Justice

It had been a long, boring, night.

I suppose that was preferable to an exciting one, considering exciting meant being attacked.

I look at the sun slowly rising over the mountains, and feel glad that the night was over.

I stretch, and walk into the sunlight. The night was fairly warm, but I was still cold.

I hear a stir from the shelter, and I look over. Fluttershy drowsily steps out of the shelter and yawns.

She looks over towards me and says, “Good morning!”

I smile and reply, “Good morning to you! How did you sleep?”

She smiles, and says, “I slept great! I didn’t wake up even once!”

Her smile suddenly drops into a frown as she puts the pieces together.

“Here it comes…” I thought.

“DID YOU STAY UP ALL NIGHT?!?!? WHY DIDN’T YOU WAKE ME UP?!?!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WAKE ME UP WHEN IT WAS MY SHIFT!!! IT’S IMPORTANT YOU KEEP UP YOUR STR-”

I cup my hands over my ears to protect myself from the verbal onslaught.

“Damn, she could even give Luna a run for her money with that voice.” I thought.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, I sensed the onslaught had ceased.

I remove my hands and look down at her, she was panting from the exhaustion of yelling at me.

I get down on one knee so I can look her right in the eye, and say,

“I didn’t wake you up because you deserve a full nights rest for all you have sacrificed by coming with me. I made a vow last night to protect you, and I’m going to do just that. Also, you looked so cute sleeping I couldn’t bring myself to wake you up.” I finished the last part with a cheeky smile.

“Oh…” Fluttershy said in a super small voice, while looking down and to the side while blushing.

Her voice was so tiny it was hard to believe it came from the same pony from just a few minutes ago.

I saw a small smile on her face which she was trying to hide, so I knew I hadn’t offended her.

I stand back up and say, “Well lets get some breakfast, and head out. We should reach Ponyville by nightfall.”

“Oh, right.” Fluttershy hurriedly says.

She trots over to the shelter and pulls the bag of apples out. She eats one, while I eat three because I was hungry from standing guard all night. After breakfast, I tear down the shelter I had built, and we set out for Ponyville once again.

Back at the crossroads…

*Sigh* “I wish we could have gotten here sooner, the ground is covered in tracks from the guards…” Twilight noted, “It’ll be hard to find which ones belong to Fluttershy and the human.”

“But we already know where they are going! The poster the Princess made at our request says they are heading to Appleoosa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“I know,” Twilight impatiently retorted, “But the human is smart, I think its some kind of trick. Why would they want to go towards Appleoosa?”

“I don’t care, can we just get going?” Pinkie Pie said, clearly annoyed at the hold-up.

“Soon. Dash, I want you to fly towards Ponyville and see if you can pick up the humans tracks.”

“Whatever, but how will I be able to tell it’s the humans?”

“If the track looks just like ah ponies, its probably the humans.” Applejack sarcastically replied while rolling her eyes.

“If its different from a ponies, it belongs to the human.” Twilight seriously said, why shooting Applejack an annoyed glare.

“All right all right, fine. Don’t gotta make fun of me.” Rainbow Dash said, while flying off in the direction of Ponyville.

After a few moments, Rarity complains, “Will she hurry up? My beautiful coat will get dusty sitting here!” The other ponies roll their eyes.

A few seconds later, Rainbow comes flying back and quickly reports, “I saw the human’s tracks! They did go towards Ponyville!”

Twilight grinned and said, “I knew it! Alright, Rainbow, go back to Canterlot and get a carriage. You can fly all of us to Ponyville can’t you?”

“It’ll take a little longer than normal, but I can manage, should take about three hours to get there.”

“Fine, just hurry!” Rainbow Dash flies off towards Canterlot to retrieve a carriage. Twilight looks towards the south, and with a malicious smile says,

“We’re coming for you, nopony makes a fool of the Princess…”

Back on the road to Ponyville…

“So, Fluttershy, since I had a lot of time to think last night, I’ve come up with a few more questions. First off, what in the world are those tattoos on your flanks I keep seeing?”

“Oh, these are not tattoos, they are called cutie marks.” She replies.

“Seriously?” I say in a “You got to be kidding me“ voice.

She nods.

“Alright, what is their purpose? And why are they all different?”

“Well, when a pony is born, they don’t have their cutie marks. When they are older and find their special talent, their cutie marks appear. Each cutie mark represents their special talent. My cutie mark is three butterflies, and my talent is communicating with animals.”

