The rebels are fighting a losing war. Their leader is in danger. He can't hide, so he runs. He plans to escape to one of the still-standing safe-houses. But when the system malfunctions, he is sent somewhere else entirely. Can he get back home?
The government has declared a state of emergency. Martial Law is in effect. And tens of millions are dead.
Somebody had to take a stand and fight back. And that somebody is now the most wanted criminal on Earth. When our hero first fought back, he had no idea that he would be leading the revolution to save the free peoples of America. And now that he is, the government forces are starting to diminish. But even though they had the upper hand, the government had secrets that would turn the tables of this blood-soaked war.
It's been seven years since the first of the riots. Now, America is nothing but a wasteland, burning and broken. The leader of the rebellion has hidden himself away in a destroyed factory in what used to be New York City. He thought it would be safe there... He was wrong.
There was a low groan that could be heard throughout the old building. One that bounced off of walls, and reverberated though the steel beams that once supported the roof that was now mostly gone.
Wayne stretched again, a loud crack coming from his back. "Gettin' too damn old fer this." He twisted his head to the side, another crack. "Ah... there we go..." He leaned back on the makeshift pillow and closed his eyes.
There was another crack.
Wayne's eye slowly opened to a slit. Had that been his imagination? He listened closely to everything around him. From the rats pattering about around him, to the thunderstorm, deeply rumbling out its warning of rain.
There was nothing. Nothing but the sounds of the rats and his own breathing.
Wayne closed his eye again, wanting to get some much needed sleep. There was a nail jabbing him in the side, so he rolled over to get away from it.
The moment he did, there was a huge boom that echoed all though the old factory, followed immediately by the sound of a bullet snapping past his head.
Wayne jumped to his feet and took off sprinting in the opposite direction that the gunshot came from.
There was another shot. This time, the bullet grazed his shoulder, but Wayne ignored the pain. He got to the edge of a broken platform and jumped down in to the darkness below.
***
"Now concentrate on it. Make it your soul point of focus."
Twilight did as her teacher said. Sweat broke out of her forehead, trailing down her face. She put more magic into the spell, creating an overglow on her horn. Her wings flapping unconsciously in stress.
"That's it," Celestia said encouragingly. "Now, picture what you want most in the world, and release the spell."
Twilight pictured in her mind what she desired most in the world. She smiled inwardly at the mental image. When she was sure that she had enough magic to complete the spell, she released her magic.
There was a loud zapping noise as the magic shot forth from her horn. Where the bolt of raw energy hit, a purple cloud of smoke rose from the ground and quickly spread to engulf herself and her teacher, Princess Celestia. It smelled worse than anything she had ever encountered before in her life. It made her gag, nearly losing her lunch there and then.
She looked to the spot where her magic hit, and saw the form of something large. And it looked like that something was moving towards her. When she saw what it was though, she screamed.
***
Wayne picked up a small box and threw it behind him in hopes of slowing down his pursuers. He looked behind him as he continued to run only to see the box shatter to pieces as the blast from a shotgun tore it to nothing but wooden specs.
He needed to get out of there. He was outnumbered, out gunned, and likely outmatched.
He rounded a corner and came face to face with another of the mercenaries that were hunting him.
The merc was raising his gun to Wayne's head, but Wayne was faster.
There was a loud bang as the .44 Magnum went off, splattering the brains of the man all over the walls and on to Wayne's trench coat and face.
Wayne picked up the man's gun, an automatic rifle, and sped off down the broken corridor.
"We command you to cease your resistance and surrender immediately!" a voice boomed from behind him.
"Go fuck yerselves!" Wayne responded. He whipped around another corner, and met with a dead end. "Fuck," he swore silently.
"If you do not comply, we will use lethal force to subdue you!"
Wayne pointed the rifle at the wall and opened fire. First, the wall resisted. But years of neglect and rot made it weak. After emptying almost half of the magazine into the wall, he rammed into it, shoulder first. He winced from the pain that shot through his system, but the wall fell, and he continued his mad dash to freedom.
More shots rand out from behind him, causing him to duck his head low to the ground to avoid losing it.
Wayne turned on his heel and took aim. Once he had them in his sights, he fired. Three of them went down instantly, spraying the other eight with bright red blood. As the gun clicked from an empty chamber, he threw it to the ground and kept running down the dark hall.
"You have been warned! We will now use lethal force to eliminate you as a threat to our glorious government leaders!"
Wayne jumped into an empty elevator shaft and grabbed the ladder on the wall to stop himself from falling to his death.
There was a creaking noise, then a loud snap as the cable came loose.
"Oh fuck me."
The cord he was holding gave way, sending him spiraling down the elevator shaft.
Wayne was about to scream for his life, but a solid landing knocked the wind- and the ability to scream- right out of him. He had landed on an elevator stuck in position.
There were shouts coming from above him. He had to move, now.
Wayne sucked in a shaky breath, wheezing as he let it out. He stood up, looking for the ladder. But he found instead the hatch that led into the elevator he was standing on. He rushed over to it, pulled it open, and jumped inside.
"There is nowhere for you to run! Surrender now, or be decimated!" the voice boomed down at him.
Wayne sighed and pulled back his sleeve, revealing a data pad crudely retrofitted to be worn around his wrist. "I did always hate this part of town," he sighed. He started entering coordinated for a translift.
There was an enormous boom as an explosive hit the lift he was in, shaking it around violently.
Wayne's fingers slipped, entering a random number into the system of his data pad.
There was a high-pitched whine as the translift bubble formed around him.
A second explosion rocked the lift, causing it to hurtle towards the bottom of the elevator shaft. But the bubble disintegrated the lift as it past Wayne, protecting him from being crushed. A moment later, the bubble zapped out of existence, carrying with it Wayne, on his way to his accidentally chosen destination.
As the translift bubble shot through hyperspace, Wayne wondered where it was he was being translifted to. For all he knew, he might end up in the center of a sun, or a mile under the ground back in Philadelphia. There was no way of knowing where he was going to end up... Until he got there of course.
Wayne could feel the bubble start to slow its speed. He was close to his stop. He just hoped that it wasn't underground, buried alive. At least a sun would be quick.
His movement stopped. There was a loud zap as his translift bubble came back into existence. So he wasn't in the center of the sun, and he wasn't underground. So, where was he?
There was a low hum as the bubble evaporated around Wayne, leaving him standing in a cloud of foul-smelling purple smoke. He waved his hand around to clear it, but only made it worse. So, coughing, he started forward, trying to get out of this cloud of stink.
As Wayne stepped out of the purple cloud, he saw two figures before him. A large white horse, and a small purple horse. But not only that; they both had wings and a horn.
His viewing of them was interrupted though as the small purple one started screaming so loud that it hurt his ears.
He cringed and covered his ears with with gloved hands, attempting to block out the high-pitched sound. But as he did this, he saw a troop of small white and grey horses running towards him with spears. The sight would have made him laugh... If he wasn't busy filling the little things full of holes with his Magnum.
***
As the group watched in silence, a translift bubble zapped away with their target inside. They had failed in their mission.
The one wearing a red shirt raised his wrist to his mouth and spoke. "The target has escaped."
From the small panel embedded into his wrist, came a squall of static hissing and random blips of noise.
He entered a sequence of numbers into his wrist pad and entered them. There was a high-pitched whine as the translift bubble started to appear around the group of mercenaries.
"Understood," he said in acknowledgement, and powered down the wrist pad. "Commencing translift to fugitive's location in three, two, one." Then, they were all sent through hyperspace. And in the direction of Wayne.
Wayne swung his gun to the next target, and fired.
This horse's chest instantly exploded in a gory mess all over the ground.
Wayne locked his eyes on his next target, but they no longer seemed to want to rush him. Instead, they were backpedaling, trying to put distance between themselves and this creature who had just struck down two of their comrades without even touching them.
One of them threw its spear at him while backing away, in a vain attempt to kill him.
Wayne easily dodged the spear, leveled his Magnum at the little horse, and turned its head into nothing but pulp. The rest of the military-like horses were already gone. He turned to face the two larger horses he had first seen, Magnum ready to fire. "Can ya speak?" he asked them. The small one seemed to flinch at his words. The large one, however, seemed to be very angry at him for some reason. He looked to the mess he had made of the guard-horses. "Were those yer soldiers?" he asked through his teeth. "If ya can understand me, ya'd better fuckin' answer me!" he yelled at them.
The small purple one looked up to the larger white one and made some type of noise. It was a line of syllables that could have made words if they weren't nonsense.
"Speak! Fuckin'! English!" Wayne roared.
The larger one's horn started to glow a light yellow color.
Wayne aimed, and pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang, then there was silence.
The smaller, purple one was the first to notice. It screamed loudly, as it saw that the larger one's horn was no longer on it's head, but instead laying in the grass at its hooves.
The larger one didn't even seem to acknowledge that it had been hurt. It just stared at the now useless piece of itself resting at its hooves. After what seemed like a very long time, it started to make a noise. It started off as a low whine, but quickly grew to a loud screech as it realized what had happened to it.
Wayne knew that the noise the horse was making would likely draw unwanted attention, so he leveled his Magnum at its head, ready to silence it. Before he could pull the trigger, there was a slight force at his waist, knocking his aim off by just a hair. He looked down to see the smaller, purple horse trying and failing to stop him with its hooves, slamming them into him over and over again. He didn't know what it was doing, but it looked up at him suddenly with tear-filled eyes. It screamed at him in the same nonsense language as before. He didn't know why, but he- just for a second- felt bad for shooting the other horses. He lowered the gun, still staring straight into the eyes of that little purple horse.
There was a crackling-zapping noise from behind him. Just for a second. But it sounded again, louder.
Wayne turned around to see a translift bubble forming just ten feet away from where he was standing. He thought of all the possibilities of who it could be, and they were all bad.
There was a low whir, then the bubble disappeared, leaving in its place eight blood-soaked government mercs. The same mercs that had been trying to kill him in New York.
One of them- the red shirt- stepped forward. "You are t-" but he got no further.
Wayne had raised his Magnum, aimed, and pulled the trigger, all in one fluid motion, effectively killing the merc. "I thought I told y'all to fuck yerselves," Wayne growled.
The remaining seven mercs raised their guns, but Wayne was already sprinting away at top speed. Bullets whizzed and snapped past his head, but he ducked and dodged out of their paths. He jumped behind a statue of a horse holding a flag victoriously. The bullets chipped and shattered the stone, making short work of his cover. But all he need was five seconds to reload, and he was ready to fight again. He dove out of cover, putting a bullet in one of the merc's chest.
He stumbled for a second, but he corrected himself, and began shooting at Wayne again almost immediately.
Wayne swore to himself, shooting again while running for better cover. The bullet went wide, barely grazing one of their arms. The second shot however, found its mark and shot straight though the injured merc's head, removing a sizable chunk. Wayne ran behind a bush, breaking their line of sight of him, then ran towards them on the other side of the foliage.
By now, they had stopped shooting, and were looking for him. "Resistance is futile, criminal! Surrender now and your death will be swift!" one of them yelled.
Wayne almost smiled at how ridiculous he sounded. He pushed through the bush slowly, bringing his gun level with two of their heads. He pulled back the hammer, and fired. The first merc dropped to the ground dead, and the second quickly did the same.
Almost instantly the remaining four opened fire where he had been not even a second before.
Wayne ran down a ways, then popped out of the bush, aiming his gun at the mercs. He fired, killing another one of them. He turned to run, but they reacted faster than he thought was Humanly possible. A bullet went straight through his leg, tearing the flesh and shattering the bone.
"Fuck!" he swore loudly. He was barely able to hobble behind a large statue of three military horses standing at attention before he was torn apart by the hail of bullets from the three remaining mercs. He pulled another clip out of his trench coat, reloading his .44 Magnum. If he was going to die here, he would die shooting.
But he didn't die shooting. Instead, a booming voice interrupted the firefight. Wayne had no idea of what it was saying, but it was loud enough to stop the mercs, and to buy him some time to get away. But as he tried to pull himself away from the statue, he was enveloped by a deep blue aura and lifted into the air. Wayne had no idea as to what was happening, but as he was lifted up, he saw that the mercs were also being lifted by the same mysterious force.
The voice boomed out again, shaking Wayne to his very core.
He looked up at the source of the voice. It was a midnight blue horse, like the white one, only slightly smaller. Wayne had no idea what it was saying to him, if it was was even talking to him.
The horse lit up its horn even brighter, then a wave of deep blue light shot from it, flying in every direction.
Wayne was hit by the light hard, like it was a wave crashing over him. After the light had passed, he felt like he hadn't slept in a hundred years. He fought to stay awake, he really did. But it was too much for him. He closed his eyes, and unconsciousness took hold of him.
As Luna, the princess of the night, held the four creatures in her magical grip, she readied a spell. It was non-lethal, but it would be enough to force them into unconsciousness. An overglow appeared on her horn, then she released the wave of magic, sending the strange creatures into a magic-induced slumber.
The one that was blood-soaked and looked rough and beat up fought at first. It was strong. Far stronger than Luna could have guessed. But the spell was stronger. It struggled for a few seconds, making any and all attempts it could to fight the magic, but failed in the end, passing out.
The three that looked more trained, trim, neat even, were completely unfazed by the spell. They looked to Luna, faces completely free of emotion. They looked to each other briefly, then raised their arms into the air in a gesture of surrender.
Luna landed on the ground, setting down the unconscious creature on the ground in front of her, then releasing the three other creatures from her magic, but keeping a spell charged in case they tried to fight her.
One of the creatures stepped forwards and spoke. It was nothing but a guttural, growling, rumble to Luna. When it finished speaking it looked to her expectantly.
Luna frowned. "We are sorry, but we do not speak your language."
There was a small whirring noise coming from the creature. After only a second, there was an audible click, then it started to speak again. "We are sorry that harm came to your home. We need that criminal to be given to us for execution," it said in perfect Equine with a smooth voice.
Luna blinked. "You come here and destroy our home and expect us to allow you to simply go free?!" she ask incredulously.
"Sister..." a voice called out.
Luna and the three creatures all looked to see Celestia walk slowly over to them, Twilight at her side, holding Celestia's horn in her magic.
"Oh... no..." Luna whispered.
"Sister, it was not these three who did this," she said, waving her hood around her. "It was that one who did this," she pointed a hoof at the unconscious form laying on the ground in front of Luna.
