“What should we do with him?”

Sweetie didn’t answer. She just kept staring at the unconscious Hunter, the unknown pony that she already had burning hatred against, inspecting every little feature of this murderer, all from his black mane to his armband, trying with all her might not to take him down once and for all, only with Spike finally nudging her did it bring her out of her trance.

“Huh.. what?” she said, focusing back at the situation at hand.

“I said, what should we do with him?” Spike repeated, stealing a glance at the pony and for a second showing the same furious expression that Sweetie had a few seconds ago.

Sweetie was thinking of telling Spike to take his machete out and see how many he can be chopped into before finally dying, but with great effort, restrained herself. Even though these ponies apparently had her sister captive and wanted revenge in any way she could, she knew she was letting her anger get the best of her, and this pony was their best chance of saving her.

“We… get all the information out of him about the Hunters. Maybe he knows where Rarity is being held.” she decided finally, still seething.

Spike let out an exhausted sigh, not at her, but it felt like he was wanting her to suggest the machete idea, to give him an excuse to let out his anger at what these ponies have done. But deep down, past his anger, he knew she was right, even if it felt wrong not letting him hurt anyone anymore, to rid the world of the bandit lying on the ground before them.

Without answering back, Spike followed Sweetie’s order, and dragged the Hunter into the maintenance shed, not taking particular care into whether he was ‘accidentally’ bumping his head against the door frame, or digging his claws in a little too deep while carrying him, so much so he would be wincing in pain if he was awake.

With careful contemplation of the objects placed in the room, Spike dragged the Hunter to a nearby drain pipe fixed against the wall, and wrapped some nearby chains across both his front hooves, making him sit on his back with his trapped hooves behind him. It wasn’t the perfect prison, but it looked like he wouldn’t be getting out of there anytime soon, as well as the fact it didn’t look very comfortable from Spikes perspective, it was good enough; perfect for the interrogation.

With his job done, he stood up, leaving the still passed out Hunter therein for a big surprise when he woke up, much to Spikes satisfaction, and turned around to Sweetie, finding her rereading the ponies note again, her eyes scanning every word, as if there was some way they were wrong, that it wasn’t Rarity who was captured after all.

“Sweetie, It’s her. There’s no point in denying it.” Spike said, with a weary voice.
“I know… it’s just… it just can’t be true. You know what I mean?” she replied, dropping the note to the ground, ready for another batch of tears to roll down her face.

“Yeah. I know.” he understood, pulling Sweetie into a hug in an effort to calm her down, as well as himself. “But we’ll bring her back no matter what. I promise.”

He wasn’t sure where to even start with that promise, let alone even figure out where she was being held, but even so he felt he just had to verify to Sweetie as well as himself that they wouldn’t be going home until the problem at hand was dealt with. That meant confronting these Hunters and possibly putting themselves at risk.

After a few moments of silence with Sweetie’s hooves firmly gripped around Spike’s scales, she finally let go and realized something by the look on her face, and said something quietly.

“The note… said something about a package…”

Spike looked confused. Why was she concerned about that part of the message? It was hardly anything to do with the event at hand, and yet she still proceeded to pick the notebook from the ground once more and scanned the findings log with great speed.

“There… it was just written down this morning.” she said, pointing with her hooves to the report, basically shoving it into Spike’s claws, before she proceeded to the unconscious Hunter’s rucksack and began to rummage through the few amount of items that he had on them.

Spike peered down at the note, still confused, and reread the words that just a few moments ago made his blood run cold. He tried to look past the part of his friend being kidnapped to a group of bloodthirsty murderers and saw what Sweetie said was true, still not answering any questions nevertheless, but it was true.

Sprawled in messy handwriting, in the latest entry of the log, right next to the part about Rarity, showed the words:

Scavenged a small piece of weaponry in from a dead Diamond Dog this morning, at least he was dead when we were finished with him. Could be worth something, it is specifically designed for non-ponies, or creatures with fingers.

This may had been true and all, but it still didn’t answer why Sweetie had chosen to concern herself with it, and why was she rummaging through this guys stuff to find this ‘piece of weaponry’.

“Sweetie, why are yo-”

“I found it!” she declared, interrupting Spike and dragging a small wooden box out from the Hunters bag. “I think this is the package this guy was writing about.”

“That’s great Sweetie, but what does this have to do with Rarity?”

