Solitude ran through the harsh desert wasteland.
As he ran, he kept his eyes peeled and his ears focused, for any signs that his recently encountered group was still following him.
Spotting the remains of what must have been a small house nearby, Solitude began to alter his course to face it, as it would hopefully be abandoned, and would give him time to rest, and recover his thoughts.
Assuming the door would be locked, he put on a burst of speed and leapt up the stairs on the front porch. His shoulder collided heavily with the door which, to his immense surprise, was unlocked. Momentum carried him forward as the door sprang open and sent him tumbling into the room beyond. He came to a stop as he hit the far wall in a clattering jumble of hooves and legs.
‘No time to be laying around,’ he thought.
Grunting, Solitude pulled himself up, and quickly took in his surroundings. The faint light of the moon filtered in through grimy windows, revealing a living room that, while very run down, was not as barren as he had thought it might be.
There was a lone staircase on the right side of the room, which seemed only a tiny bit damaged, with the railing gone. Walking over to it, Solitude pressed a hoof gently down on the first step, which in response gave a loud creak, which echoed throughout the house.
And provoked a dull thud from upstairs.
Solitude removed his hoof from the first step very carefully, as not to set off another creak again. With his horn, he levitated two small daggers from a pouch in his left saddlebag, and hovered them in front of him.
Tapping the side of the wall with the hilt of one of the daggers in quick succession, he set off a couple more echoes throughout the house.
The thud returned again, but this time, it was followed by what sounded like something moving around upstairs.
Solitude waited at the bottom of the staircase, both daggers hovering in the air. He waited for a good couple of minutes, before he saw a small figure wonder out onto the top of the stairs, and with it came... a gun?
Yes, a gun, being held in levitation.
A gun that was being aimed directly at the face of Solitude.
The unicorn seemed to be observing Solitude, the way it just stood there.
‘Well, aren’t you going to tell me why you are in my house?’ Asked the unicorn, the voice obviously belonging to a mare.
‘Uh, your house?’ Solitude began ‘I am terribly sorry, I didn’t know this was your house, um, is it possible that I can leave without being shot?’
‘Only if you stop pointing those two daggers at my face.’
Turning around Solitude noticed that he hadn’t let go of the two daggers that were now hovering ominously in the middle of the staircase.
‘Oops, my bad let me get that.’ Solitude said as he floated them back into their respectable pouches.
As Solitude began to walk towards the door, he heard shouting from outside, originating from multiple different voices.
‘Oh. Shit.’ Solitude said as he began to back away from the door.
The mare had also taken notice of what was going on outside, and began to listen in, trying to understand what they were saying.
‘Hey, look, I know I just got here, and the last thing you want is somepony else in your house, but you have to trust me, when I say that it will take both of us to hold off these guys.’
The mare shot Solitude a look, before it finally dawned on her that she might actually needed this stallion’s help.
‘Ok, fine, but you stay in front. You brought them here, you should definitely be the one they take one down first.’
Solitude opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off, by the door being violently kicked open, and being entered by 3 earth ponies. Almost immediately, they saw him, and looked to start shooting, but were cut off when a loud bang echoed throughout the room, and one of the ponies fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, with the top of the head missing.
The now duo of earth ponies looked up to where the shot had come from, only to see a unicorn aiming a scope less rifle at them.
Another bang followed, and yet again another pony fell to the floor, this time he stayed alive a few mere seconds, in which he tried to cover up the bullet hole wound on his neck.
At this point, Solitude saw his opportunity to shine, pulled out his two daggers, and drove them both into the chest of the third pony, he let out a muffled scream, before Solitude pulled the daggers out and launched them both into an individual eye socket, killing the pony instantly, and leaving him to fall to the ground. Pulling the knives out of the pony and wiping them clean on the deceased; he looked over at the mare, whom was staring at him with a small smile on her face.
‘That wasn’t so hard.’ She said with a smile.
‘Oh, don’t worry, we aren’t done yet, I saw at least 10 chasing me when I left the camp.’
The mare’s smile dropped at the sound of that.