Luna looked to the ground in a mixture of disgust and horror at the creature at her hooves. "this... thing did this to you?!" she asked, enraged.
Celestia nodded. "And killed two of my personal guard as well, and hospitalizing a third."
Luna looked to the three creatures standing before her. "This criminal has murdered almost three innocent ponies, destroyed the castle grounds, and crippled my sister!" Luna roared at them. "The criminal will face trial, and be convicted in our courts, then executed by us! Then... you can have the body."
"Luna, I will be fine," Celestia tried to assure her sister.
"No sister. We will make sure this criminal pays for what it has done," she said coldly.
"We need to take him back so he can be executed," the creature said again.
"It will be executed here-"
"Luna!" Celestia hissed.
"-and you can bring back the body as proof that it is dead."
The creature stood there silent for a while. It seemed to be thinking, but Luna had no way of telling because of the complete emptiness of its face. "This will be acceptable," it said finally.
Luna nodded. "Then it is settled. You and your soldiers are welcome to stay in the castle until all has been resolved."
"We will accept you invitation," the creature said.
***
Luna called the guards to bring the creature to the dungeons, the she and the other two alicorns showed their three new guests to what would be their room during their stay there. It was a small room, but comfortable. "We hope that you find everything to your liking?" Luna asked.
"Yes," the groups apparent leader said, "this is acceptable."
Luna nodded to them once. "We are sure that you must be tired from your ordeal, so we will leave you to rest."
The three creatures just stared at her with blank faces.
Luna nodded once more and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her as she left.
"So," Twilight began. "What are they?"
"I do not know Twilight," Celestia said, shaking her head. She had refused to see the royal doctor until the three guests were in their room.
"Neither do we," said Luna. "But whatever they are, they are extremely dangerous. Enough so that in only a few minutes they destroyed the gardens and caused great harm to the most skilled in the royal guard." She looked to her sister. "And also magically cripple you, sister," she said with anger in her voice.
"I will-" Celestia started.
"No! You will not be fine!" Luna yelled, pushing her sister towards the medical wing of the castle.
"Luna-" Celestia tried again.
"We will not tolerate another word from you sister! Either you go to the doctor, or We will drag you there by force."
Celestia sighed and started walking, without Luna's force behind her, to see the royal doctor. Twilight trotted along side her, gently floating Celestia's horn at her side.
Now that Celestia was going to be taken care of, she could do what she needed to do.
***
Wayne was laying on his back in a cold, dark place that reeked of mold, damp, and age. He opened his eyes slowly, not wanting to worsen his pounding headache. There was no light, save for the torches sparsely placed along the walls. No windows to let in the sunshine, or moonlight, he wasn't sure which it was; it was hard to tell when you were locked up in a cell without any windows.
He looked around him. In the dark he could see the forms of at least a dozen military horses standing guard outside of his cell.
Wayne groaned and got shakily to his feet. His head almost brushed against the ceiling of his cell, and he had to duck down sightly. He was always tall, but this cell was designed for these little horse things, not Humans. He walked slowly over to the gate, sticking his hand through the bars and shaking them. He was surprised when they bent slightly from the force he was applying.
Instantly a military horse stuck its spear through the bars and jabbed him in the stomach.
Wayne doubled over, coughing. He hadn't expected them to hit him. But no he was angry, and he wanted a little bit of payback.
Wayne grabbed the bars again, putting enough pressure on them so they bent enough for him to squeeze part of his body through them.
The military horses reacted, but Wayne reacted faster. Two of the jumped forward and jabbed their spears in to his cell at him. But Wayne swung his body to the side and grabbed the spears, pulling them from the horses. He spun them around in his hands and stuck the spear heads through the horses who had hit him. One spear went through its chest, the other through its neck. Wayne twisted the spears to the side, then ripped them out of the horse, causing a wave of blood to spill free from its wounds.
The horses' comrades backed up as the spray of blood showered the walls, the floor, and Wayne.
Wayne pulled back inside of his cell, still holding a spear in each hand. He watched as the horses collected the corpse of their friend and left him. There was only two guards now, instead of the whole squad like before. And unlike before, they were standing far from his cell, not looking away for even a second. There was a small, orange horse with blackish-blue hair and vibrant green eyes with wings. The other horse was only slightly larger, colored white with fiery red hair, with deep golden eyes who also had wings.
They had dropped their spears and now sported short swords which they held in their mouths. Even though they probably knew that Wayne could kill them in a second, they stood their ground. Wayne could at least credit them with courage, if nothing else.
Wayne sat there, spears on his lap, eyes never moving from the two horses guarding him. He had noticed that they didn't have the bright gold armor that the others did. Instead, they had a dark, blueish-purple colored armor the seemed to help them disappear in the darkness surrounding them. If Wayne didn't know they were there, he would never had seen them.
After about an hour of staring each other down, a voice broke the silence. Wayne didn't know what it said, but the two guards instantly stood at attention, no longer worried about Wayne.
Wayne saw the large blue horse from before walk up to his cell and look at him with what looked like disgust. It opened its mouth and uttered a string of syllables at him.
"I don't speak yer fuckin' language," Wayne said flatly.
The horse looked at him with anger. It spoke again, more forcefully this time.
"Listen, ya fuckin' horse!" Wayne yelled as he stood, the spears clattering to the floor. "I don't know what the hell you're sayin'! So speak English, or shut yer mouth!"
The horse looked to the spears on the floor, noticing them for the first time. It spun around and shouting something at the two guard horses.
They responded with military-like syllables, not looking at the blue horse, but still answering it.
The blue horse faced Wayne again, looking even more furious than before. It screamed at him, still not understanding that he had no idea what it was saying.
Wayne just kicked the spears towards the blue horse with a sigh. "Please, just shut up, would ya?"
It looked at the spears, not understanding.
"Take my weapons, or whatever the hell ya wanna do. Just shut up already," he said, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes.
There was complete silence, like when a bomb goes off too close to your head. Then, after a few minutes, Wayne heard the clopping of hooves against the stone ground as the larger horse walked off. He cracked open one eye, and saw that the spears were still there, right where he had kicked them to.
***
Luna walked through the dungeons with swift certainty. It was almost completely dark down there, but she had supernaturally good night vision.
She turned one last corner and saw the cell that the murderous swine was being held in. She immediately saw that the dozen guards she had placed there were no longer at their posts. Instead, only two newly recruited young mares were standing guard over this creature. The had their swords at the ready, waiting in a defensive stance.
She walked closer, then stepped in some kind of puddle of lukewarm liquid. She looked down to see her hoof covered in blood. She looked up, her eyes narrowing at the creature in the cage.
She ignored the blood, walking straight up to the cage. "Where did this blood come from?" she asked the creature in the cage as she came closer. It just looked at her, not answering her question.
She walked up to the cage, noticing the destroyed bars. "Did you harm one of my guards?" she asked it.
It spoke in the same guttural, growls that the first one of it kind spoke in.
"The others like you speak our language! Don't pretend you are ignorant!" she yelled at him.
Luna was surprised when it- no, the others said it was a "he"- when yelled at her and stood. She was surprised that he had raised his voice to her. But mostly, she was surprised by the two spears that landed at his feet. She knew where the blood came from.
Luna spun around to face the two recruits. "Why would you allow him to keep those weapons?!" she shouted.
"We were afraid that he would kill us if we got too close ma'am," the orange coated mare said.
Luna was furious. She turned to face the creature again, rage clear on her face. "You murdered another of our guards! You are nothing but a monster!"
The creature sighed and said something in his language, kicking the two spears towards her, far out of its- his- reach.
She looked down at the weapons, not sure what he was doing. Was he challenging her? No, it looked relaxed, bored even. Was it offering them to her in peace? She didn't know. If it- he- really was offering her peace, why had it- he- killed her guard?
She looked up at it- him- as it- he- spoke again. She had no idea what the words were, but she could tell what they meant. She knew because it- he- laid its- his- head against the wall and closed its- his- eyes.
It was giving up. It didn't want to fight her. Then why had it killed her guard?
As she looked at it- him- she almost felt sorry for it. Then she remembered what it did to her sister. It had destroyed her horn. It had caused her pain. It had hurt her. But... It was giving up. She needed to think on this. She turned and left the dungeon. Left the two guards brave enough to guard the creature. Left the creature who didn't want to fight her.
As she ascended the stairs to her chambers, she could think of nothing else but what to do with him- it.
Wayne couldn't sleep. He could never sleep with people- err... horses, in this case- watching him. He hated being stared at. Being locking a in jail cell on another planet by rainbow horses was just the schizophrenic icing on the insane hallucination cake.
Wayne couldn't take it anymore. He rolled over and pushed himself up to his feet.
The guards- or at least the two smaller ones who were stupid enough to stay there with him- reacted by dropping their lunch... or dinner... or, whatever the hell meal it was time to eat, and raised their swords defensively.
Wayne just snorted a short laugh. He could almost smell the fear and anxiety on them. He walked up to the already-bent bars and gripped them.
The orange one shouted something at him in that stupid, frilly-sounding language.
He didn't know how or why, but whenever they spoke it sounded fancy. Maybe they were royalty. Or French.
He pulled the bars mightily, completely bending them out of shape... some more. He was able to push through them easily enough. Now he just had to worry about the guards. Not these two, but the ones who were actually dangerous.
The orange one yelled again; its voice cracked. It blushed faintly, looking angrily at him with all its tiny horse might. It was actually kind of cute. In that so-annoying-that-you-want-to-crush-its-head kind of way.
Wayne snorted again and started walking down the hallway. Wayne hadn't eaten in days, and he was starting to consider filleting one of these damned horses and making some steaks. But that probably wouldn't earn him any favors from the big blue one that tried to kill him. So instead of eating the populace of this insane plane of existence, he decided to look for a kitchen to raid.
At every corner, he stopped, looked down every possible way, and sniffed. His nose could find a biscuit in a barn. But after three or so turns, he heard the sound of running hooves getting closer, fast. Wayne rounded a corner and waited for his pursuers to show themselves. He peeked around the corner with half an eye, and then groaned. Those two idiots from his cell were chasing him down. Or at least trying to.
The white one whispered something to the orange one who responded with another whisper- though it sounded almost as loud as her yelling. The went on like this until they came upon the corner where Wayne was hiding.
As they got closer, he jumped out yelling as loud as he could. "RAWRAGGHHAR!!!"
They both screamed. Very loudly. And very high pitched.
The white on seemed to go even whiter than normal and clung to the orange one who was trying to scream and gasp for breath at the same time. They were so terrified that they dropped the swords that were in their mouths.
Wayne saw this, and he acted instantly. He picked up the swords, one in each hand. He drew his arms back, ready to kill. But he stopped short. Inches away from their heads, he stopped. He was looking into their eyes. But the way Wayne saw them in that moment was great wells of raw emotion. Fear. Anger. Terror. Sadness. Shock. All of these and so much more. He had never seen anything like it before.
The horses, seeing his hesitation, stopped screaming. They were staring him straight in the eye, blinking in confusion and hoping that he would spare them.
Wayne sighed and put the swords in his belt. "Stupid fuckin' horses," he berated them as he kept walking. He heard hooves behind him. Of course they couldn't just leave him alone. Of course they had to follow him. Of course they wouldn't shut up!
Without their swords, they were reduced to nothing but a minor annoyance, but still they persisted to try to bring Wayne back to his cell.
Wayne got to another corner, and he sniffed. There... There! He could smell it! He could smell his victory! Wayne started to jog towards the smell of food, his mouth slightly watering.
The two guards kept up with him easily, shouting the whole way.
Wayne came upon a door, barred and padlocked. He pushed on it, and it gave slightly. He pushed on it harder, and his hand went through the door.
The horses were yelling as loud as they could while he tore the small wooden door to pieces, trying to make him stop.
With the door off, and the way clear, Wayne quickly went inside the room. He found what he was looking for. Heaps of food everywhere. Carrots, apples, potatoes, grapes, lettuce, pears, and everything else in the world that revolved around fruits and vegetables. Wayne ripped apart a sack of plums first- they were his favorite. Eating a plum a second, he finished the sack quickly. He ate a pile of carrots, then started devouring all the apples he could find.
The two guard horses looked at him worriedly. They couldn't stop him from doing anything, but he wasn't doing anything bad. Well... besides eating half of the day guards' rations. Realizing this, the orange one picked up an apple and bit into it.
Wayne looked over to the horse, staring at it intensely.
The orange one blushed and looked away under his gaze.
There were a few seconds of silence before Wayne burst out laughing. That stupid horse was blushing! Wayne didn't know why, but he found that incredibly amusing. But that horse had already taken too much of his time.
Wayne walked over to a large refrigerator. Pulling it open, his eyes widened. There was a pie in there. Wayne hadn't eaten a pie in years. He picked it up like it was a holy relic. He half expected monks to start chanting somewhere. It was beautiful. Then, Wayne smashed his face into the entire thing and consumed it in less than a minute. When he was done, Wayne licked his lips and sighed happily.
A door opened on the other side of the room.
A large brown horse with darker brown hair walked through it, looked at Wayne, then bolted back out as fast as it could.
Wayne chuckled to himself.
There was another chuckle as well.
Wayne looked at the orange horse who was laughing lightly at the fear of the cook- Wayne assumed it was a cook by the apron it was wearing.
The orange horse looked at him and stopped laughing.
Wayne reached in to the refrigerator and pulled out two jumbo sized tubs of strawberry ice cream. He undid the lid of one, and offered the other one to the two horses watching him. Whether they took it or not, Wayne didn't know. He was too busy burying his head in pink, dairy goodness.
***
Luna had been reading texts about ancient races in the known world, and beyond. No mention of anything like that creature in any of her books about ancient Equestria. She could find nothing in her books about supernatural happenings either.
She closed her current book- Things That Are Unseen in the Everfree- and groaned in frustration. Nothing. She had found absolutely nothing. She looked out the window to see the rising sun. It was time for bed anyways; she could begin her search again tomorrow night.
As she made her way towards her bed, her chamber doors burst open, a group of her personal night guard panting hard in the wooden door frame.
"P- princess, i- it escaped!" one of the guards yelled, trying to catch his breath.
Luna could feel her blood go cold. It escaped? Then that means...
Luna snarled in rage. He had escaped. He had killed those young mares! They weren't even employed for a year yet, but he had murdered them like the beast that he is!
