> Equestria Girls: Magic, Forests, and Hellfire > by Head of Common Mockery > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Deals and Feelings From The Past (Kinda New, Kinda Different) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Years Ago.... Today has to be the worst day for a particular high school freshman. His mother is sick with a disease that has been eating her insides for the past year, and today the boy and his mother get a confirmed number of days left... The boy isn't anyone too special, just a mechanic's apprentice who's into muscle cars. The only thing that you could say that's special is that his uncle's shop works on everything that goes fast. He constantly helps with a variety of fast cars from steel and sheet metal monsters with Big Block V8s, to supercars with top speeds they'll never reach on regular roads, to rally cars that can rip a dirt road a fresh asshole. He's a respectable kid, but he likes to keep to himself at school. He's not a people person, as he doesn't like loud crowds. And the school that he goes to, Canterlot High, is usually lively with loud music and drama out the wazoo. But the boy's not thinking about his school. He's thinking about his dying mother. The boy is currently crying on his mother who's sleeping with the help of heavy amounts of painkillers and sedatives. They're both in your average single person hospital room. Plain white with hospital machines all hooked up to the boy's mother and a small table with a mason jar that has flowers in it. A nurse walks into the room. "I'm sorry Francis," The nurse said, "But I'm going to ask you to leave for a few minutes. I need to tell your mom something." "Is it how much time she has left?" Francis asks. "... I-I'm sorry, but you can't be here right now." The nurse tells Francis with more assertion, "But you can come right back in a few minutes." Francis walks out of the room feeling furious that he can't be there to help his mother feel strong. His mom's going to die who knows when! For all he knows, it could be tomorrow or an hour from now! It fucking pisses him off!! She's all he's ever had!! He decides to move his head real close to the door so he can hear how much time is left. "I'm sorry Ms. Wolfgang..." the nurse gets real quiet in case Francis tries to listen. It's not working, "You have six days left... The test results showed that the disease has spread to both your heart and brain steam. Do you know who your son will go to? Any family or friends?" Francis' mother stayed silent for a bit... And then spoke. "Can I tell you the most significant parts of my life?" Francis' mother asked. "Yes, Ms. Wolfgang." "When I was seventeen, I ran away from my parents and lived life on my own. My best friend helped me through that time. Togeather, I was able to afford an apartment and get my motorcycle license within six months of being on my own. Those same six months, he fell in love with me. For a year, he hid his feelings for me as he helped me get a good paying job and my high school diploma... To celebrate our graduation, my best friend's dad gave us the keys to his cabin. We went there, got drunk, and fucked." "E-excuse me?" The nurse said, blushing profusely, "Why are you telling me that bit of-" "Two weeks after that, I was pregnant with my son. I call it fucking because it was just drunken lust and feelings that was the whole drive of that. Not too long afterwards, I found out that I was pregnant. I told Antonio about it, that was the name of my best friend. He helped me through the pregnancy along with his friend, Gunther. Francis knows him as Uncle Gunther. He was the one who told me how Antonio was killed... Antonio asked me to marry him, so I did. It legally changed my last name to Wolfgang... Did you ever see the report of a guy who was the FBI's most wanted? A mass murderer named Jefferson?" "Yeah, Jeff the Killer! There's no official count of how many he's killed. Such a sick man!" "Gunther got to my house quickly one day..." Francis' mother begins to get tearful eyes, "He was covered in blood, but he wasn't scared as he said that Antonio bumped into Jeff the Killer..." Francis' mother's face is covered in tears of sadness, but she's smiling, "Antonio violently cut apart Jeff... But Jeff had determination. He ran a knife into Antonio's head..." Now she's full on crying, "And my son still doesn't know about him!" She cries for a good few minutes, but settles down and goes silent, ".... Gunther's been like a father and a brother to Francis. He's Francis' godfather. He'll be-" Francis runs away from the room with his dying mother, and doesn't stop for a while. He runs and runs and runs and hears the screams of psychopaths. He stops and falls to the floor. He lifts his head and looks around. He sees clean hallways like the rest of the hospital, but it seems to have a kind of filth to it. There's a sign hanging from the ceiling that says 'Criminal Ward'. A man in a fancy blue plaid three piece suit like the ones that the NFL halftime hosts wear reaches a hand down to help Francis up. He's not a tall man, but not a short man. He's at least 5'10" with a slender yet muscular figure and a smile that sees through bullshit but is also the kind of smile that a high school football coach would give to his team when he's proud of them. "What's such a fine young man and like yourself doin' here?" The man spoke in a heavy yet smooth southern accent, "Why were you runnin' down these halls? Are you tryin' to escape somethin'?" "It's my mom!" Francis says, crying his eyes out, "Sh-she's gonna die in six days! I don't want her to die! I love her!" "Hmm..." the man mutters to himself, "This one has much potential. So much... Spirit." "What the fuck are you talking about!?" Francis asked angrily. "Oh-Where are my manners?" The man says apologetically, "Sorry, old sport. Guess they decided run straight out the window!" There's a sound of breaking glass, and a male nurse runs to the source of the noise. He opens a door to a cell, and spots that a window has been broken. The nurse runs out of the room and cups his hands around his mouth to make himself louder. "We Got Another Jumper!" The male nurse said. "Anyone worth a damn?" A female at a desk asks. "No! Another criminally insane! That's the fifth one today!" "Got His Profile!... Patrick Bateman! Yeah, crazy serial killer! We need him cleaned up!" "What the fuck?" Francis says to himself out loud. The man chuckles to himself. Good riddance to bad rubbish. The man thinks to himself, "Say, let's get out of this dreadful place. It's filled with crazy people and sin." The man and Francis begin to walk out. "You Christian?" Francis asked. "Not exactly." The man answers. "You said your mother's dyin'? From a deadly flesh eating disease?" "I never said what it was specially. Who are you?" "Mr. Appleseed will do. Call me that, old sport." "You're really weird." "You would be surprised how many times I've been told that... I'd like to make a deal with you." "What kind of a deal?" "One that will save your terminally ill mother from death's reach." "I said she's confirmed to die in six days! What the hell can you do to fix that!" "Oh, I have my ways. Here," The man pulls out an ancient looking scroll from inside his jacket, "All you have to do is sign this here contract." "Wait, I've heard something like this before... Wait! Those Damn Yankees! The Guy Who Made A Deal With The Old Guy To Become A Star Baseball Player! Your The Devil!!!" With that said, the the hallway quickly becomes void of anyone but those two. The emptiness is followed by a heavy silence. The combined emptiness and silence seemed to make the dark appearing hallway even darker, almost like the lights weren't on even though they were. "... Took you long enough, old sport." Mr. Appleseed said, his words breaking the silence, but only just. "You Want My Soul-" "Alright, hold your horses right there. The deal I'm makin' for you will do two things. First, your mother will wake up healthy as vegan. Second, you'll soon gain amazin' abilities. Abilities that most either fear or will fear. You will gain a power that will help you with most of your troubles, as I know all kinds of things about you like your troubles and your past." "Things ike what?" "Well, for starters, I know you used to go to the same middle school that President Sombra's kid went to. In fact, you used to live at the capital. You were expelled because you punched the president's son in the balls hard enough that he won't be havin' any kids of his own. Good job, by the way." "That was kept under wraps!" "Like God, I too am all knowing... And like God, I am only one man who's set on achieving certain goals." "Let me guess, making sure people suffer and go to hell." "Makin' sure that all evil falls, suffers, and goes to hell." "... You said you were going to give me power... What kind of power?" "The power to be the judge, the entire jury, and the executioner. Someone capable of stoppin' evil either before it starts, or before it gets any worse. Tell me, have you ever heard of those who work for me?" "No, not really." "Excuse me, I think I'm not being specific enough. Have you ever heard of the Spirits of Vengeance? They started to become more well known in the nineteenth century, and mostly rode horses." "I think I'm getting a better picture... You mean the dead cowboys who eternally heard steal cattle through the sky?" "That is a very entertaining song, but not exactly what I'm talking about. I'll explain that in time, but for now," The Devil hands Francis the ancient scroll, "Could you simply sign this? I know that you'd like the ability to fully stand up to those bullies in school, and that comes with what I'm offering. This time, you can stand up to kids like Gerard." The Devil unravels the contract, and hands it to Francis, "Oh, and you'll feel a prick when you touch it. You already know who I am and how to sign it, I presume?" Francis grabs the scroll, unrolls it, and his thumb begins to bleed. He wipes his thumb over the signature spot, and hands the scroll back. "My mother better not die from a different cause!" Francis said, still suspicious of The The Devil. "This is no trick, old sport. I promise that she'll be just fine and still with you...." ---------------------------------------------------------------- One Year Ago Today is good day! Francis just got his driver's license, and he's on his way to his uncle's place! He's not his uncle by blood, though. More a friend of Francis' dead father, now that he knows who his father was. He wasn't mad about it, he was just confused about why he didn't need to know who his father was. His Uncle Gunther is a rather large man, being six feet and six inches tall and well rounded. He's not fat by any means. The amount of work he puts into both his cars and the cars he builds for people keeps him off his arse. No, he's more husky. Like a lumber jack who likes to eat sandwich while chopping down a tree with one hand. Francis was now walking to Gunther's barn where there was supposedly a special gift waiting for him. His uncle walks out of the barn door in such a way for it not to open too much as Francis made it to the barn. "Francis!" Gunther called out in a rather raspy biker sounding voice with a slight urban accent. He doesn't smoke that much, only a single cigar after a truly major project. Even then, that cigar's gonna be finished in about a week. You see, Gunther's a childish man, but he's also a responsible man. He's the kind of guy who's a total child, but you can trust him to watch your autistic daughter while you hike to the top of Mount Everest. He's a man of things with engines that run off of a power source. He's a man who appreciates a big petrol powered V8, but still knows that a Tesla Roadster is a quick car. He'd also buy a Porsche 918 Spyder if he could afford one, even though his wet dreams involve Corvettes, Challengers, and Shelby Mustangs. "Uncle Gunther!" An exited Francis cries out, now running to Gunther. "So, show me the paper!" Gunther requests. Francis pulls out his wallet and pulls a folded up paper from his wallet. Gunther grabs it and unfolds it. "My man! Hey, I wanna show you something cool that I'm workin' on. You'll love this thing." Gunther swings the large barn doors open with little struggle, "What do ya think?" There are two car bodies. One is a bare metal Shelby Cobra 427, and the other is a rusty G-Body that's missing some panels and