Chapter 16

Sometimes I wonder if whenever people say that their day has been good for them, if they actually mean it. They could be lying and have a mask on to hide what their true emotions are, or they could actually mean it and continue on with their lives. I tend not to pry in other people’s business since I can’t really speak for them. As for me, I’m sort of on the fence. Before I knew it, another week went by just like that which marks exactly one month since my arrival. The people of this town still call me the Demon of Ponyville, which I can say is a bittersweet feeling. Sure the nickname has a sort of charm to it, but it only caused a sort of invisible rift between me and the townsfolk. While they all greet me with the occasional smile and wave in my direction, I could tell that they still are a bit wary of me ever since Dante drove the Northerners out of town. On top of working for Mr. Rich, I also try to help around wherever I can to at least show them I have good intentions.

One thing I ended up doing was lending Applejack a hand with her farm. After she managed to stop a stampede of cows from barreling through the town, she was awarded some trophy for being dependable or something. Only when she went to accept the trophy, she looked like she hadn’t slept for days. It turns out, after hearing from Twilight and the others, that she was attempting to harvest her whole orchard of apples all on her own since her brother had injured himself. Her fatigue had caused her to end up messing things up with the girls and eventually Twilight and I had seen and heard enough. So after a stern talking to, we managed to convince her to let us help. Which was an easy task for me since I used Neon to run through the whole orchard and harvest all the apples for her. She was so thankful that she had to take me on as a sort of temp for her farm whenever needed.

Another thing that had happened recently was this old friend of Rainbow Dash, Gilda I think her name was, showed up for a visit. She looked like a punk chick from an AC/DC concert, wearing dark clothing and pierced ears, and had white hair that was styled like feathers and a pair of brown wings on her back. Twilight told me that she was a griffin human since her nose kinda looked like a bird’s beak. Long story short, she was a total bitch who had no chill over a few pranks. Last I heard, she stormed off after Rainbow told her off for her rude behavior. All I can say is that she’s lucky I wasn’t there since I was running some errands for Mr. Rich, otherwise I’d let Dante speak his mind.

Besides all that, I think I’m starting to get through to these people that I’m not as bad as they think. If only there was something big that was about to happen that could really show them that I’m an alright guy, but I guess I’ll have to settle with taking this slow and steady. Today I had decided to spend the day with Moon since it was my day off. I had earned a fair amount of funds and I felt like I should take my girl out for a nice meal. I just wish all this damn smoke wasn’t covering the sky, cause I could really use a nice shining day about now.

“I do hope Twilight and her friends will be okay,” Moon said as she held my hand. “That dragon seems to be too much to handle on their own.”

“I’m sure they can handle it,” I shrugged it off. “But what I find weird is how a dragon can produce this much smoke just from sleeping?”

“Is it any stranger than how you can produce smoke?”

“You don’t see smoke coming out of my nostrils when I sleep, do you?”

“No, but you do snore a little.”

“I…touché.” Moon giggled as I looked up at the smokey sky above me. I could barely make out the sun and I noticed the people in town were a little down that they could not enjoy the sun as usual. I then stopped walking when an idea hit me.

“What is it, Axel?” Moon wondered.

“I think I might have a way to bring the sunlight back, if only for a little while.” I scratched my chin in thought. I then activated Smoke and made my hands flicker with embers. “I’ll be right back.” I thrusted my hands down and took to the air as I flew towards the smoke from above. As I neared, I could smell the sulfur-like odor already which made my nose scrunch up. Ignoring the smell, I drew in closer and closer to the smoke trail until I was just beside it. I hovered in mid air using my Smoke Thrusters as the black smoke billowed through the sky. I scanned the trail all the way where the mountain was that I heard Twilight talk about and wondered what the girls could be doing right now.

“I hope they make it back in one piece, but for now I think this down deserves to shed a little light on.” I raised one of my hands and towards the smoke and focused my power.

