> An Angel and her Soldier
>  by Midnight Words
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

------------------------------

Everything went by so quickly... Roland thought as he lay on the hard cold ground. Fyrestone...New Haven... Sanctuary... All the places in this god-forsaken land I call home.

"YOU BASTARD!" Lillith yelled and lunged at Handsome Jack, CEO of Hyperion Corp. Jack threw a small collar around Lilith’s neck and grabbed her.

Brick... The big hunk of meat... Mordecai... The drunk sniper, always got your back... And Lilith... I'm sorry... Roland closed his eyes, the cold hand of death brushing pass him, a feeling he was all too familiar with. Looks like this is it, no coming back this time... Vault Hunters... Put a bullet in Jack for me... A bright light made Roland open his eyes and gasp for air. Respawn? But Jack terminated our New-U accounts!

Light... Light poured into his vision, lush green grass and large arching tree were overhead. Heh... I'm alive... He didn't know where he was but he knew he wasn't on Pandora anymore. Something by the edge of a tree caught his attention. A girl with blue tattoos and black hair sitting limply against a tree. "Angel..."

As soon as he muttered her name, she gasped. Air filling her lungs, crisp morning air, for the first time in her life she was out of that damned room, away from a father who would do anything to protect her, kill hundreds of innocent people all for "Keeping his little girl" safe. For the first time she was free.

"Roland? What happened? I'm supposed to be dead." Angel said, weakly. Roland took out a bottle of Dr. Zed's pills he was keeping in his pocket,  Zed discontinued it because it was too expensive to make, this was the last bottle on Pandora. Roland offered her the pills and she carefully grabbed it. This was also her first time to physically touch something outside the A.I Control room.

Roland took a seat next to her and sighed. "I'm supposed to be dead too." Roland said. He tapped his ECHO Communications device but it was unresponsive. "I hope the others are alright. The Vault Hunters can take care of themselves, no, I'm more worried that Lillith might overreact."

Angel laughed. This was her first time too; she had done more things in five minutes than in her whole life trapped inside that room. "Thank you, Roland and... I'm sorry for... that one time in Sanctuary... I had no choice." She began to sob quietly. Something Roland almost never saw on Pandora. "How many... How many died?" She asked through sobs.

How many did die? Roland though. They never had a chance to check for casualties... Some leader I am...

"I honestly don't know and before I 'died' Jack kidnapped Lilith and no doubt he's going to her to charge the vault key." Roland said and got up and looked around his surroundings. Trees... Trees... Trees... Rock... Trees... Wolves made from trees... Rocks... Twigs... Wait! The Wooden wolf lunged at Roland and tackled him to the ground, it's sharp wooden teeth bit into Roland's arm. He looked inside his inventory but found that all his weapons were missing except for the Crimson Lance Standard Issue Combat Knife or as he liked to call it "Old Slashy"

Roland took out the knife and stabbed the wolf in the neck. It howled in pain as tree sap seeped from the wound. Everything was gone from his inventory, Shields, Class mods, Grenade mods, weapons, money and most of his echo recordings save for two. The wolf howled again and soon three more of the "Bark Wolves" as Roland called them, appeared and surrounded them.

"Angel... I'll hold them off..." Roland whispered as the wolves surrounded him. "Make a run for it when I give the go..."

"No... I won't let you fight them all by yourself." Angel protested.

"I can handle a few wooded punching bags. Trust me." Roland said and two wolves lunged from both sides. Roland easily dodged and countered by stabbing them in their glowing eyes. Two more came up from behind and but were easily dispatched in the same manner. "Come on you sorry excuse for a skag, come bite me!" Roland taunted. He then saw the two wolves he dispatched earlier start to combine together and turn into a huge-ass version of those Bark Wolves.

A huge paw came crashing down on Roland, he coughed up some blood as the paw lifted and dropped again. Angel took it upon herself to help, she used her Phase Shift ability to confuse the wolf. The mind was like a computer and she could hack it. The Badass Bark Wolf howled and staggered back. She rushed to Roland's side and heaved him up.

Man! You are heavy! She grunted and revived Roland. Roland shook himself up and looked at the giant wolf.

"Thanks! But now let's get out of here before that thing recovers!" Roland yelled and sprinted in a random direction, holding Angel's hand along the way. "Over there!" Roland pointed to an old ruined castle that looked as stable as a bandit with superglue, it was perfect.

The siren and the soldier ran across the rickety old bridge, luckily the giant wolf couldn't cross the unstable bridge lest it collapse. The two breathed a sigh of relief. "You alright?" Roland asked as Angel panted for breath.

"Yeah... just out of shape..." Angel muttered and lied on the grass. "Where are we?"

Roland opened his inventory and looked at the two echo recordings. "Looks like a recording after I died." Roland pressed theplay button on the first tape.

"Lillith... Kill the Vault Hunter." Jack ordered..

"Ugh... No... " Lillith said through a strained voice. A sound and a bright flash erupted and covered the five vault hunters in purple light as they dissapeared.

"Not what I had in mind but close enough." Jack said and then the echo cut off.

Roland looked at the echo device with a worried glare. "I'm playing the second one."

"Dunce Dunce Dunce Dunce Dunce Wub Wub Wub Wub." The original Claptrap sung, the one from Fryestone not the one in Santuary. "Echo log #11324254234212435945.52935/430384533+43232145. I, Claptrap, have found a way to reconstruct my body into a much more terrifing and powerful version of the original vault hunters!"

"This giant machine with painfully reconstruct my body so I can beat the menace known as Handsome Jack and then Lillth will be sure to notice me!"

"GAH! Watch it!" Axton's voice called out.

"Your foot is in my mouth!" Gaige spat. Loud rumblings were heard inside Claptrap's machine.

"Get your ass out of my face before I tear if off" Salvador threatened. Some parts began to come off.

"Hey! Watch where your hands are going!" Maya yelled, her face Reddening as she kicked Axton in the balls which he gave very high pitch grunt.

"MMMPHHPMMPHPMMPH!" Zero tried to speak but was covered by several rolls of duct-tape.

"Huh. Guess those bodies weren’t dead after all." Claptrap commented. The entire machine then exploded sending pieces of scrap everywhere and sending the five vault hunters sky high.

"Echo log #11324254234212435945.52935/430384533+43232145 was a complete success. Now where can I hide this?" Claptrap wondered and the echo ended.

Angel laughed. "I love those funny little robots." She said.

Roland scowled. "Yeah, but we need to find a way out of this place and get back to Santuary. Jack would attack it while there wasn't a siren protecting it." Roland got up and looked around the ruined castle, broken stained windows lined the walls and over grown vines grew from the cracks in the wall. "Come on. Maybe we can find out where we are, I sure as hell know we're not on Pandora anymore."

Angel got up and followed Roland through the dusty catacombs. A few bats hung upside-down on the ceilings and looked at the two humans as made their way through another dimly lit hallway.

After an hour of walking they found what looked like a door that leads to a library, if the giant wooden doors with book motifs were to be believed. They opened the door and stepped through. They coughed and covered their mouths because of the dust, books lined the library but were near unreadable.

"This was a waste of time." Roland said as he touched a book that turned into dust.

"Maybe not." Angel said and picked up a dusty map of the castle. "Says here that there's an armory close by. Maybe we can stock up before we head out?"

On one hand, they need the weapons, on the other hand, it could all just be dust and might make their stay inside the dusty castle much longer then it needed to be.

Roland sighed. "We do need weapons. Lead the way."

They left the library and headed to the armory that was just in the other hallway. The bat seemed to thin and avoid making contact. "I don't like this."

They reached the door to the armory and the door opened by itself. Two glowing glass cases were at the end of the room. The two explorers slowly made their way towards the cases.

Both the cases held two weapons; a knife and a crossbow, One was glowing red and black while the other glowed a soft purple and white. They opened the cases and reached for the weapons. The knives felt right in their hands while the crossbow felt like an old friend.

"Finally!" A voice called out from behind. A giant bull standing on two legs and an eagle-lion thing came forward and pointed sharp weapons at them. "Give us the artifact, monsters." The bull yelled.

"Or we'll rip your throats out and feed them to the bats." The bird thingy cawed.

The crossbow began to shape-shift and change into a beautifully familiar metal grip. An Assault rifle and an SMG, both bore an image of the Vault and the knives as well.

"Lookie here. The valuable artifact are also magic. Maybe we can sell for a bigger price." The bull laughed and came closer to the two humans. "Give us the weapons and we won't kill you today."

"Or we could kill you and take the weapons from your dead bodies, whichever way it didn't matter." The bird said and examined her own blade.

Roland looked at Angel who was stareing down the bird with venom in her eyes. "Kiss my ass!" Roland yelled and fliped his middle finger up in a rude gesture.

The bull huffed and charged at Roland knocking him back and shattering the glass case. Roland slumped over tighting his grip on the rifle, waiting for the bull to to come closer.

"Pathe-" The bull's insult was cut short by a barrage of bullets hitting square in the chest. The bull gurgled and slumped over dead.

Meanwhile the bird had Angel in a choke-hold. "Last chance, give me the weapon."

Angel's eyes began to glow and sharp wings errupted from her back. The bird dodged, only burning a few feathers. Angel squezzed the trigger and impacted the bird in the head.

"Elite my ass!" Roland taunted at the dead bodies. Roland dug around their dead bodies and found herbs and a sack of gold. "Guess this all the cash we have for now." Roland put the rifle away in his inventory and Angel did the same.

Angel looked around the room but only found these four weapons and nothing else. "Remember; we don't have much ammo so we should try to save it for emergencies only."

"Yeah. Let's get out of here and make camp upstairs." Roland suggested and Angel nodded.

They went back upstairs and saw a present by the door. A red chest with a note stuck on it.

"Impressive." The note read. Roland and Angel opened the chest and two shields came out, they were weak shields but weak shields were better than no shields so they took the shields and equipped them.

"I'll go get some firewood." Roland said and took out his new knife. He left through the door and found the nearest tree. Snapping off the brances and cutting off the ones that were more stubborn than the rest. His mind began to wander on where the were they and how the hell can they get back?

First things first. Make a shelter. Roland came back inside the castle and placed the firewood in a neat stack. Roland began to rub two sticks together and created a spark that turned into a flame.

"I don't think we're alone here." Angel said.

"Like something dark and brooding looking at you? I got the same feeling." Roland said and looked around, not finding anything then bats and rats.

And just like that it all stopped, the wind, the sound and the feeling all stopped like it just left.

"Get some rest. I'll keep watch." Roland said. Angel didn't complain and rested her head on a rock.

"Not a five-star hotel but..."

"Not a bandit shithole either." Roland finished.

"You should go to sleep too, Roland." Angel said.

"*yawn* Maybe you're right." Roland lied back on the ground and stared at the ceiling... What the fu-

*BOOM*

> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

------------------------------

"That was your only warning shot!" A loud male voice called out from everywhere. "Identify yourselves!"

And here I thought we could have a nice nap without being threaten. Roland sighed.

"We mean you no harm, Friend." Angel said as her voice echoed off the walls. "We only wanted to stay the night."

There was silence and then a loud sound of a door opening. "It's not safe out there. You're more likely to be robbed and then held for ransom." The voice said.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Roland voiced out. "I've been led into traps more often than I like."

"You don't have to trust me, but let me tell you, friend. If the beast in Equistria won't get you, the locals probably would. You can take shelter or not, your pick." A dark silhouette came down from the ceiling holding what looked like a crossbow and a few dynamite sticks. "Me? I'm going inside shelter before the Crawlers start their raid." It, or was it he? Was equinoid in structure and had large, black feathered wings with a few missing feathers. There was a mark on his flank that resembles a scope from a sniper rifle aiming at a skull of another equinoid.

He went down the stairs that were hidden not long ago.

"Do you think we can trust him?" Angel asked, concern filling her voice as he saw something move in the shadows.

"I don't know but since those things are stalking us I'd say he was saying the truth." A low growl came from above Roland and Angel. The pony came back up the stairs, carrying a bag of sugar.

"They hate sugar, like a snail hates salt." The pony said and dropped the bag in front of the two humans. "I won't force you to come with me but those things are starting to get restless and I doubt you could take on the whole force." The pony went back down the stairs, littering it with sugar.

Angel took the bag of sugar. "I say we rest for the night and trust the strange pony."

Roland didn't want to trust a stranger but against a horde of who-knows-what he would rather take his chances with the pony. "Alright, but only for tonight."

They went down the stairs and through a large door which locked after they entered.

"Welcome, to the crap-hole I call home." The pony said and was standing on a low cloud. Wall lined with books and experimental weapon designs and explosive formulas. "Make yourselves at home." A small workbench occupied a wall in the far corner and a small kitchen in another room.

Roland didn't trust this flying horse thing. "Why'd you help us?" Roland asked, coldly.

"Two reason; one, you killed those two idiots in the armory and B, you two are smart enough not to die." The pony said and tossed a small red ball in the air.

"Hope you don't mind me asking but... Are you a Pegasus?" Angel asked with a lot of interest.

"Born and breed but my mom was a unicorn." He said and threw the ball at Roland who caught it with ease. "Nice reflexes." He said to Roland.

"But pegasi are mythical creatures along with unicorns!" Angel exclaimed. "That's impossible!"

"Where have you two been? Underground? 'Cause Pegasi and Unicorns are pretty common in Equistria."

Roland took notice to a few of the blueprints. Most of them looked like sniper rifles that used arrows and other objects. "Nice designs but those will never work." Roland said and picked up a small scope on the table. "This thing won't last."

"Who are you? An expert in weapons?" The pegasus said. "I worked on them my whole life. I think I would know if it wouldn't-"

"The barrel is too short to do anything at range and the arrows won't fire unless you use some sort of external force and don't get me started on reloading and fire rate." Roland said and made a few modification to the gun. "The scope could easily be broken and in certain conditions could melt or freeze over."

As the two boys started talking shop, Angel took one of the books off the shelves and found out these were all history books.

It said the entire history of Equistria and the planet itself. One word was scrawled on the last page of Discord's release. "ANARKY" It said in bold letters and it was also written in blood.

"Who's Anarchy?" Angel asked and the pony sprang up and covered her mouth with his hoof.

"Never say his name out loud." The pony said and removed his hoof. "He is Discord's brother but unlike his brother, he was more on hell bent destruction instead of controlled chaos, like Discord."

Angel read the book and if this book was telling the truth, then Discord was an all-powerful god and his brother equally powerful. "I never got your name."

"Headshot, but who are you two? You sure as hell ain't a Minotaur or an ape." Headshot said and returned the book to the bookshelf. "At least non that I know."

"We're humans. My name is Angel." Angel said and flipped her hair to the side to better reveal her face.

"And I'm Roland, leader of the Crimson raiders or was." Roland said and moved towards one of the cushions on the floor.

"Crimson raiders? Never heard of 'em. Sounds like a name of a bunch of psychos, no offense." Headshot said. "And by the way I saw the bodies back in the armory, you two ain't no strangers to fighting."

"Yeah. We're just trying to get home, we we're fighting a war when we disappeared." Roland said.

"Welcome to the club, pal. The entire world was at war with each other." Headshot said and picked up a small folder and gave them to Roland. "These are the pictures of those who tried to give peace a chance and the other one is a picture of those that chose to fight." Both pictures had very grusome sights, dead bodies, fires but one thing was in the center of it. A large... thing, it had a body of a lion but had claws that looked like they were torn from other animals and sowed back together.

"What the hell is that thing?" Roland's eyes went wide when he saw another picture with that thing carrying a large flaming boulder with one finger.

"Discord's brother. I ain't saying his name." Headshot took back the photos and placed them on the table. "You can find out how to get home in the morning. I can't, in good conscience make you leave in the middle of the night."

"Thanks." Angel said and lied down on the ground.

"Can you guys stand on clouds? ‘Cause these things are more comfortable." Headshot pulled a part of his cloud and gave them to Roland and Angel.

Angel could feel her hand on the cloud and force it down to make a make-shift bed. Roland on the other hand couldn't touch the cloud or feel it what so ever.

"Looks like I'm sleeping on the ground." Roland said and lied down on the ground.


------------------------------

A radio clicked open with a loud stutter. Roland's echo buzzed alive at the same time.

"Hey, this is Anarchy and just saying that I'm bored and I chose Ponyville to be ransacked by zombies today at noon. Just a heads up. Anarchy signing off, ciao." The radio and Roland's echo buzzed off.

Roland stretched his arms in the air. "What the hell was that about?" Roland said.

"Good morning to you too. Dizzy's bro gonna destroy a town with zombies. Sure you can try and fight it but the citizens in Ponyville are... 'inadequate' when it comes to fighting." Headshot went over to a map on the wall with "X" on some of the cities. "That makes four towns in the Everfree region."

The radio turned on by it's self, like Roland's echo. "Hey me again, so I was thinking, 'Whats the fun in having a town full of zombies?' Nothing that’s what. So I'm here to say that there are three children in the center of town and will be the first ones to be, as those old comics go, 'Eaten alive.' And anypony, griffon, minotaur, or whatever the hell you are, are welcome to try and save the town and get a cash reward. Bye, fo' reals this time, daugs."

"Poor kids, I wish that there was some sort of alien warrior, or two, from an alien planet with military combat skill that would help. Wink Wink Hint Hint." Headshot hinted at Roland and Angel.

Angel had an angry scowl on her face. "You didn't need to ask." She said with venom in her voice. Headshot beamed a wide grin at them.

"Yeah, putting kids in danger. I don't think even Jack would do that." Roland said and took out his knife. Headshot's grin grew even bigger.

"Take anything from my arsenal..." Headshot said and pressed a stone that was slightly out of place. A large hidden door opened and left the two humans with wide eyes.

Swords, bows, old guns, ammo, arrows, cannons, cannon balls and dynamite were scattered inside the room. "Take what you need. Though, I don't think I have ammo for those guns I saw you use. Never seen anything like 'em but you can grab one of these old rifles on the wall."

The guns reminded Roland and Angel of "Jacobs guns" back on Pandora. The rifles in question were bolt-action rifles that were designed to fire by pressing a button on the side. "I modified those to work for ponies but I can modify them to work for you if you want." Headshot offered.

"That would be nice. Thanks." Roland said and gave the two rifles to Headshot.

The clock rang ten. "I'll finish this as soon as I can."

The radio came on again. "This is an automated update. The 'Zombie' attack on 'Ponyville' will change its 'time of destruction' from 'twelve noon' to 'eleven A.M' Have a horrible day." The radio then cut off.

The two humans got an ample amount of ammo and several sticks of dynamite.

Headshot got to work and disassembled the two rifles simultaneously and replaced parts and added a trigger. He inserted a bullet inside the gun and gave it to Roland. "No time to test it out. To get to Ponyville on hoof, or foot, it would take an hour at least and we only got forty-five minutes left."

Roland thought for a moment. "How long would it take if you flew there."

"Twenty minutes, minimum."

"Fly there and save those kids. Me and Angel will back you up when we get there." Roland ordered. Headshot flew up the stairs.

"Head west. Just keep heading west and you'll get to Ponyville." Headshot yelled and soared through the air.

"You heard him. Let's go!" Roland and Angel ran up the stairs and through the large doors and pass the bridge. Roland saw a timer on his HUD pop up saying they only had thirty nine minutes left. 

They made it to a stream. The rapids were going too fast for them to cross and there were no bridges in sight. Just then Roland got a crazy idea.

"Hope these damn shields work." Roland took out a stick of dynamite and placed it on the ground. He then lit it with a lighter and waited for the explosion.

"Roland?" Angel said. Roland placed himself in front of the dynamite. The fuse ended and Roland jumped, sending him across the river and to the other side with a large thud. Angel blinked and then did the same thing. Their shields began to recharge as they made their way towards Ponyville.

After a few minutes of walking, they made it to a large Cliff-face that was too steep to climb. "What the hell do we do now?" Roland asked. Angel took out a small piece of eriduim she hid from Jack. "Angel! Don't! You already died from that stuff once!"

"I don't see any other choice." Angel absorbed the eriduim and felt her power and energy rising. She began to glow and bright blue wing were glowing on her back.

The timer hit the ten minutes marker and began to glow red. Angel picked up Roland by the arm and heaved him up the clift without even showing any signs of struggle, but as soon as she touched down she fell to her knees and coughed up some blood.

"I'm fine... Let's go." She said and got up sprinting with Roland.

They made it to the outskirts with two minutes to spare but saw the town was overrun with undead ponies, griffons and other species even some animals.

They saw Headshot perched on a lighting cloud with his explosive crossbow, taking shots at groups of zombies and kicking the cloud sending lighting bolts at anything that got to close.

Roland and Angel began to fire their weapons and attract the zombies. Roland took out a stick of dynamite and threw it to a group of zombies eating a bloody Pegasus. The dynamite exploded, sending blood and guts everywhere.

The objective on their HUDs changed to "Defend town hall".

"YEAHHHHHHHHHHH" Something screamed at the distance. "I'M GETTING THAT PRIZE AND NOTHING IS GONNA GET IN MY WAY!" A large Minotaur yelled and threw a cart at Headshot, sending the sniper plummeting to the ground.

He crashed and the bits and pieces of the cart came crashing down on him. Angel came to his side. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"My wing!" Headshot yelled and saw his wing bent in a strange angle. He had large wounds and several cuts all across his body, blood oozed through his wounds, attracting zombies towards him.

Roland took out his assault rifle with a half empty clip and sprayed to the oncoming horde. "I'm out!" He yelled and took out his bolt-action rifle again.

"I gathered all I could and led them to town hall." Headshot wheezed. "Forget about me and head over there." The minotaur from earlier was smashing zombies left and right. "The bastard who threw the cart is called Big Horn and he doesn't care about the ponies in the town hall just the money."

Something flashed through Roland and Angel's HUD. The durability on the door on the town hall was going down. Roland shot the zombies that were attacking town hall. "Angel! I need some help!" Roland yelled and threw another stick of dynamite at another group of zombies. "The doors won't hold. I'm going down there and try to draw their attention." Roland took out his knife and sliced himself on his hand. "Sweet juicy flesh, come and get it!" Roland waved his arm around drawing the zombie's attention.

"YOU WANT THE PRIZE TOO? YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GET THROUGH ME!" Big Horn yelled and charged at Roland, knocking away the zombies that were closing in on him.

"Aw crap." Roland yelled as he was sent flying through the plaza.

Five years ago, on Pandora. Brick and Roland had a little duel over a orange-rarity shotgun they found. As soon as the match started, Brick punched through Roland's shield and made him stagger back. Big Horn's charge broke through his shields and fractured some ribs. It was three times more powerful than Brick's uppercut.

Roland got up to his feet and saw the zombies were following him.

The zombies aren't attacking town hall, good. Roland though and dodged a zombie who tried to tackle him. Roland reloaded his rifle and shot Big Horn in the head.

"LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!" Big Horn yelled in anger and charged Roland.

Roland dodged it easily and used his knife to slash Big Horn's arm, sending blood out. Zombies began to circle them from all sides. A zombie jumped on Big Horn and bit repeatedly. He pulverized the zombie and the others close enough.

Roland took out two sticks of dynamite and forced them into a zombie's eyes and lit it. He then pushed the zombie back into the crowd and exploded, taking out the other zombies.

For a man with broken ribs and internal bleeding, I'm doing pretty good. Roland though and shoved a few zombies at Big Horn.

"RAHGHGHGHHG!" Big Horn half-yelled and half-laughed at the carnage. Roland broke away from the zombies and saw Headshot's crossbow and a few dynamite bolts.

Roland took the crossbow and aimed at Big Horn. "Hey! Dumbass!" Roland yelled. And, like a dumbass, Big horn turned to the direction of Roland's voice and met with an arrow to the...

"HEAD!" Big Horn yelled and as the fuse burned he saw Roland's smug face and a middle finger for him.

"Upping the kill count."

Meanwhile Angel carried Headshot to an alley with only one entryway, forcing all the zombies right into her line of fire, but with only a bolt-action rifle and a half-empty SMG the zombies were closing in on her.

She had an even stupider idea than Roland did. She ran through the hordes of zombies and when she was in the center of the horde, she activated her Phase Shift ability and, much to her delight, instead of disorienting them, the zombie's heads exploded, painting the entire area red with blood.

A distant howl came from the Everfree. The ground rumbled and a giant, wooden paw came crashing down on an unsuspecting zombie.

It was the giant Bark Wolf or Timberwolf as she read in one of the books. The zombies were the least of her worries.

The Timberwolf growled and lunged at Angel but she dodged and took out her SMG. She conserved her shots and only aimed at the head, but the bullets didn't seem to have any effect on it.

The wolf swiped at Angel, taking out a few zombies along with her. Angel hit the opposite wall across the street and coughed up some blood.

Angel saw the wolf closing in but she figured that bullets didn't affect its tough hide. She only had five dynamites left. Angel did some stupid.

The wolf gave low growl and opened its mouth, Angel jumped in and lit the dynamite and threw it down to the stomach. Angel held on to the wooded tongue and the wolf coughed Angel out and exploded into a several pieces of wood.

Angel got up from the ground and smile. "That was fun."

Meanwhile somewhere above the clouds Anarchy smiled and someone died.

"Celly, I want a background check on those two... hairless ape thingies." Anarchy ordered through a PA system.

"Yes, Master Anarchy."

"Please, Celestia, we knew each other for so long, just call me Anarchy or Nark for short."

"Yes... Master Nark."

"Cut the Master thing, it was fun for the few first centuries but now it's... formal and you know how much I hate formalities."

"Yes... Nark."

Anarchy looked down on the two humans. "This is going to get interesting."

> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3

------------------------------

"MEDIC!" Roland yelled as he clutched his chest. Blood poured from his mouth and everything was graying out. The door on town hall opened and one pony came out with a scalpel and other medical supplies.

"Not... Me... Him!" Roland said and pointed to Angel who was carrying Headshot's body. The medic nodded and sped off to meet them. The ponies were cautious with the wounded soldier but a few nurses came forward.

"Don't worry, sir. You'll be fine." One of the nurses said. A soft glow covered the soldier as he felt his insides twist and meld. "This is going to hurt a bit..." The nurse's horn brighten and Roland felt like his insides were burning and melting and the sad thing about it is he was used to it. But that didn't mean he didn't scream.

"GAHHHHHHH!" Roland screamed while blood dripped from his mouth.

"Get the blood packets! Hurry up!" The nurse yelled at the others. Roland just noticed this but that nurse was actually a very skilled surgeon. He felt like his wounds close up and several organ he didn't even knew were missing were starting to grow back. 

It was disgusting, he had to admit it that his spleen, kidney and several of his bones had seen better days but unlike Zed's meds he felt like the insta-health shot were poison to his body and this felt like it was healing instead of merely "patching up". 

A needle jabbed itself in his arm. Blood poured into his blood stream and the nurse was finally closing the last of his wounds.

The nurse whipped some sweat from her brow. "Whew, finished." The sighed and gathered some of the more masculine ponies to get a stretcher and carry Roland to the hospital.

"Great work, Doctor Twilight." A pony from the group inside the town hall cheered.

"Twilight the third if you don't mind."

Across the street, another surgery was taking place.

Angel assisted the pony doctor as he removed a large wooden spike that lodged itself on Headshot's left wing.

"Breath... I need you to breath..." The doctor said and cleaned away some of the dirt and splinters. "You have several wounds that could get infected... This will hurt..." The doctor took out a piece of cotton and cleaned the wounds surrounding the spike in his wing.

"I'm pulling it out now." The doctor yanked the spike and then applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Headshot gasped and felt his wing go numb.

"Miss. I need you to put pressure on his wing. I'll go get some gauze." The doctor said and ran back to the town hall. Angel placed her palm on the large wound. 

Headshot grunted. "Sorry. I'll try to be more gentle." Angel said. Headshot shook his head.

"No... don't let the blood out. Tell me you still have those herbs you found on the Minotaur back in the castle." Headshot wheezed.

Angel opened her inventory and pulled out a few herbs they found. "Here"

"Good... Grind them into powder and apply them to my wing. After that use some of it on your arm. I know your hiding that scar under your tattoos."  Angel looked shocked that he noticed the scar on her arm. "I see everything, Angel and the way you carry yourself... It’s not the way of a warrior more like... a little girl, out of her element."

"...Yeah... I guess you can say that. Having an over-protective father could do that to you." Angel said and crushed the herbs in her hand.

"Tell me about it, I know how you feel." Headshot said as Angel applied the soothing powder.

"Did your dad ever kill thousands just to prove a point not to mess with his daughter... He killed thousands in my name... I hate him." Angel paused and saw her tattoos on her hand. "He used me to charge a key that would summon a warrior to 'protect' me and, in the process killed me."

"That's... I had no idea... Your father strangled you, he held on too tight..."

"Too tight to power... He kept saying it was for me but I knew he just wanted to rule Pandora." Angel said and applied the powder on the wound on her arm.

"Ain't that the truth." Headshot sighed. "Ever tell you about the time I got my cutie mark?"

"Cutie mark?" Angel questioned.

"That little picture on my flank." He said and pointed to the crosshairs picture on his flank. "When I was a foal. I moved around a lot and stayed away from the chaos and big cities."

------------------------------

"Don't you dare." My dad yelled as a thug held my mom at knife point.

"Pay up or this fine fruit's going to get cut!" The thug yelled and pressed the knife on my mom's throat.

"I'll kill you if hurt her!" I yelled and tried to charge at him only to be stopped by my dad. 

"Head, leave and I'll handle this." He said with a somber expression.

"But dad..." I protested.

"LEAVE NOW!" He yelled and I flew up and hid, out of sight. I couldn't hear any of the conversation but after my dad tossed the bag of bits to the thug he slid the knife and cut my mom's throat open and threw the knife at my dad's head.

I kept silent. I was bitter, angry, depressed and some emotions I didn't even know. I will kill him. I swore on my parent's deathbed.

I shaped a storm cloud to look like one of those rifles you're holding but with a scope.

I spent one month stalking my prey, learning everything I can about it, the monster that killed my parents. A local thug by the name of Sunny or better known by his peers as Blade.

One day I aimed the storm cloud at his head. Right between my crosshairs and then I saw something that made me wish I shot him sooner.

I found out he was a father of a little filly by the name of Firecracker and was physically abusing the filly... and sexually too...

I shot him dead in the head... and several more times for good measure... and that’s when this appeared on my flank.

Me and Firecracker worked together most of the time and we stayed in contact but we've been seeing less and less on each other and only sent letters to each other lately.

------------------------------

Angel was speechless.

"Yeah, I get that reaction a lot when I tell that story." Headshot sighed. The doctor came back with a few nurses with stretchers. He was surprised when he saw the wound was almost sealed up.

