The Harvestersby Master_OvanChaptersPrologueChapter 1: Carving a PathChapter 2: Her First HarvestChapter 3: A Shot of LifeChapter 4: Happy DaysPrologueThe Harvesters By: Master_Ovan Unicorn magic is not, and has never been, one dimensional. There are types of magic out there that would cause your jaw to drop in wonder, or maybe even force you to cower under your bed like a young filly. Some unicorns are gifted with a special type of magic, and sometimes it is completely irrelevant to their “special talent.” However, using this new found magic, they can pave a new path for themselves, changing their destiny and forever altering the life they have been living. It all began on a cold night in the middle of the fall season. The moon was high in the sky and there was a gentle wind blowing through the town of Ponyville, carrying with it a soft lullaby through the bare branches of the trees. Rarity had been sitting up at her desk working on a new dress design that would hopefully save her business. Her boutique was in danger of failing; she hardly got any customers anymore and could barely pay all the bills that had piled up like a mountain on her table. She needed more money and fast; she had a little sister to take care of, and a reputation to uphold. It was about half past midnight when Rarity decided she was going to call it a day and head up to bed; she was getting nowhere on the design and just couldn’t stand to stare at those pieces of paper any longer. She arose from the char and made her way to the winding stairway, the portal to her sleeping quarters. She was about halfway up the stairs to her bedroom when suddenly Rainbow Dash frantically burst through the front door panicking and gasping for air. Rarity froze for a second from the unexpected shock of the pegasus’ rude entrance, and then ran downstairs to see what was the matter. Rainbow was holding the body of an incapacitated white unicorn stallion in her arms, blood was dripping from a large gash on his side and pooling in a little puddle of gore on the floor of the boutique. The cut was deep enough that they could see part of the inner workings of the unicorn’s body, it wasn’t a pleasant sight for either of them. “Rarity, you have to help this guy, I found him like this while I was on my night time flight around the town! The hospital is too far away and he’s fading fast! I would have taken him to Twilight but she’s out of town on business and you’re the only other unicorn I know. You have to do something to help him!” Rainbow cried out, almost crying from the shock of having a dying stallion in her arms. “Well, what in the name of Celestia do you expect me to do?” Rarity replied. “I don’t know! You’re a unicorn, use your magic to heal him or something! You can’t just let him die, you have to do something!” Rarity was disgusted by the blood, but in the moment all she could worry about was the unicorn stallion that was swiftly losing his life in Rainbow’s arms. She had to fight every one of her base instincts, but finally she realized she at least had to try to save this stallion’s life. There had to be something she could do. “Quick, put him on that empty table over there. I’ll do what I can, but unicorn magic is very limited in what it can do. I don’t know if I’ll be able to be of any help.” Rainbow gently laid the stallion down on the table and and Rarity walked over to him, examining the deep wound, looking past the skin and muscle to see chipped shards of bone and a ruptured kidney with blood pumping out of it like a fountain. She forced herself to remain calm; she hated blood, or anything that could get her dirty for that matter, but this was something she had to do. She closed her eyes tightly and focused as deeply as she could, channeling all her magic up through her horn. It was then that something strange happened, weather it was from the stress of the situation, or the disparity of her to save the life of another, her horn didn’t glow the ordinary color of blue, but instead it was radiating a dark red. The power was emanating throughout the room, with even more magic flowing through her horn than when Twilight had vanquished the Ursa Minor. They could both feel the immense magical pressure bearing down on them, the feeling was unreal. As Rarity deepened her focus to visualize mending the kidney, repairing the shattered bone, and restoring the muscle tissue; suddenly, the blood stopped pouring from the wound and the soft tissue of the kidney came together and bound itself shut, shards of bone were pulled out of the surrounding flesh and like pieces to a puzzle, were put back into the correct place along the broken bone, that then, miraculously sealed itself, making it whole again and just as strong as it had been before. The muscle tissue inside the wound slowly started to grow and the strands on either side of the wound intertwined and held it together; then, the skin stretched and came together welding itself shut leaving nothing but a faint scratch where the gash had been. Rarity had never felt this sort of power before, she opened her eyes to see the wound completely closed, and she knew that she should not have been able to accomplish such a feat under any circumstance. She knew that the magic she just used was no normal magic, and in that very instant, she became obsessed. Chapter 1: Carving a PathChapter 1 Rarity backed away from the body and Rainbow walked over to inspect him. “Wow, Rarity, you fixed him up good as new!” “Well, it was the least I could do for someone in such bad condition my dear. Why don’t you let me keep him here to rest for awhile. I’m not sure if moving him would be the best way to go about things right now. Oh, and Rainbow, please don’t tell Twilight about this. She would probably be upset if she heard that you took him here instead of to the hospital.” Rarity jested, knowing that Twilight would be furious if she heard that Rarity used some sort of unknown and untested magic on another pony without written permission from Princess Celestia herself. “Yeah, you’re probably right Rarity. You sure you’re gonna be okay keeping this guy here?” “Of course darling, I’ll be perfectly fine.” “Well, see ya later Rarity!” At this time Rainbow dashed out of the house in a puff of rainbow colored smoke. Rarity pulled up a chair and sat beside the handsome stallion waiting for him to come to; she thought it would be only right if she explained to him how she healed him, not knowing weather it would have any side effects or what have you. An hour passed before Rarity fell asleep. ===================================================================== Rarity awoke the next morning and slowly and groggily raised her head off of the wooden table that was still covered in blood from the unicorn stallion that had rested there last night. Her mane and coat were both covered in sticky crimson blood with a metallic smell to it. After realizing this, Rarity began to panic, as being covered in blood was not her usual cup of tea. “AHHHHHHHH! My mane! My coat! My beautiful, beautiful coat! IT’S RUINED!!! Out of all the terrible things that could have happened this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!” After this rather dramatic session of whining she noticed something else that was rather important. As it turns out, the unicorn stallion was no longer on the table, or in the house for that matter. Rarity checked every room in the house, including the closets. She even ran upstairs frantically checking every room! The unicorn stallion was nowhere to be found! After flying around in a blind panic for several minutes more she heard a knock at the door. She quickly pulled herself together and went over to answer it. Swinging the door open she greeted her guest with a kind “Hello,” and then looked him in the eye. It was the unicorn from last night, he was tall, white, and handsome. On his flank he had what appeared to be a briefcase for a cutie mark and he had black hooves. “Hello, madam. I presumed you were the one that saved my life last night so I decided I would run out and get us lunch for when you woke up.” the unicorn said kindly. “Thank Celestia you’re back, you gave me quite a scare disappearing like that! Don’t you know it’s unkind to worry a lady?” “My apologies madam, but I didn’t want to wake you, you must have had a long night and you were sleeping so peacefully. Also, I can’t help but notice you have a lot of blood on you, you might want to go clean yourself up.” “Oh my! I completely forgot! Wait down here while I go wash up, and don’t go wandering off, you hear me!” “Anything for you madam.” the unicorn gave a little wink and went to go sit at a table that was set up in the corner of the room. ===================================================================== Rarity came walking down the stairs with elegance, she was now