"Where is it?" she hissed in rage
"It was last seen in the mess hall kitchen," the guard said.
Luna lit up her horn, then she was gone.
There was a crackling pop, then she was standing at the doorway to the kitchen. What she saw... was not what she had expected. The two guards who she had thought were dead were actually very much alive. Alive... and throwing ice cream at the creature.
Said creature was taking cover behind a table and laughing maniacally, throw bunches of grapes at them from the safety of the table.
They advanced on him, and he then poured an entire sack of oranges over the table, causing them to slip and stumble. Even though they were unbalanced, they were still coming at him, the barrel of ice cream being carried between them.
He looked over the table at them, leaving himself open to attack.
And attack they did. They tilted the container over him and slammed it down in his head, trying to suffocate him with strawberry ice cream.
He howled in anger- and probably from the cold burn as well- from the attack and flailed his arms around to find them.
But they jumped out of his reach and laughed at his situation, giving each other a high hoof.
Luna cleared her throat.
The two guards looked at her and went pale. She had caught them fraternizing with a known criminal. That was punishable by life in the dungeons.
Luna walked past them, straight to the creature- who was supposed to be locked up. She stood in front of him, waiting for him to realize she was there.
He stopped flailing about for a second, then pulled the barrel-sized tub of ice cream off of his head. He saw her then.
Luna... almost laughed at his appearance. His beard and hair was stained a bright pink from the ice cream, with little chunks of strawberries sticking to him. Bits of other food were clinging to him in various spots. From head to hoof, he was filthy with splattered food. She did feel like laughing at him. But... Then she remembered why she was here. Why he was here. What he had done.
He looked at her for a long moment, all the while Luna was glaring at him. Then he held the huge tub of ice cream out to her. He said something in his own language. Two simple words.
She couldn't understand what the words were, but the meaning was clear.
Twilight had hardly left the side of Celestia since she had been ordered her sentence of bed rest by the royal doctor.
He had reattached her horn, sealed it with powerful magical agents, and even cast certain spells on it to make it heal faster than normal. But other than that, he could do nothing. Only time would heal Celestia from this point on.
But Twilight wanted him to do more. She had demanded that he fix her immediately. Of course, he couldn't, so Twilight did the only thing that she could think to do.
She gathered her friends around the bed of Celestia, hoping that the "magic of friendship" would heal her faster.
Of course, as Celestia pointed out- many times actually- this was not a situation that could be fixed with the love she received from her faithful ponies.
Twilight and her friends had given up after an hour of trying to "friendship" Celestia back to health. It was in no way helping- as Celestia pointed out, many times- so they were all dismissed from the hospital wing until further notice.
Twilight decided that it would be better if they had something to eat. After all, everyone thinks better on a full stomach.
So after some debate about where to eat, they entered a small diner known for its hayburgers throughout Canterlot.
"Well, this sucks," Rainbow Dash said gloomily, taking a bite out of her burger.
Twilight shook her head. "I just don't understand what happened. I was casting the spell, and then it was there, in front of me. And... and..." she sighed.
"I don't mean that!" Rainbow yelled, spraying everyone at the table with bread crumbs. "I'm mean that it did that and got away with it!"
"It's locked up in the dungeons Rainbow; it didn't get away with anything," Twilight told her.
"Well," Applejack said, "Ah'm just glad that y'all are all right Twi'. What with everythin' that it did ta those guards."
Twilight looked at her hayburger in thought. She was lucky. It could have easily killed her. But for some reason, it stopped when it looked at her. Almost like...
"I still can't believe Celestia or Luna didn't fry that thing!" Rainbow yelled angrily.
"Well, sometimes, when a bear gets scared, it can react, um, violently. Maybe that's what happened?" Fluttershy said quietly.
"Well I think that whatever the alien is, it's a big meanie for hurting those ponies!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she jumped on top of the table, pointing a hoof in the air dramatically.
"Pinkie please! you're going to step on the food!" Rarity scolded. "But I do have to agree with you on that account Pinkie; what it did was simply uncalled for."
"Maybe so," Applejack cut in. "But didn't them guards come after it 'fore it even attacked?"
"Well, yes-" Twilight was cut off.
"Well then, don't ya think that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that it acted outta fear?"
"What?!" Rainbow yelled. "Are you sticking up for that monster?! Are you crazy?!"
"Ah'm not stckin' up fer anythin' Rainbow! Ah'm jus' sayin' that Fluttershy could have a point!" Applejack countered.
"How could you even think that when it tried to kill the princess?!" Rainbow screamed.
"I don't know Rainbow! Maybe 'cause it's a valid point?!" Applejack screamed back.
"I-" but she was cut off by Twilight.
"Girls!" Twilight yelled. getting their attention. "I don't think this is the best place to be talking about this," she told them, motioning at how the entire diner full of ponies were looking at them. "I think we should get back to the castle before we discuss this further," she said with finality.
***
The six friends walked back to the castle while arguing the whole way. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all believed that the creature should be punished for its crimes the same way it acted- violently. Whereas Applejack and Fluttershy thought that it should be given some type of trial or test to see if it really was dangerous to Equestria.
Twilight however, only wanted to know more about it. Sure, she was furious that it had hurt her teacher. But she was also curious about it. What it was dressed in, what it was using as a weapon, what its culture and government were like.
All of them were so busy in themselves that they didn't even notice Luna walking in front of them.
Twilight bumped into her, falling back in her haunches from the resistance she met with on contact. "Oh, I'm sorry princess! I didn't see you, and I was lost in thought and-"
"Do not worry, Twilight Sparkle. You caused us no harm," Luna said calmly.
"Princess!" Rainbow Dash yelled, speeding forward. "I think that you should give that thing a taste of its own medicine!"
Luna blinked. "What do you mean?" she asked Rainbow.
"I mean," she said, "let me in its cell for ten minutes and I'll make that thing sorry it ever messed with Equestria."
"He," Luna said.
"What?" they all asked collectively.
"The creature is male, as we have come to learn from the others of its kind that are residing in the castle," she explained.
"Well, whatever! Just let me show him what you get when you mess with us!"
"That is impossible now," Luna said.
"Why? What happened? Is everything okay?!" Twilight started babbling about the creature, but Luna silenced her with a hoof.
"After he escaped, I locked him in a new cell. One with magical locks that only one with the magical strength of an alicorn, or the proper key spell, could undo."
"He escaped?!" Twilight screeched.
The others were too shocked to say anything.
"Yes, but we were able to coax him back into a cell after he... lost a... fight, with two of our personal night guards," Luna told them reassuringly.
"See?!" Rainbow shouted loudly. "I told you it was dangerous!"
"Wait. Didn't ya take his weapons?" Applejack asked.
"We did," Luna said bitterly. "But he had taken the guards' swords from them. Fortunately, he did not use them in his attacks against them."
"Well, what did he use to attack them then, if not the swords?" Rarity asked.
"Did he use his giant teeth?! Or his claws?! Can he breathe fire?! Oh- oh, can he-" But Applejack put a hoof in the pink mare's mouth, silencing her."Princess, what did he use ta fight yer guards?" Applejack asked.
"He used..." Luna started, "... food."
There was a silence that hung in the air like a thick curtain above their heads.
"Food?" the farm pony asked. "Like, they was havin' a food fight?"
Luna nodded slowly. "Yes. They were battling each other, in the kitchens, with... food. And... they were all laughing."
There was another short silence.
"So who won?" Pinkie asked suddenly.
Luna looked at her. "the... guards did, as we have said before."
"Really? How did they beat him?" Pinkie asked.
"They... put a large container of ice cream on his head," she told her. "His beard and hair were stained pink, and little strawberries were sticking to him," she added with a light chuckle.
Pinkie Pie laughed at that. "Heheheahaha! Cool! He's still bad, but maybe he's kinda good too if he can have a good food fight!"
"See Rainbow? Applejack scolded. "He's still gonna pay fer what he did, but he's not the monster ya make him sound like."
Rainbow huffed and crossed her hooves in front of her. "I still think he should be punished."
The others went on talking about what Luna had witnessed in the kitchen. But not Rainbow Dash. She was still furious that that... thing had hurt the princess. And could have killed Twilight!
Then, Rainbow had an idea. If the princess wouldn't do anything about that monster in the dungeon, then she would.
***
Wayne was snoring loudly in his new cell. It was furnished with a large cot with a pair a feather pillows and a large quilt. It was incredibly comfortable.
The two guard horses outside his cell were playing some type of game with dice and cups- much like liars' dice, only they had two dice each instead of five.
Wayne rolled over and coughed violently, drawing the attention of the two guards.
They looked at him with questioning eyes. They still had no way to communicate with him, but they managed.
Wayne stood up and looked at them. Then he loosened his belt and pulled his zipper down.
The horses eyes widened as they watched him disrobe. First his coat, then his shirt, and finally, his pants. And there he stood, completely naked in front of them. He sat down on his bed and waved them over to him, smiling the whole time.
They both got up and left their game. They walked to the cell door, and they unlocked it to let themselves in.
They smiled at them as they walked closer to him, not breaking eye contact with him the whole way.
Wayne smiled at them even wider as they both came within reach of him.
The orange one smiled brightly, then she opened her mouth and leaned in closer to him, still at waist height.
His heartbeat doubled its speed as he waited for the touch, the feeling. He wanted this. He needed this. He-
His eyes snapped open and he yelled in shock from his dream. He then rolled over on his cot and threw up what looked like a months worth of food onto the floor. He was retching violently, letting loose a torrent of rancid bile from his stomach. Once he was finished, he took a deep breath to steady himself. The smell made him vomit again. Wayne didn't even know that the Human body could hold that much food, but apparently it could.
The rancid liquid started to flow out through a large drainage grate set in the center of his cell. Yellow and green and red and every other color of the food he had eaten was now on the floor, making a sickening mosaic before his eyes.
Wayne heard the horses say something. He looked up at them, but they weren't looking at him. They were standing at the glowing blue barrier that the blue horse had put up to keep him locked in his new cell, arguing with a horse that he hadn't seen before. It was a light blue color. What was it? Oh damn, he knew he should have paid attention in art class back in school. It was... Cyan! Yeah, that was it! there was a cyan horse with rainbow hair arguing with the two guards that were supposed to be watching him.
The new horse saw that he was looking at them and made a face at him. One that show clear disgust and anger towards him.
Wayne didn't like this new horse.
It started to yell at him, pointing its leg- or was it hoof in the case of horses?- at him accusingly.
Wayne stood up shakily from his tiny cot and one lumpy pillow- no quilt included- and walked over to the bars to look at this new horse. It was small. Smaller than the others he had seen anyways. It was slim; almost unhealthily so. But he could see the muscles under its fur. Even though this horse was small and skinny- and loud- he knew that it was tough.
The horse saw him sizing it up, and it scoffed at him. It actually made such an insulting noise as that to him.
Wayne put his hand on his crotch and pulled, then spit on the ground right in front of it. This was one of the most insulting gestures Wayne knew.
The horse's eyes went wide, then it lashed out against the magical barrier in pure rage, screaming like a banshee.
The white horse tried to calm the rainbow horse down while the orange one simply laughed at its reaction.
Wayne looked at the orange horse and smiled.
The orange horse looked at him and smiled back.
Wayne liked that horse. He liked the white one too, but he liked this one more.
For some reason unknown to her friends, Rainbow had snuck into the dungeons and tried to get past the barrier and the guards to reach the creature. She had failed, of course, but that didn't change the fact that she had tried to do it.
"Rainbow, why would you do that?!" Twilight screamed at her friend.
Rainbow snorted. " 'Cause none of you wanted to know why he attacked the princess!" she yelled at her friends. "Even though Celestia isn't dead, other ponies are! And I don't know how you can just sit there and do nothing about it!"
This quieted them.
"I just wanted to know why he did it," she finished.
"Well, maybe you can ask the others like him that question," came a soft voice.
They all looked to see Celestia striding towards them slowly. She was wearing some type of glowing cast on her horn, from base to tip.
"Princess!" Twilight shouted in joy, and ran to her teacher and hugged her tightly.
Celestia wrapped a hoof around her student, smiling. "Yes Twilight, I am still here."
Twilight looked up at her. "I was so worried that... that..."
"That I would lose my magic?" Celestia asked.
"Well... yes," Twilight said worriedly.
Celestia sighed heavily. "No Twilight, I will still be able to use magic, but I will never again be as powerful as I once was."
All six the the ponies before her gasped.
"It seems," she continued, "that when he damaged my horn, one of the bone roots cracked. And to fix this would require extensive open-brain surgery. I would have agreed to it, but, it would likely have killed me," she finished with a sad look in her eyes.
"Wait, I thought you were immortal?" Rainbow said.
"Immortal, does not mean invulnerable," Celestia told her.
"Well now we gotta make him pay for hurting you!" Rainbow yelled.
"Rainbow!" Rarity hissed at her.
"What?!" she yelled back.
"Girls, please do not fight," Celestia said, calming them. "And as to your question Rainbow Dash, I'm sure that the three beings that are inside of the castle will answer you."
Rainbow thought about this. "Can you show me where they are so I can ask 'em?"
Celestia nodded. "I'll take you there now; I have questions of my own that need to be answered.
As they walked, Twilight talked quietly to Celestia. Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy spoke amongst themselves. But Rainbow was thinking about the question she had to ask. Why had he done this? Why was he here? What was he? She knew that Celestia would ask things like this, so she didn't worry too much. She only wanted to know why he had attacked her friend.
"Here we are," Celestia announced as they arrived at a large wooden door in a wing of the castle that was very rarely used any more. Celestia raised a hoof and firmly knocked on the door.
After ten full seconds, she went to knock again, but a voice sounded off.
"Enter," it said in a monotone.
Celestia used her hoof to push open the door so they could enter the room. As they entered, they could see one of the creatures standing near the window and looking out at the country side.
"Good day to you," Celestia said warmly.
The creature only stood there, still as a statue.
Celestia blinked. "We came here to ask you a few questions. Would you be so kind as to answer them?"
There was another few seconds before it answered them. "Ask," it told them in the same monotone voice.
"Very well," Celestia said. "What is your name?"
"This one is 6," it told them.
"Six?" Celestia asked slowly.
"6."
There was another pause.
"What is the name of your species?" she asked.
"That information is classified," it said.