I wasn’t sure if I would pull this off, since this smoke was from an actual dragon, but my suspicions were soon quelled as I actually began absorbing the smoke. I felt a rush of energy course through me, almost as much as when I absorbed the electricity from that power line back in Canterlot as I continued to absorb the dragon smoke. I didn’t even pay attention to the fact that my efforts were paying off as the sky began to look more clear the more I absorbed. It took about another minute before the sky was clear enough and the sun shined down on Ponyville once more. Only thing now is that I felt as though I could produce more fire and smoke than an actual dragon.

“Whoo! Hot damn, what a rush!” I grinned.

I looked down at my Smoke Thrusters to see that the embers had traveled from my hands all the way up to my arms. As I descended back to the ground, I also began taking deep breaths to get a handle on all the smoke I absorbed into my own power. I finally touched down and was met with shocked faces from all the townsfolk, Moon included, as I deactivated Smoke.

“Sweet stars above, that was incredible Axel!” Moon said.

“Thanks, I guess,” I exhaled as I cracked my neck. “Damn, that sure was a lot of smoke. I didn’t think I’d be able to absorb it all.”

Well I certainly am pleased with the outcome. I mean, I can literally feel the power of a dragon from the smoke you scarfed up! Dante chortled in my head.

It was just smoke, Dante, relax.

“Well thanks to your efforts, the sun is now shining on Ponyville once again.” Moon pointed to the sky and sure enough the sun was visible again. I looked to the outskirts of Ponyville to see more smoke from the mountain and would soon cover the sky again.

“Sure hope those girls take care of that Dragon problem, cause I don’t think I’ll be able to do that again even if I wanted to,” I said.

“I agree, now come, we still have a date to finish,” Moon smiled as she grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

I smiled as we walked and noticed the townsfolk looking at me with a mix of expressions. Some were appreciative about me bringing the sun back and I even heard a few here and there thank me for my efforts. Unlike before, I could tell that they actually meant it this time and their smiles didn’t look fake in the slightest.

“It’s something, it might not be much, but it’s still something.”

“So after we managed to take all the desks out of the classrooms, we put them all on the roof of the school. The teachers were so mad, but they couldn’t punish us all since all the seniors were involved in the first place.”

“Pffft! Hahhahahaha! Oh my, that is quite funny! How were you able to get away with such a crime?”

“Cause we planned it so that it happened at the end of the year and right before graduation so they wouldn’t be able to crack down on us.”

Moon continued to laugh as I had finished telling her about my high school senior prank I did with the rest of the senior student body. My idea, at the time, was to graffiti the bleachers at the football field and draw the rival high school’s mascot getting pantsed by our school’s mascot. However, since the rival school’s mascot was a female tiger and ours was a knight, people would think it was too sexual or some bullshit excuse like that.

“You certainly had quite the interesting youth, Ax,” Moon giggled.

“Eh, it was alright, for the most part,” I shrugged as I sipped my water. We had decided to go to a local café and have a small lunch together and sat at one of the outside tables. I ordered pasta and Moon had ordered a salad, as usual. “I made some pretty interesting people during my high school days, only problem was that we all lost touch when I graduated.”

“Does that happen often in your world?”

“You could say that, it just depends on how much someone wants to stay in contact with another. I would’ve liked to stay connected with my old friends, but when I had that falling out with my parents I didn’t have a choice when I moved away. It’s stupid saying out loud, but since my parents knew my old friends, I was paranoid they’d tell them where I moved to and try to talk to me agian.” I frowned as I placed my fork on the table. “Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve at least given them another chance rather than keep living in the past. I still blame myself for what happened with that guy I…killed. Maybe things could’ve been different, maybe he’d still be alive, imprisoned, but alive.”

Moon reached out and placed her hand on mine with a sad smile. “It is normal for one to have regrets, Ax, I of all people should know that more than anyone. I was the cause of Luna and Celestia’s separation. These people still are wary of me, however I do not blame them. All I can hope is that given time, I will have earned back their trust. I even have, shall we say, a personal goal.” She pulled her hand away and took a sip of her drink.

“Yeah? What’s that?” I wondered.