perfectly clean and groomed. As she entered the first floor she saw that the unicorn had cleaned up all the blood on the floor and the table. “Oh you didn’t have to do all that, I would have gotten to it eventually!” Rarity said in a thankful tone. “It was my pleasure madam. Cleaning up a mess such as this is no job for a lady.” “My, you sure know how to talk to a mare.” Rarity replied bashfully. “It’s how I was raised madam.” “Well, your parents raised you well.” “Funny story about that, I actually raised myself.” The unicorn said with a smile on his face. “Oh... Well that must have been nice.” Rarity replied awkwardly. “By the way, just a small question. How do you keep this place running. It’s past 4:00 PM on a Friday and I haven’t seen a single customer come through that door yet today.” “Well you see, the thing is, erm...” Rarity paused for a moment, “I’m about to go out of business, I haven’t sold more than 3 dresses in the past month. I can barely afford to pay my bills with the money I have left in my savings.” “That’s great! Just as I expected!” “Great!? What do you mean by ‘great’?” “Well you see, I have a job offer for you. I’m a... what would you call it... a... a... a business pony! That’s it, I’m a business pony! Last night I had gotten into quite a tussle with one of my clients and he pulled a blade on me. I thought I was done for but that’s when I saw your friend. She came to pick me up and I believe she brought me to you. Of course, I was unconscious by the time I got here, but seeing as how after such a deep gash I’m left with only a scratch I’m presuming you must have used an ‘exceed’ to heal me.” “An ‘exceed?’” “Oh, you don’t know? Lets start with this: normal unicorn magic can do many things, you can teleport, levitate, use telepathy, conjure things, and many other useful tools; however, you can’t do everything. Now, when every unicorn is born, deep inside their DNA is a powerful magic skill called an exceed. I’m guessing what you used to heal me was your exceed. The funny thing about exceeds is that they hardly have anything to do with a unicorn’s special talent.” “An exceed? So that’s what that power was. Do you have an exceed?” “Why of course I do, I discovered mine when I was just a young colt. I can manipulate shadows into physical forms. It comes in handy when I’m in a bind. So, now that you know about your power, back to the job offer.” “Oh right, I almost forgot about that.” “I’m offering you a chance to make a great living for yourself. The pay is incredible, although some people say the work we do is immoral. I disagree completely though. I think what we do is crucial to the well being of all ponies. What is this job you might ask? Well, to put it plain and simple, I run an organ harvesting rig.” “AN ORGAN HARVESTING RIG!?!?” Rarity yelled out, almost afraid of the unicorn. “That is correct. Please quiet down though, it is a secret operation and we can’t have anyone hearing about it. Before you reject, let me just explain to you what we do. We separate the rig into 2 main groups of people, there are the Hunters, and then there are the Harvesters. The Hunters go out and collect ponies from various places all around Equestria and bring them back to the factory for harvesting. Then the harvesters carefully harvest their non vital organs and then sew the ponies back together. Then the Hunters go and put them back where they found them. The victim of course will have no recollection of the encounter. That is the basic idea of what we do, and I want you to be one of my Harvesters! Your exceed would be a great asset to our team.” “Why in the world would I want to help you harvest organs!?” Rarity asked in a shaky tone. “I have read about you. All the books say that your element of harmony is generosity, am I correct?” “Yes...” “Well, think of it this way. We are taking organs from people that are too selfish and greedy to donate them themselves. We get paid by an anonymous middle man who then sells the organs to the hospital for people who need transplants. We are saving lives! We are the essence of generosity! Just recently we made an amazing breakthrough. As it turns out, any pony with an hourglass, pocket watch, or clock on their flank has TWO hearts! Do you know how many more lives we have saved since then!? Just remember, we don’t kill anyone! We only take non vital organs, and we are saving lives. Oh, and you will make more money than you could ever imagine.” Rarity thought about the proposition for a moment; she couldn’t believe what this unicorn was asking her to do but nevertheless she was considering doing it. The logic behind it was good. They were saving lives by taking something from people who were to greedy to give it up themselves. She was the element of generosity, and now she could use that generosity to save lives. “I’m in. When do I start.” Rarity said to the unicorn. “You can start today if you would like, how about you follow me and come see our workplace.” “That would be lovely, oh, one more thing, what’s your name?” “Oh! I completely forgot to tell you my name, pardon my manners, I am Prestige, Prestige Hoofshire. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The two unicorns then set off. Rarity was about to make a new life for herself, using her new found magic to carve a path in her life, one that would hopefully lead her to happiness. Everything was changing, and it was time to begin The Harvest. Chapter 2: Her First HarvestChapter 2 It was a fifteen minute walk to the outskirts of town. After they reached the town’s edge, Rarity and Prestige continued into a corn field. The wind was blowing softly and in turn the corn was swaying in the breeze. It was a beautiful sight, the golden sun shining down reflecting off of the green stalks and golden tops. After entering the cornfield they came to a small path where the corn was stomped down. “This is the path that leads to our operation. We mainly work at night under the cover of darkness but I guess it’s okay to show you where it is in the daylight.” Prestige said, looking Rarity in the eyes. “Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?” “Why, no, I don’t believe they have.” Rarity blushed, “Thank you, you’re quite handsome yourself.” “Why thank you madam Rarity. Well, shall we continue?” The two unicorns continued walking along the path until they reached a dead end. Prestige knelt down and lifted up a trap door that was hidden under the grass and corn. They continued down the stairs into an underground pathway. The air was damp and musty, the walls were made of red brick and under their feet was a dirt path. Dim lights lined the ceiling of the path way and gave the whole thing an eerie feel. Continuing down the path for about a minute the two unicorns finally came to a doorway. Prestige punched in a pass-code and there was a click from the door unlatching. “1-2-0-6-3-9-1 Remember that.” Prestige said. The door swung open to reveal an awe inspiring sight. Rarity gazed into the wonderful room. It was a large room that resembled a lab. The walls were painted a beautiful white and there was not a spec of dirt anywhere in sight. In the center of the room there were three metal tables where they must harvest the organs. There was a vault in the northeast corner of the room and several other doors lining the walls. “Follow me to your room. Everyone that works here has a room here that they sleep in during the day. You don’t have to stay here; you can stay at your boutique with your sister, but there are some nights that you have to work overtime. Tonight, since it is your first night we ask that you stay here.” “Okay, that’s fine, I just need to go find a sitter for Sweetie Bell. Would you mind if I returned later tonight?” Rarity inquired. “Sure, that is completely fine. Just be sure to be here before 11:00 PM, that’s when your shift starts.” “Not a problem, I’ll be back by then. It was a pleasure meeting you Prestige.” “The pleasure was all mine.” Prestige knelt down and took Rarity’s hoof and kissed it. Rarity blushed with a smile on her face and then proceeded to walk out of the room, down the path, and out into the daylight. ===================================================================== Rarity returned to the cornfield at 10:30 PM. The moon was still low in the sky and there was little light. Rarity was quite scared walking through that cornfield at night, but she knew that she would be safe, it was just a short walk to the trap door. When she got to the trap door she proceeded down, walking the path leading to the large metal gateway to the lab. She punched in the pass-code and opened the door. What she saw gave her a huge shock. “PINKIE!?” Rarity yelled in confusion. “Well hey there Rarity, I hear you’re our new Harvester. Welcome aboard! We’re going to have so much fun together!” Pinkie said bouncing