Celestia blinked again. "Well, at least know that we are equines- ponies specifically," she said warmly, in hopes that it would make him feel more inclined to answer her question.
It remained silent, still staring out the window, unmoving.
"What is your purpose here?" Celestia asked.
"To capture or kill our target," it said immediately.
"Who told you to go after him?" she asked.
"That information is classified," it said after another pause.
Celestia sighed inwardly at this creatures stubbornness. The other one had-
"Where are the others that were with you?" she asked it slowly.
There was a pause. Much longer this time, almost lasting for a full minute.
Finally, it spoke. "That information is classified."
Celestia frowned at the creature. "This is my country. I have a right to know what goes on in it," she said firmly.
There was a short pause from the creature.
"They are collecting information," it said, monotone as ever.
"Information such as...?"
"This planet."
Celestia didn't like this. They were dangerous, armed, and now they were among the public, gathering information on who knew what regarding their planet.
"Why did he hurt the princess!" Rainbow blurted out. She had slowly gotten closer to the creature, unseen by Celestia.
There was another pause.
"Because fugitive No.1, Dewayne Richards, is a war criminal of the highest tier. He started the civil war between our glorious government and the people- now known as the Rebels. He is the leader of their resistance, and is solely responsible for the deaths of 22,137,018 people in and of the United States of America and still counting. He is labeled: violent, armed, killer, irresponsible, unsound of mind, and extremely dangerous among 102 other counts. Therefore he is a menace to society and must be stopped at any and all costs."
This answered Rainbow's question. Maybe a little too well.
"He's responsible for all that?" Twilight asked aghast.
"Yes," it said in its monotonous voice.
This new information gave all of them much to think about.
"If he is as violent as you say, why did he spare my student? He could have easily killed her, but he didn't. Why is that?" Celestia asked.
There was a long pause that went on for more than two minutes. During which, the nagging suspicion in the back of Celestia's mind grew more and more. Until finally, it spoke.
"That information is classified."
***
Gentle Breeze was standing guard outside of the creatures cell. It was extremely boring. Her and her friend, Sky Fire, had started to take turns at guarding him. They had found out it was a male when they, unfortunately, witnessed him relieving himself in the drain on the bottom of his cell. They had both caught a glimpse of his... well, his parts. And Breeze couldn't help but think that he was... sizable, to put it subtly.
She looked inside of the cell, seeing him sleeping. One of the only good things about being here was him. She sighed as she gazed at him. A smell, his smell, entered her nose. It stank of sweat, exhaustion, anger, and things that she couldn't quiet put her hoof on. He smelled like the most amazing stallion ever, but infinitely better. She had smelled these things before, of course, on other ponies. But it was nowhere near as strong on them as it was on him. It was the most wonderful smell in the world to her, like the best kind of cologne.
She bit her bottom lip. She had never felt this way before. Sure, she had crushes during school, but this was nothing like that. His smell alone was enough to make her mind go fuzzy. She wondered what his touch would do. Or a kiss?
She had never been with a stallion before; Sky was the adventurous one in their friendship.
But Sky wasn't here. She had decided to take a trip to the little filly's room. Breeze was alone... here... with him.
Breeze slowly ran her golden eyes over his form, taking in every detail. He had clothes on, but she could still tell that he was very much in shape. His long hair and beard covered much of his face, but she could still easily see that he was handsome. In a hard, rough kind of way.
She bit her lip harder, causing some pain to register with her brain. She stepped forward, and she unlocked the cell. Very quietly, so she didn't wake him up, she opened the door, stepped inside, closed it, and locked it again. If he somehow got the better of her, she didn't want him to be able to bolt out of the door and leave her standing there with a dumb look on her face as he escaped. She slowly crept up to him. This close, his smell was overwhelming. She took a second to revel in it, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
There was a sound in front of her, causing her to squeak in surprise. She looked at him in terror. He had one eye open, starting at her intensely, emotions swimming around in his one open eye. Some she recognized. Tiredness, anger, curiosity. But others, she had never seen before in her life.
She took a careful step closer to him.
He didn't respond, allowing her to come closer.
She smiled, just barely, and slowly proceeded forward. She was within a hoof's reach now. But even if she jumped backwards, he could still reach her easily with his long arms.
He took a deep breath, breathing in her scent. He blinked his one open eye at her, the only emotion remaining in his eye now being pure curiosity. Or at least something closely resembling it.
She was right next to him now. She could feel his hot breath on her neck and chest. It sent shivers down her entire form. She leaned in closer to him, then waited.
He didn't respond.
She took that as a good sign, and she closed the gap between their mouths. He tasted of alcohol, blood, sweat, fruit, pie, ice cream... Many things in fact. This was her first real kiss. Not just a peck on the lips, but a lip moving, pressure against her face kiss. It was enough to make her weak in the legs. She struggled to stand up, but lost the battle and started to fall over from the wave of sensations overtaking her body and mind.
She felt strong arms grip her, and she stopped falling.
He had caught her.
She reached her hooves up and wrapped them around his neck. She could feel him coil his arms around her shoulders and back, not giving her any room to move. She moaned into his mouth.
He hugged her tighter to him, his body fitting against hers as perfectly as two pieces of one puzzle.
She pulled away from the kiss long enough to gaze into his dark eyes. She could see so much in them, it almost scared her. She opened her mouth to say-
"Hey!"
Breeze snorted slightly as her eyes shot open. She was leaning against the wall, a small line of drool dropping down to the floor where there was already a small puddle of it. "W- what...?" she asked distantly.
"You fell asleep while I was in the bathroom," her friend told her.
Breeze looked to her friend, then she let out a small groan of anger. It was a dream! Just a stupid bucking dream!
"And from the all the happy sounds you were making you were having a really good dream," Sky said with a smug little smile.
Breeze blushed bright red, her face now resembling a ripe tomato. "W- w- wha- I- I was n- no! I was not!" she barely managed to say.
"Yeah, whatever you say," her friend laughed.
Breeze growled softly at Sky. She rubbed her face with a hoof, wiping the sleep out of her eyes. She turned back to keep watching the cell. She almost jumped out of her skin when she saw him standing right at the bars, starting at her with such intensity that she almost couldn't make eye contact.
He had the same look in his eyes that he had in Breeze's dream. And he was staring right at her with that look. He knew. Breeze didn't know how he knew. But somehow, he knew. He knew that her dream was about him.
Wayne sat on his little cot and stared at the two guards that were watching him. They were hardly paying attention to him, instead preferring to talk with each other about God knows what. Even though he liked them, they were boring. He wanted to talk to someone, anyone! But no, he was stuck with tiny horses that spoke French, or Chinese or some shit like that.
Wayne groaned loudly, getting the attention of the guards.
The orange one said something, but Wayne had no idea what.
The white one responded with a glare at its friend.
Wayne couldn't take this anymore. He stood up and walked over to the door and gripped the bars firmly. "Let me out," he said, shaking the door in its frame.
The horses just looked at him.
He put his finger in the keyhole and twisted it. "Let me the fuck out!" he said loudly.
They seemed to understand his gesture at unlocking the door, but they didn't move.
Wayne growled in the back of his throat.
The white one leaned closer to the orange one and whispered something.
It looked like it was thinking about what the white one said for a while. Finally, it took a key ring off of its belt and walked slowly towards the cell door. The whole time it was staring up at Wayne, a look of worry mixed with fear on its face.
Wayne just looked at it as it reached his cell. He didn't want to scare it, or he would be stuck in there. It's not like he wanted to hurt them or anything; he just wanted to be able to walk around a bit.
The orange horse was at the door now, looking up at him with large eyes. It stared straight in to Wayne's eyes, almost like it was trying to read his thoughts. Then after almost a full minute of this, it lifted the keys to the lock with its mouth and inserted one. It twisted its head, and the door swung open.
Wayne stood there, just looking at the horse for a long moment as the door swung more and more away from them.
The door reached its limit with the hinges and stopped moving with a soft clank.
Wayne stepped out of the cell quickly, moving past the horse. He immediately went to the magical barrier and tried pressing his hands against it. As he touched it, ripples ran through it, making it look like a wall of deep blue water, frozen in time. He pushed against it with his weight. The points where his hands were sunk into the wall slightly. He had no idea what this was, but it was between him and freedom.
There was a cough from behind him.
He turned to see both of the horses standing before him expectantly. "What?" he asked.
They looked at each other uncertainly.
Wayne took a step towards them.
They took a step back, now tensed and ready for any kind of attack.
Wayne started walking towards them.
They kept backing up until they met with a wall. The white one jumped at the touch of cold stone against its backside. The orange one's eyes grew huge with fear. They were trapped now, and they knew it.
Wayne towered over them, more than double their height. He looked down with calm eyes, but the horses flinched from his stare. He reached down for the orange one. That one had the keys, so it might be able to let him out.
As Wayne's hand hovered only inches from it, it crouched down lower to the ground, splaying its ears back and whimpering.
Seeing this, Wayne pulled his hand back to his sides.
It looked up at him, not knowing what he wanted.
Wayne raised both hands in front of him. One hand making a circle, the other he used to stick a finger though the circle and twist it. He tried to mime a lock and keys, but he had the feeling he might have given it a different kind of message by the look on its face.
The horse looked up at him with huge eyes and a shaky lip. It looked truly terrified of him.
Wayne groaned and rolled his eyes. He didn't have time for this. He reached down and grabbed the horse by the middle, ripping the keys from its belt.
It gave a small cry of fear when he did this.
Wayne looked through the key ring. Finding the one to his cell, he ripped it of of the ring and pocketed it.
The horse blinked and looked up at him. It thought that he was going to hurt it, but he had only taken the keys. It looked to its friend, who sighed in relief and stood back at full height when he started walking towards the barrier, then back to Wayne. It stood back up right. Maybe he really was a friend.
Wayne looked through the keys on the ring. They all seemed like cell keys, but one of them had to open the water wall thing. As he looked at a fifth key, there was the sound of clopping hooves against the hard stones that made up the floor of the dungeon. Wayne looked up to see six little horses come sprinting- or was it galloping? Yeah, that sounded right- come galloping down the corridor. There was the Rainbow one from before, the purple one he had seen when he first got here, an orange one- lighter than the guard horse- a white one, a yellow one, and a pink one.
The purple one's horn started glowing bright as it ran- er, galloped. As it got closer, the light from its horn grew brighter and brighter. Until finally, just before it reached the barrier, the light from its horn shot forward and hit the barrier.
It went down instantly.
***
Celestia had gone to see her sister, Luna, to tell her about all that she had learned from the creature. She left the six young mares in a lounge room to talk amongst themselves about what the creature in the room had told them.
"I still don't get it," said Pinkie. "What kind of name is 6?"
"Maybe its some kinda military label?" Applejack wondered aloud.
"Never mind the name, Pinkie. Did you see the way he just stood there?" Rarity asked. "It was like he was a statue," she said with a shiver.
"I still can't believe he's hurt so many people," Fluttershy said with a tinge of sadness in her voice. "It's just so... horrible."
"Yeah, more than twenty million people dead because of him," Rainbow said bitterly.
"I have to agree Fluttershy; it just seems so... unreal," Twilight said. "There's not even a million ponies in all of Equestria."
"Well, maybe he's not as innocent as Ah thought, but he still should get some kinda trial," Applejack told them.
"Are you serious?!" Rainbow asked her. "After he killed more than twenty million people you still think he should get a trial?!"
"I'm sorry Applejack dear, but I have to agree with Rainbow this time. The crimes he has committed are just too severe," Rarity told Applejack with a sad note in her voice.
"What? Are ya serious?! He deserves ta at least have a trial! He's gonna be guilty anyways, but it wouldn't be right without one!" Applejack protested. It didn't matter how much she was against her friends, it was the right thing to do.
"Applejack, how can you be so stupid?! He should be punished, right now!" Rainbow yelled.
"That's not fer you ta decide, Rainbow!" Applejack countered.
"He killed all those people for Celestia knows why! How is he in any way entitled to a trial?!"
"Because that's what's right!"
"How do you know what's right?!"
"Well Ah know what's wrong! And it would be wrong to just go an' kill him without askin' why he did it!"
"Well then why don't you ask him?!"
Applejack was quiet for a second at that. She had no counter for that one. She just looked into Rainbow's eyes in anger, knowing that if she backed down now he would never get a fair trial like he deserved. Applejack thought for a moment, then she almost smiled. "Fine, Ah will ask 'im." then she trotted out of the room and down the corridors, heading for the dungeons.
The five other ponies in the room were speechless.
"Applejack, wait!" Twilight called after her friend, galloping out after her.
"Ah'm not changin' mah mind, Twi', so don't even try ta stop me," Applejack said over her shoulder.
"No, I don't want to stop you," Twilight said as she caught up with her. "I want to ask him some questions too."
Applejack smiled faintly at her friend. "Thanks Twi'."
***
The dungeons were a truly horrible place. It was dark, damp, and smelled like all of the most awful things Twilight could think of mixed together and multiplied by infinity.
Fluttershy was tensed and her eyes were darting everywhere at once. She was quite obviously terrified of this place.
Rarity was also scared. Always flinching away whenever a rat, or a cobweb came within a hoof's distance. She was scared for another reason than Fluttershy was entirely.
Even Pinkie's mane seemed one shade darker and less poofy than usual in this place.
But Twilight knew that they were right to be afraid. This was where all of Equestria's worst criminals were kept. Murderers, arsonists, kidnappers, pedophiles, rapists, and every other kind of horrible criminals were here.
They turned another corner and kept walking. The light from the few torches placed along the walls were just barely enough to show them where they were going, but nothing else. They could only just see the bars of the cells, let alone what might be in them. This fact made Twilight's skin crawl.
There was a slight rustling noise from the cell they were next to, and Twilight stopped to peer inside.
A huge griffon with only one eye and his talons sharpened to insane points slammed against the bars, rattling them. "GIVE ME YOUR FLESH!!! FOOD!!! I NEED FOOD!!!"
All six of them jumped away from the cell and hugged the wall. They walked away, almost galloping to get away from the griffon.
"LET ME SKIN YOU!!! RIP YOUR MEAT AND SUCK THE BONES!!! CLEAN THE WOUNDS WITH SALT AND TEARS!!!"
As they walked out of earshot of the insane griffon, they heard the sounds of a young foal crying.
Fluttershy rushed ahead of them.
"Fluttershy, wait!" Twilight called, but it was already too late.
