Garry's Mod Vs. Equestria 2: War in the North

I looped the rope around her hoof and the wooden beam, doubling it before tying it off. "Did you know, in the old days, there were professional torturers? Lords and dukes, and even kings sometimes, used to hire them to get information out of people. Torturers were generally shunned by the public, of course... But they were practically worshiped by the royalty of the land! They were treated better than the castle staff most of the time!"

I pulled the rope as tight as I could around the crossbeam, making it creak from the stress. "They used all kinds of fun things. Knifes, hammers, pliers, pins, needles, fire, boiling oil... the list just goes on and on. When I was a kid I read about a man that made a bull of bronze; he called it the Brazen Bull. What happened was they would open the side and put somebody in there, then light a fire beneath it. After a while it would boil the one inside alive, and the steam would come out of the nose and it would sound like the roaring of a bull--hence its name. But I always thought that was a bit too flashy, honestly... I always liked the up close and personal way of doing things. Y'know, flaying, skinning, pulling out the organs... stuff like that."

I spread her back legs and tied the hooves to their respective boards. "Although... because I like you--and I do--I think I'm going to do something special for you. No... no run-of-the-mill, slice n' dice for you. I'm going to make this fun. I'm going to make this enjoyable. You're going to love this, I swear. Well... probably not... but I will! And like I always say: I had fun, and that's all that matters."

I rung the rope around the knob on the back and pulled it as tight as I could. I tied it off and triple knotted it just to make sure it would hold. Because if the rope was even a little bit loose she would get away. And if she got away... there wouldn't be any fun to be had.

I looked at the curved, red object in my hand and twirled it slowly. I looked away from it, beaming at the mare. "So... where should we start?"

The mare whimpered. Tears leaked from her eyes and blood slowly dripped down her face to land on the floor. Her head lilted forward, partially hiding her face from me. "Please... I'm sorry..."

I let out a loud bark of laughter. "No, not yet you aren't. But you will be," I said as I stopped twirling the thing. "Yeah. You will be." The mare, the sole survivor from the failed attack, was completely helpless. While leading her to the small storage shed where I had been mulling things over in prior to the assault she had tried to escape. She tried to blast me with one of those crimson balls of death. Thanks to sheer dumb luck I was able to avoid it and tackle her to the ground. I then tore out her horn. Yep. I grabbed it, gave it a good hard yank, and ripped it right out of her head.

After she was magically disabled I carried her to the shed. Once there I strung her up on a large wooden X, much like Ramsay Snow did to his victims in Game of Thrones. Only... in my own style. Her back legs were... farther apart, than they should be. She was held tight--unable to move in even the slightest way. Not only rope, but shackles and chains held her to the X.

I rolled the curved object in my hand slowly. Her horn. "So... you mentioned Humans just before I killed your friend," I started, looming over her darkly. "Tell me. How do you know what Humans are?"

She didn't answer. She only continued to whimper and bleed from the large hole in her forehead.

I sighed. "This could be over so quickly if you'd cooperate, you know," I tried. "Just tell me what I want to know and I won't have to hurt you any more."

She sniffed back a sob. "You said... you wouldn't... hurt me..." She lifted her head slightly to look at me. Her eyes were brimmed with tears, red and swollen. Her lips trembled from pain and fear. Blood streamed down her forehead and mixed with her tears once past her eyes. "You... You said-"

I shushed her. "Now, now. I don't remember ever saying such a thing. Of course, I'm sure that you trying to kill me didn't help my memory very much..." I trailed off, looking away and frowning. I smiled again, looking at her from the corner of my eye. "But I do remember one thing," I said. I turned back and looked deeply into her eyes. "I remember hearing you say something about Humans. Now, what was it you said?" I asked her.

She let out a strangled whine. "Humans... You're dangerous. And you can't be trusted."

I let out an "Ah!" of enlightenment. "Yes, I think that was about right," I said, patting her on the head for being such a good girl. She yelped from the pain, and I laughed. "Now, how is it you know about Humans? Was there a settlement of them nearby? Or did they come from another land?"