“Look, the note said it was from a Diamond Dog…” she pointed at the note, still in Spike’s claws. “ It said it was made for creatures with fingers! That’s you Spike! Maybe you could use it somehow…”

She handed Spike the box and gestured for him to open it, curious into what this weapon may be, but Spike just stood there still, concerned into why Sweetie was doing this.

“Sweetie, I-”

“Spike…” she interrupted once more, except it felt different this time, like she was out of this trance and instead was looking at Spike with pleading eyes, making Spike feel more concerned. “Please…”

It was then when things began to feel clearer to Spike now.

This may had been nothing to do with helping Rarity and figuring out this whole situation, but it didn’t mean she was ignoring it. This Hunter wasn’t awake yet, and that meant nothing could continue with solving this issue until he was. He knew all the answers, and all the leads that they had to go on, but until then, they were hopeless and had nothing to do until then, which was why Sweetie proceeded to occupy herself with this mystery package they had acquired.

If she didn’t do this, then they would only have the next couple of moments thinking, thinking of what Rarity was doing right now, if she was hurt or worse, to the point where she would just stress out on the fate of her sister, meaning she was only doing this to change the subject for just a little while, to occupy her mind on this particular subject until she had to go back to the harsh reality they were in, when this interrogation against the Hunter that laid before them began. Right now Sweetie was just asking for him to help for those few moments, so she wouldn’t have to stress herself out in silence in that interval of time.

Spike decided that she needed this, and it was better letting her feel less troubled before the work really began, when the Hunter woke up.

“Sure Sweetie,” he understood, opening the box. “Maybe I could use whatever is in here…”

Although whatever was in there wasn’t of genuine concern to him a moment ago, when he opened the box what he found exceeded his expectations a large amount, making the pair let out a gasp in amazement at the item they had found.

It was some kind of revolver, eight slots in the chamber, accompanied with a scuffed holster and a number of bullets able to be used. Like the note said, it was made for creatures with fingers, making a rare weapon in a country of ponies, therefore making hoof guns unable to be used for Spike, up until now being a slight disadvantage for the purple dragon.

“Wow… it’s perfect for you Spike.” Sweetie said, amazed at the peculiar weapon. “Guns aren’t usually found anywhere, and you got one you could actually use…”

This was true. Guns weren’t usually in high supply around here, the ones were found were specifically designed for hooves, not hands, not unlike Rainbow’s crossbow, and were mainly used by earth ponies or pegasi, seeing as unicorns had their horns for protection in that area. But finding a gun like this, a high caliber revolver, built for hands and capable of doing some real damage, it was rare, and made Spike feel lucky he chose to open the box and found this gem.

It looked old, and had been apparently fired a number of times before it was passed to Spike, making him wonder of the previous owners of this gun, and concluding the fact they probably didn’t lose it in the end, but instead it might have been taken from them at the cost of their lives, or perhaps it could have even been used to take their own when the world became too tough in the end. It was impossible to tell what stories this revolver had, but it didn’t matter now, it was his.

He clipped the holster around his waist, and for a moment, held the revolver in his hand, admiring the chrome surface and the designs engraved along the barrel, probably carved into it by a previous owner, before holstering it. His personal machete accompanied by his fire breath served as a deadly combination, but mainly for close quarters only, but now, he had this, a gun specifically for him, able to take out enemies from further away now.

It served the Diamond Dog well, but now, this was Spike’s revolver, and it could possibly even save his life one day.

“Hey… that’s my loot…”

It was clear that wasn’t Sweetie’s voice he was hearing behind him. It was rough, almost like he had gravel caught in his throat, but even so it was hard not hearing the fear in his voice when he said it, no matter how tough he was trying to sound.

The pair turned and saw what they expected. The stranger was awake, trying with all his might to free himself from the chains wrapped around his hooves when discovering them, but with no avail. He was clearly not going anywhere, but it didn’t stop him from trying with a panicked expression on his face, making himself look like not a smart pony, but a restless one nonetheless.

Spike looked at Sweetie and was surprised at the calm expression on her face, he was expecting her to lash out at him the first opportunity she could, a temptation that Spike himself was restraining himself against. Instead, her eyes just gazed at the struggling pony, her eyes piercing like daggers at his every movement, bringing Spike some solace that it was making the Hunter all the more afraid. Her face may have been calm, tired even, but her eyes told a different story when Spike expected, inside she was on fire, furious at this creature and all the acts he must have done in the past.