"Those dynamites your using are her speciallity. Alrighty, doc, take me to the hospital. I need to have my eyes examined; I only seemed to hit the head and not the eyes anymore." Headshot laughed as he was lifted on to the stretcher and carried towards the hospital.

Angel followed them to the hospital. Ponies stared at her with fear and confusion but some ponies had a look of gratitude as she walked beside Headshot.

The hospital was a plain white hospital with a red cross on it. They stepped through the doors.

The inside was like a regular hospital, tiled floors, white walls and the like. Headshot was taken to one of the rooms to rest. Angel saw a door slightly ajar and peaked in.

Roland was sitting on a chair, wearing nothing but his pants, a small pony with teeth for her cutie mark was hovering in front of the disgruntled soldier.

"Say 'ahhhh'." The dentist said.

"Do I really have to do this?" Roland complained and earned him a smack on the head.

"No but if you don't open your mouth, we'll have to knock you out again." The dentist said and smacked Roland on the head with her ice-cream stick. Roland sighed and opened his mouth. "Good... Good..."

"Anngel?" Roland said through his open mouth. "Arr youu alriitee."

"I'm fine. Really." Angel sat back down and examined the ponies that were rushing about outside. "How many were injured?"

"Aboutzs aah fewew doszens." Roland said and the dentist smacked him on the head.

"No talking."

A large gray earth pony stomped up next to Angel. "You the one who helped protect the town?"

"No idiot, its the other two aliens." Headshot said as he came out of his room.

"Aren't you suppose to get some rest?" The large earth pony said.

"Since when do I ever listen?" Headshot commented and sat down beside Angel. "It's nice to see you, Brick."

"Brick?" Roland looked up to the giant earth pony and saw a few resemblances but he could tell it wasn't the Brick he knew.

A thought came into Angel's mind. "What about the kids, the ones who were going to be the first ones to die?" Angel asked and the two ponies lowered their heads in shame.

"I wasn't fast enough... The Cutie-mark crusader. Little Cream-top just joined up this morning..." Headshot lowered his head more. 

"No, you did all you could. I was just a bad mayor and made a poor decision." Brick put a hoof on Headshot's shoulder.

Angel's eyes began to glow slightly.

"No..." Roland said. "I should have planned it better. Some leader I was, can't even defend a few kids." Roland got up from the chair and took his clothes and put them on.

"This asshole is worse than Jack." Angel said and a few things started to bend across the room.

"Who's Jack?"

The next few hours were more or less explaining the whole situation on Pandora, the Hyperion Corp and the Crimson Raiders.

"That's Jack? Anarchy is ten times worse." Brick said.

"From what you two told us, Jack is just a CEO of a company who is trying to take over the world." Headshot said. "That 'asshole' as you termed it is way worse. Imagine Jack as an all-powerful reality bending monster that already won, not the planet but the whole system and everything on it." Headshot said and slumped back on a chair. "We've got no way to beat him. The elements of harmony were lost after the Mane six were separated."

There was a tense silence in the room.

Brick decided to break the silence. "Well, no use mopping around. Let me introduce myself. I am Brickary Cinderblock, mayor of Ponyville."

"I'm Roland, Leader of the Crimson Raiders."

"And I'm Angel."

Brick gave a hearty laugh. "You two saved my town and for that we need a big PARTY!" As soon as Brick said those words a large explosion rocketed from one of the surgery rooms.

"... That wasn't supposed to happen..." Brick said and stepped forward. The ground shook as a large zombie, the only one that survived came around the corner, holding a dead body of a unicorn and several other bodies he dragged along.

The zombie in question was larger than the doors and about two times larger than the mayor, it could almost be mistaken for an infant Ursa.

It roared at Brick, spit covered the mayor's face. "It...Is..ON!" Brick yelled and charged the large zombie.

Roland and Angel were about to help but headshot stepped in front of them. "Don't..." He said and turned around to face the raging battle.

The zombie took Brick by the head and threw him to a wall and smashed through it. Brick shook off the dust and picked up some rubble on the floor. The pony zombie charged, smashing through unoccupied rooms and beds.

"RAGHHHHHHHHHH" Brick yelled and threw the large piece of wall at the zombie. The speed and force of the throw sent the zombie back a few feet.

The zombie roared and threw beds at Brick and smashed the tiled floor. Brick caught a large bed and threw it back using the momentum to multiply the force and speed of his throw.

or simply put, threw it back at the big zombie for more hurt.

The zombie staggered back and slumped back down, he looked up to see Brick's large hoof crash down on his skull, giving a large satisfying crunch.

"DON'T YOU EVER HURT MY LITTLE PONIES EVER!" Brick yelled and spat on the rotting corpse.

Roland stared at the carnage of one pony and a zombie twice the pony's size. The floor was completely ruined. The light hung only by a thread and the walls were close to crumbling. Brick came out of the rubble and smiled. "Welcome to Equis, Friends."

Headshot rolled his eyes. "You have such a flare for the dramatic." He dead-panned.

Angel turned to Roland. "A splitting image of our Brick, huh?"

Roland just stared and nodded dumbly. "Yeah..."

Headshot and Brick walked out the hospital, leaving the two humans alone. "You're worried about the Crimson Raider, right?" Angel asked and placed her soft palm on Roland's shoulder.

"I was just thinking that Brick might kill more of the Crimson Raiders if they even say anything about losing." Roland said and gently removed her hand on her shoulder.

Roland saw a ping on his HUD and saw that Angel had it too. There was a new ECHO recording marked "Claptrap's pet" Roland pressed the play button.

"Hey! This is Claptrap from Fyrestone and after my badass-reconstruction machine exploded sky high. I found a little baby pup skag that breaths purple fire. Having near infinite memory of EVERY recording I ever had, I decided to feed the little guy but instead of eatting the ECHO he burned it to a smoldering crisp... Well more like incinerated it, there wasn't anything left after that." Claptrap sighed.

The Skag howled at Claptrap. "I know you're hungry and those Rakk meats I feed you were a little raw." The Skag howled again. "You wanna say hi to whoever is listing to this. Okay!" Claptrap placed the ECHO on the floor and the little Skag took a curious sniff.

"Go on little, Spike the little skaggy waggy, say hi" Claptrap said. Spike howled. "Good- hey wait don't burn it!"

The ECHO ended.

"That was... Weird..." Angel commented and stared at Roland who was in deep though.

"If the Skag burned the ECHO then why do have a copy of it?" Roland wondered and looked closer at the ECHO, burn marks were on the edge of both of their ECHO recordings.

They both decided to ask Headshot about it later. They both walked out the hospital and were greeted with cheers and claps, or was it clops? from the ponies.

The ponies made way for the two warriors and lead them to the town square, which was still under repair. Brick was on a small podium with a heartfelt smile plastered on his face.

"And I happily welcome the two heroes that have saved the town! ROLAND AND ANGEL!" Brick yelled into the microphone and everypony in the crowd cheered.

Roland noted that it sounded more like a wrestling entrance than a hero's entrance. Roland hated publicity even though he had several dozen propaganda posters in Santuary, thanks to Lilith and Mordecia placing it everywhere they went.

Roland sighed. He missed those two idiots. Roland and Angel climbed up the stairs and looked onto the crowd of ponies, all waiting for Roland to say something.

"Hello. My name is Roland and this is my...friend Angel." Roland motioned towards Angel who waved at the crowd. "We are trying to find a way back to our home, Pandora, we can't delve into the details but we were at war and I need to be with my troops..." Roland sighed. "And I know that will take longer than I thought because I see that this planet needs more help than Pandora and I know my best soldiers could take over for me while I'm gone." Roland looked over to Brick and nodded. "We'll be staying here for a while." Those words made the crowd cheer and holler.

Something foul went through the air. A dark monstrous form appeared over the startled crowd, some bowed, some ran away, others fainted, but Roland and Angel knew what that thing was.

Anarchy...

Anarchy smiled at the two would-be heroes. Roland took out his rifle and aimed it at the monster. "Relax," Anarchy said and pinned Roland to the ground with his magic. "I only want to talk to those who ruined my fun or should I say made all the much better."

Angel flared up and used her Phase Shift only for it to be block and returned to her.

Her head swam in thoughts and head-aches while she tried to recover, only to be picked up by the neck and held twenty feet above the ground. "You're an odd bird aren't cha? Mystical powers that, if matured could destroy the minds of everything in its wake. I could have some fun with you." Angel choked as Anarchy's claw was tightening his grip.

Anarchy levitated Roland to meet him face to face. "And you soldier-boy, I think you left this back in the forest." Anarchy lifted his lion paw and shown Roland's broken scorpio turret, completely unrepeatable but not unsalvageable.

"I'm an all-powerful being, soldier and I know what you're thinking. So how's about a little challenge, hmm? I'll put this in the most blood thirsty griffon clan in the area and you try and get it, sounds like a good idea?" Anarchy pinched Roland's cheek and made him nod. "Good." With that Anarchy disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Roland was falling fast towards the ground but some of the ponies were fast enough to bring out a mattress to cusion the fall.

But... The mattress turned into venomous snakes.

Angel was too weak to use her siren powers to fly. She began to go into unconsiousness.

In one last desperate attempt, he threw his last stick of dynamite at the snakes and grabbed Angel and held on tight. The explosion broke their shields as they got rocketed off to the side and crash into a small bakery.

"Roland! Roland!" Headshot's muffled voice called out. Angel was still safely by his side, he took most of the damage from the explosion to protect Angel.

He saw that he was bleeding everywhere. He tried to think of something else to keep his mind away from the fact that he might die and not come back.

My scorpio turret could replenish our ammo, maybe, if I could somehow fix that feature... Roland thought as he coughed up some blood, paramedics began to treat his wounds. We're going to need some fire power to fight those griffons if they go airborne... The medics began to use magic. Some explosives might work so we could break in.

Above all the murmurs and the voices from the crowd one sentence stood above the rest. "She's not breathing..."

Roland blacked out.

> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4

------------------------------

Hello are you awake? Of course not, if you were awake than you wouldn’t be able to hear me.

Roland's eyes slowly opened and then he saw something he knew was fake, a dream. His old squad mates, his friends all standing there smiling and waving. A single tear left the soldier's eyes. The images began to shimmer and fade and left Angel on the lying on the floor.

"Angel!" Roland called out and ran towards her body. Each step he took only made her body move farther and farther away. He stoped moving when he could no longer see Angel.

He looked to his side and saw his new squad, his new friends.

"Hey, Roland!" Mordecai waved, Bloodwing was perched on his shoulder and cawed.

"Roland!" Brick called, a small brown puppy was cradled on his arms.

Lillith ran towards him and hugged the soldier tightly. "I missed you." She said silently.

Something didn't feel right. The entire scene began to fade like before. He found Angel by his side, still unconscious but alive. A dark swirling cloud stood in front of Roland.

"Angel... Angel wake up..." Roland said, softly and slowly shook the siren awake. Angel opened her eyes and saw the cloud in front of them.

"Hello..." The cloud said. "Don't worry, you're not dead. My name is... well I'll reveal my name in due time. I have something important for both of you to do." The cloud began to glow and explode outwards causing the room to change. "I need you to kill Anarchy." The cloud said.

The scene that played out was Anarchy sucking the life out of five ponies wearing necklaces. A purple unicorn stared at horror as the lifeless husks were dropped to the ground.

"That bastard killed my friends and my family. That purple unicorn you see only survived to watch her friends die in agony." The cloud shifted again. "They were the only ones who could have defeated him, he locked away the elements in a place so secure that no one or pony could get in..." The cloud said.

Roland was uneasy while Angel had a stoic look on her face. "The place is called... The vault but not the vault you know of." The cloud showed a large door with a large circle with an upside-down letter V, the symbol of the vault. "This vault was made with several layers of rooms each holding monsters that could destroy a city on a whim."

The doors opened and revealed a dark stallion with a large flowing mane and a horn. "..But each room has a warrior, a champion to help you fight off the monsters. You will need the sixs keys of the vault, you already have one." The two knives they found inside the castle unsheathed and glowed a bright red. "The first keys will start the journey. The vault is not in one place but scattered across the world, the first vault... will start the fall of Anarchy."

------------------------------

"CLEAR!"

*Brztttt*

"Again."

"CLEAR"

*Brzttt*

Roland woke up, not five minutes later. He didn't say anything and his eyes felt very heavy for some reason. Angel was lying right beside him, trying to be revived. Roland coughed up some blood.

Headshot rushed to the soldier's side. "Stay down, Roland. Doctor Twi is heading over right now, if she could fix you once, she cloud fix you again. Just hold still."

Roland didn't notice it before but Brick was arguing with another pony wearing an expensive looking suit.

"As the vice-mayor and chairman of the board of safety in Ponyville. I strongly suggest we leave these... beasts to die." The pony in the suit yelled at the mayor.

"Up yours." Replied Brick.

"These things are what brought Anarchy into town! If we just kill them quickly then everything will be back to normal." The pony calmly said.

"Listen here, Asswipe." Brick said and picked up the pony by the collar. "If it wasn't for these two 'beasts' there wounldn't even be a Ponyville anymore!"

"They couldn't save the three foals..." The pony choked.

"And I saw you hiding in the corner, shitting your expensive tailor made dress pants, seriously, who wears pants anyway?" Brick threw the pony on the ground. "Start talking big when you do something big."

The pony choked as he hit the ground, but he looked more worried about the dirt that was getting on his suit. "What about you? What have you done?"

Brick turned around slowly and walked towards the pony. "You must be new here. Let me tell you a story about how I got my Cutie-mark."


------------------------------

Back when I was fifteen years old, still no Cutie-mark. Ponyville was attacked by bandits, killed dozens, and enslaved the entire living populace... but only for an hour.

They messed with my friends in my town, so I did the most rational thing to do. I smashed the first bandit who tried to chain me, ripe out their intestines and choke them with it.

"Hey! what the hell!" Another bandit walked in while I was having a good time, so I riped out the dead bandit's heart and force-feed it to his friend and slowly strangled the life out of him.

I walked out smiling and the rest of the bandits tried to take me down with swords, knives, maces, lances, you name it. I picked up an old rusty pipe and smashed all their heads in and freed Ponyville.

Just ask the others and they'll tell you it's true.

Of course more bandits showed up.

"This is going to be easy, little dead-meat." A bandit charged at me with a chainsaw.

Easy. Was the only thing on my mind right now as I side-stepped and smashed that freak's skull in.

After a while, they started getting smarter and used arrows. A friend of mine took an arrow for me and died because she lost too much blood. I lost it and dropped the pipe and smashed their heads in with my bare hooves, ripping off their forelegs or anything else attached to their body.

The bandits set up camp near the town and I just ran in and blew it up with some TNT a little filly gave me. And the big bandit boss wasn't happy.

His name was Sledge Hammer and, boy he was huge. He had a large spiked hammer and smashed it across my face.

I tried everything, tackling him, hitting him, burning him and even my leftover TNT nothing stopped the big idiot.

I though "Hey, if he didn't have his hammer he'll be a huge lame ass" So I used the last of my TNT and tackled him and took his spiked club. I know you would expect him to be a blood-thirsty emotionless idiot but as soon as I took the hammer he begged me to give it back.

I honestly didn't know what to do. On one hoof, he did kill some of my ponies in Ponyville and on the other, he was crying like a big baby.

"Please gimmie back my momma's hammer! That's the only thing I got to remember her by!" The big baby cried.

I was raised by my sis and she always told me "When a stallion cries, you know he's serious."

"Don't hurt anypony else and I'll give back your hammer" I said and held out the hammer. He took it and gave me a big hug.

As thanks he gave me a smaller version of his spiked club, I think it was his when he was a foal.

And that's when this picture of a club and a diploma-thingy showed up on my flank.

------------------------------

Brick stared at the pony who looked like he just shat his pants. "I can be deadly or diplomatic, your choice." He said and dropped the pony on the ground and made his way to Roland.

"Doesn't look good..." Headshot said. "I ain't a doctor but I can tell he isn't going to make it without some help and fast."

Roland was dozing off again. His eyes drifted to another pony in the background, staring at him. The pony stepped back and dissapeared into the crowd.

"Twilight! Over here!" Headshot called out to the light purple and magenta unicorn.

Twilight ran over carrying a large medical bag. "Surgery! Stat!" She yelled and everyone made room for the doctor and the soldier.

She took out a scalpel and opened up Roland in the mid-section. "Damn..." She whistled. Roland's insides were literally made of jello and blood. Her horn glowed and the jello organs began to turn back into fully functioning organic organs. Cuts and wounds began to heal themselves.

Roland breathed, sweet air filled his lungs. "Angel!" He yelled and crawled over to her side. "Angel! It's me, Roland!" 

Angel's eyes began to glow and a demonic voice echoed throughout Ponyville. "Your precious Siren cannot help you now."  The voice bellowed and Angel's body began to float and disappear.

Roland's echo turned on. "Roland... Help..." Angel said and then the echo turned off.

Roland stared at the ground where Angel was only seconds ago. "Where is the Griffon camp?" Roland said.

"Wait! What about Angel?!? We got to help her!" Headshot yelled and came face-to-face with Roland. "She's your friend dammit!!"

Roland looked up. "You don't think I know that, think about it whatever that thing that took Angel is, it isn't just some unicorn making magic. We need some serious firepower and my turret is the only thing that could give us enough firepower."

Brick saw the crowd stare uneasily at the soldier.

"Maybe the vice was right, maybe they should just leave." A pony in the crowd said.

"Alright, folks, break it up, nothing to see here." Brick said to the crowd as they dispersed. He then turned his attention back to the soldier. "That would be the Screaming Talons clan up in Dragon peak mountain. The regular pass was covered by a huge landslide, you'll have to move to the other side of the mountain through White-tail woods and a large Bandit clan is set up in the camp; The Broken horns, unicorns with powerful but uncontrollable magic. Hope you’re ready for a fight." Brick said and turned back to the wreckage. "Wish I could come with you but I need to see to the repairs of the town."

"You won't be able to get in without some explosives; I know a mare that would love to blow up the Talons." Headshot said and flew up. "I'll meet up with her and tell her not to blow up when she sees you." He said and flew towards the mountain.

Twilight looked up to the sky. "He's wing's not completely healed, he won't be able to fly for long." Twilight said. "I'll come with you. Just in case." Twilight said and levitated her saddlebag and latched it on.

"Thanks but unless you know how to fight, I'd rather not have to babysit a pony." Roland said, sternly. He walked through town and found White-tail woods.

The woods in question were overrun with a creature similar to a Night Stalker but smaller and didn't have invisibility, but the most noticeable feature was a pair of bat wings and venomous fangs.

"Those are the Crawler." Twilight said. She has been following Roland since town hall. "We can either fight them or sneak pass."

Roland looked at the Crawlers and saw they didn't have much vision or smell but make up for speed. One Crawler riped apart a bunny within two seconds. Roland thought for a while. "The faster we get there, the better." Roland shot his rifle at the Crawlers, killing one by critical hit.

Twilight took out a bloody bone saw that looked like it was used frequently. She slashed a Crawler in across the neck and pushed it aside.

Roland pressed on and knifed anything that got too close. They were slowly being surrounded and Roland was low on ammo. He was on his last clip as he reloaded.

A lightning bolt struck a Crawler in the head. Water harmlessly splashed on several Crawler, much to their anger and another bolt of lightning passed through them.

Headshot was perched on a stationary cloud and waved towards the duo, he then turned his head to the left and fired. Roland knew there was a fight going on and sprinted forward towards the bandit camp.

Fire burnt through the camp as screams of terror and pain echoed through the burning encampment. One pony stared at the burning buildings with a smile, having an insane amount of explosive strapped along her body, her horn was covered with soot as flames burnt through the flesh of the mages of the bandit clan.

"Name's Firecracker, Biyocth!" She yelled as she turned around and an explosion erupted from behind her. "Oh hey, didn't see 'ya there."

Headshot flew down and waved at Firecracker. "Hey, this is the guy I was telling you about, Roland."

Firecracker threw a bundle of unlit dynamite to Roland. "Glad I could meet some...thing that loves blowing shit up as much as I do!" She giggled and bounce towards a burning building. "And I LOVE burning stuff even more!"

"Yeah. Did you get the explosives?" Roland asked.

"Of course." Firecracker said and pulled out a miniature spark.

Headshot backed away as soon as she pulled out the spark. "SHITTTT! That's enough firepower to blow up Canterlot if you place it right."

"You know me, Headshot, I never pack light." Firecracker tucked back the small spark and merrily hopped away as if she didn't have bombs that could destroy a city.

"Do not. I repeat. Do not douse her with water, unless you want to make a crater the size of Sugarcube corner." Headshot said and quickly followed the happy arsonist.

Roland and Twilight followed the Pegasus around the mountain and saw the road that leads up to the top.

"This is going to be a long trip." Roland sighed and started their hike.

------------------------------

Angel. You're going to be alright, you're being taken to an abandoned mineshaft and you lost all your weapons even the knife and SMG. We need that knife.

Angel opened her eyes and she saw she was chained up on the wall, two armored ponies took guard. She saw her HUD reboot as her health, ammo, shields and navigation checked out. Large bold letters appeared in front of her and read "LEVEL UP".

I'm talking to you telepathically, I left you with a little gift, try to knock them out.

Angel opened her ECHO and switched it to the skill tree, there were three categories to choose from, Angel; which mostly shows buffs and heals, Siren; which shows different things that could modify her Phase Shift ability, and Magic; that mostly shows upgrades for weapons to give them an elemental power.

The Siren skill tree shown a mind-control skill that makes lower level enemies fight for you and make you do what you want. She picked that skill.

The two guards looked as bored as a skag without something to chew on. Angel used her Phase Shift ability to make the two guards do her bidding, the two guards picked up the keys and unlocked Angel's bindings. She smiled and knocked the two ponies out.

She traveled outside her little prison and saw that the mine wasn't abandoned after all. Workers with pickaxes mined through rocks and most gems were left in a pile with a few dog things.

"Find the shinnies, slaves." One of the dogs said, Angel crouched down behind a few barrels and crates and peaked over. "Master said watch hairless diamond dog and you find shinnies for us!"

Angel tried to find an exit inside the compound but it was being guarded by the dogs and two large brute ponies.

You can't leave just yet, your stuff is in the safe by your left, the combination is 4,4,4,4. Make sure nopony sees you.

Angel smiled as she noticed the two weak looking guards by the safe, she used her Phase Shift and took control of the two guards, and she sent them away to cause a distraction.

Several minutes later a large fire broke out and a cave-in at one of the mines made her job easier. She went to the safe and turned the dial to open the safe holding her weapons and the vault key/knife.

Good, you got the vault key, you should get out before they figure out your gone.

Angel snuck out the door of the safe and hid in the shadows. As she moved through the compound, her scent was becoming known to the dogs.

"Something doesn't smell right." One of the dogs said and sniffed the air. "The hairless-dog is loose!" The dog pointed towards Angel as she ran from cover to cover.

She took out her rifle and shot the two guards in head, their bodies fell limp on the ground. Angel used her Phase Shift to disorient the dogs and make the weaker ones attack. She ran through the doors. She could see Ponyville in the distance. She sprinted towards Ponyville. Howls and barks followed her towards Ponyville.

Brick was finishing up the repairs on the town hall and the main square. He saw something running on the distance.

"Angel?" He wondered as the human siren can rushing out with a mob of Diamond dog following her.

Brick groaned and went inside town hall and took out a spiked club. "Hope they don't do much damage." Brick muttered softly and charged with the club clenched in his teeth and smashed the diamond dog's skull, blood poured out of its nozzle and head.

Angel took out her rifle and shot the oncoming dogs. "Brick!" She yelled.

Brick pulled out his spiked club and looked at Angel. "Yeah?"

Angel pulled back the trigger and sent a diamond dog flying back. "Where's Roland?"

Brick slammed his hoof down on a diamond dog's head. "He's going up Dragon peak mountain to get his turret thingy." Brick said and shoved off a large diamond dog that bit him on the foreleg.

A large howl came from the ranks of the diamond dogs. The dogs stopped their assault and made way for a enormous dog that snapped at Angel and a smaller dog on its shoulder.

"That is one big bitch." Brick commented and dodged a huge paw but didn't see the tail that knocked him back towards a tree and snap it in half.

The giant dog howled and the dogs attacked the mayor and the siren.

Brick roared himself and sent the dogs flying. He smiled. "This is gonna be fun!"

> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5

------------------------------

Brick slammed his front hooves on the ground and sneered at the enormous diamond dog with a happy expression. The diamond dog howled.

"I'll handle this." Brick said to Angel and charged at the diamond dog. The diamond howled again and several dogs tried to block Brick's advance, the dogs didn't want to play fair and used sharp weapons like spears and swords to slow him down. Brick didn't slow down and rushed through them and even trampling smaller diamond dogs with a satisfying crunch.

Brick turned, using all his momentum and BUCKED the giant diamond dog with his back hooves. The diamond dog flew back a few feet and had several, if not, all his ribs broken. Brick wasn't finished with the dog and jumped on the dog and slammed his hooves on its neck, cutting through the skin and muscles and pulled out the spine and skull.

"HAHAHAHHAHAH! CRY SOME MORE! MORE BLOOD! KILL!"  Brick pulled off its arm and threw it at a group of diamond dog. Those smart enough ran away while the slower or dumber dogs died without so much as a whimper.

Angel stared at the pure carnage of Brick's onslaught and cringe at each snap of the spine, crack of the ribs or screams of the dying.

Brick stopped and blinked. He stared at the last remaining diamond dog and... just stared, cold menacing eyes pierced the dog's small pupils, the dog wished Brick would just kill him and get it over with. Brick stared for what felt like an eternity. For the dog, it was staring at the Grim Reaper himself and he was toying with him, for Brick, it was Tuesday.

The dog picked up a small knife and cut his own throat open, to stop the staring of the mayor.

Brick turned around, stare still active and accidentally locked eyes with Angel. He quickly blinked and rushed over to her side. Angel saw the most terrifying thing she has ever witnessed, even for just a second.

"SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!!!!!" Brick repeated over and over. "Sorry, I didn't mean it!" 

Angel was scared but also very interested on what Brick just did. "It’s... alright, what did you do?" Angel asked.

"It's sort of a family gift. The Stare as Sis called it. She said I got the most 'potent' Stare since Grandma Shy." Brick said. Several ponies came out of their houses, some of them were carrying knives and pitchforks.

"That thing brought the diamond dogs here! The vice was right!" One of the ponies yelled and pointed at Angel. "They couldn't save those three girls and they brought monsters and bandits to our peaceful town!" Angel shrank back at the insults.

Brick had enough. "LISTEN TO YOURSELVES! Do you think that without their help we wounldn't even be standing here, THEY SAVED OUR LUNA-DAMNED LIVES! If it wasn't for them all of you would be dead!"

"But they couldn't save the kids!" One of the ponies yelled and the rest cheered in agreement.

"Then what the fuck did you do? Hid inside town hall, cowering in fear. I gathered all I could to save as much as the population in Ponyville! Did you do anything? Tell me something did ANY of you actually do anything to help those foals? HUH!?! ANSWER ME!" Brick yelled at the crowd, effectively muting the sound. "IF ANY OF YOU HAVE THE GALL TO BLAME THESE SELFLESS BEINGS, THAT SAVED OUR ASSES WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A THANK YOU, THEN I SUGGEST TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY TOWN! NOW!" With that Brick motioned Angel to come inside the town hall and into his office.

Brick sat down on his chair and sighed. "I never meant any of this to happen... Sorry I dragged you into this political mess."

"It’s alright... I'm more worried about Roland..." Angel said, casting a long gaze outside the window.

"Don't be, knowing Twi, Head, and Firecracker, he'll have all the help he needs." Brick said and put some paperwork in the shredder.

"I guess you're right."

------------------------------

"...and I was like 'Oatmeal!?! Are you crazy?!?' and he was like-" Firecracker ranted on as they ascended the steap mountain.

"Shhh... we're here." Headshot said and stared at a large wall with a huge energy dome. "Place the spark there." Headshot pointed to a weak looking wall.

Firecracker quietly sneaked up to the wall and placed the small spark. Headshot aimed his rifle at the spark as Firecracker made her way back to the group. After she was safe with her team, Headshot shot the spark with water and the spark exploded.

The explosion would make Mr.Torge proud as it rocked the whole mountain and completely blasted the huge wall and shields apart. The vibrations itself reached Canterlot and Fillydelphia.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Roland yelled and broke from cover and ran inside the gaping hole in the wall. Griffons scattered throughout the sky and Roland fired his rifle at them.

What I'd give to have a shotgun right now. He muttered and hid to cover as bullets bounced off his shield. He peaked over cover and saw his turret on a high balcony.

"They took out the Limiter!" Roland yelled as his pony allies hid behind cover.

"The what?" Headshot yelled and fired his lightning cloud at the circling Griffons.

"The thing that keeps it from breaking! That thing will break without the Limiter!" Roland yelled back.

"I can blow it up with THIS!" Firecracker pulled out a Rocket launcher from... somewhere and aimed it at the turret.

Roland put his hand on the Rocket launcher and pulled down the pyromaniac. "We came here to get that thing back, not blow it up. Where the hell did you get that anyway?" Roland said and inspected the Rocket launcher.

The leather handle and quick magazine reload system matched that of the Vladof Rocket Launcher but as Roland looked at it closer the weapon was also reloaded from both sides, fired three rockets at a time and has times three zoom. It was, by far, the most advance Rocket launcher Roland has ever seen.

"Made it with duct-tape and metal bits I found around the Cracker-cave. That's my place by the way." Firecracker smiled and fired at the air, hitting three Griffons with the rockets. "I call it the Firecracker's portable hoofheld cannon device or FPHCD for short."

Roland stared at the flame red pony. "You made this? This... is ... a fine piece of machinery." Roland couldn't help but complement the crazed arsonist.

"Hate to break this up but we're still pinned and Griffons are circling us like buzzers." Twilight said and fired a magic bolt that missed its target completely.

Roland snapped out of it and drew the turret's fire so that the other could find better strategic positions. 

Twilight stayed close to Headshot as his wing was starting to bend in an odd angle. Headshot moved to an open building with a view to the sky and fired at the flying Griffons.

Firecracker was setting up some TNT and burning down anything flammable and shooting her Rocket launcher at the Griffons and anything on the ground. "BURN! TASTE THE RAINBOW OF FLAMING DEATH! BWAHHAHHHAH!" Firecracker cackled and burned down some Griffons that dived bombed her.