around in her usual manner. “You... You... Work here!?” “Why of course, silly willy, how else do you think I make money to pay my rent, throw all those parties, and eat all the sweets I do?” “I... Ummmm... Well, I don’t know, I guess I never thought about it.” Once their conversation was over a voice came out of one of the rooms. “Hey, Prestige, who in the hell is this bitch?” “This ‘bitch’ is your new co-worker, and you had better show her some respect, you hear me?” “Fuck you man, she just looks like a prissy little princess bitch who’s had everything handed to her her whole life! Nobody like that deserves my respect!” “You’d better shut your mouth before I shut it for you.” Prestige said aggressively. “Whatever, I’m not in the mood for a fight right now. Just give me my task for today and let me get it the fuck over with.” “We need to fill an order for a heart, two lungs, and 3 kidneys.” The voice sighed; “So two regular ponies and it looks like I have to find one of them time pony sons of bitches.” “It seems like it, so you’d better get moving Shots.” A pony emerged from the gateway that was the door to his room. He was a dark gray and had black hooves. His eyes were red and his cutie mark was of a syringe with two tranquilizer darts on either side. As he walked past Rarity he gave her a shove and proceeded out the door to the path. “That was Shots. Don’t mind him, he’s a bit of a, well... I don’t really know how to describe him. He’s had a hard life and is just a little hostile. Sometimes you just need to stand up to him and he’ll back down. I would just steer clear of him for now though.” Prestige said to rarity. “Well, are you ready for your first task?” “I presume so, ready as I’ll ever be for something like this.” Prestige went into the vault and using his magic carried out an unconscious pony. The pony was orange with a blond mane, it looked almost like Applejack, but it wasn’t. He set the pony down gently on one of the metal operating tables in the center of the room. “We need a kidney from this one. Here I’ll go ahead and mark where you’ll need to extract it from.” Prestige said taking out a marker from his jacket pocket. He then marked a big black X over where the kidney was. “Okay, lets see what you got.” “You can do it Rarity! I know you can! It’s just like cutting a cake, except you’re doing it with magic, and the cake is filled with blood!” Cried pinkie trying to support Rarity. “Yeah... Ummm... Sure.... Thanks Pinkie.” Rarity replied awkwardly. Rarity walked over to the body of the pony and tried to concentrate. She focused her magic up through her horn and pushed it out. Nothing happened. Her horn was glowing it’s usual blue color and nothing happened. She tried again, focusing even harder! She gathered all the magic from the bottom of her soul and pushed it out through her horn towards the black X! Nothing happened. “Why isn’t it working!? Ugh, why won’t my stupid exceed work!?” “Calm down, Rarity! That’s part of the problem. Try to calm yourself! Instead of thinking of the money, think of the little filly sitting in the hospital bed. Think of how with this kidney you could save that little fillies life! Focus on all the lives you can save with your power, and let that feeling flow out of your horn!” Prestige exclaimed in a motivating tone. Rarity was speechless and determined; she walked back over to the corpse; she imagined it was Sweetie Bell in that hospital bed, cold, alone, helpless, and the only way to save her was to extract that kidney. That kidney meant the difference between happiness and sorrow, life and death. She focused deep on this emotion; she used the emotion itself to gather all the magic in her body and send it out through her horn. Her horn begin to radiate that astounding red light. The magical pressure was bearing it’s fangs down on everyone in the room. Rarity’s eyes blanked out into white, and then they also begun to glow with the dark redness that surrounded her horn. This was the true power of an exceed, backed by raw emotion of love, pain, sorrow, and happiness. A stream of red light slithered from her horn and down to the X marked on the pony in front of her. This morsel of light severed the skin and muscle like it was butter. The light then flowed down and severed all connections to the kidney within, sealing them off in the process. The red glow surrounded the kidney and lifted it out of the body; after it exited the fissure, that was the incision in the body, the muscle bound itself together and the skin welded itself shut. The whole operation couldn't have been more flawless. Rarity placed the kidney in an ice cooler and then her eyes suddenly came back to normal. “Great job! That was absolutely astounding!” Prestige said, “You did amazing, for that, you can have the rest of the night off, Pinkie wont mind covering your shift. Your room is over there in the corner, it has everything you should need to be comfortable. Again, good job!” “Why thank you, I’m glad I could manage to get my exceed working! It’s all thanks to you!” Rarity walked over to her room and shut the door behind her. After this, pinkie went to work carving up bodies and extracting the organs out of them to fill that days orders, and Prestige wheeled the orange unicorn back into the vault so that Shots could take her back to the outside world. Everything was going as it should, and everyone was happy. Chapter 3: A Shot of LifeChapter 3 I’ve had a hard life filled with pain, agony, and distress. I have always been alone, no pony by my side to help me pull through. It has been just me. My whole life, it has been just me. My name’s Shots, and this is my story. The furthest back I can remember is from when I was five. I lived with my father in Trottingham. My mother had died giving birth to me and my father always blamed me for her death. It wasn’t fair, I didn’t mean to kill her. I was five years old for Celestia’s sake! I couldn’t even understand the reason he treated me like shit all the time. Because I was so young, there was nothing I could do about it. I just had to deal with being treated worse than a dog every single day of my pathetic life. My father was a drunk, and unemployed. Every day when I came home from school he was in one of two conditions. The first wasn’t so bad. I would just come home to see him passed out on the floor in a pool of his own vomit. I would have to clean it up and get him into bed, but that wasn’t so bad compared to what happened If I came home to him on one of his bad days. The second condition I could have walked in on was one of most pony’s worst nightmares. I would open the door to see him standing there waiting for me with a cattle prod. I would try to run away from him and slam the door in his face but he was fast for a drunk. He always caught up to me. After he had caught me, he would beat me senseless until I could hardly breathe. The electricity from the cattle prod burned my flesh and left disgusting scars all over me. The physical pain was the least of my problems. Every night I would cry myself to sleep because of the emotional agony I felt. Why couldn’t I have a normal father? Why couldn’t I have a normal life? I hated everypony else in the world. How come they could be happy and I couldn’t? It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all! I wanted to see them all suffer just like I had suffered. My father was only one of my problems. The worst problem was at school. It would have been fine if people would have just left me alone, just ignore me like a normal outcast, but no. I never got ignored. I got the most notice out of anyone in the class. I stood out because of my scars and my poor attitude and everyone made fun of me for it. But the worst was Leadhoof and his little gang of fucked up individuals. Every day at lunch they would come over and sit with me, constantly poking fun at my scars. They called me names and they even threw their food at me. This was all fine, I could handle name calling but one day they took it too far. One day when I was out at recess sitting on the swing, the only time I ever had to myself when nobody was making fun of me or hurting me, Leadhoof and his gang came up to me. Leadhoof had just gotten a switchblade for his birthday and apparently wanted to try it out on real flesh. I didn’t try to be tough. As a matter of fact I got on my knees and begged them not to hurt me. I pleaded with tears in my eyes, I just wanted to be left alone! Why me? Why the fuck did it have to be me!? As I was begging, Leadhoof just laughed and then bucked my face. I got knocked back a few feet off the swing and then the last thing I remember was them beating the shit out of me and cutting me with that switchblade. I could hardly breathe, the blood from my nose was getting caught in my throat. I couldn’t stop coughing and there were tears