“Though it may sound a tad far-fetched, I often imagine myself as a long lost sister to Celestia and Luna. We are alicorn humans and I was born from within Luna’s mind, despite the circumstances. My new purpose, if you will, is to one day show them that I can be worthy of their trustworthiness so that they may welcome me into their family.”

“You hold them in such high regard already?”

“How can I not? You forget, Luna and I were once one in the same mind and body. I hold her memories from when she was a child to before we were separated. I even find myself traversing through the dream realm from time to time so that I may aid Luna in banishing nightmares. On occasion, we would cross paths in the dream realm. At first she was highly skeptical of me if I was stable and reliable enough to do as she does and banish nightmares, sometimes she wouldn’t even acknowledge me.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” I mumbled.

“I know, but again, I do not blame her,” Moon shook her head. “It is rather interesting to see what people dream of nowadays. Would you like to hear what I witnessed young Spike was dreaming about?”

“Oh please, do tell,” I chuckled.

“He dreamt that he was a tall, handsome, and muscular knight in shining armor, come to wisk Miss Rarity away and be her betrothed prince charming.”

“Oh, pfft, hahahahahahaha!” I burst out laughing after failing to swallow the bite of my pasta. “Oh damn! That’s the funniest shit I’ve ever heard!”

“I know! I almost gave myself away, I was laughing so much,” Moon agreed.

“That kid is biting off way more than he can chew. No offence, but Rarity is a little too high class for Spike.”

“Love tends to surprise many who are unexpecting of it, Ax, just look at you and I. Most could only dream of courting a princess in their lifetime, yet we managed to find a way.”

“I suppose you have a point, even though we’re still getting to know each other.”

“It is as you said once before, we are merely taking our time with this relationship. Personally, I couldn’t ask for a more suitable man to share my affections with.”

“I appreciate that, Moon, truly I do,” I smiled as I ate some more of my pasta.

We continued our date for about another hour, making small talk and cracking a few jokes here and there, until I heard some kind of ruckus headed our way. It sounded like people raising their voices over something as we looked to see a crowd of people walking down the street.

“Wonder what’s gotten them so riled up?” I wondered. It wasn’t until the group was close enough that I had to do a double take at some of the men among the group. “Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me.” I stood up as I grabbed my pack I set aside and slung it on.

“What is it?” Moon asked as I stood up.

“Some dumb bastards who I thought I put in their place before. Guess they didn’t get the memo that I don’t like repeating myself.” I glared at the group and marched over to meet them halfway.

“Be careful Axel!” Moon called out.

As I made my way down the street, the gang of men were shoving people out of the way and throwing insults and threats wherever they looked. There looked to be about 15 of them this time, and some of the men, who I recognized, still had bandages on their heads from where I blasted them. If I remember correctly, they work from someone named Sam Spade. Whoever this bitch is, it looks like she doesn’t like to be told no or not get the results she wants.

Want me to tear them apart? Maybe burn a few of them alive and decapitate the rest?

…

As much as I would like for you to scare them shitless, we’re still sort of under watch from the public eye. Even though the Northerners were a bunch of scumbags, these guys are just paid thugs.

Hmph, if you say so.

I stopped just a few yards away from the group of men as they all stared me down. Most of them were armed with blades, clubs, and a few were carrying handheld weapons that seemed to catch my eye. They looked like a weird version of a flintlock pistol and had a small orb where the hammer was supposed to be. The small orb had a faint glow to it which probably meant it was some kind of magic weapon.

From the group of thugs, a man stepped forward and gave me more of a stink eye than the others. I then recognized him as the one smoking a cigarette and the leader of the goons from before since he had a scar above his right eye.

“We meet again, brat,” he growled.

“You gotta be the dumbest motherfucker I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting,” I spat. “I’m pretty sure I was very clear that I never wanted to see you again. Yet here you are, with a bigger group of assholes no less.”

“I see that little bitch isn’t with you this time,” the leader pointed out.

“Watch your words,” I snarled as I flicked my wrist to unravel my chain. “Or I’ll burn your tongue.” I began swinging my chain around as I activated Smoke. Small embers and black smoke trails flickered off my body as the chain was encased in embers.