its bumpers. It also has a truck bed. "Is that a G-Body El Camino?" Francis asks in curiosity. "Yeah, that's nothing special yet." Gunther responds, "But to the left is pretty sweet, eh? A Cobra!" "It's pretty sweet, but it's not for me." Francis said, "Who's it for?" "A widow who's a muscle car enthusiast." "And who's the G-Body for?" "Oh, that can be yours if you want it. I was just goin' through my parts yard and found that thing with all of it's fenders in the truck bed... Wanna help me put the rest together? I had an idea that involves giving it a 426 Hemi and the front end of a Grand National. Want in?" "That'd be badass! What do I have to do?" "Most of the work putting it together, and you have to become an official employee for me to pay off the bigass mopar. When you're done paying off the engine, you can start doin' your own projects if you'd like. We'd pull in a heftier income if you're restoring cars with me." "Well, I always actually wanted to work here." Francis reaches his hand out, "You've got yourself a real worker!" "My main man! That's what you've just become! Why don't you go home and give your mother the good news. Here!" Gunther pulls a set of keys off of a carabiner on A belt loop of his pants, "Take the Ranger for now. You won't have to walk everywhere anymore." "Thanks!" With that, Francis ran to the side of the barn where he knew the Ranger was. It was a tiny beat up pick up that was once used for rally racing by a local rally car driver. It wasn't ridiculously high off the ground, just high enough to fit the beefed up suspension and wide fenders that it had. It's large off-road tires also contributed to its hight. Francis got in the car, and tried to start it. He turns the key, and it tries to start, and it fails. He tries again, and it starts. Francis drives the Ranger up the dirt road he walked down previously. It was once used by miners a very long time ago, and the whole property that Gunther lives on has several mineshafts. It used to belong to an old mining company, then got passed down to family members of the owner. Gunther won it in a game of cards. Everyone in the game got junk, Gunther got one pair. Most of the abandoned shafts are marked over the dirt, but there are a few that might not have been unmarked. This giant piece of property it riddled with unstable shafts that are ready to collapse, and only a few got marked to warn for sinkholes. Francis discovers an unmarked mineshaft as the truck decides to fall into newly opening hole that swallows the truck and crushes it. Francis finds himself stuck in a mess of dirt and rock, and in able to move at all. His ribcage, arms, legs, and spine are now broken. And now, it's all fading. Francis now knows that he's going to die... Suddenly, Francis wakes up to the sound of a shovel digging away at the rubble. There's a familiar voice calling out to Francis. "Are you in there, old sport!?" Mr. Appleseed calls out, "I need to tell you somethin' that involves why you're dead!" A shovel head is seen removing the dirt from the driver's side window, and it clears enough dirt to allow Francis to see The Devil in a two piece suit digging from inside a mineshaft and trying to free Francis. "Now I know this will come on to you as very strange, but I did not rely on a random sinkhole happenin' to you." "You Tried To Kill Me! Or-Or Prove Something!" Francis yells out in anger. But then his sight begins to act funky, almost like he can see that The Devil wasn't lying, "Wait... You actually don't mean any harm?" "It's happenin', isn't it?" The Devil almost has Francis able to open the door to the now demolished Rally Ranger, "You can see the innocence in people. Your abilities must be surfacing too early." "What are you saying?" Francis askes with genuine concern, "And why do I trust you more?" "I kept my word on your mother's health," The Devil respondes, "and I added in the total elimination of her future breast cancer of which her family's naturally inclined. I'm sayin' that that as I did replace your soul, what I replaced it with is supposed to give you powers that are to surface when you're done physically developin'." The Devil cleared away almost all the dirt, but not all of it, "I want to see somethin'. Open the door, would you kindly?" "I'm buried in dirt! I'm pinned a truck that's beat to hell!" Francis yells in anger. He trusts the devil, but he's still pissed off. "And I'm broken! Just feel my bones! "I don't think you actually are. Just try to move. If I'm right, and I hope I'm not, then a very peculiar thing will happen to you tonight as soon as it gets dark." Francis looks at the devil with confusion, then tries to free himself from the dirt. At first he struggles to move at all, but then he budges a little. It's still not enough, as he continues to struggle for a few seconds until he gets even more pissed and moves his arm through the dirt, grabs the door, and tears it off it's hinges. The dirt from the inside pours out with Francis, and he hears the sound of someone calling for him. It's Uncle Gunther. "I must be leavin' now, old sport." The devil says, "By the way, I found the shovel in here. It appears to have the initials 'S.G.'" "Solomon Gunther." Francis says as the devil turns to smoke, "I call him Uncle Gunther." "FRANCIS!" Gunther yells as he's digging to the roof of the truck, "WHERE ARE YOU!" "Down here, Uncle!" Francis says, "I'm okay. A cave in swallowed me, but I'm fine now! I found your lucky shovel!" "Really!?" Gunther yells out in excitement, "Well, son of a bitch! That must be the old mine that you got lost in when you were five! Also, how are you? How many injuries?" "I'm fine!" Francis responds, "Just get me the hell out of here!" "Last time I checked, stuff like that lands you at least injured and at most dead!" Gunther says with worry in his voice. "Just fuckin' get me out of here!" Francis says angerly, "I've been through a lot of shit in a short amount of time!" "Alright! Alright!" Gunther responds, "Give me a few...." ---------------------------------------------------------------- One Year Ago, at Night Francis is laying down in the bleachers of the sports field of Canterlot High, and Rainbow Dash is practicing her moves in the total darkness. This was a thing that started because Rainbow Dash wanted to eventually be the captain of the Wondercolts Boys Soccer team, and Francis likes the feeling of cold metal on his back. How they got it in is simple. Francis boosts RD over the fence, Francis climbs the fence, then they go to doing what they like to do while the fields locked up. They know they're technically trespassing, but neither of them care. Rainbow Dash is a very athletic gal with outlined muscles and six pack abs that she gets easier than most, as her father's side of the family is more prone to having muscles that look like they were chiseled from marble. Dash doesn't exactly have chiseled muscles, they're more smoothed out, but she still has a visible set of abs. Rainbow's wearing her usual white graphic tee with a blue athletic jacket over it, along with black form fitting shorts, but she's not wearing her white and purple skirt and she's also missing her boots. She's wearing soccer cleat because they don't get in the way and she hates that skirt. The only reason she wears the skirt because she thinks that her shorts show off too many of her curves than she wants people to see during school. Right now, she didn't even bring them. Dash is exactly the dynamite hardcore sports chick that's is currently the captain of the Boy's Soccer Team that the school knows and appreciates, but she's a little more than that. Alongside her 'explosively awesome' is a side that she hides during school. She's also a very caring and sweet person underneath who loves curling up and watching movies with her boyfriend. Francis is wearing a pair of very clean dark blue jeans, a button up dark blue denim Sherpa coat with a long sleeve RvB graphic shirt that says 'Memory is the Key' underneath, and a pair of brown work boots that he changed into after he got pulled out of the dirt. Rainbow likes to keep Francis off his arse, which keeps Francis having a rather well toned figure. His body tone wouldn't look good on a smaller male, but makes his 5'11" size look like someone who keeps up with his looks. And he looks like exactly what Rainbow Dash keeps him. A guy who's not always on his arse. Right now, he's the same kid who loves himself a car with more horsepower than it actually needs. He's not exactly the tough guy type, more of the type who acts tough when he feels it necessary. He's really a kind guy who hates those who feed on the sadness and shaming of the weak and the ones just not willing to fit back. He especially hates the 'school bitch' Sunset Shimmer. She loves to pick on the weak, and constantly gets into fights with Francis when he stands up for the small, even though it's mostly over Fluttershy. Sunset's not the only one, but she's surely the worst. Especially when Sunset almost revealed that Francis and Rainbow Dash are a thing, but few missing teeth taught Sunset to leave their relationship alone. However, she still gets in fights with Francis over Fluttershy. Oh, yeah. Rainbow Dash and Francis fell in love over a year ago over a rather fascinating afternoon, but that's another story for another time. Right now, Rainbow Dash is lining up a move she's been developing. She calls it 'The Cannonball Run'. RD charges for her ball, kicks it with the force of an angry god, it slams into the goal, and bounces to Francis' direction at the kind of velocity that knocks a head off a body. "LOOK OUT!" Rainbow cries out. Francis sees the ball, and moves to punch it. His fist sent the ball clear over to the other bleachers. "What The!? How Did You Do That!?" "I don't know!...." Francis says, "But it was really freakin' cool, right?" "That was cooler than anything I've ever done!" Rainbow says in mass excitement, "And you gotta tell me how you did that!" "Uh..." Francis tried to make something up, "Work out! Plenty of rest! You know! Eat your green vegetables!" "First off, I eat all my veggies!" Rainbow said, now running up the bleachers to reach Francis, "And I know for a fact that the first two things are bullshit." Rainbow sits next to Francis, "What's up?" "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Francis said. "Hey, who's the crazy one saying unbelievable stuff?" Rainbow tells Francis, "The girl who wants to make it into the boys soccer team, or the guy who just punched a soccer ball that was goin' pretty fast." "... Eh, I trust you enough." Francis pulls Rainbow Dash over, "Plus, no one knows that we're a thing. That's one secret we keep hidden." Rainbow Dash rests her head on Francis' shoulder. "So what's the secret!" Rainbow demands. "You know how my mom's still alive?" "Yeah. She got sick with something that no one comes back from, yet she somehow lived." "What I am about to tell you is connected to that." Rainbow lifts her head quickly and gives a strange look at Francis, "You see, the nurse kicked me out because she knew how much time my mom had left. She said it was six days. I got scared and angry, so I ran without looking. Somehow, I ended up at the crazy wing of the hospital and met The Devil himself... I sold my soul to him." "You did what!?" Rainbow said in anger, "How could you be so stupid!" "My my!" The Devil said, taking a seat next to the teens, "The extraordinary Rainbow Dash! I would never have guessed that you had a relationship with someone like Francis Wolfgang! I am truly surprised. And don't you worry about him. His soul is right here." The Devil pulls out a small glass orb with a pearlescent shine from his jacket, "It's not burnin' in hell. And Francis sold it for the right reasons." "That's my soul?" Francis said in curiosity, "a glass ball?" "Yes, a glass ball." The Devil said, "At least for now. It can actually change shape to your will. But I need to keep it for what's going to happen in a little bit." "What do you mean!" Rainbow says in a way as if to accuse The Devil. "Well, I looked more into Francis' being..." Tbe Devil pauses, "Here." He puts away Francis' soul and switches it for a voodoo doll that looks like a Vietnamese guy, "This is the leader to a yakuza. He struck a deal with a voodoo man who's a good friend of mine. I want you to hold the doll." "That's it?" Francis asks. "It will have more meanin' than you realize." The Devil tells Francis with a voice of seriousness. Francis grabs the doll with his bare hand. Nothing happens. "What are we supposed to be seeing?" Rainbow Dash asks, not believing that anything will happen. Francis examines the doll with the kind of curious eyes a forensic scientist has when examining a body filled with holes. "His first name is Kim..." Francis says, still looking the doll over, "He runs the largest cocaine ring in Asia, and wants to expand to Europe." "How do you know that from looking at a doll?" Rainbow asks, "It barley even looks like a person." "It's hard to explain, but it's like I can see all that this guy's done." Francis answers, looking deeper and gripping the doll tightly, "He's killed around a thousand people! And about a hundred with his bare hands just because he could or a slave didn't do good enough! And He Even Has Slaves At All!!" Francis' skin begins smoking and he's squeezing the doll, "He's sinned greatly..." Francis' skin begins to show a flickering orange glow under his skin, and he drops the doll. The doll falls under the bleachers, and Francis begins to go crazy. "Alright Ms. Dash, I recommend we give your boyfriend some space." The Devil suggests to Rainbow. The two back away as Francis begins to growl. "grr-AH!" Francis slams his fist down on the place he was sitting, and leaves a red hot dent, "GAH!" Francis' voice begins to sound demented as he rips out a hole in bleachers and jumps down to the doll. He begins to claw away at the skin on his hands and face, but blood doesn't spill. The skin chars with every scratch, and his hands catch fire. "AAAAAAAAAAAAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!