running down my cheeks. I felt myself growing cold, I thought I might finally be at peace, finally be able to die and escape from this world. I blacked out. I woke up a few days later in the hospital. They told me I was going to be fine. I wasn’t going to be fine, I was anything but fine. As it turns out Leadhoof and his gang got off with nothing but a warning. How was that even possible? They beat me half way to hells gateway and all they got was a fucking warning!? No. That was not acceptable. I decided to take matters into my own hands. For the next few years I spent most of my time in the library learning about different herbs and their uses. I studied harder than I ever had before until it was time to act. One day before school I went into the Everfree Forest and picked the herbs I needed for the concoction I wanted. I went home and mixed them up and filled four syringes up with 20cc of the poison and then I went off to school. It was the longest day of my life, I sat in class watching the clock tick away until it was time for recess. At recess I went and sat on the swing again like usual and just waited for those three ass holes to come over to me. Finally, they did. I stood up and took the three syringes out of my saddlebag and quickly injected one in to each of them. Then they proceeded to beat the shit out of me again. This beating was short lived. Within forty-five seconds all three of them were lying dead on the ground from organ failure. The poison was untraceable so there was no way they could pin the murders on me, seeing as nobody saw anything. Nobody ever watched when I was getting beaten, not even the teachers. I quickly ran out of the school yard and home. When I swung the door open I found my father drunk, passed out on the floor. I took the final syringe out of my saddlebag and injected it into his throat. That was the end of my problems. Nobody was ever going to hurt me again. It was at this time I got my cutie mark. A syringe with two tranquilizer darts on either side. I stole the money out of my dad’s wallet and got on the first cart out of town. I was going to start a new life, someplace different. After a long ride I arrived in a small town called Ponyville. I paid the cart driver and he trotted off towards the next town. It was night time and I was cold and alone. I still hated the world for the misfortune it had given me. I didn’t think I could ever be happy again. That’s when I met her. A peppy pink pony named Pinky Pie. I owe her my life. On that night she took me in to stay with her. She taught me what it meant to smile. She taught me how to laugh again. She taught me how to forgive the world and live life to it’s fullest. She even got me a job as a Hunter for Prestige. He thought my special talent for poisons and anaesthetics would come in handy as a Hunter. I owe Pinkie Pie my life. Actually, I owe her more than that. She saved me from damnation. She made me a new person and accepted me for who I am. I love her. I just finished throwing the last pony in my quota on the cart and I’m heading back to the lab. I think it’s time I ask Pinkie out on a proper date. Chapter 4: Happy DaysChapter 4 The moon was high in the sky by the time Shots pulled up beside the trap door in his large cart. It was a gorgeous night. The moonbeams were glaring down on all of the corn field and illuminating the verdant stalks. There was a crisp wind blowing through the stalks. It sounded as though the wind were whispering sweet words into Shots’ ears. In his cart were the incapacitated bodies of three ponies. Two were regular earth ponies and the third was a ‘Time Pony’ as he called them. They had an order for a heart and these ‘Time Ponies’ were the only ponies that had two of them. Shots opened the trap door and carried the ponies down one by one, placing each of them in the vault. Once his job was done he went to go knock on Pinkies bedroom door. He was nervous and his hooves were sweating out of anxiety. When he got to her door, which was covered in glitter and stickers of cupcakes and other treats, he gulped. After waiting a few seconds he built up the courage to knock. Three knocks and Pinkie finally answered the door. “Hey, Shotsie! What can I do for ya?” Pinkie asked in her normal jubilant tone. “Well, I was wondering... You know, if you’re free... If maybe you would like to...” Shots was tripping over his words like he was trying to jump ten foot hurdles in a race. His courage was failing him. “What is it, Shotsie? You know you can ask me anything!” Pinkie said interrupting his chain of thought. Shots gulped one more time and abruptly shouted out, “would you like to go on a date with me sometime!?” Shots sighed, he was so relieved to get that off his chest. His heartbeat finally started to calm down and he regained some composure. “Of course I will, Shotsie! Why did it take you so long to ask, silly?” Pinkie replied with a great big smile across her face. “I don’t know, I guess I was just scared.” Pinkie laughed. “A big strong stallion like you, scared? I don’t believe it.” Shots started to grin. “How about tomorrow evening? I still have to get that pony the new girl harvested back to where I found him.” “Sounds great! I can’t wait, Shotsie!” By this time they were both smiling profusely. It was an endearing sight to see them both happy. After Shots said goodbye to Pinkie he got the pony he needed out of the vault, walked back to the trap door and threw him in the cart. Then Shots proceeded to trot off into the sunrise with a great smile on his face. He couldn't have been happier. ===================================================================== “Twilight! Wake up! You’ve got an urgent letter from Princess Celestia!” Spike yelled, shaking the bed of the sleeping purple pony. “Huh? Wha? The princess!?” Twilight said in a drowsy daze and then snapped to her senses, hopping out of bed. “Where’s the letter? What does it say?” She asked frantically. “It says: Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have a very important task for you to attend to. My sources tell me that there is a group of ponies in Ponyville that are running an illegal organ harvesting rig. I have little information on the subject as a whole but I have just been informed that their newest member has the power to use magic to heal wounds and apparently extract organs. It is important that you investigate this illegal activity and report to me any clues you have. I am now assigning you the rank of lead detective.” Spike read aloud and then handed Twilight a detective’s badge. “This was attached to the letter when It was sent.” “Me? Lead detective!?” Twilight questioned. She was ecstatic to have been given such an honorable task. “I’ll have to start investigating right away!” At the crack of dawn, Twilight set off out the door to start her investigation. Equipped with nothing more than a pad of parchment and her trusty quill, Twilight was ready to conquer the world! That is, if conquering the world meant solving this case. She couldn’t have been happier. ===================================================================== Back at the underground lab Rarity and Pinkie were getting started on that days orders. Laying on the metal table next to pinkie was a red colt with an hourglass for a cutie mark. Pinkie picked up her scalpel and carefully carved an incision into his chest. She then picked up a small chisel and hammer and cracked his ribcage open to get at one of his hearts. Slowly and surely she severed all the connections of the heart to the major arteries and the other veins making sure to seal them off as she went along. After all the connections were severed she placed the still beating heart, covered in crimson blood, into an ice box. “Hey, Rarity. Can you heal this guy up for me?” Pinkie asked. “Why of course darling.” Rarity replied as she walked over to the body. She concentrated on his chest. Gathering all of her magic and focusing it out of her horn the magical pressure began to build in the room. Her horn started to glow that trademark red glow and her eyes blanked out, then they too began to glow. Almost instantly after this the colt’s ribcage mended itself back together. Then slowly but surely the muscle and skin stretched themselves out and welded the incision shut on his chest. When the job was done her horn stopped glowing and her eyes went back to normal. “Thanks Rarity, It sure is great having you around!” Pinkie said wiping the blood off of the colt and wheeling him back into the vault. “You’re getting the hang of this really quick!” “I guess so.” Rarity laughed softly. She not only was able to do this dirty job without cringing like she thought she would, but she was actually enjoying her time here. Her first payment was enough to pay all the bills she had backed up over the past three months with a little left over to buy herself some new fabric. She couldn’t have been happier.
