The Pony Of Vengeance

by BradyBunch

Betrayed

Manehattan was dark and crowded that evening at 6:00. The city hall had never before gained such a crowd as it now did. Standing in the streets just outside was a crowd estimated to be around twenty thousand citizens, although some said that the number was higher. Ironheart’s very intrusive public announcement had been the talk of the city for the entire day.

On the steps of the city hall were most of the entire Manehattan police force spread in a semicircle, both to hold back the crowd and form a net in which to encounter both Ironheart and Count Privilege.

And on the veranda of the city hall, in between the pillars and looking out at the crowd, were six mares, a baby dragon, and a forensics scientist with emerald green eyes. None of them were in a very good mood as they observed the crowds and thought wildly about what could possibly happen that night.

“How do you think this will go down, Twilight?” Pinkie asked Twilight gravely. “Will we actually have to fight Ironheart?”

“If we must,” Twilight said firmly. “He thinks we’re his friends, so we’ll have the advantage of surprise when we attack.”

“But…if we hurt him while he thinks we’re friends...that’s not the sort of thing friends do to each other. Right?”

Twilight nodded. “You’re right. But we’re not his friends.”

“Why does he think we are, then?”

“Because we’re both working towards the same goal. But Ironheart’s forgotten his foundations of friendship.”

“But if we become his friends, will he see the light and stop when we show him our example?”

Twilight was about to say something. And then she stopped. Pinkie Pie had silenced her. Yet another difficult choice had presented itself to her. It was another thing that had become divisive to her preconceptions of friendship. She was the princess of friendship, but the title had only been put upon her when she had defeated Tirek, which wasn’t too long ago.

“When do you think he’ll show up?” Dr. Brainstem asked. “And where? I want to talk to him face-to-face.”

“We tried talking to him before,” Applejack pointed out. “What makes you think he’ll change this time?”

Dr. Brainstem had no answer. He instead fiddled with cleaning his glasses and avoided eye contact.

The crowds parted all of a sudden, forcing the mares to look down the aisle that had appeared down the center of the crowd. Count Privilege was walking, slowly but confidently, down the aisle, with over a dozen ponies in expensive suits surrounding him. The ponies all had fancy revolvers in their mouths, ready to pull the trigger with their tongues. And leading it all was a pony in a trench coat, bandana, and sunglasses. No part of his skin could be shown.

They came to the police circle keeping the crowd back, and the police eyed the Count and his cronies with disgust and kept the line.

“Get out of my boss’s way,” the pony in the trench coat snarled at the police in front of him. “He has a job to do tonight.”

“How about we just arrest you right now?” one of them retorted, reaching for the baton at his hip.

“No!” another cried, stopping his hoof. “What if Ironheart doesn’t get his quarry? Then he’ll kill us all!”

“You have no idea what Ironheart wants,” the pony in the trench coat pointed out. “But let’s be on the safe side, and acquiesce to his demands for the time being... you understand?”

“Of course,” the more cautious police officer agreed, and he stepped aside. “Son, let them pass.”

The other police officer agreed, though he was more sullen than his companion. The pony in the trench coat and hat passed through, and following him came his boss’s entourage, and then came Count Privilege himself, smirking obnoxiously at the police officer that had tried to halt his progress, and the police officer gritted his teeth so hard he could feel a small piece of his molar break off--only as small as a grain of sand.

The entourage took its time in coming up to the steps of the city hall, allowing Count Privilege the opportunity to saunter his way confidently to the top, turn around, and look the crowd in the face. There were a few boos as he overlooked them all, but he kept his composure. If anything talking in the Senate had taught him, it was that no matter what, your face needed to be emotionless. So he only kept a small tight-lipped smirk of confidence as he overlooked everypony else.

“Count Privilege?”

Count Privilege turned around to face seven ponies and a baby dragon. One of the ponies was a middle-aged stallion, however, and all of the mares varied drastically in color. But what drew his attention was that one of them was an alicorn. He bowed. “Princess Twilight. It’s an honor to meet you in the flesh.”