She said nothing.

I felt my smile die. "TELL ME!" I screamed, lunging forward and stabbing her severed horn into her leg, right in the soft spot where the hoof connects. "FUCKING TELL ME!!!"

She wailed in pain and thrashed her head around. Doing so flung the blood from her forehead everywhere, including on me. "The mountains!" she screamed at me. "They were in the mountains!"

I let my smile return as I pulled the horn from her leg. "The mountains, huh?"

She nodded, more blood and tears falling from her.

I tapped the tip of her horn against my chin. "So... where in the mountains exactly?" I asked. "Did they live on the mountains? Or were they actually in the mountains? Did they farm? Or raise animals? Were they advanced, or primitive?"

The mare was openly sobbing now. "Raiders," she croaked out. "They were raiders. Murderers and slavers and rapists." She managed the strength to spit at my feet. "They were scum. All of them. They deserved what they got..."

I dropped my smile. "What happened to them?"

She looked up at me. There was a mixture of anger and sadness in her eyes. "Umbra did," she spat. "We were tired of them killing our warriors and taking our mares and fillies." She dropped her head down again to stare at the pool of blood beneath her. "Umbra saved us..."

I noticed that she said the last part more to herself than to me. "How?" I asked.

She shook her head, whimpering once more.

I frowned. "The others like you. A stallion I met when I first came here, and a younger mare in that monster... They didn't know what I am." I reached out and grabbed her by the chin, making her look at me. "Why is it they didn't know what I am, but you do?"

She was breathing very shallow. "It was a long time ago. Barely anypony even remembers the stories... let alone what actually happened." Her eyes closed and her breathing slowed. She was passing out.

I shook her face, still holding it. "Did they have a portal?!" I demanded.

She looked at me in confusion. "A... portal? A portal to what?" She sounded as if she were slipping.

I shook her again, more violently this time. "Did they have one?! Answer me!" I yelled in her face. "A portal! It would have been a red swirling one! Different shades?!" I shook her again. "Did they have one?!"

Her eyes were unfocused as they roamed around the room. A dumb, uncomprehending look was dominating her features. "Why is it so cold?" she asked the air.

I released my hold on her face. I heard myself growling in anger. My hand curled into a first, my knuckles cracking. "You worthless bitch," I snarled. I could feel my hand shaking from anger. "You worthless, stupid fucking cunt!" I pulled my hand back and launched my fist into her face, slamming into her cheek and snapping her head to the right. I swung again with my other fist and knocked her head to the left. "You worthless, lying bitch!" I roared as I slammed my right fist square into her muzzle, forcing her head straight back.

I felt the feeling leave my body. I felt myself slipping. I couldn't stop.

I opened my eyes. Confusion swept over me as I did so. Directly in front of me, right in front of my face, was a plain white wooden door. Looking around me, I could see absolutely nothing.

I looked at the door. My hand was on the brass knob. I briefly wondered why I was here and what the door was. As far as I could tell, there was nothing behind it when I looked around the side. But even still, I had the strange compulsion to open it. To throw it open and dive head first into whatever was behind it.

Go on. Do it~

My hand moved by itself. Or maybe I moved it and didn't notice? Whatever the case, I turned the knob. I looked at the small brass globe. Small, round, and finely made. My hand seemed to be glued to it. The thought of letting go seemed... unwise. I felt cold; my skin was prickling painfully and my throat felt tight. I turned a little more and the lock clicked. The door was open.

Open it.

My head was cold, but my body was hot. Itchy. Uncomfortable. My skin felt like a thousand tiny needles was piercing me all at once, over and over again. Only my hand felt fine. My hand that was pulling the door open.

I could see a sliver of darkness. Tendrils of black smoke. Pulsing black light.

More...

My body trembled and my skin crawled. My hair stood on end. I fought the burning in my gut and pulled the door further.