“Huh, so that’s how you got those animals to steal the apples for you. I was wondering about that. Actually, that could be useful. Could you talk to a bird or something similar to keep lookout for us while we walk?” “Um, sure. I hadn’t thought about that.” Fluttershy trots over to a tree just off the path, and knocks on the wood. From a hole in the side of the tree, a raven’s head pops out. Fluttershy leans in and whispers to the raven, and after a few seconds, it flies out of the tree and starts circling overhead.

As Fluttershy trots back over, I say, “That was pretty cool, and know we don’t have to worry about anypony sneaking up on us.”

“Did I just seriously say “anypony”? Wow this place is getting to me.” I think.

I look down at Fluttershy who was still smiling from the earlier compliment. We continue walking along the path, and pretty soon I notice it was almost noon. Another question pops into my head while I’m looking up at the sun.

“Hey Fluttershy, just wondering, but what has Princess Celestia been doing to try and stop Discord? I noticed the armory we were in yesterday morning was new, did she build that in response to Discord?” Fluttershy looks up at me and sighs, “No, the armory wasn’t built for Discord, it was built to stop the ponies that were turning criminal thanks to Discord. As for what she has done to try and stop Discord, well… its not a happy story. Discord has been killing ponies. But not directly. He is in sprit form now because of his guardians, so he can’t be hurt. Every now and then, he will control a single pony, and drive it to do something that will kill itself or another pony.  Either way the host pony dies. If a pony kills another, and says Discord made them do it… Celestia kills them as well.”

I gasp in shock. I was not expecting that. “She has been executing ponies? Shes a tyrant!”

“Yeah, I know. But she and her sister are the most powerful ponies in Equestria, nopony can defy them…” She finished sadly. I stop walking, and so does she. Fluttershy looks up at me, and I see tears begin to form in her eyes.

I bend down on one knee, and hug her.

She began crying softly.

As I held her, she said, “I’m scared… what if Celestia catches us? I’ve been trying to be brave for once in my life, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up… if Celestia catches us, she’ll-”

“She’ll be six feet under, because I’m not going to let anypony hurt you.” I tell her. “I promise, nopony is going to hurt you, your safe now.”

We separate,  and she looks at me and gives me a meek smile.

“Its been only one day, and I’ve already broken down… I’m sorry. From now on I’ll try and be strong like you.”

“You don’t have to apologize, its okay.”

I wipe the tears out of her eyes, and stand up. “Are you ready to keep going?”

“Yeah, I’m fine now, thank you.”

We again start walking, but we walk closer to each other now.

After about 30 minutes, we approach  a big bunch of bushes to our right.  When we get  within 20 feet, I hear the raven above us suddenly cry out. I turn around, and I don’t see anypony behind us. I hear Fluttershy squeak in surprise, and I whip around to see three ponies with really dark fur, and knives held in their mouths. I immediately step in front of Fluttershy, and I draw my sword. The biggest of the three ponies, who I assumed was the leader, stepped forward and said,

“Well, lookey here. It’s the human thing the wanted poster was showin.”

I narrow my eyes.

“Crap! They’ve seen the poster.” I think.

“What poster?” I call out, trying to bluff.

He answers, “The wanted poster that had your face on it down by town hall. My friends and I left Ponyville just this morning, and happened to see the poster on our way out. Nice reward on there too, 10,000 bits is a hefty sum. You must’ve really pissed the prissy Princess off. I can already feel that gold linin my pockets…” He finished menacingly.

I raise my sword higher, making sure he can see it.

“I don’t think so.” I retort.

“Oh, but I do. That poster said you fought off some royal guards, but to escape the Castle you must’ve been brought there in the first place. If you lost to those sissy guards, your no match for us, this is our special talent after all.”

I look at their flanks, and sure enough, all three had either a knife cutie mark, or some other picture depicting fighting.

“The reason I lost to the guards in the first place wasn’t because I can’t fight, its because I didn’t want to hurt them.”

The lead pony just smirks.

The pony on his left worriedly says, “Um, boss? The poster also said he killed a manticore, he might not be bluffing…”

The leader rolls his eyes and retorts, “That was just luck, we can take him easy.”

He spreads his wings, and hovers a few feet off the ground. I quickly check the other two, and they are just regular ponies.

“Whew, no magic.” I thought.

The leader pony then noticed Fluttershy hiding behind me, and said,

“Ooh, an added bonus, were gonna make allot of money, and have some fun on the side.”

My eyes widen in fury as I realized what they were planning.

In that second, I knew exactly what I had to do.

I turned my head slightly and whispered to Fluttershy,  “Fluttershy, please, close your eyes.”

“wh-…why?” Was her timid and scared response.

“Because I don’t want you to see what I have to do.”

Understanding dawned in her eyes, and she looked at me for a moment, and then nodded her head.