“Yeah, uh, you too,” Twilight managed to get out, scratching the back of her mane as she finally met the pony behind most of the terrible things going on in Manehattan. “Listen, um, what are you doing here?”

Count Privilege looked confused. “What am I doing here? I’m simply meeting the Night Terror’s demands. What are you doing here, Twilight? Hm?”

“They’re here to stop him and save your miserable life,” Dr. Brainstem said heavily. He was still furious at him for assassinating Case File. “Show some gratitude, will you?”

“I don’t need your help,” Count Privilege snapped. “I have a weapon that can kill Ironheart, and I don’t need you to intervene!”

“A weapon that can kill a machine?” Applejack asked shrewdly. “Where did you get this weapon, exactly?”

“That’s none of your business, bumpkin,” Count Privilege hurriedly shot out at her, though he instinctively shifted his eyes to the pony in the trench coat. “What do you have to do here? What do you plan on doing to kill Ironheart? Hm?”

“Hey!” Rainbow cried, zooming in between Applejack and the disgusting politician. “Nopony calls my friend a bumpkin!”

“Are you going to kill me? If you did that, Ironheart wouldn’t be too happy about that, now would he?”

“I’m sure he can allow for an excuse,” Rainbow Dash snarled, stalking closer to him like a cat ready to pounce. “Listen here, buddy. I’m sick and tired of you doing whatever you want and getting away scot-free. One way or another, whether it’s Ironheart that gives you the sticky end you deserve, or me, you will not walk away from this alive!”

“And your choice is whether you walk out of this alive,” the Count retorted. Every single pony in a suit aimed the revolvers in their mouths at Rainbow Dash. “My fate is well decided, but yours is still in question. Will you walk away unharmed? Will Ironheart decide to turn on you and kill you next? Or will I decide to open fire on you right here, right now?”

The clop of hooves brought Count Privilege’s head up, and he saw Twilight Sparkle marching next to Rainbow Dash. “If you do decide to harm my friend,” Twilight said clearly and loudly, “then you will die.”

“Because you can somehow bring yourself to open fire on me?” the Count rudely asked.

“Because if Ironheart sees that you dared hurt one of the Elements of Harmony, then he will come after you and slay you personally,” Twilight corrected him.

“But where is Ironheart?” Count Privilege asked, furiously gesticulating around. “He said he’d come and meet me here, but he didn’t! He doesn’t live up to his promises! Weak! Weak and cowardly, I say!”

The pony in the trench coat shot out his arm like he was about to grab him, but he forced himself to lower his arm.

“If he wants to come out and kill me, then let him come out now!” He turned around to address the crowd, and he shouted his next words. “Ironheart doesn’t keep his promises! Ironheart is weak! Ironheart’s a coward!”

The crowd began to bubble with interest upon hearing him call Ironheart out on his failure to come out in the open. What would they do? What if Ironheart heard him?

It happened so fast.

The pony in the trench coat suddenly collapsed to the ground and was pulled into the shadows of the stone veranda, screaming and wailing. In only a few seconds, he had disappeared into the darkness.

Count Privilege whirled around in shock, and he could no longer see his client there. His eyes popping, Count Privilege looked around for a few moments before turning to the Mane Six. “YOU!” he roared. “YOU TOOK HIM!”

“Are you an idiot?” Rarity demanded of him. “Where would we put him?”

Count Privilege failed to answer. He indicated his fancy entourage after a few moments. “Find my client. If you see Ironheart, you know what to do.”

They collectively nodded, and warily approached the veranda of the city hall, underneath the pillars that stretched skyward and inching towards the massive double doors of the hall.

Nopony on the steps looked upward, where a massive glinting metal object slithered up one of the pillars like a snake, tossing aside a hat and a trench coat. It disappeared into the dark shadows near the top and could not be seen.

“Get away,” one of the ponies told the rest of the girls. He had a red carnation in his suit pocket and sunglasses on his face, even though it was evening. “We’re here to do business.”

“Ah think yer forgettin’ that we’re here ta do business as well,” Applejack retorted.

