H.O.M.E.

The air is clear, the moon shines and as do the lights of the great city of home. How did this city come to be with its strange, dark and brutal ambiance? How could it even strive? It completely messed with Darlings head to think about as he walked down the misty streets of the city.

Darlings search for the little gang leader he encountered at the motel, wasn't going the best. It didn't help that he was on foot either, his pace was slow and quite honestly, boring.

"Oh where could he have gone....couldn't be that far.. ?" Darling asked himself as he crossed a street and headed into a dark alley thinking something helpful would be there.

Darling looked up and down the alley, it smelled quite strange, it wasn't hard to find the source of the strange smell,  sitting in the corner of the alley stacked on top of itself, was bags of garbage. "Shit, that's just disgusting..." he said to himself waving the smell from his nose.

Darling began leaving the alley with a bit of disappointment but something caught the corner of his eyes, a small spray paint design sat on the wall, there, sticking out with a threatening grin full of monstrous sharp teeth, was a devilish, red looking pony face with horns and a green Mohawk. A grin appeared on Darlings face. "Well look at that...just my luck." It was obvious who this alley belonged to, the little gang he was looking for.

He looked up at the building the painting was sprayed on, the entire structure was made of red brick and it looked abandon. Darling made his way to the front, entering the entrance which held no door, but rather a empty frame. The inside was mostly dark, dusty and the floor was nothing but dirt in most of the rooms.  The rooms smelled like old soap, darling slightly welcomed it due to the fact that he usually smelled rotting flesh or the fresh use of some sort of drug in these type of places.

"After taking care of this guy i will need to get back to my main mission..." Darling thought to himself as he walked through the dark halls of the building. "Maybe i could....ask the little punk leader himself some questions while i beat him down to size." Darling smiled at the thought, it made him slightly giggle.

Darling began to approach what looked like a bright orange light that sat on a stone wall above a metal door. As he moved closer to the door and light, he could hear voices getting more audible. Darling pressed his ear lightly against the door as to hopefully make no noise. He couldn't make much more out of the voices except for muffled sounds though he could notice that there were three voices, two of them female voice's and the last was a male's. Darling removed his ear from the door and looked for another way to get in aside from the one door that sat in front of him. He searched the area from where he stood, nothing. Nowhere else to get in from, darling shrugged and crouched.

Darling slowly opened the metal door, surprisingly it didn't make any noise, he was thankful for that, it only made his job a lot easier.

Upon entering the room, darling notice the smell of the room instantly changed, it smelled of gun powder and...perfume? It didn't stop darling from continuing, he just found it a bit strange to find in this type of place. The voices he heard earlier were now very clear though still hard to understand, he would have to get much closer. Darling remained crouched down, moving towards the voices, the room he moved through was huge, it must have been a storage unit, crates were stacked upon each other, some of them sat open, leaving what was inside revealed, all seemed to have been firearms from around the world. Other crates contained treasures that would have been worth millions. Though this isn't what darling was after, he wanted know what was going on in here and who did those voices belong to?

Darling could now understand the voices and make out the words that were spoken, he just needed to find a nice place to relax and eavesdrop on the conversation. He noticed some rather large crates that he could climb on top of, sadly it was quite hard for him due to his small size, only making it harder to reach the first one, same with the second crate. Finally, he reached the top crate, his breathing was a bit loud from the climbing, he quickly stopped himself and took out his gun scope that he carried around with him, he attached it to his magnum and used the adjustable zoom, he focused in on the ponies having their little conversation.

"I thought you never would make up the money you owed me." said a female pony, her features were difficult to make out, she hid her face in the shadows while she sat in fold up chair, resting her feet on the green haired punk's back. "Where is the rest of your little gang, Alexander?" Asked the strange pony in the chair.

The green haired stallion, Alexander, looked up at her. "I don't know where my boy's are at...they should have been back by now..." Alexander slightly struggled to keep up on his arms, he shaked almost falling down on his face.

The mare in the chair's voice rose with a bit of aggression. "Don't you dare fall down on me!"

Alexander squealed. "I am sorry ms. Tiara!"

