11
(11)
The sun was held high above the barren terrain. Dust and wind whipped across the red earth below and the rays of the sun scorched anything it fell upon. The cloudless sky stood as a testament to how hot and punishing this fiery and grueling landscape was. Off in the distance, first appearing as a warped and disfigured mirage to the eyes of another, appeared a lone figure trekking across this lifeless prairie. With each step, dust was kicked up and blown into the passing wind. Wrapped in a light, white poncho and his face shrouded by a veil of the same color, he walked across the red, dirt laden lands. His skin was fully cloaked, except the eyes. The clothes acted as flags in the wind whenever a gust of dust came across him. Even when wearing the white garbs which refracted most of the sun’s burning rays, the heat of it scorched his body still. The sooner Zack could get out of this ‘frying pan’ the sooner things would be in order again and his mind would be at ease. He cared more about what was soon about to happen rather than his current state of swelter and his mind tiring himself with preconceived horrors.
Zack stopped to rest his legs for a bit. He had been speed walking, conserving his energy, for about twenty minutes, though the heat made it feel like hours more than just minutes. He caught his breath and proceeded to climb a short hill he was standing at the bottom of. He quickly leaped upwards to see the blocked landscape ahead and judge on how far this town was. Once he made it to the top of the hill, he realized that he was traveling in a very large gully and the top of the hill was the beginning of a very long stretch of flat, red lands.
In the distance he could see a dark mirage of sorts, it warped and swayed in the bending light, disfiguring the image. Zack presumed that this had to be the town and proceeded onward to his body’s disliking and his mind’s anticipation. As he walked, he scanned the skies for his friend, which he couldn’t spot at the moment, but knew he was up there, somewhere.
As he closed in on the mirage, it refigured itself slowly to reveal the outpost of Appleloosa. Zack couldn’t make out much of the town, but he saw that it wasn’t that big, and that the town lay nestled between foothills; in the further distance of the settlement were red low-lying mounts and large, wind blown sandstones. Zack slowed his pace as he began navigating out of the town’s line of sight, expecting the worse if seen.
He made his way closer and closer to the rugged outpost while hiking between the foothills that surrounded the town, trying to hide his coming presence as best he could. He eventually reached one of the closest low-lying hills to the town–the mound he climbed was covered in dry brush and yucca plants. He crawled up on top of the hill, using the barren ferns and plants as cover. He noticed two watch towers along the entrance of the empty township; along these lookouts were two, black cloaked stallions, wearing dark and loose clothing. Their faces were wrapped tightly in bands of black cloth similar to their attire. Each possessed a crossbow-like attachment to one of their forelegs and a quiver of bolts were strapped to the other foreleg. They seemed to be scanning the wastelands in front of them, but not too attentive to their closer surroundings. They seemed more in a daze from the heat and glare of the sun than what mood they were paid to be in; maybe this was why Zack was able to get so close without alerting them.
This was the ultimate set up for what Zack had planned beforehand. He couldn’t have thought up a better predicament to be in then the one that was already set up for him. Zack crawled back and crouched around in between the foothills to get a good distance away from the bandit pony’s views. Once he was far enough away, he searched his small satchel under his poncho where he packed his necessitates in advance. He pulled out a small mirror which he had taken from his bathroom and raised his head towards the sky. He looked around for a minute or so until he spotted his pegasus ally gliding high above, Valiant Steed. His white coat made him much harder to spot in the far distance and in the high atmosphere. Zack pointed the mirror upward and refracted the sun’s glare up towards his friend.
Valiant sailed quietly in the vacant sky. He could see the entire town from his view point and much farther beyond the wretched wilderness. Valiant’s eye sight was keen and well developed, much like how the rest of the Royal Guards were trained; he could spot very distant objects at ease compared to other ponies. He was awaiting Zack’s command to commence the mission as his eagerness was building inside of him. The pegasus finally spotted the signal from Zack, the bright glare of the sun shimmered off the hand held mirror Zack had packed. Valiant had already spotted the ponies along the watch tower and knew what he had to do. He circled around and gave himself plenty of space between where the bandit was going to be and his trajectory. Valiant took in a deep, quick breath and began his descent towards one of the two bandits.
Valiant Steed’s speed increased as he neared his target; the wind increased around him, but he remained steady and quick. He realized after approaching more and more rapidly towards his prey that the bandits were under a wooden canopy that was connected to the tower itself. The pegasus would have to aim himself correctly in between the open area of the tower to attack the bandit or he would crash into the tower, and at this speed, it would be a near instantaneous death upon collision. This didn’t deter him from his goals however, he focused and knew that he could pull it off; he just had to dive correctly and spike upwards to accomplish the task.
Valiant neared his target and was only near seconds away from attacking. He folded his wings and stretched out his forelegs. He sailed rapidly straight into the bandit and spiked upward, grabbing the bandit in a blur of speed. The only noise Valiant made was from the whip of the wind that followed him, which didn’t even alert the other fatigue guard as he yawned. The bandit Valiant grabbed in the air had no time to react as Valiant let him go a second later in the open air. The force from the speed carried the bandit high and far across the red plains, a great distance away from the township and the pegasus was sure that the fall would kill the pony.
Valiant titled his body and made a second approach for the other bandit from behind. This time however, the pegasus was assured that he wouldn’t miss his target. He flapped his wings as fast as he could to gain great momentum before folding his wings again and grabbing the second bandit pony. He shot upward and released the bandit into the open air like before. The bandit sailed far beyond the outpost and into the gully where Zack originally climbed out of. Valiant rocketed back up into the air and continued his patrol of the town below.
“That went better than expected,” mused Zack in astonishment to what he had just witnessed.
The human ran up quietly on the dusty township and hid himself behind one of the watch towers. He peered around the corner and looked into the town. It was desolate and halfway built; some buildings were completed while others were ceased in mid-construction. Some buildings, such as a few houses, a cider saloon, and a town hall were built while the other buildings were never completed. The completed town hall lay at the end of the parallel lines of buildings which made up the small settlement. It was a very eerie sight; Zack had prejudged the scene of the town to be crawling with bandit ponies. This strange scene began to disturb him; he thought that either the bandit’s group leader tricked him into thinking that they would be here or that they were hiding in the town, awaiting a multitude of Royal Guards. Either way, Zack was uncertain as to if he was being watched or not. He stealthily snuck into the outpost and hugged the walls of the buildings, his new goal was to reach the town hall without being seen.