“Count Privilege’s business is more important than yours,” he instantly responded. “Get out of our way, pretty girl, or we’ll have to do some things that we won’t like.”

Applejack fixed him a look of pure hatred but backed away so he could search the top of the stone steps for Ironheart.

The dozen or so ponies with shiny silver revolvers continued to search on the stone floor, peeking behind massive columns and seeking with eyes that peered everywhere possible.

Except for upwards to the roof, where a predator lay in wait for his prey to come in closer.

And then Twilight felt it--the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees, and the hair on her body stuck up straight with cold. Her mind was overwhelmed with survival instinct. She knew what a low temperature meant. He was about to make his kill.

“Boss!” the pony with the red carnation said after a moment or two. “There’s nothing here.”

“Impossible,” Count Privilege snapped. “He wasn’t pulled back there by accident. Something must have…” He trailed off as he pondered what could have happened for it to occur.

“It’s probably Ironheart, sir. And if he was there, he’s overheard what you said about him. He... I don’t think he’s happy.”

“Are you telling me you’re scared of Ironheart?” the Count mockingly asked.

“What?” The pony with the red carnation reared his head. “No, boss! I’m not scared of a dirty dev-”

Shhk

“GAAAAH! AH!” The pony with the red carnation dropped to his knees, and everyone watching recoiled in fright. The squelchy sound was the sound of a double-edged harpoon entering the small of his back and exiting his chest. The line attached to the harpoon started to coil itself back up, and he was raised to a standing position on his hind legs.

Then he wasn’t even touching the ground anymore.

Then the pony with the red carnation was reeled upwards like a fish caught on a line, up several dozen feet, and as he went up and up, every eye followed his ascent. As he went, he was screaming like a heartbroken baby. At the top of his climb, he had reached the point of the triangular roof the pillars below were holding up. On the pinnacle of the pointed roof was a massive winged gargoyle overlooking his audience.

But it wasn’t a gargoyle.

The silhouetted gargoyle suddenly stood up from its crouching position, holding the rapidly expiring pony at arm’s length, and shot out one of his wings to the side like a sword.

Then, with a hard swipe of his bladed wing, he beheaded the pony. The head sailed away, and the gargoyle negligently dropped his body three dozen feet to collapse brokenly on the hard stone steps below. It impacted with a sickening crunch, and blood spurted out of his corpse to flood the steps of the building of justice.

Count Privilege suddenly had second thoughts about engaging the Night Terror in single combat.

The gargoyle suddenly crouched, then hurled from his spot to the hard steps below, curving his wings around him like a cocoon. As he hit the ground, the surface cracked around him in a crater, and the bladed wings extended themselves around him like he was a conquering god. He brought his metal head up to stare at Count Privilege, and his scarlet burning eyes were furious enough to burn flesh.

“Count Privilege,” he whispered in the most calming voice any of them had heard. “You are mine.”

“NOW!” Count Privilege roared to his entourage. And all of them trained their revolvers on his body and opened fire.

This time, the attack was different. The bullets zinged through the air, and the projectiles were a glowing blue as they sailed through the air and impacted on Ironheart’s metal skin. Ironheart gave a gasp of pain every time a bullet impacted on his skin, and a blue glowing crater rippled outward from the points of impact until his entire body was covered in blue material like he was encased in an electrical net.

It was so short. He didn’t even have time to fire a feather at them or shoot them. In only a little bit, Ironheart had stiffened, then collapsed on the ground, motionless.

“NO!” Fluttershy cried, and tried to lunge forward for Ironheart’s inert body, but Rarity held her back. All of the girls wore similar expressions of shock and surprise on their faces. Just like that, Ironheart was gone. Dead.

Count Privilege was surprised. It was so quick, so anticlimactic of him to go out that way. The electrical disturbance emitters were even more powerful than he had thought. Grinning victoriously, he turned his attention to the awestruck audience watching the scene unfold.

“Ironheart is dead!” he cried, raising a hoof in the air. “I have killed the beast myself!”