I heard voices. Tens of thousands of voices, all calling for help. Manic laughter of a crazed mare. Screaming. Drums... Drums of war. Chains clanking and stones breaking. The crying of a grieving mother and the curses of an angry father.

A little more... You can do it~

All I could feel was ice in my mind and molten fire in my body. My skin was gone; my hair had been burned off. All of my flesh was exposed and rotting away. My bones were broken. But still, my hand that lay upon the brass doorknob was fine. With a quick prayer and the hope for an end, I opened the door completely.

Nothing. Nothing was there. Not that there wasn't anything there. There was something there. And that something... was... nothing. All of the nothing that ever existed, and ever will exist was beyond the doorway. It was terrifying; like looking into oblivion and death and life itself all at once.

Come in...

I walked forward. I wanted the nothing. I wanted to be nothing. I needed it.

I stepped into the door... and it was over. I couldn't feel anything. The fire was gone. The ice was gone. The needles were gone. The darkness, the light, the life, the death, the pain, the joy... everything... was gone.

I didn't have a headache any more.

I sucked in a huge breath and released it in a bestial howl loud enough to rattle the cups on the counter and make the floor vibrate as an enormous wave of ecstasy crashed over me like a monsoon. As the roar subsided I bent down low and clamped my teeth onto the back of her neck. I bit down hard enough to slice right through the skin. My teeth cut right through the thin flesh and bit into the spine. I held her by the neck with my teeth, her flanks in either hand pressed hard against me. I held that position, only moving to grind my hips forward every few seconds, in time with each explosion of pleasure that rocked me. Minutes passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.

It wasn't until nearly an hour passed that the feeling was gone. Once the feeling was gone I had no use for the body.

The body... I released my grip on her neck to look down at her. It was an appetizing sight. Her front legs were gone--still attached to the wooden X, with the bones sticking out and arteries and smaller veins idly dripping dark blood down the boards. Her large intestine was wrapped around her neck extremely tightly, just above were I bit through; the intestine was ripped from her midriff--which wasn't there any more. From her chest down was just a mangled, bloody mess. The organs and cords sagged from the body to the floor. Moving up again, her muzzle wasn't there. Just a semi-flat surface that showed bone and cartilage through the ripped fur and torn flesh. An obscene amount of blood--and another fluid--covered every inch of the floor, her body, and me from the stomach down, as well as blood on my face, hands and lower arms.

I relaxed and let the body thud wetly to the floor. My skin prickled painfully as the colors of the world dulled and the sounds were muffled. I rolled my shoulders and winced as the jointed creaked and groaned. "What the hell happened?" I asked aloud as the fog clear from my mind. I rubbed my head with my hand as I caught my breath. That's when I recoiled from the warm wetness of something on my hand touching me.

"The hell...?" I wondered aloud as I brought my hand around to look at it. I saw it was dripping dark blood. My breathing stopped. My eyes went wide. Slowly, I looked down and around. I saw the body first. Then I saw that blood was covering the entire floor. I saw the... uhm... "other stuff"... last.

I shook my head. "Good God," I mumbled to myself. "What happened here?" I was studying the body when I heard a scream come from outside, in the courtyard. I turned quickly and strode to the door, pushing it open as I reached it. The first thing I saw was the enormous black cloud hanging in the sky, reaching as far as I could see in every direction. The next thing I saw was the burning buildings.

Almost every building within the walls was on fire. Some of them were cracked open with huge holes.

I stepped outside and instead of feeling the biting frozen air I felt the beating heat of the fires. I heard more screams. But not only screams; I heard someone shouting. If I didn't know any better, I'd have sworn it said "Kill them!"

I summoned my sword and buckler as I jogged toward the gate--where the screaming and shouting was coming from. As I approached a new sound was heard: the clashing of swords. Metal on metal rang out across the burning field, and the screams turned into cries of battle. I passed the last burning building--a half destroyed barrack--to come out into the open field. They were there. No less than twenty grey ponies, clad in armor. They were all either wielding weapons in their crimson magical auras or shooting spells at the crystal ponies, who could barely fend them off.