“ He starts to swing his arms and chest about as if he's getting in someone's face. Most of the visible skin on his body has burned away, and all that's left is flames and bone dressed in dark blue denim. He stops and looks down at the doll. He crouches down, grabs the doll, and stares at it. "Mmmm..." there's a faint sound of screaming as the doll burns in Francis' now flaming skeletal hand. The ashes fall through the bones of Francis' hand, and he looks up at The Devil. "What is this?" Francis asks in an oddly calm and curious tone. His voice also sounds demented with an almost a smoky sound to it., "What am I right now?" "Yeah, what the heck is he?" Rainbow Dash asks as well, with only curiosity in her voice. "You are now a force to be feared, Mr. Wolfgang." The Devil answers, "You have become a Spirit of Vengeance. What's called a Vengeful Spirit replaced your soul the moment I cured your mother. You didn't feel it because you were asleep in your bed. It gives you a set of strong instincts to add to your usual instincts. And your usual instincts have been strengthened as well. You also have power comparable to an angel's." "I feel an urge. And I feel like I should be doing something, but I don't know what." Francis looks over at the motorcycle he rode over to Canterlot High on. It's his mother's Harley-Davison WLA, passed down through Uncle Gunther's family in a non-working condition until his mother got it and restored it. It's got it's original flat olive drab paint on most of it, it's leather satchels have been replaced with replicas of the original bags, and it's shovel has been replaced with a new but painted one. But this one has a more powerful motor on it, a better cushioned leather seat, and a rectangular leather cushion over the back wheel so a second person can sit there. Francis' body language tells The Devil that he wants to ride it. "Don't do it, Mr. Wolfgang." The Devil warns, "I need to tell you everything about what you're experiencin'. It'll be a lot, but you won't regret it." Francis ignores The Devil, and walks towards the bike. Rainbow Dash runs in front of the fence that's blocking it, and holds her arms out to block Francis. "You heard him!" Rainbow Dash yells, "Don't be an idiot! You've stopped me from doing stupid things before, so I'm returning the favor!" Francis stops directly in front of Rainbow Dash. His transformation has made him noticeably taller than Rainbow Dash, as he's now two inches taller than his normal size. "Remember when we first got with each other?" Francis looks down, remembering what happened. "Well, you gave me something. Something that I can use on your ass as many times as I want." Rainbow Dash pulls Francis down to the grass, and the flames become low and blue. The flames coming off of Francis don't seem to be burning anything as Rainbow pulls Francis into a tight hug. "Aww. Young true love." The Devil says, watching the two laying in the grass, "Simply adorable." The Francis and Rainbow Dash flip The Devil off together, "A good point. I don't mean to intrude, but I do need to finish my explanation of what you are." Francis sits up and RD lays in his lap, "Now what you did to that doll was burn it with the fires of Hell because it was an evil soul. I make sure that evil suffers. You simply destroy it completely. That is your purpose as a Spirit of Vengeance. There's also several kinds of Spirits of Vengeance, and you are not the only one. I initially made them out of whoever was willing, but I eventually made it into a punishment for some. Today, most Spirits of Vengeance are slaves that burn away after so many transformations. You were a good soul, and willing to give yours for the right reason. Not only that, but I knew that you wanted the ability to stop bullies at school. Now you can stop a man driving a tank." There's the sound of an old man yelling. "Get away from this school, you creep!" The old man yells. "Fuck you, old man!" A separate voice yells, "You bummed into the wrong man at the wrong time! Now you gotta pay!" Francis gets up and looks towards the source of the yelling. "That sounds like the janitor!" Rainbow Dash says silently. "Francis..." The Devil says, leaving a pause, "... Feel free to take your abilities for a spin." With that said, Francis melts a hole in the fence and hops on his mom's Harley. He starts the bike, and flames engulf it as it's engine revs up. The motorcycle is now charred in appearance, burnt leather seats and bags, the shovel's handle now charcoal and red hot metal, red hot rims with flaming tires, and flaking burnt paint that's actually not flaking off at all. Francis rides through the hole he made, not leaving a trail of fire behind him, and quickly crosses the sports field. He drives through the fence on the other side leaving another melted hole. The school janitor, an old man named Discord, is seen being held against a wall by a mugger in baggy clothes who's holding a knife against Discord's throat. Discord and the mugger see Francis as he rides closer to the mugging. "Hahahahahahaha!!!" Francis laughs as he yanks the mugger away from Discord. Francis rides to the empty black pavement, twists the gas, and rockets to high speeds with an unrealistic quickness. Francis reaches around one hundred fifty plus miles per hour, still holding the mugger with one arm but no longer cackling like a demonic jackal-hyena hybrid. "THE FUCK!?" The mugger cries out in fear, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!?!?" Francis rips past street lights and and stoplights until he stops suddenly and throws the mugger far forwards in the middle of the street at the middle of a stoplight, the landing breaking the muggers legs. "GAH! Mother Fucker! You Know Who I Am, Bitch!?" "I do." Francis says in his new smokey demented voice, "I just don't care who you are. What I do care about is what you've done." Francis grabs the burnt and red hot shovel from the back of the WLA, then walks towards the mugger, "You are responsible for the deaths of many. Thirty one innocent men, women, and children. Forty gang related kills. And the deaths of twelve officers not in this county." The mugger draws a Glock 19 and shoots it at Francis. "Die, You Bony Bitch!" The mugger yells before he runs out. His gun clicks to signify that there's no more ammo in it, but it didn't do anything to stop Francis' pace. "Seriously, What The Fuck Are You!?!?" Francis raises the shovel as the head lights aflame and becomes white hot, then slashes the mugger's chest to leave a charred wound. The mugger screams and attempts to scramble away, but Francis stabs the shovel into the mugger's left leg leaving him pinned. Francis crouches over the mugger, grabs him by the chin, then lifts the mugger's head to look up into his flame filled eye sockets. "Look into my eyes." Francis commands the mugger, "Your soul is stained by the blood of the innocent." "Why are you doin' this, man?" The mugger says, begging for his life in tears, "I'm just trying to make a living for myself!" "So you want to make a living off of old men who keep schools working?" Francis asks, now seeing why he was going to kill Discord, "Discord Quin. The Old man you were going to kill. He pulled a common prank on your boss by accident. But we're not worrying about that right now." The flames in Francis flaming eye sockets begin to swirl. "Discord was almost killed the same way you killed several innocent lives! Feel their pain!" "Whah! Whoa! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH" the mugger screams as his eyes burst with flame. He continues screaming as his soul and insides are burned away into nothing. The mugger drops on the ground, continuing to burn as his flesh chars and his clothes melt to his skin. Francis pulls the shovel from the asphalt and impales the mugger, leaving him a dead and extremely burnt corpse in the middle of the road. Francis pulls the shovel out of the mugger's spine, gets back to his bike, and rides back to the field at a slower speed than before. He passes near Discord. "And I thought I was the weirdest one to ever set foot here!" Discord calls out to Francis, "Thanks, Whatever You Are!" Francis rides the bike to where it was previously parked, and parks it. As he gets off the bike, he returns to normal flesh and blood, along with his bike being no longer burnt as he puts the shovel back. "Whoa." Francis thinks out loud, "I just killed a guy... But he was a total thug. And he's killed innocent people and cops!" "You are a Ghost Rider." The Devil tells Francis, "At least that's what the Spirits of Vengeance who ride somethin' are commonly called. You did what I made you for. He was part of the scum of this earth, and you burned him off of it. Do not worry about it." "But what about the cops!?" Rainbow Dash yells, fearing for Francis, "Murder's illegal no matter who it is!" "Oh, don't worry." The Devil says with assurance, "The body has already been taken care of. That will be all for now. Be careful out there, y'hear?" The Devil walks away into a shadow and disappears. Francis and Rainbow Dash are left standing near the motorcycle. Francis moves away from Rainbow Dash and gets on his bike. "Hey!" Rainbow yells in an agitated tone, "What's the big idea, bonehead!" "That's just it." Francis says while starting the bike, "I'm a flaming skeleton in blue jeans and a Sherpa. Who would want to date that? And I killed a guy by burning him from the inside out! I'm A God Damn Killer Who Works For The Devil, And-" "That guy was going to kill Discord!" Rainbow Dash says in an effort to find the good in his actions, "He was a crook that the world didn't need! And Mr. Creepy-Suit Guy pretty much said that you're not a bad guy. Besides, that weird flaming skeleton doesn't scare me. I'd even say it was kinda cool. And 'it' is you. I know you hate the fact that plenty of gangs meet in this town. You can make this town safer, even if it is through one of the most brutal ways possible." Rainbow Dash slowly walks over to Francis and beds over so that her arms and upper body are resting on the bike's handlebar. "What is this?" Francis asks, wondering why Dash is acting strangely. "You never answered me when I asked about if you remembered how we first meet." "I do with crystal clear clarity. I fell off a tree, you happened to be next to where I fell, you were crying, I helped you feel better, and you tried to kiss me because you had a hard time understanding your feelings." "That was a year ago. I'd say you owe me a kiss, bonehead." "Well, I don't think any of us have really been-" Rainbow Dash gives Francis a peck on the cheek, "-aaaaaaahhh." Rainbow Dash chuckles at the sight of Francis' awestruck look. "You've called me cute, how many times?" Rainbow Dash says to further keep Francis awestruck, "I