Fluttershy was at the bars of a cell that contained a very small foal, a unicorn by the looks of it. "it's okay little one, you don't need to cry any more," she said soothingly.
The others walked up to the cell, wary of what might happen.
"They won't leave me alone!" the young foal cried. By its voice they could tell it was a young filly. Even younger than Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
"Who won't leave you alone?" Fluttershy asked.
"Mommy and daddy! They won't stop yelling at me!" the foal turned around. They saw that its teeth were filed down to jagged points, blood dripped out of its mouth freely. "Even after I burned them, they won't stop yelling at me!" it cried.
They all reeled at this sight and its words.
All of them except for Twilight. She had heard of this kind of thing before, but had never seen it. Sometimes, when a unicorn is born with magic that is very strong, it causes it to go insane from the incredible pressure it puts on their young mind. It happens when the magic is strong with foals that are slower the most. But the fact that this young filly is only five or six years old and can speak this well, means that she must be immensely powerful. Even more so than herself she suspected. This made Twilight cry softly to herself for this foal. "I'm sorry," she said softly. Then she turned and kept walking.
The others followed her, not speaking. They walked past other horrible sights in the dungeons. An earth pony who was feasting on rats. A pegasus that was ripping his feathers out, only for them to grow back instantly, then ripping them out again, blood covering almost his entire body and cell. Another earth pony who was arguing with something that they couldn't see, but lost the argument when the air seemed to lash out at him and break his nose, leaving him whimpering on the ground. They even passed a young dragon wearing a straight jacket and a large metal muzzle with clamps over his wings and no eyes, but seemed to watch them as they passed, turning his head to follow them. Then finally, they rounded another corner, their sanity almost completely gone, and saw the creature. But they didn't just see the creature. They saw the creature out of its cell, standing over the two guards.
Twilight started charging her horn for the anti-spell that would bring down the barrier. They all knew what Twilight was planning as they ran forward, straight towards the barrier.
He looked up at them as they ran, not sure what to think.
Twilight put more energy into her spell, an overglow appearing. Then, when they were almost at the barrier, she released the spell.
It struck the barrier, bringing it down instantly.
Rainbow and Applejack were the first to get close to him.
"Wait, stop!" one of the guards yelled. "He wasn't hurting us!"
Twilight stopped where she was.
Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy also stopped when they heard this.
But Rainbow either didn't hear it or didn't care. She jumped up and hit him in the chest with a flying karate kick.
He stumbled back, almost stepping on the two guards, but they moved just in time.
Rainbow slammed her hoof into his face, breaking the skin on his cheek.
He didn't move.
Rainbow hit him again, and again, and again, causing more damage every time.
He still didn't move.
She spun around and bucked him in the stomach as hard as she could.
He coughed and doubled over, losing his breath.
Rainbow flew up and slammed down on his back, causing him to hit the ground, hard.
"Stop it!" the white coated guard yelled at her, rushing forward.
Rainbow pushed the guard back and slammed her hooves into the small of his back.
"That's it!" the orange guardpony yelled, galloping over to tackle Rainbow to the ground.
With the help of the first guard, they pinned Rainbow to the ground and held her there.
The creature stood back up. He looked completely fine, albeit a few breaks in his skin.
The guards looked at him in shock.
He motioned with his strange-looking hooves for them to let her up.
They didn't at first, but when he growled at them, they moved.
Rainbow shot up, glaring at him. She was out of a hoof's reach, so she couldn't hit him again.
But she was within an arm's reach for him. He shot his arm out, grabbing her by the neck.
She gave a yelp of surprise, but she was silenced by a fist.
He pulled back his arm, then hit Rainbow in the ribs with the force of a freight train.
Rainbow cried out as her ribs shattered under the force of the blow. She had injuries like this before, so she knew that it was likely that they were all broken by his brutal attack.
He swung his fist into her stomach, his fist sinking in far too much than nature should allow. He pulled his fist back and swung at her face. He broke her jaw. He swung again, breaking her nose. He swung a third time, tearing the skin on her cheek wide open, letting the blood flow freely.
Blood was flowing out of her mouth. She could barely breathe. And her whole body ached and stung like a hundred angry bees. She knew that she was too injured to fight back. At this point, she could only hope that her friends would save her. She caught a glimpse of the thing's forehead coming at her. Then she saw nothing.
He had rammed his head into hers, knocking her out instantly. He squeezed her neck roughly, not enough to kill her, but enough to leave large bruises for the future. Then he threw her body over to her friends, her form landing on the ground hard in front of them.
He let her beat him. Then he beat her back when she was done.
He looked at the guards then. They flinched from his gaze, but he scooped them both up in his arms and started walking past the others.
He was in serious trouble now. More than ever. Both of the guards knew that he would likely be executed on the spot when the princesses heard about this. Maybe that was why he was running away now. But if he was running away, why was he bringing them with him?
He was walking fast, almost jogging as he carried them through the tunnels of the dungeons. He turned this way and that, somehow knowing where to go. It was almost scary, the way he looked straight ahead as he walked without showing any expression whatsoever. Not even a smile or a frown, or even moving his brow.
"What is he doing?!" Breeze whispered to her friend Sky.
She shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered back.
Suddenly, he shifted them in his arms. He rolled them over so that he could throw them over his shoulders, one pony for each shoulder. This way, he could move easier than before.
Unfortunately, this restricted their movements severely, making it so they could only wiggle about in their respective spots. Even though they couldn't have fought back even if they wanted to, he put his arms around them, like he was carrying two large barrels of cider. This made it even harder to move, but also made it... comfortable... in a weird way.
He moved quickly, soon finding the way out. It was a large wooden door with metal bands running across it and a huge lock under the handle. He snorted at it. He raised his giant, strange-looking hoof, then he kicked the door right off the hinges.
It splintered and shattered under the impact, sending it flying at least ten feet before finally coming to a rest in the courtyard beyond.
It was late afternoon, which they all could easily tell by the sun hanging lazily in the sky above them. What the could also tell was that there were at least three dozen guards now staring at them shock.
He didn't seem to care about the guards moving to surround him; he just kept walking forward with them on his shoulders.
Breeze and Sky didn't know what to do, what to say. How could they explain this anyway? "Oh hey, I just decided to take a ride on the alien's shoulders, don't mind me!"? yeah, that wasn't going to happen.
Even though they were surrounding them, he still just walked. As he neared the edge of the crowd of day guards, they nervously parted, not knowing what to do in this kind of situation. They had orders to protect the castle, but they knew that this creature was supposed to stay alive until the execution. Should they stop it? They didn't know, so they only formed a huge ring around it, following it as it made its way towards the castle doors.
It was eerily quiet for how many ponies were around them, the only noises being that of soft hoofsteps against the ground and the clanking of the day guards' armor. Breeze and Sky didn't dare speak, for fear of starting a riot in the castle grounds. A riot that they would be at the center of.
He made it to the steps of the castle, climbing them as the guards at the door galloped inside. He pushed past the doors, ignoring the guards in the main entrance and simply walking past them into the corridors leading to the the room.
They had no idea what he was planning, but it wasn't good.
***
As Celestia sat upon the throne, addressing her subjects' issues and concerns, she heard the sound of hooves approaching. She looked up to the door leading off into the corridor to the entrance hall. She saw two panicked guards rush through the doors, galloping at full speed towards her.
They reached the base of the throne, panting and wheezing for breath that would not come.
"What is wrong?" Celestia asked, worry setting in.
One of the guards looked up at her, terror clear in his eyes. "I- it... it's... again... coming..." he could barely speak, but his princess had understood him.
Celestia's eyes narrowed slightly in concern and anger. She tried to ignite her horn to send a message to her sister, but in her crippled state, could not focus the energy correctly. She sighed and looked at the doorway. "Get my sister," she said grimly as the creature walked into the throne room, carrying the two guards that were in charge of him on his shoulders.
***
Breeze and Sky saw the two guards from the door race out of the room as they entered. They didn't know why, but it couldn't be good. They knew that much.
He tightened his grip on them, either in fear, anger, or for some other reason that they didn't know. He walked straight to the center of the room, and he stopped. Right there, in front of at least a hundred guards- including the ones that had followed them- civilians, emissaries from other countries, members of the court, and others among them. He stopped, and just looked at Celestia, staring her right in the eye for what seemed like years.
After that time, he lowered himself to the ground and dropped the two of them on the ground.
They scrambled from his grip, standing up in front of him, not knowing what to do.
He reached down for them and took their swords from their belts, one in each hand. Standing straight, he turned and looked back to Celestia, anger and... what looked slightly like fear on his face.
Celestia looked back at him, praying to her parents' spirits that he wasn't about to do what she thought he was.
He uttered a single word at her, then threw the sword through the air, fully expecting her to grab it.
She tried to focus her magic, but failed. The sword was almost at her now, but she didn't have the magical strength to even stop it from its path towards her. But, thankfully, she didn't have to.
The sword stopped, only a foot in front of her, gripped by a deep blue aura.
Luna stepped forward, taking the place of her sister on the field of battle. "You challenge us to battle?" she asked the creature.
He only stared at her in a determined way.
"Very well then," she whispered.
"No, you don't have to Luna," Celestia said to her sister.
"It's time to end this, sister," Luna said coldly, not looking away from the creature before her.
He and Luna both stepped forward, into the ring that the ponies around them had formed with their bodies. They started circling each other slowly, sizing up their respective opponent.
He said something in his guttural language, almost yelling at her.
Luna blinked. She couldn't understand him, but she could almost feel his words.
He started screaming at her, spit flying from his mouth at each syllable. He waved his sword around in the air wildly.
Luna saw her opportunity for attack, and she took it. She surged forward, propelling herself with her wings, sword leveled at his chest.
He spun away at the last second, spinning around to slam the pommel of his sword into the side of her head as she pasted.
Luna stumbled and fell to the floor, her own momentum working against her. He had hit her? How? She was a master with the blade. But this... creature, had struck her. With ease.
He started screaming again, this time shaking his sword at her. He was loud enough even to make those who used the Royal Canterlot Voice seem quiet.
Luna charged forward again, this time with her sword held defensively. She stopped only inches away from him, ready for an attack. But it never came. She looked at him uncertainly, not sure what he was planning.
He just stood there, glaring at her with a looked that could match "The Stare", as some ponies called it.
Luna took an offensive stance, and she struck, trying to catch him off guard. She fainted left, but then as he moved to block it, she jabbed right.
He somehow managed to save himself by bending backwards nearly in half. But this was a huge mistake.
Luna almost smirked as she kicked his strange hooves out from under him. She went to gut him on the ground, but he was too fast.
He rolled away from the blade, getting back up as he got out of immediate reach of her. He yelled once more at her, before making his first attack.
Luna could block it easily from how clumsy it was. She moved her sword to stop his blade. It hit with the force of a raging stampede of cattle, almost knocking Luna over. She gasped from the force of the attack. If that had hit her, it would have easily cleaved her in two.
He raised his sword again, raining down blows upon the alicorn's sword. Every time he hit her sword, it came harder and more brutal. If this was a battle of clubs, or maces, it would have been over in an instant.
Luna needed to move. Every time he hit her sword, he forced her back. She raised her sword higher, ready for the attack. As it stopped higher than normal, she jumped out of his reach. She was panting hard. She might not be able to take this creature on, blow for blow. She needed to beat him in another way.
He jumped forward faster than anypony thought possible of him, striking out at Luna.
She jumped out of the way and swung the pommel of her sword to his chin to strike him. It connected violently, knocking him to the ground.
He fell to the marble floor hard, almost sliding away from her. He climbed back up, but not fast enough.
Luna struck out with her blade, making a large cut in his mid section.
He grunted with pain and stumbled, but caught himself and lashed out at Luna with a fury that scared her.
Luna parried blow after blow from the creature, but could do nothing else. He was coming at her too quickly and to brutally for her to do anything other than deflect the attacks. And she only just managed to do that.
He rained down blow upon blow on her, forcing her back. He was bloodied and in pain, but he still fought her with surprising strength. Any pony would have given up when they had seen their torso sliced open.
Luna tried to form some kind of plan, but came up with a blank. Her only thoughts were to stop that vicious blade from cutting into her flesh. From cleaving her to pieces.
There was the sound of hooves from their side.
He turned to see a guard galloping to the aid of his princess. He swung his sword at the perfect moment. The guard didn't know that he could reach that far, and he paid for his lack of knowledge with his life.
The sword swung at him. He blinked in confusion. The sword wasn't supposed t- His head left his body, even as his lifeless torso continued charging forward from the guard's momentum, spraying blood from where the head was supposed to be all over the room.
The creature got coated in the blood as the headless corpse moved past him, falling over just a few feet from the two of them. He turned back to Luna, staring her in the eye.
Luna couldn't think. The sight of this creature, covered in blood, staring her straight in the eye with the intent to kill was just too much for her. She could barely hold her sword right as he attacked.
He raised his sword high, up above his head.
Luna didn't move.
He brought the sword down, straight for her head.
Luna couldn't move.
The sword connected with hers, shattering it with a force that threw Luna back against the wall of the throne room.
Luna hit the wall with a bone crunching, meaty, smack. She had lost not only some bones, but she had lost the battle. The rules of such a thing as this were written long go, before the ages of peace. But she still knew them. She had helped write them, after all. And the rules said that if you lost the fight, your life was forfeit.
He approached her slowly, the sword still in his upper hoof.
Luna tried to get up, but the bones that had broken wouldn't let her.
He got closer.
Luna squirmed against the wall, trying to make herself shrink down smaller, so that he wouldn't see her anymore.
He was almost upon her, glaring down at her with a hate and anger that reminded her briefly of herself when she had turned to the darker forces and had become Nightmare Moon.
Luna broke into tears, sobbing loudly as she tried to make herself smaller against the wall. "P- please, no!" she wailed. "W- we d- do- don't wan- want to d- d- die! Pl- please, show u- us m- mercy! Please!" She was nearly incoherent with fear.
He stood over her, his face a blank, but his eyes burning with such emotions that made her flinch away from him even further.
"P- please..." she whispered.
He raised his sword high, holding above his head as he stared down at her.
"N- no... please," she whimpered again.
He struck down with his sword.
"NO!!!" both Luna, and her sister Celestia screamed as one.
He brought the sword down hard. It smashed into the marble floor in front of Luna, only a fraction of an inch away from her nose.