I stuck my sword in the ground and summoned a dagger in my right hand. "Hey evil people!" I yelled at the grey ponies.

Several of them looked at me. They looked somewhat confused.

I reeled back my arm and hurled the dagger at the nearest one. There was a quick and loud shriek of metal piercing metal as it punch through the stallion's helmet just to the left of his horn. "Fuck you!"

The ones that were watching gasped. One even shouted a swear word I was familiar with. Then there was a voice in the air, smoother than silk, and more burning than ice. "Bring him to me." The grey ponies all looked at me, readied their weapons, and charged.

I drew my sword from the ground and slowly advanced to meet them. "I will not be beaten by you," I growled into the burning air. "You won't stop me from getting to Celestia." I spun my sword in my hand and held it in a readied position. "You will not rob me of my revenge." I brought my shield up to protect my torso. "You will NOT stop me from killing that stupid! Ugly! Whore!"

They let out a fierce battle cry as they made to attack me all at once.

I scowled at the group of them as I stopped my advance to let them cover the last few yards. When the first one was within reach, I made my move. I twisted my wrist to angle my broadsword just right. Then, in the same motion, I flicked my arm to the side. The pony was dead before she even knew it. Before the mare's body hit the ground I swung again. I brought my broadsword down the the head of another mare, cleaving it vertically in two. "None of you will stop me!" I bellowed, ramming my shield into the face of a stallion. It dazed him long enough for me to run another grey pony through, then stab my sword through his throat downward into his chest cavity. I leaned into his terrified face and screamed, "Get out of my way!" in a frenzied voice.

He looked me in the eyes as blood gurgled up and spilled from his mouth. "It... hurts," he murmured through the blood.

I pulled my sword free and kicked his body into two grey ponies behind him, roaring like a wild animal the whole time. I felt a stab of pain in my side, and, looking down, I saw a mare withdrawing a dagger from me. "I'll murder your face!" Then I did. I plunged my sword down through the top of her head, hilting it, then pulled it free. Dark blood trailed from the blade as I did so, splattering it on the face of a stallion charging a spell. The blood got in his eye, and he lost concentration, and the spell died. "Magic is hax! Fuck off!" I swung my sword diagonally and severed his head. I blocked a sword with my shield, using the opening to arc my sword upward from below my shield. My sword went into the stallion's lower jaw and out through the top of his head.

Another lance of pain went through me again. A burning agony from my back. "Take that!" a male voice jeered.

I turned around, already swinging my sword. There was a moment of resistance, then I saw a stallion's head fly from a body. Blood spurted from the large veins in his neck, spraying me with thick, dark blood.

Another stabbing pain in my side. "Die you monster! Die Die Die Die!" A young voice. Female. With every "Die!" another stab in my side.

I roared like the monster she believed I was. With adrenaline fueled strength, I spun back around and slammed the metal-rimmed edge of my buckler into the side of her head. There was a crunch and she fell over, a large area of her head now caved in. "Fuck off!" I swore as I brought my sword down on another stallion and wedged it in his skull. Pulling it free, I made another swipe with my sword, and another was dead, her throat cut deeply. Another lunge ran my blade through a stallion's chest. A heavy overhead cleave chopped another stallion in half down to the shoulders. With every movement I made I ended a life. But not without a cost. No matter how quick I was, no matter how safe I thought I was, I took hits. A cut here, and a stab there. Small wounds that added up over the course of the battle. It was only a matter of time before I took a fatal blow.

Nearly all of them were dead now. Less than half of them remained. I clanged my sword against the side of my shield and bellowed a challenge to the attackers. I stomped on the ground and pounded on my chest. "Come on! Kill me! Kill me!"

All of them rushed forward at once. Spells shooting at me and blades stabbing and slashing for my heart.