PrologueThe Harvesters By: Master_Ovan Unicorn magic is not, and has never been, one dimensional. There are types of magic out there that would cause your jaw to drop in wonder, or maybe even force you to cower under your bed like a young filly. Some unicorns are gifted with a special type of magic, and sometimes it is completely irrelevant to their “special talent.” However, using this new found magic, they can pave a new path for themselves, changing their destiny and forever altering the life they have been living. It all began on a cold night in the middle of the fall season. The moon was high in the sky and there was a gentle wind blowing through the town of Ponyville, carrying with it a soft lullaby through the bare branches of the trees. Rarity had been sitting up at her desk working on a new dress design that would hopefully save her business. Her boutique was in danger of failing; she hardly got any customers anymore and could barely pay all the bills that had piled up like a mountain on her table. She needed more money and fast; she had a little sister to take care of, and a reputation to uphold. It was about half past midnight when Rarity decided she was going to call it a day and head up to bed; she was getting nowhere on the design and just couldn’t stand to stare at those pieces of paper any longer. She arose from the char and made her way to the winding stairway, the portal to her sleeping quarters. She was about halfway up the stairs to her bedroom when suddenly Rainbow Dash frantically burst through the front door panicking and gasping for air. Rarity froze for a second from the unexpected shock of the pegasus’ rude entrance, and then ran downstairs to see what was the matter. Rainbow was holding the body of an incapacitated white unicorn stallion in her arms, blood was dripping from a large gash on his side and pooling in a little puddle of gore on the floor of the boutique. The cut was deep enough that they could see part of the inner workings of the unicorn’s body, it wasn’t a pleasant sight for either of them. “Rarity, you have to help this guy, I found him like this while I was on my night time flight around the town! The hospital is too far away and he’s fading fast! I would have taken him to Twilight but she’s out of town on business and you’re the only other unicorn I know. You have to do something to help him!” Rainbow cried out, almost crying from the shock of having a dying stallion in her arms. “Well, what in the name of Celestia do you expect me to do?” Rarity replied. “I don’t know! You’re a unicorn, use your magic to heal him or something! You can’t just let him die, you have to do something!” Rarity was disgusted by the blood, but in the moment all she could worry about was the unicorn stallion that was swiftly losing his life in Rainbow’s arms. She had to fight every one of her base instincts, but finally she realized she at least had to try to save this stallion’s life. There had to be something she could do. “Quick, put him on that empty table over there. I’ll do what I can, but unicorn magic is very limited in what it can do. I don’t know if I’ll be able to be of any help.” Rainbow gently laid the stallion down on the table and and Rarity walked over to him, examining the deep wound, looking past the skin and muscle to see chipped shards of bone and a ruptured kidney with blood pumping out of it like a fountain. She forced herself to remain calm; she hated blood, or anything that could get her dirty for that matter, but this was something she had to do. She closed her eyes tightly and focused as deeply as she could, channeling all her magic up through her horn. It was then that something strange happened, weather it was from the stress of the situation, or the disparity of her to save the life of another, her horn didn’t glow the ordinary color of blue, but instead it was radiating a dark red. The power was emanating throughout the room, with even more magic flowing through her horn than when Twilight had vanquished the Ursa Minor. They could both feel the immense magical pressure bearing down on them, the feeling was unreal. As Rarity deepened her focus to visualize mending the kidney, repairing the shattered bone, and restoring the muscle tissue; suddenly, the blood stopped pouring from the wound and the soft tissue of the kidney came together and bound itself shut, shards of bone were pulled out of the surrounding flesh and like pieces to a puzzle, were put back into the correct place along the broken bone, that then, miraculously sealed itself, making it whole again and just as strong as it had been before. The muscle tissue inside the wound slowly started to grow and the strands on either side of the wound intertwined and held it together; then, the skin stretched and came together welding itself shut leaving nothing but a faint scratch where the gash had been. Rarity had never felt this sort of power before, she opened her eyes to see the wound completely closed, and she knew that she should not have been able to accomplish such a feat under any circumstance. She knew that the magic she just used was no normal magic, and in that very instant, she became obsessed.
Chapter 1: Carving a PathChapter 1 Rarity backed away from the body and Rainbow walked over to inspect him. “Wow, Rarity, you fixed him up good as new!” “Well, it was the least I could do for someone in such bad condition my dear. Why don’t you let me keep him here to rest for awhile. I’m not sure if moving him would be the best way to go about things right now. Oh, and Rainbow, please don’t tell Twilight about this. She would probably be upset if she heard that you took him here instead of to the hospital.” Rarity jested, knowing that Twilight would be furious if she heard that Rarity used some sort of unknown and untested magic on another pony without written permission from Princess Celestia herself. “Yeah, you’re probably right Rarity. You sure you’re gonna be okay keeping this guy here?” “Of course darling, I’ll be perfectly fine.” “Well, see ya later Rarity!” At this time Rainbow dashed out of the house in a puff of rainbow colored smoke. Rarity pulled up a chair and sat beside the handsome stallion waiting for him to come to; she thought it would be only right if she explained to him how she healed him, not knowing weather it would have any side effects or what have you. An hour passed before Rarity fell asleep. ===================================================================== Rarity awoke the next morning and slowly and groggily raised her head off of the wooden table that was still covered in blood from the unicorn stallion that had rested there last night. Her mane and coat were both covered in sticky crimson blood with a metallic smell to it. After realizing this, Rarity began to panic, as being covered in blood was not her usual cup of tea. “AHHHHHHHH! My mane! My coat! My beautiful, beautiful coat! IT’S RUINED!!! Out of all the terrible things that could have happened this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!” After this rather dramatic session of whining she noticed something else that was rather important. As it turns out, the unicorn stallion was no longer on the table, or in the house for that matter. Rarity checked every room in the house, including the closets. She even ran upstairs frantically checking every room! The unicorn stallion was nowhere to be found! After flying around in a blind panic for several minutes more she heard a knock at the door. She quickly pulled herself together and went over to answer it. Swinging the door open she greeted her guest with a kind “Hello,” and then looked him in the eye. It was the unicorn from last night, he was tall, white, and handsome. On his flank he had what appeared to be a briefcase for a cutie mark and he had black hooves. “Hello, madam. I presumed you were the one that saved my life last night so I decided I would run out and get us lunch for when you woke up.” the unicorn said kindly. “Thank Celestia you’re back, you gave me quite a scare disappearing like that! Don’t you know it’s unkind to worry a lady?” “My apologies madam, but I didn’t want to wake you, you must have had a long night and you were sleeping so peacefully. Also, I can’t help but notice you have a lot of blood on you, you might want to go clean yourself up.” “Oh my! I completely forgot! Wait down here while I go wash up, and don’t go wandering off, you hear me!” “Anything for you madam.” the unicorn gave a little wink and went to go sit at a table that was set up in the corner of the room. ===================================================================== Rarity came walking down the stairs with elegance, she was now perfectly clean and groomed. As she entered the first floor she saw that