As Luna stared at the blade with wide eyes, it swayed slightly side-to-side. She looked up to the creature standing above her. He seemed to be swaying as well. Then, she realized it was her that was swaying, not the sword, or the creature.
He turned away from her, walking towards Celestia.
Celestia was too stunned for words, instead simply watching him as he approached her. She saw the trail of blood he left behind him, and wondered for a moment if he should be moving.
He shouted at her, making sure she was paying attention.
She locked eyes with him. She saw hate and anger, of course. But she saw an enormous amount of suppressed pain as well.
He pointed behind him, directly at the two guards that he was carrying on his shoulders only a few minutes ago. He jabbed his finger at them slightly for emphasis. Then he growled out a single word. It wasn't in his language. It was butchered, and the pronunciation was horrible, but Celestia understood it. The entirety of the room understood it.
He opened his mouth, blood flowing out slightly, and spoke. "Mine." He then clutched at his stomach in pain and groaned loudly. He lurched forward, a flood of blood and bile escaping his mouth all at once. He groaned once more, then fell backwards onto the floor and passed out instantly.
There was a heavy silence that fell over the room, broken only by the two guards rushing over to him.
Celestia couldn't even begin to fathom what had just happened. But, it seems that the two now huddled over the creature passed out on the floor, only cared that he was alive.
Celestia descended from her throne and strode towards the two young mares that were fussing over the fallen creature.
They both looked up at her with tears streaming from their eyes.
"Please, help him!" the guard with the white coat- who Celestia knew to be called Gentle Breeze- yelled at her.
Celestia only nodded, and instantly guards surged forward, taking him in their hooves and rushing him to the hospital wing.
The two guards followed behind them, not letting the creature out of their sight.
Celestia turned to see her sister, Luna, laying broken against the wall, sobbing loudly. She made her way over to her quickly.
Luna was a mess. She had a dirty coat. Her face, chest and front hooves were stained with tears. And to top it all off, her mane and tail were a tangled mess, no longer flowing majestically, but hanging limp and listless at her sides.
Celestia reached her sister, wrapping a wing around her comfortingly. "Shh... It's over now Lulu, don't cry anymore," Celestia said softly into her sister's ear.
Luna wrapped her hooves around her sister tightly, hugging her and burying her face in her chest. She hadn't cried in over a thousand years, so the tears she shed came like a river, flowing out onto Celestia's white coat.
Celestia held her sister like that for a long while, letting her cry herself dry.
During all of this, no one had noticed the three tall, slender forms watching this from the back of the room, their eyes never blinking even once.
***
Breeze and Sky sat in the slightly uncomfortable chairs that the doctors had provided them with, staring at the unmoving form laying on the bed before them. He had internal bleeding, and two cracked ribs, as well as a very mild concussion. But after the doctors had sewn up the wounds and set the bones to heal correctly, they said that he would live.
Breeze held his oddly shaped hoof in hers, stroking it gently. Tears slowly ran down her face, leaving faint trails in her white coat as they fell. "Please don't die, please don't die, please don't die" was the mantra she kept repeating in her mind.
Sky only sat there next to him, a worried expression plastered on her face.
His chest rose and fell so slowly that they only just barely saw it move at all. He had lost a lot of blood. Too much. More blood than a pony could even have in their body anyway. But he was strong, that much was clear.
"Please don't die," Breeze said so softly that only Sky would have been able to hear her, had they not been the only ones in the room.
"Hey, don't worry, Breezy. He'll be fine," she assured her friend.
"How do you know that?" she asked Sky angrily.
Sky looked away from her friend, her ears pinning back against her head. "Well... I don't," she said quietly. "But I do know that he's strong enough to take on princess Luna and win," she said, looking back to her friend. "So anypony tough enough to do that is plenty tough enough to survive a little cut like this," she said, waving her hoof over his unconscious body.
Breeze just looked at his face, pale from loss of so much of his blood.
Sky wanted to assure her friend further, but she felt like words weren't welcome in the silence of the room anymore.
They sat there like that for hours, but it felt like centuries to them. Breeze still stroking his hoof. Sky still looking at him with a look of worry.
"Mine," Breeze said, breaking the silence.
"What?" Sky asked her.
"Back in the throne room... he said that."
Sky looked at his body, thinking. "Yeah, he did."
There was another short silence.
"I... I wouldn't mind being his..." Breeze said, almost to herself.
"What?!" Sky almost yelled. "He's not even our species! Plus, he's a criminal; a killer!" But her words were only halfhearted. She knew that she liked him too. Maybe more than a little bit.
Breeze leaned forward, hovering over him. She stared into his color-drained face with wide eyes, still red from the tears she had shed. She pulled her chair closer to the bed, so she could move closer to him.
"What are you doing Breezy?" Sky asked.
Breeze didn't answer her. She moved her face right over his, breathing softly on him.
"Breezy, w-"
Breeze pushed her lips to his, kissing him deeply. It lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like eternity. Breeze finally pulled back, smiling slightly. "In case you don't wake up," she said to him. "But if- when you do, there's a lot more where that came from." She laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. It was strong and steady, like a large drum. Her head was slowly rising and falling with his breathing, gently rocking her to sleep as she closed her eyes and took in a breath of his scent. She knew what the other smells mixing together were now. He needed the scent of blood upon him to smell like himself. Even though she knew it was wrong, she couldn't help but smile at this thought as she drifted off to sleep, resting her head on his chest.
The fugitive was unconscious on the bed. He was not going to be a problem
The two that were with the fugitive were asleep next to him. They might be complications, but the odds of that calculated out to be slim.
The doctors on the other hand were going to be a definite problem.
6 looked at the still forms, waiting for instructions on what to do from 3-now-1.
6 was standing just inside of the doorway, next to a large draw-back curtain. From here, nobody could see 6, but 6 could see everything. 6 had been standing there for two hours, and thirteen minutes exactly. The order still did not come, but all 6 had to do was wait for it, like 3-now-1 had instructed.
A doctor moved over to the three still forms and tapped the orange one, waking her.
"Huh... wha..."
"I need to perform a check-up on him, to see if he's healing properly. I need you and your friend to move for a while."
"He's fine. He doesn't need a check-up."
"I'm sorry, but I n-"
"If you try to touch him I'll shatter your hooves!"
"There's no way to know if-"
"I know; I can here it in his heartbeat. He's getting stronger every minute."
The doctor grumbled and shook his head, then walked away.
She put her head back down on his chest and smiled. She quickly fell asleep once again after closing her eyes.
6 did not understand this. You could not know the medical condition of a body unless it is examined by a doctor. She was not a doctor, she was a militant. Therefor she could not know what the fugitive's medical condition. 6's logic was sound, so there could be no faults in it.
There it was. 6 had received the signal. 6 now knew what was to be done.
***
Luna had stopped crying and was now being led by her sister, Celestia, to the hospital wing. Her magic was drained, her horn was aching like never before, and she had multiple broken bones. This was all a result from the battle she had lost with the creature from another world. "H- he could have ki- killed u- us," she almost whispered.
"But he didn't," Celestia said, her voice a mixture of worry and joy. "He could have killed you, but he spared you, Luna. I think that should speak volumes for him."
Luna just shuttered as she remembered the fight. "He... killed one of our guards. He was covered in his blood. Oh, Tia, we have never been so afraid in our life," she said, nuzzling into her sister's side. She winced as her damaged shoulder blade ground against itself at the movement, but fought through it.
Celestia wrapped her wing around her sister tighter, reassuring her that it was all right. "Don't worry anymore Luna. He is in a state of unconsciousness and can't hurt anypony. And even when he wakes up, I'm sure that he'll at the very least, try to be peaceful."
They turned the last corner of their trip. They were only a short walk down the corridor from the hospital wings now.
"Tia..." Luna tried.
"What is it, Luna?" Celestia asked, nuzzling her sister's cheek affectionately.
Luna smiled softly at her sister's touch, leaning into it. "We... we believe that we are... frightened, of him. We are not sure if it would be wise to share the same room with him for any amount of time right now."
Celestia smiled at her sister warmly. "I'm sure that he won't be in any condition to harm you Luna. He has taken a physical tole far worse than you have, and I'm sure that he will not wish to be hurt further by you."
Luna nodded slowly at her sister's logic. "Yes... Yes, we think that you are correct. Even in our weakened state, we are far stronger than he."
Celestia pushed open the doors of the hospital, which, for some strange reason had been closed. These doors are never supposed to be closed, under any circumstance. Once she walked through the now open doors, she froze at the sight before her. One of the other three creatures, 6 by the looks of it, was standing over the hurt one. He had a large syringe in his strange hoof, and he was pumping some kind of pale and sickly yellow colored mixture into the IV bag that was feeding into the injured one's arm.
The royal doctor was also laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, another syringe sticking out of his eye.
But Celestia only just saw this. Her rage had induced upon her tunnel vision, and she was seeing a red haze coming over her eyes, fading her sight slightly as she glared murderously at the creature with the syringe. She used her primal rage and instincts to focus her magic. It caused her pain, but she barely registered it as she used her magic to stop 6. To hurt him. To kill him.
He turned to look at her with his normal blank face, but even as he saw her, saw it, he wasn't able to avoid the large medical cabinet sailing towards him at the speed of light.
***
6 had received the signal. Now knowing what must be done, the plan that 3-now-1 had developed could be put into action.
6 was rummaging through drawers and cabinets of medical supplies looking for what was needed. 6 pulled out a drawer and found it.
The needle was wrapped in a thin a layer of plastic which had the hazard symbol printed onto it.
6 picked up the needle and tore off the covering. One item found, now all that was needed was the correct toxins. 6 looked at a large cabinet and saw hundreds of vials, bottles and tubes inside, and they were all full of liquids. 6 walked quickly over to the cabinet and tore the door off of its hinges. 6 picked up the first bottle of chemicals. Without looking to see what it actually was, 6 stuck the needle into the lid, filling the syringe up the the first line with the liquids inside. 6 repeated this process with a different bottle every time, until finally, the syringe was full. It looked pale and sickly, slightly shifting shades of the yellow color of the mixture... It looked completely deadly.
There was steps behind him.
6 turned and saw the doctor from before.
"What a-"
6 lunged at the doctor, stabbing him in the neck with the syringe in his hand, but not injecting any of its contents into him.
The doctor gasped in pain and fell back, landing just out of 6's reach. He tried to scramble to his hooves, but 6 was fast.
6 reached into the drawer from before and pulled out another needle. Quickly unwrapping it, 6 shot forward.
The doctor tried to get out of the way of 6's attack, but failed.
6 struck the doctor in the eye with the needle, forcing him to experience slow and painful agony as the needle in his eye radiated the most intense pain he had ever felt in his life. 6 watched as the body slowly convulsed and twitched on the floor, spewing out blood from the now bloody eye socket.
The doctor tried to say something, but the pain was too immense. His good eye darted around wildly, looking for a way to stop the pain. He flared up his horn as he tried to cast a numbing spell to help himself.
6 stomped down on the needle, sending it more than half-way into the doctor's head. Doing this killed him almost instantly, but with horrible pain in his last few seconds of life.
6 left the body of the doctor and moved to the side of the fugitive. The two that were with the fugitive were still asleep, which made the task easier. 6 lifted the syringe to the IV bag that was pumping healing nutrients into the fugitive. 6 punctured the bag with the syringe, slowly injecting it inside. 6 watched as the yellow substance mixed slowly with the clear fluids inside of the bag.
The doors of the hospital room opened.
6 looked away from the bag and to the doors. The two rulers stood there. One was injured, and one was glaring in 6's direction.
Before 6 could react, a large metal cabinet collided into 6, causing 6 to fly across the room and hit the opposite wall with a loud thud.
6's arm was twisted at a wrong angle and both legs were shattered. 6 looked to the fugitive's still body. The IV bag had become unhooked from the force of the cabinet and was now draining out onto the floor. 6 had failed. But... the logic was sound; there was no room for error. How could the plan have failed?
Then the cabinet was magically slammed down onto 6's head, flattening 6 into nothing but a bright red paste with shattered and twisted legs sticking out from underneath the heavy metal container.
***
Celestia stood panting over the dead being. What she had just done was not physically taxing, but the rage she felt leaving her took most of her strength with it. Her horn flared one last time then died, having used whatever energy she had regained up. As her mind cleared, she looked upon what she had done. She felt sick. She hadn't personally killed anypony in almost one thousand years. This was not what she should have done. She should have talked to him; found out what he was doing.
"Princess, what's wrong?!" a voice yelled.
Celestia turned to see the two guards standing defensively around the creatures bed, looking at her worriedly.
Celestia sighed. "One of the three that came here with him was injecting... something into his nutrition feed," she explained. "But I... stopped him..."
"Sister, that was... unnecessary," Luna said from the doorway, limping towards her.
Celestia rushed to aid her sister, wrapping her wing around her for support. "I know, Luna," she said quiet enough so that only Luna could hear her.
"Well, what should we do about the others?" Gentle Breeze asked the princesses.
"We will-" Luna started, but was interrupted by her sister.
"No Luna, you will only stay here and rest," she said sternly, looking at the corpse of her best doctor sadly. "I will find somepony to look after you, but until then, I will find out what the meaning of this attack was."
"We'll come with you, princess!" Sky Fire announced.
Celestia only shook her head. "No, young Sky Fire, you are needed here."
"What?! Why?! I- err, we, need to find out why they tried to kill him!" she protested.
"But if you leave his side, what is to stop another attack from happening?" Celestia asked intelligently.
This made Sky Fire stop and think about what to day next.
"Don't worry princess, we'll make sure nothing happens to him or Luna," Gentle Breeze said.
Celestia smiled at her. "Thank you," she said before walking out of the room.
Celestia didn't know why they had decided to attack him. And while he was in a hospital bed recovering from his wounds, no less! She just couldn't comprehend their reasoning. So she decided to find out why they did it. She strode down the corridors, knowing exactly where her next destination was. She was going to confront the three- no, two beings that were playing their role as guests here. She wanted answers, and she was going to get them.
3-now-1 was standing at the foot of the bed. The transmission feeds that 6 was sending had stopped. This either meant one of two things. 6 was somehow damaged, or 6 had been terminated. 6 had been good at following orders, but nothing else. 6 had always been careless, course, even, to an extent, lazy in whatever task was currently assigned.