There came a rustle behind him, and Count Privilege turned to see Ironheart struggle away weakly on his hands and knees. It appeared that Ironheart was more likely disabled instead of killed. He pathetically tried to wriggle away. Then he collapsed and began to reflexively twitch.

“Go check on him,” Count Privilege told a nearby cronie, ignoring the amazing amount of blood that had exited the body of the pony with the red carnation.

The cronie he had spoken to approached Ironheart warily, but after a few moments, he began to grow more confident and walked more briskly to Ironheart’s inert body. When he came to his head, he tapped it gently.

Nothing happened.

He rubbed his hoof along his dead arm. Nothing happened except for a reflexive twitch of the body.

Then he tried to press down on his chest.

And Ironheart’s fist whipped up and slammed into his head so hard a concave crater appeared in his head. He shrieked in pain and collapsed, and Ironheart’s clawed foot shot out and gripped his skull. He whipped the furiously struggling pony into the stone ground time after time after time again, and only stopped well after his body had gone limp--all while Ironheart was lying on the ground.

Ironheart stood up, showing no sign of injury or pain. The glowing blue craters on his body disappeared entirely. He still held the limp body by the head in his clawed foot, pressing his prey’s face against the stone floor. He gave a deep, mocking laugh at Count Privilege, and shook his head in plain amusement.

“What?” Count Privilege whimpered in the smallest voice he had ever used. “But... but I…”

“Oh, my dear, dear fool,” Ironheart snarled in Client 24’s animalistic, cruel voice. He squeezed the foot holding his prey’s head, and there came a sound like an eggshell breaking. Viscous liquid came from between his clawed toes, and he callously tossed the remains of the pony aside. “Did you honestly think I would sell you weapons that could actually hurt me?”

And Count Privilege shattered on the inside.

Month after month, meeting after meeting, he had trusted his client, had relied on his weapons to help him ascend to the highest levels of Manehattan’s government. He had relied on his weapons, and he had relied on him, but it was all a lie.

Everything his client had ever done to him had led to this.

This.

Betrayal.

Count Privilege’s breaths came short and quick, and he could feel his face get cold as the blood drained out of his face. A tear instinctively appeared at the corner of his eye, and it dripped down his cheek. He couldn’t think of anything to say to him. It was awful. Everything was disappearing. He hadn’t been able to rally the people around him, he hadn’t been able to kill Ironheart, and now, even Client 24 was gone from his sphere of influence.

Unfortunately for him, however, Ironheart noticed the change in his countenance.

“Aww, look at him,” he mocked in an obnoxious child’s voice. “Did you have your pwecious wittle feewings hurt? Count Pwivwige is crying! Look at him, everyone! He’s crying!” He laughed cruelly again. “You should have known from the outset that if you work with criminals, you get betrayed. Were you really so much of an idiot that you fell for my offers?” He raised his voice, pointed a finger, and started to chant like a school bully. “Count Privilege’s an idiot! Count Privilege’s an idiot!”

“KILL HIM!” Count Privilege roared, wiping away the shameful tear. “KILL HIM NOW!”

One of his cronies was actually sneaking up behind Ironheart that moment, and was carrying a massive wrench. He had raised it above his head, ready to strike Ironheart in the spine.

Shk

The sound came as Ironheart whirled around and struck the pony in the throat with his bladed tail like a whiplash. Blood poured from his slit throat, and the wrench he had in his upraised hoof fell atop his head, creating a dent in his skull. Ironheart kicked him clear across the veranda, and as he flew away his head separated from his body and landed apart from his blood-soaked body. At that point, most of the rest of Privilege’s entourage didn’t attack at all and instead withdrew a pace.

And then Ironheart raised his arm to switch it into a long gun, and trained its fire on the rest of the ponies as they were retreating. Pony after pony fell dead or mortally wounded, and rivers of blood ran down the steps of the hall of justice as they collapsed.

“Really,” Ironheart said matter-of-factly. “This is pathetic.”

“STOP!” came a demand, and Twilight and Rainbow Dash came into view. “Ironheart, enough is enough!”