Both of them didn’t know whether or not this pony had any involvement with Rarity being captured, but Spike knew this wasn’t going to stop Sweetie from letting out that anger on him, and if Spike knew better, he would let her, otherwise he would be purely a deer in headlights if he interfered.

If it was any consolation, he probably deserved it, and Spike himself was feeling the same way as Sweetie.

“My friends…” the stranger cried out, finally giving up on the chains after several attempts of freeing himself. “My friends will come looking for me… they’re nearby, just let me out of here!”

The interrogation had begun by the looks of it. Spike may have not had much experience in this area, but even he knew the best course of action was to show no weakness and make this pony afraid above all else. That would be how they would get the information they want.

Quickly, he went right up into the scared ponies face, startling him while doing so at the look of a full grown dragon in front of him, and lied. “Yeah, I met your friends. They didn’t take long to fall, and if it makes it easier on us, now nopony knows you are here.”

He gave a dominant smirk at that lie, but inside he was praying he would fall for the trick, and he that he would be under the assumption that he was facing some dangerous adversaries right now, perhaps he was, but the look on his face by that comment gave Spike all the answer he needed.

“You’re… you’re lying…” he trembled. “What do you want from me? You took all my loot, just please, let me go!”

It was Sweetie’s turn to speak at that last comment, and the emotionless gaze she once had was replaced with a furious stare when she joined Spike beside him, close into the ponies scared eyes.

“You know about the Hunters, and we want answers about where your group is set up. Got it?”

“Hunters? I… I don’t know what you’re-”. That answer was quickly interrupted by a swift strike with Sweetie’s hoof, followed by a wince of pain, an uncomfortable bruise on the stranger’s face, and a look of astonishment from Spike at the sudden outburst he was beaten to.

“Ahh.. you bitch… you’ll pay for that…” he cried, although threats from him were seeming a bit unintimidating at that point, based on his current situation. “Okay, okay, I know about the Hunters.”

“Next time the hit’s coming from my claw, and I’ll bet it’ll a lot worse than from a ponies.” Spike warned, making sure this pony had the idea across. “Now, tell us about the Hunters. Who are you ponies?”

“We’re… we’re survivors… just like you.”

Spike grimaced at that point; they weren’t survivors, they were murderers, taking down innocent ponies who had just as much of a right to survive as they did, all for the benefits of their own, perhaps even just to spread fear rather than gaining loot.

The stranger continued. “We used to be in small numbers, just taking what we could to make it through each day, but then it changed one day, this pony, and her friend, found my group one day, told us that we would survive if we kneeled to her, and followed her rules. My friend suggested that this had to be some kind of trick, and decided that it was pretty dumb for two ponies to come here alone looking for slaves; except she wasn’t alone. When he reached for his weapon, a bolt of magic shot through his head, killing him stone dead with no reaction from this strangers while we were freaking out.”

Spike was still trying to remain tough and brutal against his prisoner, but even the thought of killing a pony with little hesitation, or even a strong facial expression, gave the pair chills up their spines.

“The bolt of magic came from a vantage point up in the trees. I guess they had us pegged the moment they saw us, and when their cover was blown, that’s when their other ‘soldiers’ emerged from hiding. Looking back on it now, I guess this was bosses method of recruiting, gaining numbers one by one, group by group until we had a full blown operation taken care of. I figured these ponies reinforcements were just like me, just another group brought in by fear until made loyal to her. At first, we felt like hostages, but soon, life became easier. Supplies were easier to find thanks to the bigger numbers, and no group ever crossed us because they were too afraid to take us on. Couldn’t take any chances though.” He smirked at that last remark, angering Spike.

“So you just joined this group just like that? Even though they just killed your friend in front of you?” Sweetie asked, silently judging the pony more and more.

“Whatever. I’m set up in a pretty good gig now, something that wouldn’t have ever been formed without boss, you know how bandit groups are, can’t trust each other let alone other clans…” The stranger responded irritably, with no regret. “If he had to die to make it happen, then I woulda put his ass into the ground myself to make it possible.”

Spike couldn’t help but feel slightly afraid of what these ponies were capable of, from the information he was hearing about them. This leader of theirs, she was smart apparently, making her more dangerous, and with the power to band even bandit groups together, it gave the strong leaders a strong army at their disposal, spreading fear across the land to make them feared and therefore untouchable, planting the idea in ponies minds that walkers aren’t the only thing to be afraid of, and ponies should run and hide when they see the ponies wearing black, making them practically invincible.