Roland saw a big Griffon with Mohawk feathers on her head. "Hurry up and kill them! You useless pile of Doo Doo dung!" The Griffon yelled.

As soon as the Griffon came out Headshot flew out with his broken wing. The turret aimed but The Griffon set it off.

"RAZORWIND! You and me have a score to settle!" Headshot yelled at Razor.

"Puh-leese, you’re old news Heady." Razor said and flew up to meet him at eye-level. "Looks like ol' Heady's wing has a boo-boo." She laughed.

Headshot glared at Razor. "I could beat you with both wings broken." Headshot yelled and pulled up his cloud rifle and aimed.

Razor flew towards him at neck-break speed and held him by the left wing. "Does that hurt? I'll take you up on that bet." She grabbed the other wing and twisted it to match the left wing.

Headshot screamed in pain as his wing-bones snapped and he was blacking out. "Done already? Pathetic." Razor threw him back to the ground and swichted on the turret and turned her attention to Firecracker. "Hello! Nice to see ya again, you psychotic freak!"

Firecracker took a fire axe from a nearby Emergency box. "Hi Razor! I'm going to kill you now!" She yelled and burned the axe and threw it at the Griffon. Razor dodged and dived bombed the unicorn and dragged her through the dirt.

The Rocket launcher was on the ground and the turret was firing at Roland. Razor threw Firecracker to a wall and knocked her out.

Twilight fired at the turret to try and disable it but Razor grabbed her by the horn and pulled her down to the ground.

Roland moved towards the Rocket launcher and picked it up. One shot left. Roland though and fired at the last trio of rockets at the Griffon. He was out of ammo for all his guns. One of the many mistakes he kept repeating on Pandora, he always forgets to RESTOCK HIS AMMO!

Razor survived the trio of rockets and dashed towards the soldier. Roland dodged and he had a brilliant idea.

He ran towards the balcony, dodging as much fire from the turret and Razor as he could. He climbed up the balcony and tore off the head of the turret and used it as a machine gun.

Bullets hit the Griffon leader in the chest and several others above the air until they retreated towards the clouds. Roland dropped the broken turret and rushed over to Firecracker and Headshot. 

Twilight was getting up and head over to Firecracker since she was the closest. Twilight shot a beam that healed her wounds. She then moved towards Headshot.

"Not good, he needs a real hospital. I'll try to keep him alive for as long as I can but..." Twilight said and shot the same beam at Headshot.

Roland picked up Firecracker and Headshot. "We don't have time to waste." Roland said. The soldier and the medic ran down the mountain and found the blocked off path Brick mentioned. Roland placed a TNT charge and blasted the rocks apart and dashed towards Ponyville.

It took half the time to get back. Roland rushed towards the hospital and bursts through the door and placed Headshot on a table. "This guy needs help, Fast!" Roland yelled and gently placed Firecracker on a chair.

A few medical ponies took Headshot's broken body and led it to an operation room. Twilight ran in with the medical ponies to assist the surgery.

Roland waited for hours. Blaming himself for his team's injuries.

I should have thought more. I should have seen it coming. I should have been in that room not Headshot. Roland thought, fiddling with his fingers.

Firecracker woke up beside the soldier. "What happened? Why do I taste dirt?" 

Roland turned to his side and pulled out FPHCD and gave it to Firecracker. "... In the end, we didn't even get the turret back." Roland said.

"Maybe not. I could make something similar to it but it won't be the same." Firecracker said and hopped off the chair. "I could use some of my experemental weapon designs to work like your turret."

"Really?" Roland said.

"Yup, I got Flamethrowers, Cannons, Crossbows and a Giant wooden robot shield thing. Choose your pick." Firecracker did actions to show what she was referring to.

"Flamethrower sounds nice." Roland said. Firecracker bounced up and down.

"Dragon Turret it is then!" She blasted off the doors and then she was gone.

Twilight came out several minutes later with a sorrowful look on her face. Roland jumped up to meet the unicorn. "Is he alright?"

Twilight was silent for a few minutes. "He's... He can't... He lost both his wings in that fight but the mechanical experts are working with two artificial wings, I don't know much about machines so I quietly left." Twilight sighed. "I hope he's alright." Twilight started to tear.

Roland pulled her into a heartfelt hug. "I lost an entire squad of men in my care and I don't want to lose anymore." Roland said. "I blame myself all-day and all-night, kept saying 'If I was stronger, smarter, better maybe I could have saved them.' But I couldn't change the past no matter what I did." Roland realeased Twilight from her hug. "It wasn't your fault it was the leader. It was my fault. Don't blame yourself."

"Thanks..." Twilight said softly.

"Hey! What's with the sad faces?" Roland and Twilight looked at the door and found Headshot without his wings, smiling at them.

"Your wings... I'm so sorry." Roland apologized.

Headshot stared at the two depressed warriors and laughed. "Guys. Check this out." Headshot said and two holes on his back opened up and metalic wings came out and looked like his old pair of wings. "I never asked for this but this is so COOL!" 

Roland and Twilight smiled. "Good to see you're alright." Roland said.

"Hey look. Turn on your ECHO thingy." Headshot said and went to the far end of the hall.

Roland turned on his ECHO and Headshot spoke through it. "Those techie guys built in a radio in my head and I found your frequency." Headshot said from across the hall.

"What did he say?" Twilight asked and leaned in.

"He said that those ponies built a radio in his head." Roland replied.

"Hey I can listen to Celestia radio on this thing!" Headshot yelled excitedly.

Roland and Twilight laughed and they left the hospital with their new half-robot friend.

Soft mechanical buzzing filled the air as Headshot's wings flap in the air. "I think those guys said something about boasters on this thing." As soon as he said 'boaster' two jets came out of his wings and he flew at extreme speeds and even made a sonic boom.

"Ponyville hadn't seen a sonic boom since the peaceful times." Twilight commented.

"Roland?" Angel said through the ECHO.

"Angel? Where are you?" Roland replied to her ECHO message.

"Hello? So I just talk to this thing?" Brick said, unknown to him that Roland was listening in. "So... ahhh... Roland? I don't know if you can hear me but if you want to beat Anarchy then you need an army."

"All copy, Brick, where are you guys anyway?" Roland said in his ECHO. Brick gave a startled grunt.

Angel took the ECHO and talked back to Roland. "There's a bandit clan; The Hammers, that have good relations with Ponyville so they might give us a hand-er-hoof."

"Copy." Roland said. "What the hell happened anyway?"

"Woke up in a mine guarded by dogs. No big deal." Angel said. She looked out the window and noticed the sun go down and the moon rise up. "We're in town hall. We'll stay the night here."

Roland looked over to Twilight. Twilight had a concerned look on her face, probably thinking about Headshot's condition. Roland did fell a bit guilty for what happened. "Negatory, Me and Headshot will stay at Twilight's place. He was injured earlier and lost both his wings. I'm not entirely sure he's fit for duty."

Angel was a bit concerned without Roland for the night but I guess she understood why. "Alright, meet us inside Sugarcube corner tommorow, Okay?"

"Sounds good, Roland out." Roland pressed the switch on his ECHO and started to follow the signs of destruction that Headshot left.

Headshot was smashed inside the wall of an old clock tower as his muffled cries for help were drowned out by the gears and springs inside the clock tower.

Roland poked his leg. "You alright?"

Headshot rolled his eyes. "Do I look alright to you?"

"I've seen worse." Twilight said and used her magic to pull him out of the hole in the wall. Headshot shook off the dust from his coat and mane and retracted his new robotic wings.

Headshot thought silently for a moment. "Go Go Gadget Toothbrush!" He yelled and waited for something to happen.

After a few minutes Roland face-palmed.

Twilight led them back to her place. It was a giant library tree house thing. Twilight opened the door and went inside. Roland shrugged at the Pegasus and ducked to follow the unicorn.

The inside had a hard wood floor and bookshelves lined with an assortment of books. A stone horse head was on the table and several medical notes and other things were surrounding the Horse-head Bust.

Twilight pulled out a small brown box and shoved several... "Devices" in it and quickly hid it away. "You two didn't see anything." She said menacingly.

Headshot and Roland slowly nodded.

"Good. Make yourselves comfortable while I go prepare the beds." Twilight said and went upstairs.

Headshot pulled up two cushions and sat down on one, Roland did the same but it was a bit too small for the gruff soldier. "So what's the story with Firecracker anyway?"

"How she got her Cutie-mark was sort of unique." Headshot said lied down on the cushion.

------------------------------

She burned down a town... with two rocks and a few sticks of dynamite...

Let me start at the beginning.

Me and her? We go way back, back when we were around our teen years.

So I was an assassin for hire while she did whatever she wanted in our little hide-out.

I got this job to take out a bandit leader call Mow-Down, a Minotaur. He was large, fast, strong, smelly and had an IQ of a rubber duck. The perfect Minotaur bandit leader.

So he built a town, a small empire near Manehatten and the folks there hired me to get the job done. I was at the top of my game, not one shot missed since I picked up the old scope and barrel.

I missed when it was time to take out my mark but the fucking Razorwind tackled me to the ground and the lightning bolt missed completely.

Firecracker was reading a book of combat spells at the time and learned how to burn things... a lot... even burnt a few of my feathers... She was also reading a book titled "The Bombinomicon" and she learned how to blow up EVERYTHING... She even blew up our hide-out.

Firecracker's first creations were firecrackers but those were enough to ruffle a few feathers and send a Griffon flying away.

I lost my "No missed shots ever" record because of that Griffon. So I was a bit pissed.

I was down and couldn't fire my rifle but Firecracker burned anything that got to close and burned down the buildings with ease. Mow-Down tried to take her down from a distance by throwing everything at her but she burned it and threw it back.

She started to change after that...

She began to cackle madly as she roasted the boss down to a fiery crisp, her mane was a perfect match with the fire in the background and she hummed a disturbing parody of a song. A song that was supposed to bring smiles to everypony who hears it.

"They call me the Cracker
And I am here to burn
I'm gonna burn you all today and smile all the wayyyy!

It doesn't matter now
If you had things to do
'Cause burning all your friends is what I'm here to do

'Cause I love to make you hurt, hurt, hurt
Yes I do
It burns your body down unto the ground
Yes it does

All I really need is for you scream, scream, scream
In the fiery pits of hell!"

I sort of blacked out after that but after I woke up I saw her Cutie-mark, A burning time bomb with fiery bat wings.

Seriously she's fucking scary.

------------------------------

Twilight came back down from the stairs. "The beds are ready but if the two of you are hungry. I could make something for the both of you." She said.

"Nah, I'm good." Headshot said and walked up the stairs. "I'm gonna hit the hay early. Night, guys."

"Not really hungry right now.Maybe tomorrow." Roland said and went up the stairs.

After a few minutes, Twilight went up the stairs to see if the two warriors were asleep. Roland was fast asleep on the bed and Headshot fell out of bed but was still asleep.

Twilight quickly ran down the stairs and excitedly took out the brown bag. "Now that I'm alone..."

------------------------------

Brick gave Angel a presidential suite inside town hall. Brick also lived inside town hall for two reasons:

1. It was easier to get to work in the morning when he sleeps in.

2. He doesn't like his house, it smells like rats, cider and animal dung, sure he liked furry animals and was taking care of a few of them but it stinks so bad.

Angel took off her shirt and turned on the shower. Water poured down from the shower-head and slid down her body. Her slender form was quite nice to look at even if you were a pony.

She looked at her blue tattoos and remembered all the times she lied to the nine vault hunters, five years ago and from earlier this year.

Brick was in the suite next door and Brick flushed his toilet. Hot water splashed on Angel's body as she yelped from the sudden change in water temperature.

"Are you alright?" Brick yelled through the wall.

"I'm fine!" Angel replied.

She picked up a purple bath-towel and wrapped it around her body. She noticed the bloody pile of clothes on the floor. She placed them inside the washing machine and turned them on.

She was thinking, something she did all the time when she was locked up inside the A.I control room.

What if I wasn't a siren? Maybe thing would have been better with me and Jack... She thought as she sat down on her large bed. ... Or maybe he would just get rid of me when I was a new born. That sounds like something Jack would do.

The sound of the washing machine stopped and she took out the clothes, she then placed them in a magical dryer made to quickly dry clothes and avoid shrinking.

As soon as she pressed the button the machine stopped and she pulled out the fresh clothes, all pressed and nice... until the next bloodbath that is.

Angel put on her short and shirt and lied down on her bed.

What would happen... She thought to herself. If I just told the vault hunters of what was in the vault... Maybe I could have avoided all this trouble.

------------------------------

Firecracker took out a roll of duct-tape and several pieces of metal. The FPHCD was redisigned to fire rockets and shoot out flames but she had another problem.

The FPHCD turret or Dragon turret for short needed to be portable. How in the wide, wide world of Equis can she do that?!?

Of course she could carry it around, she had access to Hammer-space but this was for the big alien soldier she liked.

She likes fire and explosions and he like fire and explosions. Of course she likes him.

Firecracker wrapped her brain around what to do. In her frustration, she threw all her equipment on the ground. She noticed an old toolbox in the corner of her workshop and had a brilliant idea.

She dismantled the turret and, with a little unicorn magic, took out a small gray box and compacted the large turret into the box.

"I... am... the ... MOST BRILLIANT UNICORN TO HAVE EVER BURNED DOWN A TOWN!" She yelled at her triumph and looked at the clock. "Nap time." She then fell back on her bed and instantly fell asleep.

> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6

------------------------------

Fire burned as Headshot was bound to a wooden chair. He screamed for help as the flames came closer and closer to his coat. Inside the flames he saw a demon, worse than the ones he fought before and ten times more deadly.

The Demon broke through the flames and stepped closer and closer. Headshot's breathing was erratic as the Demon slowly pulled up the mask it wore as a symbol of horror.

"Hiya! Heady!"


------------------------------

Headshot woke up with a start, sweat pouring down his face as his new wings twiched with every heartbeat. "It was just a dream." Headshot breathed a sigh of relief.

"What was?" Firecracker said through the window and startled, actually more like scared the living shitiles out of the poor Pegasus. Headshot jumped up in the air and panicked, hitting the wall as stars began to circle his head.

Firecracker stood over the dizzy Pegasus and smiled. "Good morning!" She smiled. Headshot began to calm down.

"EVERY FUCKING MORNING!" The sniper yelled and got up to his hooves. "Why can't you just sleep in like a normal unicorn once in a while?"

"'Cause I'm not normal!" She said and quickly made Headshot's bed. "And I love watching my favorite cyborg-Pegasus sleep! And... You were dreaming about me again, weren't you?"

Headshot blushed and matched the unicorn's coat color. "More like a nightmare!" He said as he averted his eyes from her red ones.

Firecracker waved it off. "Listen, Roland and that other alien girl with the blue tattoos were going to Sugarcube corner, I just came here to wake you up."

Headshot scratched his head. "Why didn't they just wake me up?"

"They tried. I'm the only one who could wake you up from one of your bondage dreams." She said and trotted down the stairs.

Headshot blushed again and stuttered his words. "But-It wasn't- I mean I never got to that- AGHHH! Why are you so difficult?!?"


------------------------------

Cake Batter, the Cake family's eldest and only son, worked the oven while his sister, Lemon Cake, worked the cash register.

Lemon Cake yawned. It was going to be another slow day because of the repairs and nopony ever has time for sweets anymore. Lemon sighed.

"Sis... I'm bored..." Cake Batter groaned.

"Just one more day and Uncle Rum Cake will come back from vacation and the place will be booming." Lemon said to her older brother.

"Nopony says 'booming' anymore." The older brother said. "Today is going to be another boring day."

The bells on the door ringed and a familiar face came through the door.

"Hello, Cakes!" Twilight said, in a very unusually happy tone considering that its very early and you usually see the medical unicorn with a scowl on her face.

The Cakes were usually afraid of Twilight in the morning but something was off. "Twilight, what brings you here soo early?"

"Special meeting with the mayor and the aliens." Twilight said, happily. The Cakes looked sadly at eachother.

"Can... you have the meeting somewhere else?" Batter said, sadly. Lemon's eyes began to tear up. "You know... what happened during the attack... our little sister..."

"That's why we're having this meeting here. We got some good news that you two need to hear!" Twilight said and sat down on the table.

The door opened again and The Mayor and Angel walk through the door. The Cakes were greatful for the two vault hunters but just seeing them makes them remember their little sister, Cheese Cake.

Angel looked sad and tired, she had slightly red eyes and her hair was messy. Brick on the other hand was smiling at the two bakers.

The duo took a seat and ordered a large cake, courtesy of the mayor.

A few minutes later Headshot and Firecracker came through the door. Headshot was arguing with the unicorn but she didn't seem to mind the chaos.

Meanwhile...

Roland looked pass the rolling hills and thousands of apple trees on the horizon. "This is why I let Mordicai do the navigations..." He muttered to himself and decided to ask for directions.

Back at Sugarcube corner...

"What is taking that soldier so long?" Brick said as he finished his slice of chocolate cake. "It's been two hours now!"

Angel took a bite of her Angel-food cake. "Knowing him, he's probably lost somewhere."

Firecracker had an odd taste... A double-chili-rainbow-supreme-with-extra-hot-sauce cake. "Probably near Sweet Apple Acres. I mean that's the only place anypony could get lost."

Headshot took a bite of his vanilla sponge cake. "I'll go look for him." Headshot got up from the table and headed outside.

Twilight had an equally unusually taste... A complete replica of a pony head with a jelly brain. "I'll give it an hour."

An hour later...

Headshot opened the door and led Roland inside. "Found him circling the western fields for an hour... It was sort of funny seeing him walk around in circles."

Brick grumbled and slid five bits towards Twilight. "Told ya."

Roland saw a slice of cake just for him. "So... what's this about a bandit clan?" He said, munching on his slice of cake.

"You know about the three kids that died a few days ago." Brick said. "I already told Twilight but I can't be sure."

Twilight opened up a folder and map. "We believe that those three foals aren't dead." Twilight said. The Cake's ears perked up to the news.

"WAIT! You mean our little Cheese Cake is alive?!?" Lemon yelled.

"Maybe, we can't be sure. The Bandit clan is in good terms with the mayor and they said that Anarchy sent them the location and a picture of the three fillies." Twilight said and pulled out the picture.

Three fillies, an Earth pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn were tied up on a flag pole with Anarchy wearing a goofy grin.

"We need more info. I trust my source but I don't trust the guy who gave this info to my source." Brick said.

"Where do we fit into all this?" Angel said.

"We can't send in anypony or we'll cause a war. There is a Minotaur clan that's guarding the three fillies, The Hammers are crippled and need extra hooves-hands." Brick said.

"So you want us to infiltrate their base and rescue the fillies." Headshot said.

"No, I need you two to provide support for the Hammers." Brick said and pointed to Firecracker. "Roland and Angel would sneak in while the Hammers and you two provide a distraction."

"I'm a good distraction!" Firecracker chimed in.

"Meet with their boss, Sledge Hammer and he'll tell you how to get in." Brick said. "Me and Twi will need to stay in town. Honestly we're the only ones able to actually fight. That and Rum Cake is out of town."

"Rum Cake?" Roland said and finished his cake.

"Our Uncle." Batter said. His eyes were ablaze with determination. "He's the local Democolt and the owner of this bakery since our dad died."

"Our Uncle basically taught everything Firecracker knows about blowing stuff up." Lemon said.

"The only thing he told me was 'Gunpowder plus fire equals boom', and that’s the only thing you need to know." Firecracker said with a smile.

"I thought she learned how to make bombs from a book." Roland said.

"Basic bombs, she learned the big stuff from Mr. Cake." Headshot said.

"So, we're going now or what?" Angel said as she reloaded her rifle and was patiently waiting by the door. "Those fillies won't save themselves."

Roland nodded and got up from his seat. He looked to the two baker ponies and smiled. "We'll get those kids back."  He said and turned his attention towards the Siren. "Let's go."

Brick led the way to the outskirts of town. Large hills were scattered across the landscape. "The Minotaur clan's base is inside a large cave system and the fillies are at the center of it. They have a forward base right outside, you two will need to get in through there." Brick said and pointed towards a large mountain. "You may want to stock up inside the Hammer's base."

Roland face-palmed, almost forgetting to restock again. "Right... Just point us in the right direction."

Twilight pointed to the mountain. "They're on the other side of the mountain." Twilight took out a small red pack with a white cross on it. "Here's a first-aid kit, just in case."

Angel took the med-pack and safely put it inside her inventory.

Roland and Angel left town with the two ponies.

Firecracker stopped mid-stride and turned towards the soldier. "I just remembered the turret!" Firecracker pulled out a small grey box with a red "danger" sign on it. "I couldn't get the rockets in but the flame thrower works like a dream..." She said and turned around. "Like a sick bondage dream..." She muttered silently.

"I heard that!" Headshot said and shot the mare with a water cloud, causing the mare to flare up, literally and metaphorically.

Roland took the small grey box. Roland examined the box and saw a small red button on the side. He pressed the button and threw it to the ground.

The box opened up and revealed a, relatively, small turret compared to the Dahl Sabre Turret. The Dragon turret was painted bright red with a little warning light on top of it. It beeped as it scanned for anything to burn.

Firecracker pulled out a small doll painted to look like a target. "The only problem with this thing..." Roland just noticed that the doll looked like Headshot. "...is that it can't hit anything at range..." She said and threw the doll in front of the turret. "... but anything that gets to close is barbecued!" She said and the turret burned the doll to a smoldering crisp.

Roland found another button on top of the turret and pressed it. The turret began to shrink back down to a small grey box, the box disappeared and reappeared on Roland's hand. "Oh and it's completely locked to its current owner. So unless you give it away, that thing is going to stick to you like a sticky leather rope!"

"FOR THE LOVE OF!!!" Headshot yelled and soaked the mare again. This went on for a few more hours.

Roland and Angel walked silently for the most part but Angel decided to break the silence.

"I saw your FaceDesk page on the ECHO net. I noticed that Lilith was the only one who ever commented on your page." Angel said. Roland gave her a side-ways glance.

"Yeah? So what?" Roland asked in confusion. "I mean she WAS my girlfriend."

"I mean, those comments were added after she 'died'  how did Hyperion not see those comments?" Angel said with curiosity.

Roland scratched his chin. "Maybe... they just didn't notice?" Roland said.

"Impossible. Jack was on your account twenty-four-seven, he knew why you liked a page or why to feed your skags in Skagville." Angel said. She didn't notice the large gates in front of her.

"Oh. We're here." Roland said.

"State your business here!" A loud mechanical voice boomed out. "Unless you have official business with the leader or his daughter then I suggest you leave."

Headshot took out a rolled up scroll and placed it inside the mail slot.

The squad waited for a response.

"... Fine... Come in." The mechanical voice said and the large metal gates opened. The two humans and ponies entered the bandit town.

The town wasn't your typical bandit town, it didn't dead bodies littered around, and the citizens were friendly enough, considering that most bandit towns would kill you as soon as you step through the gates.

Two ponies stepped forward; their filthy clothes were covered in dust and dirt. "Follow us to the Den, where the boss is at." One of the "guards" said.

Ponies talked as the two humans were being escorted by four ponies. Some ponies gave a causious glance while others closed thier windows and stalls.

Roland and Angel were escorted to a large cave, judging by the way it opens the cave wasn't naturally made. They made thier way inside which housed several rooms and were lit with torches and flaming barrels.

It almost feels like a real bandit camp. Roland thought as they went further inside the cave.

Headshot and Firecracker were escorted to another room. "We'll catch up later. We got to set up these guys with some more firepower." Headshot said and opened the door that read "Caution: Explosive and volatile components and other hazards" Below the sign was another sign that read "Translation: LOTZ OF STUFFZZ THAT GOEZZ BOOMZZ"

Roland and Angel came to a large metal door with graffiti and other tags plastered on it.

"Father I do hope that you would at least consider wearing a suit, I mean this is a formal meeting with the heroes that saved Uncle Brick's town." A dignified and feminine voice came from inside.

"Hate to break it to you, Sweetie but I don't have a suit." A very loud male voice came from inside.

The two guards pulled open the large doors and moved to the side. Roland and Angel stared wide-eyed at the interior of the dirty, low-tech, bandit cave. 

The walls were made from polished marble brick and the floor was perfectly shined and even reflected your reflecion. A high-hanging chandelier was glowing over-head. Paintings were covering the walls and sculptures of an elegant mare with a hammer and a diamond cutie-mark, several columes were supporting the ceiling over-head.

A large throne, along with a smaller throne, sat at the other end of the room. "You Roland? Angel?" The large, as tall as Roland, pony said.

A smaller mare gave a disapproving stare at the bandit leader. "Father! Where are your manners?" She said.

The large pony rolled his eyes. "Introduce yourself before asking for somepony's name." He said in a bored tone. And then turned to the two humans. "My name is Sledge and this is my daughter." He said and gestured a hoof at the young mare.

"Diamond Hammer at your service." She said and did a little curtsy.

"We heard that you saved Ponyville, for that we thank you, I have a very close friend that showed me how a true leader should act." Sledge said and gestured to a portrait of Brick holding a small hammer and shaking hooves with Sledge.

"Sorry for being blunt but I'd rather want to get straight to business." Roland said. "Three kids are in danger right now and we honestly don't have time for pleasantries."

Diamond came forward and looked at the two humans with a critical eye. "Of course but we must know how capable you are first." She said and several ponies came from hidden doors, wielding weapons. "I don't want to relay on two beings that may not be capable of saving the foals."

Roland shrugged. "Fair enough..." He said, remembering The human Brick's Slabs and their initiation.

Angel pulled out her rifle and Roland face-palmed, forgetting to stock up on ammo... AGAIN!

"Angel..." He whispered to the Siren. "Give me a few clips..."

Angel rolled her eyes and pulled out a few clips for his rifle. "You are hopeless." She said.

"That's what Lilith says to me all the time." Roland reloaded his rifle and waited for the first attack.

Diamond went back to her seat and raised her hoof. "BEGIN!" She yelled and lowered her hoof down.

Arrows and bullets bounced off the two heroes shield as they broke for cover and hid behind two different columns.

Roland shot a bullet at one of the ponies and the body fell limp and disappeared. "What the..."

"You don't think we would use real men, right? Thanks to a little magic and the advancement of technology, we made simulations that feels real as an actual fight." Sledge said and slammed his hoof on a button. "Sending in some Badasses!"

Roland and Angel dispatched the rest and waited for the Badasses. A familiar blur and buzz came from a hole in the ceiling.

Headshot zoomed down and picked up a rifle from one of the simulation soldiers. He fired his rifle, clipping away at Roland's shield.

Firecracker teleported in a blaze of red-hot fire and burned through Angel's shields.

The two humans stepped back and fired their weapons at the two simulation fighters which didn't seem to be fazed by the bullets.

Roland ducked down as flames flew pass his head. He grabbed the simulation Firecracker's horn and yanked on it. Roland then gave a hard right punch in the throat as she stumbled back and readied her flames once more.

Roland took the opportunity to test out his new turret. He threw the small grey box on the ground and the turret popped open and burned the simulation Firecracker. It was ineffective but slowed down the simulation.

The simulation Firecracker was about finished but Headshot rushed in to save the other simulation but was caught in the flames, singing his coat and tail catching on fire.

Angel used her Phase-Shift to pause the two simulations and the two humans opened fire. The two bodies fell limp and dissapeared like the rest.

Sledge gave a slow clap. "Impressive. I like you two already."

Diamond gave a much faster clap. "Good show! I haven't seen anypony beat that in a while and in record time too."

Roland and Angel smiled at the two ponies. "Thanks but we need to plan." Roland said.

"Right. I already have a plan. You two sneak in a back entrance my boys made a few days back while we provide a distraction by blowing up their compound and attacking their base. Your priority is the three foals. Understood?" Sledge said and pulled down a hammer from the wall. "Talk to me when you're ready. You can patch yourselves up at the local clinic or buy some ammunition from Flim and Sham Trading."

"And maybe get some new rifles? Those things work well but... they are absolutely rusty!" Diamond said, noting the old and wore rifles the two humans had. "Here are some bits to start you off." Diamond threw a small sack of gold at the vault hunter's feet.

Roland picked up the money and was shared between him and Angle.

Angel tapped Roland's shoulder. "Don't forget to buy some ammo this time." She said with a smirk.

Buying ammo, fighting bandits, attacking large bandit clans, this reminds me of the good old days. Roland sighed and stepped out the clean room and into the dusty cave.

> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7

------------------------------

Headshot and Firecracker set up the explosives and checked the weapons.

Headshot lifted a crate and gently placed it on top of a red crate. "Looks like we're good to go."

Firecracker had a sadistic grin on her face as she eyed the explosives with a spark in her eyes. Headshot quickly took the Unicorn away. The duo left the room, Headshot dragging the still grinning unicorn.

"Tell your boss that the bombs are ready." Headshot said to one of the guards.

"Right." The guard turned around and walked towards the main room.

Headshot went out the cave with Firecracker. The two of them needed to wait for the rest of the plan to fall into place. The sun was setting and everything was falling into place.

"Just when you think everything is going well, something bad and unexpected happens." Firecracker said as the two of them bought a drink.

"Annnnndddd... You jinxed it..." Headshot said and took a sip of his drink.

Firecracker smiled. "I mean what could possibly go wrong when you try to be realistic." She said with an innocent grin.

Headshot stared at the mare for a minute and laughed. "You? Realistic? You tried to make a bomb with glue, a potato, a hayburger, five slices of pineapple and duct-tape!"

"Duct-tape fixes everything and it blew up didn't it." She said.

"You duct-taped a stick of dynamite on it..." Headshot said and floated up to a low cloud. "I'll go take a nap. Wake me up when we start the attack."

Firecracker smiled and threw her empty can at the Pegasus. "See 'ya later, Perv."

"A stallion can have his fetishes!"

"Whatever! I'll go see if there's something I can burn." Firecracker left the Pegasus alone and walked the messy streets of the town.

Many ponies think that she was just a psychotic pyromaniac skilled at making explosive but she is also a very talented singer. If things turned out differently she might have been a singer.

But... I would have never might Headshot... That strong, hot-headed, little colt that saved me and helped me when I was alone... He was alone too but he wore a smile on his face for me... He's my best friend and I would never give that up for anything... She thought as she looked at a poster, a singing competion.

It was too late to enter but she loved hearing beautiful voices of some of the ponies.

She trotted over to the theater and bought a ticket for the singing contest. She took a seat at the front row and smiled, waiting patiently for the show.

The lights began to dim and a pony wearing a tuxedo stood on the stage.