‘Oh, right, well, if that’s all, I reckon we should head upstairs. It gives a better vantage point.’
***
A few minutes had passed since then, and 4 ponies lay dead outside, one on the stairwell, and one was still alive, attempting to crawl away, but doing so required a massive amount of effort, as both of his back legs had been blown off.
The mare and Solitude walked towards the injured pony. Not wanting to waste any ammo on the defenseless pony, Solitude pulled out his two knives again, and positioned them above the pony’s head. One went into the back of his neck, and he barely managed a scream before the other buried itself in his head, leaving him limp to fall to the ground.
Solitude looked around at the scene that lay before him, smiling at what he had done. Taking in a deep breath he turned to the mare.
‘So, now that that’s dealt with, may I ask you your name?’
The mare simply smiled in response before replying. ‘It’s Bright Rose, and yours is?’
‘Solitude, nice to meet you.’
‘And you too, and I must thank you for your help, raiders have always been a pest around here, and I will always be thankful to those who help clear them out.’
Pulling the two knives out of the lifeless pony, Solitude looked back at the smiling mare.
'I never said they were raiders ma'am'
As Solitude began to walk away, Bright Rose stood there, shocked at the sudden realisation of it all.
'Y..you're a bandit!?' She spluttered out, staring at him.
Turning around, Solitude fixed her with a glare. 'No ma'am Bandits kill innocent ponies and then steal what they can from them. I merely took what I needed, and they just so happened to make the mistake of following me, so I, well we, killed them'
Bright Rose just stood there, not able to comprehend his logic.
Solitude gave a small chuckle as he began to walk away.
'Thanks for the help by the way, didn't take you for a killer at first, but, hey, everypony has their secrets.'
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed so far.
Do not have a cover photo yet, Will be grateful to the person who can find one, or is willing to make one.
Bright Rose sat on the porch outside her house. Staring into the distant horizon.
‘Why didn’t he kill me, or even threaten me for Celestia’s sake! He was a bandit!’ She angrily thought to herself, stomping a hoof as she did.
Looking down at the ground beneath her, she let out a long sigh, assuming the face that the only reason she still had all her stuff now, was because Solitude actually needed her help. Damn that stallion for using her like that.
A twig snapped, directly in front of her.
Looking up, she found herself staring down into the barrel of a rather large gun.
‘Well, well, well’ came the rugged voice of a stallion ‘Look what we got here.’
Darting her eyes around, Bright Rose could make out at least 3 other ponies in the surrounding area, but she wasn’t sure if there were anymore hanging around beyond her view.
‘Now then little one, why don’t you just come along now eh? We don’t want any trouble with you here.’
Bright Rose was panicking, her only option (as dreaded as it seemed) at this time, was to go with these ponies, but if she could just get inside and grab her gun, she could…
Her gun! She had left it just inside the door, with a small bit of magic; she could easily lift it through the open door to kill off these ponies.
Concentrating her horn lit up with a blue glow, alerting a pony behind her.
‘Oh no dear, we aren’t going to have any of that now.’ He said before smacking the butt of the gun into Bright Rose’s head, knocking her clean out.
‘Come on.’ He began ‘Load her up, and let’s be on our way.’
***
Solitude casually walked through the wasteland, not paying much attention the environment around him, why would he need to? It’s dirt to the right, mountains to the left, and a seemingly endless horizon in front of him, not much of a scene to view.
A thought crossed his mind, of the mare, back in the house, awfully kind of her to assist him with his problems, kind of a rare thing nowadays.
‘I wonder how she is getting on.’ He thought to himself as he trudged through the barren night.
***
Bright Rose lay on the back of a wagon with one other pony that she couldn’t make out. On the ground next to her sat 5 slavers, all carrying weapons and chatting beside a fire. On the wagon with them lay another pony with a small pistol of his own, he however, was in deep sleep, and a pool of drool was forming below him.
For the last hour, Bright Rose had been trying to think of a plan to escape; she could try to break free of the ropes, but any noise would draw the attention of the group, or she could take the pistol off the sleeping pony, and try and take the other slavers out, but then again, she would probably get through one, two slavers, if that, before being killed herself.