Zack kept close to the walls of the western buildings, trying to avoid being seen at all costs. He would look closely into the back windows of the wooden structures to see if anyone was inside. All he could see were half constructed, empty and dusty rooms, as if construction had been halted for a long time. Half built furniture and scraps of wood were just lying on the floors, as if the ponies who were once here just up and vanished. Zack stayed low as he darted between open alley ways and tried to keep his cool as his mind raced on the thoughts of this empty township.
He had almost made his way to the town hall until he peered into an alleyway between the last two houses near his goal. In this pathway however, a lone, red stallion was sitting down in the shade of the wooden passageway, drinking from a glass bottle of unidentifiable liquid. Zack hatched an idea and snuck up behind the inebriated pony. Zack unsheathed one of his daggers quietly and closed in on the equine. In a swift movement, Zack used one hand to hold over the pony’s mouth and the other to place the dagger under his neck. The pony let out a shocking, muffled gasp under Zack’s hand.
Zack bent his head over the pony’s shoulder and whispered with intensity, “Quiet.”
He dragged the stallion back behind the buildings and out of the alleyway. Once Zack had him behind the saloon, he turned the red pony around facing him with his hand still over the stallion’s mouth and his dagger pointed at the pony’s neck. Zack had soon realized that the pony he had taken hostage was a unicorn.
Zack demanded silently, “Where are the bandits?”
Zack let go of the unicorn’s mouth silently, but kept his hand still close to the unicorn’s jaw, ready to close it again if he spoke too loudly. The stallion stammered, looking utterly terrified at Zack’s appearance. The pony couldn’t make out any coherent words except gasps of panic and broken mutters. Zack closed the pony’s mouth again and stuck his dagger upward toward the unicorn’s face.
Zack reassured with a slow voice, “Relax. Now tell me, where are the bandits?”
Zack slowly uncovered the pony’s mouth and the stallion finally emitted with a breath, “There ain’t no bandits here... sir!”
The unicorn licked his lips and restated, “Well, there were bandits here, but not no more, ya see? They done got outta Dodge as soon as they arrived.”
Zack asked, “Why is this town so empty... and why are half of these buildings built up?”
The unicorn cleared his throat, “Well, ya see, we ran outta money, and a town without no money can’t house ponies now can it? That’s why somethings are built while others ain’t.”
The pony’s eyes darted around and he continued, “Well, I don’t know where the bandits went off to. They always pass through here on to their next stop, which is out in the Buffalo Lands. But that’s all I know, ya hear? Maybe you can ask our mayor, Ray Sunshine, he knows more about them bandits than I. Here, I’ll lead the way.”
The pony began to sit up, but Zack grabbed his mane and replied sternly, “You’re not leaving my sights.”
The two came out in the open and walked towards the town hall. The sun had fallen into the afternoon skies and Zack estimated it was around three o’clock. They climbed up the porch stairs and walked up to the freshly painted door. The red unicorn knocked on the door and Zack dragged the pony back by his tail and stood in front of the entrance to town hall. A slit in the doorway opened up to reveal the eyes of an unknown pony peering out, it looked up at Zack’s face and he showed no signs of surprise to Zack’s outlandish appearance.
Zack looked down into the small opening in the door and asked in a friendly fashion, “Hi, I’m looking for Ray Sunshine.”
The slit in the entrance closed and the double doors swung open to reveal a large, black mobile cannon directly aimed at Zack. Along the sides of the cannon were five stallions garbed in similar attire in which the bandits in the watch towers were wearing. Each held a crossbow which were strapped to their hooves and directed their aim towards Zack’s head, ready to fire on command. Zack felt a twisted knife the red unicorn behind him was levitating pressed against his back firmly. Zack was in utter panic realizing how his plans had just been faltered so drastically.
He couldn’t think up a clear response to the trap he had fallen into, so he added in a sarcastic tone, “And a clean pair of pants.”
__________
Zack was forced into the town hall where he was stripped of his poncho, shoes, and satchel. His weapons were taken and his utensils he packed for the mission were broken in front of him.
One earth pony came up to the red unicorn and said, ”Here Mr. Sunshine, sir, these are the only things we could find on the creature. What do you want us to do now?” Ray looked over Zack keenly. He turned and hovered Zack’s sword in front of him using his unicorn magic, eyeballing the blade.
He turned toward Zack and asked, “This is a Royal Guard’s sword, isn’t it? You see the royal crest emblem near the hilt, right here, ya see?” He levitated the blade near the tied up creature, Zack showed no emotion as the blade was held by magic in front of him. The unicorn frowned and replied, “We did indicate in our ransom letter that we wanted no Royal Guards to show up... so what in the blazes are ‘you’ exactly?”
“Just a man,” Zack retorted.
“A man? Why are you working for the Royal Guard?”
Zack just looked up at him with a smile and chuckled, “To kill cold hearted, child abducting asses like you ponies. People like you make me sick to my stomach.” The red unicorn walked up to Zack and gave a faint smile.
The pony denoted coldly, “I can, break you. I can break you like a twig. In an instant, I could alter my magic around your spine and kill you, just-like-that. I would be more carefully about choosing your next wor–”
“Where are the fillies?” Zack stared into the unicorn’s dark, blue eyes, awaiting a response from the interrupted pony.
The twisted pony grinned, “Alive, but not for long.” Ray Sunshine turned toward his earth pony bandits who were lined up behind him and announced, “Boys! Show our, ‘royal guest’ a proper welcome. And afterwards, drag him to the back room with the rest. Try not to get floor too bloodied up.” Ray stepped back and the five other bandits stepped forward and surrounded Zack.
The earth pony bandits took turns roughing Zack up and weakening him before they tied him up to a small wooden chair. Zack was bruised from head to toe and from his mouth, blood dripped profusely. He was beaten until he couldn’t see straight anymore, and even then he had lost the strength to even tense up his muscles to reduce the amount of damage he continued to take from the stallions. Ray Sunshine stepped in and finally called off the beatings; Zack gasped for breath as sweat poured off of him and blood dripped from his mouth and wounds. One particular earth pony left a well sized gash across the top of Zack’s brow. He sat there, tied to the chair with only his pants left on him. The earth ponies chuckled and taunted the strange creature as they spat on him and pulled his hair. Ray’s unicorn horn glowed dark red and enveloped the chair beneath Zack in the same glow. The chair shot backwards into the room behind Zack. The door to the room he was forced into was soon shut by the same magic and he was locked in. The room was dusty and soon quiet.
