There were drums. Bright knew what that meant, but he didn't care. He didn't want to wake up, so he just laid there, unmoving. He doubted that he could stay there forever, but maybe if he didn't move, the guards would think he was sick and leave him alone.

"Oi, wake the 'ell up you lazy sack 'o bones!"

Bright groaned. "Leave me alone."

"What did you just say ta me?" the guard said in a dangerously low tone.

Bright instantly regretted disobeying him, but he figured that if he was on the other side of the gate, the guard couldn't hurt him. "I said 'leave me alone' ."

The was a loud grinding noise and Bright jumped at the sound. When he looked over he saw that the guard pony was actually lifting the heavy metal gate with his bare hooves to try to get at him. If he could dislodge a gate like that, Bight couldn't even imagine what he could do to him.

"That's enough Gore, leave him be," said the familiar voice of the suited pony from somewhere behind the guard.

The guard turned with a look of rage on his face. "An' jus' who the 'ell do ya think you are?!" the guard yelled.

Bright could see the suited pony slowly walk up to the guard, towering over him. "I'm his sponsor," he said calmly.

And with that, the guard's ears flattened back against his head and he cringed away from the stallion in the suit. "I- I'm terribly sorry sir. I didn't reali-"

"Of course you didn't. Now, if you would move out of the way so I can talk to my associate, I would greatly appreciate it," the stallion said quickly.

"Y- yes sir," the guard stammered out, then trotted to one of the many doors in the sides of the room and left Bright alone in the room with the suited stallion.

"So, what do you want?" Bright asked him.

"Today there's a special event going on. I just wanted to tell you what to expect," he replied.

"What kind of special event are we talking about here?"

"You won't be going out there with any weapons," the stallion said. "Instead, they've placed all of the weapons and armor randomly along the walls. So if you want to survive, you'll have to be fast and get a weapon first."

"What?" Bright gasped. "That's insane!"

"Even so, it's what will need to be done to stay alive."

Bright sighed. "It seems like my life wants to kill me nowadays."

The drums that woke him up intensified, and were joined by horns, blaring their sound into the sky.

"It's time for you to go, 22737," the suited pony said.

Bright sighed again, and the gates holding in inside his cell opened.

"I sincerely hope that you survive this, 22737. But if you don't, just know that I was rooting for you." And with that, he walked through one of the doors in the wall, and left Bright to enter the arena on his own.

There was no way that Bright could escape, so he just accepted his situation and left his cell to enter the small room that he had before. There was a short time when nothing happened, but after a few seconds of waiting in the dark, the ceiling opened and the platform he was standing on started rising. While he rose, the cheering from the crowd grew louder and louder with each passing second. Finally, he was standing in the arena with what looked like about two dozen other ponies. There were a few that looked like the stallion that he had fought the day before, but most of them just looked like him. Tired, beat up, and just like any other pony in Equestria. He wondered what they had done to get here. If they had actually murdered anyone, or if they were innocent, just like him.

"Welcome, fillies and colts, to the match you've been waiting for all month! That's right, it's the one, the only, the Equalizer!"

Bright wondered if it was supposed to make all the fighters have an equal chance at survival, or if it was for all of the fighters to have an equal chance of being massacred by the actual fighters in the arena.

"Now, all you old timers know the rules, but these here new kids might not. So, it's pretty simple new guys, no wings, no magic, and no mercy!"

If Bright couldn't use his wings, he was in trouble. But he wasn't completely lost. He was starting to form an idea on how he might improve his chances.

"So with that said... Let's see some murder!"

At that, every one of the fighters in the arena started running for the weapons and armor they wanted. But not Bright. He turned around and ran to the wall behind him to look for weapons. He found a small knife, a mace, and a helmet. By the time he tucked the knife into his wing and put on the helmet, he could already hear fighting behind him. When he turned, he saw that almost half of the fighters were dead, and the rest were falling quickly.

"Die! Die you fucker, die!"

Bright looked to his left and saw a small, wiry stallion running towards him with a hatchet. The stallion tried to make a cut on Bright's neck, but missed as he dodged out of the way. He swung again, but Bright ducked at the last second, throwing him off balance. Bright used this chance to take him down. When the stallion stumbled, Bright swung the mace up and it connected hard with his muzzle, completely shattering it. The stallion fell on his back, screaming in pain. Bright stood over him and took one last swing, caving the entire side of his head in. It was a horrific sight, but at least it was this stallion that was dead, instead of him.

"It looks like there's only half a dozen killers left folks. Who's gonna win? I have no idea, but I'm putting all my bits on Dodger!"

The announcer was right. Bright was only left with a few fighters to face. And he was glad to see that they weren't very tough looking at all. All except the one that must be Dodger. She was a tall, slender earth pony mare with a long katana in her mouth, and knives strapped to her front hooves. She was the one to look out for, Bright knew this the second he saw her.

"Go on then Slasher, murder her! I know ya got it in ya! Go for her throat!"