Giving an aggravated sigh, and just accepting the fact that there was no way out of this, she closed her eyes, and tried to get some sleep.
That was until a muffled bang sound echoed through the night and one of the slavers cried out in pain clutching a bleeding leg.
'Agh! Fucking hell, my leg!'
The group all sprang up immediately and began frantically searching the horizon for any signs of where their attacker was shooting from.
Another bang sounded out, and one of the slavers fell backwards with a hole in his head, blood seeping out from it.
‘Come out you coward!’ Yelled one of the slavers firing shots off into the night ‘We aren’t scared of you!’
As if in response, another shot sounded, this time blowing the slavers head clean off, sending brains and blood flying in all directions.
Bright Rose, seeing her chance now, began trying to bite through her ropes that currently bound her, she bit through one, when she felt something press against her head.
‘Oh no, you ain’t going nowhere little pony.’ Said the slaver behind her.
‘Fuck.’ Bright Rose thought to herself ‘now what?’
As if to answer her question, a dull thump caused the slaver to fall backwards onto the floor of the wagon, above him stood the stallion that had been tied up with her minutes ago.
Bright Rose smiled ‘Ah, yes! My hero has arrived he…’
Bright Rose’s thought trail was cut off by a series of several shots being fired directly into the stallion’s head and chest, causing him to onto the hard wooden floor of the wagon.
‘Well…Fuck.’ Bright Rose thought ‘Now, I’m screwed.’
A scream echoed out. Looking over, Bright Rose could see a flaming slaver frantically running around trying to put the fire out, ultimately collapsing from pain, and lying there on the ground, lifeless.
‘Oh…that’s lovely now.’
***
Solitude smiled as he watched the burning slaver collapse on the ground.
He looked through the scope again, and noticed only one more slaver on guard, firing his weapon off in all directions in a futile attempt to hit his assailant.
‘Oh come on now, this isn’t even fun anymore, at least put up a little fight.’
Looking down the scope again, he fired another shot.
***
Bright Rose stared up at the slaver standing over her, aiming his weapon in her face.
‘Now, listen here you little shit.’ He grunted, holding back his anger. ‘I don’t care that he is dead’ He said pointing at the blooded stallion ‘As long as I bring back at least one pony for us to use.’
Bright Rose allowed herself the smallest sigh of relief behind her fears. She was going to be brought to this slaver camp, but at least she was going to get there alive.
A scream echoed out. Looking out of the wagon, Bright Rose, could see a stallion lying on the floor, shouting out in agony, whilst clutching the stump that was once his foreleg.
The injured slaver looked over to the wagon where the other slaver was standing.
‘What the hell are you doing just standing there.’ He screamed out ‘Get over here and help me!’
The slaver pony in the wagon just stood there, looking at his crippled friend.
‘No, I can’t.’ He replied ‘I’m not leaving this wagon just to suffer the same fate as the rest of you! No way in hell am I getting my fucking head blown off today!’
***
Solitude slung his rifle over his back, and gave a sly grin.
‘Oh, this is going to be fun’ He said before breaking into a gallop towards the slavers.
***
Bright Rose sat with her back against the side of the wagon, in front of her stood a bloody slaver, who was pointing a gun at her head.
With a small grunt, he cleared his throat.
‘Now, little pony, let me ask you something. Why, oh why! Are all of my friend’s dead! Is this some kind of rescue huh!? Who are you and who is your savior?!’ He shouted at Bright Rose, pushing the gun closer with every sentence.
‘I..um, well, honestly, I don’t know! Please believe me! I am truly as shocked as you are!’ Bright Rose replied, spluttering out her words.
‘Oh no, I am totally sure you are telling the truth’ The slaver spat back ‘In fact, I have a test, why don’t you run out there, and if they don’t shoot you, I will! And if they do shoot you…well, that leaves me with more ammo to fight with.’
‘B..but I can’t go out there! You have to believe me when I say I wasn’t with whomever is out there, please don’t make me go out there! I can’t!’