It was genius. Horrifying, but genius nevertheless as much as it pained Spike to think that way. This group meant business, building a name for themselves to make them the alpha dogs in this wasteland, through fear, inside the group and out.

However one thought kept creeping into Spike’s mind when hearing these words; the group operates in surviving by spreading fear to ponies so they wouldn’t dare attacking, giving them the opportunity to strike them down easily, but it wasn’t just for ponies outside the group it seemed, the fear that controlled the Hunters ran inside the group too as it seemed. The leaders used fear to recruit soldiers to their army, and using that fear further to mold them into the perfect killers, loyal to their cause completely because they would be either to afraid to take on their superiors, risking everything if they would fail, therefore giving these so called leaders complete control, not having proper comrades to run their camps like at home, but instead having pawns, following orders to the tee in fear of consequences.

But who were these leaders? How can they know so much to manipulate ponies to follow them?

Spike was about to ask when Sweetie beat him to speaking first. “You aren’t survivors like us… you’re animals. Killing innocent ponies for your own selfish reasons…” she blurted out.

The stranger gave a mocking sneer. “It’s just part of the job, and besides, if you could see some of the ponies we deal with, sniveling over their friends corpses rather than running away, then you would think the same. I’m just letting the weak ones die already so they don’t do it themselves, getting loot as a reward. I’m paying them a service.”

That final impossible comment was too much for Sweetie. She charged her hoof down the strangers head, allowing a small trickle of blood to flow down past his hairline, and a yelp of pain coming from the stranger.

“You dumb bitch! I’ll fucking cut you when I get out of here!” The stranger tried with all his might to free himself to attack Sweetie, and only when his back hoof managed to reach her almost by a hair, did Spike grab the pony’s throat as if he had just gave her a fatal wound.

“You don’t touch her, EVER. You got that?” he barked, his grip tightening and the pony gasping for air more and more, trying to reach his trapped hooves on the dragons claws to free himself, with no avail.

“F-f-fuck...y-you..” he wheezed with little breathes, earning a firm strike from Spikes fist, pushing him into the wall at full force, and looking so much more painful than any strike Sweetie ever gave, giving the pony a black eye as well as a few scratches while he regained his air against the wall, an even more scared face practically carved into him at this moment.

“I’m saying it again.” Spike raged a second time. “You don’t touch her, EVER. You got that?”. This time being much more convincing at threatening him, seeing as he practically cowered from Spike at the mere sight of him. “Now, answer any question she might have.”

He turned over to Sweetie and gave her a nod, indicating for her to go on. For a second, she couldn’t think of anything after the event that just transpired, but soon, she had her question.

“Where are you taking your prisoners?” she ordered at the pony, only to receive an angered stare in response.

“If you think you can just break into our camp, and took whoever pony we took, I can tell you now it’s a suicide mission. And besides, prisoners don’t last long anyway. Accept the loss and move on.”

That statement made Sweetie feel less strong, and couldn’t help but look less intimidating to their captive, but it only made Spike more fierce, the message to him being that time was against them, so they needed to move fast.

“She didn’t ask for a lecture, she asked where you are keeping the prisoners.” he thundered to him, almost raising his claw for another attack, debating whether this time it would be the final one to give him a concussion already. “Now, tell us where you took Rarity. The purple maned pony you wrote in your log.”

The pony looked afraid now, seeing now that this pair was serious about a rescue mission, and that meant giving up vital information. Information that would give severe consequences if caught. “Boss is gonna kill me… Please… I can’t say…”

“Tell us now! We’ll make it far worse a punishment than who this boss pony would if you don’t!” Sweetie threatened, her strength regaining thanks to Spike, with her horn ready to send a charge.
The pony now looked scared of the both of them now, and possibly was thinking of what could happen to him now whether or not he gave up this information, from what Spike observed. With a final sigh of desperation and possibly a small uttering of the words under his breath, “I doubt it.” he finally confessed.

“The hospital. We took it over a few weeks back and fortified it ever since. We hold the prisoners in the lower basement.” he confessed, his lips trembling at the thought of the information he had just released. “You can’t get in. Don’t bother trying.”

The pair didn’t bother listening at the warning that had just been told to them, Rarity had to be saved from these ponies, and they had been all the more convinced now from what they heard these ponies as well as their leaders were capable of. That surpassed any warnings or any threats given to them on the obvious impossibility of this mission, however clear it was for the both of them.