“Twilight,” Ironheart growled. “Go away. This is not your fight!”

“It is,” Twilight said with a false determination. “It’s our fight because we will stop you.”

“You see?” Count Privilege screamed, pointing at the two mares behind their backs. “See? They’re not on your side! They’re with me!”

“You would dare assume that these ponies would ever side with you?” Ironheart asked incredulously. “You’re more stupid than meets the eye, Cunt.”

“We’re not with him,” Rainbow was quick to admit, “but we’re still going to stop you.”

And now it was Ironheart’s turn to feel the pains of betrayal.

No more would they have an object in common. The six mares would now work against him for their own pursuits of justice. It hurt him to his center. It pierced him like a sword.

“You... would kill a friend?” Ironheart asked quietly, clenching a fist in front of his face. His voice was quiet. “You would turn your back on the friendship I’ve forged with you?”

“It was never friendship,” Rainbow Dash affirmed, trying her hardest to bury the admittance that she had been tempted to think like he had. “We were against your thoughts and your feelings. No more of that!”

“You’re the princess of friendship, and you break bonds of friendship?” Count Privilege asked Twilight in disbelief. He threw his hooves up in the air. “I knew it. I knew friendship’s power was a fraud! You can’t accept everypony into your life. I knew it. I knew--”

Ironheart twitched his wing and shot a bladed feather into Count Privilege’s upper foreleg without even looking at him, and Count Privilege collapsed with a pathetic groan. He started to whine and stare at the massive metal feather in his arm.

Now with Count Privilege shut up, Ironheart gazed at the two mares with a saddened look. “You wish to abandon me?”

“If it means it’ll get you to stop, then yes.”

Ironheart gazed at the ground in immense melancholy. He finally said, “I never wished to harm you.”

“I know,” was Twilight’s reply.

“I never wished for you to have to reach the edge of the precipice.”

“Your actions were pushing all of us to the edge,” Twilight pointed out. It was quiet between them. “You were the one forcing us to choose between you and peace.”

“I am peace,” Ironheart said.

“Peace brought about by death is not peace at all.”

“Are you my enemy?”

“The only enemy I have is vengeance.”

Ironheart took a deep breath and expelled it. He avoided the girls’ looks and took something off of his hip. “Will you fight me?”

“You, and everything you stand for,” Twilight said. She charged her horn with a musical chime and relaxed her knees a bit. Beside her, Rainbow Dash crouched, ready to take off and launch.

Ironheart’s eye sockets were dark and deep, and the red color in his eyes was more murderous than ever as he finally looked Twilight in the face.

“Then you will die."

And his fist sprouted a jagged bar of electricity.

It happened so fast.

Twilight fired a lance of violet energy at Ironheart, and he whirled his white blade. The blast of power ricocheted off and blew apart the side of a stone column, and Ironheart, allowing no time for recovery, bounded forward, swiping his sword in a downward arc. Twilight miraculously caught the blade with a bar of violet magic that erupted out of her horn, and the blades were crossed.

Twilight was slowly being pushed down by the power of Ironheart’s inexorable power, and the sword crackled so close to her horn that she could feel her mane stand on end. The bar of magic that had appeared out of Twilight’s horn was getting weaker and weaker as Ironheart pushed down on it. She could feel her knees shake as she felt how strong he was. She couldn’t stop him. She couldn’t resist any more--

And the blade was knocked out of Ironheart’s hand by a rainbow-colored blur.

Rainbow Dash had come out of nowhere and knocked the handle out of his grip in a powerful swoop. She then circled up in the air and sped towards the ground for another run at him.

In response, Ironheart jumped away from Twilight and transformed his entire right arm into a powerful anti-aircraft gun. He aimed it high in the sky and spat a pattering spray of heavy bullets at Rainbow Dash.

Twisting in the air to avoid the spray of bullets coming her way, Rainbow Dash peeled off from her attack and sped away over the crowd of ponies in front of the city hall, knowing that Ironheart wouldn’t dare fire over a crowd of civilians.