He looked up to see a blur of three odd colors in one of the corners of the room. His eyes refocused to see that it was two fillies and Pinkie Pie strapped to similar chairs, but unharmed. Zack smiled when he saw that Pinkie was wearing her blue ribbon he gave her still. The white and orange fillies were horrified by Zack’s strange appearance, but Pinkie gasped in excitement upon finally seeing Zack.
She took in a breath for a sudden shout of joy, but held herself back from making a huge scene, and instead, promptly yelled out, “Zack! You’re here to save us!”
Rarity looked over at Pinkie and asked, “Wait? This is Zack? Your friend you told us about?” She looked over Zack again with a new idea to whom he was. “Interesting...” she remarked in a long breath.
Zack spat up a little blood and replied to Pinkie, “Well, I was here to save you... but as you can tell... things went a little south.”
“But we’re west of Ponyville, “ the pink filly retorted.
“Sugar cube,” Applejack spoke up, “it’s a say’n. Things just went bad ta’ worse is what he meant.”
Rarity sniveled, “But how are we going to get out of here now? He was our only chance! And now we’re gonna die at sunset!” Rarity began to weep, her eyes filling with tears as she rocked back in forth in her chair.
Pinkie Pie tried to grab her attention, “No-no, Rarity, don’t cry! We can figure something out! We can do this! Zack probably has the entire Canterlot army surrounding this place!”
“Uhh,” Zack sighed, “no, it’s just me...” Zack then remembered his buddy, Valiant Steed who was still flying around out there. “Maybe he saw the whole ordeal take place,” he thought, “but, he would have rescued us by now.”
Zack gave a gloom expression. He had failed at saving these fillies, and now him and these three were going to die. Things didn’t look too promising at the moment as Zack peered out the window. Judging by the increasingly yellowing sky, sundown was soon approaching. Zack couldn’t think of any good ideas on how to escape; he thought that maybe it was because of the head wound he received, he didn’t know anymore. His mind was shutting down from being in that chair too long and getting too comfortable. He tried to force himself to stay awake with all of his might, but was on the verge of failing again. Pinkie Pie looked upon Zack’s weary and beaten self, the gash on his head dripping dark red blood down his face. She was concerned and terribly worried over Zack’s fleeting health and turned towards Rarity.
She asked the sad and sobbing pony, “Rarity, take my mane bow off and wrap it around Zack’s head wound. He needs it more than I do.”
She reestablished her emotions and nodded in response. Her horn glowed deep blue and untied Pinkie’s bow. As she began hovering it over towards him.
Zack saw this and raised his head promptly and denied, “No! Not your new bow! Please! I’ll be okay, it’s fine.”
Pinkie gave a small smile and responded, “You need it more than I do. It’s going to be alright, Zack.”
Rarity proceeded to wrap the now bloodied up mane bow around Zack’s head. She wrapped it into a tight blue strip of cloth which stopped the hemorrhage. Zack smiled at Pinkie, and she gave a similar, but much more appreciated looking smile back. It reminded him of when he took that mental snap shot of her back before they arrived at Canterlot on the mountainside. Zack turned to look at the other two fillies, who smiled at him as well in a more awkward manner. Zack was then struck with an idea he had completely overlooked, Rarity was a unicorn and was still able to use magic.
He frantically turned toward Rarity and questioned, “Rarity, can you use your magic to untie the ropes to these chairs?” She was astonished as well as the others. The three fillies didn’t even think about doing that.
She gasped in excitement, “Why didn’t I think of that? That’s a fabulous idea!” She closed her eyes and focused her magic. Zack’s ropes glowed around him and he could feel them loosening. Though as soon as they did loosen up, a shock of electricity shot through Zack’s body. Rarity stopped using her magic to untie the ropes, but Zack was still being electrocuted.
Applejack hollered, “Rarity, what are ya’ do’n?”
“I’m not doing anything!” Zack finally stopped after a few seconds and gasped for breath. Smoke rose from the threads of the ropes as he held his head back, panting and sweating. Rarity presumed, “I didn’t do that, I was trying to untie you! They must be enchanted.”
“Well,” Zack sighed in relief from the electrocution torture. He rose his head up and looked towards Rarity, his hair a little frizzed from the earlier shock, “let’s try something else.” He looked around the room to see if he could spot something that would help get him and the others untied safely. Though he already knew it was an empty room, he re-searched the area in hopes of finding something else. Zack was about to give up, looking out the only window in the room and zoning off, thinking on how to escape. Another idea sprung into his head and he blurted towards Rarity’s direction.
“You think you could break that window, Rarity?”
She looked a little concerned, thinking that maybe she couldn’t do it; though she turned towards Zack with an expression of new found self esteem and replied, “I will try!”
She once again focused her unicorn horn and it gave off a small spark. A navy colored aura gradually enveloped her horn as she tightened her squinting eyes, trying to concentrate much harder this time than her last attempt at magic. At first, the window did nothing, even when the same glow enveloped the glass. Only after a few long seconds it began to shake very softly. Over a few more enduring seconds it shook more and more violently. Rarity began to break a sweat as her horn glowed brighter and brighter, giving every bit of magic she had left in her into breaking the window.
As the window began to crack, Pinkie cheered, “Woo-hoo! Keep it up, Rarity! You almost got it!” With one tilt of the unicorn’s head, the window shattered into multiple pieces of glass shards.
“Yes,” cheered Zack in praise of his new friend. He continued, “Now, try to find the largest shard of glass and levitate it outside the window as far as you can. From there, tilt it back and forth and try to reflect the sun off of it. My pegasus friend is out there circling high above, maybe we can get his attention!”
“What if we just cut the ropes using the glass,” she suggested, already levitating a large, sharp chip of glass and proceeded to hover it over to Zack’s ropes.
Before she was about to cut the ropes, Zack pleaded, “Oh no! I really, really don’t want to be electrocuted again! Let’s just stick with my plan, please!”
Rarity teased, “Oh, you big baby.” She floated the shard out the window and and began slowly turning the glass and trying to reflect the sun.
Applejack spoke up, “How long ya’ think it’s gonna take?”
Zack replied, “We’ll just have to wait and hope.”
