The Prince of darkness.

It's a beautiful evening. The slow fall of the sun making its decent for another gentle night. The sunset fills the town with various assortments of reds and oranges, giving the many concrete buildings a mosaic of color. It was fairly warm, despite it being the end of fall. The trees are bare from the event called; The running of the leaves, the leaves cleaned up, filling scary looking bags for nightmare night, and trick or treaters began to fill the streets in search for the yearly round of free candy.

I took the girls to a multi-cultural town at the edge of the border by Gem Fido. It was a small, quiet town that would be easy to miss from its location in the southern mountains. The population was a mix of ponies, diamond dogs, and griffins alike. All three races had their kids out in costumes of various designs and colors for the one night of haunting celebration.

For some, this would be their first time walking from house to house gaining a small hoard of teeth rotting goodness, for others, this would be the time to get drunk in naughty nurse outfits and guard uniforms at house parties while the kids get shepherded around by a babysitter.

I let the girls go to have their fun, but making sure Lily had her sword with her. I don’t want her to run into any trouble while I was away with a random shady character, plus it adds to the costume. I wished I could just walk around with them. Watching Azura's eyes go huge with all the free candy, and watch Lily get embarrassed with all the male diamond dogs drooling all over her, and receiving my own share of goodies. Unfortunately, fun was not on my list today. I had a person to hunt.

The second the girls were out of range and mind. I searched for my target within the town. From Iron maidens memories, I could only guess as to who I was looking for, but if my guess is right---Which usually is---Then this person will be a zebra in the fabrication factories for exotic fabrics, the trademark for this settlement.

This zebra, that I was looking for was a mercenary in charged with the protection of caravans responsible for the surface operations to and from Aqua’s main hideout. With this guy taken down, Aqua will have to resort to rations while less qualified group’s fairy essential supplies, causing the slow entropy to their decimation. This tactic will make my life much easier when I storm the place, making Aqua's troops lose moral for their cause.

Searching for him will be a challenge as there are many anti-magic fields placed throughout the complex. Normally, this wouldn’t have bothered me, but from my escapade on their weapons supplier a few days earlier, must have put them on overdrive to protect their personnel from being turned against them. Even if it means using their stolen technology to blatantly show where they are hiding.

I lazily walked over to the factories a bit annoyed that I had to actually search for my target. This would have been much faster if I could use the eye of dreams to capture him, but when life gives you lemons. It fucks you in the ass and gives you lemon-aids.

This guy wasn’t really important to their cause, he was mostly an accessory. His job was to supply them with; minerals, food, magical relic’s, weapons that couldn’t make it through the now collapsed tunnels, tacky clothes and other wearable outfits that the cult needs to look spooky. Villains can’t be villains until they get their clothes order from Goths-R-Us. But if he was important then capturing him will be a problem. I expect him to be heavily guarded with his own little group of overpowered super mutants.

As I moved through the streets wearing a black tie and top hat, wasn’t all too conspicuous. Blending in was my main priority and since there are hundreds of people dressed up for the night, it made it easy to do so. While I walked, I got a few looks from the ladies, a beer thrown my way with an invitation to come party, and other little things that a typical small town does to welcome newcomers, but this town was far from welcoming.

If I was to describe this town in any which way, I would have to go with the word, ’off.’ For a town built to withstand dragon attacks and other dangerous hazards, this place was way too industrialized. Not in the sense of being the capital city of steampunk, but just over Hoofington in terms for concrete infrastructure. The stone roads hurt walk on, the ugly square buildings that looked like giant lego blocks, the smell --- Oh God the smell! --- Wasn’t to my liking. This place was too unnatural for this to even exist in this world. Maybe because the trade that goes through this place requires such overkill protection, that these townsfolk would risk dangerous company to protect them.

I somehow managed to find the main fabrication factory where all the disturbances are located. It took me a while to get to the factory, but trying not to bump into the crowd that was too busy dancing in the streets, or drunk to the moon was a challenge. Especially when many pretty griffin ladies wouldn’t stop flirting with you. I know I’m good looking, but they were just too suffocating.

The main factory was what you’d expect, but smaller. It was only two stories tall and spanned over many blocks within its own mini complex of plain stone and steel buildings. A main gate was what stopped me from entering, even though I could have just flown over, but I didn’t want to give away my location. 'For safety reasons.' There was only one guard on watch at the front gate. Probably because he pulled the shortest straw, getting him overtime while his coworkers get to party.

