The Wolf and the Unicorn

War is the only game in which it doesn't pay to have the home-court advantage.  ~Dick Motta

I sat there in the basement tearfully remembering my past life until I heard the door upstairs slam open, rattling the windows with its force.

"HEX!"

A familiar voice yelled, hoarse (hehe the author made a pun) with the sounds of tears and rage.  Sounds I was so intimately familiar with.  As I stood, I could hear the hoof beats entering my bedroom, and that is when I placed the voice.  The voice of the same guard that stood outside my room in the Castle for so many nights.  He couldn't be furious at me.  Then again, why have my tears stopped, yet the screams remain?

"Hex, where the buck have you been?  Ponyville is under attack!  The Princesses are down there with every guard they could spare.  There is a basilisk in town!  Grab whatever you need and lets go!  We'll meet you near the library!"

In my mind, I was asking myself if basilisks could actually be real.  Then again, I was in a world full of neon ponies for fucks sake.  In reality, my body was doing something much different.

With a quick nod, I turned toward the pegs holding the precious reminders of my past.  No time to prepare or load extras, I reached up and grabbed the ever so familiar grip of my carbine.  The sweep of an arm, and the clatter of metal against metal filled a nearby bag with the spare magazines someone had carefully arranged on the counter.  No time to be soft about this.  The guard had already bolted toward town, so I had to hurry.  Up the stairs I went, not even feeling the risers as my feet hit them, or the gentle glow of the gem in the wall as it shut the magic behind me.

With a gesture as I passed the door, I sealed the house as the door slammed behind me and I began to race toward town.  Timing my breath as I ran, every 4 steps, the crisp night air cross my tongue.  My hands grasping in the bag that hung on my shoulder, slapping into my ribs with every step, finally finding what I wanted.  The cool metal of a fully loaded magazine met my fingers as I pulled it out of the bag and slipped it into the rifle with a firm push and a resounding click.  A second soon followed into the device to the side of the magwell.  With a flick of a finger, a sharp snap erupted from the rifle as the bolt rode forward, driving a fresh round into the rifle's chamber, filling it with deadly intent.

Stride after stride, Ponyville slowly grew in my vision, part of down dark, the other brightly lit.  The screams filling the air came from the brightly lit side of town, but the ring of steel and blood came from where the two met.  That is where I needed to be.  Faster, harder, I had to be there.  Lives were depending on it.  A small bridge flew closer and closer with every pounding footstep.  A small kick was all I needed to jump onto the edge of the stone crossing.  Both feet slapping into it as I pushed off and leapt toward the sandy shore.  The sensation of freefall ending with a sharp snap as both feet hit the grainy edge of the creek.  Town was so close now.

A few seconds later, I rounded the corner next to a building that looked like a giant cookie and saw the chaos filling the heart of Ponyville.  A large eight legged, armored reptile thrashed against the guards who were charging it with spell and steel.  Unicorns and the Princesses sent streams of colored magic into its flanks hoping to stop the beast as it clawed through the guards ponies.  A swipe of a claw on the left sent one pony flying with a spray of blood as its claws ripped clean through armor and flesh alike.  Screams of agony as a pony was bitten by its thrashing head, grey spreading from the wound like a plague, until the now grey pony cried no more.  The magic only seemed to drive it on.

Snapping out of my reverie, I drew the carbine to my shoulder, settling it into shape with friendly familiarity.  Knees bent, elbows tucked close, I stepped closer, letting the glowing ring of the sights fill my vision, bobbing with movement.  A flash of movement, a pony tossed to the side in the chaos.  The entire town square strobed as the rifle spoke, bucking against my shoulder again and again.  Again and again, I could see the bullets impacting and deflecting against the beasts hide.  A gentle "sproing" noise sounded next to my bleeding ears, telling me the rifle was empty and hungering for more.  One small press and the empty magazine clattered to the ground as I was stripping the full one from the side of the carbine.  A click, a snap, and the rifle roared again, the gently glowing ring bouncing in my vision, dancing on the surface of the creature.