__________
It had been only a couple of hours and Rarity was focusing as hard as she could to keep the piece of glass levitating and revolving out the window. Zack looked up and noticed her weariness and responded, “You can stop now.”
The shard of glass dropped instantly and Rarity panted for breath. Her hair was drenched in dust and sweat, tangles of purple hair strands were out of line and she looked like a complete mess.
Zack comforted, “You did great, Rarity. That’s all you could do and you did it with the utmost endurance.” She turned her head towards Zack as she still panted for breath and nodded with a smile on her face. The other two fillies still looked a little disappointed due to the fact that it was near sundown and they were about be executed according to Ray Sunshine. Zack looked into their displeased expressions and felt their pity and worry.
He voiced in opinion openly, “We all need to hang in there, we can make it out of this alive.”
“No we can’t,” Applejack grieved, “it’s hopeless.” Zack sighed and looked out the broken window. He could tell from the sky’s hue that it was near sundown, and at any minute they all would meet their end. He stared blankly into cloudless heavens and finally admitted defeat.
With a cold expression, he conceded “We are going to die.”
All three fillies looked at him in shock. They saw Zack as a beacon of light and a pillar of strength, but he finally broke under the circumstances; they just sat still, staring at him in disbelief to what he had said. Though suddenly, Zack smiled and slowly turned his head toward the three dumbfounded ponies.
“But this isn’t the end, you see? Though you may think this the end, we are far from it. We will soon discover a new world, together. A world that is bright and beautiful, I believe it. I believe that there is something beyond death, that there is purpose in believing in such a wonderful place. Even though I can’t explain or prove it exists... I just have this... this feeling, this belief I cannot shake. During this time, some of you may have finally thought about the cold reality of death, but do not fear, fillies. I have a feeling that in a few short and painless minutes, we will finally experience life for the first time.”
Pinkie sputtered in confusion, “Wh-what do you mean?”
Zack smiled even more greatly at his pink friend and replied, “That this life is only a preparation for eternity; and if we accept eternity, and when we get there finally, we will find that eternity is the meaning of life, happiness, and love. It will be all worth it in the end. Everything will be okay.” Even though Zack’s sudden burst of deep philosophy went over the heads of the fillies. One by one, each smiled in comfort, knowing at least they’ll die together and with one another.
The locked door slammed open and one earth pony dressed in his usually bandit clothes stood in the entrance over looking the scene. The four turned towards the menacing pony, their facial expressions changed back to unknown fear in the suddenness of the moment.
The earth pony looked towards the shattered window and snickered, “Ya’ll almost escaped, so close, yet so far.”
He dragged each filly onto the porch of the town hall, it took two earth ponies to drag Zack out onto the deck where they lined him up with the rest of the fugitives. The four were facing the empty town, with the red glare of the sun soon about to fall below the distant hills. The chilling and calm night wind blew through the ghost town, carrying bits of dust through the air. The only sounds were the creaking in the chairs, the wind in the town, and the window shutters from half constructed buildings swaying back and forth. The large, black cannon was wheeled out from behind the town hall and in front of the four. Each tried to steady their emotions from what Zack had said, but the tension of the situation was unbearably scary for the three fillies. Ray slowly trotted out from behind the line of hostages from inside the house. He walked slowly between Pinkie and Applejack who were stationed between the town hall door Ray came out of. The red unicorn took his fore hooves and rubbed both fillies on the head roughly.
He bent down and chuckled, “Big Gem Candy Mountain, you three are so adorably gullible.” The two made no emotion to Ray’s insult, they just stared at him with despise burning in their eyes. Ray walked past them and off the porch, staring into the red, setting sun.
He lifted his hooves in the air and announced to the world, “Well, this is it! The moment we’ve all been waiting for!”
He turned toward the four, expressing his well known devilish smile upon them. Zack could tell he was mentally breaking down. The only reason Zack thought he would be doing this is because of the moment he had created. Telling the Princess of Equestria about his plot and now was expecting something more to happen since the time of action was near. He expressed concealed fear for his well being and hid it with lingering madness.
He slowly continued while staring deeply into each of their eyes, giving them equal attention, “Celestia even sent someone to come save you three–and still, he failed miserably.”
He walked up slowly and proceeded coldly, “What a delightful Princess this country is ran by. You would think she would be the one fixing the problems of the world, but no. She sits there on her throne, laughing at us, watching us fight and tear each other limb from limb.” Ray violently turned, his hooves risen again to the empty ghost town and proclaimed in victory, “Can anyone stop me!” His voice rang through the valley and faded off to reveal silence again. He turned and directed his focus towards Zack this time.
He walked up directly in front of him and said, “Not even you can stop me... not even you can stop evil.” He turned and looked at Rarity who gave the red unicorn a disgusted look. Ray darted over to her and her expression quickly changed to horror. Ray circled around the chair and lowered his head closely and uncomfortably next to her.
“You are a pretty mare, Miss Rarity, it is a shame I have to kill you.” He took a long, lingering whiff of Rarity’s hair and let out a light moan.
Applejack intervened, “Can you hurry this up? I ain’t got all day, ya’ know?” Ray’s blue eye’s locked onto the orange filly and he leaped over behind her now.
“You were the one that knew something bad was going to happen all along, yet you let your friend’s fall into my snare. Ponies like you who have the ability to ‘spring the trap’ make me sick that you hold back only to please your friends. In fact, I don’t know why anypony would do that, quite frankly.”
Pinkie hotly expressed, “Who is this Frank? Is he another pony you have as a hostage? If I get out of here, I’m going beat the red right off of you!”
The two fillies and Zack smiled at her remark. The other earth pony bandits, who were standing aside, laughed quietly at this comment. Ray Sunshine angrily pivoted towards the earth ponies and they fell silent. Ray turned back and regained his composure as he ambled over to Pinkie Pie. The pink filly tried to bite him when he tried to lower his head.
He quickly maneuvered his head away from the crazy filly and replied, “How ignorant of you, simpleton. Insulting the stallion who could kill you in an instant is very," he stopped, searching for the right words and articulated, "counter productive to your life span.” He quickly side stepped over to Zack, who gave no emotion or attention to the unicorn.
“And you,” Ray directed, “you are the only one with his sense left in this dirt pan of a place. You remind me of my father, ya know? So stern, so straight forward, showing no fear or pain.” Ray turned his body towards Zack and got right up in his face drastically quick.