"Fillies and Gentlecolt! The show will begin shortly so just sit tight and-" The sound of an explosion silenced the host, Firecracker looked over her seat and spotted several armed ponies with balaclavas on their face.

"Get down and give us all your money!" A pony yelled.

"Screw that!" A pony from the audience yelled. One of the Kidnappers yelled and fired a rifle and killed the poor colt.

"Anypony else want to mess with us?!? Give us your damned money!"

The other ponies threw their money at the floor in fear. One of the kidnappers took out some rope and tied the other ponies down. Firecracker took out her bag of bits and slowly made it to the pile of bits on the ground.

"Hurry up, lady! We ain't got all day!"

Firecracker came close to one of the kidnapper and smiled an unsettling grin. The pony pointed his rifle at the unicorn.

Firecracker pushed down the rifle and yanked it out of the pony's grasp and burned the kidnapper. She turned her attention to the other kidnappers that were firing their own weapons at the pyromaniac.

She conjured a small spherical shape that blocked the bullets. She charged with the shield still active and rammed the shield and the one of the kidnappers to a wall, giving a sickening crunch.

She pulled out a rifle she took earlier and fired at the remaining ponies. The sphere shattered and turned into a ring of fire that surrounded her body. The flames were magic and caught anything and everything that passes through them with fire.

Firecracker's bullets passed through the ring and burned one of the kidnappers in the foreleg, the leg burnt to a crisp and soon the pony died from dehydreation.

She made quick work of two of them and the rest ran away with their tails between their legs.

Firecracker never loses her prey, ever... She let them escape for now but will hunt them down later. 

She turned towards the cowering ponies, still bound by the rope. She quickly burned through the rope and left the theater, humming a tune to herself.

"Time to kill some baddies." She hummed and followed the panicking ponies in the distance.

------------------------------

"Welcome to the Flim n' Sham trading and CO,." The yellow colt said across the counter, hiding his surprise and fear in front of the two aliens. "I'm Flim the third and my cousin will be right out with Sledge's special stash."

Roland bit his lower lip, he didn't like these business-man/pony types, the only one he actually trust would be Marcus, even if he was a slimly, greedy man. That man always provides what they needed and wanted.

But... He sighed. Marcus isn't here...

A mare with the same color scheme of her cousin came out of the backroom. "Bombs, books, bullets and booze we got 'em all. Are you sure this is everything?"

Angel nodded. "How much?" She asked.

"Five thousand bits." The colt calmly said. Roland rubbed his temples with his fingers.

Angel raised her hand. "We only owe three thousand. Don't try and trick me I can do basic math." Angel said and the two ponies deflated.

"Right..." Flim said and handed over the briefcase. "It's got all the stuff, ammo, bombs, some medical supplies and Sledge's sawed-off shotgun, but I don't think you can use it effectively unless you modify it to work for you. We can mod it for only one thousand bits, this is a once in a lifetime offer."

"Thanks but no thanks, we already got someone who can mod this." Roland said and picked up the briefcase.

"How much is your friend charging?" Sham asked. 

Roland and Angel walked towards the door and turned around to face the two business ponies. "Free of charge." Roland and Angel left the shady shop and headed back to the cave.

A rush of hot air and the smell of smoke came to them.

"Fire?" Angel said and moved towards the smoke. Roland followed the Siren through the streets and the startled ponies.

"Firecracker?" Roland said as he pushed through the crowd of ponies.

"BURN! BURN! BURN! TASTE THE CLEANSING POWER OF THE FLAMES OF DEATH AND AGONY! BWAHAHAHAH!" Firecracker yelled as she burned down an old building and some ponies along with it.

"Isn't somepony going to call the guards?" A pony in the crowd said.

"Nah, remember the last time a guard tried to stop a psychotic unicorn." Another pony said with a sigh. "I swear, our guards are useless."

"Firecracker! Stop! They're dead!" Roland yelled and placed his hand on the unicorn's shoulder.

Firecracker turned around and stared at the soldier. "Hi, Rolly!" She said in an upbeat voice.

"Aren't we going to tell the guards that there are two biped thingies walking around town?" The same pony said.

"Nah, remember that half-dragon-gorilla-changeling thing a few days back? The guards will probably get their asses kicked." The other pony sighed. "We should get out of here before something bad happens."

The crowd started to dissipate and left the unicorn and two humans in front of the giant burning building.

"Why the hell did you burn that?" Angel said and pointed to the burning building.

"Bunch of thugs tried to kidnap the ponies in the theater so I burned them... all to a satisfying golden... black." She said and stomped on a pile of ash.

"Right... We should head back, the plan should start soon." Roland said and went the wrong way.

"Other way." Angel said with a roll of her eyes. "You are useless with navigations."

"You've seen all our adventures. They never ever let me drive." Roland said and turned around walked back towards the cave.

"There was that one time you drove Scooter's Monster into a mine and blew everybody up." Angel said and followed the unicorn and soldier.

"Well... once." Roland shrugged.

"And that one time you drove off a cliff... twice..." Angel pointed out.

Roland quickened his pace. "Alright, thrice."

Angel and Firecracker matched the soldier's speed. "And don't get me started on the time you got the Bandit Buzzard."

Firecracker stopped above a cloud and shot a fireball at it. Headshot yelped at the red-hot ball of fire that impacted his flank and singed his short tail.

"Stop your kinky dreams and get up! We're about to go!" Firecracker yelled and ran to catch up to the two humans.

Headshot grumbled and opened the holes on his back and released his wings. He turned on his own radio in his head and started talking. "Yo, Roland. I'm heading on out first, scoping out the area and stuff." He said and flew over the forward Minotaur base. 

Something red popped up on his vision and saw a missile heading straight towards him. He banked left and dodged the first missle but two more came up and blasted him out of the air. He plummeted down to the ground and landed on the middle of the forward base.

His wings suffered major damage as the wires and cords were slightly visible. He tried to contact the others but something was blocking the signal.

"Remember me, dipshit?" A tall white Pegasus hovered over him. "I remember you saying something along the lines of 'If I ever see you again I'll rip out your wings and shove them up your ass' or something."

Headshot coughed as the a few sparks came out of his wings. "How the fuck could I forget my own brother?"

------------------------------

Roland and Angel received Headshot's message and headed back to Sledge. Firecracker sprinted ahead.

"You think he's going to be alright?" Angel asked as the two made their way through the cave.

Roland stopped and turned around, facing the cave entrance. "... I don't know... He seems alright but... I just can't shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen..."

Angel put her hand on the soldier's shoulder. "You know, you care a lot about your friends and I'm sure he's alright." Angel said but she also had this unshakable feeling in her stomach that something is wrong. "Maybe... Maybe we should get going?"

Roland nodded and they made their way to the main room of the cave.

Roland pushed open the door and walked inside the crystal clear room. Angel followed the soldier but she felt like something was just pulled out of her, something on her back.

"Heroes! We are ready to save those foals!" Sledge yelled in excitement. "The bombs are in place, and my most blood thristy warriors are itching for a fight!"

Roland checked his ammo and his Dragon Turret and his shields. "Ready when you are."

Angel still had an uneasy feeling about this, but she pushed it aside. "Ready." She said.

Diamond smiled. "Alright! Let's show those ruffians who their dealing with!" She said. "Meet us at the entrance of their forward base and we'll discust how you get through."

"Right." Roland said and switched on his ECHO device. "Headshot, we're coming in, prepare to provide support, over." Roland said but all that replied was static. "Repeat, prepare to provide sniper support, over." Again, no response. "Headshot, Respond." The static didn't stop. He looked at the others that were doing a last minute weapons check. "Headshot's not responding, I think he's in trouble."

Firecracker slipped a fresh batch of rockets inside her new rocket launcher, The Fire Blaster, and ran out the door, not even stopping to for the guards.

Roland and Angel followed the unicorn outside town and saw the huge group of guards, ready to fight.

Firecracker pushed through the front and slowed down, she hid her rocket launcher and casually walked up to the two Minotaur guards in front of the large gates of the Minotaur forward base.

"What do you want, Pony?" The Minotaur on the left said.

"Leave before we make you." The other one said.

"What am I doing? That's a funny story actually." She said and walked back and forth. "I'm here to- Look a distraction!" She pointed to the sky and the two Minotaurs looked up only to be burned by the psychopathic unicorn.

Sledge signaled the attack and pointed to the poorly fixed hole in the side of the base. "There's your entrance! We'll take it from here!" Sledge and a few dozen guards stormed the gates and broke it down with ease, the Minotuars inside didn't know what hit them before it was too late.

Roland and Angel went towards the crack on the wall and broke it down and ran inside. The same feeling of forebodding came back, only stronger.

"Something's not right..." Angel said and looked at the raging battle.

The ponies were slaughtering the Minoutaurs without breaking a sweat.

"Yeah, This is way too easy..." Roland and Angel charged through the ruins of the base towards the cave system where the main base was hidden.

Firecracker wasn't getting the satisfaction she wanted. She didn't even have to fire her new rocket laucher. The guards were easily destroying the base without her flames. She saw the mouth of the cave and it piqued her interest, she also noticed a few wires on the ground and picked them up.

Hmmmm... She hummed and ran inside the cave.

Diamond, despite her size, was dominating everything in her path. Her earth pony heritage and Sledge's strict training, this was like playing in the sandbox filled with sharp spikes.

Please. She thought. I grew out of the sandbox when I was five. She yawned and smashed a head of a Minotaur with her diamond encrusted hammer.

Sledge was just enjoying the blood but Diamond was already bored. "Father I think I'm going to see if there are stronger things to smash." Diamond said and pulled her hammer from the bloody corpse of a Minotaur.

Sledge smiled at his daughter. "Alright, just don't kill them all before Papa could have his fun, this is just a warm-up."

Diamond smiled and went inside the large foreboding cave.

Roland and Angel noticed that the Minotaurs didn't send reinforcements. Something was up and both of them knew it. They saw the light at the end of the cave and saw that a few dozen well-armed and armored Minotaur.

Roland and Angel couldn't fight all of them at the same time. The turret and Phase Shift helped but them couldn't win with cheap tricks and there was little or now cover in the area.

Angel readied her rifle and her hands began to glow. Roland pulled out his turret and waited for the first Minotaur to charge and then deploy it.

Several large explosions shattered through the crowds of Minotaur causing a large inferno. The ones that survived charged at Roland but were knocked back.

A small grey and white earth pony stared at the huge amount of Minotaurs. "Ohh! This is going to be fun!" Diamond squealed excitedly. The Minotaurs charged at the lone earth pony, but Diamond lifted her hammer and smashed the ground causing a huge shockwave the destroyed everything in its path.

Firecracker fired her rocket launcher and burned through the dozens upon dozens of Minotaurs. Her flames burned through their skin like paper and everything that tried to grab her burned to fine ash in an instant.

Roland threw his turret out and it burned anything that came close. Roland and Angel took out the Minotaurs that were too far from Roland's turret and Angel used her Phase Shift to take control of some of the warriors to fight for them.

A remaining Minotaurs tried to find a way out of was blocked by Firecracker or Diamond. They were pulvarized and burned at the same time.

Roland and Angel panted for breath before going forward. Firecracker sat on a bloody beaten corsp of a Minotaur. Diamond cleaned her hammer with a handkerchief she carried around.

"Thanks for the help." Roland said.

"Really thanks, if you guys didn't show up, we might not have made it." Angel said.

Firecracker jumped off the dead body and smiled. "Well we were just bored outside so we followed-"

"Very impressive. You managed to beat my weakest pawns." Anarchy appeared in a puff of black smoke. "And don't even waste your ammo, you can't hurt me with those puny toys." He pulled out three fillies from a very small suitcase that could barely fit clothes for a rat. "Want this? You need to beat the king of this pool of pawns and his queen."

"You know that sounded very gay." A white Pegasus with a dark blue mane came out from above. "Considering the queen is my brother and me, the king, isn't a completely useless piece on the board."

Anarchy rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Boom."

"Boom" sneered at the chaos god. "My name is Critical! Boom is dead!" He pulled out a storm cloud. "And if you call me Boom again I will hunt you down."

Anarchy gave a mock salute at the Pegasus. "Whatever, Critz. Have fun with the guests." Anarchy waved goodbye and disappeared.

Critical turned his attention to the four warriors on the ground. "As you've heard my name is Critical and I believe you already met my brother." He gestured to the ceiling that opened and revealed a dark blue Pegasus with a dirty white mane.

"Headshot!" Firecracker yelled. "What did you do to him!?!" Firecracker pulled out her rocket launcher.

Headshot's dead eyes looked at the four warriors as they stared at shock.

Critical flew over to his brother. "Just an old family reunion minus the folks." Critical pulled out two storm rifles from a nearby cloud and gave one to Headshot.

Headshot aimed his rifle at the warrior and fired, hitting Firecracker on the shoulder. The unicorn screamed as the bullet lighting bullet went through her shoulder and sent an electric shock through her  body.

Headshot... Firecracker thought as she was blacking out. Missed? Headshot Missed? I was standing still that should be an easy headshot for him!

Firecracker was pulled into cover by Roland and was being patched up by Angel. "Headshot is still in there... You gotta... save... him..." She then blacked out.

Critical smiled. "This should be interesting."

Inside Headshot's mind, he tried to scream but no sound was made. A small tear rolled down his emotionless face.

Roland aimed his rifle at Critical. "I'm gonna kill you!" Roland fired but Headshot blocked the bullet and it bounced off his metallic wings.

Critical's smile broadened. "Very interesting indeed."

> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8

------------------------------

Headshot fired his rifle at Diamond. The bullet bounced off her hammer.

Roland took the Unicorn and the Earthpony to cover. "You can't do much against Pegasi!" He yelled and fired his rifle from cover.

"I hate to admit it but... You're right. I'll take care of her." Diamond said and dropped her hammer next to Firecracker.

Angel attempted to reload her rifle but the Mind-controlled Headshot was shooting the magazines off her hands. Headshot fired, hitting the shields and caused them to shatter. The force and the shock element made quick work of both the human's shields.

Critical flew up to a high cloud and peered through his own scope. "This is quite enjoyable. I love it when things go my way." He said with a smirk and fired at the Earthpony while she ran from cover.

Roland came up to a large rock and hid behind it. Angel followed but was grazed in her shoulder. "We can't kill him... What the hell do we do, dammit!" Roland yelled.

Angel paused and opened her Skill-tree. She smirked. I knew I saw this earlier.

Binary Blast: Melee attacks deals increased damaged to mechanical enemies and deals shock damage in a small radius for each hit.

Angel frowned when she noticed that she didn't have any skill points left.

"Roland... Get him grounded and I'll handle the rest." Angel said and pulled out from cover. Roland nodded and came followed the Siren out.

The soldier felt a slight tingle on his knife-belt. He pulled out the Vault key, it was glowing bright red and seemed to be pointing to Headshot.

Headshot fired at Roland and broke through his shields and grazed his arm. Headshot was forcing himself to miss but he was getting weaker.

COME ON! Headshot tried to move his forelegs to the side to miss the two humans but only for a few centimeters, making him miss the head. STUPID LEGS! WORK! He internally yelled.

A bullet passed through Angel's leg as she fell down behind a large rock. DAMMIT! I gotta... STOP! I gotta help... my FRIENDS! The Storm Sniper rifle forced itself down and only hitting the ground.

Loyalty...

What the... Is that? I can't believe it...

You are the Element of Loyalty...

"PRINCESS LUNA!" Headshot regained control of his body and turned to face the two Vault Hunters, both were injured by him but otherwise alright. The two of them were to injured to fight his brother and Diamond couldn't fight at range.

Headshot fired his rifle at the white Pegasus on the cloud. "Hey Bitch! I'm back!"

Critical dodged the lighting bullet and fired his own. "Now, is that really how you talk with your older brother?"

"We can talk all day or I could kick your ass right now." Headshot taunted. "Come on! Unless you're a little chicken!"

"We could... Or I could just do this!" Critical fired his rifle at a power box that disabled several gates with a few dozen angry Minotaurs. "Really... Since when have I ever played fair?"

"You know... I wouldn't have it any other way." Headshot flew down and tackled a Minotaur and sent it flying. Others fired their weapons and even dragged out an immobile missile launcher.

"Bro... You know I wouldn't fall for the same trick twice." Headshot said in mock amusement.

Critical smiled. "No, but I believe your friends still haven't seen this 'trick'."

Headshot's eyes went wide and quickly fired at the large missile launcher. Each bullet bounced off like it was nothing, not even a scracht was left.

The missile launcher fired at a large boulder where the Vault Hunters were taking cover. Roland and Angel pulled out before the missile hit but their dynamite won't break that thing.

But... Maybe Angel could... They got their experience fodder and plenty of ammo.

Roland injured several Minotaurs as he ran through missile fire. Roland slid under a large Minotaur and dropped his turret. The turret heated up and burned the surrounding Bulls to ash.

Angel pulled out a stick of dynamite and threw it at a group of Minotaurs and she followed up with Phase-Shift, stunning the Minotaurs that were inside that blast radius.

Large bold words came up to their perpetual view with the words. "LEVEL UP"

Angel and Roland ran to opposite sides of the arena and opened their Skill-tree sets.

Angel chose the Binary Blast and Roland had more versatile skills for his turret.

The Pyro Skill tree specializes in everything fire.

The Demo Skill tree specializes in explosives and defensive placements.

The Mech Skill tree had something that caught the soldier's eye.

Sentry going up: Adds a small and weak automatic gun that makes mid-range possible. Roland chose that skill and placed a turret at the top a giant rock.

The turret fired above and caused Critical to lose his balance as incendiary rounds burned through his fur.

He screamed a blood curdling scream. Headshot saw his brother's fur and skin burn to a robotic shell.

"Really now? Did you really think I would go there myself? No, I chose the smart thing and scope out my enemy's abilities." The robotic Critical said. "I was never really here and-wait- Do you feel that?"

Headshot didn't listen to his brother and fired the electric round through the robot's skull, causing the body to fall down to the ground.

Angel smashed through the large missile launcher and tore it to pieces. The resulting electric shockwave fried the Minotaurs that tried to stop the Siren.

An ear-splitting sound broke through the room and caused their ECHO devices to reboot and add an update. Headshot covered his ears as large amounts data flowed into his brain.

ECHO update...

Initializing...

Adding health bar...

Adding Ammo counter...

Adding compass and map...

Adding skill cool-down counter... Error Skill not available... Installing "Razorwing" Skill application.

Adding skill cool-down counter...

Update successful.

Headshot fell down from and landed on the hard ground with a large thud. Roland and Angel ran to the sniper's side and flipped him onto his back. His eyes were glowing red and several warning symbols floated from side to side.

Warning! Systems Critical! Critical! CriTiCal!

"Hello brother."

Critical virus! Warning! Life support failure imminent.

Anti-virus update... Loyalty online...

"What?"

Virus deleted...

Installing Element of Loyalty...

Roland checked the damage on the sniper's body. A bright light blinded the two Vault Hunters and a necklace that had the symbol of Headshot's Cutie-mark around his neck.

"System rebooting..." Headshot said in a robotic voice and shook himself awake. "Ughh... What happened?" He said in his normal voice.

Diamond came out of a large steel door, carrying four fillies, including Firecracker, that were fast asleep on her back. "What happened? Are you alright?" She said and ran over the three Vault Hunters.

"Yeah, we're fine and... I'm sorry for shooting at you." Headshot said and rubbed the back of his head. "I'll get Firecracker to the hospital in Ponyville." Headshot said and opened his wings.

"Not yet... My Vault key is reacting to you." Roland said and held out the knife and it pointed to Headshot.

Headshot picked up the knife and it pointed in another direction. Deeper into the cave. Headshot gave back the knife but it then began to point back at the new Element of Loyalty.

"Maybe it's pointing to the vault? But..." Headshot said and looked at the other's injuries. "Maybe we should get patched up, first?"

Angel looked at her wounded leg and nodded. "Yeah... Maybe going to the doctor is the right idea."

Roland pulled Angel up and put her arm around her shoulder. Headshot took the injured unicorn.

A loud speaker echoed through the room, the Vault Hunters plus the bandit leader looked around in confusion. "Did you really think I would let you go that easily? I'm a stallion that has backup plans, unlike my brother." Critical boomed through the PA system.

Headshot rolled his eyes. "Why don't you just die somewhere? We are really getting tired of hearing your voice."

Critical laughed at his younger brother. "I have several backup plans in case Princess Luna decided to interfere. I think you would like to hear it from the horse's mouth."

The PA system switched out. "You won't get away with this..." A young female voice said.

"Now, now Lulu, you may be an all-powerful Alicorn but against me and my machines, you're worthless." Critical said. "So unless you want the only being that been able to stand up to an all-powerful god of chaos dead. I suggest you, brother go deeper, and don't even think about using your new found 'Element of Harmony against' me, I have plans for that as well. So see you later." The speakers turned off and the warriors shared uneasy glances at each other.

Headshot gently dropped the pyromaniac and glanced at the Roland's knife. "Mind if I borrow that for a bit?" He asked the soldier.

Roland pulled out the knife and held it by the tip of the blade. "There's no changing your mind, is there?" He asked as Headshot took the knife. "Even if it's most likely a trap, right?"

Angel stepped up and offered her own knife. "We could come with you. You don't have to go in alone." She said and Headshot took her knife.

Headshot shook his head. "I'm not going to say something like 'This is destiny' or 'I have to do this alone' but I want you to look out for her." He said and looked at Firecracker. "She may not seem like it but she's scared... alone... and I want somepony, someone to look out for her."

Roland nodded and picked up the injured unicorn. "But... If you're not out of here within two hours, we are coming in with an army."

Headshot nodded and flew through the doors leading deeper into the mountain.

Headshot's ECHO buzzed to life as a small picture of Critical came up to his HUD.

"So it seems your faith is unshaken. Well, let us test your resolve to save this empty world we live in." Critical said and the call ended. A loud warning siren rang as a large steel door opened and revealed a mutated pony made from different corpses feasting on several bodies, both pony and Minotaur.

Critical called again. "Now you see, this is one of my failures, I was planning on making an immortal non-alicorn pony and yes, I succeeded but the process turned the test subject feral and needed to consume an ungodly amount of meat."

Headshot stepped back and stopped himself from vomiting at the sight. "You sick bastard..."

"You can't tell but that pony was a mare with a child, no more than a few months old. You know that was the first one she ate."

Headshot backed away and pulled out his rifle. "Remember back when I said I'll kill you? Well I'll FUCKING KILL YOU!" Headshot fired his rifle and the lightning bullet passed through its head but it didn't die, it just ate the meat and turned towards the sniper with large black eyes, it's face was covered in blood and dirt.

"Like I said, she's immortal, unkillable and completely without moral like me. I'm immortal, unkillable and not afraid to take that extra step for science!" Critical said and grabbed something that crunched and crackled. "You know, these chips are really bland. I can't fully enjoy watching her rip your flesh limb from limb and pick your bones clean like everything else."

The feral pony slowly stepped closer. "I wish this thing had a mute button, I was planning on sleeping at night." Headshot fired another shot but it was useless, as the pony moved slightly faster and broke out to a gallop and slammed the sniper into the wall and bit him in the arm.

Headshot kicked the pony off and took out several sticks of dynamite.

"That's never going to work. She is blast resistant, fire resistant, bullet resistant and all around unbeata-"

Headshot placed the sticks of dynamite on the ceiling above the pony, the pony was lost and simple-minded, it didn't care that hundreds of rocks were falling down on it, it didn't care about the pain or the suffocation, it just wanted to bite into that Pegasus.

"Bravo, my brother, bravo. You just blocked the only way out, brilliant indeed." Critical said in mock praise with a slow clap. "But she's not dead and she will claw her way out."

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." Headshot said and dry-heaved the contents of his stomach. "In case you have any more surprises, I don't want to be force to lose my lunch during a fight."

"If you really know me, there won't be any surprises." Critical said and munched loudly on his snack.

Headshot walked through the cave, the lights seemed to dim as the sniper started to need to feel his way through the cave.

"Now this one's a beauty. Blind as a bat and twice as nutty. The Crawler, but not the ones in the wild, more like the ones in old lore. Blood thirsty, angry, chaotic, and would kill anything, even their young. And there is only one Crawler there and I would love it if you would be so kind and feed him for me." Critical said and flipped a switch. "That... just called him towards you. Hope you learned your biology, brother."

Headshot waited for the Crawler to appear but it never did. He lowered his rifle and prepared to move again and thats when he felt hot breath on his skin. He turned around and saw a large Crawler, as large as the cave itself, with red glowing eyes.

Critical buzzed in the ECHO and took a deep breath. "RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Critical screamed into Headshot's ear, stunning him and even caused the Crawler to cringe.

The Crawler roared and slammed his giant claw on Headshot.

Headshot took out the two Vault keys and stabbed the giant claw, causing the Crawler to lift up its claw and gave Headshot a few seconds to run away.

He flapped his wings as hard as he could, he knew he couldn't fight it in the dark.

Of all the gadgets those mechanics put in me... Headshot thought as he flew harder. They forget to put a damned flashlight!

Crawlers were fast, really fast. Headshot didn't stand a chance in this large tunnel. He then remembered about his other gadgets he had at his disposal and this new "Razorwing" thing he now had.

"BOASTER!" Headshot yelled and the two boasters blasted him forward.

The Crawler was still catching up to him. 

"You know, I want to kill you in the most painful way I can and this... just doesn't cut it, so I'll help you out, just this once." Critical said. "GIANT GLOWING FUCK-ME SPOT! SHOOT THE GIANT GLOWING FUCK-ME SPOT!"

Headshot quickly did a 180 degree turn and fired his rifle at the left eye of the Crawler.

The Crawler roared in pain and trashed about, slamming the walls and causing cracks through the tunnel.

Headshot fired his rifle at the right eye and caused it to pop. He fired again and this time passed its skull and splattered the brain.

"That was painful to watch... it took you that long to figure out how to kill it? Man and I thought you were dense before." Critical said.

"Shut up." Headshot said softly.

"Awww am I finally breaking you down with my insults?" Critical said. "Does baby brother need a diaper change?"

"I said SHUT UP, you're giving me a headache." Headshot said and walked through the cave.

"You're nearly there." Critical said. "Just a few more baby steps and you'll actually beat me at something, even though it was just a trap for THIS!"

The room Headshot was in began to fill with green gas that floated in the air. Headshot covered his mouth and looked for a way out of the room.

There were three doors, red, blue, green.

"Now I believe you see the doors and the room is filling quickly with neuro-toxin and the only way out is through one of those doors but all of them are locked. Now this is where things get interesting. There is a key hidden inside that room and the key will break after you use it. One of the doors leads to a bottomless pit filled with magic that makes flying impossible and the other is filled with lava." Critical said. "Oh and one more thing you have five minutes before the toxin kills you."

Headshot began to panic and looked around the room. There was a wooden desk with pieces of paper stacked to the right and a spilled drink. Something was recently in this room. There were three beds and bodies were covered with a thick medical blanket with blood splotches on it. Headshot towards the beds and pulled off the blanket.

There was a pony in that room, alive with a gag on his mouth and a blindfold to cover his eyes. The pony gave a muffled screamed.

"Ahh. You seem to have met my EX-butler. He gave me toast with butter on the left side when I specifically said the right side." Critical sighed. "And he was such a good butler as well, shame that I had to kill him."

Headshot began to pull the blindfold off and saw that his eyes were ripped off his head.

"Now you see, brother. I seemed to have forgotten where I put the key. It was in one of the good ponies in the beds I believe." Critical said. "But I seem to remember it was near the heart but I also remember I placed an explosive near one of them."

"And let me guess I have to rip off their hearts and take the key." Headshot said and went over to the desk and opened the drawer. "I can't perform open heart surgery without equipment."

"You have a knife, right?"

"I hate you."

Headshot pulled out the Vault key and placed the knife near the pony's chest. "Sorry." Headshot said and quickly slashed open the chest cavity and pulled out the heart.

A buzzer sounded through his ECHO. "Wrong, try again." Critical said.

Headshot tried the next bed and ripped off the blanket.

A mare dress in a maid outfit was tied to the bed, her dark green hair was stained with blood. "Ah. Miss Sweep, she spilled coffee on my bed when she brought me breakfast this morning. I think you might be a bit hesita-"

Headshot ripped off the maid outfit and her chest and quickly pulled out the heart. A short ticking began and Headshot jumped to the left and the body exploded.

"As heartless and efficient as ever, ehh?" Critical said. "Though... You will be hesitant with the next victim."

Headshot went over to the next bed and ripped off the blanket.

A foal... about the same age as the CMC... "I...hate...you..."

"Well hurry up. You have one minute left." Critical said. "The toxin's getting thicker"

"I'm sorry... sorry...sorry...sorry...sorry..." Headshot repeated over and over again as he... I don't need to describe this.... I don't want to... Fine... As he ripped the poor child's heart out and pulled off the key, blood sprayed across the room. Headshot was thankful that he emptied his stomach earlier.

"Well chose which door." Critical said. "And you should look at face, priceless." He laughed.

"Your favorite color is red and mine is blue so..." Headshot placed the key inside the green lock and turned it. The lock clicked open and led to a large hallway with Princess Luna strapped to the far wall.

"Well... You're here..." Critical said behind him.

"Where the hell..."

"Go on... Save the princess... or whatever..." Critical said.

Headshot came closer to Princess Luna and tried to remove her bonds but... she just disappeared...

"What the hell..." Headshot said as he back away from where the Princess was.

Critical began to laugh maniacally. "Did you really think I could capture the Princess? She was just a bait and with the Element of Loyalty trapped in here. My plan will be completed soon!" 

Headshot rushed to the psychopath and grabbed his neck. "I'll kill you right here, right now."

"You can try." Critical laughed and disappeared as well in a bright light. "But that would be hard without me there."

Headshot was trapped inside the cave... alone... The two Vault keys began to glow and float up and pointed to a wall that had the same symbol as the Vault.

The symbol began to glow along with the two floating keys. The wall broke down and he saw two slots where the keys could fit. Headshot took the two keys and came closer to the key slots.

"Wait... The story of the Vault said that there would be a champion inside along with Anarchy's right hand, hoof, claw, paw... Whatever. The champion was said to be the most likely a new Element of Harmony since the Mane six... died and the monster was suppose to guard whatever is in that door..." Headshot said and looked at the two keys in his hooves. "Question is... What would happen if whatever is in there is released?"

The two keys began to glow as the sniper stepped closer. "Looks like I have no choice." Headshot placed the two knives in the slots and both of them fell out as the door began to open.

Headshot picked up the two keys and walked through a large marble hallway with a velvet carpet. High columes decorated the sides of the hallway and at the end was a golden chest. Headshot walked closer to the chest and opened it.