"Don't worry.." The mare leaned forward revealing her face for the first time, it held a twisted grin. "I am only having a little fun with you..." Tiara said while flinging her purple and white single striped hair out of her eyes, she blinked her dead bright blue eyes at Alexander while her grin only got wider, stretching her pink face. Her body color had only that one color, she wore a black and thin white lined, four button suit with matching pants, her button up shirt she wore underneath was pink along with a white bow tie to go around her neck.

"Oh, i was hoping to see your little gang again, they are always so scared around me and whatnot, it's so adorable." Tiara said with a little giggle as she stood up and began to walk around.

Alexander remained silent while Tiara spoke, beads of sweat rolled down his face, he was full of fear, he made not a single movement as Tiara walked in circles around him, she was like a hunter zoning in on her pry. "Well i h-hope they w-will be back soon.." Alexander stuttered with his words.

Tiara crouched down to Alexanders eye level. "They better be back soon Alexander, or i am afraid that i will have to teach you all a lesson again.....like last time." Tiara's voice became dark and serious.

Alexanders eyes  widen, more beads of sweat began to form on his face, dripping like tears off of his chin, his breathing also fasten.

"Whats wrong dear...you seem like something may have just scared the living daylights out of you....oh wait, that's right... something did or more like, somepony did....who was it...?" Tiara scratched her head as if confused. She giggled and stopped with her confused act. "Can you take a little guess who? Wait, don't say anything, i got the answer! It was me!" The mare laughed like she was on some type of giggle gas.

Alexander gulped, he tried to calm himself, though he was failing, he only seemed to make it look worse. Tiara instantly stopped with her laughter and stood back up, she looked down at the Alexander with a menacing glare. "Pathetic..." Tiara walked back to her seat and gently sat down.

A silver pony came out from the shadows, standing behind the chair that Tiara sat in. She wore a white button up dress shirt, a purple, black striped vest with a pair of matching pants, a purple bow tie that tied around her long, grey and bright silver striped mane that was also breaded into a single thick tail. Her actual tail was done in the same fashion, though the bow tie was white. Her bright purple eyes glimmered through her rather large blue cat eye glasses, along with a blue beaded necklace that hung tightly around her neck.

"Madam, Reports from the twisty inn motel, reveals that the members of Alexanders group, have been dealt with by a random newcomer in the city, his name is unknown and cameras were online and recording at the time of the attack." She said in a strong and rather aggressive voice.

"Thank you for the news my dear Silver Spoon. Let me see the the footage of our....new friend..." Tiara holds out her hand, waiting for silver to give something.

Silver Spoon gently placed what looked similar to darlings disguised watch device, except hers was more purple and black, the chain was also shorter.

A few moments pass..

"Well now...this is definitely a small problem to worry about...how do you feel about this Alexander..?" said Tiara as she closed the watch in her hand and handed it to silver spoon.

Alexander stood there on the floor, he looked hurt and full of everlasting rage. "I want that bastard dead....what does he look like..?" He asked while gritting his teeth together.

Silver spoon reached into her inside vest pocket and pulled out a square shape, it turned out to be a photo of a pink pony dressed in a somewhat color matching tuxedo.  Alexander took it from her hand, he began examining the photo. His eyes widen when he realized that he recognized the pony in the photo. "That ritchy pussy boy did this...?"

"You know him?" Silver spoon questioned. Alexander handed the photo back to silver spoon and had a face that told her, his thoughts were hell bent on destroying this newcomer to the city.

"No, he was just another guy that checked in at the motel, had lots of cash....Shit i should have killed him and robbed him when i had the chance while looking through the sniper rifle scope..."

Tiara glared. "You gotta be yanking on my leash here....you knew he was rich...and didn't rob him or anything!?" She jumped out of her seat in rage.

"No ms. Tiara! The thought just didn't hit me at the moment." Alexander pleaded as he rose his arms above his head, as if he was hiding from an explosion.

"That thought didn't hit you...but maybe this will" Tiara growled while her fist rose in the air, aimed for Alexanders head, though she stopped her motions as a new sound could be heard from afar, it sounded like grunting, gunfire and the destruction of wooden crates. "What in the name of...?" before she could finish her sentence , a pink pony came soaring through the air and hit the solid stone floor, being knocked unconscious.