The unicorn whispered with spite in his tone, “I will make you fear me. I will show you real pain and horror beyond your understanding. I will personally make it my goal to have any signs or history of you in this world eradicated off the face of this miserable place. In the end, I will make you beg for death!”
Zack narrowed his eyes and mimicked his tone, “Then do it.” Ray was left without words. He turned back towards the empty ghost town. The red sun was now sitting atop the hills, burning like a ball of fire. The sky was bare without a cloud still and the temperature was slowly dropping. A moment of silence ensued the group of ponies and Zack.
Ray looked towards the heavens and screamed at the top of his lungs, “The time has come!” He turned with a twitch in his eye, “Now, who’s it gonna be first?”
No one spoke up or even looked into the crazy unicorn’s eyes. Zack finally looked up at the pony to mentally notify him that he wanted to die first. The stallion dementedly smiled in response. He used his unstable unicorn magic and thrusted the chair Zack was sitting on forward. He then turned it around violently to face the others. Zack’s head was right up against the cannon, he could feel the cold metal rim of the cannon on the back of his head. Zack’s eyes never left Pinkie’s as they both stared at one another. Pinkie Pie’s eyes began to fill with tears, so did Zack’s; for the first time, he didn’t hold back his emotions. Ray noticed this, and in that second, he had a sudden change of heart and pushed the chair with Zack in it back over to the line of fillies.
He stood in front of his puzzled hostages and declared, “On second thought, I’m feeling particularly merciful today. Let’s kill the pink one first!” The deranged unicorn magicked over Pinkie Pie in an instant and put her in Zack’s formal place in front of the cannon.
“No,” Zack cried in terror as he and Pinkie Pie were in utter shock. Applejack and Rarity couldn’t believe what was happening and begged Ray to reconsider.
The evil pony laughed maniacally as no one could do anything to stop him. Zack’s emotions went haywire and he tried to escape. Two bandits came by Zack’s side and placed a hoof on each shoulder trying to restrain him, even though he was tied to the chair still. Pinkie's lips sputtered for the appropriate words, but was too deep in shock to yell out anything or any last goodbyes.
As Zack was frantically trying to figure out something to do, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Something in the air darted vertically downward over the red, falling sun for a split second; Zack focused his eyes on the distance to see what it was. A blur of white shot across the ground at blazing speeds far away from the town and closed in on the hostage’s location. A spark of hope lit up Zack’s heart, for he knew who this was that was coming to save them. It was approaching unbelievably fast as it soon made its way into the ghost town. Ray noticed this and turned around to see what was going on; the other bandit ponies went along side Ray and directed their attention towards the oncoming mystery. The immensely quick object was only a foot above the ground as it flew directly towards Ray Sunshine.
The white object came to an almost immediate halt, it was Valiant Steed in all his under-appreciated glory. He flew up a bit and tilted his wings to stop his flight. He lowered himself to the ground and kept his wings unfolded, as if trying to intimidate the others.
Ray took a step forward after shielding his eyes from the dust Valiant blew up and demanded, “Who in Tartarus are you?”
Valiant just stood there with a elated smile across his face. Then something broke the silence of Appleloosa, a distant noise, which grew louder and louder. Everyone except Valiant began looking for the source of this noise to see what it was. It sounded like a tornado almost, growing louder overtime. Then Ray spotted it along with the others; a large wall of dust and dirt, upheaved by the amount of wind that followed behind Valiant Steed as he flew through the town. The wind finally caught up with Valiant and created a massive wall of red, upturned dust and dirt that was about to strike the town and all of its inhabitants. Ray was at a loss for words seeing this massive cloud about to strike him, even Zack had no clue how Valiant was able to pull off such a feat. The fast moving cloud of debris swallowed the town; you could hear the windows breaking and the doors being ripped off the houses as the cloud passed by the buildings. Valiant curved his wings as the cloud hit him, the bandits and the hostages.
As soon as the red storm hit, Zack closed his eyes and awaited impact, but surprisingly wasn’t affected hardly by the cloud. He opened his eyes to reveal that he was in a elongated dome almost, along with the rest of the hostages, but the bandits and Ray Sunshine had disappeared. The cloud of dust and dirt curved around Zack and the others, he could only feel the affects of the wind it carried while present in this dome. He looked up to see that Valiant Steed stood firm with his wings curved. The curvature in his wings created an updraft that warped the certain areas around him, Zack, and the fillies. The cannon was slowly pushed back and into the storm cloud from the wind and it disappeared behind the fillies. It was a pretty ingenious move the pegasus had performed; creating enough speed to create a wall of debris that would knock out Ray and his bandits while he curved his wings only slightly so that it wouldn’t harm his friends. Zack read once about the effective uses of pegasus pony magic, but never realized how practical and versatile it could be until now.
As the cloud of debris passed, only a haze of falling dust was left behind with the red sun still burning through the veil. Both Zack and the fillies were encrusted in red earth and dust. Zack could only see a few feet in front of him, no longer able to see Valiant or the fillies. He heard a gallop coming towards him and Valiant came into sight. He looked around the ropes to try and see if he could untie them some how.
Zack, knowing they didn’t have much time, quickly stressed, “Thank goodness your here, Valiant! Now go into the town hall behind me and grab my weapons, they’re all on the table to the left as soon as you walk in!”
Valiant leaped into the air and quickly flew towards the town hall, creating a hole in the falling, red dust cloud. Zack could hear the other fillies coughing from all the upheaved dirt in the air.
He cried out, “Is everyone okay?” Each filly gave an assuring noise or ‘uh-huh’ to Zack’s question as they continued to wheeze.
Valiant came back and cut Zack’s ropes. Once they were cut, Zack hastily stood up and turned towards the pegasus pony. Valiant handed him his sword and daggers, but Zack only accepted his sword and one dagger, leaving Valiant both of his other daggers for self defense.
Zack was agitated towards Valiant as he went over to Pinkie Pie to cut her ropes, “Took you long enough!”
“I had to wait for the right moment. Rest assured, I had things planned out.” The royal guard went over to the other fillies and cut their ropes while he explained his disappearance. “Thanks for letting me know you were still alive by that rotating glass trick, very clever, Zack.”
“Thanks...” He bent over and picked up Pinkie Pie who was fatigue from all the action as is. Zack continued, “Do you know what they did to me in there?”