It seemed like that was all the information they needed right now, and even if they could have been more questions that could have been asked, knowing that they were on a race against time meant they couldn’t just wait around asking questions. It was time for a plan.

That being said, there was one more question that Sweetie just had to know the answer to, even though she she terrified that she already knew the answer.

“One last question.” She said, not in an angry way, or even demanding way, but with a blank expression that even so made the pony afraid of saying anything other than the truth. “Why do you take prisoners?”

Like said, the Hunter couldn’t tear himself away from the although the blank and cold expression on her face, her eyes screamed fury, and that meant he had to be clear with this one, no use of telling a lie to spare himself a beating, any attempt with that could possibly backfire horribly.

“We.. we don’t usually take prisoners. We.. usually kill them for their loot with no other purpose.” He expected a harsh response to that, only for the expression unchanging. “The ones we do take, they are usually for the labor we don’t give the time for, and they don’t last long anyway… but some of them… some mares we find… the ones who aren’t too broken about their appearance yet…”

That was when Sweetie gave a response to that, standing up with her eyes widening. “What…?”

“A pony’s gotta have a hobby, right?” he whimpered with a nervous smile.

That answer was what Sweetie was expecting to her fear, but even so things just felt too real at that point and the fact that this pony felt so at ease with that idea, as well as all the other countless atrocities he and this group were okay with, gave her so much anger that her horn began to charge in power as each second of realization went by.

She had so much anger towards this pony, as well as everything he stood for, and remembering that just moments ago this pony had almost killed Spike made her horn grow brighter in energy all the faster, seconds away from giving a devastating blow.

She closed her eyes, ready for the inevitable, angry tears pouring down her face, when suddenly a large crack of sound echoed throughout the room, the sound of the shot ringing in her ears.

She opened her eyes and saw the Hunter, a wound through his head and lying dead on the ground, a pool of blood forming on the ground below him. Except she had never fired her horn.

A moment of confusion at what just happened was followed by a quick realization as the ringing began to wear down. She turned and saw Spike; the revolver in his hand with a faint trace of smoke coming from the end. He had beat her into ending it, making her think that he too wasn’t taking all this information about Rarity lightly, he was just better at hiding his fear than she was.

After a few seconds of what happened, Spike finally lowered his gun, and slowly placed it back into his holster, aware now that this was the first time he had killed a living pony, a bad pony, but even so it felt so intense at that point, and he was sure he wasn’t going to forget it, even though at the start he was sure this was probably going to be the hostages fate from the moment he tied him up.

This may had been the first thing he had killed that wasn’t a walker, but now because of the mission they had before them, it seemed like it wouldn’t be the last one if things went wrong, as they usually did.

The mission. It dawned on him once more of what was going to happen, and how it had to be soon if they wanted to have any chance of saving Rarity, and although this task they had set towards them was clearly dangerous, with little chance of succeeding, being completely a crazy thing to even consider that could get them all killed, they still had to do it.

Spike promised from the start he would do all he could to hold on to whatever he had left.

He made a look of determination to Sweetie which was soon mirrored from her, knowing what he was thinking and said,

“Okay, I’ve got a plan…”

Author's Note

Badass Spike is Badass.
And is probably going to be doing a lot more badass things as we go on. So yeah. Probably should have just ended with that... *cough*

Anyway, so Spike has a new weapon now, as well as his personal machete! making him look a lot cooler now, seeing as he has an awesome machete and revolver now, doubled by the fact that HE'S A DRAGON. It's like every child's drawing they make when at preschool when told to draw their house (just me? okay..)
If you have trouble envisioning what Spike's revolver actually looks like due to my poor descriptive skills, then just think of like Rick Grimes awesome cop revolver that he like always has on him, expect with some awesome Celtic designs carved into the already scratched silver, making it look more like it had previous owners, with other stories to tell when owning this revolver, before they ultimately died.

Moving on, so next chapter they are devising a plan to break into Hunter HQ (aka the fortified ruins of the hospital, don't worry we aren't calling it Hunter HQ) and to save Rarity before ITS TOO LATE... all the while having numerous questions in your head like "Where's Rainbow and Applebloom?" "Who are the leaders of the Hunters?" and "Will Spike and Sweetie do more badass stuff?"

Till next time, bye!!