To my left, I could see Celestia barking orders to her guards, yet I could not hear them.  A thought about Luna crossed my mind as my trigger finger twitched again, sending a steady stream of lead toward the basilisk.  The guard said Luna was supposed to be here fighting.  Another pull, another shot fleeing into the night as it met the curved head of this...thing.  Somepony had to try something as the guards were wearing themselves out without scratching its armored skin.  Of course, that somepony had to be Luna.

With a battlecry (more of a scream honestly) she dove out of the air and landed on the basilisk's back, striking it with her armored hooves again and again.  This only lasted a moment as its tail lashed out and threw her to the ground in front of it.  With a infuriated yell, the royal guard began to flow toward the downed princess.  The beast issued a roar of its own as it charged the guard, intending to ravage them and the fallen princess.

I can't fail.  Not again.  This will not happen.  THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN! The voice in my head roared back.

My fingers mashed the trigger, venting my fury into the air as I ran toward the creature, flickering trails of flame ripping through the air at the bullets passing.  Guards falling silent as I ran past, fingers feathering the trigger, my incoherent yell of rage nearly drowning out the rifle screaming its own.  Three more steps until I can stick the muzzle of my rifle in its eye socket.  Three more steps and it would pay with its life.

Three more steps was more then I had as its head swiveled toward me and slammed into my chest, sending me flying through the air.  My crimson glowing rifle skittered across the ground away from me, with the basilisk between us.  The cursed creature not even giving me a second glance as it rested one scaly foot on Luna's flank, its claws drawing crimson blood that began quickly staining her moon cutie mark.

I had failed.  The thing was going to kill her.  Again, I failed AGAIN!

Rage.  Pure rage pushed my sorrow to the side.  Pure wrath forced me to my feet.  The guards falling silent as time seemed to slow.  Golden flames trailed up my left arm, as green consumed the right.  The only thing in the world that mattered was killing.  Killing the damned thing that reminded me of my failures.  Reminded me of every shred of pain and agony in my being.

I was going to rip its FUCKING HEART OUT!

Every footstep toward the creature cracked and split the stones below.  Every footstep causing them to glow crimson from my touch.  I could see everything.  The guards slowly raising their shields to block a death blow on the Princess as the creature tensed to lunge.  The slow pulse of the veins in its neck, aching for my touch.  The darkly glowing threads leading toward the center of its being.

A clawed paw reached up to stop me, and a furred hand met it.  Golden claws cleaving through meat and bone as if they were air.  A hand covered in glowing flame grasped the stump and pulled.  Pulled with the fury and wrath of someone who has no further to fall, nothing left to give.  I could see the skin separate, showing crimson flesh underneath.  I pulled and watched the flesh give way to gouts of blood, as the beast slowly moved, opening its mouth with an attempt to roar in agony or attack the creature causing it so much pain.

It was too slow.  Everything was too slow now, flames enveloping everything around me, my own blood sizzling as it streamed from my forehead to the ground below, blending with the basilisks.  With a yell of soundless fury, I tore the thrice damned leg away from the bastards body.  A pair of flaming hands forced into its chest, parting flesh and bone like water as I reached deeper.

BURN WITH ME.  ALL THAT YOU ARE ALL YOUR ESSENCE WILL BURN.

I could feel it, a deep pulsing as my hands met the core of the beast.  I could taste its fear, its rage, and its pain.  It was delicious.  Everything I was flowed into this one action.  Everything I could be grounded my feet.  Every bit of wrath, rage and pain poured out of me as I ripped and tore.

The last thing I saw was a pillar of blood spraying as the still beating heart rest in my hands.  The last thing I remembered was the taste of its delicious agony as my canines closed on the massive heart.  And the last thing I felt was the heat of a thousand suns washing over me.