Valiant looked over Zack while he took his wing and placed both Rarity and Applejack on his back, “Well you look like crap, so I guess they beat the living snot out of you.” Valiant raised his wings in a shrugging expression and said in sympathy, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, okay? Let’s just get out of thi–”
A bright red flash shown forth through the red cloud and the billow of dust was pushed aside, revealing Ray Sunshine and his bandits armed with crossbows and daggers. The cannon was also turned around towards them, ready to fire. A few more bandits came out of the town hall, almost as if they were awaiting this one moment and hid from everyone until it came. Ray Sunshine nodded his head in disagreement to Zack’s moves to escape and swayed one of his hooves in front of him in a ‘you shouldn’t have done that’ fashion. Valiant and Zack let the three fillies down.
Valiant commanded, “Go, run and hide!”
Pinkie blurted out, “We won’t leave you! We can fight!”
“Yea, we can help!” commented Applejack.
“I would like to run and hide if that’s fine with everypony else,” concluded Rarity as she gave a hesitant, faint smile to the group.
Zack ensured, “Valiant Steed is right, you all need to hide. We can handle this.”
The fillies looked at each other with mixed expressions and soon ran off behind one of the many buildings in the ghost town of Appleloosa. The lone duo turned and faced the ten earth pony bandits and the crazed unicorn. Ray stepped back and his bandits stepped forward. One by one, each bandit loaded their crossbows with a bolt. They had a quiver on their other fore leg in which they would stick the crossbow into and it would self load the bolt, they would then draw back the string and it was ready to fire.
Zack focused himself and flexed his muscles; Pinkie’s blue mane bow blew in the coming night breeze behind his head. Zack and Valiant turned and looked at each other expressing zero emotion and conveying their plan mentally. They looked back and the bandits fired their weapons without warning. They both dove out of the way of the barrage of projectiles, each dove a separate way. Zack rolled and sprang back up, drawing his sword; Valiant lifted himself up off of the ground with his wings and armed himself with the two daggers Zack supplied him with. The bandits charged towards the duo, separating into two groups to attack both hostiles as Ray just sat back and watched the action unfold.
A bandit rushed towards Valiant, leaping with his dagger pointed towards the pegasus on the verge of attack. Valiant sidestepped the charging pony and quickly thrusted both daggers into the sides of the stallion’s neck. He removed them and the pony tumbled motionlessly aside. Two other bandits swiftly encompassed Valiant; he noticed this and positioned himself so that he had both in sight. The pony on his left speedily tried to thrust a dagger into Valiant’s side as the other, a mere second later, swiped his dagger wildly. Valiant dodged the thrust and deflected the swipe with one of his daggers. The pegasus and the two stallions dueled back and forth, parrying each others’ strikes. Valiant eventually had both of his daggers disarmed and had to drastically think of a countermeasure to do fast. He quickly ducked underneath another stallion’s thrust, narrowly missing him. The pegasus seized the pony’s attacking foreleg; with one hoof, he grabbed the earth pony’s hoof and with the other, pushed against the pony’s elbow. A loud crack was heard and the pony agonized in pain. Valiant released the pony’s foreleg and round-house kicked the pony to the side of the face, sending his body into a broken window of a house. The other stallion rushed behind Valiant with one of his own daggers. Valiant jumped high with the aid of his wings and fell behind the pony. He swiftly placed the pony into a full nelson, which disarmed the bandit. Valiant then rocketed upward above the town and placed the bandit below his hind legs in midair. Valiant used his wings again to force himself firmly back down on the ground, crushing the stallion’s spine in the process.
Valiant leaped upward and sprinted towards a bandit pony who had loaded his crossbow again. The pony fired, but in the heat of the action, he poorly aimed and Valiant didn’t even have to dodge the bolt. Valiant halted his sprint and lowered his body in a horizontal position, confusing the pony. With another thrust of his wings, Valiant uppercutted the tricked pony; the force of the blow knocked the pony out in one hit and fell over like a freshly cut down tree and hit the ground hard. Valiant looked over at the unicorn with a fiery expression in his eyes and a discomforting smile; an expression that mentally notified the bandit as a, ‘Bring it’ look.
The stallion was motionless in response, so Valiant took the chance he was given. He twisted his body slightly and unfolded his wings. He flapped his wings in reversal and leaped towards the dumbfounded bandit. Valiant positioned himself in a flying kick, and with his wings, he spun his body rapidly. Valiant delivered a fatal blow known only by the pegasi as 'The Tornado Kick'. The force of the kick created a cyclone-like pull which the pony couldn't escape from. The bandit was knocked by Valiant’s hoof at least several times before Valiant decided to stop rotating and see if the pony needed more. The pony was flung backwards at least twenty feet before finally coming to a halt when his head knocked against the town hall’s porch.
While this was happening, Zack was fighting against the other five bandits. A bandit charged Zack, oblivious to Zack’s blade. The stallion leaped towards Zack and the human sidestepped out of the way while slicing off the pony’s forelegs with ease. Zack came back around and thrusted his blade into the back of the pony, finishing him off. He removed the crimson blade and looked back to see three other ponies loading their crossbows, ready to fire. They raised their projectile weaponry and each shot a bolt at a different time; making sure that the other who shot before had enough time to load another bolt, so it would be an almost constant fire rate. Zack dove into a near by alleyway to escape the barrage of missiles. He pressed up against the alley wall, catching his breath. Zack was having a much harder time killing off these bandits then what he saw Valiant performing across the town. He peered around the corner, only to quickly slip himself back behind the alleyway, dodging another bolt that nearly missed his head.
Zack had an idea as he stuck his sword into the firm, cracked ground. He pulled out his only dagger and held it by the blade’s end with his thumb and index finger. He quickly looked around the corner to see where all three stallions were firing from and darted his head back around, avoiding more projectiles. He took in a breath, positioned the knife back and stuck half of his body out of the corner, throwing the dagger directly at the center bandit. It impaled the bandit as he let out a shriek of terror from the oncoming knife. The pony let out a groan of pain as the blade lodged itself in the snout of the bandit. This distracted the other two from firing to see if their friend was okay.