Ironheart stopped firing at Rainbow Dash and outstretched his left arm. His palm glowed white, and the attached electromagnets made Ironheart’s sword skitter back to his grip. He turned around once more--

And he felt a pair of hooves slam into his chest as Applejack delivered her hardest buck to his abdomen. Clutching his chest, he stood his ground by skidding on the ground and doubling over.

He saw, to his satisfaction, that Applejack was wincing from the impact as she put her hind legs down. That was his opportunity to strike. He bent his knees and launched himself at her, with a machine gun as his right arm and the hilt of his sword in his left.

The impact of his left fist sent Applejack sprawling down, but he could tell that she could take a hit. She didn’t look as hurt as the others he had harmed. But before he could reflect further on that, he heard, “NO YOU DON’T, YOU SAVAGE!”

And his body was encased with a light blue aura. He squirmed around, and saw Rarity using her limited magic to her full extent by trapping him inside of a light blue net. She swung her head with an almighty groan, and Ironheart was thrown back into a pillar, cracking the back of it but doing no real damage to himself.

Standing up, Ironheart fired the heavy machine gun at Rarity’s position, and Rarity instantly sped behind a nearby pillar. He spotted Twilight, recovering from his previous pressing on her magical boundaries, and he opened a slot in his shoulder. A small missile shot out, jerking his body backward, and Twilight was able to only put up a shield before it slammed into the center of it. Twilight cried aloud and the shield faltered like a screen with static.

“FIGHT ME!” Ironheart roared, all signs of his calm composure gone. He fired a heavy explosive out of his wrist at Twilight’s shield again, and Twilight’s shield dropped after the explosive hit. She retreated behind the same pillar Rarity was behind, and Ironheart fired a spray of bullets at the edge of the pillar.

“FIGHT ME, TWILIGHT!”

Another hail of deadly bullets tore a chunk out of the side.

“WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF?”

Another barrage tore a chunk out of the opposite side.

“I’M JUST A MACHINE, AFTER ALL!”

Another missile fired out of his other shoulder and impacted the pillar right above their heads. Rubble blew apart, and dust filled the air.

“SO FIGHT ME, TWILIGHT!”

He ignited his sword again, and the electricity surged out.

“FIGHT THE MACHINE!”

He came to Twilight’s pillar and swiped his sword through the center of it. The sword sliced cleanly through, and it slid off and fell down the pedestal. He could see, however, that there was nopony behind it. They had moved away, hidden by the cover of the oncoming night and the chaos reigning around them.

“Hiya!”

Ironheart whirled around with his sword held away from him, and he very nearly sliced Pinkie Pie in half. Pinkie, for her part, was an excellent contortionist, and shot herself backward right before Ironheart could behead her. “Hey! Watch the sword, bud!”

Ironheart leveled his long sword and pointed it directly at Pinkie Pie’s face. He stalked forward, keeping Pinkie Pie in his sights. Pinkie Pie backed up against a pillar on her hind legs as Ironheart advanced. Just before he was about to thrust with his sword, however, Pinkie Pie said something.

“Look, I know you’re pretty mad at us right now, but I just wanted to ask you something!”

Ironheart lowered his sword. A question from Pinkie Pie? What on earth could it be? “Yes?” he asked, trying to not snarl at her.

“Do you have a vendetta against cake?”

Ironheart blinked in confusion. “What?”

“Against cake,” Pinkie explained with an absolutely straight face. “Oh, please don’t.”

Ironheart spread his arms in incredulity. “Why on earth would I hate cake?!”

Pinkie Pie grew a smile. “So you don’t hate cake?”

“What made you assume I d--”

BOOM

Before he could finish, Ironheart was thrown backward by a blast of magic by Twilight, who had come out of nowhere and thrown him back once again to the back of a pillar. He collided with the side of it and spun to the ground with a mighty thud.

“Nice job distracting him, Pinkie!” Twilight called as she ran past where Pinkie stood.

Pinkie Pie looked bewildered. “I was distracting him?”