“Time to cheer this guy up,” I whispered under my breath, sitting down behind a garbage can in a back alley just out of view.

“My thoughts exactly,” replied at very seductive sounding women from behind.

….Wait?

I turned around from my hiding spot to see a devilish looking griffin. She had the same color pattern as I; White chest, and black butt. A very nice black butt. ‘Shit, stay focused.’ She had the same hair style as Lily and deep double black eyes. On my scale of one to ten of general hotness, she would be an eight for near perfect sexiness.

“Um… who are you?” I asked, admiring her features.

“Oh, no one important.” She purred giving me a wink.

“Right, and I am the king of Roam. Really, who are you?”

“Sarcasm? Really Winter. You haven’t the slightest idea who I am?”

“Fuck.” I knew she was too good to be true. She must be test number four. Greed.

“No, it's not greed. Try Lust.” ‘Great she can read my mind too. What next, she can use magic too?!.

“You got the mind reading part right, but I don’t think I can use magic,” she smiled. Well brain, we have our work cut out for us.

“Let me take a guess. You are the representation of my strongest lust, which is knowledge. You are here to do the same thing like all the others try to do. To stop me from reaching ascension to the next level and generally be a pain. You are here to test my will and curiosity for the unknown, as well as beat me in a game of wits, and if I fail. I die. Did I get most of that correct?”

“Hmm… For the most part, but. You can’t just get rid of me so easily you know. I have a much more, Intellectual advantage as you can tell, and I don’t think you can beat me in my game so easily. So I suggest we shall wait till later for our match. Until then, I shall observe you in the workplace. So please be entertaining.”

Shit just when they were so one dimensional, I get the female, insane version of me to deal with. When I am done here, she'd better be a decent cook. I'm hungry, but if she is going to follow me around, she better help me out.

“K. Then I want you to seduce the guard while I walk right in,” I ordered.

“Fuck no,” she declined with haste. "But, if you want. You and I can get real cozy together when we are done here, or maybe right now," she snapped back into seduction mode sliding a finger down my chest, pushing me against the wall.

"As much as I would like to know what it would be like to screw myself, I'll pass,” I said taking her hand off of me.

"Meanie,” she pouted from my denial.
________________________________________

With an over sexual version of me following close behind, mostly because she wouldn’t stop admiring my butt. I took matters into my own hands, with or without her help. I walked straight up to the guard then clocked him upside the head knocking him out cold. Then I leaned him up against the wall, letting myself in. Though, I could have just used magic to do the exact same thing, I don’t want to take any chances. I need as much magica that I can hold while in the suction zones placed throughout the complex.

Walking into the main administration building with a griffin that only wanted to screw me, made me realize how much of a sexual predator I really was. I know how I can get with my girls if I knew what they wanted, but having an entity based on that concept was disturbing. Especially when she started to talk about bondage on the way in.

I searched for my target within offices, hoping that somewhere in the files, I can find an image or description of how the person I was searching for looked like. 'But where would they be located?' I went to the circular desk at the center of the room. Thankfully, no one was around to see me loot the simple beige mini office. Rummaging through the files of the various people that worked here, searching haphazardly for the information I needed. I heard a door opened at the far right corner in the room. Not wanting to get caught by a bunch of randoms. I grabbed Lust and hid underneath the oversized desk.

Listening in, I could tell there were two people talking, but lust I wouldn’t stop rubbing up against in all the right and wrong places.

“Hey, Bluebell? Ever heard of the new shipping crew?” a male asked. ‘Hehe, shipping crew.’

“Aye. I heard these guys were hard-core missionaries from the Volcano wastes,” replied a very Irish Bluebell.

“Well, I heard one of them was a zebra with a strange weapon that shoots fire and spits metal!”

“No way!” she gasped.

“Yes way!”

They left the room, leaving me some information about my target. ‘A zebra with a gun, isn’t that convenient.’ Lust finally stopped her flirting and dirty touching’s just to give me a cheeky smirk. Rolling my eyes, I turned on silver eye and found the shipping yards with ease, even though it had one of those barriers up and running.

We both got up from our hiding place and made our way there, cleaning up the mess I made so no one would notice an intruder was here.

“So, you just so happen to stumble on a big piece of info and now you are following up on it?” Lust giggled as we moved to the door. “You sure do assume a lot about everything,” she continued as we leave out the back door to a very convenient back alley.

“Yep,” I replied, turning left down another road, dodging a group of drunks having their fun behind a garbage can.

“Why?”