A crossbow with the old Element of Loyalty's symbol on it. Headshot grabbed the Crossbow and it began to transform to a beautiful sniper rifle, it's smooth barrel, it's leather grip, it's easy quick semi-automatic fire, it's scope that can magnify to three times, and it had Headshot's Cutie-mark as a motif on the side.

The white marble hallway quickly turned black and the walls were littered with blood and bodies of small children, of all species.

"LoYaLtY..." A very distorted voice said.

"Finally! The new Element of Loyalty! I knew I could never be the Element, but you, I can see it in your eyes. That burning desire to protect those you are loyal to, like mine actually but more! Stronger, better, brighter." Another voice said.

A dark swirling pool of blackness opened up in the center of the hallway. A pony with a black suit and a very short black mane floated up.

"Hello! I'm part of Luna's personal guard, Name's Slendermane." The pony said. Another pool of darkness came up and a similar suit but it had no face or mane. "And this... is my father... Slenderpony."

"LoYaLtY Is DeAd..." Slenderpony said and fired a dark tentacle at Headshot.

Headshot dodged the tentacle but it was quick and it grabbed the sniper by the throat.

Slendermane tackled his father and took out his own tentacles and stabbed his father in the neck.

"WeAk..." Slenderpony said and pushed off his son attack with his own tentacles. Headshot fell to the ground and coughed up some blood, the sniper rifle landed to his side.

"Yeah, no time for intros..." Slendermane said and dodged a tentacle that collided with the wall. "But you should really close the door, if you know what I mean."

Headshot limply got up and took his new rifle and aimed at the Slenderpony. Large dead trees began to grow from the ground and blocked the sniper's shot.

"Just in case you didn't get me the first time, CLOSE THE VAULT! YOU IDOIT!" Slendermane said and was caught in the side with a tentacle. 

Headshot was tackled by a white blur. The pegasus with a mask and a scrachy red "X" and a circle for a Cutie-mark.

"Really? Maskies? I thought you would send something better than a Masky to beat an Element of Harmony." Slendermane said and knocked off the Masky. "Or did you forget the time when those six fillies kicked your sorry flank?"

Slenderpony just calmly stared...though... he looked like he just twitched at what Slendermane just said.

Headshot flew to the end of the hall and tried to escape and lock the door, but a black tentacle stabbed him in the side and sent him plummiting down to the ground.

Slenderpony came up and stood over him, his son loosely hanging from one of the dead trees.

"Well... now's a good a time as any..." Headshot said and quickly flew up and landed on a branch. "Razorwing!" He yelled and sharp blades from his wings flew out and stabbed Slenderpony repeatedly. The necklace around his neck began to glow, as well as the knives.

"Well... this is new..." Slendermane quietly said. "... You can't use the Elements... without the others... I guess... you are the real Element of Loyalty..." Slendermane said and jumped down from the trees. "... maybe... your loyalty is stronger than mine... and that's why it chose you..."

Slenderpony howled in pain and saw his escape from the barrage of knives. He ran out the Vault and teleported in a black swirling cloud.

Slendermane fell to the ground... he was stabbed to many times and he won't be able to regenerate his broken limbs. He never took the pact his father did, he never became immortal, he just survived longer than the others.

Headshot flew down and wounded champion. "Hey! Stay with me. You're gonna be alright." Headshot said.

"Nah... just go... I was already dead when I figured out who I really was... There's this tunnel that led back to Canterlotthrough an abandoned mineshaft." Slendermane said. "Don't let them win... This is the start... The fall of Anarchy..." Slendermane closed his eyes and Headshot noticed a small necklace, like his own, around the pony's neck. 

He took the necklace and saw that there was a note stuck under it.

"A loyalty of a soldier and the kindness of a brute,
the magic of the cursed girl and the generosity of a youth,
the laughter of the deranged and the honesty of the liar,
the Element of these are those that you desire,
find the first and then the last,
'cause everything will come to past,
burning down the tyrant's gates,
will bring the fall of Anarchy to wake."

> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9

------------------------------

"One simple job... I give you one simple job of guarding a Weapon of Harmony and you FAILED!?!" Anarchy snapped at the black suited monster. "A punishment is in order..." Slender's face was visibly shaken as two eyes, a nose and mouth started to form.

Slender felt his face and its new features. "Wh-What did you do to me!?!?!" He yelled at the God of Chaos.

Anarchy smiled a toothy grin. "Simple, I took away your immortality and the only way to get it back would be getting the Weapon of Loyalty back into my claws." Anarchy said and grabbed Slender by the throat. "And if you fail me again, I will make you and everything you hold dear suffer a fate worse than death." He said and pulled off Slender's red tie. "Celly, be a dear and hide this for me, it wouldn't be very interesting if he could just summon his Maskies to do his bidding."

"Yes... Nark..." Celestia said took the red tie and left the room.

"Such a dear, that Celestia. Now be gone and do not fail me again." Anarchy said and Slender bowed with an angry stare and left in a swirl of black smoke.

Slender cursed under his breath as he teleported outside Manehattan. "Curse that Anarchy, thinking he could mess with a being created out of pure darkness."

"And I am a being created out of pure chaos, remember I can hear you from anywhere. It doesn't mean I would always be there, but be careful of what you say, Shade."

------------------------------

Roland and Angel went to the infirmary with the Pyromaniac and the three foals. Diamond sat in the lobby with the doctor who examined the other's injuries.

"The foals are mostly fine with only minor injuries... I'm more worried about that unicorn you brought in, she has two maybe three fractured ribs with several burns and an injured fore-leg." The doctor said to Diamond.

"I'm sure she'll be fine I'm more worried about Headshot... It's been an hour and a half already and did you hear that explosion just now?" Diamond said.

The doctor pushed up his glasses. "Yes, but I have no idea what that was and I hope we don't have too."

"It came from the mountain... I hope he's alright." Diamond said with a worried look on her face.

Meanwhile...

Roland was more or less fine in his opinion but he still needed to rest. He was lying down on the hospital bed and checked his ECHO messages.

Claptrap had another message. "Spike! No! You do not eat robot parts! Oh? It's on?" Claptrap said.

"Right. I have recently discovered that Spike's fire doesn't burn stuff but sends it somewhere else! Maybe even a different planet or universe all together! This is a discovery of a lifetime and if I might finally be able to get that oil hot tub I always wanted! But... I could always go to that boiling oil pit..." Claptrap said and Spike growled.

"Hello?" A different voice called out.

"Hello? A visitor? Hello there! My name is-"

"Claptrap, I know." Said the female voice. "I was wondering if you know how to get to Sanctuary? I followed the map but all I found was a huge hole."

"Yeah. You have to use the fast travel network, since it turned into a flying fortress." Claptrap said and led to the outdated fast-travel station.

"Thank you." She said.

"...Who are you? You seem familiar." Claptrap said. "I know I've seen that pink highlight before."

The girl giggled. "Maybe, turn off your ECHO and I'll tell you."

That's when the ECHO recording ended.

Roland tossed around in bed. He took out his old knife and saw the names of the soldiers of his old squad on one side and the names of his new friends on the other.

"Man..." Roland said in a low voice. "I really miss you all." Roland turned the blade over. "And you guys too... I wish I could just, I don't know..." Roland saw the skull tattoo he had on his arm.

"I remember when we all got this tattoo... What I'd give to have the old days back." Roland said to himself and shook his head. "No, I gotta stop thinking like this, I'll go senile or something."

There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Roland said and sheathed his knife.

Diamond peaked in with the three foals. "Hello Roland, The girls were curious about you, I tried to stop them and say you needed to rest but you know." She said and the others rushed in.

"Hi!" The little blue Pegasus said, bouncing up and down an unoccupied bed.

"What's your name?" The green Unicorn said and watched the soldier up close.

"What's your Cutie-mark?" The yellow Earthpony asked and looked at his arm that had the skull tattoo.

"Is this your Cutie-mark?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"How old are you?"

"What are those things on the end of your hooves?"

"Do you know magic?"

"Can you fly?"

"How strong are you?"

"Who's your favorite Wonderbolt?"

"Where can I get that hat?"

"What are you?"

"Can I trade for this hat?"

"Where did you come from?"

"How much for the hat?"

Roland began to get a headache at the rapid-fire questions that came out of the trio's mouths.

Diamond stepped up. "Alright, foals. Give him some room to breathe." She said and scooped the trio away from the soldier.

"Right... My name is Roland, I don't have a Cutie-mark, red, twenty-nine, fingers, no, no, I don't know, I bought it back in my world, human, no, Pandora, it's not for sale." Roland answered the questions in order.

The three fillies began to open their mouths but Diamond quickly put her hoof on the three fillies. "We could play twenty questions later. Right now, I think you three should get some rest." Diamond said and led the three saddened fillies out the room.

------------------------------

Headshot saw a large hole in the wall that leads to an abandoned mineshaft. He squeezed through the hole and looked around.

It was too dark to see anything but he could feel some old tracks under his hooves. The path on the left had a dim light and he followed it.

Headshot walked through the deep dark cave, old train-tracks led from the mountain and towards the outskirts of Canterlot. When he gets out he would contact the others and warn them to be on a lookout for Slenderpony.

As he walked down the empty tunnel he noticed something at the distance. "Hello?" He called out and something moved behind him. Headshot wasn't scared but felt very uneasy in that tunnel. "Just keep calm and move on..." He said to himself and continued to trek through the tunnel.

When he reached a small station for loading and unloading he noticed that there were a few recently lit torches in the area. He knew he wasn't alone in the cave. The sound of hoof-steps came from behind him.

A knife pressed up against Headshot's neck. Whoever or Whatever that thing that had Headshot spoke in a language he didn't understand. Several more voices came from behind him.

"If you want to kill me..." He said and extended his razor-sharp wings and injured what was attacking him. He quickly turned around but only found darkness. "I know you're there. No use hiding." Headshot said softly.

A unicorn with black symbolic lines were drawn all over her body came through the darkness. "I asked you to leave quietly but you only go deeper into the mines." She said.

"I didn't hear anything." Headshot said and tensed up his muscles. "And I think you tried to kill me with a rusty knife."

"Your ears are deaf, colt. You couldn't hear me or my words because of your clouded mind." She said and stepped forward. "Leave now!"

"I am! I'm trying to get to Canterlot!" Headshot replied and stepped forward. "I'm lost and alone and you try to kill me? Talk about hospitality."

The mare came forward. "Continue down this path and it will lead certain doom." The mare said and stared at the sniper.

Headshot stared back. "I've had worse odds." He said. "Also, am I going the right way? I'm not sure which way is Canterlot."

"Down the path you will find, a dead god locked behind, chains of old and chains of new, will come and consume you." The mare said and disappeared in the darkness of the cave.

"Chains of old and chains of new? Huh?" He said and looked to the direction he was heading. "Behind locked doors and opened cracks, lies a demon within the tracks, one of gold and one of blue, will come and protect you." He recited an old poem that he knew.

"Through the burning ashes and flame, will come one they call Cain, the master flight and master rain." He said and the tracks and rocks began to heat the deeper he went through.

"And through the shining edges of steel, will come one named Keel, the one of golden radiance and might, will end your suffering and the blight." Headshot ducked as a sharp throwing knife came very close to his head.

Two ponies wearing gold and blue came forward, spears at the ready. "The two of these..." Headshot said and pulled out his rifle. "... will protect the weak..." He recited and fired his rifle. "... but the one they protect is neither wicked or meek..." The two of them were hit by the bullet. "... and through the burning locks and chains will release the one known as Pain."

Headshot walked pass the two guardians. He stared at a large gate that presumed to house the demon. "One of the Elements of Harmony and Light will show the demon compassion with his might." He said and reached out to the gates. "The one of loyalty will break through the demon's shell and save the protector within the veil."

The large gates and two large glowing eyes. Headshot stepped back.

Headshot took out his rifle and aimed. The bullets didn't seem to affect that thing. "Son of a..." Headshot said as a giant scally claw sent him back.

The thing slowly came forward. It was a giant Earth Dragon, a dragon without wings and could easily destroy an entire army of war-trained veteran Unicorns.

All dragons grew up by succumbing to one of the Sins of Chaos, Sky Dragons were the most common, they were made from succumbing to Greed. The Earth Dragons were a rare breed, created by succumbing to the sin of Wrath.

The dragon had large brown scales and red glowing eyes that stared at Headshot with intense rage.

The dragon roared at the tiny Pegasus forcing him to step back.

Headshot jumped behind a large boulder and took cover from the white-hot flames. Headshot rushed towards the Dragon and went under him and attacked from behind.

Each attack only seemed to make the Dragon more angry. The Dragon swiped his tail and struck the sniper out of the air.

The Dragon turned around and grabbed Headshot, he had Headshot in a death grip with his claws and was slowly squeezing the life out of Headshot

"Please! Stop!" A voice said from inside the large doors.

The Dragon stared at the newcomer and released his grip on the Pegasus and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were one of those monsters." The voice said from inside the doors.

"Monsters? What monsters? And what did you do to that Dragon?" Headshot asked and coughed up some blood.

The voice came out of the large doors. The voice was a young mare with golden eyes and a dark green mane. "A-Are you alright?" The mare asked shyly.

Headshot couldn't help but blush at the cute mare. "I-I'm fine. What are you doing in a place like this?" He asked.

"I, ummm, live here. I didn't know there were others outside, especially somepony who was brave enough to fight my Dragon." She said and smiled shyly on the ground.

"W-wait! Your Dragon!?!" Headshot yelled in surprise. "D-does that mean?"

The mare nodded. "I'm a Summoner." She said.

Headshot shot up in the air and charged at the mare. "That's impossible! The only Summoner is... was Juno, and she eaten by thousands of Parasprites! All the other Summoners were killed by Anarchy years ago! Who the hell are you!" Headshot tighten his grip around the mare's neck.

The mare started to choke and her horn glowed a soft yellow light and Dragon from earlier appeared and swatted the sniper to the aside.

Headshot got up and felt his wing snap. "I-I guess you're telling the truth." Headshot dusted off and retracted his broken wing.

The mare was surprised by the sniper's retracting wing. "I, umm, I'm sorry for your wing..." She said.

Headshot shrugged off the injured wing. "Nah, I'm sorry for trying to choke you. But you said there were monsters here?"

The mare's eyes shot open. "EEEEEEKKEEE!!!" She screamed.

Headshot turned around and faced a large moving shadow. "No...Not you again..." He said silently and turned to the mare. "Run."

Both the ponies ran pass the shadow and back to where Headshot came from. He saw the hole that led back through the cave and the decaying support beams, Headshot let go of the mare and pointed pass the hole. "Just keep running! I'll hold him off."

The mare stared at the long, dark tunnel and then back to Headshot. The sniper pulled out his rifle. "GO!" He yelled and the mare ran down the tracks.

Headshot aimed his rifle at the support beams. The Shadow was closing in.

"Steady..." Headshot muttered. "Steady..." He fired and hit the support beams and the entire section came crashing down. The Shadow wasn't dead, several cracks on the wall began to ooze. "Yeah... didn't think that would work..." Headshot quickly turned around and began to run away from the shadow.

"I can't use booster with a broken wing!"

*Booster activate*

"DAMMIT!" Headshot yelled as one of his boosters appeared on his back and propelled him forward. He couldn't control his flight as he spun in one direction. "DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!"

Headshot saw the mare running and he quickly grabbed her. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed as both of them saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

They flew out of the tunnel and into the warm sunlight and the Shadow quickly dissolved into nothingness.

Both of them could see the Canterlot waterfall and Lake Canterlot in the bottom. Headshot was going too fast and he needed to stop. He aimed himself at the lake and both of them splashed into the water.

Headshot swan up and surfaced, he noticed that the mare wasn't with him. He swam back down and found the mare and grabbed her and swam up.

He swam ashore and placed the mare on her back. "Dammit..." He muttered as he put his hooves on her chest and pushed. "Come on... Breath..." He said and pushed again and again. He placed his lips on her's and with a few more puffs she began to cough up the water.

Headshot panted for breath. "You... Alright?" He said between breaths.

"Y-yeah..." She said and lied down on the grass, staring at the clouds above.

Headshot stayed quiet and lied down on the grass as well. "So... this your first time?"

"Excuse me?" She said surprised.

"Being outside, I mean. Outside that prison." Headshot said and pointed to a cloud. "Being with nature... I just wish there was more, like during the peaceful times."

The mare stared at the moving clouds. "Was it always like this? The clouds? The sun and moon?" She asked.

"No, thank Anarchy for fixing the laws of physics that Discord broke a few thousand years ago." Headshot said and the cloud he was pointing to slowly drifted down. "Pegasi can still control the weather but in some cases the weather became too unpredictable."

"I was... stuck in there, behind that door for years. I remember the ponies trying to dig through it, but it didn't work. Honestly, I thought this was a dream until you started choking me earlier." She said and gazed at Headshot.

"Yeah, sorry." He said and remembered that he needed to contact his friends about a new danger. "Excuse me." He said and stood up.

He turned on his ECHO and called Roland. "Hello? Roland? Do you hear me?"

There was a loud buzzing sound and Roland's distorted voice. "Ye-can hea- ou." Roland said.

"I can't hear you, you're breaking up. I'm near Canterlot, and tell Firecracker that Slenderpony is alive, she'll know what it'd mean. I'll contact you later." Headshot said turned off his ECHO.

He turned his attention to the staring mare. "Nevermind. We should go to the city before it gets dark. My name's Headshot, by the way."

"I'm Pain or Abyss as some of the creatures I summon would call me." Pain said and reached out ot grab Headshot hoof.

Headshot stared at the mare. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "I'm scared..." She said quietly. "I was stuck in there for a long time, I don't even know how long."

"Well... Where are you going now?" Headshot said. "We can't stay out here, you'll die." He got up and turned to face Canterlot.

Pain jumped up and grabbed his hoof again. "...Don't go...Please..." She said and started to cry.

"Who said I was going?" Headshot said and flashed her a quick smile. "I just asked where we were going." Headshot grabbed her hoof. "I was thinking Canterlot or maybe Ponyville. It would take a day to get to Ponyville but, your choice."

She wiped her tear off her face. "L-let's go to Canterlot."

"Let's go!"

------------------------------

Roland and Angel checked out of the clinic.

"I got a message from Headshot. He said he was going to a place called 'Canterlot' or something." Roland said to the others.

Firecracker jumped up. "WHAT!?!" She began to pace back and forth. "This is bad! This is really bad!"

Diamond tried to comfort the Unicorn. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Canterlot is the chaos capital of the world and Headshot is a wanted stallion there! The most wanted!" Firecracker yelled. "He's got the biggest bounty on his head! That stupid stallion!"

"Now what?" Angel asked. "We could go to Canterlot and pick up Headshot."

"But we won't make it in time! If he ever finds out about... No, let's go... Hurry up!" Firecracker said. It was strange to see her so serious.

"I'll have to stay here, but the Hammers are with all of you." Diamond said and left the clinic. "Oh, and don't worry about the foals, I'll get them back to Ponyville safely."

"Let's get out of here! I go get an airship." Firecracker and and rushed out the door. "Meet me outside the town later!"

Roland and Angel left the clinic. "I hope that idiot's alright." Roland said.

"He reminds me too much about Mordicai." Angel said and walked down the street.

"Reckless, Headstrong, and Loyal." Roland replied and smiled at Angel. "Sometimes a bit too reckless."

"I remember the time Mordicai took on Moe and Marley alone, crazy son of a skag." Angel laughed.

"Huh... Never thought I'd miss them this much..." Roland sighed. "Wish I was back..."

Roland and Angel walked in silence as they exited the town.

They waited silently for a few minutes, noticing the difference in the environment in Equistria and Pandora. 

The soft green grass and blooming flowers were very alien to Roland and Angel. They heard a loud horn overhead. The two of them looked up and stared at the large red airship with Firecracker's Cutie-mark on the side.

A rope ladder flew down. "HEY! Get up here! Let's go!" Firecracker said from the deck of the ship.

"Let's do it." Roland said and climbed up, Angel following closely behind.

Firecracker flipped a switch and the airship increased it's altitude. "The S.S Firestorm has set sail!"

> Chpater 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10

------------------------------

Headshot and Pain snuck pass the guards through the alley way

"Hey..." Headshot said to the Summoner. "Stay quiet, alright."

The mare nodded. "Why are we sneaking pass?" She asked silently.

"I may or may not be the most wanted stallion in Canterlot." Headshot said and knocked out two guards and dragged them into the alley. "And besides, sneaking in is much more fun."

Pain stepped over the two guards. "But do we have a place to stay? We can't just stay in the streets."

Headshot removed the guards armor and quickly strapped it on, hiding his Cutie-mark. "Of course, I have a safe-house near the castle."

Pain's eyes shot open. "Near the castle!?!" She almost yelled and caught the guard's uniform that Headshot threw at her. "As in the Canterlot Castle!?! The most heavily guarded area in Canterlot!"

"Yup.Nopony would suspect anything." Headshot said and left the alley and headed straight to the castle. "You coming or what?"

Pain stared silently at the stallion. She sighed and followed him.

Headshot and Pain walked through the street, thugs and guards alike eyed them as they walked swiftly.

"I-I think we're attracting too much attention." Pain whispered.

"Nonsense, we're fine." Headshot said and saw a large banner on the castle walls. "The... hell?" He muttered.

The large banner had the words in Pegalatin that said. "Fight for freedom! Fight for me!" And it bore the picture of his brother standing on top Anarchy.

"Do you know him?" Pain asked.

Headshot took Pain by the hoof and quickly led off to his Safe-house. He paid no mind to the ponies that stared at them as they ran pass.

Headshot and Pain arrived at the Canterlot Library and he quickly tapped on the side of it. "Silence is golden." He muttered and several clicks were heard inside the building. "Nothing is true." He said and more clicks and turning gears were heard inside. "I live only for Luna and the Creed." The walls began to spread open and led to a large spiral stairway that descended down to the old mazes of Canterlot.

Headshot and Pain crept silently through the old caverns of Canterlot. "Watch out for that pressure plate." Headshot said and both of them went over it. "Trip-wire." They both stepped over the trip-wire. "Motion sensor." Headshot said and threw a rock and spikes errupeted from the sides.

"What's with all these traps? Pain asked the sniper and pulled down a lever on their right instead of the one of the left.

"The ponies I worked with were very secretive." He said as both of them walked into a large room with an old stone table in the center, lit with candles and scents. "Looks like they're here, today." Headshot removed his disguise and Pain removed her's.

"The Brotherhood welcomes you, Master Assassin." A voice said at the other side of the room.

"Can it, Alty." Headshot said and went to the table. "Alty I'd like you to meet Pain. Pain, Alty."

"My name is Altair, which means Eagle. It's a pleasure to meet you." Altair said and extended his hoof.

Pain reached out and gave it a firm shake. "T-the pleasure is all mine." She said, meekly.

"Alty, straight to business." Headshot said and placed the two Vault keys on the table. "Does the Brotherhood have any information on the Vault, anything at all."

"You know the Archives more than anypony, sir." Altair said. The tan Pegasus extended his hoof and placed his gauntlet on the table and pulled back his white hood. "And the only ones who know about the whereabouts of the Vault had been killed by Anarchy." 

"Yes... The Grand Master..." Headshot said solemnly. "But I know about another place that had the symbol of the Vault, one of the Assassin's nest."

"Yes, but that was over-run by bandits and the guards have bought it and made it into a base, sir." Altair said.

"The Bitter Springs branch, we lost many good men and women there, and now we are taking it back." Headshot said and pulled out an Eagle feather. "I have a target for you; The commander of the Bitter Springs weapons base."

------------------------------

Firecracker set the airship to full speed, directly heading to Canterlot.

"E.T.A in ten minutes." She said and muttered. "Why don't you move faster you stupid hunk of junk."

Roland looked over the railing and smiled in awe. This was one of the few times he could see the ground from this high up, one of those times would be the time he crashed a buzzard into a mountain and the other time is when he nearly fell off of Sanctuary.

"This is awesome." He said. "Why don't we have airships on Pandora?"

Angel leaned against the railings. "Because the buzzards would shoot it down faster than a Skag puking up eridium." She said.

A high pitched beeping sounded on the airship.

"Royal guards! Ach..." Firecracker grunted in frustration. "You two, go man the cannons." She said and the floor opened up and revealed cannons on both sides of the ship.

"I'll man starboard, you man port." Roland said and went to the right cannon and loaded it.

Angel went to the other cannon and loaded it as well. Each cannon could hold five rounds. The two Vault hunters readied themselves as two large airships that bore the Equistrain flag flew beside them.

"Hold! We only want to check your cargo and permit and we'll be on our- OH! Sweet Celestia! It's her! Bring that ship down!" The ship on the starboard said yelled through the their P.A system.

Roland and Angel opened fire and broke through the enemy ship's exterior hull. One of the ships even caught on fire.

"Fire again!" Roland yelled to Angel and both of them fired their cannons and both the ship went down. "That's it? Too eas-"

The sound cannon balls hitting the wooden exterior of the S.S Firestorm and the earthquake equivalent shaking made the two Vault hunters loss their footing and stumble.

"Boggies on our six! Roland take them out!" Firecracker said. "Angel, man the front cannons!" Roland and Angel scramble back up and both of them went to their respective position.

"..." Firecracker looked over the radar and frowned. "Fifty... maybe a hundred... Sweet merciful Luna, that's a lot of them."

Roland tried to scan the skies but only found one airship. "What? There's only one of them."

"Stupid clocking magic.Cowards!" Firecracker yelled and steered the ship to the left, crashing into an invisible airship. "You don't need to aim! Just shoot EVERYTHING!"

Angel fired from the cannon, the sound of exploding gunpowder made quick work of the enemy airships.

The other airships began to return fire but Firecracker's horn began to glow bright red and the ship was engulfed in flames the burned through all the cannon balls that went through it to a smoldering crisp.

Firecracker rammed into another airship and it quickly burned them down, and because all of the ships were very close together, most of them were caught on fire from another airship.

The flaming shields began to fizzle and burn out. Firecracker began to pant and flipped a small switch. "I'm out for the count guys... I've set this thing on auto. Give 'em hell." Firecracker said and collapsed on the floor.

Roland fired at the airships. A few cannons managed to break through and even send Roland back a few feet. He went back to the cannon and quickly got his revenge and more.

Angel was blasting through each and every ship she sees. Several holes were on the ship and the deck, only a few meters away. It was strange for her to feel so... happy? Just blasting through. Maybe the bit of her friends were rubbing off on her. She smiled as another ship went down.

"Hey..." Roland said through the ECHO. "Do you think this is a bit too easy? I mean there are hundreds of these guys and we're-" Roland said and an explosion rang on the other side. "-just two humans against, possibly well trained guards, doesn't strike you as odd?"

"The four Vault hunters back on Pandora took on five buzzards with an entire hoard of bandits shooting down on them and all of them are still alive." Angel replied and a cannon ball broke her cannon, sending bits of it everywhere. "Uhh, problem over here."

Roland reloaded his cannon and resumed fire. "Can of busy here, and they had Respawn."

"They didn't use Respawn." She said as she was knocked back by a stray cannon ball. "I get another cannon from ... ugh that hurt... down below."

"Hurry up."

Angel ran down the steps quickly and found the store room, there was an insane amount of cannon balls that were stacked up together. She found an unused cannon at the far end of the room and she pushed it back to the stairs.

"How am I going to get this up?" She asked herself as several explosions sounded upstairs. "Hey Roland switch with me."

"Get up here, and I'll get that cannon." He said. "I don't think they're much of a problem though, only a few left... I think? I really don't know 'cause they're invisible but judging from the lack of cannon balls raining down on me, I'd say maybe a dozen left."

Angel ran up the stairs and tapped Roland on the shoulder. "Switch with me." She said.

Roland nodded and left the cannon and ran down the stairs and heaved the heavy cannon up the stairs. Years of running and shooting would make your muscles very tone.

Roland pushed the cannon to the front and loaded it and fired. Again, again, and again, all of them missing. "Where the hell are they?

"I don't know. There should be at least a half of a dozen more." Angel said.

Roland looked around and only was clear skies and an occasional bird. "Huh? Must of left?" He said and noticed a few more birds flying directly at them. "I don't think those are birds... Angel... We got a problem."

------------------------------

Altair blended into the crowd, his hood and cloak swayed gently on the breeze.

He left the city effortlessly and slowly unfurled his wings. His wings had a few missing feathers, and fresh blood pour out of the closed bangages.

"It still hasn't properly healed? I guess it was really a stupid move." He muttered to himself as he closed his wings.

He went to the train station that was at the outskirts of town, he placed the bits on the counter and grabbed the ticket. He nodded at the pony in the ticket booth and hopped on. 

Altair rested on the train ride to Bitter Springs, memories began flashing back to him as he began to daze off.

"Faster, Altair." Headshot said as the young Altair quickly attacked a magical dummy with a short blade. Headshot's wings were originally the same color as his coat, dark blue, but a certain fire loving filly may or may not have burned his wings.

"I'm doing the best I can! You're just older than me by a month and you made master before me, that doesn't make you any special!" Altair yelled at his supprior and snared. "Heck, I think I can even take you right now. Come and get me."

Headshot sighed and lifted his black wings and pulled out a dagger, a small crossbow dangled on his side as he unlatched it and it fell to the ground. "You know, you're gonna die if you keep acting like that."

"Shut up and fight, unless you're chicken." Altair taunted. "Baaa-cawww." Altair began to imitate a chicken and flapped his hooves and wings.

Headshot took the opening and threw the dagger and lodged itself inside Altair's shoulder, Headshot rushed at him and tackled him to the ground, sending his weapon sliding across the floor.

"That... was a cheap move..." Altair grunted as he tried to push Headshot off. "If I was prepared-"

"Would the enemy give you time to prepare?" Headshot said and removed the dagger, sending the blood out. "You have to be ready, even if you're injured and dying, ready to make that one last ditch effort to win, ready to take your opponent down with you, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice. I, and the other Masters, don't think you're ready."

"That's because you never give me a chance to prove myself!" Altair yelled as he got up, his hoof was covering his shoulder to minimize his lost of blood. "Give me a target and I will take him or her out, without a second thought."

Headshot punched the young assassin down to the floor. "Don't you ever forget about the others you killed, they won't forget you, their families won't forget you and their friends will never forgive or forget you. You have to be ready to take that burden or you will lose everything."

"I already lost everything! My family, my friends and everything I ever care about!" Altair yelled and stood up. "Never fight a stallion that has nothing to lose." He muttered.