Zack took this opportunity to roll out in the open, grab both of the chopped off legs of the pony he had killed and scurried back behind the alleyway. Once Zack was back behind cover, the bandits noticed this and began stepping forward to close in on his location. The central bandit pony dislodged the bloody dagger and fought through the pain as he loaded another bolt into his weapon. Zack removed the severed limbs from the quiver of bolts and crossbow and loaded a bolt into the small weapon. He stepped around the corner and shot the central pony again, the bolt impacted the bandit’s jaw and he fell back in an impending death. Zack could load the bolts in the crossbow much faster than the bandit ponies could with his deft fingers; so now the ponies were off by one member, which gave him time to prepare for his next attack. Zack grabbed his sword, sheathed it and ran out from behind his cover, jumping out of the way of two oncoming bolts. Zack steadied his body and dashed for one of the stallions who was busy loading his weapon. Zack grabbed the bandit who was loading his crossbow and held him as a shield in front of him. The other, without hesitation, shot at Zack and his friend. Zack, with one arm, held the pony around one foreleg and the its neck–and with the other arm, raised his crossbow and fired at the pony who shot at him earlier. The bolt sunk into the stallion’s eye and he feel over, screaming in pain. Zack noticed that the pony he was holding had reloaded his crossbow and was about to place his hoof upward at Zack and fire. Zack grabbed the pony’s rising hoof, bent his elbow inward and made him shot himself; the bolt submerged itself underneath the bandit’s jaw and into its brain, creating a quite sudden death for the equine. Zack let him go and raced for the last bandit who was ready to fight.
Zack was about to reload his crossbow, but soon realized he had ran out of bolts to fire. He dropped the useless quiver and crossbow and unsheathed his blade once more. The bandit pulled out his crossbow and shot a bolt directly at Zack. He maneuvered himself slightly out of the way and ricocheted the bolt off of his blade. The pony threw down his crossbow and pulled out his dagger, preparing for close quarter combat. The bandit swiftly swiped towards Zack as he ran for him. Zack slide himself below the coming blade and used his sword, while sliding, to cut the side of one of the hind legs of the pony. The stallion bent down on his knees to counter act the pain from standing as Zack hopped back up. Zack grabbed the mane of the bandit and pierced his blade through the back of the pony’s head. He pulled it out and slowly turned toward Ray’s location.
Zack’s eyes widened as he saw Ray slam his hoof on the firing mechanism of the cannon. The piece of artillery fired a large cannon ball directly at Zack; it was going so fast that he didn’t have to time react and move out of the way. Luckily, Valiant saw this and flew as fast as he could to knock Zack out of the way. In the process of saving Zack, the cannon ball nicked Valiant Steed, knocking him like a rag doll across the red dirt streets of Appleloosa. The pegasus tumbled across the dirt and sand, he came to a halt when ramming against the side of a rundown post office. Zack saw what had happened and sprinted over towards the injured Valiant Steed to aid him.
“Are you okay,” Zack questioned in a panicky voice.
“My wing,” writhed the pegasus as he tried to lift one of his wings. “my wing and leg is broken... Oh sweet Celestia, it hurts worse then I thought it would.”
“Don’t worry buddy, you’ll be okay! Just hang in–”
Zack was immediately knocked on the back of the head with a large two-by-four. He fell to the ground while blood dampening his brown mess of hair; but he uneasily stumbled back up on his feet to see what had happened. Ray Sunshine ambled up behind him as Zack turned to face the stallion. His horn was glowing dark red with magic while levitating the large piece of wood he struck Zack with. Ray continued to walk slowly towards Zack with his all too familiar smile crooked across his face. Zack rose his sword up, ready to attack.
Ray swung the large piece of wood to and fro trying to strike Zack. Zack was having a difficult time dodging the large object Ray swung at a ridiculous speed. Zack raised his sword and cut the timber in half with difficulty–now the unicorn began attacking Zack with two floating pieces of the broken wood. Zack again sliced both pieces which created now four projectiles he needed to dodge. Ray levitated the pieces of wood above him and with a deep breath, he split the wood into hundreds of tiny, sharp projectiles, all aimed at his opponent. Zack’s eyes widened in horror as he ran out of the way of the large, magically controlled splinters. Ray couldn’t help himself and laughed at Zack’s feeble attempts to escape. Zack ran for a house he was planning to jump in while the magically flying pieces of cut wood followed him. Bits and pieces scrapped and stabbed Zack’s body as he neared the shelter. Zack dove into the window, and the rest of the pieces of wood stabbed the side of the house.
Zack looked outside to see Ray levitating another cannon ball into the cannon preparing to fire it. He looked down and noticed that still in his trembling grasp was his blood-stained sword, and how he still held on to it for this long eluded him. Zack began to make his way out of the house as fast as he could before he found himself in more trouble. Ray fired the cannon towards the house as Zack narrowly escaped the large, rounded bullet. The ball of lead struck the pillars of the house and went straight through it. The foundation crumbled and sent dust rising high into the air as Zack continued to run away from the demolition. As the dust settled, Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack were seen cowering behind the fallen house in shaking, curled positions of fear. They opened their eyes in surprise and quickly ran behind another house for cover.
Ray continued to reload and pivot the cannon to aim at Zack. He shot projectile after projectile, trying to stop Zack in his tracks while the human leaped, ducked, and dove out of the way as fast as he could move. Ray finally stopped and teleported a good distance in front of Zack. Zack came to a halt as the stallion stood firm in his way. The red unicorn raised his head and his horn glowed much brighter than before. Zack noticed that the rocks, broken bolts, and daggers rose up from the ground and began circling around both Zack and Ray in a rotating ball of death. Zack held his sword up and prepared for the barrage of projectiles while Ray continued to laugh maniacally at him–his eyes glazed with insanity.
One by one, different objects came towards Zack; he either side stepped or tried to deflect and chop the objects in half. It was all going too fast for Zack, he kept getting hit with rocks and parts of his body were being cut by the daggers and bolts. Zack made a desperate attempt to attack Ray Sunshine as he walked forward while still trying to deflect the on coming barrage of deadly objects. Zack raised his sword ready to swing, but in a sudden moment, Ray levitated Rarity out of no where in front of Zack, using her as shield. Zack stopped in mid-swing, trying not to hurt Rarity; as he did, a dagger struck Zack in his side. Zack moaned in pain as he fell to his knees with his sword still raised and still trying to avoid the unicorn’s attacks. He pulled the dagger out and threw it aside while trying to regain his balance. Zack tried to swing again, but Ray hovered Applejack in front of him and close to Zack’s oncoming blade. He once again had to stop himself from harming a filly, which in turn, a sudden bolt struck the back of Zack’s calf, immobilizing him once more. Zack tried to steady himself while continually trying to sway away from the flying objects.