don't think I've ever told you about how handsome you look all the time. Especially when you wear jeans and a denim jacket." "Why are you doing this?" Francis asks, getting uncomfortable, "I really don't mean to be rude, but I don't think high school relationships last that long. I mean, I would never leave you-" "Hold it right there!" Rainbow stands up and looks Francis in the eye, "Just what in the hell makes you think that I would ever leave you! I'm always loyal to my friends! And you're my boyfriend! I practically belong to you!!" "Alright! Alright! I'm sorry I said that. I'm just worried about my future." "Last time I checked, a good couple helps each other out. We're gonna get through this, I swear. We'll work though it." "... If you're willing, then I'm just as willing." Francis steps off of the bike, and walks with Rainbow Dash to the bleachers. Francis lies down on the bare metal seats, and looks up at the stars. And Rainbow Dash goes looking for the ball, only to find that Francis' punching of the ball impaled in a tree. So she decided to pull up a seat next to Francis, and they looked at the stars together.... > The Sins in the Present > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's currently 8:00pm. The neighborhood is all quiet. The town is mostly closed for the night. Some clubs are lively with people ready to get down. Most of the town's high schools are having fall formals. And the outskirts of town where the warehouses are at, there is a trade happening between gangs and a famous weapons dealer. Pablo Degada, one of the most powerful men in Everfree county. Pablo's not of the US, nor is he from Mexico despite him being Hispanic. He's actually Canadian, only he's not a nice man. The weapons he sells are either military grade or experimental. He does trade in Everfree county because he owns a warehouse there and it's actually rather peaceful, even though it has a history of being a battlefield both historically and because gangs sometimes have shootouts in the forest, fields, and swamps that are far from any town or law enforcement activity. Most of the shootouts are left unknown because of the size of Everfree county. But the history of this county is not important. What is important is that one of the gangs that was supposed to be there isn't there... There's a rather racially colorful display in front of Pablo's warehouse on this night summer-to-fall night. There's all kinds of fun folks out here. There's Irish, Mexicans, Russians, Italians, Yakuza, white supremacists, rednecks, street gangs, and a single mercenary. They all came in black SUVs, exept the rednecks and the mercenaries. The rednecks came in big off-road diesel trucks, and the mercenary came in a dark navy blue badgeless 2011 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor with no grill. Pablo himself is sitting on the hood of his custom painted lime green C6 Corvette Z06. He's a small man with a rounded gut in a striped polo, slacks, and a black denim jacket. "This is getting ridiculous!" Pablo says in annoyance,, "They were supposed to be here ten minutes ago. Maldita sea, mi tiempo es precioso!" "¿Crees que podría ser por él?" one of Pablo's guys asks. "La Mierda." Pablo tells him, "No hay forma de que supiera que esto iba a suceder esta noche." "What in the fuck are you two saying?" An Italian in a fancy suit asks out of annoyance, "I don't speak Mexican, damnit." "I said 'my time is precious'." Pablo tells the Italian, "And he thinks that it's because of a certain flaming annoyance." "That 'flaming annoyance' cleaned up one of our joints near that high school Canterlot High." The Italian tells Pablo, "He cut off almost all drug trades that happened close to the town center, and killed all but one of our dealers. And even that dealer hasn't spoken to any of us since the rest of his friends were massacred. Somethin' 'bout our fiery friend takin' a double barrel and wipin' 'em out in one fiery shot. He ain't no 'flaming annoyance'. He's a flamin' problem." "That is why my time is precious tonight." Pablo says, "I have new cryo-weapons that should put out the fires of our problem, my friends!" Pablo walks to a box and pulls out a small two handed gun with a small tank on the right side, no butt, and a short barrel. Pablo fires the weapon and a stack of empty crates, and they freeze solid. "See? He should no longer be a prob-" a flaming Bowie knife slides into Pablo's head, and he burns down to a large pile of ash and clothes. The crowd of gangs looks over to see a flaming skeleton in black jeans, black and white leather converse, and a dark grey t-shirt with multiple other piles of ash and a few charred skeletons behind it. The flaming skeleton is also holding a flaming Glock 43 that melts when it tosses it. Everyone rushes to their cars and drive away quickly, as they don't want to be caught, exept the Mercenary who grabs a crate of random ammo then gets in his car. The skeleton is Francis, who walks to the remains of Pablo Degada while most of the gangs got away, expect for three of the SUVs that belong to the Irish and the Mercenary's Crown Vic. The three SUVs are older ones that are having trouble starting, but the Mercenary seems to be waiting. "Nice jacket." Francis says while picking up the jacket and putting it on, "Very nice. It even matches my pants." A Hispanic teenager runs from the warehouse, grabs one of the cryo-weapons runs points it at Francis, pulls the trigger, and the gun shoots a beam that causes ice to build up around Francis' skeletal structure. Francis completely freezes over with clear ice that makes him look like he's ready for some kind of storage. "Fuck You, Freak!" The teen yells. Francis' fires relight, and the ice melts off of him slowly. "Hmm." Francis looks at the kid, "Thomas Degada, son of Pablo Degada." Francis points at him, "Impure, but Innocent. Get out of the warehouse." "W-why?" Thomas asks. Francis doesn't answer. Instead, he walks out of the remaining unmelted ice, heads over to the Corvette Z06, and gets in. He starts the car without the key, and fire floods over it. The Corvette's wheels light on fire, the rims become red hot, and the car's body panels become burnt fiberglass and carbon fiber. The paint on the roof becomes cooked, but not too badly. Francis looks over at the three SUVs. Two belong to the Mexicans, and one to the Irish. Francis begins to rev the 'Vette's loud V8 engine, while the three SUVs finally start. The SUVs leave as quickly as possible while Francis does a burnout. The Mercenary starts his Crown Vic, it starts with the roar of a custom 5.0L Ford Racing V8, and rockets away with the kind of acceleration that the Crown Vic doesn't deserve. That's a hell of sleeper. Francis thinks, as he drives the Corvette into the Warehouse and through a box marked HI-EX. As he rams the box, random kinds of explosives fly everywhere and go off, obliterateing Pablo's warehouse as Francis blasts through an unopen door and onto the streets of the warehouse district of the City of Canterlot. He spots the three Irish SUVs, and the Crown Victoria which is really far in the distance and going at a higher top speed than a Crown Vic deserves. I don't think I've burned any potatos yet. Francis thinks as he charges for the Irish SUV. Francis drives in front of the SUV, turns around, and uses the Corvette as a ramp to get the SUV airborne. The Cady lands on it's front end, and Francis slides the 'Vette's rear end into it. The SUV explodes with the screams of Irishmen inside the SUV and large pieces of steel frame and sheet metal flying everywhere. Francis targets the next set of Irish. He accelerates massively, slams into the side of the rear SUV, and it's inside goes up in smoke and fire. Two armed guys come out of the windows of the front SUV, and Francis hits the brakes and slips behind the rear SUV. He pushes the rear SUV into the front SUV, and the two collide and spin out to the side of the road. The front SUV violently spins sideways, crushing the Irish on the inside and the rear one slides off to the right of the 'Vette to become a flaming mess in the middle of the street. Francis drives towards the Crown Victoria next, but it turns to a road that leads out of town. This is bad, because the Canterlot High Fall Formal's tonight and Francis was RD's ride. And she promised Scootaloo a ride home. Francis decides that chasing after that Mercenary isn't worth it, and heads for Canterlot High. He doesn't want to be late. He hates being late for his gal. As Francis drives through the Warehouse district, the Corvette returns to it's clean custom lime green paint and Francis' skin returns. He speeds down the road and slides through the empty streets.... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Damn, he's got every AC/DC album that ever existed Francis thinks while he slows down to only 30mph. The warehouse district was on the other side of town, and the City of Canterlot is an abnormally large town that was supposed to hold a train depot, but the initial railway company decided to abandon the project and no one picked up after them until big semi trucks became more of a thing. That's not important. What is important is that Francis has finally ended the life of criminal number four on FBI ten most wanted list. And Francis also has every single AC/DC album from High Voltage to Rock or Bust. There. Canterlot City's been almost completely wiped clean of filth. I just need to find those last drug dealers, and I need to scare the hell out of that curupt detective. After that, I'm taking a break from punishing the sinners to Rainbow Dash. It's been a long while since I've planned something special, and she could use the relief. Without me, her popularity will go to her head. Francis is now driving up to the parking lot when he notices that girl Sunset Shimmer being pulled into a very cloud covered part of the sky by a beam of sea foam green energy. What in the name of all things holy is going on? He pulls into the parking lot at the very back to stay hidden from what he suspects will go down. He parks next to a truck with bails of chain on racks in the bed. Francis pulls out about enough chain to wrap around himself like a bandolier, breaks it off by pulling, then he hides behind cars in the parking lot as he approaches Sunset. She's now in her she-demon form. Red skin, black eyes with cyan irises, and a dress that looks like silk rags sewn together. She also has jagged boots and hair that's the color of fire and pointing to the sky like a super saiyan. She waves her hand and clenches her fist, which removes a hole from the front of the school using a sea foam green aura. Francis sees Snips and Snails, now also demons with a similar look, fly into the hole. Francis wraps the chain around himself as he sneaks around the cars to not draw attention. Sunset's a demon? Francis thinks to himself, I've called her a raging she-demon to her face, but this just takes the cake! And that bitch threatened to tell the school about my relationship with Rainbow Dash. Francis focus his attention on Sunset, She's enslaved the school and she plans to enslave a country... I don't care where this 'Equestria' is. She's stripped those people of their free will and intends harm on them and an entire species... I need to move fast so Rainbow's friends don't see me. Francis books it and slides behind the statue. His skin burns away until he's a flaming skeleton, but he reduces the flames on his head to not attract attention. He waits for some time to pass, as he hears that girl Twilight say something about friendship while transforming RD's five friends during a strange light show. Twilight spits out some more words about friendship, and casts a swirl of rainbow colored magic that engulfs Sunset. Francis gets up to spot Rainbow Dash with pony ears, longer hair, a tail, and wings. Damn... I guess she really is an angel. The visible flames on Francis become blue. I have a lover that's an angel... The rainbow tornado surrounds Sunset, but does nothing. The swirl of rainbow dissipates as Sunset releases a flash of magic that freezes the humane six where they float. Sunset flies over to the magically transformed girls, and chuckles at their failure. "What crazy thought made you think you could beat me?" Sunset said, finding entertainment in Twilight's actions, "Some student of Celestia. It should been me in your place!" Sunset atempts to slash Twilight's head off. She