"I swear...i recognize those two mares.....but where from....?" Darling thought to himself. He took out his watch and propped it open with a click of a button. He pushed the blue holographic scan option, he focused his built in camera on the silver pony first, Not to long after, taking a small photo, files of the pony began to pop up. she went by the name of Silver spoon, believed to have disappeared in Ponyville, investigating some kind of drug war case. Before her sudden disappearance, she worked for the Equestrian government like darling and was a top inspector in murder, rape and drug cases. Her hometown is Ponyville, most of her family is deceased.

"Ponyville..." The name struck him like an old memory, he remembered his last encounter with the small area. It was quite peaceful, all the ponies were happy, hardly any trouble to deal with, it would make a nice vacation at another time. Darling suddenly remembered that Ponyville was the first place he saw Silver Spoon, both him and her were there on business, though they only said a simple hello to each other, workers for the Government rarely know each other, so they both were completely oblivious  to one another's jobs.

But why was she here? Working with the very ponies she fought against? Defiantly an interesting subject.  These thoughts kept replaying like a broken record in Darlings head. It was a mind twister that just wouldn't stop for him. He shook his head and continued on with gathering information on the two mares. Next up was Tiara, her files were very limited, most of it said classified. Only a few photos and a mere summary of her childhood remain. It seemed like most of the photos were of her and silver spoon together, back when they were in high school, how  young and innocent they looked. It honestly sadden Darling to see them turn into what they are now. But one cannot change the past.

Strangely enough, Tiara looked more familiar than Silver, why was that? Darling rubbed his head and decided to stop officially thinking about it. He continued with eavesdropping and heard something about a attack at the Twisty inn motel, not soon after did he realized that they were talking about him. They knew he was now here in the city, they knew his face, how could he tell? There was a clear photo of Darling in Alexanders hand. Now Darling has no choice but to terminate all the ponies in the room but he needed to first  find out whether or not if any of these ponies were apart of the silver diamonds.

A few more moments passed, Tiara raised her fist, getting ready to pound in Alexanders skull, Darling was too lost in his little eavesdropping that he didn't notice the large black figure moving towards him from behind.

"Enjoying the show little man?" Said a deep and dark spine chilling voice.

Darling jumped and quickly turned around, his finger about to pull the trigger but was stopped by the surprising speed of the large figure, the figure grabbed darlings arm and tossed him over his head, sending darling down a large fall, luckily his back ended up hitting the stone floor first instead of his skull.

"Dammit...that hasn't happened in awhile..." Darling coughed as he made a quick movement to regain his ground. The large figure jumped from the top crate and landed perfectly in front of Darling, causing him to jump back. The large figure took off a black trench coat that it wore to conceal its features. It was a changeling, a large, buff changeling with a eight pack on his chest, large monstrous arms and a height that if a small filly were to stand next to him, it would make him seem like a giant.

The changeling grinned and popped his knuckles then his neck. "You ready to go little girly?" The changeling had a strong Mexican accent. The changeling put up his fist and started doing what seemed like a marching dance in place. Darling shrugged and pulled out his gun, quickly aimed it, then fired. The bullet made its mark, leaving a large hole in the cheek of the changeling.

"Oh, so you like to play dirty huh?" The changeling's horn glowed a dark green and before he knew it, Darling was being thrown across the room towards a few small crates.

The crates broke into many pieces, thankfully the crates were empty, only making darling get more frustrated rather than hurt. "Okay, lets dance bitch!"

Darling yelled as he charged with full fury, though that was his worst mistake as the changeling grabbed Darling as he ran towards him. Using Darlings own momentum and speed, the changeling easily threw Darling over the crates that he was originally standing on. Unfortunately, this time, Darlings fall wasn't as forgiving as his last one, his back hit the stone floor like last time, though his neck took just as much force from the landing that it pulled back and his head made contact with floor. knocking himself out, seeing nothing but a flash of white, then black.

The world slowly returned back to Darling, everything in his head hurt, his vision was nothing more but mere blurs and he could hear a few voices around him, talking then laughing, soon his memories rebooted back up into his brain. Darling's eyes shot open.  He saw the entire group he eavesdropped on, surrounding him in a small circle.