“You sure do talk tough, but I wonder if you would be able to handle these numbers?” the leader mocked.

“15 of you assholes are nothing to me.”

“That a fact?”

“Come at me and find out.”

“You’re a cocky little shit, I’ll give you that, but I came here to get a job done, and I intend to not fail a second time.” The leader then reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch. “Boys! I got here a handful of precious gems! First one to knock this little prick down a peg gets all of the gems inside. And, since I’m in a good mood, that gold looking thing on his back will also belong to the first to knock him down!”

I glared at the leader since his proposal seemed to fuel their resolve of taking me down. As the men began to approach me, I quickly pulled out my earbuds and scrolled through my smartphone and selected a song.

“Once you’re out of the way, we’ll make these people see that there’s a new name that they’ll answer to. And that’s Miss Sam Spade!” The leader boasted.

“Over my fucking ass,” I said darkly. “Bring it, bitch!”

Two of the men charged at me with clubs as I ran at them myself. One swung his club for my head and I managed to duck just in time and fired a Cinder Shot at his gut. He grunted as I spun around and kicked his side, making him drop his club as the other man swung at me with his own club. I quickly wrapped my chain around his weapon and yanked it out of his grip. Once both thugs were disarmed, I began swinging my inflamed chain at them, whipping them across their bodies until they fell to the ground with large burn marks on their bodies. I saw in the corner of my eye a few more thugs came at me with blades and one managed to get the drop on me by swinging his sword, cutting my left arm a little. I hissed in pain and tried to dodge each of their swings as I reached back and pulled out my Amp. The Smoke affected the Amp by setting both of the rods to be engulfed in smoke and fire. I swung my Amp at them, causing a wave of smoke and embers to blow them back. The wave made them jump backwards in surprise, but one of them wasn’t quick enough and cried out in pain as he fell to the ground.

“What are you idiots doing?!” The leader demanded. “He’s just one fucking guy!”

More thugs came at me and I soon found myself at a disadvantage. I swung my chain and tried to whip them and swung my Amp, but they had me surrounded and were taking turns having a go at me. One bashed me in my right arm with his club and another managed to graze my left leg with his blade. I cried out in pain and twirled my chain to wrap it around one of the thug’s legs. I yanked it back as hard as I could, making him fall to the ground as I followed it up by bringing down my Amp on him. Before another thug could swipe at me, I fired a couple of Cinder Shots at him and hit his head and chest. As he fell to the ground, two thugs tackled me to the ground and forced me to drop my Amp. Another had raised his club to bash my head, but I quickly evaded his attack by turning myself into smoky wisps and got out of their pin as the thug brought his club down to the dirt.

“What the?! How’d he do that?!”

“It’ll take more than that to bring me down!” I said as I raised my hands at them.

Multiple smoke trails twirled around my hands as an orb of smoke formed in between. I raised the orb up behind me and threw it at the group. The orb impacted the ground and exploded into a plume of smoke, causing the thugs to cough and be disoriented from by successful Sulfur Bomb. One by one, I ran up to the affected thugs and shoved them to the ground and subdued them with my smoke. Over half of the thugs were dealt with and the remaining thugs were beginning to lose their edge.

“Who’s next?!”

BANG!

“ARGH!”

I clasped my right shoulder after feeling something a sharp pain shoot out from behind. I looked at my hand to see blood as my fast-healing did its best to heal the wound. I looked over to see one of the thugs aiming his magic pistol thing at me with a smirk. The other two thugs armed with magic pistols aimed their firearms at me and began shooting. I quickly rolled out of the way, ignoring the pain, and made a break for my Amp that I dropped. One thug saw me run for my Amp as I evaded the shots and caught me off guard by running at me with a sword and slashed at me. The blade managed to cut my right arm, and I didn’t have time to see another thug’s fist punch my face. I staggered a bit and got shot in the leg, making me fall down on my knee and a thug with a club struck my back. I fell on my hands, pain coursing through my body, as the remaining thugs surrounded me again. Blood was dripping from my arms and my legs felt weak and unresponsive. I glanced up at the leader and he was chuckling to himself, the smug bastard.