"And that's what makes you blind and reckless." Headshot said. "You want a target, I'll give you a target. Follow me." Headshot opened his injured wings and took off despite the pain that shot through it.

Altair joined him in the air. "Master, where are we going?" He asked, he disliked the fact that he called him "Master".

"Don't call me 'Master' and I'm taking you to your target." He said.

They flew for a few hours and finally slowed down. "Our, I mean you're target is a pony by the name of Storm Bringer, if you need help-"

"I don't need it." Altair said and rushed down. Headshot following close behind.

"Wait! You don't even know who you're target is, a mare with a red mane and blue eyes. She has a few bodyguards with her and close connections to the death of the Prince of Saddle Arabia." He said. Altair had a bored look on his face. "Check around town, see if you can find out where she is."

"Right, I'm off." Altair said and flew down to street level.

He was in the town of Fillydelphia, on the western side of the Everfree Forest.

Ponies went by their usual day-in-day-out routines and ignored the young assassin. He blended right in and and stuck to the shadows. He managed to overhear a few old stallions talking about his target.

"Aye, the young lass should be leavin' soon, I hear." One of the stallions said.

"Shame, she was such a nice mare. Heck, she even fixed up town hall with her own money. Now that's generosity." The other one said with a huff. "My, if she was ever to be elected, I would vote for her."

"Same here, mate."

So she's leaving town? That won't save her. Altair thought and moved back into the crowd. 

After a few hours of aimlessly walking, he decided to take to the airs. He unfurled his wings and shot up, scanning the surrounding area for any leads or info.

"This is getting me nowhere!" He yelled in frustration.

"Hey, did ya' hear about the mare that help rebuild the school?" Altair overheard a few Pegasi talking on a cloud.

"Yeah, she's a real doll that one, what was her name? Storm Bringer?" Altair crept onto a nearby cloud and listened attentively.

"Yeah, she's great... but she does have that limp, I don't know how she got it."

"Maybe we should do something to show our respect and concern."

"Sure, but what can we do? Send her some 'Get well soon cards'?"

"We'll think of something."

Altair left his cloud cover and hovered back down to the streets. He went to a nearby alley and thought of where to find his next clue.

"So, you're the Assassin who's out to get me." A very seductive voice came from behind Altair. "I was expecting Headshot to just shoot me in the head. A fast and clean death. To think he would send a rookie to hunt me."

"Say what you want, seductress.." Altair said, not turning his back.

"You're an Assassin, are you not? And we are in an alley, completely alone, and you can leave before the guards get here. So why don't you kill me now? No more planning." She said and ran her hoof over Altair's neck. "Surely a strong stallion like you could easily kill me."

"Because, Assassins kill those who abuse power, that was the sole reason that we were created." He said and turned around to face the mare. "And all the things I heard about you were good things. Things I would hear about a saint instead of a tyrant."

"A saint? I am far from a saint, my dear. Why don't you ask your Master. He might shed some light on the subject." She said and turned her attention to the sky. "Headshot! Come out! I know you're spying on us."

Headshot came down in front of the two ponies, staring at Altair with malice. "Why don't you kill her? She's right there!" He said and pointed a sharp dagger at the two of them.

Altair refused to step-aside and drew his own weapon.

"Altair, don't make me do this." Headshot said and stepped forward.

"Give me a good reason why I should let you hurt her?" Altair said and glared at Headshot.

Headshot dropped his dagger. "I am very proud of you." He said.

"What?"

Headshot moved closer to Altair and took his weapon. "No need for that." He said and threw it on the ground. "An Assassin must be ready to lose everything, and you said you didn't have anything to lose, you are wrong, my friend."

"You have the Brotherhood." Storm Bringer said.

"You have your morals." Headshot continued.

"And you have friends like us." Storm Bringer finished.

"Wait. What is going on here?" Altair said to the two ponies.

"Altair, I would like you to meet our top Assassin, Storm Bringer, the mare who assassinated the tyrant prince of Saddle Arabia all by herself." Headshot said with a hint of pride in his voice. "Trained her myself."

"You and about five more Masters." She rolled her eyes.

"An Assassin? You sent me to kill one of our own?!?" Altair said in shock and stepped back.

"I gave you a target, and here she is." Headshot said and motioned to the mare. "And you have done quite well in trying to find her."

"Didn't you want her dead? Did she do something that disrespects our Creed?" Altair said and looked at the mare who had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Did I give you an eagle feather?"

That was all that Altair needed to hear and showed his respect to the top Assassin. "I am sorry, Ma'am." He said with his most heart-felt apology.

"Get up."

"Get up."

"Get up."

"Get up, sir. The train has reached its destination." The train conductor said.

Altair shook off the drowsiness and jumped off the train. "Take a deep breath, Altair." He said to himself.

He was at the town of Sweet Water. A short walk away from Bitter Springs.

"Hey, Alty.Heard you were coming over." A voice said from his right.

"Storm? What are you doing here?" He asked the mare. He just noticed that she was in a wheelchair. "So... it's true..."

"Yeah, lost both my back legs, but I can still fly short distances." She said and rolled the wheels to move forward.

Altair went behind her and began to push her. "Can you get a new leg? Like Master Headshot has." He asked.

"Can't, my nerves are fried. It's a miracle I'm drooling all over myself in a hospital bed waiting for my mercy killing." She said in a strange up beat voice.

"Don't... say that..."

"You're the one who said it. 'Don't fight a pony who's got nothing to lose'. Well I don't anything to lose anymore. I can't do what I love and that makes me useless and I hate it."

"And you're the one who said 'You always have something to fight for' I don't want you turning your back on that." Altair said and pushed her through the semi-busy streets.

A few shops left the air with a wonderful aroma that made both Assassins hungry. A few ponies bought and sold a few flowers and knick-knack to passing ponies.

"Maybe we should grab lunch before we start." She said and pointed to an old Nieghpone restaurant.

"Wait, 'We'?"

"I'm tagging along as your support."

"WHAT?"

> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11

------------------------------

"Roland!" Angel yelled as the soldier did a barrel roll to the right.

"What the hell are these things!?!" Roland yelled and fired his sawed-off shotgun. "They're like Pegasi or something."

"They're not ponies. Those things are huge. They're more like a Dragon." Angel said and fired one of the cannons.

"Too small to be Dragons, more like a hybrid." Roland said as a sharp claw broke through his shields and knocked him back.

The Dragon-Pony smiled at the injured soldier and dive-bombed Roland.

"Nice try." Roland muttered and dodged the hybrid and jumped on its back. Roland easily steered it into the other hybrids and he jumped off and caught the railings of the ship. "Pull me up!" Roland yelled to the Siren.

Angel hopped off the cannon and grabbed Roland's hand and pulled the muscular human up. She looked up and saw another wave of those things coming in for another round. "Incoming!"

"More? Damn." Roland pulled up his shotgun and reloaded.

The hybrids all attacked at once and blinded the two humans. Roland fired his shotgun and emptied the chambers, taking out a lot of the hybrids. 

The hybrids broke off and flew away. Some flipped their middle claw up at the two humans.

"At least that's over." Angel said and sat down on the wooden floor.

Roland sat down beside her. "Yeah, you alright, Firecracker?" Roland yelled and saw that the Unicorn was not on the deck.

"Cracker? Hey Cracker!" Angel yelled and stood up, she scanned the deck for any signs of the Unicorn. "Shit, I mean, crap."

------------------------------

The hybrids were called Pega-Drakes. They had sharp claws of a Dragon and had large powerful wings. They were shaped like ponies but had extremly tough scales.

The herd of Pega-Drakes that attacked the S.S Firestorm was the Red Wings, the best of the best... and now they were dwindled down to only five squads.

"Lionheart is going to be pissed." A young Pega-Drake said, his large beady eyes were wet with worry.

"You'll be fine, he doesn't blame the newbies... but for the leaders like us..." An older Pega-Drake said and shuddered.

"Shut up and make sure that crazy thing doesn't wake up and roast us." A much larger Pega-Drake bellowed at the two.

"Yes sir. Sir Bigwing, sir!" The two saluted and slowed down to meet up with the others who were carrying their dangerous cargo.

The younger one whispered to the one carrying the Unicorn. "Hey. What are we going to do if she wakes up?"

He gave a pat on the younger one's head. "We can stand being on the Sun for a day, what can she possibly do to us?"

The one known as Bigwing flew down next to them. The others tensed up and saluted. "You bunch of sissies want to know what she can do?" He bellowed and pointed to the Unicorn.

The rest of them nodded.

"She killed five Dragons... ON. HER.OWN. Using fire, a lot of fire." Bigwing shuddered, which was a incredibly rare sight for the Captain of the Red Wings. "Five fully grown Dragons, burned to a smoldering crisp."

The others flew silently and stared at Firecracker. The youngest one gave a hearty huff. "She doesn't look so tough."

Bigwing stared at the young member of the Red Wings. "Have you ever fought a Scorpio Major or an Ursa Major."

"Yeah, big red and stabby and the blue starry bear."

"Those were MINORS!" He said and pointed to the Unicorn. "And you had a team to back you up. That thing, that pony, took down an Ursa Major, alone. Sure it was injured but still..."

The young member swallowed a lump in his throat. "M-Minors! Those things took out most of the squad!"

"That's right, and she took down a Major."

"I-I don't believe this! She can't possibly take down a Major. Heck, it took an entire division to take down a Minor."

"I don't care if you believe it or not." Bigwing shuddered. "But remember, don't give her a reason to kill you. She will do it, even if you lock her up, chain her magic and bound her legs, she will find a way." Bigwing turned around and flew farther away from the group. "She always has."

------------------------------

"The Red Wings are on their way, sir."

Critical sipped his coffee with a serious look on his face. "Tell them to keep her alive."

"Sir? Alive?"

"Yes, alive." Critical threw the empty cup of coffee to the wall. "But tell them to be as rough as possible."

"Understood, sir." The pony left Critical's Chambers went out to inform the Red Wings

Critical locked the doors and went over to the dresser. "My little firebug." He said and pulled out a picture of Firecracker with her mane tied up into a ponytail. "How I’ve missed you."

"All the times I've waited for you and still you choose my insolent little brother!" He said and threw the picture at the wall, shattering the glass. "No, not today. I will make you love me. One way or the other."

A quick memory flashed through his eyes.

"Boom! Wait up!"

"Come on, Heady, we got our target."

"Boom, Headshot! Wait up!"

Critical brushed off the memory. "I will get back what is rightfully ours." He said and brushed back his mane. "This I swear."

------------------------------

"Storm... You are CRAZY!" Altair said to the gun-metal grey Pegasus

"What else is new?" She asked sarcastically.

"You barely got out alive and now you're risking going back in! Storm, I thought you were crazy before but..." Altair tried to talk the crippled Pegasus out of her resolve.

"Oh? I believe, you had a death wish earlier in life. What was it again? Jumping into a lake filled with electric eels." She said with a smile.

"That was different, I dropped my coin pouch." Altair said with a shrug.

There was a large rumbling coming from Storm's stomach. "Food. Buy me food."

"...No..."

Storm grabbed Altair by the neck and started to slowly choke him. "Food..."

"...Never..." He wheezed. "... Unless I want to be in debt for a few decades..." He chocked.

She dropped the Assassin. "just a few cupcakes." She said with big puppy dog eyes.

"If I said 'no' you would kill me. Just a few cupcakes, alright?" Altair pushed her wheelchair as they began to make their way towards the restaurant.

"Did I mention their cupcakes are delish!" Storm said as they went into the restaurant.

"Huh, really?" Altair didn't really care and just examined the large red room they were in. He always had a habit of making a plan to escape or kill. Right now, he was trying not to get killed if he chose to run away.

"One Strawberry blast cupcake please." Storm said, her eyes began to water and she licked her lips in anticipation.

"Right away, ma'am." The pony behind the counter said and went back inside the kitchen.

She turned her attention to the young Assassin who was looking out the window. "Did I mention that they have great service here?"

"No. Just how good are they?" He said and really didn't care. He started to wonder if he could jump out the window.

"Here's your cupcake ma'am" The pony handed over a rather large strawberry red cupcake.

She quickly ate the large cupcake. Altair stared blankly at her, he wasn't sure if it was a large cupcake or a small cake.

Storm gave a big and obnoxious burp. "That was good." She said and sighed. "Did I also mention that they charge a fortune?"

The pony behind the counter smile. Ms. Storm always brings in more saps to take money from. "That would be about three hundred bits, sir."

Altair stared at the two of them, both having wide grins on their faces, he then turns to the window and back to the duo. "Let me guess, the windows are bullet-proof."

"Yup."

"And the doors are dead-locked."

"Yup."

"And I'm going to have to pay, aren't I?"

"You got it, Alty."

"I hate you."

------------------------------

Slenderpony walked through the streets of Manehatten. A few ponies stared at the once demi-god. He paid them no mind.

He needed info on his target, his prey, and he never loses his prey, NEVER.

"Ex-excuse me, sir." A young Earth-pony, grabbed his long black suit. "Umm... Do you know where, uhhh,  Mane street is?"

Slender raised his brow in confusion. "Mane street? Why would you want to go there, child?" He said in a voice that most children would trust without a second thought.

This child however, as soon as he heard his voice, he backed away. "Uh. No reason, just finding some things to do. Uh, bye!" He stared to run away but Slender quickly stepped in front of him.

Honestly, he was intrigued by this young colt. "Why are you running?" He said and stepped closer and closer. The young colt stepped back to match the ex-Demi-god. "Do you know who I am?" The colt soon ran his back to a wall with no escape. "Are you afraid?"

"I-I'm not a-afraid of you..." He said, his voice was shaking as he tried to find a way out.

Slender just noticed his hoof-band and necklace. Both of them stared to glow and several spikes came out of the walls and the ground and blocked Slender's field of vision.

Slender stepped back with a smile on his face. "Now this is a rare treat." He said as he saw the young colt run away like his life, which it was, depended on it.

Slender's tentacles pushed him over the spikes and gently placed him on the other side. "Now, I got to be careful with this." He said and started following the young colt. "I'm not immortal anymore, I'm strong and regular fire-arms won't kill me but a powerful mage might."

He sighed as he found the colt at a dead-end. "Sadly, food's not all powerful." He said and a single tentacle lunged at the young colt.

The colt shielded his eyes and waited for the final blow... but it never came. He didn't dare open his eyes in fear.

Slender stared at shock at the blue force field that surrounded the colt. A single old Unicorn with blue eyes and a great white beard sneered at Slender. An trio of shooting stars adorned his flank.

"It's been a long time." He said in an old voice.

"It has." Slender replied.

"Tell me, how has Slender Jr. fared these long years?"

"He's dead."

"I see..."

Slender stared at the young colt cowering behind the old Unicorn.

"You've taken him under your wing, metaphorically of course." Slender said with a sarcastic smile. "The years haven't been kind, old friend!"

"And you look like you did all those years ago, centauries now, I believe." The old unicorn stared at Slender with malice. "It's been a while, Shade."

"Yes, it has." He said and pushed through the shield and pinned the two of them on the wall. "It has been far too long, Starswirl."

"Maybe..." Starswirl said, his horn glowing a bright blue as both him and the young colt dissolved into the wall. "...Not long enough."

Shade was left alone in the dark alley of Manehatten, a few traces of magic swirled through the air. "Loyalty can wait. I have personal bussines to take care of."

Shade couldn't care less about the Element of Loyalty right now, he goal was to find and kill Starswirl the Bearded and his little apprentice. He first needed to find information about them however.

And, much to his anger, the only place to find information about a target would be a bar.

Shade cursed inwardly as he walked into the disgusting hole of an establishment he has ever seen, and to top it off, it was playing his most hated song in all of time.

"Gimmie twenty bits! Gimmie twenty bits!" A few drunk colts sang along with the music. If he could, he would kill them right now. He walked towards the counter and took a seat on one of the stools.

"What can I get for you, lad?" The old green maned bartender said to the disgruntled abomination.

"Info about an old Unicorn, long beard, shooting stars for a Cutie-mark." Shade said in mild annoyance.

"A Unicorn? I know a lot of Unicorns, maybe some bits could help clear my mind." He said with an untrustworthy smile.

Shade grabbed the bartender by the throat. "Or I could beat the living shit out of you."

The rest of the bar stared at Shade, most had broken bottles or short knives ready to cut him down.

"Get 'em, lads!" The bartender yelled and several of the drunks rushed in. Shade side-stepped and grabbed a simple brown bottle and smacked them across the face, he didn't need to bother to show his real powers.

A few more rushed in and slashed away at Shade.

Shade dodged easily and stifled a yawn. "Is that all you got?" He said in a mocking gesture. He mentally cursed himself. He spent too much time with his son and now he's starting to act like him.

Shade dodged and countered with a strike from his broken bottle. A pony dropped to the ground, his knife clattering on the hard wooden ground. Shade picked it up and it felt... nice? He never bothered with such emotions before.

Shade stabbed the pony with the knife and he smiled a sadistic grin. It felt better than using his real powers, to connect to the flesh, blood gushing out, he felt... alive.

The other patrons stepped back as Shade removed the knife and licked the blunt part of the blade. He liked the taste of the blood, a sort of tangy metallic taste, he was familiar with draining the life of foals and adults alike but never drank the blood before.

He gave a sadistic grin to the others who all stared with disgust.

A few ponies started to stallion-up. "Hey! Get off of my buddy!" One of them said and attacked Shade with a hard wooden chair.

Shade was to focused on the blood on his suit, for some reason it irritated him, and he didn't notice the wooded object smacking him in the face.

"Take that!" The stallion yelled in triumph.

Shade frowned, as cuts covered his face but were quickly healed by his over-worldly powers.

The others noticed this and some of them began to whisper among themselves. "What are you?"

"DeAtH."

------------------------------

Starswirl silently made it back to an old safe-house with the young colt on his back.

The colt was sleeping soundly on the old Unicorn's back.

Shame. He thought. A young child being forced into this war that has been fought for centuries. He carefully placed the colt on a soft bed. The colt snored lightly. He white coat was slightly dirty with splotches here and there.

Starswirl turned around and turned off the lights. He looked back to the colt, still soundly sleeping. "Rest well, young Blueblood." He said and left the room.

His horn glowed blue and the door glowed, and with a locking sound, the door was completely cannot be opened from the outside.

Starswirl made his way outside, he felt a slight disturbance near one of the old bars in town. He quickly teleported a few blocks away from said bar.

He quickly made his way to the bar, the smell of blood wafted through the air. Several guards have blocked off the area.

"Sorry, sir. No trespassing." The guard said stoically.

"Captain Starlight, FBI." Starswirl said and showed a blank piece of paper to the guard.

The guard examined the piece of paper with a critical eye. "Sorry, sir. Go on inside."

Starswirl went inside and saw all the blood and dead bodies. Some were pinned on the walls and others completely mutilated. "Huh, not your average bar brawl, eh? Spines?" He said and his beard began to rustle and a small red-eyed salamander poked his head out and stared blankly at the gore.

"I know, I won't be sleeping anytime soon too." Star said to the small lizard as if it was talking.

Spines stared at the old Unicorn with an expressionless face.

"I'm not an old scaredy cat. You're a scaredy cat."

Spines dug back down to his beard.

"Yeah, scaredy cat."

Starswirl walked through the destroyed bar. Looking through the mutilated bodies. A few guards saluted to him.

"Sir, we got a live one." A guard said with a salute.

"Alive? Looks like his some of his son rubbed off on him." Starswirl said and walked pass the slightly confused guard.

The stallion in question was the bartender, shivering and covered in blood. "The monster... DON'T LET IT GET ME!" He yelled.

Starswirl has spent years with ponies that need to calm down and he knew exactly what this stallion needs.

"CALM." He said and slapped him across the face. "THE." He slapped him after each word. "FUCK. DOWN!"

The stallion really did calm down but his breathing was still erratic and was covered in blood. "I-I'm calm." He said.

"Now, tell me what happened." Starswirl said and placed his hoof on his head. "Nice and slow."

The bartender took a deep breath. "It was just earlier today, I was at bar talking with one of my regular, Luna bless his soul, and this snow-white stallion with a short black mane took a seat on one of those bar stools."

"Tell me, did you see his Cutie-mark?"

"No, it was covered by his long suit, it looked a bit too long for him though." The bartender said and took another deep breath. "He asked about an old Unicorn with shooting stars and a long beard." He said and his eyes went wide as he examined the old Unicorn. Starswirl shushed him and told the guards to leave the room.

"He's hunting me." Starswirl said. "And I am hunting him. That stallion is serial killer and a psychopath, he killed his own son recently and what makes it worse for me was he was my childhood friend." Starswirl whispered to avoid eavesdropping guards. "I need to kill him before he takes another life."

The bartender was about to believe the story but a thought came into his head. "You said he was a childhood friend, but he looked like he was only twenty-five at best."

Starswirl sighed. "Yes, he takes the youth of children and adds more years to his life." Starswirl lied.

"I see. After he... did those things to my friends... He decided to spare me if I told him where an old stallion with a white beard lived. There is one that right in the middle of Mane street. I hope you kill that bastard who killed my friends." The bartender said with angry eyes.

The old Unicorn nodded and went away.

Outside the bar, he saw something stuck on trunk of a tree. "He will never change, will he?" He went to the tree and tore the note off. "Find me? eh? You're getting less creative, Shade."

------------------------------

"Crap! Crap! Crap!" Roland repeated over and over again. "How the hell could we let this happen!?! We got our friend kidnapped!"

"Shut up! Roland!" Angel yelled, which was a sight Roland has never experienced before. "First, we find Headshot and then we find Firecracker." She said and tapped her ECHO device.

"Right. Calm down." He said to himself and tapped his ECHO as well.

"Roland, Angel. Where are you guys? We've been waiting for a while now." Headshot said through the ECHO.

"We're arriving in port now and..." Roland trailed off.

"Firecracker's been kidnapped." Angel said bluntly.

"WHAT!" Headshot yelled.

"No use pussyfooting it. We got attacked by these weird half-pony-dragon things." Angel said without hesitation.

Headshot felt a headache come on. "Agh. Did they have any emblems or mark on their armor?"

"Red feathers." Roland said.

"I was afraid of this. I'll meet you at port." He said and his ECHO switched off.

Firecracker was one of her first actual friends and she WILL NOT lose her. "Roland tell how was it like losing your entire squad."

Roland was taken aback by this question. "You saw what happened, you were keeping close tabs on us when we got to Pandora."

"I'm not asking about what happened. I am asking on how you felt." She said without looking at him.

Roland felt like he was being talked down by his CO again, and his CO was a bitch. "Angry. I wanted to avenge them. I wanted to tell them that they were the greatest teammates I could ever ask for."

"Would you trade them for you new friends?"

Roland didn't answer right away and stared at the passing clouds. "If I could bring them back without hurting my new friends then I would gladly give up my life for them."

"I'm not asking that. I am asking if you would kill your friends to get your old ones back." Angel stared at Roland, waiting for an answer.

"No..."

"No?"

"No, you can't make me choose between friends, Angel." Roland said. "Friends are special, each and every one of them are different and I could never choose between them."

Angel was quiet for a moment and Roland wiped a few tears away.

"Huh? This is embarrassing. Here I am crying for my dead squad next to girl." He said and chuckled weakly.

Friends are special? Each of them are different, and I would never trade my friends... Angel though to herself. I'll save her...

The S.S Firestorm docked and they were met with a few ponies wearing white hoods, each of them were surprised by the two humans.

"Roland! Angel!" Headshot yelled from the back row. "Over here!"

"Master, discretion..."

"Whatever. I got some good news." Headshot said and flew towards them. "I know exactly where they're taking Firecracker."

Angel's eyes lit up. "Where?"

"I got more news. I already sent my top agent there. We just need to update his mission." Headshot said and a short pony came forward, wings outstreached and ready for action. "Send word to Altair, tell him that Firecracker was kidnapped by the Red Wings, rescue her, this is his top priority."

The pony bowed and took off to the air.

"Now, we sit back and relax." Headshot said and resting on a nearby cloud.

Angel was furious at the metallic Pegasus. "You're not going to help her!?! She's your friend and you're putting her life in the hand of one of your agents!"

Headshot flew down to eye level. "I trust Altair with my life, he has proven to me that he is ready to become a Master and he has also proven that he is a friend that can be trusted to do the job, quickly and efficiently. I trust him completely."

Trust... the word that hurts Angel every time she hears it. She betrayed the Vault Hunters' trust, and she regrets it every time. She wished that she could have done something.

> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12

------------------------------

Blueblood, the young snow-white colt with a dirty blonde mane, was never asleep and as soon as the old Unicorn closed the door, the young colt went over to a small desk, filled with phials with strange colored liquid that even Starswirl might have forgotten what some of them did, but not Blueblood, he knew what he needed and what he needed to make.

"Five drops of Gorgon tears." He said and placed a beaker over a small magical flame and carefully dropped Gorgon tears in it. "A piece of Dragon scale." He said and dropped a sharp blue scale into the beaker. "A dash of rainbow hair." He said and threw in a few strands of colorful hair.

"Now, what else do I need?" He asked himself and looked around the table. "Agh, what was that song I made up? Oh right, now I remember."

"Five drops of Gorgon tears
A piece of Dragon scale,
Maybe a dash of rainbow hair, I really cannot tell
A serpent tail
A piece from a feathery dress
Maybe some alcohol to help it congress
A glowing bit from an Everfree plant
I could make it blow and shiver and shake, or maybe I can't
Rise the fire make it bubble
Time to cause a little trouble
Three clippings of Monkey nails
Now you've made a door breaking spell"

Blueblood picked up the boiling liquid and threw it at the door and it shattered and he stepped out. "Now that the door is broken and that is my cue, time to leave this place, oh and make the door brand new." He said and the door began to reconstruct back into its former wooden glory.

He stepped out and went down to the street. "Hmmm, now where do I go?" He went to the old library and decided to find more info on this creature that attacked him.

"Mr. Starswirl knows him. That means he's old, maybe older..." He muttered to himself as he pushed open the door to the old dusty library. He heard Starswirl call his attacker Shade, maybe he could find something about him.

"Oh, hello Blueblood. What is it today?" A pleasant black mare with a light blue mane smiled at the young colt.

"Hello, Mrs. Novella, I was just wondering if you know anything about a historic pony named Shade." Blueblood said and returned her smile.

"Shade? No doesn't ring any bells. Why don't you check around in the S section." Novella pushed up her glasses and continued reading a book titled "Fifty shades of rain". Blueblood already read it and he really didn't like it.

Blueblood ran to the S section and began scanning books. He didn't notice that he bumped into a young Unicorn filly with a pink mane. Both of them tumbled down as a few books came crashing down on both of them.

Blueblood pushed himself up the top of the books and observed the unintentional destruction of an entire section of a library. There was a low moan under the books and Blueblood pushed off most of the books. "Sorry, are you alright?" He spotted a hoof sticking out from a pile of books and he pulled her up.

The filly had no Cutie-mark like Blueblood and she was slightly dazed. "Uh, miss are you alright?" He repeated. The filly shook off the daze and stood up.

"Ah, don't worry. I'm fine, I wasn't watching where I was going." She said and picked up an old urban myth book. "Is this yours?" She said and offered.

This was the book that Shade was holding during the time they bumped into each other. He picked up an old tome of medical spells right under his hoof. "Yeah and I think this is yours." He said and both of them traded their books.

"My name is Porom, what's yours?" She asked and both of them decided to go to one of the many unoccupied tables in the library.

Both of them sat down, opposite to each other. "Blueblood Crystalheart, most just call me Blue." He said and opened his book.

"Nice to meet you, Blue." She said with a pleasant smile.

Blueblood skimmed through the book and found something that might help. "Ummm. Do you know something about this?" He said and showed Porom what he found.

"Huh? Eldritch? Never heard of it before." She said. "What are trying to find anyway?"

Blueblood wasn't sure what to answer. "Urban stories and myths and stuff." He said with a fake cough.

"Really?" She said. She didn't believe him but she decided not to ask further.

"Yeah. Just something to pass the time and, uhh, stuff." He lied and continued reading.

He flipped to the next page and... Wait, he thought. Th-this doesn't make any sense! He hopped off his seat and picked up the book.

"Hey, where are you going?" Porom said to the leaving colt.

"Just... need somewhere to be... Bye." He said and ran to the librarian. "Mrs. Novella, can I borrow this book?"

"Sure, but you know the rules." She said with a smirk. "No damage, no problem."

"Right... Well, see ya!" He said and ran off.

Porom looked at the retreating white colt. "I wonder..." She said and got up and followed him out.

Blueblood ran across the street, searching for any signs of where his friend and master had gone. He felt something tug on him to the right but when he turned around he didn't find anything but empty streets. He started to think, he noticed that there was nopony around, which was strange during this time of day.

He decided to run in a random direction. After a few minutes, he arrived back to the library. "Oh no... I'm in one of those reality-dream spells aren't I?"

He decided to go back to the library since it was the only place left to go. The library was deformed to say the least. Books floating around without a care, bookshelves were twisted in odd angles and several tables and chairs were either floating around with the books or completely flat on the floor.

Mrs. Novella stared with a hateful glare. "What do you want, kid?" She said in a annoyed tone.

Blueblood sighed, he knew that nearly nothing here is real. "Who cares about you." He said and walked right in and ignored the angry librarian.

"Alright." He said to himself. "I need to get out of here and fast." A small green book smacked him right in the face.

"The book of lies?" He said and opened the first page.

"The cover is red." The words on the book turned by itself. "There is no truths in this book." It flipped itself again and landed on a picture of Starswirl. "This pony is dead."

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that." He said and tried to close the book but it flew up and opened on a random page.

"I'm lying." It read and it flew away.

"I hate paradoxes..." Blueblood muttered to himself.

------------------------------

Porom found Blueblood passed out outside the library doors. "HEY!" She yelled. "Come on! You're alive." She quickly tried to force him to wake up but every attempt failed.

"Porom? What are you doing, girl?" An old sagely voice called out from inside.

"Master Spellbook! Help me quick!" She said.

Spellbook slowly went outside the library, his long white mane hung limply down his face. "What is going on here?" He said and crouched down to look at the young colt. "Somepony put a little spell on him. That's so cute, whoever casted the spell really didn't think it through. This young colt will probably break it within the hour or so."

"Spell? He's going to break it? I thought that only Unicorns could break spells like this." She said with a curious look on her face. "Is he going be alright?"

Spellbook smiled. "Of course, child. We should get him back inside." He said and picked up the colt. "And where is your brother? I thought he was going with you."

"That idiot's probably showing off to some girls." Porom said with a low laugh. "Probably out with that Cotton Cloud girl." She said with a huff.