Alexander grinned. "Well holy shit...look who it is....the little woosey fuck who killed my boys......"

Darling took no time to listen to what Alexander was going to say next, he grabbed Alexander's shirt by the neck and pulled him in for a hard head butt, it made Alexander go out like a light bulb nearly instantly. Darling himself felt greatly dazed but not enough to pass out from the sudden rush of pain going to his head.

"Shut up and sleep." He rubbed his head with a slight groan as he recovered from the ground, he waited not a second longer before taking out his magnum, taking aim at Silver and Tiara. Both of the mares looked unfazed by the gun, instead, both of them giggled.

Tiara stepped foreword.  "Who the hell are you? coming in here and snooping your little nose in my things!?" Tiara demanded. "You got  quite the nerve to come messing with the Silver diamonds kid, ill give you that." She took another step closer, only for darling to point the gun directly at her head.

"So you do work for the Silver Diamonds...thanks for telling me what i needed to know..." Darling smirked.

Tiara laughed. "I think you will be more than pleased to know that i don't work for them...i own the silver diamonds..along with Silver spoon here..." Silver Spoon walked up next to Tiara and glared at Darling.

Silver Spoon chuckled. "I think he might want us to go with him on a date of some sort tiara.." Silver tapped her chin and crossed her arms in a innocent looking manner.

Tiara giggled. "I think you're right Silver but i am afraid we can't, you see, we have plans."

Darling glared. "Funny story, sadly it's not funny enough to make one such as myself laugh."

Both of the mares looked at each other and shrugged, they began to walk away, darling was about to stop them when he was suddenly prevented from doing so by a barrier of some sort. He pushed at what seemed like mid air but he soon heard footsteps behind him, each one heavy and aggressive. He turned around to find the changeling from earlier.

"Remember me little girly?  We still got a dance to finish." The changeling grinned, not seeming to notice the hole in his cheek ripping apart slightly. The changeling flexed his arms in the air and roared. He charged at Darling.

With little moments to react, Darling quickly rolled to the left just as the fist of the changeling hit the barrier, sending red sparks wherever the area of the barrier may be. The changeling screamed in pain. Darling seized the opportunity and fired his gun in the spinal cord and the back of the changelings kneecaps, the changeling only roared more, seeming to fuel his rage even more, it was Darlings last clip, rendering his weapon useless now. The changeling yanked his fist down, it smelled of burning flesh and was smoking like fire wood.

"I am gonna make you pay for this one." The changeling growled as he swung at Darling, Darling barely dodged the incoming fist, the next one he caught in mid air but it threw him a  little off balance due to how hard it hit his catch. With the fist secured in his hand, with whatever might darling had, he flipped the large bug over his shoulder, slamming him onto the floor.

Darling hopped onto the changeling and began punching his face in with his bare fist, the changelings lip busted open and his nose oozed out some blood before he grabbed hold of darling and tossed him into the barrier wall. Sparks violently spread everywhere when Darling made contact with the invisible wall. As if his back didn't hurt enough already.

"Alright, enough with the foreplay, lets get the real party on" The changeling snorted while making his horn glow green along with his fist, he hit them together and two magical war hammers of solid magic formed from his fist. "Lets see whats its like to smash a big bug."  The changeling charged at darling again but with those hammers raised, mighty and high, ready to smash anything in their path.

Darling closed his eyes and time seem to slow down, he calmed his breathing, he concentrated some kind of energy into his hands, making a single symbol on each hand glow a purple color and his arms formed a sword and shield, both looked like solid crystal. Darling opened his eyes and just at the right moment.

one of the hammers were coming down at his head, Darling pushed the shield up and caused the magic hammer to bounce right off of it, sending out colorful sparks of energy everywhere. After the hammer was suspended in the air, the other one came down towards Darlings side. His sword caught the hammer in place. Darling used his right free leg to kick the changeling away from him, giving himself some attacking distance.