swings her hand forwards, but gets stopped by a red hot chain that wraps around her arm. Sunset yanks at the chain as it chars the flesh on her arm. "AAH! Who Dares Defy Me!?" Sunset looks behind her to spot a flaming skeleton pulling the chain back from her arm. "Snips! Snails! Get him!" Snips and Snails burst to Francis, only to be flung away by a burst of fire. Francis then lassos Snips and Snails and pulls them back over near him. "You will make a fantastic addition to my army!" Sunset says as she sends a mind control wave at Francis, causing his flames flicker with green. Francis drops to one knee. Ah! I feel her in my head! No! Fuck You! Get Out! Get Out!! "hhaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Francis cries out as fire erupts off of him and his flames go back to being completely orange. Francis looks over to Snips and Snails, still lassoed by his chain. He lashes the chain and the two bound by it are engulfed in fire and swung back to where they charged from. The flame blows out to reveal that Snips and Snails have been reverted back to normal. "How do you have magic more powerful than my own!?" Sunset cries out in anger. "I was made by no magic." Francis tells Sunset, "I am a construct of Hellfire." Francis pulls the chain back, and it wraps around him like a bandolier. Sunset picks up Francis with green levitation magic, and flings him away into the nearby neighborhood. As this is happening, Pablo's green Corvette starts itself, and rips over to catch Francis as quickly as possible. Francis impacts the ground and loses his lower jaw bone. Damn. I've had trouble against skilled mercenaries, but this just got ridiculous. Still, I'm going to stop her. I can't kill her, but I can burn her power away. The Corvette slides over to Francis, and he gets in. He drives over to the missing bone, picks it back on, and the car returns to a burnt body with flaming wheels and red hot rims. Francis spots Sunset straight down the street, and the car's engine gets load an hot. Fire is barfed out the exhaust tips and open air scoop, and the car blasts down the road. Sunset lands on the ground, seeing the incoming supercar, and throws a ball of energy at it. The ball impacts the 'Vette and sends it flying, but it begins to fall towards Sunset. The Corvette straightens out, hits Sunset in the chest, slams her against the ground, and explodes with a massive fiery explosion in front of the humane six. The humane six fall to the ground, and remain unconscious as the remains of the chevy blow away into fading ashes. Francis and Sunset Both get off the ground in the crater made by the explosion. "You were very unexpected," Sunset says in an annoyed tone, "But we have done nothing to each other! I don't even believe you're any more powerful than I am now!" Sunset makes herself airborne, "And you'll never catch me again!" "Mmmmm." Francis mms as he pulls off the red hot chain. He lashes it out. Sunset dodges it. He lashes it out again multiple times, And Sunset dodges the chain every time. "You don't have wings!" Sunset cries out in laughter, "How can you catch what's able to fly if you yourself can't fly, huh scary skeleton? Unless you if can control the weather, You Can't Catch The Wind!!" Damn! She got smart with her flying... Wait, Rainbow and her friends pulled her into a rainbow tornado... "Time to clear the air." Francis says as the chain goes from red hot to white hot and on fire. Francis lashes the chain directly over Sunset's head and swings it under her feet then back over her head again and again until the chain was in a constant spin around Sunset. "What are you doing!?" Sunset yells out, "The physics behind that are impossible!!" "He-he-he-he-he-he-he-he!" A flaming tornado is made from the chain that sucks Sunset in, "Haa-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!" Francis continues to laugh as Sunset's demon form is sucked and burned away from her. Her normal clothes become damaged from the flames of the fire tornado, and Francis pulls the chain away. The magic that made Sunset's form continues to absorb into the tornado made of Hellfire, which continues to absorb and burn a stream magic from the school. Francis looks over to where the stream is coming, and spots several of his fellow classmates with green glowing eyes, but the glow and the green is leaving them and some of them have regained themselves. The ball begins to fade away while Francis walks away from sight, but not from sound he listens in to the crowd. He reverts back to his human self while hearing things about people having headaches. Francis peaks to spot Rainbow Dash and her friends getting off of the ground to see a beaten Sunset. Sunset's words are music to Francis as she's completely forgotten about the brawl he had with her. He goes back to hiding and waits for everything to clear... About a half hour has passed, and Francis has been trying to wait for Rainbow Dash to be near a door. He peaks and spots Rainbow grabbing some punch. She still has the extra pony features and those angelic blue wings. Francis tries to sneak in, but a big guy in a football letterman catches him and confronts him. "Hey man, I don't think you can come here through there." The guy says. "Dude, I just need to talk to Rainbow Dash." Francis tells the dude. "Then buy a ticket like everyone else." The guy says, being a dick. Rainbow Dash sees Francis and flies over the table and tackles him with her arms wrapped tightly. "Francis!" Rainbow Dash exclaims in excitement, "You wouldn't believe what happened tonight!" "Wait, are you and the loser mechanic Francis Wolfgang a thing!?" The guy says out loud, being more of a dick. Rainbow jumps off of Francis in embarrassment, and Francis gets off the ground. He lashes the chain out at the guy, pulls him in, and puts two fingers on the guy's forehead, and the guy's head starts to have a flickering orange glow under the skin. "You are gonna forget about what you've just seen." Francis tells the guy, changing the guy's thoughts, "Forget about Rainbow Dash and I being a thing. Forget about what's happening. And forget about your chances with Octavia. If you didn't make the football team, I'd be saying otherwise. Try for Lyra and Sweetie Drops. They're looking for a big handsome guy like you." Francis lets the guy go, "Now go out there and knock 'em dead, Dale!" The glow in the guy's head goes away, and he's clueless for a few seconds. "What the?" The guy says, completely unaware of what just happened, "Well, something's telling me that I should apologize to Octavia. Hey! She's with Sweetie Drops! I'm gonna ask her a question!" The guy disappears into the crowd. Rainbow Dash reattaches herself to Francis. "Is he gonna be alright?" Rainbow asks. "He'll be fine." Francis answers, "I just saved him from a lot of heartache. Now, the bigger question. How long have you been holding this back?" "Holding what back?" "The fact that you're a gorgeous angel." "Oh! I don't think that I'm an angel." "Then what explains the wings?" "I'll tell you on the roof." Rainbow Dash grabs Francis and flies him to the rooftop of the school. They both land on their feet. "Remember that girl Twilight?" "The one that I said wasn't from this world? I told both you and Pinkie about that, and Pinkie just has to spill the beans." "Yeah, well she brought us back together and her magic made me into whatever this is." "... That doesn't make you not an angel to me." Francis pulls Rainbow Dash to the concrete of the rooftop, wraps her arms around her, and kisses her on the lips. Rainbow Dash wraps her arms and wings around Francis and puts more effort into the kiss. The two begin to pull each other closer into the embrace and also add their tongues into the kiss. Francis moves a hand down to Rainbow's waist and Rainbow uses a hand to untuck Francis shirt and slide her hand to his chest. The two disconnect only from their faces, and leave a trail of saliva between them. "You are a beautiful girl, Dash." Francis tells Rainbow, panting like he ran a 5k, "You're my beautiful girl, don't forget that... And you've got yourself a handsome boyfriend who can make his skeletal structure catch on fire." "Well... I wouldn't exactly say the most handsome." Rainbow says jokingly, "But handsome enough for me. So, how was the hunting?" "I got twenty guards during a trade tonight, and blew up three Irish SUVs by ramming them with a Corvette. I stopped Pablo Degada, found out that people can't freeze me, and scared off the gangs making the trade almost incomplete." "Almost incomplete?" "There was a Mercenary who got a box of ammo with a name on it. I think it said Fredrick Cooper? He drove a hell of a sleeper. That Crown Victoria was a police interceptor model, but damn was it quick. I tried to catch him, but he left town." "Well, at least he fled with the other bad guys... Wait, how did you get there?" "I went hunting in my mom's Harley. Uncle Gunther and got the Hemi for my G-Body today. We're putting it in tomorrow." "Sweet! It's gonna be loud, right?" "Oh yeah. Loud with a Flowmaster exhaust." Francis rests his head on Dash's, and the two lie on the roof for a while... There's a glow of a golden white light over the library's glass dome skylight, and a man in a black suit with what looks like white robes and wings blowing off of him like dust. The man looks like Christopher Walken in The Prophecy. He looks over at RD and Francis, who are basking in the moment. "Oh. I didn't come at a bad time, did I?" The man says, talking exactly like Christopher Walken. "Who the hell are you." Francis says while he gets up over RD and stands in front of her in a defensive stance. "Hold on. Are you... Yeah, you are. Did you buy your outfit from a Levi's store?" "What?" "The black denim's a nice touch. It really brings out the Hellfire better than leather. That's all the past Riders have been wearing. It's kind of a cliché. I remember when there were the cowboys in The Texas rangers that became Spirits of Vengeance. They looked nice in their hole-filled and mostly brown clothing." "I got this jacket from-" "Pablo Degada. I saw how you threw that Bowie knife into his head. Personally, I'd trick him into killing himself, but Spirits of Vengeance are typically more aggressive towards everything. You're actually visually more forgiving that most Spirits of Vengeance. Most of them like to get bloody." "Who The Hell Are You!!!" Rainbow Dash yells, "And Why Are You Invading Out Privacy!!!" "You talk as if the man upstairs isn't always watching." The man states, "Wait, I see where you're going with that. My apologies. I am the angel Gabriel." "He's not lying." Francis says, assuring Rainbow "I see a halo over his head." "Oh, that thing?" Gabriel says in surprise, "I forgot that people with similar things to Holy Sight can still see those." "My Vengeful Spirit shows me crap like that." "I have to agree. I also think it's better, because it lets you see deeper into people without having the knowledge of everything that ever existed. If you did have knowledge of everything, you'd screw up a lot. Trust me, us angels aren't perfect." "What do you want." "I'm here to tell you that you're not gonna be here for a while. There's a more experienced Spirit of Vengeance in need of your assistance down in the Everfree County swamps, where there's some unexplainable things happening that you should see for yourself. I'd recommend leaving as soon as you can, but in something nice." "Alright. You angels are master illusionists, right?" "Yes. In fact, I'll even show you." Gabriel hands Rainbow Dash a rainbow wallet, "Here, this is for you "Sweet!