The first spell missed by inches. The second spell was batted away with my shield in a backhand, sent flying into the castle wall to explode in a hail of fire and shattered stone. I swung left and right and left again. I stabbed and slashed. But even as versed in murder as I was, I couldn't kill them all. I sent a mare's head flying from her shoulders, following up with a stab to a stallion's throat. But that left me open. As my blade pierced flesh, a screaming pain entered my stomach. I looked down to see the tip of a sword poking from my gut. A second later it was pulled back out from behind.

The world around me started tilting and I fell to my knees. My broadsword was knocked away from me before I could defend myself. This didn't feel right. When I died the first time I was here it was like blinking. I closed my eyes, opened them, then I was alive again. This... This was painful. Slow. I felt... cold. I tried to force myself to respawn, but it wasn't working. Nothing was working.

I felt my breathing come slower. The pain in my stomach lessened. Everything slowed down. I could barely feel the heat of the fire any more. I couldn't smell the blood. I wondered why I wasn't dead yet. Maybe they were debating on who should be the one to kill me? Ah, it didn't matter... Not really... Nothing really mattered any more...

But I haven't killed Celestia yet... That mattered. That's all that mattered. "Celestia..." I tried to move. "Celestia..." I began to lift myself off the ground.

"Get back down!" a rough voice blared in my face.

I was pushed back to my knees by a large hoof. I nearly fell on my side from the force put into it, but the hoof remained on my shoulder to keep my where I was. "Get off me... you... fucker..." I tried to shove the hoof off but received a hard smack to the side of the head for my efforts. I was just about to try again when I heard hooves approaching. I looked towards the approaching sound, and my eyes went wide. Striding towards me, hips swaying, obscenely curvy body lithe and luscious, was a mare like no other I've seen before. She stood taller than any mare there--and stallion too. Her fur was dark grey like water polished stone; her hair was like black, flowing silk that gleamed like polished metal; her body was like no other I've ever seen, smooth and soft and full and curvy and all those things and everything else. But it was her eyes that would seal me away. No white, only a livid, bright green; the irises were a bloody red, rimmed with orange like fire. They were like pools of pure soul and energy. Life in its purest form.

A throat cleared.

I blinked, realizing I had been staring open-mouthed at her for nearly a full minute.

She smiled at me, showing off her large pointed teeth. "You've caused me quite a bit of trouble," she purred, sending shivers down my spine. "This could have gone so much smoother if you had just let me take over from the beginning you know." She looked me up and down slowly, making me squirm uncomfortably under her gaze. "It's been a long time since I've seen a Human. Are you from Bleeding Rock?"

At my silence and dumb stare she continued. "I suppose not... But that leaves me curious. Where did you come from, Human?"

I moved my mouth, but no words came out.

She smiled a little wider at this. "What's the matter? Stage fright?" she teased. She chuckled to herself, her eyes going half-lidded. "It's been a long time since I've seen a Human in battle. I'd forgotten just how lethal your kind are, even against my best soldiers." She hummed to herself as she studied me. This lasted several minutes before she spoke again. "I think killing you would be a terrible waste of potential for the future... But at the same time, I don't think I can trust you to behave yourself. So... what shall I do with you?" She took a few steps closer and leaned closer to my face. "I know what you want, Human. I've seen your mind and your heart." She smiled, just a tiny bit wider. "What would you say if I told you I could help you?"

I blinked. She can... help me? Help me how?

She chuckled as she pulled back. "I can get you to Canterlot, and I can deliver Celestia to you on her knees." She closed her eyes and sighed wistfully, as if the mental image pleased her greatly. She opened her eyes again to resume staring into my own eyes. "All you have to do is pledge yourself to me, body and soul. Surrender yourself to me and I'll fulfill your every desire. You can be a king, or the richest being on the planet! You can do anything you want, whenever you want! The world can you yours!" She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, her breath washing over me. It smelled like lust and desire. "So... what do you say?"

I blinked up at her. "I have the weirdest boner."

She spluttered in a very undignified way, her saucy smile disappearing and a shocked expression replacing it. "Excuse me?!" she gasped, a large crimson blush spreading over her face.

A hoof crashed into the side of my head painfully and everything went dark.