the unicorn had cleaned up all the blood on the floor and the table. “Oh you didn’t have to do all that, I would have gotten to it eventually!” Rarity said in a thankful tone. “It was my pleasure madam. Cleaning up a mess such as this is no job for a lady.” “My, you sure know how to talk to a mare.” Rarity replied bashfully. “It’s how I was raised madam.” “Well, your parents raised you well.” “Funny story about that, I actually raised myself.” The unicorn said with a smile on his face. “Oh... Well that must have been nice.” Rarity replied awkwardly. “By the way, just a small question. How do you keep this place running. It’s past 4:00 PM on a Friday and I haven’t seen a single customer come through that door yet today.” “Well you see, the thing is, erm...” Rarity paused for a moment, “I’m about to go out of business, I haven’t sold more than 3 dresses in the past month. I can barely afford to pay my bills with the money I have left in my savings.” “That’s great! Just as I expected!” “Great!? What do you mean by ‘great’?” “Well you see, I have a job offer for you. I’m a... what would you call it... a... a... a business pony! That’s it, I’m a business pony! Last night I had gotten into quite a tussle with one of my clients and he pulled a blade on me. I thought I was done for but that’s when I saw your friend. She came to pick me up and I believe she brought me to you. Of course, I was unconscious by the time I got here, but seeing as how after such a deep gash I’m left with only a scratch I’m presuming you must have used an ‘exceed’ to heal me.” “An ‘exceed?’” “Oh, you don’t know? Lets start with this: normal unicorn magic can do many things, you can teleport, levitate, use telepathy, conjure things, and many other useful tools; however, you can’t do everything. Now, when every unicorn is born, deep inside their DNA is a powerful magic skill called an exceed. I’m guessing what you used to heal me was your exceed. The funny thing about exceeds is that they hardly have anything to do with a unicorn’s special talent.” “An exceed? So that’s what that power was. Do you have an exceed?” “Why of course I do, I discovered mine when I was just a young colt. I can manipulate shadows into physical forms. It comes in handy when I’m in a bind. So, now that you know about your power, back to the job offer.” “Oh right, I almost forgot about that.” “I’m offering you a chance to make a great living for yourself. The pay is incredible, although some people say the work we do is immoral. I disagree completely though. I think what we do is crucial to the well being of all ponies. What is this job you might ask? Well, to put it plain and simple, I run an organ harvesting rig.” “AN ORGAN HARVESTING RIG!?!?” Rarity yelled out, almost afraid of the unicorn. “That is correct. Please quiet down though, it is a secret operation and we can’t have anyone hearing about it. Before you reject, let me just explain to you what we do. We separate the rig into 2 main groups of people, there are the Hunters, and then there are the Harvesters. The Hunters go out and collect ponies from various places all around Equestria and bring them back to the factory for harvesting. Then the harvesters carefully harvest their non vital organs and then sew the ponies back together. Then the Hunters go and put them back where they found them. The victim of course will have no recollection of the encounter. That is the basic idea of what we do, and I want you to be one of my Harvesters! Your exceed would be a great asset to our team.” “Why in the world would I want to help you harvest organs!?” Rarity asked in a shaky tone. “I have read about you. All the books say that your element of harmony is generosity, am I correct?” “Yes...” “Well, think of it this way. We are taking organs from people that are too selfish and greedy to donate them themselves. We get paid by an anonymous middle man who then sells the organs to the hospital for people who need transplants. We are saving lives! We are the essence of generosity! Just recently we made an amazing breakthrough. As it turns out, any pony with an hourglass, pocket watch, or clock on their flank has TWO hearts! Do you know how many more lives we have saved since then!? Just remember, we don’t kill anyone! We only take non vital organs, and we are saving lives. Oh, and you will make more money than you could ever imagine.” Rarity thought about the proposition for a moment; she couldn’t believe what this unicorn was asking her to do but nevertheless she was considering doing it. The logic behind it was good. They were saving lives by taking something from people who were to greedy to give it up themselves. She was the element of generosity, and now she could use that generosity to save lives. “I’m in. When do I start.” Rarity said to the unicorn. “You can start today if you would like, how about you follow me and come see our workplace.” “That would be lovely, oh, one more thing, what’s your name?” “Oh! I completely forgot to tell you my name, pardon my manners, I am Prestige, Prestige Hoofshire. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The two unicorns then set off. Rarity was about to make a new life for herself, using her new found magic to carve a path in her life, one that would hopefully lead her to happiness. Everything was changing, and it was time to begin The Harvest.
Chapter 2: Her First HarvestChapter 2 It was a fifteen minute walk to the outskirts of town. After they reached the town’s edge, Rarity and Prestige continued into a corn field. The wind was blowing softly and in turn the corn was swaying in the breeze. It was a beautiful sight, the golden sun shining down reflecting off of the green stalks and golden tops. After entering the cornfield they came to a small path where the corn was stomped down. “This is the path that leads to our operation. We mainly work at night under the cover of darkness but I guess it’s okay to show you where it is in the daylight.” Prestige said, looking Rarity in the eyes. “Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?” “Why, no, I don’t believe they have.” Rarity blushed, “Thank you, you’re quite handsome yourself.” “Why thank you madam Rarity. Well, shall we continue?” The two unicorns continued walking along the path until they reached a dead end. Prestige knelt down and lifted up a trap door that was hidden under the grass and corn. They continued down the stairs into an underground pathway. The air was damp and musty, the walls were made of red brick and under their feet was a dirt path. Dim lights lined the ceiling of the path way and gave the whole thing an eerie feel. Continuing down the path for about a minute the two unicorns finally came to a doorway. Prestige punched in a pass-code and there was a click from the door unlatching. “1-2-0-6-3-9-1 Remember that.” Prestige said. The door swung open to reveal an awe inspiring sight. Rarity gazed into the wonderful room. It was a large room that resembled a lab. The walls were painted a beautiful white and there was not a spec of dirt anywhere in sight. In the center of the room there were three metal tables where they must harvest the organs. There was a vault in the northeast corner of the room and several other doors lining the walls. “Follow me to your room. Everyone that works here has a room here that they sleep in during the day. You don’t have to stay here; you can stay at your boutique with your sister, but there are some nights that you have to work overtime. Tonight, since it is your first night we ask that you stay here.” “Okay, that’s fine, I just need to go find a sitter for Sweetie Bell. Would you mind if I returned later tonight?” Rarity inquired. “Sure, that is completely fine. Just be sure to be here before 11:00 PM, that’s when your shift starts.” “Not a problem, I’ll be back by then. It was a pleasure meeting you Prestige.” “The pleasure was all mine.” Prestige knelt down and took Rarity’s hoof and kissed it. Rarity blushed with a smile on her face and then proceeded to walk out of the room, down the path, and out into the daylight. ===================================================================== Rarity returned to the cornfield at 10:30 PM. The moon was still low in the sky and there was little light. Rarity was quite scared walking through that cornfield at night, but she knew that she would be safe, it was just a short walk to the trap door. When she got to the trap door she proceeded down, walking the path leading to the large metal gateway to the lab. She punched in the pass-code and opened the door. What she saw gave her a huge shock. “PINKIE!?” Rarity yelled in confusion. “Well hey there Rarity, I hear you’re our new Harvester. Welcome aboard! We’re going to have so much fun together!” Pinkie said bouncing around in her usual manner. “You... You... Work here!?” “Why of