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "That's a rock." Francis says. Dash looks back down at the wallet and sees a rock instead. "Damnit!" Gabriel reaches to Rainbow Dash and plucks a feather off of her, "OW! That hurt!" "Why would removing a leaf from your wings hurt?" Gabriel says as he flips the feather around to reveal that it's a leaf. "Oh, I was going to tell you about that but I forgot." Francis tells Dash. He looks towards Gabriel. "Quit harassing Rainbow Dash!" "My apologies." Gabriel responds, "I didn't know I was bothering your Dashie." "Hey!" Rainbow Dash yelled out angerly, "Only Francis Can Call Me That!" "Oh. I'm sorry for saying your secret turn-on word." "Y'know, for an angel, you're a fucking asshole!" "Y'know that you are probably closer God than you'll ever be, right?" "Fuck you!" "What I'm trying to say is, you should watch your language. God can hear you." "Suck A Cock!" "Hey Francis, you mind controlling your girlfriend." "No!" Francis says, giggling like an idiot who's about to say something stupid, "This is one of the funniest things I've seen this month!" "You two suck." Gabriel spills, "I'm just throwing it out there." "At least we're not ass kissing goodie two shoes type deals." Francis says. "You have a point." Gabriel admits, "Just remember. Everfree Swamp after you get that thing working. By the way, good job taking care of that magic demon thing." Gabriel disappears into a winged white robed figure that disappears into dust. "What is he talking about, Francis?" Dash asked, clueless on what Gabriel is talking about. "... Do you remember casting out a rainbow tornado?" Francis asks in a plain voice. "Yeah! That new girl Twilight helped us kick Sunset's ass!" "Actually, you all failed. She was going to kill all of you, starting with Twilight. She burned along with Snips and Snails. That crater that Sunset crawled out of was made from the fight we had. I rammed her with Pablo's Corvette and made the car explode." "So... We didn't do anything?" "... No. Whatever magic that pony princess chick conjured up had no effect on that demon-bitch. She's leaving with the princess, right? After all she's done to this school, including the time she almost revealed our relationship, she's going back to where she came to rot in it's hell, right?" "No. She's staying here so that me and the girls can teach her how to be a better person and a good friend." "I get to keep watch on her. And on your friends. I don't know why, but I've got a bad feeling about the recent change of events. It seems too linked. Sunset became a new threat using a magic that's not from our world, and you and your friends happen to have horse counterparts that I'm willing to bet did what you did with that Sparkle girl. If you still have a charge of that magic, and I don't think anyone knows what it will do to this world... No. If that's true, then that's really bad." "What, Francis? What's really bad?" "Sunset turns out to be from another world. Twi-whoever came here to get an artifact, that Sunset stole, back... Sparkle... Twilight Sparkle. She said that you had a horse counterpart, but that would suggest that this world also has a Twilight and Sunny-B... I think I know where Twilight's counterpart is in this world. Sorry Rainbow, but I need to go out to find an old customer of Uncle Gunther's. A total cougar named Twilight Velvet. She has a son and a daughter. I need to ask Uncle Gunther if he knows their names." "What about Scootaloo?" "Sorry, but I think I'm headed into some pretty deep stuff that involves your friends. By the way, have I been seeing you with 'Jack earlier today? I thought she made you rally your team last summer for no reason." "You were right, AJ's not a liar. Sunset purposefully confused out dates." "And I told you that she did. See? It's part of my Spirit's sense. I can see through that crap. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving. I have things to find out." Francis jumps from the roof to the ground, then whistles for something. Francis's mother's WLA drives over to Francis, only it now has a new polished black paint job, chrome wheels, chrome handlebars, chrome exhaust pipes, the shovel has a chrome head and the handle is is now stained black wood with a chrome grip, and the leather seat and the satchels are black leather. The engine has also been modified and chromed. The whole thing is a black and chrome beauty that sounds exactly like a Harley Davison should. Rainbow Dash flies down next to Francis. "I'll figure something to tell Scootaloo." Rainbow says, "She always likes it when we spend time with her." "And I have responsibilities to take care of." Francis tells Rainbow, "I'm sorry." "You're alright. I mean, an angel just told you orders. You'd better go do them." Francis nods, gets on the bike, and rides off to the street and charges down the lighted streets... > A Nightmare to Remember > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- How did they beat me? Sunset Shimmer thought while she walked to her car, I thought that using that specific Element of Harmony would turn me into a monster far more powerful than all six Elements of Harmony combined? Did I miss something? It's still the Sunset was defeated, but she can't make sense of her defeat as she walks to her beat-to-hell 1990 Ford Ranger that's in the now empty parking lot of Canterlot High. For the past few years, Sunset basically ruled Canterlot High School; but in three days, her rule has been put through a paper shredder. The attack that the Humane Six used on Sunset did show her that being a good person beats being an asshole in the long run, but Sunset still can't believe that Princess Celestia's beat her with a single Element of Harmony. In fact, it shouldn't have even worked in the first place. And even then, it didn't even tickle her. She could barely feel it, yet she's going to need to buy new clothes in the morning. That, and her arm hurts from a strange burn mark. In fact, her body was riddled with first degree burns as she crawled out of that crater. And thinking about it even more, how did such a weak attack create a crater in the first place? She opened the tailgate and crawled into the truck bed. She doesn't have a home, and she only got her truck from a bet that she rigged. Ever since she won that rigged bet, she's been sleeping in the truck bed of it. It had a mattress, but it got stolen and lit on fire by Francis Wolfgang. She hated Francis. Because of him giving Rainbow Dash confidence, the rainbow haired teen became popular and got in the way of her power at times. And Francis is also extremely ballsy. He started a fight with her and ended up cracking her most of ribcage and dislocating her right arm. And that was over the fact that she suspected that Francis and Rainbow Dash had the hots for each other. So she tried to exact revenge on that loser mechanic by keying his mother's motorcycle while also cutting the brake lines. But the next day, that bike made like AC/DC and came back in black. After that failure, she had Snips and Snails try to take naked pictures of him in the locker room. The two did take the pictures, but they were all blurred. After that, her hatred towards Francis pushed her to the limit. She called the guy she who made the bet involving her Ranger, and said that she knows someone with a fancy custom black and chrome Harley Davison. She told him that he could have his truck back if he took that bike from Francis, even if it meant sending him to the hospital. She pointed the bike out to the guy, and the guy said that he'd bring some friends over to help deal with Francis. The guy and his friends turned out to be bikers, and they were massacred that same night. That was the moment when Sunset discovered what too far means to her, and the moment she truly felt defeated at a battle of wits. But she still thinks about the news reports from the next morning. Everyone was talking about the how the gas main at the bikers' clubhouse got lit up, but it was mostly people thinking that they got what they deserved. The bikers were all from Hell's Angels, and they were all mutilated by flames of the lit gas main that destroyed the building. The City of Canterlot Police Department tried open a case over it to find a better reason, but there was no viable evidence to prove anything other than the fact that the whole building was burned down to the foundation and that it started at the gas main. Sunset felt responsible for the incident because she thought Francis caused the building to burn down, but she didn't really know. Sunset took her ripped up jacket off, balled it up, and put in under her head as she tried to fall asleep. This was interrupted by a figure covered by a shroud made from the darkness of the night. It was a completely darkened figure that opened the door to her truck and got in. "Hey, Get Out Of My Truck!" Sunset yelled at the figure. The darkness covered skin of the figure burns off, and the flames reveal a black denim jacket. Sunset gets up and tries to jump out of the bed, but a chain wraps around her arm in the exact pattern of the burn mark on that same arm, and it pulls her back in. Sunset screams out in fear as the flaming skeleton starts her truck and causes it to become a ball of flame. The skeleton begins to laugh and do doughnuts in the empty parking lot, only driving more fear into Sunset. The truck stops spinning it's rear wheels in circles and drives onto a road that seems to only go straight and has nothing around it. Sunset looks back and can't even see the parking lot anymore. The skeleton puts the pedal to the metal, and Sunset falls out of the bed and drags behind the truck as it launches down the endless desert road. The truck continues to gain speed, and Sunset continues to drag behind the truck with her skin now being grind off her body until the asphalt touches her bone. At this moment, the skeleton hits the brakes and Sunset flies into the tailgate and sees black..... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset wakes up in a cold sweat in a basement. "Fuck me..." Sunset cursed at herself, raising her head up and looks down at her feet... Only their hooves. "WHAT!?!?" Sunset gets up, looks down at herself, and sees that she's a pony again. Orange fur, orange unicorn horn, complete with a red and yellow mane and tail. She frantically looks around and sees that she's in the unused basement of Canterlot High. It was previously a boiler room until the school got the money to have a complete modernization in look, but the budget fit the bill too perfectly. They got the money to remove the old heating system, but not to fill in the old basement which didn't have any good enough openings to be a storage room. But due to it's clever location, it was never in the way to begin with and is mostly forgotten because it was actually outside of the main school building... However, Sunset was seeing an old rusty boiler in front of her that had Celestia's phoenix standing in the boiler's opening. "Philomena?" Sunset says in surprise, "What are you doing here?" The phoenix didn't answer. Instead, Philomena falls into the boiler and burns to ash. The hot ashes start a fire, but they don't start a fire. They open a small tear of somekind that leads to Celestia's throne room. Sunset watches as the tear opens up more and more until it stops at a size just big enough for her to walk through. "A-a way back t-to Celestia?" Sunset thinks to herself, "B-but what will she think of me? She'll just think of me as the impatient student I always am!" "I knew you were impatient, my student, but I always did have faith in you." A very familiar voice says, leaving a heavy feeling in Sunset's everything. The heaviness the familiar voice carried increased tenfold when the head Princess of the sun herself lowers into the view of the tear, "Come on in, Sunset Shimmer. We have much to discuss." Sunset walks up to the tear, but is uneasy about going through, "Oh, come now Sunset!" Celestia says in a giggly voice, "You of all ponies should know about my great patience. Especially when I want to talk with one of my two greatest students of all my time! You might say I'm exited to finally find a way to communicate with you." "But I thought that my impatience got on your nerves?" "Yes, that may be true. But you did spend the most time with me, and you got yourself into my school and into my direct teaching before Twilight Sparkle." Sunset nervously wiggled her way through the tear, and finally made it through the tear. There was no physical difficulty, she just feared that Celestia might be very cross with her after she left her home universe. As she stepped through, she sees Celestia in all her glory. A tall and slender pony with both Pegasus wings and a unicorn horn. She has brilliant white fur; a phenomenal glowing and sparkling mane and tail with the colors of sky blue, sea foam, lavender, and pink; and with jewelry-like regalia of solid gold and jeweled hoof covers, a yolk-like pice around her neck, and an engraved tiara. She also had eyes like magenta colored gems. Celestia quickly moved close enough to the tear to poke her head through it and looked around the empty human designed room with concern. "The inhabitants of the world you fled to have