“Guess you aren’t so fucking cocky after all,” he mocked. “Finish him off, boys, this town will be ours as soon as he’s out of the way. Miss Sam Spade still wants that little bitch.”

“I thought I told you to watch your words,” I growled. Before I was shot by the thugs, I thrusted my arms down to the ground with my Smoke Thrusters and launched into the air. I then aimed my hand at the leader and closed an eye to be precise with my shot. I fired at him, and the Cinder Shot managed to hit him in his face, causing him to scream in pain as he clutched his mouth.

“AAAAARRRRRHHHH!!”

I laughed as I landed back on the ground, but staggered a little from the pain. “Told you I’d burn your tongue.”

“You bastard!” A thug cursed as he aimed his pistol.

I was the quicker draw as I fired three Cinder Shots at him, two hitting his torso and one hitting his head as he dropped to the ground. One thug came at me with his club as I swung my chain and wrapped it around his wrist. I yanked him towards me and slammed my fist in his gut, making him wheeze as he fell to the ground. A thug took more shots at me with his magic pistol and I managed to duck and dodge out of the way. He desperately tried to hit me but as soon as I was about a foot away from him, he aimed for my head and pulled the trigger.

Click!

The sound of the gun clicking made him panic as I noticed the small orb on the top of the gun had lost its glow.

“You’re all out,” I said coldly and spun my chain around. With one hard swing, I whipped him across his body, sending him tumbling across the ground and left a large burn mark along his torso. I breathed heavily as there was only a handful of thugs left remaining. As the song was coming to an end, I limped over to my Amp and picked it up as I glared at the thugs.

“You still wanna go?” I challenged them. “Cause I can keep knocking heads all day.”

The thugs looked at each other until they soon dropped their weapons and raised their hands in the air. I smirked as I walked towards each of them and shoved them to the ground and subdued them with Smoke. I grunted as my fast healing was still taking its time to heal me all the way and I glanced at the leader who was still clutching his mouth. I looked around at the spectators from the town and they all stared at me in shock and awe as I tried to catch my breath.

Not bad, Rickert, not bad at all.

“Did you see that?”

“I saw all of it, he took them all down by himself!”

“Those thugs sounded like they were gonna cause a lot of trouble and hurt us, especially since they had guns on them, but that Axel guy stopped them!”

“Does that mean…we were wrong?”

“You just can’t seem to stay out of trouble, can you?” I looked over my shoulder to see Lapis approach me with an arched brow. There were some other guards in tow as they all began to cuff and restrain the downed thugs

“What can I say? I’m a bit of a troublemaker,” I shrugged, wincing in the process.

“You gonna be okay? Those injuries look serious,” she said, almost sounding concerned for me.

“I’ll live, you should see what I did to that guy,” I said, pointing at the leader who was still in pain and his whole mouth had nasty burns and a guard escorted him away.

“What happened to him?”

“He had a foul mouth, so I burned his tongue,” I stated bluntly. “He and his goons tried to stir up trouble so I stepped in and put them in their place.”

“I’ll say, what’s the deal with these jerks anyway? What did you do to piss them off so much?”

“Some lady they work for by the name of Sam Spade sent them to try and kidnap Diamond Tiara.”

Lapis’ eyes widened as she pointed at me. “Sam Spade? As in the Sam Spade?”

“Yeah? Why, you know her?” I wondered.

“Only by name through the higher ups,” Lapis said, crossing her arms. “She’s known to be a big player in the underground world. I’ve heard she is responsible for causing all sorts of trouble in the major cities. Authorities have been trying to track her down for years, yet no one seems to have any luck even catching a glimpse as to what she even looks like. If she’s after Diamond Tiara, then she’s probably making moves.”

“That’s a bit concerning,” I hummed and then sighed. “I didn’t realize it was that big of a deal, which means I probably messed up.”

“How do you mean?”

“It’s complicated, I thought I was doing the right thing. All I can do now is try and fix what I should’ve done some time ago.”