"What do we do now?" 7 asked.
3-now-1 turned to face 7. "6 has been terminated. We will now finish this ourselves."
"How?"
"We will form a new plan to accomplish our goals."
"When?"
"Soon. Once we have a plan, we will be able to move and claim our target."
"How will we execute the fugitive?"
"We no longer need to be subtle. We will simply use our weapons."
"Then why not go now?"
"..."
"We could claim the fugitive's body and be gone before any of the local inhabitants are aware."
"This is a plan that we will use."
"Then we go now?"
"Yes. We will claim our target now."
7 and 3-now-1 both turned towards the door at the same time and walked towards it. They were ready and had a plan of action. They only needed to be quick enough so tha-
A knocking came from the door.
They stopped and looked at each other. After less than a second, they turned towards the door and made to open it.
It opened from the one at the door however, and she stopped them both with her stare. "What did you two do?" she asked, hostility clearly in her voice.
"We do n-"
BANG-chk-BANG-chk-BANG
3-now-1 stared as three holes, two in her chest and one in her head, exploded open from the force of 7's 7.76 x 39 AK-47 automatic rifle.
Her body hit the ground with a wet thump, blood already pouring out of her from the holes in her that 7 had put into her.
3-now-1 turned to 7 "Why did you do that?"
"She was unfortunate. She should have been somewhere else."
"What do you mean?"
"She was deemed a liability to the mission at her arrival and needed to be terminated."
3-now-1 hesitated for a nanosecond. Then he raised his 5.56 x 45 mm_NATO M416 automatic rifle to 7 and let lose a volley of bullets, tearing 7 into bright red meaty chunks.
During this, the message "Why?" was received from 7.
"Because you were are a liability to the mission and needed to be terminated," 3-now-1 told the shredded corpse of 7 as the light left 7's eyes.
"..."
"..."
"... Understood."
3-now-1 turned and left the room. The fugitive needed to be terminated and it was going to be done today.
***
Luna was talking to Gentle Breeze and Sky Fire about the creature for what seemed like hours. But in reality, it had only been about twenty minutes. She awaited the return of her sister so she could feel safe again in this room. Even though the two guards in the room with her assured her that he was in no way dangerous to her as long as they were there, she still felt uneasy about the situation as a whole.
"So you are saying that as long as he is near you, he can cause no harm?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hmm, more like if we're there to stop him, but yeah," Sky Fire said.
"Do you think that your presence alone could keep him from doing damage to property or ponies?" Luna asked.
"Of course!" Sky Fire beamed. "As long as we're here, he won't do anything."
"But if that isn't the case, would you be able to stop him if he really wanted to hurt you or somepony else?"
She was silent after that.
"We thought as much..." Breathed Luna.
Off in the distance they heard loud banging noises. After a few seconds, they heard more, but less like banging and more like a deep popping.
"What was that...?" Gentle Breeze wondered aloud.
Luna's eyes went wide. "Get the guards! Quickly, you must summon every last guard in the palace to us!"
The two in the room with her went stiff as they heard the urgency in her voice. They didn't know what was happening, but they knew that they needed to do as she said. They flew off at lightning speed and called the guards to them as the flew through the palace corridors.
Luna started to shiver slightly in her spot on the hospital bed. As the seconds went by, tears came to her eyes. She tried to send mental messages to her sister, but she wouldn't respond. Along with that, she felt as though a blade of ice was plunged into her heart, filling her with dread. Her sister was dead, and she knew it.
***
Sky Fire and Gentle Breeze took different paths to cover more ground as quickly as possible. They flew through hallway after hallway, screaming for every last guard in the castle to make for the hospital wing.
There were dozens of guards. Hundreds of them. Nearly a thousand left their post and galloped at full speed to the hospital at the call of Luna's personal guards. Every last guard in the castle ran to the aid of the princess. They didn't know what they were needed for, but they knew that they had to respond to the call for rally.
***
Luna stopped the flow of tears and wiped her face off with a hoof as the first of the guards could be heard galloping towards her. She looked at them as the entered. Lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and every other rank there was now stood before her. "Guards," Luna started, "as you know, there are creatures in this castle from another world."
Every guard- that could fit into the room- nodded at her.
"It seems that they have betrayed our trust, and have harmed our sister. We do not know this for certain, but the feeling of loss and dread is enough for us to be sure that something has happened to her."
Every guard stiffened as they heard this.
"She told us that she was going to visit the creatures in their room here, then our mental link disappeared and this feeling came over us. It is clear that the beings that we trusted in our home have tricked us."
Many of the guards seemed to growl in anger when she said this.
"For this, they must be punished. They are in the abandoned corridors to the west of here. Go forth, and make them pay, my loyal subjects."
Every guard at once galloped from the room, intent on making whoever hurt their princess pay with their life.
***
Everything was a blank, empty abyss. No light, no dark, no life, no death. Just... nothing. Wayne didn't know where he was, or why he was here. But he knew that he had to get out. But how do you get out of nothing? That was like asking how to see air. You can't.
He tried to move, but he couldn't feel anything other than the beating of his heart. It was slow. Much slower than it should be. Not being able to feel his limbs made it hard to tell if he was moving or not, so he just lay there, not moving at all. Wait, laying? He was laying down? Yes... Yes, he could just barely feel the bed underneath him. Wait. He could feel the bed. He could feel! He tried to move again, but couldn't.
A sound met his ears. Feet... No, hooves. Like a horse. A horse... Horse...
Wayne's eyes snapped opened at once. He remembered where he was, and why he was here. He wanted to move. Needed to move. But some unseen force just wouldn't let him. He tried to move his head to see what was happening, but only just managed to have it flop to the side. Great. This was really helpful. He could see the door and... He could see that blue horse from before.
It must have known that he was looking at it and turned to face him. Its eyes widened in shock from seeing him awake and staring at it. It backed away as best it could while on its cot.
Wayne tried to open his mouth to say something to it. He couldn't feel his tongue and all that came out was a garbled slur.
The horse blinked at him.
He tried to move again, but still couldn't even raise his arms.
The sound of gunfire tore through the air around them.
Wayne looked at the horse as its eyes widened.
He heard screams of pain and terror as the gunfire continued. It was slowly getting closer to him, but he still couldn't move.
The horse looked at his struggles and seemed to look at him with... sadness? Why would that stupid fucking horse be sad at him?! He needed to get up! He needed to get away! Why couldn't this stupid fucking-
The gunfire stopped as the sounds of hooves pounding past the door met his ears.
Two familiar form sped through the doors and quickly slammed them shut. The orange one and the white one were panting hard and leaning against the door. They were covered in blood.
Seeing this, Wayne tried to move again. He forced his body into overdrive as his muscles screamed at him to stop. He lifted his arm up in the air and tried to roll over.
The two horses saw this and rushed over to him.
He lifted his head and tried to get the rest of his body up. He used his arms to push himself up while the two beside him pulled him gently off of the cot. He was on his feet and walking towards the door with the help of the two horses. He needed to get out, to get away from that god damned merc. He had no weapons, he was nearly dead as it was, and he could barely walk on his own.
The door was kicked in violently.
Wayne stood there as he looked at the merc, his gun pointing at Wayne's head.
"Surrender now or you will be terminated," the merc told him.
Wayne looked around him for any chance at escape. He saw walls. Walls, the door and... the windows... He looked to the two horses and saw their wings. Wayne smiled slightly as he formed a plan.
He made a grunting noise and they looked at him. He looked at the windows, and they followed his line of sight.
Wayne raised his hands in the air and walked towards the wall, right next to a large window and took the arresting position.
The merc was behind him in seconds. "You will be taken to the grand courts and found guilty for your crimes against our great government. You will-"
Wayne elbowed him in the face and spun around, ignoring the pain flaring in his stomach. He grabbed the merc by the neck and slammed him against the window, shattering it.
The merc hung by only Wayne's arms as he dangled three stories above the ground. The merc looked to Wayne, a blank expression on his face as he reached for his gun.
"I told ya to go fuck yerself!" Wayne growled as he let the merc drop out of the window.
The merc raised his gun and tried to aim at Wayne, but didn't have time.
Wayne felt a tug at the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest. He was pulled forward, half-way out of the window. The merc's rifle barrel was caught on his bandages. His eyes widened as he as pulled out of the window all the way.
The two horses screamed from behind him.
Wayne pushed the gun away as he fell, the merc only a foot ahead of him. he grabbed the merc's shoulders as they fell together.
They hit a tree. Branches and twigs scratched and tore at their skin as they fell, causing Wayne to yell in pain. They came to a sudden stop.
Wayne looked down and saw a huge branch gore through the merc's chest, another through his waist.
The branch creaked.
The merc swung his gun up to aim at Wayne, but Wayne moved faster.
He swung his fist into the face of the merc, causing the branch to groan under the pressure. He took the barrel of the gun in his hands and tore it from the grip of the merc. He pointed it at the the merc, ready to kill.
The branch snapped, sending both of them tumbling down at least ten feet before crashing to the ground.
Wayne groaned from where he landed on the ground, agony coursing through his system.
A boot collided with his face, sending him rolling across the ground.
Wayne blinked up at the form above him in confusion.
It was the merc. He still had the branches in his chest and waist, but didn't seem to care as he tried to kick Wayne again.
Wayne rolled to the side, barely escaping the booted foot. He stood up with some trouble and faced the merc. He had lost the gun while rolling across the garden they were now in, so he was just about defenseless.
The merc walked towards him with a limp. Obviously the branch in his waist was hindering him... to an extent.
He approached Wayne with the same expressionless face that he always wore.
Wayne took a step backwards, trying to come up with some sort of a plan to save himself from obvious death. He couldn't think of one.
As the merc drew nearer, a shadow came across the two of them. Wayne looked up in time to see the orange army horse flying at the merc.
It came at him fast than lightning. It collided with him, kicking in his already-damaged leg, breaking it at a nasty angle.
The merc dropped to the ground, trying to hit the horse while he went.
It flew backwards and drew out its sword, holding it in its teeth. It closed its wings, letting itself drop onto the merc, ramming its sword straight through his heart.
Another shadow passed over them.
The white one landed next to the orange one and wrapped its wing around the other.
They whispered to each other quietly while Wayne just stood there. He really needed names for them. The orange one and the white one were getting old.
They turned to him and smiled.
He smiled back. He didn't know why; he didn't even try to smile, it just came.
"You will be met with deadly force," the dead merc said.
They all looked down in shock and horror as he stood up, the branches still inside of him, and the sword sticking out of his chest.
"Do not attempt to escape, you will only be punished more for it," he droned on.
The two horses sprinted away from it and hid behind Wayne.
Some saviors, huh?
Wayne rushed forward as best he could and grabbed the sword. He ripped it out of the merc's chest and held it like a batter would do at the plate of a baseball game.
"Do not-"
The sword struck his neck, almost cleaving his head completely off.
The merc stood there for a second, bright red blood spurting out in great amounts.
Wayne pulled the sword back and shoved it down his neck, causing more blood to come out.
The merc was dead on his feet. Not moving, breathing, talking... not anything.
Wayne pushed on his chest to knock him over but was met with resistance. As his hand met the merc's chest, a hand grabbed his wrist with crushing force.
"Do not attempt to resist. Such acts would only be met with extreme force." The mouth of the merc was moving, but the sound was coming out of the base of his neck.
Wayne panicked and slammed his fist into the merc's almost-detached head. The last bit of flesh and tubing tore apart and the head fell free of the body.
The body... The body still was alive, and it threw him back against the two guard horses behind him.
All three of them yelled out in fear as Wayne landed on them. What's going on? What is this thing? How do I kill it? Those were the questions flying through their heads.
Wayne pulled himself up with sheer willpower alone, his strength almost leaving him completely. "Why can't ya jus' go an' fuck yerself?!" Wayne shouted at the... thing.
It came at him and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him into the air.
Wayne's already exhausted mind and body could barely take it anymore. His vision started to fade as black spots appeared and faded away in his eyes. He flailed his hands around desperately trying to stop the thing from killing him. His hand grabbed something hard and cylindrical. The sword! Wayne pulled it free from the neck-stump and swung it hard. It struck one of the thing's arms and chopped it clean off.
The thing dropped him on the ground roughly, no longer able to hold him.
Wayne landed on the ground and scrambled to get up. He tripped over himself and fell back to the ground, hurting his leg in doing so. He tried to get up, but something caught his eye.
The gun.
Wayne found new strength that was hidden somewhere deep inside of him as he lunged forward. He grabbed the barrel and pulled it closer to him, gripping the handle and fore-grip. He looked down the sights and lined up the thing perfectly.
He pulled the trigger.
A hail of bullets shot from the weapon, riddling the thing's body with enough holes to make Swiss cheese jealous.
The gun clicked empty.
But Wayne wasn't worried as he watched the thing fall to its knees. There were large chunks of it missing, exposing wires and cords running throughout its body.
A synthetic.
Wayne should have guessed when it first spoke. No Human would use words as fucking stupid as "terminated". He rolled over to lay flat on his back and looked at the sky. It was a beautiful sight. Not a cloud in sight, and the Sun was high in the sky above him.
The Sun... it was there, but... it felt... cold... In fact, it looked... somewhat grey, compared to the colors of the sky and landscape around him.
He was sure that it wasn't like this before. But as the edges of his vision faded away to black, he wasn't able to think straight any more.
Two forms rushed to his side, touching him.
He smiled. He knew that it was his friends just worrying over him. His friends... Yes, Wayne liked the sound of that. Friends. Friends were a good thing to have... A very good thing...
Darkness. Darkness everywhere. This is what Wayne could see. Darkness, and nothing else.
Voices.
Touching.
Moving.
Voices... So many voices. Yelling. Screaming. Shouting. And... soothing?
Yes, there was a voice among the others that he could hear, but just barely. It soothed him... comforted him.
He couldn't make out the words. It sounded as if they were coming to him from underneath a great deal of water. He couldn't hear them, but he knew what they meant.
Safe.
Secure.
Safe... Always safe... as long as he was with her.
Her...? Yes, her. It was a female voice that spoke to him... that soothed him.
Wayne was suddenly aware of a feeling on his hand. A sort of... movement. Up and down and back again. It felt... nice.
The voices were loud. Louder all the time. They were coming closer to him.
Wayne tried to move, but his body felt like it was made of stone. No feeling except the weight of his own skin against his muscles and tissue.