Ironheart was lying on the ground face down and was supporting himself on his hands and knees, when he saw a hoof reach for him. He looked up to see who the hoof was attached to.

It was Dr. Brainstem.

“Do you need help?” he asked, gazing at him from over the top of his glasses.

Ironheart, sharply angled and winged and built like a demon, made a face of rejection and swatted his hoof away. He stood up on his hind legs and looked down on him. “What are you doing?”

Twilight was about to fire another blast of energy, but stopped; Dr. Brainstem was in the field of fire.

“I was trying to help you up,” the doctor said. “Should I apologize?”

“Are you my enemy?” Ironheart asked bluntly.

“Well...I’m certainly not with you…”

“Then get out of my way, doctor!”

“No.” Dr. Brainstem stood his ground, though he was noticeably trembling. “I won’t allow you to hurt my friends, Bright Mind.”

“Don’t you dare call me that,” Ironheart spat at him.

“Listen!” he pleaded. “Are you really going to let this be your defining destiny? So much blood and destruction?”

Ironheart extended a white palm, and the sword hilt flew back to his left hand. “Get out of the way, doctor!”

“What, so that you can kill the Elements of Harmony?”

“If I must!” Ironheart spun around to face Twilight and the rest of the mares, and knocked the doctor on his back with his outspread wings. “If you deny me the pleasure of allowing me my vengeance on Count Privilege!”

And he sped forward with his wings out to the side, forcing the mares to scatter as he plowed through the empty space that had opened up in their midst. He ran at full force to Count Privilege, still nursing the long feather stuck into his arm, and, with a tremendous, well-executed blow to the head, knocked him unconscious.

He picked Count Privilege up and draped the inert body across his shoulders. But before he could take off, Twilight and Rarity combined held him down in a shimmering aura of blue and violet.

“You...aren’t going...anywhere,” Twilight strained through her teeth.

“I have gone where nopony else has!” Ironheart bellowed back. He fired bladed feathers out of his wings at the girls, and Twilight barely had enough time to put up a shield to let the feathers sink in. Ironheart was still stuck in the auras. “I have done more than you have for the sanitation of ponykind! I have changed, Twilight, and you would do well to follow me!” Ironheart’s voice was getting louder, deeper, and more demonic with every word, and his eyes were the color of fresh blood.

“I will never follow your example!” Twilight cried.

“THEN YOU SHALL FALL WITH MANEHATTAN!”

He fired the retros in his feet and wings, and he zoomed against the aura holding him back. He managed to twist around, turn one of his arms into a thin Gatling gun, and fire at Twilight. Twilight instantly diverted her power to creating a shield in front of her and the girls grouped behind her, and that meant taking power out of the aura holding Ironheart down.

Ironheart broke free of the now-weak aura, stopped firing at Twilight, and fired himself into the darkening skies. He flew out over the crowd of ponies that were transfixed by what had happened on the steps of the building of justice, and all heads below picked themselves up to follow his movements.

Ironheart soared hundreds of feet above the ground, and the buildings of Manehattan were on all sides of him. He allowed a small breath of victory.

He had done it! It was finally coming into place, no matter what the Mane Six had done to halt his progress. He still didn’t hate them, but if they were planning on staying in his way, then they had to die. It was just how the world worked. If something was in your way, you fought against it in any way you knew how, because your desire for that end result was more powerful than the object in your way. And if your desire for something was weaker than the object barring your way, then you were weak and stupid. Weak because you had a dream but couldn’t accomplish it; stupid because you tried while your desire was weak.

Clang

Ironheart nearly dropped Count Privilege as a rainbow-colored blur sped into him, causing him to drop a few feet in altitude. He spun his head around to see Rainbow Dash circling up higher in the air, ready to attack again.

Ironheart let loose a roar of consternation and trained his sights on Rainbow Dash. He fired his thin Gatling gun on Rainbow as she came near to him, but Rainbow Dash, trained like a professional, evaded the stream of bullets and dropped under his level of sight.

Ironheart looked down to see himself get kicked in the face by the feisty mare, almost making him drop his precious cargo again. This time, Ironheart didn’t allow her to get away.