Zack, using the last of his energy, tried one last time to swing his sword at Ray, which he in turn levitated Pinkie Pie in front of him. Zack had to stop once more, but when he did look upon Pinkie Pie and her frizzy hair, a brilliant idea came into mind. Zack took in a deep breath, focused all of his remaining stamina into one swift thrust and impaled Pinkie Pie’s hair. The sword went through her pink mane and into Ray Sunshine’s horn, cutting the unicorn’s horn tip off.
A explosion of red light shot forth and the floating objects around them flew off and away from them. Ray cried out in pain as he shook his head vigorously. Strange, blue and silver colored juices squirted out of his horn. Red sparks flew and bolts of small, red lighting shot out and connected on the ground around him. Ray violently looked up at Zack with the most demented and warped appearance Zack had seen in Ray so far. The mad pony levitated the deadly and sharp objects once again around Zack for another round, but the levitating objects quivered in the air and Ray had no idea know what was going on. His horn was flickering rapidly and red sparks and rays of light flashed in all different ways. A growing, buzzing noise came from Ray’s horn and he soon screamed in horror as the noise became intensely loud. In an instant, the beams of light and red sparks were drawn back into his unicorn horn; it sounded as if some monstrous being was inhaling a breath. Once this had happened, Ray Sunshine’s deep blue eyes rolled back in his head and he fell over in silence, kicking up red dust. No one was sure what had happened, but whatever did happen, it destroyed the pony’s mind in the process. The lunatic, Ray Sunshine, was no more.
__________
Zack dropped his sword, fell to his knees and caught his falling body with his hands. He gasped for breath as he took one hand and pulled out the bolt that was stuck in his calf muscle. Valiant limped over to Zack and placed a hoof on his shoulder.
With a congratulatory smile, he said, “Good job, brother. Good job.” Zack wished he could have looked back up at Valiant and hug him, but he was so tired and injured; he just couldn’t do it in his state. He just knelt on his hands and knees, staring at the ground and watching his blood fall from his face and into a small puddle below. The three fillies came up behind the two and looked around at their surroundings. Half of the town was now destroyed from the barrage of cannon balls while the building s were filled with holes and weaponry. Pinkie walked up to the critically injured and nearly unconscious Zack with a smile on her face and a hole in her mane. Her frizzy hair sprang over the hole the blade created and it could no longer be seen.
The pink pony spoke sweetly saying, “Thank you for saving us, Zack.” He mustered enough strength to look up at Pinkie Pie.
He smiled and emitted with a long breath, “Anytime.”
Applejack hopped over to Zack and yelled, “Yee-Haw, you’re a hero, Zack!”
“I say,” Rarity added, “that was most admirable and an amazing sight to see. You are truly incredible, Mister Zack and I applaud your– well, maladroit style. You inspired me to create new fashion line for adventuring ponies!”
He licked his cracked lips and responded, “I’m glad... I could... be of assistance... Rarity...”
Pinkie gasped with sudden realization and yelped, “How are we gonna get home?” This thought had completely evaded everyone's mind until Pinkie said it. Valiant couldn’t call for help since his wing was broke and everyone was too tired to walk back. Zack propped himself up on his knees and clung onto Valiant Steed’s back, once again gasping for breath.
“Someone will... figure out... we’ve been gone...” Zack panted. He took a second to catch breath as he watched the sun finally drop below the horizon while the stars began to shimmer above.
“...eventually...” With that final word, he fell face first into the dirt with a thud.
(End of Part 2)
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..... Should of seen that trick coming. Where did he pull the crossbow out of anyway? The bottle?
Anyway we all know there gonna be ok. Because if nobody rescued Pinkie, then she wouldnt be in the episodes. and if they rescued Pinkie, then they would of rescued Zack to.
Violence and explosions!
I think the Fillies would be a little more traumatized if they saw a pony explode in front of them, regardless of how evil he was
I've lost faith in this.
Eventually
o gawd
Hope they wash up cause that is a lot of blood everywhere
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http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/30070
>one chapter has blood and gore in it
>nobody wants to follow the story anymore
Get over yourself. It's a story. /rolls eyes
Though the change does keep it at a Teen rating. :P
Remember kids, never use magic when your horn is cut or sliced in half. You will become a vegetable.
>mfw i wrote that and you could of wrote that he turned himself into some kind of vegetable, literally. . hahahaha
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I find that turning one's self into a vegetable is more horrifying than exploding. I'd personally rather explode than become a mindless person. But I did break the teen rating and kinda used the cliche "The bad guy blew up" so ya, I'm sorry about that
615362 Actually, it's because of my earlier complaints.
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i.imgur.com/Daxm0.jpg
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I'm not saying ti's a bad thing, I'm just saying that people are getting too worked up over it.
He was already insane, and to me that's almost as close as a vegetable as you can get while still being able to think, just not to a point that makes logical sense to anyone. lol
1 million bits. mr.evil.
1 million dollars. dr.evil.
Austin powers reference?
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Well at least someone can spot one reference in my story, good job lol
Hmmm. Death and complete carnage inspire Rarity? Interesting, I think I will send a friend.
But really, the only reason I see them not cowering infear of Zack is that he was taken and beat up too. But still, all that and such wonderful responses...
Why are all Humans in HiE so weak (without powers) this is just disgusting
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Don't worry, Zack will gain some new abilities/items soon. And I mean come on, he's fighting against an intelligent, magical-wielding opponent, of course he's going to have difficulty fighting him, if that's what you meant.
I think I prefer that humans are weak, well at least in the beginning. Keeps them from catching the "Mary Sue" if you know what I mean...
I loathe when protagonists are generally powerful from the start, get what they want just by persuasion, or gets away with doing illegal shenenigans without consequences.
That's why I wondered why Celestia didn't punish Zack at first for ponyslaughter (even though the victim tried to kill him), and for hiding the crime. I guess it makes kind of sense that Celestia would bend the rules so that she could "blackmail" him into doing things he naturally would avoid.
I know I am commentating on a old chapter, just wanted to share my two bits.
//ZergPony
Zack grabbed the pony’s rising hoof and made him shot himself
Err Shoot?
Love the story by the way
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Humans in general are weak dumbell
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Also, going against a bunch of ponys with daggers and whatnot isnt easy.
Just think about it, a normal human can fight 1v1 maybe 2v1 not 1v13