course, silly willy, how else do you think I make money to pay my rent, throw all those parties, and eat all the sweets I do?” “I... Ummmm... Well, I don’t know, I guess I never thought about it.” Once their conversation was over a voice came out of one of the rooms. “Hey, Prestige, who in the hell is this bitch?” “This ‘bitch’ is your new co-worker, and you had better show her some respect, you hear me?” “Fuck you man, she just looks like a prissy little princess bitch who’s had everything handed to her her whole life! Nobody like that deserves my respect!” “You’d better shut your mouth before I shut it for you.” Prestige said aggressively. “Whatever, I’m not in the mood for a fight right now. Just give me my task for today and let me get it the fuck over with.” “We need to fill an order for a heart, two lungs, and 3 kidneys.” The voice sighed; “So two regular ponies and it looks like I have to find one of them time pony sons of bitches.” “It seems like it, so you’d better get moving Shots.” A pony emerged from the gateway that was the door to his room. He was a dark gray and had black hooves. His eyes were red and his cutie mark was of a syringe with two tranquilizer darts on either side. As he walked past Rarity he gave her a shove and proceeded out the door to the path. “That was Shots. Don’t mind him, he’s a bit of a, well... I don’t really know how to describe him. He’s had a hard life and is just a little hostile. Sometimes you just need to stand up to him and he’ll back down. I would just steer clear of him for now though.” Prestige said to rarity. “Well, are you ready for your first task?” “I presume so, ready as I’ll ever be for something like this.” Prestige went into the vault and using his magic carried out an unconscious pony. The pony was orange with a blond mane, it looked almost like Applejack, but it wasn’t. He set the pony down gently on one of the metal operating tables in the center of the room. “We need a kidney from this one. Here I’ll go ahead and mark where you’ll need to extract it from.” Prestige said taking out a marker from his jacket pocket. He then marked a big black X over where the kidney was. “Okay, lets see what you got.” “You can do it Rarity! I know you can! It’s just like cutting a cake, except you’re doing it with magic, and the cake is filled with blood!” Cried pinkie trying to support Rarity. “Yeah... Ummm... Sure.... Thanks Pinkie.” Rarity replied awkwardly. Rarity walked over to the body of the pony and tried to concentrate. She focused her magic up through her horn and pushed it out. Nothing happened. Her horn was glowing it’s usual blue color and nothing happened. She tried again, focusing even harder! She gathered all the magic from the bottom of her soul and pushed it out through her horn towards the black X! Nothing happened. “Why isn’t it working!? Ugh, why won’t my stupid exceed work!?” “Calm down, Rarity! That’s part of the problem. Try to calm yourself! Instead of thinking of the money, think of the little filly sitting in the hospital bed. Think of how with this kidney you could save that little fillies life! Focus on all the lives you can save with your power, and let that feeling flow out of your horn!” Prestige exclaimed in a motivating tone. Rarity was speechless and determined; she walked back over to the corpse; she imagined it was Sweetie Bell in that hospital bed, cold, alone, helpless, and the only way to save her was to extract that kidney. That kidney meant the difference between happiness and sorrow, life and death. She focused deep on this emotion; she used the emotion itself to gather all the magic in her body and send it out through her horn. Her horn begin to radiate that astounding red light. The magical pressure was bearing it’s fangs down on everyone in the room. Rarity’s eyes blanked out into white, and then they also begun to glow with the dark redness that surrounded her horn. This was the true power of an exceed, backed by raw emotion of love, pain, sorrow, and happiness. A stream of red light slithered from her horn and down to the X marked on the pony in front of her. This morsel of light severed the skin and muscle like it was butter. The light then flowed down and severed all connections to the kidney within, sealing them off in the process. The red glow surrounded the kidney and lifted it out of the body; after it exited the fissure, that was the incision in the body, the muscle bound itself together and the skin welded itself shut. The whole operation couldn't have been more flawless. Rarity placed the kidney in an ice cooler and then her eyes suddenly came back to normal. “Great job! That was absolutely astounding!” Prestige said, “You did amazing, for that, you can have the rest of the night off, Pinkie wont mind covering your shift. Your room is over there in the corner, it has everything you should need to be comfortable. Again, good job!” “Why thank you, I’m glad I could manage to get my exceed working! It’s all thanks to you!” Rarity walked over to her room and shut the door behind her. After this, pinkie went to work carving up bodies and extracting the organs out of them to fill that days orders, and Prestige wheeled the orange unicorn back into the vault so that Shots could take her back to the outside world. Everything was going as it should, and everyone was happy.
Chapter 3: A Shot of LifeChapter 3 I’ve had a hard life filled with pain, agony, and distress. I have always been alone, no pony by my side to help me pull through. It has been just me. My whole life, it has been just me. My name’s Shots, and this is my story. The furthest back I can remember is from when I was five. I lived with my father in Trottingham. My mother had died giving birth to me and my father always blamed me for her death. It wasn’t fair, I didn’t mean to kill her. I was five years old for Celestia’s sake! I couldn’t even understand the reason he treated me like shit all the time. Because I was so young, there was nothing I could do about it. I just had to deal with being treated worse than a dog every single day of my pathetic life. My father was a drunk, and unemployed. Every day when I came home from school he was in one of two conditions. The first wasn’t so bad. I would just come home to see him passed out on the floor in a pool of his own vomit. I would have to clean it up and get him into bed, but that wasn’t so bad compared to what happened If I came home to him on one of his bad days. The second condition I could have walked in on was one of most pony’s worst nightmares. I would open the door to see him standing there waiting for me with a cattle prod. I would try to run away from him and slam the door in his face but he was fast for a drunk. He always caught up to me. After he had caught me, he would beat me senseless until I could hardly breathe. The electricity from the cattle prod burned my flesh and left disgusting scars all over me. The physical pain was the least of my problems. Every night I would cry myself to sleep because of the emotional agony I felt. Why couldn’t I have a normal father? Why couldn’t I have a normal life? I hated everypony else in the world. How come they could be happy and I couldn’t? It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all! I wanted to see them all suffer just like I had suffered. My father was only one of my problems. The worst problem was at school. It would have been fine if people would have just left me alone, just ignore me like a normal outcast, but no. I never got ignored. I got the most notice out of anyone in the class. I stood out because of my scars and my poor attitude and everyone made fun of me for it. But the worst was Leadhoof and his little gang of fucked up individuals. Every day at lunch they would come over and sit with me, constantly poking fun at my scars. They called me names and they even threw their food at me. This was all fine, I could handle name calling but one day they took it too far. One day when I was out at recess sitting on the swing, the only time I ever had to myself when nobody was making fun of me or hurting me, Leadhoof and his gang came up to me. Leadhoof had just gotten a switchblade for his birthday and apparently wanted to try it out on real flesh. I didn’t try to be tough. As a matter of fact I got on my knees and begged them not to hurt me. I pleaded with tears in my eyes, I just wanted to be left alone! Why me? Why the fuck did it have to be me!? As I was begging, Leadhoof just laughed and then bucked my face. I got knocked back a few feet off the swing and then the last thing I remember was them beating the shit out of me and cutting me with that switchblade. I could hardly breathe, the blood from my nose was getting caught in my throat. I couldn’t stop coughing and there were tears running down my cheeks. I felt myself growing cold, I thought I might