He instantly changed his gun back into an arm and grabbed the mare by the neck. Hundreds of feet above the streets, Ironheart started to squeeze.

“I’ve had enough of you,” he snarled in her face. “I am going... to HAVE MY PREY, AND YOU! WILL DIE! IF YOU STOP! ME! AGAIN!”

Rainbow Dash’s face was red, and she was straining against his absolute grip, but she managed to get out, “There was... a time... where I thought... you were right!”

Astounded, Ironheart relaxed his grip, allowing her to breathe normally in his grip.

“But now... now I see... the full truth.”

“And what is the truth?” Ironheart asked, pressing his face against hers so that his indented, red eyes now filled Rainbow Dash’s vision. “What do you know that I don’t?”

“That friendship... is magic,” Rainbow Dash declared.

And she reared the lower half of her body up and kicked Count Privilege off of his shoulders.

Startled, Ironheart let go of Rainbow Dash and dived down to recover his cargo before he hit the pavement. Rainbow Dash, now free, sped off to return to the crowded outside of the city hall. Looking back, she saw Ironheart, growing increasingly smaller as she flew away, diving to catch Count Privilege. She saw him snatch him up in mid-air. She saw him fire his red engines and fly off, away from where she was.

Not daring to fly back to Ironheart, Rainbow Dash instead sped off to check on her friends.

---

Ironheart fumed as he flew to his destination: a small, grimy street alley. As he landed in between the buildings, he let loose a long sigh of anger.

No matter what, Ironheart had won, but Rainbow Dash had rejected his principles.

Ironheart lifted a secret lever behind the dumpster, and the secret elevator swiveled to face him. He callously chucked the bleeding and unconscious Count into the elevator and stepped in beside him.

With a punch of a button, the elevator closed, and he descended into his lair.

And unbeknownst to him, coming across the dark bridges to the island of Manehattan, the first of the Equestrian Military was arriving by train.

Comments

[Super Ponyman]

Go Main Six, fighting off the equivalent of the Pony Terminator. Ironheart may have had the advantage in technology, but he was outnumbered... and Twilight has proven that she can take on threats of his level.

Shame he got away...

[NotreallyaBrony]

Ah yes. I can feel the this story Throbbing ‘o so intensely as its Climax comes ever so near......

That got sexual all of a sudden.

But anyways, i want propose a question you all, is friendship closer to justice than vengeance?

regardless, im anxious for the end, i really want to see how this ordeal will affect not only Equestria but mainly Celestia, and by proxy the Mane 6 themselves, still wished that the rest of the world could know what happened to Bright, as such extreme situation is what helps shaping the kind of world people want.

[Super Ponyman]

8875185
I wish to answer your question. Here is my answer, The Friendship that all of the Main Six have for each other is a version of justice. What separates Twilight's justice form Ironheart's sense of Vengeance is the fact that Twilight has always had her friends behind her to support her.

Ironheart viewed he entire world as his enemy and other ponies treated him like crap when he was Bright Mind. He had nopony to help him, and he became bitter and angry. That can drive you to think that all this killing and hurting others, because you feel as if it's the only way to solve your pain and anger.

I should know, I've been in Ironheart's place before (I've never killed or hurt anyone), but after others picked on me, I wanted to destroy them... but I didn't because I realized it would make me worse than them. Ironheart needs to realize that what he is doing isn't right, he needs to surrender to Twilight, or he will end up destroying his humanity (I know they are ponies but i don't have any other term) and become a monster...

As much as it pains me to say this... I think Twilight will have to make the hard choice and destroy him... if he wishes to destroy an entire city just because of his own rage... then somepony has to make that call.

[tgb089]

“Because we’re both working towards the same goal--no more evil in the world. But Ironheart’s forgotten his foundations of friendship.”

But he never had friends to begin with...

[Jade Dawn]

*sees title*

Let's see...judging by the title, I think this chapter is going to be about...

[BradyBunch]

9862367
Who was really betrayed? Count Privilege, or Ironheart?