absolutely no taste do they." Celestia said, "This place is more boring than when I had to play politics with King Guto. He was the greatest griffon king there ever was, and it's a shame he was killed over Griffonstone's greatest treasure, but he still wasn't the greatest at conversations." Celestia removed her head from the tear, but kept her eyes on it, "I just hope I was strong enough to hold that thing off." "The skeleton?" Sunset asked out of concern. "Yes. I just don't want it to interrupt us. It was very difficult to push it away, and I don't think I have contained it in the slightest. What is such an odd thing doing in your dreams? I don't even think we have anything like that in our world." "I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't even know why it just gave me a nightmare, I've never seen it before!" "Well, whatever it is, it it will never-" Nightmare Moon stumbles into the room. She looks similar to Celestia's look, but more shaped like the armor of a necromancer and lacks jewels. Her fur is also black, she wears a helmet instead of a tiara, her mane looks like a light blue night sky, and her regalia is light blue. And her eyes are closed "Sister? I thought I exiled you to the moon?" Nightmare Moon falls to the floor, and puts her hooves over her eyes. "Help Me, Celestia!" Nightmare Moon says as she removes her hooves from her face to reveal that her eyes are cinders, "I Feel So Much Pain! I Can't Bear It!" The flaming skeleton from before walks up behind Nightmare Moon, grabs her, and burns her to a pile of ash. "Mmmmmm..." The skeleton grumbles has it walks over to Sunset. "You!" Celestia exclaims as she moves in front of Sunset in defense of her, "Get away from my student, or suffer my wrath." "Hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm," The skeleton laughs while Celestia's regalia begins to heat up around her neck and burn her flesh, "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The gold on Celestia melts where she's wearing it, her tiara melting and fussing to her skull, the yolk searing the flesh on the back of her neck and dripping to the floor, her hoof covers joining the puddle of melted gold made from her golf, "HAAAA-Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!" Celestia doesn't scream out from the pain, despite her practical need to do so. She stands her ground, and charges her horn. "Gh-Your-ah attack is wor-ugh-worthless!" Celestia grunts out as she spreads out her incredibly long and large wings. The skeleton walks up to Celestia, and she fires a beam of magic that burns a hole in the wall behind it, but the skeleton continues to grab Celestia's horn, "Let Go Of Me!" The skeleton breaks it off, it catches fire, and the skeleton shoves it into the underside of Celestia's head. Celestia burns into ashes that blow away with a wind that seems to blow the world around Sunset away like ash to reveal a vortex of flame being made by a single chain that's swirling around Sunset as she's now floating in the air. Her orange pony fur burns off her neck to reveal the red flesh of her demon form, the skeleton grabs the form, and pulls it out of Sunset's neck. The skeleton looks straight into the demon form's eyes. "You are a curse." The skeleton says in a demented voice that also sounds like flames being blown around by wind, "You filthy the soul of Sunset Shimmer with your intentions and have been feeding of her impatience for too long. Feel the frustrations she's caused. The heartbreak she's caused. The confusion she's caused. The pain she's cased..." The demon form looks over to the pony Sunset as it gets sucked into the vortex as ash and it's eyes burn. "You just had to slip, didn't you." The form tells Sunset in a calm manner, But at least you won't remember me. Only the self-destructive path that I left for you. You will never be an Element of Harmony. Not in Equestria," Only the form's mouth is left to burn away, "And not in this world." Only the lips are left, "I already assured i-" the form has blown away like dust and ash completely. Sunset looks over to the skeleton, and the skeleton looks Sunset in the eyes. It slowly points straight at Sunset. "You..." The skeleton utters as his finger and arm fully straighten, "Innocent." The skeleton lifts his other hand, and with a snap of the skeleton's burning bone fingers..... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ... Sunset wakes up crying in a cold sweat on a mattress on the floor in Pinkie Pie's bedroom. The bedroom is a simple one; it has some paintings on the wall along with stickers, a nightstand, a shelf covered with things, a dresser with balloon shaped handles, and a generally clean floor. This is surprising for Pinkie Pie's extremely energetic and party filled nature. Pinkie herself is sitting next Sunset. "Sunset!" Pinkie blurts out as she throws her arm around Sunset's neck and places her other hand on Sunset's closest shoulder, "Are you okay!?" "No!!" Sunset yells, "I'm Not Okay!! I-" "-Had a bad dream about a flaming skeleton guy who drove your beat up truck in circles with you in the back then it all faded away to you waking up as a pony in your old basement you slept in before the truck before I asked my parents if it was cool with you staying with me and you saw a phoenix that opened a portal to Principal Celestia but as a pony princess but the princess had an evil sister who got lit on fire by the skeleton guy who also lit the pony Principal Celestia on fire who pulled out your 'raging she-demon' and killed it with fire?" "..." Sunset seems to have stopped crying because of Pinkie's silliness, "How?" "I heard everything you said. You talk super clearly in your sleep." "But how did you know about the evil sister?" "You used to call Assistant Principal Luna Nightmare Moon under your breath." "oh, right. I did..." "Hey, need someone to cuddle the bad dreams away?" "What?" "You had a bad dream. I know cuddles are a good cure for those!" "N-no thanks, I'm fine... what time is it, anyway?" "OO! I'LL ASK MY PHONE!!! Hey Siri, What Time Is It!?!?" "The time is 5:45am." Pinkie's phone responds. "I Love Doing That!!!" Pinkie yells out in total excitement. "I can see that." Sunset says, experiencing a ringing in her ears from Pinkie's loud voice. "Still wanna cuddle?" "I'm fine, I'll just make some coffee for us." "Make sure to use the black bag with a skull on it!" With that, the two got up and Sunset headed for the kitchen. She reaches for the cupboard above the coffee machine, and pulls out a flat black bag with a white skull and crossbones that says Death Wish Coffee Co. "... Hey, Pinkie?" Sunset asks, "You usually carry around a big travel mug of coffee, right?" "Not usually, ALWAYS!!!" Pinkie responds, "I love that stuff!!!" "Well this explains the hell out of her energy." The eye sockets on the skull fill with flame, and Sunset slams the bag onto the logo, "Actually, can you make the coffee?" "Okie dokie Loki!...." > One Rider To The Next > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's the morning after the Fall Formal, and Francis Wolfgang has been working with his Uncle Gunther on their Hemi G-Body project. They're at Gunther's garage, a very clean and professional looking workshop inside what looks like a falling apart red barn on the outside. It really wasn't anywhere close to death, as the whole structure has the kind of reinforcement that would make it practically nuke proof. The shop looks like the wet dream of every car mechanic in existence. Every single tool that you would ever need and want, everything neatly organized, everything easily assessabled, everything in an easy-to-figure-out place, and not a thing out of place. The shop was also very clean, aside from a few fluid stains on the floor. But they were only stains, the oils and chemicals are always cleaned off completely. Gunther likes himself a clean workshop, especially when he's worked on everything from Shelby Cobras and Ferrari 250 GTOs to Lamborghini Aventadors and Dodge Vipers. If he can't work on it completely on his own, he's got a buddy that can help him. And he always gets the job done right, even if it costs him. But it usually never does. As for the G-Body truck that they're working on, it looks good enough to show off at an international car show somewhere in Europe. The body is from a 1985 Chevrolet El Camino, and the front end is from a 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. They threw out the idea of a Grand National front end out of Francis' personal taste. The wheels are chromed five spokes with tires good for dirt roads and asphat. The suspension has been changed to buggy-like suspension, but it's ride hight is still close to the stock hight with only around an inch more of ground clearance in the back. This G-Body was made to handle the plethora of dirt roads that Francis more commonly drives on, as the City of Canterlot is one of the few larger more city-like towns in the county. The rest is farmland, private property, lazily maintained roads, or Everfree National Park. The engine being installed is a Hemi. But it's not just any Hemi, as it's a performance rebuilt 426 with modifications. the engine makes six hundred horsepower and enough torque to pull down the Berlin Wall. "Francis, get over here!" Gunther calls out, "I want you to see this!" Francis crawls up next to Gunther to watch the last bolt needed to fully attach the transmission, "Almost... There.... There! It's done!" The two crawl out from underneath the almost finished muscle car, "Now, do that Ghost Rider thing where you make it all pretty and unbreakable." With that said, Francis gets into the driver's seat, pulls the keys off of a carabiner, and starts the car. The car starts, and has a vicious growl like a pissed off wolf. Gunther opens the door infont of the car, and Francis let's the car's idle speed bring the beast forward. As the G Body moves out a good distance out of the garage, Francis puts the muscular car in park and revs the engine. The car roars with a roar loud enough to put Godzilla's roar to shame. As the car reaches it's loudest, flame engulfs the whole car and blows away to reveal a beautifully done black paint job with chrome that perfectly reflects the world around it. The monster now looks good enough to show off at an international car show somewhere in Europe. "Lookin' good, my main man!" Gunther cheers, "That right there's a real beauty!" "WHAT!?" Francis tries to ask over the beautiful sound of the Hemi, a sound that not even noise canceling headphones can cut out. Gunther gestures at Francis to turn off the engine, and Francis does so. "What?" "I said lookin' good, my main man! That right there's a real beauty! Maybe that deal wasn't a bad idea after all." "I told you, I'm not evil! Besides, I only look scary to scare the piss out of scary things." "Yeah, I believe you. But let's not worry about that, you said you had somewhere to be when this got finished?" "Yeah, do you remember that woman who asked for us to make a replica of Mad Max's V8 Interceptor?" "Yeah, I do. Her name was Twilight Velvet, has a son and daughter that go to Crystal Prep. I forgot their names, but you can find them in Appaloosa Hights. Twilight said that she would regularly drive that replica, so you should probably find it somewhere in front of her house. Did she do something bad?" "No, she didn't. I'm just curious about something." "Is it over somethin' I probably won't understand?" "Yeah, it's best you stay out of it." "That much, I do understand. Well, I've got an anonymous customer who's having a Dodge Challenger Hellcat and one hundred ten smacaroons sent over. Told me to make it into beast! He doesn't know what's comin' to him!" "Sounds awesome! I've gotta get going. I also have to be at the Everfree Swamps by tonight." "Well, happy hunting!" Francis starts the El Camino back up, and drives out to the main road. The road near Gunther's property is usually empty, and it looks devoid of any humans. With that, Francis floors it and rips down the road. He rips through the straights and slides through the turns of the lonely road, Canterlot City becoming more visible by the second. Francis slows the car as he blasts past a sign that says "Welcome to The City of Canterlot".... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Francis pulls up to a sidewalk next to the sight of a V8 Interceptor in front of a house. Francis gets out of his car and makes his way to the front door. He knocks on the front door, and a woman with light purple hair with silvery white stripes answers the door. "Hi, are you Twilight Velvet?" Francis asks. "Yes." Twilight answers, "And you're that boy who helped with my Ford Falcon?" "Yes ma'am." "Oh! This is unexpected, but how can I help? By the way, good idea with the suggestion to giving my car stiffer suspension! It corners at high speeds like a champ!" "Good to hear! I'd just like to know the names of your kids." "Alright, can I know why?" "Well, there was an exchange student at Canterlot High who I think shares one of your kid's names. I just wanted to confirm it." "Oh! Well in that case, there's my son Shining Armor and my daughter Twilight Sparkle." The name Twilight Sparkle hits Francis like his head like it had a stomach that just got punched, and he grabs his head like he has a headache, "Are you okay?" "Mmmm... Huh? Oh! No, I'm fine." "Here, c'mon in." Twilight Velvet feels Francis' forehead, "Good lord, you're burning up! I'll give you a glass of tea and some Advil for your fever." "I'm fine, I'm just a real hothead. Believe me." "Well at least have a seat. Have a glass of iced tea and humor me." "... Alright." Francis walks in and takes a look at what Twilight Velvet's wearing. She's most definitely an older woman, but one who's looks seem to have aged like wine. She's wearing red jeans and a grey t-shirt under a red leather jacket. She seems to have an aura of happiness around her that spreads into the room around her. And the room filled with some fancy looking tech. Francis takes a seat on an Italian leather sofa as Twilight Velvet enters her kitchen. "So, which of my kids shares a name?" Twilight asks as she pours Francis and herself glasses of tea. "Your daughter..." Francis grips his head again. He's not feeling pain, but the instincts given to him from his Vengeful Spirit are going off like an alarm. So, it's not pain, but it might as well be pain. "You know what? I think I'll take up that offer about the Advil." Twilight reaches into a cabinet and takes a bottle out. She walks over to Francis and hands him a glass of tea and the bottle of Advil, "Thanks." "Oh, it's no problem. My husbands on a business trip and I could use the company." Twilight says as she takes a seat and gets comfortable, "It's also rather boring with my son falling in love with Crystal Prep's dean, Mi Amore Cadenza." "Not to be rude, but I don't pay much attention to my school's rival. I'm more into fast and fancy cars, mainly because of my uncle." "Well, you should look into the local racing circuit! I took my Mad Max replica there to the heavily modified rally race just last weekend, and I actually think I might take it back to Gunther's. Maybe ask if he can't fix or replace a few things, 'cause I think that weekend killed the suspension." "Oh, actually Gunther has been having the idea of giving a friend a kind of after-race pit service. You'd have to pay for replacement parts, but ten percent of the cost of work hours in simple realigning and readjusting." "I think I'll ask him about it then! But seriously, I saw that black beauty that you came in. What's it powered by?" "A modified 426 Hemi." "The thing hates gas, doesn't it?" "I wouldn't know. It was literally just finished this morning." And I only worry about gas during the day. It doesn't matter at night. "Well, it was nice talking with you, but I really got to get going. I'm headed for the swamps, and I have to be there by tonight." Francis finishes off his tea, and heads for the front door, "I don't mean to be rude, but I have someone that I'm meeting there." "Well, have a nice trip!" Twilight says cheerfully, "Don't hurt yourself on the way!" Francis walks back to his G-Body, and drives away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight Sparkle... If she's a princess in another world, then what does that make her here? Francis thinks to himself, At least I know that she goes to Crystal Prep, so I'm going to have to find a way to not look suspicious. Probably can't use this new beast. What's more suspicious than a gloss black muscle car with two ends off different cars? As Francis thinks, he gets a call from Rainbow Dash. He answers the call, and tosses the phone onto the passenger side with the phone set to speaker. "Hey Francis!" Dash excitedly exclaimed. "Hey Dash, what's goin' on?" Francis asks. "Remember when that angel guy told you to head to the swamps?" Rainbow Dash asks, with slight excitement in her voice. "I'm becoming skeptical of what you're going to ask, but yes?" "Could I come with?" "You know i'm not going to the national swap, right?" "Yeah, you're going to the place that's riddled with rednecks!" "Dash, Someone shoots me and the holes gone by nightfall. Someone shoots you, and you'll probably bleed a lot and end up in the hospital by nightfall." "Oh, c'mon! I know that you won't let that happen! If you let me come with, I will stay where ever you say that it's safe. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" "... Oi. Alright, you can come. But if you get hurt, don't say I didn't warn you. And know that I don't agree with putting you in danger." "SWEET!! See You Soon!" With that, Rainbow Dash hangs up and Francis heads for Rainbow Dash's place. The notion of this doesn't please Francis, as he had Rainbow Dash's dad don't exactly see eye to eye. This is because Bow Hothamd things that Francis is the rebel type; and that he's in love with his daughter. He's right with Francis being love with his daughter, but is incorrect in assuming that he's a rebel. He doesn't know the rebel types occasionally make Francis gag on the spot. Francis is a smart kid. He just seems like the rebel type because he's willing to step in where others aren't, and how we ended up beating up president Sombra's kid in middle school. In fact, he got in a lot of trouble as a kid for starting fights with school bullies. This was because Francis loved standing up for that which can't stand up for itself, even if he knew he would lose. And it was that quality that the devil saw in Francis which made him choose Francis become a new Spirit of Vengeance. Even though Francis gotten a lot of trouble as a kid, his mother knew why. She thought it was Francis taking after his father. Now, as far as friends go, Francis has none. But this was mostly because when he wasn't at school, he was with either his Uncle Gunther or his mother... But still, Francis has to once again meet face to face with Dash's father. Francis is walking up to the Dash household, and feels nervous. And he feels nervous for all the right reasons. This is because Bow Hothand, also known as Rainbow Blaze, is a retired United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper who's really shiny. For all Francis knows, Bow knows that he can turn into a flaming skeleton in dark enough places. And Bow could probably kick his ass, Spirits of Vengeance don't get fancy fighting moves. They get supernatural strength, but it means nothing if they don't know how to throw a good punch. Francis knocks on there door of the Rainbow household, and its quickly answered by Windy Whistles. "Christ, Francis!" Windy says, looking at a Francis who's shaking in his Converse, "Why are you always so nervous around here?" "Your husband, the war hero." Francis responds. "Well, he's not here." Windy says, giving relief to Francis, "Rainbow Dash is in her room. And I know who she's been waiting for." "Thanks, Mrs. Whistles." Francis says as he walks into the house. He makes his way to Rainbow's door, and before he can knock- "I know you're there." Rainbow says in a rather seductive tone, "I have a surprise in here waiting for you." This is gonna get fascinating real quick. Francis thinks to himself while opening Dash's door. As he opens it, he spots Rainbow Dash in rainbow elbow gloves, rainbow toe socks, rainbow panties, and a blue t-shirt thats one size too small on purpose. With the addition of Dash's muscles showing through everything, Francis is having a hard time taking in the image before him. "What do you think?" Rainbow Dash asks, her half lidded eyes looking into the eyes of a Francis Wolfgang who's wiping his sweating forehead with a handkerchief. This woman's going to kill me with her looks one day. Francis thinks while he shuts the door behind him.... A 1990 GMC Jimmy and a 1975 Ford Bronco are ripped through the muddy roads of the Everfree Swamps in the light of the day's setting sun. Both have a man in the back with assault rifles, and they're both looking for something. The men are all arguing in what would sound like gibberish, but one thing is for certain... They're running from something that's not too far behind them. The road splits, and the Bronco takes the path that strays from the main dirt road. That separate path leads down a very dark road. "Look At 'Em Callisters Cower," One of the men states as he sees the Bronco disappear into the darkness, "They're Hiddin' From-" a fiery explosion is spotted, and a chunk of the Bronco's grill hits on of the men, "-a... Fight?" "You kidding'?" The driver of the Jimmy says, "That thang don't fight. It kill." The sun sets, and the remaining light is blocked by the mass of trees on each side of the road. a few minutes pass, and the Jimmy stalls out. "Damn! Outta Guzzoline!" The driver yells. "What're We Gonna Do, Cuz!?" a midget sitting ion the passenger seat asks, shaking in fear. "Sam, We'll make-" the man standing in the back is cut off by the aggressive roar of a high powered V8, "Fuck That, We're Dea-" The man in the back is cut off by his own astonishment as a gloss black 1967 Pontiac GTO slowly comes into view, "... That's a beautiful beast... It's like Belle and Beast, y'know from that Disney film, it's like they fucked when Beast was still ugly and this was their child." "Amen." The driver says in agreement. The GTO begins to rev it's engine loudly as it can go, and flames begin top shoot from the hood scoop. It charges at the Jimmy with it's rear wheels spinning and catching fire, the from tires following suit. The men in the Jimmy all hop out and head for a bush down the road as the GTO rams the Jimmy, the truck exploding upon contact. A flaming skeleton on the inside draws a flaming sawed off shotgun, points it out the passenger side window, and blasts the bush with a fiery slug that burns away the ex-driver and the man that was standing in the back... Leaving only the midget. The GTO keeps going, but the midget notices the fact that the flaming skeleton is gone. The midget draws a .44 Magnum long barrel, and springs to the dirt road. "Come Out Of Hidin', Y'Little Bitch!!" the midget yells out. "Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black, Hokey Puck." a demented voice says that seems to echo through the forest. the midget turns around to see a flaming skeleton in black boots, blue jeans, a faux leather jacket, and faux leather gloves. The midget empties his revolver into the skeleton, but every bullet melts on contact, "Will 'Hockey Puck' O'Nelson, one of the three feuding families of the Everfree Swamps. You've been known to sneak into the houses of the other families and fuck their children. Of course, they're too busy fucking each other to notice anyway. And the families have had moles that sneak into the other's household and fuck whatever it can find for years. Lotta fuckery, if I do say so myself. But then again, I'm Californian. We have really shitty public schools. What do I know?" "You sure do talk a lot, feller." the midget points out. "Yeah, I do talk a lot." The skeleton says as it points the shotgun from earlier at the midget, "I'll cut this down for ya." The skeleton fires the second barrel of the shotgun from earlier and blasts the midget to a pile of ash. It then looks over to the road and sees that it's GTO is returning. The muscle car stops, the skeleton gets in, and it drives down the road that the trucks were going down. "Fuckin' rednecks." the skeleton says to itself, "They're just as weird as those stick wolves that've been tromping through here. those things ain't holy, but they ain't unholy neither. But, that's why I'm here. And that teenager who's supposed to help me is late... Ah, he might have a girlfriend... I miss my wife... And I talk to myself too much... Ah, who cares. No one's listening." The skeleton comes upon a house with armed men and women in front of it, Well, time to kill some rednecks..."