finally be at peace, finally be able to die and escape from this world. I blacked out. I woke up a few days later in the hospital. They told me I was going to be fine. I wasn’t going to be fine, I was anything but fine. As it turns out Leadhoof and his gang got off with nothing but a warning. How was that even possible? They beat me half way to hells gateway and all they got was a fucking warning!? No. That was not acceptable. I decided to take matters into my own hands. For the next few years I spent most of my time in the library learning about different herbs and their uses. I studied harder than I ever had before until it was time to act. One day before school I went into the Everfree Forest and picked the herbs I needed for the concoction I wanted. I went home and mixed them up and filled four syringes up with 20cc of the poison and then I went off to school. It was the longest day of my life, I sat in class watching the clock tick away until it was time for recess. At recess I went and sat on the swing again like usual and just waited for those three ass holes to come over to me. Finally, they did. I stood up and took the three syringes out of my saddlebag and quickly injected one in to each of them. Then they proceeded to beat the shit out of me again. This beating was short lived. Within forty-five seconds all three of them were lying dead on the ground from organ failure. The poison was untraceable so there was no way they could pin the murders on me, seeing as nobody saw anything. Nobody ever watched when I was getting beaten, not even the teachers. I quickly ran out of the school yard and home. When I swung the door open I found my father drunk, passed out on the floor. I took the final syringe out of my saddlebag and injected it into his throat. That was the end of my problems. Nobody was ever going to hurt me again. It was at this time I got my cutie mark. A syringe with two tranquilizer darts on either side. I stole the money out of my dad’s wallet and got on the first cart out of town. I was going to start a new life, someplace different. After a long ride I arrived in a small town called Ponyville. I paid the cart driver and he trotted off towards the next town. It was night time and I was cold and alone. I still hated the world for the misfortune it had given me. I didn’t think I could ever be happy again. That’s when I met her. A peppy pink pony named Pinky Pie. I owe her my life. On that night she took me in to stay with her. She taught me what it meant to smile. She taught me how to laugh again. She taught me how to forgive the world and live life to it’s fullest. She even got me a job as a Hunter for Prestige. He thought my special talent for poisons and anaesthetics would come in handy as a Hunter. I owe Pinkie Pie my life. Actually, I owe her more than that. She saved me from damnation. She made me a new person and accepted me for who I am. I love her. I just finished throwing the last pony in my quota on the cart and I’m heading back to the lab. I think it’s time I ask Pinkie out on a proper date.
Chapter 4: Happy DaysChapter 4 The moon was high in the sky by the time Shots pulled up beside the trap door in his large cart. It was a gorgeous night. The moonbeams were glaring down on all of the corn field and illuminating the verdant stalks. There was a crisp wind blowing through the stalks. It sounded as though the wind were whispering sweet words into Shots’ ears. In his cart were the incapacitated bodies of three ponies. Two were regular earth ponies and the third was a ‘Time Pony’ as he called them. They had an order for a heart and these ‘Time Ponies’ were the only ponies that had two of them. Shots opened the trap door and carried the ponies down one by one, placing each of them in the vault. Once his job was done he went to go knock on Pinkies bedroom door. He was nervous and his hooves were sweating out of anxiety. When he got to her door, which was covered in glitter and stickers of cupcakes and other treats, he gulped. After waiting a few seconds he built up the courage to knock. Three knocks and Pinkie finally answered the door. “Hey, Shotsie! What can I do for ya?” Pinkie asked in her normal jubilant tone. “Well, I was wondering... You know, if you’re free... If maybe you would like to...” Shots was tripping over his words like he was trying to jump ten foot hurdles in a race. His courage was failing him. “What is it, Shotsie? You know you can ask me anything!” Pinkie said interrupting his chain of thought. Shots gulped one more time and abruptly shouted out, “would you like to go on a date with me sometime!?” Shots sighed, he was so relieved to get that off his chest. His heartbeat finally started to calm down and he regained some composure. “Of course I will, Shotsie! Why did it take you so long to ask, silly?” Pinkie replied with a great big smile across her face. “I don’t know, I guess I was just scared.” Pinkie laughed. “A big strong stallion like you, scared? I don’t believe it.” Shots started to grin. “How about tomorrow evening? I still have to get that pony the new girl harvested back to where I found him.” “Sounds great! I can’t wait, Shotsie!” By this time they were both smiling profusely. It was an endearing sight to see them both happy. After Shots said goodbye to Pinkie he got the pony he needed out of the vault, walked back to the trap door and threw him in the cart. Then Shots proceeded to trot off into the sunrise with a great smile on his face. He couldn't have been happier. ===================================================================== “Twilight! Wake up! You’ve got an urgent letter from Princess Celestia!” Spike yelled, shaking the bed of the sleeping purple pony. “Huh? Wha? The princess!?” Twilight said in a drowsy daze and then snapped to her senses, hopping out of bed. “Where’s the letter? What does it say?” She asked frantically. “It says: Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have a very important task for you to attend to. My sources tell me that there is a group of ponies in Ponyville that are running an illegal organ harvesting rig. I have little information on the subject as a whole but I have just been informed that their newest member has the power to use magic to heal wounds and apparently extract organs. It is important that you investigate this illegal activity and report to me any clues you have. I am now assigning you the rank of lead detective.” Spike read aloud and then handed Twilight a detective’s badge. “This was attached to the letter when It was sent.” “Me? Lead detective!?” Twilight questioned. She was ecstatic to have been given such an honorable task. “I’ll have to start investigating right away!” At the crack of dawn, Twilight set off out the door to start her investigation. Equipped with nothing more than a pad of parchment and her trusty quill, Twilight was ready to conquer the world! That is, if conquering the world meant solving this case. She couldn’t have been happier. ===================================================================== Back at the underground lab Rarity and Pinkie were getting started on that days orders. Laying on the metal table next to pinkie was a red colt with an hourglass for a cutie mark. Pinkie picked up her scalpel and carefully carved an incision into his chest. She then picked up a small chisel and hammer and cracked his ribcage open to get at one of his hearts. Slowly and surely she severed all the connections of the heart to the major arteries and the other veins making sure to seal them off as she went along. After all the connections were severed she placed the still beating heart, covered in crimson blood, into an ice box. “Hey, Rarity. Can you heal this guy up for me?” Pinkie asked. “Why of course darling.” Rarity replied as she walked over to the body. She concentrated on his chest. Gathering all of her magic and focusing it out of her horn the magical pressure began to build in the room. Her horn started to glow that trademark red glow and her eyes blanked out, then they too began to glow. Almost instantly after this the colt’s ribcage mended itself back together. Then slowly but surely the muscle and skin stretched themselves out and welded the incision shut on his chest. When the job was done her horn stopped glowing and her eyes went back to normal. “Thanks Rarity, It sure is great having you around!” Pinkie said wiping the blood off of the colt and wheeling him back into the vault. “You’re getting the hang of this really quick!” “I guess so.” Rarity laughed softly. She not only was able to do this dirty job without cringing like she thought she would, but she was actually enjoying her time here. Her first payment was enough to pay all the bills she had backed up over the past three months with a little left over to buy herself some new fabric. She couldn’t have been happier.