A loud noise erupted from his side. A door being smashed open.
The voices were loud enough to hurt his ears now. But it was only a dull, throbbing pain. Like a bad headache.
The movement on his hand stopped. So did the voice that gently spoke to him.
He wanted it back. He felt so lonely without it. So afraid. So cold and lonely. He needed her to stay with him... always.
"Whs... hs... cndtion..."
"I... th-k... he... gttng... bettr..."
"Ar... yo... sure?"
"Yes, I'm absolutely sure."
The voice... it was talking to someone other than him. He felt angry at this. The voice was only supposed to talk to him. Him! Nobody else but him!
He used every ounce of willpower in his body and slowly reached out his hand towards the voice.
There was a gasp and his hand was seized by a warmth. The same warmth that was touching him before.
He sighed and could feel a small smile creep onto his face. Wait... He could feel his face! He could feel other things too. His arms, his feet, his chest... There was a warm weight pressing against his chest. It burned into his very being, like molten metal being poured onto him. But it felt good. It felt amazing. It felt... right...
Wayne reached out with his other hand and grabbed the warmth. It felt soft and furry... Like a cat. But it was bigger. He pulled whatever it was onto his chest and wrapped his arms around it tightly.
It gave a squeak of surprise as he did this, but it didn't fight him. It just laid there on his chest, being warm and soft and comforting for him.
Wayne suddenly felt heavy again, but it was a good feeling. Not the suffocating kind of heavy that he felt before, but the kind of heavy when you're so tired that you could sleep anywhere in the world comfortably.
He could feel warm breath on his neck and face. He wondered what it was briefly before falling into a dreamless sleep.
***
Wayne reached up and scratched his nose. There was something breathing on him, but he didn't know what. It was actually kind of really fucking annoying. Mostly because it was making his nose itch again.
He scratched his nose again and yawned. It was dark. Why was it dark? Wait...
Wayne opened his eyes.
That would be why...
Wayne was staring at a tiled ceiling with small holes in each tile, like millions of little bullets hit everywhere.
He was in a hospital. He would recognize that pattern anywhere. But a hospital where?
Wayne tried to think where he might be. There was no way he was back at Echo; that place was back in Chicago. Charlie Station was wiped out over a year ago, so that was out. He could be in Zeta... No, they wouldn't risk their security, even for him. So... where was he?
A yawn broke his train of thought.
He looked down to see a little white horse sleeping on his chest. It was wearing some type of blueish-purple armor and had a sword strapped to its side.
All at once he remembered where he was and why he must be in a hospital.
He tensed on reflex as he stared at the horse.
The horse must have felt the muscles in his body move underneath it. Its eyes fluttered open and it yawned again. It instantly tensed up as it saw him staring straight at it.
There were a few quiet minutes as the horse stared unblinking into Wayne's eyes, not sure what to do.
"Um... g- good morning." it squeaked out in a small voice.
Wayne just looked at it. No, her. Wayne could tell it was a female by its voice.
"Um... Hello?" she tried again.
Wayne just stared.
"Uh, well, I know you can understand me. The princess cast a spell on you so that we could communicate."
Wayne just kept staring at her with a confused look.
She bit her bottom lip.
Wayne blinked at her.
She scooted back on him when he did this.
Wayne let out a low growl in the back his throat.
She turned to the door behind her. "H-"
Wayne grabbed her muzzle and twisted so that he was on top of her, pinning her down.
She tried to move but could only flap her wings.
"Now, yer gonna tell me exactly where the fuck I am," Wayne growled at her.
She whimpered and shrunk down into the bed below her.
"I got no idea where I am, so y'all's gonna answer mah questions. Got it, little horse?"
Her eyes widened at him.
"You got it?!" he hissed out, leaning into her.
She closed her eyes and whimpered, but nodded.
"Good. Now, I'ma let go o' yer mouth now, y'hear? But if y'all scream, I'll jam my fist so far down yer neck I'll be fingerin' you from the wrong way out," he said slowly as he let go of her muzzle, but kept his hand hovering close by.
"I- I'm not a horse," she said.
"What?"
"I'm not a horse, I'm a pony. Everypony that lives in Equestria is a pony, more or less."
Wayne hummed. "So, is everybody some type of pony?"
She looked at him with confusion. "Of course not. There's ponies, but also zebras, sea serpents, dragons, griffons, and even a few bat ponies living here."
Wayne's eyes widened. "That's... interestin'... But what is Equestria? A state? A city?"
"It's our country," she told him.
"Hmm, an' how many are there livin' here?" he asked.
"There's over ten thousand ponies in Equestria. And there's nearly a thousand guards in this castle right now," she said as she looked up at him.
He worked his jaw back and forth. "A thousand guards huh...? Nah, they won't be a problem," he thought aloud.
The pony beneath him paled.
"What kinda weapons do ya have?" he asked her.
"We have some of the best blacksmiths on Equus working on our guards' weapons and armor," she said confidently.
"Are ya mass producing 'em?" he asked her quickly.
"Mass... producing?"
"I thought so..."
She drooped her ears back as she realized that he was, all-in-all, unimpressed with this world.
"Now... if I let ya go, what happens?" he asked slowly.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... If I let ya go, will a thousand angry guards be rushin' in here ta try ta kill me?" he asked her harshly.
"Well... no-"
"What about that big, blue pony?" he asked.
"Princess Luna?" she cocked her head to the side.
"Princess? Y'all got princesses here?" he asked incredulously.
"Well... princess, now," she said sadly.
After a minute, he pulled himself up, giving her room to move.
She thought about flying out of here, she really did. But... she didn't.
"What happened?" he asked.
She looked at the ground and sighed slightly. "The ones that were trying to kill you... They killed Princess Celestia. After that, one of them killed the other and tried to come after you. It... it killed hundreds of guards... Some of them were my friends..."
There was another silence between them as they both thought about what happened.
Then, she was grabbed roughly by Wayne. She looked at him with wide eyes, but realized too late what he was doing.
He pulled her forward and nearly crushed her in a tight hug. "I'm sorry. I really am," he whispered into her ear. "I know what it's like ta lose someone close."
Her eyes started to water.
"I lost mah entire family 'cause o' the war," he said softly.
The tears were flowing freely now.
"Every single friend I ever had is dead 'cause o' me. They wanted ta hurt me, so instead of tryin' ta find me, they hurt everybody I loved ta try ta draw me out. So many are dead, an' all 'cause of me. I'm responsible fer every single death. So I know how much it hurts, pony. I'm so sorry."
She wrapped her hooves around him tightly and sobbed into his chest. She had been holding it in for days while he was unconscious, but now it all came rushing out at once.
He rubbed her back with one hand and trailed the other through her red hair. She had comforted him while he was out of it. Now it was his turn to be there for her.
The two were so caught up in their respective activities that they didn't even notice the orange pony and the larger, blue pony slowly close the door to the room, leaving them alone.
Wayne and Gentle Breeze- as she had introduced herself as- talked in his small hospital room. He liked her. And she liked him.
"So, what do y'all do fer fun 'round a castle?" Wayne asked.
"Well, I usually read when I get a boring assignment. Or sometimes, I talk to my friend Sky.
"Sky?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, you've met her. Orange coat, blackish-blue mane?"
"Oh yeah..." he said in realization. "I remember her. She was the one with ya in my dream."
Breeze raised an eyebrow at him. "You were dreaming about us?"
"Yeah," he said casually. "How could I not? With y'all two being the sexy, multicolored, magical, winged, talkin' ponies that you are," he said in a sultry voice and making kissing faces at her.
Her face turned bright red and she looked away from him.
"But don't worry. Ya just stood there an' looked cute. She was the one that was showin' off her skills," he said, leaning closer to her.
"W- wha... Are y- you serious?!" she yelled, scooting away from him. She hit the wall.
"Yeah, an' she was pretty good too. Fer a pony I mean. An' I had no idea that yer tongues were shaped like that."
"W- what?!" she practically screamed, turning to face him with wide eyes.
He stuck his tongue out and lashed it around in the air, making the most disturbing noises she had ever heard in her life.
The door slammed open.
Breeze and Wayne both turned to see who was there. Breeze's entire head looking like a ripe tomato, and Wayne still with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.
Sky Fire stood there, her face a much darker shade of orange than normal. "You'd better be lying!" she screamed at him as she tackled him off of the bed.
"Sky!" Breezed yelled.
Sky was on top of him, glaring down with the intent to kill. "Say it! Say that you're lying! If you don't say it I'll tear you apart!"
He smirked up at her. "But if I say that I'm lyin', I'll be lyin'. So by lyin' about lyin', I would still be tellin' the truth. So therefor it would be impossible fer me ta say that I'm lyin'."
She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it after a minute of nothing coming out.
"Perhaps young Sky Fire is trying to say that she is embarrassed that you think of her this way," said a large blue pony as it walking into the room. "Especially since she thinks of you that way as well," she finished.
Everybody in the room turned to face the princess as she said this. The two ponies had huge blushes, but Wayne simply raised an eyebrow.
"Now, creature, or Wayne, we wish to talk with you," the princess said.
Wayne stood up as Sky Fire got off of him. He looked the princess with an expressionless face. "Lead the way," he said simply.
***
They walked in silence down the seemingly never-ending corridors of the castle. They had been walking for almost an hour now without saying even one word to each other. Wayne refused to be the one to speak first, so he just waited for the princess to say what she wanted to.
They turned a corner and Wayne saw a large balcony overlooking a small town in the distance. They walked to it, looking out at the great expanse of land. In the distance, Wayne could see a huge desert with no end. Next to that, there was a large area with no green, just the brown of dirt and decay. He could also see an ocean on two sides of the land. A giant forest, thick with trees was near the small town. And for the first time, he saw that a huge city was resting on the clouds above the town he first saw. The scene was magnificent.
"What do you see, Wayne?" the princess asked.
"I... I see yer country," he answered.
"Yes, that is obvious. But look beyond appearances. Then tell me what you see."
He leaned forward over the railing slightly. "I... I see that half of the country is all green with trees, an' has towns scattered all 'round the place," he started.
The princess nodded at him. "And what of the other places of this country?"
"Well, they're dead. Barely anythin' lives in deserts, an' that place over there," he pointed to the large, rocky expanse of dirt and dead mountains, "well, it don't look like anythin' could even live close ta that."
"That is correct. It does appear that way," she said.
He looked at her. "But there is somethin' there, ain't there?" he asked slowly.
She only nodded.
"An' because of how many guards got killed, an' without the other princess..."
"We may be weak to an attack," she finished.
There was a silence between the two of them.
"I need ta get back ta my home, princess. Every day more people die," he told her sadly.
She nodded again. "We have no doubt that your world is in chaos. But we must ask a favor of you."
Wayne raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"When you think of this world, know that any trouble that comes to pass, was because of you," she said darkly.
There was another silence between them.
"Can I say goodbye?" he asked the princess.
She looked at him for a long moment. Then she lit up her horn and pointed it at his chest. "No." The light from her horn shot forward and slammed into Wayne, knocking him over the railing.
He fell fast, hurtling towards the ground at lightning speed. He fell, farther and farther down, his coat whipping around him as he went.
His wrist made a noise.
He looked and saw that a set of coordinates flashed across the screen of the monitor strapped to him. He recognized them.
As he fell there was no sound- other than his coat flapping in the wind. He thought about the two ponies that were going to be wondering where he was. Would they miss him? No, that was impossible. They had only just met. But... Wayne felt as though... No, he couldn't-
THUD
Wayne gasped as the breath was knocked out of him. He laid there for God knows how long, looking like a fish out of water trying to breathe again. By the time he could suck in air, he was red in the face and felt like his lungs were about to explode.
"Aahhh! Ya... stupid... fuckin'... pony..." he gasped out between breaths. "I'm gonna... kill ya... An' then... I'll fuckin' eat ya..."
Wayne rolled onto his side and pushed himself up, gasping in pain. He was in a swamp. A familiar swamp. He walked along the dry areas of the swampy forest until he came upon a road. It was a worn out freeway that was too small for its purpose. He started walking down the road until he saw a sign. He read the sign, then he smiled.
Drone was flying quickly through the dead trees- the ones that weren't turned to dust... yet- to practice his flying.
The Queen had told him that he was an exss- expetal- eckpspe... a great flyer for his age. He was only seven, but he could go faster and had more control than even some of the teenagers in the Hive!
He lit up his horn and blasted a small boulder apart with a ball of sickly green flame.
Awesome.
He was the top of his class for magic too. Even better than one of the Elders on the counsel!
The Queen herself said that if he got better at his flying and magic, then he could be one of her Royal Guards.
Drone shivered at the thought of being that close to the Queen. Her power, her wings, her horn, her smooth, beautiful carapace, her-
Drone blushed furiously as he thought of her, picturing in his mind the time that he bumped into her while not paying attention one day while walking through the Hive. He ran right into her flanks and fell onto his backside as a result.
His blush deepened. Her flanks were his favorite part of her. Even though his friends said that if she ever caught him looking she would kill him, he didn't care. He may be young, but every changeling learns about these kind of things as early as they can.
He charged his horn again, ready to blow apart a tree.
Everything darkened slightly and turned a shade of grey.
He lost his focus and blinked in confusion. He slammed, face first, into the dead oak tree.
Drone shook his head to clear the dizziness and looked around him to make sure nopony saw that. Seeing that his dignity was safe, he looked to the sky. His eyes widened at what he saw.
Instantly, he flew back into the air as fast as he could and raced to the Hive. He had to tell the Queen!
In lessons, every changeling learned what to look out for in other species. Their weaknesses, their strengths, everything. And what he had just seen was lesson number one.
He flew through the winding hallways of the structure at a breakneck speed.
He had to tell the Queen. He had to tell the Queen. He had to tell the Queen!
He slammed into the doors of the counsel room and rolled to a stop at the hooves of a certain changeling queen named Chrysalis.
"What is the meaning of this?!" she boomed.
Drone lay there, panting. "I... I... the Sun... dead..."
Chrysalis' eyes narrowed at the jumbled message the whelp of a changeling was trying to convey. Suddenly, she understood.
"Are you certain of this?!" she asked hurriedly.
Drone nodded. "I saw it," he said. "The Sun turned grey."
Chrysalis stood there, rooted to the spot for a few minutes as she processed the information. Then... she smiled.
