'm not leaving you to die. Not like this" "Twilight, it wants you to save me so it can have you, besides it wont kill me" "But what if-" "GO" Isaac yelled as his grip failed and he was pulled into the darkness. The last thing Isaac heard was Luca yelling: "ISAAAAAACCCCCC".