"They do make a cute couple." Spellbook said and entered the library, Porom followed closely behind.

"'Cute'? What kind of master are you? You're supposed to say that 'That boy needs to focus more' and stuff." She said with a huff.

Mrs. Novella gasped at Blueblood. "What happened to him?" She asked.

"Dream spell. He'll be fine within the hour." Spell said and turned his attention to Porom. "He's young, he should find love before it leaves forever."

"Love. Hah, more like wooing ever filly he sees." Porom said. Spell placed the young colt gently on the table.

"Heh, you're probably right."

------------------------------

Palom, Porom's twin brother walked happily across the street. "Hey, Cotton!" He waved to a small white Pegasus filly.

Cotton smiled at him. "Hey." She shyly waved back. 

"How have you been? I've been great! Don't mean to brag but I mastered the Dream spell, hold you're applaus." He said, his ego was overflowing so to speak.

"Uh huh, did you try it on somepony?" She asked with a worried glance.

He gave a weak smile. "Heh, I tried it a colt that came out of the library earlier. He'll be fine, I made sure to give him a nice dream.

Meanwhile...

Blueblood was running as his little hooves could carry him. A white pony wearing a doctor's outfit complete with a surgical mask running towards him with a bloody chainsaw and laughing like a mad colt.

Back to reality...

"Probably in a candy land, munching on cotton candy clouds." Palom said with a confident huff.

"You don't it think it was a little rude?" She said softly.

Palom deflated a bit. "Well yeah, but I couldn't do it to sis or she'd knock me into next week." He said and grabbed her hoof. "Besides, he's probably living the life in his dream."

Meanwhile...

Blueblood finally got away from that mad doctor and found himself having swicthed bodies with a dying witch, also he(she?) didn't have any legs except for his front hooves.

"Ugh... givahh... bodisaehh..." He tried to speak to the near emotionless witch that was in his body.

"Give it back? Why? You said you would lend it to me."

"Ugh...ooghh...argh...blaghh..." Blueblood said which translates to. "I didn't give you my body, you crazy hag!"

"Hag? I may be over a hundred years old but I am no hag!" She yelled.

"Ugh? Agh... Blagh!" Blueblood said in a taunting matter.

"What did you say about my mane!"

Closer... Closer... Blueblood thought as the witch began to walk forward, intent on ending his life with a knife in hoof. And, just when the witch quickly brought down the knife, Blueblood used the little magic in the witch's body and used it to change back.

The knife quickly ended the witch's life without the time to scream in pain.

Back to reality...

"Still... I would have volunteered if you'd ask me." Cotton said as both of them walked through the street.

Palom sighed. "I could never do that to a friend." He said and kicked a small pebble.

"And, sometimes I really just want to sleep in, and maybe you could help with that." Cotton said with a playful grin. "I bet whoever that colt is, he is having a great time."

"Yeah, shame I can't place the spell on myself." He said. "I would love being in my own dream and remembering everything."

Back to Blueblood...

He was now running from paintings with a very silent filly and an older grey stallion with a white mane.

"Keep running, Ib, Blue!" The older stallion said.

"I'm running as fast as I can! Gary!" Blueblood yelled as two more paintings jumped out from the wall.

Back to Palom...

"Anyway, where are we going?" Cotton asked as she fluttered slighty above.

Palom stopped and rubbed his chin. "Well, I want to be a master Unicorn mage and I so happen to find a magic competition nearby and I need an assistant..."

"And you want me to be your assistant?" She said silently. "I can't...perform in front of crowds... You know that."

Palom took her hoof. "It's going to be fine. You'll be wearing a mask anyway." He said with a smile.

Both of them made their way to the park and quickly sat down on the bench. Palom's horn began to glow a soft green. Cotton Cloud shifted uncomfortably. "Umm... Why can't Porom help instead?"

Palom scoffed. "Her? Have you even met her before?"

"Your sister seems nice enough..."

"Not to me." Palom said, irritated. A few sparks coming off his horn. "She thinks she's better than me and she always so 'Perfect' and that bugs me! She thinks I don't take magic seriously but we both know that magic is my life!"

Palom had a small pout on his face. Cotton gently placed her hoof on his shoulder. "And you want to prove to her that your just as good by winning the magic competition?"

"No, I want to be better."

Cotton sighed. "Fine. I'll do it, but only for you." She said with a smile.

Palom smiled back. "Thanks."

------------------------------

"...So the engineers here fixed up my wing, and here we are." Headshot said and scoped out his rifle.

"And where is this 'Pain' girl?" Roland said as he sat down on a very small stone chair.

Headshot placed his rifle on the table and removed the Element of Loyalty that was around his neck. "There are six Elements of Harmony, these things are the most powerful artifacts in the history of the world, she's doing research on them and trying to find where they are. She calms down when she's busy."

"Elements of Harmony? Don't you need six bearers for them to be used?" Angel said. A few of the Assassin guards stared at them with a confused look.

"They don't know about the Vault?" One of the guards whispered among the others. Headshot heard this and rose from his seat.

"The three of you, if you're so knowledgeable then why don't you tell it." Headshot said with a scowl on his face.

The three of them grumbled and stepped forward. The first spoke up. "A few centuries ago, a few Unicorn mages in Canterlot tampered with forbidden magic, they attempted to summon a powerful demon to take over Equistria and the world."

The second one stepped forward. "They sacrificed hundreds of innocent lives and used this power to summon Anarchy." Headshot cringed at the mention of that name. "But Anarchy was to powerful and killed them slowly. He easily beat Celestia and Luna and left the latter for dead."

The third slowly took the center. "Celestia pleaded to spare her sister's life and in return Anarchy will get celestia as his slave for life. The current Elements tried to take him down but Anarchy took the one moment of weakness and almost killed the Element of Kindness. Discord was binded and can only see that his only friend died right before his eyes."

"Anarchy killed the rest but Princess Twilight, she never recovered." A voice said from behind them. Roland and Angel turned around and met face to face with the Unicorn Summoner. "Anarchy was careful and hid the Elements in Vaults, nearly indestructible safes that will only open when a potential Element has the Vault key."

Headshot raised his hoof like he a school colt in class. "Does that means not just anypony could take the keys and open one of the Vaults?"

"Yes, and all the Vaults are hidden in very hard to find spots." Pain said with a straight face. "Even if we find possible Element bearers we still won't be able to find the Vaults."

"Maybe, but we won't know until we try. Maybe if we find one of the Princesses, like Princess Twilight." Headshot said.

Pain shook her head. "Might as well try and find the Vaults, that would be much easier. We never found out where she hid herself."

"Maybe, YOU never found out, but the assassins always have a tab on political powers." Headshot snapped his head to three guard. "One of you go the Archives and find the last location Princess Twilight was, and the other two should tell all post to keep a look out for Princess Twilight and report to me directly if they find anything, remember they can change back to look like a Unicorn or Pegasus or even an Earth pony." The three of them bowed and went away.

Roland and Angel felt uncomfortable when Headshot took charge. They always saw him as a laid back type.

"Centauries of surviving and hiding, and now... a chance to fight back." Headshot muttered and looked at his Element and weapon on the table. "Finally..."

Roland stood up. "I had enough of sitting around. I've done enough of that in Sanctuary."

"Roland, calm down. Going in there, guns blazing will only make things worse." Angel tried to reason with the soldier.

"Maybe not," Pain said, this caused both the humans to look up at her. "we don't a large enough archive and we also need a few old scrolls and tomes in Canterlot Castle."

Headshot looked at her. "We don't have the stallion power to storm the bloody castle."

"Yes, but Anarchy doesn't stay in the castle and if we move quickly we could get in and get out before anypony notices." Pain suggested.

"That's crazy... Let's do it!" Headshot rose with a flap of his mechanical wings but he was quickly pulled down by Pain's magic.

"No that would be too risky and we know your brother is in control of the castle."

"All the more reason to go." Headshot said with determination.

"No." Pain firmly said.

They held a short staring contest but ultimately Pain won.

"Fine..." Headshot grumbled. "Roland and Angel," he turned his to the two Vault hunters. "you two will go in later tonight."

Roland and Angel nodded and stood up. "I think I would like to take a nap." Roland yawned.

"Ok, I'll take you to the rooms." Headshot said.

"I'll go to the library, something to take my mind off Firecracker." She said with a sad expression on her face.

Pain silently went up to Angel. "Um, I could take you there." She said timidly. When she's not talking about something serious, she was a very quiet mare.

The two groups went on their way. Angel looked around the dusty room, lights from candles flickered uncomtrolably. Pain went over to a small transfiguration circle and studied the notes. Angel looked around to find something to read.

She found an old book, it was a dull brown hard covered book, she blew off the excess dust and opened the book. The book had several legends and lores about the Vault, the Elements and even some stories about Anarchy. She bit back her tongue as she read the book about the Vault.

She began to read aloud. "... Two warriors from lands long passed will find and unlock the keys that opens the gate, one of valor and loyalty, the other kind and knowledgeable, both are wingless and hornless but possess powers that rival gods, one of blue markings and the other of dead friends. A master of combat and a scholar of all, the soldier and the siren..." She flipped the page and saw a strange symbol, it was not the symbol of the Vault but it seemed so familiar.

She clenched her head in pain, the seething headache was unbearable, her tattoos began to glow a bright blue as she formed a sphere that surrounded her.

Pain yelled out and rushed to her side, only to be pushed back by an unseeable force.

"Sirens are very special, Jack."

"But will it keep my little girl safe?"

"When you open the second Vault, she will have everything she could ever want."

"KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF HER!"

"My offer stands, when she opens the Vault, she will be whatever she wants to be."

"I don't care what you do to me but if you hurt my daughter... I will never stop hunting you..."

"Yes, I wouldn't dream of it. It will be painful for her but after that, she could choose not to feel or remember the pain, Jack."

"...What do I have to do?"

"Get someone to open the first Vault. Wait about twenty years, the Vault key is still recharging."

"There are only six sirens that can exist in this Universe at a given time, the other three of them will come to Pandora."

"Then why can't you use them instead?"

"Your daughter is special, she is the strongest siren out of the six."

"What do you want me to do for twenty years?"

"Rise to power, become the CEO of Hyperion, kill the competition."

"K-kill?"

"You secretly want to kill your grandmother, don't you?"

"But I would never do it! She's family, even if she's a bitch!"

"Fine, but one day... Just remember, Jack, don't hold on to her too tightly, when the time to let go is near, set the caged bird free."

The sphere shattered and Angel fell to the floor, unconscious but breathing.

Pain went to her side and checked her vitals. Headshot came running into the room, Roland closely behind.

"What the hell happened?!?" Roland asked and went to Angel's side.

"I-I don't know, she was reading a book and weird stuff began to happen." Pain stammered on.

"Calm down." Headshot said to Pain. "Tell us what happened."

"Later." Roland said. "Get her to the infirmary, then we'll talk." Roland said and picked up Angel.

The trio left the room.

The book glowed a faint light, as if it was waiting for another one to read it.

> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13

------------------------------

Roland placed Angel on the small bed and sat down beside her. He placed his palms on his face and pinched the bridge of his nose with a scowl on his face. "If I find out that Anarchy did this..."

"Calm down, Roland." Headshot said. "Getting mad over this won't help."

Pain went to Angel's side and placed a damp cloth on her head. "She has a fever. I'm not sure if it's magically connected but I'll try and do what I can."

Roland got up and left the room. Headshot followed him out. "Where the hell are you going?"

Roland didn't look behind and kept his graze forward. "I need to figure out what happened."

"Don't do anything stupid." He said and looked back to the infirmary.

Roland left without a word and headed to back to the Archives. He saw the book Angel was reading on the ground, a faint blue glow circling it. He picked up the book, it reacted to his touch and placed it on the table. He saw the same symbol Angel saw, he felt a bit unnerved by the symbol but flipped through the pages.

His lips began to move involuntarily as he read the words on the book.

"The valor of the leader, and the loyalty of the soldier. A man clad in crimson and black, led ones he knew from hell and back, Hunter, Brute, and Phoenix, followed the Soldier as he led the search for treasure. A man with the mask reaps their reward and takes the Soldier's life. But is he dead? This question lingered as his vision filled with light and darkness, a dead man, a scared child between life and death, barely able to comprehend what happened to his life." He read, he felt very uneasy as he flipped the next page to continue, but he met with the symbol of the Crimson lance.

He clenched his head, his eyes glowing a bright red, his heart ached. This felt like the times he respawned, only much more painful. His vision dissolved into light and darkness and several scenes flashed through the colorless void.

A young Roland, wearing a make-shift armor of the Crimson lance took out a small treasure map.

"Wait I don't remember this." The read Roland said as he followed the young boy.

The boy walked up to a house, his house and opened the door. "Hey, Mom?" He called out. 

A pale old black women came out with a wrinkled smile. "Roland? Why are you back early?" 

Roland smiled. "I just needed my telescope." Roland saw the old telescope on the table and grabbed it. He was about to leave when he turned around and faced his mother. "When's dad gonna come home?"

Roland's mom's smile faltered a bit. "You know your father works very hard as a Crimson lance officer."

Roland frowned. "Okay." He walked out.

The went up to an old tree house and took out his telescope. Noting all the landmarks and checked his map. He smirked and jumped down the tree house and ran to a random direction.

The real Roland followed closely, he wanted to figure out why he couldn't remember this.

The young Roland ran around town and finally found an "X" on the ground. He even got a self-narration as he stepped closer to the "X"

"The brave and handsome adventurer Roland steps closer to his prize and picking up his trusty shovel and digging. After digging for hours," which were only a few minutes. "the handsome adventurer saw the ultimate prize of all treasure hunters, the Vault." He said and pulled up an old pirate chest. He heard voices from nearby foliage.

"...And the brave group of treasure hunters closed in on the treasure marked on the map." He heard a little girls voice say.

"Hey, Lilith, do you really have to say everything we do?" An irritated voice said, followed by a small chirping bird.

"Don't be such a downer, Mordicai. It add suspense." A lower pitched voice said.

The trio left the bushes and stared, wide-eyed at the young "adventurer" and his treasure chest.

The four of them stared at each other.

The real Roland was completely confused by this. He never met the other until Pandora.

The girl glared at Roland. "Hey! What are you doing with our treasure?!" She yelled at Roland. The girl had short red hair with a yellow and blue shirt and jeans, on her belt was a bottle of bubbles.

"Your treasure? I found it first!" Roland retorted and pouted. The other two looked at each other in confusion.

"Yeah? Well, we have a treasure map!" Lilith said and showed an exact copy of Roland's map.

Roland took out his own map and showed her. "I have one too!"

Lilith deflated but still stared at Roland. "Ours is better."

The rather large and muscular kid chimed in. "Hey, uhh. What's is the treasure anyway?"

Roland and Lilith stared at the large boy. "The Vault, an ancient alien treasure chest that hold infinite wealth." Lillth started.

"Vast alien weaponry." Roland continued.

"Power"

"Women." Roland said and the other boys giggled but Lilith only rolled her eyes.

The one with the weird mask and the bird smiled with anticipation. "Then let's open the Vault already!"

The two arguing children looked at each other and sighed in defeat. Both of them went in front of the chest and opened it. The other two peaked in the gawked at the contents.

A few party poppers went off. "Congratulation. You four have found the legendary Vault." A man in a weird bunny costume came out of the bushes and said. "And you all will leave with the chocolate goodness inside the Vault, wrapped in golden wrappers and made from only the best ingredients, the Vault Choco keys. Congratulation!"

The four of them shrugged, and divided the Chocolate keys evenly with each other.

"This has been a contest from the Atlas Corporation, we hope you have a pleasant day." The rabbit man said and dissapeard back into the forest.

The rest of the day was spent with his new found friends in a game of tag, hide-and-seek, and sometimes more pretend adventures with each other.

The sun had begun to set and Roland bid farewell to his new friends. He made his way back home.

The real Roland was starting to remember and he wanted it to stop. "STOP!STOP!STOP!" He screamed as his younger self walked into his house, followed by his younger self's scream.

Tears welled up for both Roland’s eyes as he stared at his mother's bullet holed body.

The real Roland went over to the body. "I remember... I was weak... I blocked it out, this day... I forgot to keep myself sane, forgot my friends in order to forget this memory..." He looked over to his younger self and remember what he was thinking during the time.

"Maybe I should have stayed home? Maybe I could have protected her. Maybe if I wasn't playing around so much, I could have done something." The young Roland thought, and voiced by the real Roland.

"I was weak then... I chose to run away..." The real Roland said and saw his younger self run out the door and into the woods. "But not now... I'll remember you... I'll keep that memory forever... I'm stronger now, mom... I've changed..." He stared to cry again. "I've change... I'll protect those who I care for... I hope you're proud of me..."

Roland went back to reality. Tears stained the pages of the book as he closed it and carefully placed it inside his inventory. "I've changed... I'll protect her..." He said and started to walk back to the infirmary.

------------------------------

Twilight, the young medical unicorn sung to herself as she blissfully sharpened her bonesaw. The song was being played out nearby.

"There's a certain hellish realm
Reserve for everypony who yells 
They need the Medic!"

She carefully placed books on a nearby shelf and quickly turned to her next "patient", a Unicorn colt who was one of Anarchy's spies.

"Please, I'll tell you everything I know!" He yelled.

Twilight smiled, a sadistic sort of smile. The music was still playing in the background. "Oh don't need to trouble yourself with that, I already took the liberty and checked your brain, and you have no information that is of any use to me."

The "patient" was tied to a dirty operating table, complete with every kind of surgical(and some hardware) equipment. "Yo-you read my mind?" He asked with a worried tone. "Then you must know that I have a family!"

"Oh yes, a loving husband, a father of three. I was even thinking of letting you go free later." Twilight said. A small smile of hope crept onto the victim's face. "But... Then I saw that you are a loving husband of three, two of your wives think you're dead, and you physically abused your kids every day, that pretty much killed your chances."

Twilight brought down her bone saw’s blade on the poor stallion's arm. He screamed in pain as muscles and his bone were utterly cut in half by Twilight's sharp bone saw.

Tears and sweat poured down from his face. Twilight used her medical abilities to keep him awake so he can see and feel everything that is going on.

"Don't worry, it's only going to last a few hours... of agonizing torture, I mean careful surgery." Twilight said and grabbed a scaple with her magic and opened up his chest cavity. The stallion screamed, his vision was becoming very blurry but he could still make out the mare and the gaping hole in his chest. "I haven't done open heart surgery in a long time."

"No please, I'll do anything!" He screamed. Twilight sighed in annoyance.

"I really like it when my vic- patients scream, but since the NEIGHBOORS are a bunch of scared babies." Twilight said and took a needle and jabbed it in the stallion's neck.

His jaw began to feel loose, he could barely make any sounds.

She picked up a small hammer and SMASHED his ribcage open, ribs flew out and even knocked over a few books. She pulled out his lungs and carelessly threw it across the room. "Oh, don't worry about not breathing, I'm supplying oxygen to all your organs."

She saw his beating heart and dawwed. "Showing me your heart? How thoughtful. But I'm already waiting for somepony... He's an idiot." She picked up the scalpel and cut off the arteries and picked up the heart.

There was a trio of knocks on the door. Twilight threw the heart into the trash bin and turned off the music, she went up the stairs to the main floor and opened the door.

"Hello, Twilight." The mayor said with a smile. "Just dropping by to see what's going on."

"Hi, Brick. Not much, just killing some time, what do you need?" She said and motioned him inside.

Brick sat down on a nearby chair and rubbed his temples. "We got a big problem, Twi."He sighed and dropped his head on the table. "Remember the Diamond Dogs? Well, they got numbers and weapons, given by an anonymous donor."

Twilight levitated two cups and a teapot and set it down on the table. She poured the mayor some tea and some for her. "I'm sure we could beat them easily."

"Yes, we can, but... We need to find out who the hell giving out weapons to a bunch of bitches, and we can't do it when we're defending the town." Brick said and sipped his tea. "I swear, everypony here is useless."

"What kind of weapons are we talking about here?" Twilight asked and pulled out a book about weapons. "Maybe there's something we can do to counterattack."

"That's just it, they got heavy explosives, guns, heck even a fully armed airship and two battle tanks. Somepony or something wants Ponyville wiped off the map." Brick said and pulled out a few photos, all showing the enemy's weaponry.

Twilight sighed. "What a time for Firecracker, Headshot, and Rum Cake to be out of town."

"One out of three ain't bad... I think?" A voice from the doorway said. "Oy, did'ja forget about me?" A dark colored stallion said, a very bad tropical t-shirt. His Cutie-mark was a cake with a few cherries with fuses on them. "Ponyville's prestiged Demolitions, right here, lads and lasses."

"Uncle Rum!" Twilight yelled and ran over to the, somewhat drunken stallion and gave him a friendly hug.

"Twily, nice te see ya again, lass." They broke away from their hug and went to the table. "Already got wind of what's happening here. I've already set up shop around Ponyville."

"How much?" Brick asked.

"Just a few... hundred stickies here and there."

Brick smiled at the Demo. "Great to have you back."

"Meh, I've been better."

------------------------------

Blueblood...

Blueblood...

Blueblood...

BLUEBLOOD!!!

Blueblood stirred in his sleep, all the nightmares he went through, he will remember. He slowly opened his eyes and his vision filled with the light from the library.

"See, Porom, I told you he was fine." An old elderly looking Unicorn said.

"You said it would only be an hour." Porom said to the old stallion.

"Yes, and it's only been an hour and thirty minutes." The stallion said.

Blueblood got up and looked around. Everything was normal, no twisting booksleves, no flying books, no flat or floating tables. And then he suddenly remembered why he needed to find his master. "Thanks, Porom, but I really need to go, my master is in danger." He said and muttered under his breath. "If he's still alive."

He got up and ran out the door. Porom was following closely behind, he stopped and turned around. "Why are you following me?" He asked.

"Well, I think you need to rest, but I don't think I could convince you to relax, and besides, I'm looking for my idiot brother." She said and smiled. "Probably off with some cute filly."

Blueblood sighed. "Don't, it's dangerous. Please just go back."

"Dangerous? All the more reason for me to go with you. You may need my help." She said and went on ahead. Blueblood looked at the running filly and sighed, he ran after her.

The two of them found themselves in a nearby park. There was a magical competition nearby and they decided to look into it.

On the stage was a young colt that somewhat looked like Porom and a marshmallow colored Pegasus with a white mask.

"PALOM!" Porom yelled and pulled her brother down from the stage. Blueblood looked around and saw Shade stare at him, both of them stared for a long time, time seemed to freeze as both of them locked eyes.

Blueblood felt a large headache come on but he couldn't turn away, like he was being forced to stare at him. And in a blue blur, Shade was tackled to the ground.

Blueblood shook off the daze and ran to his master's side, only to be knocked back by the incredible magic that was happening between the two. The spectators panicked and ran, a few tried to help but only got knocked back.

Starswirl sent bolt after bolt at Shade, but each hit only seemed to slow him down, but not hurt him. Blueblood tried to use something else to help, he looked at his bracelet and necklace and got an idea.

Porom healed anypony that got hit in the crossfire, but she could only do so much. "SIS! What is going on!" Porom yelled, Cotton cloud clinging next to him.

"I don't know!" She replied and continued to heal the wounded. Those that could run away did just that.

Blueblood ran toward the other foals and took Porom's hoof. "I need your help!" He said and pulled her towards the fight.

"HEY!" Porom yelled and ran after his sister.

"Blue! What's going on?" She asked.

"No time. Do you know any shield spells?" He asked. She nodded. "Good, help me with this." His necklace and bracelet began to glow, several spikes of rocks shot up from the ground. The spikes launched itself towards Shade, but he just shrugged it off. "POROM, NOW!" Her was shocked for a moment but quickly got out of it and used her horn to create a shield spell.

Shade launched a few tentacles at Blueblood. The colt raised more rocks, but it didn't even slow the tentacles down. They broke through the defenses and painfully shattered the shield.

Blueblood forced some more power unto his bracelet and necklace and used the extra power to rip off the tentacle.

Shade sent another tentacle toward Porom. She screamed. Her brother saw that his sister was going to be die right in front of his eyes.

And then blackness, nothing, no pain, no feelings, no anything. She opened her eyes to see Blueblood, taking the entire tentacle for her. Blood oozed from his mouth, the tentacle went deeper into his gut as his body slowly became limp.

"NOOOO!" Starswirl yelled and casted his most powerful spell in his arsenal. Giant fireballs came hurdling down from the sky, each one hitting their target with pin-point accuracy.

Dust covered the battlefield and it slowly settled. There were no traces of Shade anywhere. Starswirl ran over to his young apprentice's side.

"Colt, wake up! Wake up! Dammit!" Each word sounded more desperate than the one before.

Porom looked at the dead body and cringed. He saved her life, and she didn't even get a chance to say thank you.

"Well, well, this is very touching." Shade's voice said from around them. "But you only managed to defeat a mere clone. I though you would have been a better challenge, my friend."

Starswirl looked around and saw none of Shade's magical energy. Yes, he was still alive, but he was weak and he wouldn't be able to get here in time. Yes, he had to do it.

His horn glowed a bright blue and then red. The wounds on the colt's body began to seal itself, each muscle and skin closed in on each other. The body was healed but his soul was gone.

Starswirl's eyes went white and everything he saw dissolved as the face of death stared at him with a curious glance.

"Yes, I'll trade my life for the boy." He said to the black coated skeleton.

It only stared at him for a short while, giving a silent conversation.

"Yes, I'm sure." As he said those words, he felt his heart stop, his lungs didn't fill with air. Everything stopped, his entire life flashed before his eyes.

Celestia, Luna, Shade, Sombre, and his failure of a spell that gave them the curse of immortality. And now the young colt, he saw his eyes open slightly as the sunlight poured into his vision. At least I did something right.

He used his last bit of energy to teleport the four foals to the safehouse. He laughed to himself.

"I guess it's time to meet up with ol' Sombrero." And with that he fell to the ground.

The four foals looked around, the room was just a normal room to the others, but for Blueblood, it was a fortress that rivaled even Canterlot Castle.

He ran to one of the bookshelves. "Hey, lock the doors." He said and pulled a, seemingly random book and the walls flipped over. The walls were lined with books from all ages, from pre-Equistrian times to Anarchy's reign. He took his saddle-bag that was hanging on the wall and quickly took several books from every era.

Porom was the only one who nodded and went over to the doors and locked them. She was confused on why he was still alive but she was happy all the same.

The other two only stared at him as he tore down a large staff on the wall. He motioned them to follow him into a large room.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Do you think we're just going to follow you? You're crazy! Let's go, sis." Palom said and grabbed both his sister and Cotton by the hooves.

"He saw you, all three of you are being hunted." Blueblood said and pulled out the book he got from the library. He flipped it over the Slenderpony's page. "Slenderpony is a immortal monster that steals the souls of everything that ever looked at him. Right now, he was weaker, but there is no denying it, that was him."

"Slenderpony? That's just a myth." Palom said. Porom let go of his hoof and ran to Blueblood's side.

"Umm..." Cotton said, but nopony seemed to hear her.

"Was that fake? My master is dead, and if there was one thing he taught me before everything else was to keep calm, and right now, I'm on the verge of breaking down in tears because the one pony that ever cared for me is dead, and I will not have another dead body on my hooves." Blueblood said in an eerily calm tone.

Palom stepped back slightly. "But I can take him, I'm gonna be the world's greatest mage ever!"

"Umm... Guys..." Cotton repeated, but still nopony heard her.

"That thing killed the greatest mage in all time. Starswirl never passed away, he was immortal and now he killed him, that thing killed the greatest Unicorn of all time." Blueblood still was talking very calmly, each word seemed devoid of emotion. "I died there, and he brought me back, I intend to do what he wanted me to do."

"Guys..."

"What do you expect us to do? Follow you to hell and back?"

"GUYS! We have company!" Cotton yelled and all three of them looked out the window.

They all stared at pale white pony with a black mane and a creepy smile that looks like it was cut there. "Oh, crap..." Blueblood said, all of them just stared at each other before going back to the creepy stallion.

"What the hell is that?" Palom asked.

"Jeff got out... Just follow the passage down... And please, for the love of Luna, do not open any of the cages, even the ones that look like their isn't anything in there. I'll meet up on the other side." Blueblood said and pulled a lever that leads down to the celler.

The others nodded and ran down the stairs.

"Hey, Jeff... Why don't you just go to sleep for a while?"

------------------------------

Altair headed out with his disabled partner. They slowly made their way to the old military facility.

"Remember the last time we were here?" Storm asked.

"I try not to." Altair replied, keeping his gaze directly at the base.

"That's rude. Our brothers and sisters died here and you don't want to remember them." Storm said, the young grey pegasus scoffed.

"I don't want to remember the place, only the faces." Altair said and cringed at the memories that came flooding back. "And now here we are, going in there to rescue a friend of the brotherhood."

"The Redwings are going to kill us if they find us." Storm said.

"Kill ME, you're not going in there, you're providing cover with sniper support."

She rolled her eyes at the stallion. "Fly me up there, I'm in a wheelchair." Storm smiled at the assassin.

"Right," Altair grabbed hold of her and both of them quietly made their way to a large storm cloud. Altair dropped her off and nodded. He flew down and stared at the entrance.

"Best find another way in." He said and went around the compound.

Right, just like old times.

> Bonus Chapter: Cutie-mark Stories; Headshot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonus Chapter: Cutie-mark Stories; Headshot

------------------------------

Headshot, the young blank-flanked Pegasus, walked alongside his father, Buckshot. The young colt stared at his mother and father with a look of confusion.

"Hey, Dad. Where's big bro?" Headshot asked. His mother smiled as the colt.

"He's already at North Coltorina, just to make sure we had a place to stay." His mother said, her eyes shone brightly in the sunlight. Her mother was named Cherry Bomb, she was colored red like a cherry and knew how to make a few fireworks here and there. 

This was his first time in a big city like North Coltorina. He was excited to finally get there.

"Don't worry, we're almost there, kiddo." Buckshot said, his wings were outstretched and popped a few joints here and there. "It's been a long time since I've been there."

Headshot fluttered overhead. "Sweet! I'm finally going to see a big city!" He pumped his hoof in the air in excitement.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, kiddo. We're only stopping there for a few days." His dad said, though that didn't deter the young Pegasus.

The three of them stood outside the city limits.

There was a rustle from behind them. They didn't notice.

An Earth pony came out of the bushes and took Cherry by the throat, he held a sharp knife. He kept the knife close to her neck and stepped back. The two other ponies turned around in shock.