She looked at the ground and closed her eyes.

Satisfied, I turn my full attention back to the ponies.

I take a few steps forward, trying to keep all of them in my vision. The pony on my right, a hulking brute almost as big as his boss, charges towards me and swings at me with the knife in his mouth. Or, he tries to. Before he even knew what happened, I sidestep and slash.

His head rolls across the ground, with the knife still clutched between his teeth.

The other two gasp at how easy I had killed him.

I walk towards them, a menacing look on my face.

The pony on my left gulps, and his boss comes down and kicks him in the side.

“Well don’t just stand there! Get him!”

The pony hesitantly steps forward and raises his knife.

He was very small compared to his friends.

He charges forward, and tries to stab me with the knife. I use my sword to knock the weapon out of his mouth, and sidestep to my left. I spin around him, and as he rushes by, I slash  forward with all my might.

He falls left and right.

As in, the left side of his body falls left, and the right side falls right.

I had cut him clean down the middle.

The leader had landed when his friend charged, but seeing what happened, he quickly rose and tried to escape. I lunged forward while slashing horizontally, and I take off the tops of his wings.

He crashes to the ground a few feet ahead of me.

“Please don’t kill me! Please, I was just joking about the mare, I promise I wouldn’t do something like that! Please show mercy!” He was screaming in fear.

“Mercy? You don’t deserve mercy. What you deserve is justice.”

As soon as I had finished saying that, a flood of images poured into my brain. All of them were of this pony doing unspeakable crimes. I suddenly knew all the evil things he had done. The experience made me slightly dizzy. The leader, seeing my confusion, darted forward and tried to stab at my neck.

I simply raised my sword and he impaled himself on it.

I pulled my sword out, and he fell to the ground bleeding, but still alive.

I look down at him and say, “For some reason, I have seen everything you’ve ever done. I know that this is what you deserve. It is justice for all the ponies you have killed.”

I raise my sword over my head, and finish him.

I walked back over to Fluttershy, and I saw her trembling, her eyes still closed.

I dropped down and hugged her.

“Its okay, its over now. They won’t hurt you.”

She looks up at me, and I see the slightest tinge of fear in her eyes.

She could have picked up a knife and stabbed me, and the pain wouldn’t even compare to this.

“She is the Element of Kindness, how did you think she would react to this???” I mentally berate myself. “I’m so sorry Fluttershy, I had to do it to protect you.” I said, my head down in shame, tears beginning to form. “She must hate me…” I think.

I felt a hoof on my chin, and my head was raised up to meet hers.

“Thank you,” She gently said, “Thank you.”

The fear was gone from her eyes, and replaced by gratitude and… love?

I shook my head to clear the thought.

“Must have imagined it.” I think to myself.

I smile down towards her, and I hug her again. This time she hugs me back. After a few seconds, we separate and stand back up.

She turns her head to prevent seeing the carnage, and says, “You should hide them, if anypony sees them they will know its you.”

“Yeah your right, I’ll hide them in the bushes they were hiding in before.”

A few minutes later, its done.

I wipe my sword against their fur to clean the blood off, and I sheath  it.

Fluttershy and I begin running along the path.

It would be dark soon, and we still had a long ways to get to Ponyville.

A couple hundred feet above the path to Ponyville…

“Can’t you go any faster?” Pinkie angrily asked Dash.

Between breaths, Dash replied, “I am… going… as fast… as… I can!”

“Be patient Pinkie, we’ll catch them soon enough.” Was Twilights smug reply. “Besides, she is pulling five ponies and the carriage, so cut her some slack.”

The carriage was more of a chariot, with an open back and two poles going forward to attach to the pony pulling it. If a pegasus was pulling it, it was capable of flight, and was the fastest mode of transportation for non-pegasi.

“Well your in a good mood,” Was Rarity’s reply to Twilight, “I hope your not thinking about the reward, because its mine!”

“I’m not thinking of the reward, I’m thinking of how pleased the Princess will be when we catch the human.”

Applejack shouted to Rainbow Dash, “I think we’re almost there!“

“Really?“ Was Rainbow Dash’s excited reply.

“No!“ Was Applejack’s mocking answer.

Rainbow just growled.

Pinkie Pie suddenly leans forward and starts to stare at the horizon. “Are those, vultures? They are circling over something!”

Twilight leans forward and says, “Yeah, they are! Hah! Maybe our work has been done for us. Dash, set us down underneath those vultures!”

“Al…right” Was Dash’s exhausted reply.

Back on the path…

Fluttershy and I stopped running and started walking to catch our breaths. As we walked, a question came to mind.

“Hey Fluttershy,  why were those ponies coats so dark?”