Bright took a step forward, but was tacked to the ground by a large unicorn stallion wielding an ax as a weapon. He had snuck around while Bright was studying Dodger and had gotten the advantage. But this was short lived has Bright knocked the ax out of his mouth with his hoof and kicked the stallion off of him. Bright got to his hooves in time to see the unicorn lighting up his horn, grinning wickedly at him.

"I'm not dying here, you are!" he said. But as he cast the spell, the magic shot back into his head just as quickly as it had left his horn. His eyes bulged, then his entire head exploded in a splatter of gore, covering Bright in what was once that stallions head.

"Oh that's just nasty. And that, fillies and colts, is why no magic is allowed in this event. Well, I'm sure he had it coming anyways. He was in here after all."

Bright felt sick. He was covered in skin, fur, blood, and whatever else was in his head. He was about to puke, but he had to hold it in, or it would be the death of him. He turned to face Dodger once again, but saw that she was fighting two other ponies. They were backing her into a corner, and actually beating her in the fight. But as one of them went to swing, she went high and left herself open, and Dodger swung her katana, cutting her neatly in half. The other pony was distracted by the kill, and Dodger swung again, taking his head. Then she looked to Bright.

"Uh oh, it looks like Slasher's in trouble folks. Can he best our beautiful Dodger? Do we want him to? I certainly don't. How am I going to take a corpse out to dinner? Well I'll tell you how: awkwardly."

Bright took a breath, then ran at Dodger. And just like her name implied, she dodged. But Bright expected this and swung his mace back at her, and she wasn't fast enough to fully get out of the way and caught it on the arch of her back. He heard her yelp in pain from the blow. He heard the sound of her hooves behind him, but they were uneven. He slowed down to allow her to get close to him, then when she was within reach he stopped and bucked his legs back as hard as he could. There was a loud crunching noise, and another yell from Dodger followed by a thud from her hitting the ground.

"Hey, it's not nice to hit a lady! Shame on you Slasher! Shame!"

Bright walked over to where she was laying on the ground. But as he reached here, she punched him in the shoulder with the hoof with the knife on it. The pain was unbelievable. He stumbled backwards away from her so she couldn't inflict any more damage to him. But she got up quickly and rushed him with her katana. She swung and nearly took his head off, but he was able to duck under her katana and swing his mace upwards. It connected with her chin with a sickening crack. The blow made her drop her katana, and Bright swung again, hitting her on the side of the head. Her head snapped sideways and her body hit the ground with a thud. He knew that she was dead when he heard her neck snap. He dropped his mace on the ground and looked to the announcer's booth. "I'm done! Let me out now! I'm done with the killing!"

When he said this, the crowds constant cheering stopped, and he heard a silence that he forgot even existed. All of the ponies watching him were silent. Only the wind blowing though the stadium made any kind of sound.

"Tsk tsk tsk, sorry Slasher, but you're not done yet. There's still one convict left in the arena with you."

Bright turned to look around him, then he saw a small form huddled in a corner in the wall near a platform. He walked over to the pony there, and he couldn't believe his eyes. The pony laying there was nothing more than a filly, barely older than his daughter. He couldn't kill her, not even to save his own life.

"Go on then Slasher, murder her! If you want to leave, then you need to kill her!"

Bright turned back to the booth. "I'm not killing this filly! She doesn't even have her Cutie mark yet for fuck's sake!"

The doors on the wall opened and over a dozen guards rushed out of them when he said this.

"If you don't kill her Slasher, then you're both dead."

Bright took a defensive stance in front of the filly. He would be damned before he let her be killed. "I'm not-" but he was cut off by a sharp pain in his side. He stumbled forward then fell on his side. H looked back to the filly with wide eyes to see her drop a small knife covered in his blood on the ground.

"I'm sorry mister," she sobbed. "I'm so, so sorry. Please forgive me. Please!" she begged him.

"Well... that was unexpected... Did any of you see that coming? Because I sure didn't. But what an amazing turn of events! It looks like we have a winner after all! So give if up for young Sly!"

Bright propped himself up on a hoof, looking at the young filly. "No, I hope that you forgive me," he said. He flapped his wing, sending the knife tucking inside sailing towards the filly. It struck home, sticking right in her chest right where her heart is. She gasped from the shock and the pain of it, then she fell over, bleeding from hr mouth, the life leaving her body.

Now it seemed as if the wind was shocked into silence from what Bright did.

"Well don't just stand there gawking you pieces of rubbish! Get a medical team out there to help out champion!"

Bright heard hooves running around him, he felt himself being moved, then there was nothing. He was surrounded by total, and complete nothingness. He was well and truly dead to the world now. But even the pain of what he did haunted him in this nothingness, and nothing will even make that pain leave him alone.

"We are sorry that you had to do that, Bright Sky," said a strangely familiar voice. "We hope that you recover quickly." Then the voice was gone, and he remembered nothing else after that.

Author's Note

Once again, I'm sorry for the long waiting times for updates. But trust me, I'm trying to do my best to work on this story when I can. I hope that you enjoyed the story so far.