It was later in the day, as the sun was beginning to set, and I returned to Moon to finish our date. She freaked out when I came back with blood stains on my clothes but I assured her I was alright. Twilight and the girls came back after managing to convince the dragon to leave his cave and they talked about how Fluttershy, of all people, was the one to convince the dragon to leave. I told her that I was very impressed that she managed to pull it off, to which she just blushed shyly and hid behind her hair. Before I joined Moon back at the library, I had to make a quick stop at Mr. Rich’s house for something important. How he would react to what I had to say, all I could think is how was gonna fire me for keeping it to myself. Randolph let me in and led me up the stairs to Mr. Rich’s office. I knocked on the door as Randolph left to tend to his other duties.

“Come in.” I opened the door to see Mr. Rich at his desk, going over some paperwork. When he looked up at me, he smiled. “Ah, Axel, I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”

“Yeah, I just had to come and speak with you about something,” I sighed.

“Is everything alright?”

“Well…not exactly,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “I first wanna apologize.”

“For?” Mr. Rich tilted his head.

“For lying to you, about what really happened when I first spent time with Diamond.”

I then reluctantly told him everything that had happened the day when I first took Diamond out to hang out with Silver Spoon. When I finished my explanation, Mr. Rich had kept silent the whole time.

“I was only trying to keep you from worrying too much about your daughter, since it sounds like you’ve got enough to deal with on your plate already.” I frowned as I reached up to take off my beanie. “I realize now that it was selfish of me to keep such a serious incident from you since Diamond is your daughter in the first place, and I’m just your assistant.” I sighed as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my employee ID I received on my first day. I stepped towards Mr. Rich’s desk and placed it in front of him. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Mr. Rich, maybe your next assistant will be more truthful than I was.”

“Axel, please sit down,” Mr. Rich calmly said. I hesitated but did as he asked and took a seat. “I appreciate you being honest with me, Axel, honesty is somewhat a rare trait for some people. While I am admittedly a little cross with you for keeping what happened with you and my daughter from me, I can tell that you had your personal reasons for doing so.” He reached under his desk and pulled out a bottle of liquor and two glasses. “And you were right, in a way, I have recently had a number of, how shall I say, stressful endeavors with my company. This Sam Spade is a name I have heard many times recently, especially since her little crime syndicate has been targeting Barnyard Bargains more than the other trading companies in Equestria.”

“Just yours? Why’s that?” I wondered.

“Who can say?” He uncorked the bottle and poured the liquid in both glasses. “All I know is that I have had to increase my security for any shipments I authorize and it has been costing me double than what I normally pay. Barnyard Bargains may be a wealthy conglomerate, but in the end I am merely a CEO of a successful trading company. Why this Sam Spade has chosen to meddle in my affairs is beyond even me.” He pushed one of the glasses towards me as he downed half of his own drink. “Now they come after my own daughter? It is unprecedented that they would go to such lengths. Which is why I am thankful to you that you were around to be there for Diamond when you were.”

“You are?”

“Of course, if not for you I would most definitely be getting a call to pay some kind of ransom for my daughter’s freedom. I can’t imagine what they would have done to her, had they gotten a hold of my little girl.” Mr. Rich smiled and pushed my ID back towards me. “You have done me a great service, Axel, which is why I have no reason to terminate your employment.”

“You’re letting me keep my job?” I asked, surprised. “But I lied to you.”

“For good reason, I’m sure. I probably would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes. All that I ask in return is that you are more honest with me from now on. I may be your employer, but I would also like to be considered as a friend as well. Besides, if I did go through with you termination, I’m sure Diamond would be very sad to see you go without a proper explanation.”

I picked my ID up and held it my hand as a smile grew across my lips. I tucked the ID back in my pocket and took my glass and raised it to Mr. Rich. “To new friendships.”

“To new friendships,” he said back.

Clink!

Author's Note

To a prosperous employment with a new and appreciative friend/employer.

Side Note: School sucks…is the reason why I am late with this chapter.

Hope you enjoyed!

~WurkyWilk has left the building…