“What? Oh yeah, you weren’t here before Discord, you don’t know.”

“Know what?”

“Well, none of the ponies you have seen are their original color. The more a pony is influenced by Discord, the darker they become.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I noticed you had the brightest colors, but I didn’t know why.”

“Even I am slightly faded, but not by much at all.”

“Well, that’s a helpful indicator of ponies we should watch out for.”

“Yeah, my friends are fading a lot faster than me, I’m worried about them...”

“Don’t worry, we will find some way to fix this.”

“I hope so…”

“Lets run some more, it’ll be just a little while until its dark, and I’m guessing we still have a mile or two to go.”

“Aren’t you tired? Staying up all night, the fighting, and now these last few hours of running? You must be exhausted…”

“I am, but we have to keep moving, we’re almost there. Lets start running now.”

“Okay.”

On the ground by the scene of the battle…

Twilight retched at the sight of the corpses.

She had walked into the bushes expecting to find the human, but instead she found the bodies of  three ponies.

Applejack trots up to the corpses, and after briefly examining them, states, “I bet a squirrel did it.”

Rainbow Dash just rolls her eyes.

Twilight recovers herself and says, “This was obviously the work of that human, the cuts are too clean to be an animal.”

Rarity trots over and looks at the corpses, and muses for a moment.

Everypony braces themselves for a remark on how uncivilized it was, but what Rarity says surprises them. “I think I saw them on the wanted posters back at the crossroads. They had a pretty decent price on their heads as well…”

Twilight rounds on Rarity and says, “We are not taking them with us!”

“Well I’m not leaving without my reward!” Was Rarity’s stubborn reply.

“Fine! I’ll pay you double whatever they were worth to just leave them!”

“Deal.” Was her happy reply, and she trotted out of the bushes.

Everypony else sighs and trots out.

“Well, this has proved the human is even more dangerous, and shouldn’t be underestimated. I don’t feel confident about us fighting him when we are all tired from traveling.”

“Well if somepony didn’t overestimate themselves, we wouldn’t be this far behind!” Was Pinkies scathing reply directed towards Rainbow Dash.

Dash had curled up on the ground and fallen asleep.

“Whatever the reason, we are too tired to fight, so lets camp here for the night, and we’ll catch them in the morning. But lets camp a ways away from those corpses, I’m not sleeping anywhere near them.” Twilight said to them all.

Everypony agreed, and they began setting up camp for the night.

On the outskirts of Ponyville…

It was dark now, but the moon was full.

We have plenty of light to see by.

Fluttershy is crouching in the bushes next to me as we survey Ponyville.

Fluttershy’s cottage was on the other side of town, next to the Everfree Forest.

There were guards all over the town.

I asked Fluttershy, “Even with us sneaking around the town, there is a good chance the guards will see us. Can you tell the raven to make a distraction?”

“Sure.”

The raven flew down towards us and Fluttershy began whispering to it. After a few seconds, it flew to the left side of the town and began attacking a guard. The other guards flocked over to him, and began trying to scare the raven away. Fluttershy and I used the distraction to go around the town, and we ran until I saw a house inside a tree.

“Is that it?” I ask.

“Yes, that’s my house.”

“Nice place, I check the perimeter to make sure nopony is hiding around.”

“Alright, I’m going to talk to the animals to see if anypony has been around here.” I quickly run around the house, but I see nothing. I then stand by the door as Fluttershy trots up.

I draw my sword and lean against the house.

Fluttershy glares at me and says, “Oh no you don’t, your going to bed tonight!”

“But, this is a dangerous place to stay! What if somepony sneaks up on us?”

“They won’t, I talked to all my nocturnal animals, they will keep watch for us. Nopony is going to catch us off-guard.”

“Alright, then.”

I wearily try and sheathe my sword, but I’m so tired it takes a few tries before I succeed.

We stumble in the house, completely exhausted.

Fluttershy trots up to a couch, and plops down.

She yawns, and says, “The bed is upstairs.”

I walk up to the couch, and pick her up.

She squeaks in surprise.

I walk up the stairs to the bed, and plop her down on it. I then start walking out of the room.

“I’m not going to make you sleep on the couch. You take the bed, I’ll take the couch.”

Too tired to argue, she snuggles in the bed and says, “Goodnight Ty.”

“Goodnight Fluttershy.”

I close the door.

I stumble down the stairs, fall on the couch, and I’m out like a light.

A/N And here is where my character becomes a huge mary sue during the fight scene. At the time of writing this, I didn't even know what a mary sue was. I have taken active steps to prevent this in later chapters, so you shouldn't see it this bad again.