The changeling roared "JUST DIE!", yet again the changeling came charging towards Darling. Darling ran towards him, with his shield on his left, against his chest and the blade on his right and staying out like a birds wing.  The two fighters were merely going to ram into each other but Darling had something else in mind, he took a little sidestep still holding out his blade, they both passed each other at their fast speed's then the changeling stopped dead in his tracks as his blood spilled from the abdomen of his body. A few of his other innards began to spill out as well, such as his stomach, a liver, maybe some of his kidney, it was all too hard for Darling to tell, he just knew that his enemy's guts were hanging in front of him and was waiting to be finished off.

"You lost it would seem." Darling said as he walked in front of the changeling who could say nothing, only stare at Darling as his world glimmered darker as every second passed.  "I will say though...you put up one hell of a fight for a changeling...but like the rest...you have to fall...." Darling used one final swipe of his crystal blade and cut the changelings horn off. The horn hit the floor and the barrier died down as the invisible walls flickered. Darling picked up the horn and examined it for a few moments. "Honestly...i wished that the fight lasted longer.." Darling shoved crooked horn down the changelings throat, causing a fountain of blood to spurt out from the mouth. The large changeling fell to the floor, dead.

"Dammit....you got blood on my suit...good thing this clothing is rather easy to clean." Blood stains painted most of darlings clothes, the original colors were hardly visible though the cherry color.

Darling walked away from the brutalized corpse and went over to the sleeping Alexander who was starting to form a bruise on his forehead. Alexander slowly woke up to find  Darling looking down upon him, glaring with a small smile.

"Tell me Alexander....if i let you live...can you change your ways?" Darling gave a more stronger look at Alexander.

Alexander shook his head in approval.

"You're positive you can..?" Darling grinned. "Hope you're being honest here...or you could end up like him..." Darling gestured to the changeling.

Alexander almost gagged but nodded.

"Good..now get going...." Darling shooed Alexander, He got up and ran, as if he'd seen a ghost. Darling chuckled, watching the little punk run away, soon after Darling realized that he was in a room full of weaponry, he smiled. Before leaving, he stocked up on bags of ammo, small explosives and some jewels that would sell nicely at another time. It also seemed like Alexander left his grenade launcher on the floor, so Darling took it for "Safe Keeping."

In the end, Darling found himself in the Twisty inn motel, he didn't see the bodies from the gang in the lobby, must have been cleaned up. Lustica wasn't anywhere to be found at the main desk, where could she be? Darling simply shrugged and headed to the elevator.

Darling found his room after the rough ride in the elevator, he opened the door, having a slightly hard time fitting through the door with all the bags of ammo and whatnot. He set it down and closed the door. The room was pitch black, he couldn't see a thing, he switched on the light only to find Lustica sitting on his bed, staring at him with those pretty eyes of hers.

Darling couldn't believe he didn't see her sitting there. He stayed still just staring back, not finding the words to say to her.

She giggled in response to that. "I can be quite sneaky sometimes....sorry for just wandering into your room but i felt like this would be the best way to meet up with you, i would have sat in the lobby but...wooden chairs are no fun to sit in for hours on end...." Lusitca gave more noticed to Darlings clothes but seem to give hardly a spec of care. "Rough night so far?" She giggled.

Darling looked at his clothes, he almost forgot that death is normal in this city, so bloodstains were probably normal to see. "yeah....it was  and i suppose i don't mind you sneaking in on me, just don't do it again please...and i could understand sitting in a wooden chairs for hours on end....it's no fun.

Lustica yawned. "Oh and don't worry, the building is now on lock down, nopony can get in nor get out, its one decent thing the city's owner does for us civilians so that we can at least sleep. So in other words, you don't need to worry about somepony coming in here and slitting your throat as you sleep." She grinned.

Darling quickly calmed down after hearing that. "Well, i hate having to cut this conversation short but i need to rest my dear." Darling smiled.

"Well i was going to request that we...rest together..if you catch my drift...." Lustica grinned.

Darling blushed at the offer, he was going to say "No" but he didn't,  it's been too long since he had some company in bed, he could use it. "I suppose i have some room in my bed for tonight..."

Lustica grinned and slowly wrapped her arms around Darlings neck. "You're going to have one hell of a good rest..." she said as her face inched closer to Darlings. "I may not know you that well....but its just a thing that i can't resist...its sorta in my name...hehe..." Darling did nothing to stop her motives, he was going to greedily accept this offer and enjoy it.