"Don't you dare." Buckshot yelled. He stepped closer, but the blade pressed tighter on Cherry's neck. Buckshot stepped back in defeat.

"Pay up or this fine fruit's going to get cut!" The thug said, and pressed it down harder.

"I'll kill you if hurt her!" Headshot yelled and was about to charge at the thug. His father stopped him and pointed to the city.

"Head, leave and I'll handle this." He said with a somber expression. He stared darkly at the smiling stallion.

"But dad..." Headshot protested.

"LEAVE NOW!" Buckshot yelled. Headshot flew up and hid on a cloud, the other stallions didn't see him poke his head out of the cloud.

"Pay up, daddykins." The thug said.

Buckshot sighed and threw the bag of bits on the ground. The thug smiled and slit Cherry's throat. Buck didn't notice it before it was too late, the knife he had used was thrown and stabbed in the eye, killing him instantly.

Headshot saw this and hid in the cloud. After the thug was gone, he flew down and looked at the two dead bodies of his parents.

"BROTHER!" A distant voice called out. "Brother? Oh my..." Boom said and stared at the bodies.

Headshot cried and jumped into his brother's arms. "Bro!" He cried.

"What happened? Stop crying and tell me what happened!" Boom said to his younger brother.

Headshot, between sobs, told his brother what happened.

"I remember father saying something about finding an old friend in case of his death..." Boom said, in an eerily calm tone, though the tone was force for his own brother.

"Wh-what?" Headshot asked, he had a tear-stained face and his eyes were red. "What about the bodies..." He glanced over the two of the dead bodies.

"Right now, we should go home and rest..." Boom said and hovered above the air.

"Who was the guy dad wanted us to find?" Headshot asked, anger crossed his face. "I will kill the man responsible for this."

Boom looked at his brother. "A pony named Scopes. He was supposed to live in this city."

Headshot rocketed toward the city and started his search. Boom followed behind, his younger brother was faster than him, that's for sure.

"WAIT!" Boom yelled. The young and angry Pegasus stopped and looked around, scanning the crowd. "We don't even know what he looks like, if we take this nice and slow-"

"That creep would get away!" Headshot yelled.

"Rather then wasting energy trying to find a pony we don't even know what he looks like. I rented out a place near here and we could start our search there." Boom said. His brother sighed and cried a little. "Put on a brave face, for me? Okay."

Headshot nodded and wiped away his tears. "Right, let's think rationally here. A little rest would be a good idea." He said.

The two of them made their way to an old apartment building, they walked inside. The decor was outdated but it was still in good condition.

"Mister," Boom addressed the guy behind the counter. "I would like to change it from four ponies to two." 

The pony behind the counter nodded and traded keys with the white Pegasus.

Both of them walked up the stairs and quickly found their door. Boom pulled out the key and unlocked the door.

The room was a run-down piece of shit, but it was enough for now.

Headshot went over to the table and looked through the drawers.

"What are you looking for?" Boom asked and stood beside his brother. "You should take a nap first, you look tired."

Headshot ignored his and left. "I'm looking for a list." He said and went to the bookcase. "A list of names."

"I'll look for it. Go to sleep, brother. You need the rest." Boom said and helped him look for the list of names.

Headshot stared at his brother. "You're right, I need to calm down and plan it, not just run it." He said and went to the bed. "But I doubt I'll get any sleep."

"That's fine. I'll go look for it downstairs. Just don't overwork yourself, I know you're a perfectionist." Boom said and left. He headed down stairs, and asked the guy at the counter if he know a pony by the name of Scope.

"Don't know anything about that," He said, Boom deflated a bit. "but I may be able to help you." He pulled out a list of all the costumers he ever had. "I don't remember a Scope, but maybe this would help."

"Thanks!" Boom said and picked up the list, and quickly skimmed through it. He found a name Scope, and it even had a small picture.

"I remember that one say something about a funeral earlier, though he said his name was Sniper, not Scope. That's an old list." The guy at the counter said.

"A funeral? Where?" Boom asked. He got the direction and left, He flew up and headed to the direction of the cemetery.

He landed outside and walked in, the air was moist... Water? He walked around, trying to find a tall Pegasus, wearing a black vest and a slouched hat with black sunglasses.

There was a large pony made of water slowly walked towards him. There was a loud crack of thunder and the water pony sank to the ground.

"Oy! Get moving, mate!" Somepony said as he fired another electric shot.

More water monster appeared and splashed Boom with water.

"Bloody hell..." From a nearby cloud, a bright grey flash zoomed pass and picked up the colt.

They flew out the cemetary.

"What the hell!" Boom called out. "What the hell were those things!?!"

"Water sprites, don't mind that now, why are you looking for me?" The older dark coated Pegasus said.

"Looking for you? Wait. You're Scope, right?" Boom asked with a curios look on his face. "You are! I need you to come with me!" Boom jumped out of his grasp and pulled his arm.

Scope didn't budge. "Hold on, wanker. Who the bloody hell are ya?" Scope said and pulled the boy and examined his face.

"I'm the eldest son of Buckshot..." He said. He was chocking by his strong grip.

Scope eyed him for a few more minutes. His icy stare even made Boom swallow a lump in his throat. "You got his eyes..." He dropped his grip and Boom choked as he stumbled in the air. "You got my attention. What do you want?"

"He told me to find you in case he..." Boom trailed off and looked down to the ground.

"Suck it up, yer dad won't be wanting to see ya like this." He said and flew in front of the colt. "Listen here, wanker. I know what he had planned if he wanted you to find me, and it. Will. Be. Hell. I want you to know what he had planned."

"First... We need to get to my brother, he's itching for some payback." He said and then muttered under his breath. "And so do I."

Scope shook his head. "That... That is why you'll be dead before you get your 'precious' payback. Forget that revenge bullcrap and listen." He sped off towards the city, Boom following closely behind. "Your father wanted both of you to be a professional, like me."

"Professional what, exactly?" Boom asked.

"I'll tell ya when we get to your brother." He said and quickly went towards the apartment building. Boom thought that he must have known they were searching for him.

The two of them went inside and got to Boom and Headshot's room.

Headshot was out of bed and was shifting through pieces of paper after paper. He didn't even notice the two of them walk in, he just kept looking through each paper, searching for a name, a picture, his target.

Boom coughed to attract his brother's attention. "Brother, we have a guest." Headshot turned to face the older Pegasus and only stared.

"A pleasure." He said and turned back to his work. 

"I can see ol' Buckshot in him. Workaholic." Scope said and went to his side. "Looking for the wanker that killed your folks? Want to make it up to them?"

Headshot didn't even pay him any mind. He rifled through each picture and each name.

"Want me to teach ya' how to kill him?" Headshot looked up and saw the stallion, dead serious. "How to hunt, how to be what your father wanted you to be."

"What did dad want us to be?"  Headshot said.

"A Professional."

------------------------------

Five months have passed, each day was filled with rigorous training for both brothers. The three of them stood outside of town, the site where the two young colt's parents died.

Headshot has a self-made Storm Rifle in memory of his parents strapped on his back. Standing beside him was his brother.

"Name the three standards of being a Professional." Scope said as the two colt saluted.

"One, be polite." Headshot started.

"Two, be efficient." Boom continued

"And three," Both of them said in unison. "have a plan to kill everpony you meet."

"Good, now we're going to go on a little hunting." Scope said, and threw two empty saddle-bags on the ground in front of them. The only thing in these bags were a picture with a quickly written scrawl of a name on it. "This is your prey. The name is Dead Ringer, actually both of them are Dead Ringer, twin brothers together since birth, and big deal mobsters that harass and abuse the striving folks." He said and stepped closer to the two colts. "And this is what I want you to do, lads. Find them and kill them. DISMISSED!"

The two colts saluted and flew off. Headshot led the way and stood on a small cloud. He unstrapped his rifle and scanned the area. Boom landed beside him.

"So, where should we start look-"

"There! Five o'clock, building on the far right." Headshot said and looked at the picture he had. "No, wait... that's a double. Ears are too short..."

"They know we're hunting them..."

"Only makes it more challenging." Headshot smiled.

"And all the more rewarding." Boom said and picked up a non-cloud rifle and scoped out the area. "Looks like the doubles are scattered throughout the city..."

"Should be easy for us then." Headshot stretched his wings. "Soon as these losers heard we were coming."

"They hid and ran." Boom flew off the cloud. "I search east side, you search west."

"Last one to get his kill buys the pizza." Headshot smiled and flew next to his brother.

"Get ready to spend your bits, brother." Boom sped off to the east.

Headshot shot off to the west and quickly perched himself on nearby cloud, right next to the hospital. There was more chaos every day, more death. The city was run by an underground mafia now.

Bodies were lined up everywhere, some injured, some dead, all mortaly scared. Headshot cringed as a few young foals were sent in the hospital. There was sounds of gunshots a few blocks away. The local gangs were at war again.

One of the gangs had a close relationship with Headshot and his brother. He decided to help and he flew in, above the battlefield. There were ponies in green hoodies that were shooting at another group with black bandanas.

Headshot was taking out the ones with green hoodies, each popping heads without missing a beat.

"HEY," Headshot yelled to one of the ponies down below. "Need a hoof?"

A black coated mare with a light blue mane looked up to him. "Thanks, Sweet heart!"

"No prob, Jun."

The rival gang was slowly retreating, the others cheered. Headshot flew down and gave his marefriend a large hug. "Hey, Juno."

"Hey there, heart breaker. So who's the target today?" Juno said with a smile and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Maybe I could help?"

"A guy named Dead Ringer, red coat, short black mane, Pegasus and his brother who looks exactly like him except he's a Unicorn." Headshot said and pulled out his target's picture.

"Yeah, I know the Pegasus, lots of duds around the city. He's actually in the Falcon mansion."

"FALCON! You have got to be kidding!" Headshot facehoofed and sighed. "Take care of the ponies, alright? I'll be back... Hopefully." Headshot flew up and headed to a large mansion on a hill outside of town.

Headshot landed a few ways away from the Falcon mansion. "Crap... That's a lot of security..." There were a ton of guards, each wielding a type of rifle, sword or crossbow.

"Alright... Now what did Scope taught me again?"

"Use the force." Scope's voice echoed through his mind.

"No that's not it."

"FUS RO DAH!"

"Not that either."

"The simple way is the best way."

"Right!" Headshot took a large stone and aimed it at one of the glass windows on the guard tower, missing completely and knocking out the guard above. "Not what I had in mind, but the air space is clear. I could land there."

He flew up and landed on one of the towers, the courtyard was surrounded by guards, some of Dead Ringer's men and the Falcon family's Doms and Capos.

"Alright, my target is..." Headshot trailed off when he saw the stallion that killed his parents, he learned his name through the months he worked as an apprentice. "...Blade..." Headshot saw Blade and his target talking to each other. A young red maned filly was nervously shifting her hooves.

Headshot stayed silent and watched the conversation. The two of them were smiling and nodding they were going inside the building. Headshot saw the filly being dragged against her will.

After a few minutes, they appeared on the third floor. The filly looked like she tried to run away, but only got hit by Blade. She was pushed down by Dead Ringer onto the bed and...

Headshot couldn't take it anymore. He picked up his rifle and quickly killed the two stallions in the room. The others were alerted by the two loud thunder shots that echoed through the courtyard.

There were three more sniper shots that rung out. To Headshot's left, Scope was taking down the few unaware Capos and Doms, and to his right, Boom was taking out Dead Ringer's men, he wasn't as good as his younger brother, but he knew where a bullet would hurt the most.

Headshot nodded to his brother and jumped down to a glide. He pulled out his rifle and fired. He quickly sped off the ground and dodged the bullets and crossbow bolts that were headed his way. 

He crashed into the window where his two victims lay dead on the ground. The scared young filly shivered as Headshot approached her.

"It's not safe here! Let's get you out of here!" Headshot yelled and grabbed her, he flew out the window and almost made it out, but he got clipped in the wing and was tumbling down to the ground.

Boom saw this and threw away his rifle and jumped down from his perch. He quickly went to Headshot's side. "You flap right wing, I flap left!" Boom said and wrapped his foreleg around  Headshot and both of them began flapping their respective wings. The filly was clinging on Headshot's neck.

Scope was making quick work of the other guards, he was being a great distraction for the two colts.

They quickly made it out and flew away to a hide-out.

Headshot landed in exhaustion and saw his wing bleeding an insane amount of blood. Juno quickly picked him up dragged him inside.

"MEDIC!" She yelled. Boom picked up the filly and followed Juno. Scope came in with a content smile on his face.

They went to the infirmary and washed off the blood and dirt. "You're going to be alright, hun." Juno said, they washed off the dirt on his flank and saw a picture of a crosshair and a pony skull.

"Now, this is embarrassing, my younger brother got his mark before me."  Boom laughed as he put down the filly onto one of the beds.

"Head, Boom. You done me proud, lads. You're real Professionals now." Scope said and gave Boom a pat on the back. Headshot was in deep pain, but he couldn't help but smile.

------------------------------

It was the dead of night, Headshot didn't like being this quiet at night. He got up from his bed and left through the back door.

"Are you sure you should be out right now?" Juno said from behind and closed the door with her magic.

"I... I just need somewhere to be." Headshot said and started to walk, his wing still hurt, his bandages were already covered in blood. "Just to visit my parent's grave."

"Don't stay out late, I hate you if get a cold on my watch." Juno said and gave him a peak on the cheek.

Headshot walked towards the cemetery. Boom would probably be there already, it was their parent's five month death anniversary. He stopped by a small flower shop and bought a few rose buds, those were his mom's favorite. 

He made it to the cemetery and placed the flowers on their headstone. Boom came up from behind and dropped off some sunflowers, his dad's favorite.

"Hard to believe it's been five months since we got here." Boom said and looked at the clouds above. "Weather's been working on its own now, since Anarchy's back in full control." A few droplets fell from the sky, making the dark sky even gloomier.

"I miss them..."

"I do too, but I'm staying strong, for you. You should do the same, Mother and Father wouldn't want baby brother to be a cry baby now."

He forced a smile. "Right, let's just move on, Blade is dead, and we're real professional snipers now."

"Never forget them, alright?"

"Never."

> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14

------------------------------

Altair moved around the compound, careful not to step on any loose twigs or branches on the ground, he could see Storm up on the cloud with a make-shift storm rifle. Altair saw a pony-sized hole on the side and chose to go in there. He signaled Storm to keep watch over him.

He quickly made his way towards the back of a building, two guards were stationed inside, he could hear a few muffled cries from inside. He quickly made his way to the door and peeked in.

There were two stallions wearing a dark uniform, probably the torture group, and a colt, about the same age as Altair tied to an electric chair. Sadly there was no saving the colt. Altair left and headed to another part of the facility, he needed to find Firecracker and assassinate his target, he knew that the main priority is Firecracker but he was a perfectionist.

He hid behind a few barrels as two guards walked pass. They were talking about something but he couldn't hear what they were saying.

He decided to follow the duo and see where they led. He quickly pressed up against a wall and pulled out his hidden blade. One of the guards turned around.

"Hey, do you think we're being followed." The first guard asked.

"Don't be silly, we've been here for months now, nopony's here besides us guards." The second guard said as both of them walked to a large sealed door. "The only thing we need to worry about is that mare those freaks brought in."

"Shhhhh, when they hear you, they're going to rip you apart." The first guard said and pressed his hoof onto the hoof scanner.

Right... I forgot how to get those things... Something about a powder. Problem is I don't have the equipment I need. Altair thought to himself. I could always chop off one of their hoofs.

Altair picked up a small stone and threw it at a nearby window. One of the guards noticed this.

"I'll go check it out, guard the mare." The guard said and went to check out the disturbance. The other nodded and went inside and the door sealed behind.

Altair made his move and quickly went behind the guard and stabbed him in the neck, the cold steel of his blade went deep into his neck. He dragged the body to the door and placed the dead guard's hoof on the scanner.

The door opened and quickly rushed his way inside. The tunnel was dark and each step he took echoed through the building. Altair saw a camera stationed at the end of the hall. He quickly hid behind cover.

The turned from left to right. Altair used this opening and ran to another piece of cover. The camera did this in rotation. Altair moved when the camera wasn't looking, he silently thanked whoever was watching over him, that these idiots haven't made sound sensors yet.

He made his way across the hall without alerting the camera. He opened the door on the end and went inside.

The room was brightly lit, a complete contrast to the one he was in before. There were signs everywhere, Danger, turn away, and many more. Altair walked on and found a strange one out.

"Experiment 173, High Danger, keep direct eye contact at all times."

Altair opened the door and went inside, there was a creepy statue staring directly at another statue of a stone Pegasus. Somepony else was in here. That Pegasus statue didn't feel like it belonged.

"All right, my time has come," A voice said from behind the door.

"Will you ever come back?" Firecracker's voice said, she was talking to the other voice.

Altair pressed his ear on the door.

"I don't know, little firebug. Just remember, trust me, I'm the Doc-Oh... looks like I have to go, it was nice getting to see you again."

"Don't go!"

There was a loud explosion that rocked the entire facility, knocking over the Pegasus statue and the other creepy statue moved closer to Altair, each time he blinked it seemed to come closer.

The door opened behind him and Firecracker came out, horn flaring. "Don't blink! Whatever you do, don't blink." She said and stared at the creepy statue. "Stare at the Weeping Pegasus and don't blink. Let's make our way to the door." 

There was another quake and the lights went out. Firecracker lit her horn up as the two statues were mere inches away from their faces. 

Altair tried to open the door but it didn't seem to respond. "The door won't open!"

"...Keep staring at them. I got an idea."

------------------------------

"Alright, Jeff. Put down that horn and let's talk." Blueblood said, trying to calm down the psycho killer.

Jeff tried to stab him with an old horn he took off from one of the racks. Each swing sent off a bolt of magic at Blueblood's direction.

"Why, why did it have to be Jeff?" Blueblood asked nopony in paticular. Blueblood took a large staff and blocked a blast of magic. Blueblood was slowly losing, Jeff was far stronger than Blueblood, but he was driven in mad rage, while Blueblood was calculating how to beat him.

Then a brilliant idea came to his head. He ran, towards the room he was previously in. He searched through the vials and strange liquids. Jeff shot another bolt of magic and caused all the chemicals to mix together. That was just what he needed. He took an intact vial and quickly scooped it up, Jeff was repeating the bolts, each hit, making the room messier and messier. Blueblood went under the bed and pulled out a green liquid, Jeff stopped momentarily and looked in confusion.

"Changeling Blood. Changelings were your favorite victim, right? That's why their endangered now." Blueblood said and pulled off the cork. "And what would happen if I mix these two together?" 

Jeff smiled, there was no way he could lose right now, he would enjoy ripping apart his body. But things were not as they seem. Blueblood took the vial and threw it, the glass shattered and covered him green liquid. He felt nothing for the first minute or so, Blueblood just smiled as the poison began to take effect.

His bones began to fell strange, like they were melting. Blueblood just laughed as he hooves turned flat and was slowly sinking.

"You know, the mother of invention is laziness, and one day, I was just lazy and shoved a little bit of everything into a cauldron, and I used it on one of the Pegasi down below, they say, they're unkillable, totally stone, nothing could destroy it, but no. I killed it and I will kill you." Jeff continued to smile even though he was slowly and painfully turning into a puddle of blood and chemicals. "You're immortal, through one of the cursed crystals. Immortality through those are easy..."

Blueblood stepped over the puddle and went down stair, he saw the staff he discarded during the fight. It was a normal wooden staff with several markings and a topaz jewel on the top. He quickly picked it up and rushed down.

The path leading down was very dark, with the occasional torch to provide some light. When he reached to the bottom, he gasped at what he saw. Ever cell was open, each empty.

"You have got to be kidding me." He just hoped the others got out alright.

"Hey," Blueblood looked around and saw nothing. "Hey, up here, dumb wad." Blueblood looked up and saw something that he wished was dead. "Remember me?"

"Please just die, you annoying little blob."

The annoying little green blob is amply named bob fell down from the ceiling and clung to Blueblood's head. "You got me as a partner, remember?"

"I hoped that box could have held you longer than a day." Blueblood said in annoyance.

"Whatever, some kids ran that-a-way." Bob's little green tentacle pointed. "The freaks got out when you and the old man left. They're long gone by now."

Blueblood was visibly shaken. "They're all OUT!" He yelled. "HOW!"

"Dunno, the cells just opened.“ Bob said atop the colt's head. "Better hurry up, Mary didn't leave and she was waiting for you."

"Mary? Of all the things I had to make..." He muttered to himself.

"Next time, don't play with life."

------------------------------

"That..."

"Is..."

"A lot..."

"Of bombs..."

"Aye, Firecracker still needs to learn how a real Demo does the job." Rum pulled out a bottle of jack and took a swig, the firewater burned down his throat. "That lass know how to make things go boom, but she doesn't know how to add style to the boom."

"Still... I'm not sure the town could survive an explosion like that." Brick eyed the round spiked objects sticking to the trees and buildings.

"Exactly! Ain't nopony dumb enough to go to a town that's about to blow!" The demolition colt said. The insane mass of Diamond Dogs broke through the forest and rushed at the ponies. "Well, so much fer that plan." Rum pulled out a remote control and aimed it at a bunch of stickybombs, the cluster of bombs exploded and sent a part of the building towards the Diamond Dogs.

Brick stretched his limbs as he slowly made his way to the rubble. "You're an idiot, Rum."

Twilight pulled out her bonesaw, newly sharpened and slightly bloody. "It's good to have you back." She said. "Really though, the town is even more in danger when you're around."

"You know it, lassy. Now, let's show these mutts how we do Ponyville style." Rum pulled out a few grenades, a new creation and personal favorite of his. He pulled the pin and threw it at the Diamond Dogs. The Dogs caught it in their mouth and snarled. Rum just smiled.

"Where's the boom?" Brick asked and picked up a large wooden spike.

"Delayed fuse." Rum said and then the Diamond Dog exploded in a bloody gory mess, taking out a few other Dogs with him. "I missed this place."

"Don't get to comfy, we got a lot of doggies to put down." Brick said and smashed a poor dog's head into tiny bits.

Rum threw more grenades at the Dogs, smiling and laughing. "Aye, let me tell ye how many bombs this town is caked with." A large cannon ball blazed pass him as he walked closer to his destructive creations. "More than yer bloody arsenal!"

Brick tackled a large group of Dogs to the ground, smacking them around with his large club. He grabbed one of the Dogs and ripped off his head, he threw the head to one of the Dogs and it knocked them back. He jumped up in the air and crushed several dogs under his hoof.

Twilight slashed away and hacked off several limbs from the Dogs, she pulled out another bonesaw and pinned one of the Diamond Dogs on the wall. Twilight kept all the dogs alive so they could feel the pain from their injuries, a sadistic smile crept on her, now, bloody face. Her mane was covered in blood and gore as she ripped apart Diamond Dog after Diamond Dog.

"Oy, Twily, getting to excited there, lass!" Rum said and pulled a bottle of scotch from his saddle-bag.  "Leave some fer me."

Rum pressed another button and more bombs exploded, sending the dismembered body parts of the Diamond Dogs across the battlefield. He took a large stack of dynamite and threw it at the dogs. The bomb exploded and splattered the entire battlefield with blood and gibs.

"This is pretty boring." Brick called out and ripped apart another Diamond Dog.

"Yeah... wait, do you hear that?" Twilight said. A low rumbling sound and snapping wood came from the forest. A large metalic vehicle with mounted cannons. "TANK!"

"Stop yelling, we can hear you just fine." Brick said and grabbed a large boulder and threw it at the tank. The boulder was shot out of the air before it could impact the tank.

Rum quickly looked around for anything he could use. His explosives only shrugged off the heavy metal plating.

"I think... we have a problem..."

------------------------------

Roland sat down beside Angel, her fever still hasn't gone down. Pain took a wet cloth and placed it on Angel's head. She looked concerned for the Siren.

"We have a problem," Pain said and looked at Roland and Headshot. "She's got a magical fever, the only way to cure it would be using one of the sacred fruits in Canterlot Garden."

"Then we go in there and-"

"No," Headshot called out. "Too risky."

"But I got to try!" Roland said and stormed out. He picked up his rifle and shotgun, ammo and left the hideout. He made his way to the gates,

The gates were guarded by a lot of guards, each holding some sort of ranged or melee weapon. Roland didn't bother with questions and ran in there, guns blazing. The guards couldn't react fast enough. Roland took cover behind the wall, several bullets bounced off the wall and nearly Roland's head.

Roland pulled out a few dynamites and threw them at the guards, the dynamite was shot out of the air by a sniper on the third floor, Roland couldn't see the sniper.

Roland ran to another piece of cover, but was clipped in his shoulder, but the shield took most of the damage. Roland fired his rifle at the guards, several guards were shot dead by Roland's shots, years of practice made his aim with any rifle nearly perfect.

Each guard he killed, two more take his place. Soon, the court yard was filled with angry guards trying to take down Roland. Roland pulled out a fresh clip and reloaded his rifle, he saw a few clouds drift overhead, a lightning bolt came very close to where he was standing. Roland back peddled and took potshots at the cloud.

Roland heard the momentary cease-fire and peeked over his cover. The guards all saluted and made a cleared a way to the doors, a hooded pony came out and looked at Roland. The pony shook his/her head and the guards resumed their fire.

Roland dived behind a tree and threw his turret out in the open. The turret made quick work of the first line of defense, but was quickly shot down by the sniper on the roof. A lightning bolt struck the tree and set it on fire. Roland fired his shotgun and struck several ponies. 

Roland chucked all his explosives at the guards. The bombs exploded and cleared a way inside. Roland took this chance and made a break for it, he dodged the bullets that whizzed pass his head, some clipping his shields.

A few more lucky shot broke through his shield tore through his flesh.

"THROWING SMOKE!" Headshot swooped down and picked up Roland, despite being smaller and weaker, he managed to get Roland out of the danger zone.

Roland and Headshot made their way back to the hideout. A few bullets broke through his skin. Roland was led to the infirmary and was quickly being treated.

Headshot was pacing back and forth. "What the hell is your major malfunction, Roland?!?" He said and grabbed Roland's collar.

One of the nurses tried to hold back Headshot, but he was too strong. "Master! Stop!" The nurse said and Headshot released his grip.

"You moron, you know how hard it is to stay in cover in Canterlot? They know I'm here now, and they're out to get me!" Headshot said. Roland tried to look away. "You didn't just put your life in danger, you put the entire Brotherhood in danger!"

"Says the guy that was going in there for revenge." Roland muttered.

"Yes, but I wasn't the one who stormed the fucking gate! I would have gone in the sewers or something instead of grabbing a gun and running  straight in there!"

"I've lost a lot of men and I won't lose another." He said and looked at Angel.

"AND WHAT! Do you think I haven't lose ponies!? My parents are dead, my fiancée is dead, my brother tried to kill me, I've lost more men in the Brotherhood than the entire guard force! My brother was the only one I ever trusted, and he stabbed me on the back! Do you know how much it hurts to have the only pony you ever trusted leave you for dead!? Do you know how much it hurts to lose the only family you ever had?"

"I do." Roland muttered.

"Then you should know, that what you did was a stupid move. Knowing the guards, they'll be coming for me, you stay here."

"What? I can help, I-"

"Roland, you may be the leader of the Crimson Raider or whatever, but you're in my team, my world, and right now, I'm telling you to shut up and sit on the bench." Headshot picked up his rifle and a crossbow and made his way outside. A few assassins stood ready outside.

"You three," Headshot pointed to three robed assassins. "keep an eye on him."

Headshot flew out in the open, he could at least get the heat away from the Brotherhood. The task force was already mobilizing, a few hundred snipers and guards coming in.

There was an entire army right in front of Headshot, all of them aiming their weapons at the lone Pegasus. "Miss me, boys?" He said. "So you're thinking 'the most wanted pony in Canterlot, about to get horribly murdered by thousands of us, what could possible go wrong?' Let me ask you this, what makes you think I can't just kick your sorry flanks back home to base?"

"I don't know, a thousand to one is a very low chance."

"Who-"

"Ah, Brother. You made it out, didn't think it would you that long." Critical flew in front of the large crowd of ponies. "And now this is the time you spew out vulgar and insults at me."

Headshot shook his head. "Nah, I'm going to be civil about this. I, Headshot, challenge you to a duel."

"Formality is for the weak, and I am a weakling. Let's raise the stakes. If I win you will be my right-hoof colt."

"And if I win, I'm going to bury you six feet under."

"It's a deal." Critical motioned the army he gathered to leave and they did so without a word. "Wonderbolt Coliseum tonight."

"Why not here? Why not now?"

"Because I want to let the world know that you lost to me. Remember how I got my Cutie-mark? The old silver tongue with a knife."

"Yeah, I remember it too well. Remember this, Firecracker will escape, right now the best of the best is going there and-"

"I already received the reports, the entire base, dead. Bitter Springs is yours, problem is... nopony left the base."

"Wha-"

"Hundreds dead. Majority of the Red Wings gone. Several prisoners confirmed dead. I hope your little marefriend wasn't part of the body count."

"We're not together."

Critical just laughed. "Goodbye, see you tonight."

Critical turned around and headed back to the castle. He loaded his crossbow and shot a nearby cloud, a bounty hunter dropped dead, a bolt sticking out of his head. "Huh, this will be interesting."

------------------------------

"Are you really going through with this?" Pain said as Headshot strapped on his ammo and knife belt. "This is most likely a trap."

The sniper grabbed a quiver and several bolts and his crossbow. "I wasn't planning on doing much tonight anyway."

"Crazy! You’re going to get yourself killed! I don't want to lose you!"

"What?" He said and picked up his rifle.

Her face turned bright red. "I mean, you’re my only friend and I don't want to lose you."

"Right. Well, You don't need to worry, you're not going to lose me tonight." He said and made his way to the coliseum.

He made a fly over the coliseum, the place was filled with ponies, eager for a blood fest. He landed in the center, the crowd jeered at him.

"WELCOME, ONE AND ALL, TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT OF BLOOD. BAD BLOOD BETWEEN TWO WORLD KNOWN BROTHERS." The announcer said, his voice echoed through the entire coliseum. "PRESENTING, THE SILVER TONGUED BACKSTABBER, THE CRAZE TACTITIAN, THE RIGHT CLAW OF ANARCHY; CRITICAL!" The crowd cheered as Headshot's brother came out, wearing little but a knife and a rifle.

"AND ON THE OPPOSING SIDE, THE REBEL LEADER, THE CRACKSHOT MARXCOLT, THE KING OF THE SKY; HEADSHOT!" The crowd was a mixture of cheers and jeers.

"LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"