The slaver pony pushed the gun up against Bright Rose’s face.
‘It wasn’t a choice.’ He stepped back, still pointing the gun at her. ‘Now go on, I haven’t got all day.’
Bright Rose walked over to the edge of the wagon, and looked outside. Taking a deep breath, she jumped down onto the ground, landing she closed her eyes and waited for another shot to ring out.
And waited, and waited.
Until she saw that no shots were coming for her.
Opening her eyes, she breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t going to die today!
‘So they have come for you.’
Bright Rose suddenly went deathly pale. ‘Ah, shit.’
‘Well, if that’s that, I would suggest that you stand still so I can make this nice and quick.’ The slaver said as he raised his gun up at Bright Rose.
‘This is it then.’ Bright Rose thought to herself for the second time. ‘This is where I die.’
…
‘Hey asshole, over here.’
Bang!
The shot whizzed through the air, missing Bright Rose by at least a meter, as the Slaver was tackled by Solitude through the side of the wagon.
‘Wait, what! Who are you! And why are you helping her?’ The slaver managed to splutter out, as he was held to the ground by Solitude.
Solitude looked over his shoulder at Bright Rose, who had a large grin across her face.
‘Uh, I wasn’t.’
The grin dropped.
‘Although I will help the world by doing this.’ He said as he slid two daggers into the slaver’s eyes, killing him instantly.
Getting up, and wiping the daggers clean of blood, he looked over at Bright Rose, who now had a mix of anger and shock across her face.
‘So…What are you doing here with these slavers?’
‘You have a rifle!’ she shouted.
‘Uh, yes. Yes I do, why? Is that a problem?’
‘It might have been a bit of help back at my home! I had to waste my ammo on you!’
‘Yes, on me, the pony who just saved you from those horrible slavers.’
‘I..but..yes…why?’ Bright Rose asked ‘Why kill them?’
Solitude gave a serious glare at Bright Rose.
‘Because they only believe in the using of others for work, they remove the freedom of anyone who seeks it. That’s why.’
Bright Rose pondered this thought for a moment before walking up to Solitude, and looking him directly in the eyes.
‘You, really aren’t evil, are you?’
Solitude gave a long sigh, before looking down at the dusty ground.
‘Evil is simply the absence of good in the world, those who spend their entire lives dedicated to enforcing evil upon others can be classified as an evil pony. But when a certain pony, dedicates some part of their life to helping others or defeating those who enforce evil. Yes, those ponies are not evil, not always good, but definitely not evil. And that’s where I stand.’
Bright Rose listened in silent awe, she hadn’t really thought about it in this way before. Sure she had seen good ponies and evil ponies before, but never one who truly believed so strongly in both.
‘But why steal from those who are good then? Why not join them and help make a community where good can thrive?’
Solitude gave a slight chuckle.
‘Because my dear, it’s all in the nature of the pony, I cannot live around others whom wish to be close friends with me, nor can I live in a community with others. It’s just who I am.’ He said as he pointed to his cutie mark, a ring of black dots, with a single black dot in the middle of them all. ‘I simple cannot work well as a close friend, an acquaintance who helps me, yes, as I will be happy with them here and when they are not. But a close friend, I cannot go through the risk of losing somepony whom I have grown attached to.’
Bright Rose stood there for a moment, taking it all in, before hearing a low grunt from behind Solitude.
‘Ughh, h…help me…please’ came the voice of a legless slaver.
Solitude looked back at Bright Rose ‘give me a second, would ya?’ he said as he turned towards the slaver, hovering his daggers next to him.
‘Wait!’ Bright Rose called out, as she ran up to Solitude. ‘Why kill him? Show him some compassion! Prove to me you are good.’
Solitude shrugged. ‘He had his chance’ and with that two dagger slid into the skull of the slaver pony.
Solitude looked back at Bright Rose, who wore an upset expression across her face.
‘Believe me when I say this. Nopony in this world is truly good anymore.’
And with that, he looked forwards and began to walk away.