I stopped just shy of our destination to look at her in confusion. For being a representation of me, she sure doesn’t know how I think or why I assume everything, but I didn’t let it get to me. I kept going in silence coming up behind a shipping container heavily armored with cold steel, a form of magic enchanted metal designed to withstand temperatures far greater than any dragon could produce.

Peering around the corner, I could see the zebra in question as well as his company. It was just him in simple leather barding with a unique rifle strapped to his back, and three teenaged dragons also carrying weapons of their own. They sat at a metal fold-up table beside a small armored air ship talking about something while other crew members moved the cargo from the dock onto the ship.

“Is that him?” Lust asked leaning over my shoulder for a better view, and to sneak in a naughty nibble.

“Yep,” I replied smacking her away.

“How are you going to take him out?” she purred rubbing me up, again. “It doesn’t look like you can do it without making a scene.”

“Can you stop?” I ordered. 'This was no time to get seduced by me!' “I’m not going to murder him, I’m going for capture. He is much too valuable to just get rid of. I need his info on all the trade routes he knows so that I can sabotage them.”

“Well, well. Aren’t we clever? Capturing a captain during a time of this hidden war. A good tactic as long as the captain doesn’t perish in the crossfire,” she purred playing with my tail. “But how are you going to do that? He looks well prepared for a frontal assault, and then there is the magic sucker. So no spells can be used.”

“Yep, you got that right, but I have a plan,” I say, turning myself in dragon form, then morphing it into a black wolf diamond dog in my trench coat getup, then smacking her upside the head for biting my wing during the transition.

“ah~,” she moaned from my slap. ‘What the fuck is wrong with her?’ “Hm hmm. Using the abnormal factor to cause disarray within the ranks, making them fear a look they came to fearfully be concerned about?”

“You got it right. If I can make an image that a group of badasses are taking them down one by one without any trouble in just one man hit squads, then I can further push them into a corner where I can snuff them out with little man power. And hopefully without bloodshed,” I explained.

“That is quite the tactic. Well, I should let you go about your business then. Don’t want you to fail now, but please give me a show? I do like a man with power.”

“Oh I’ll give you a show alright.”

"One with leather straps?"

"No."

She stayed behind the container, letting me go about my business. Since I was just out of range, I summoned my two.44 magnums with a pouch of bullets. If I was going to give the impression that there are many people in black trench coats with epic weaponry was after them, then Starlight will have to pull in all her troops to defend her cause at the source.

I walked out from my hiding place with oversized guns in paws. Walking in this new form of mine wasn’t that hard. I could use the spring from my inverted legs to increase my speed and power output, but my paws were a little big to hold the guns. To combat this little detail. I shrunk them down to a more human-like appearance, keeping the claws and strength for added unarmed damage. The group took notice of my sudden arrival with a grain of salt, but when they saw that I was armed. They instantly opened fire with small caliber rounds meant for civil removal, like a bunch of pansies.

I sidestepped to the right going into full sprint, sending heavy return fire on my attackers. One of the dragons kicked over the table that they were sitting at, taking cover behind it, while the others took their own refuge behind one of the over armored shipping crates.

I jumped into the air using my much more powerful legs and a magic propulsion rune, turning on a spell that I was anxious to use. ‘Time for V.A.T.S motherfuckers!’ In the air, the spell took effect, causing my perception of time to slow down to a snail’s pace. But unlike the original concept from where I based the spell on, I had to aim manually. A minor setback, but so worth the test.

I aimed from above to the dragon hiding behind the table then opened fire on his head. From the two shots I fired, only one landed a direct hit causing his brains to splatter all over the side of the ship in a mess of overkill. I turned the spell off, then rolled behind cover while dodging a barrage of bullets coming from the remaining three. A wicked grin was plastered on my face in glee from my spells success. ‘Now all I have to do is figure out how making a device that could do that without the need for manual activation.Then I shall have my pip-boy!'

I rolled out of my cover after my little thought, to the sound of their ceasefire. When they realized that I was charging straight for them, they opened fire again. Like a badass, I turned on my V.A.T.S rip off spell on and gave them my return fire. My bullets collided with theirs mid-flight destroying their bullets but causing mine to veer off course. Then reloading with my insane speed then I fired upon them again, this time my shots killed the other two dragons, leaving the zebra the last one standing.

Just as he was reloading, I kicked his gun from his stumbling hooves, shooting it to prevent any more return fire. He pulled out a knife while I was recovering from the kick, and attempted to stab me while my back was turned, but I was still in V.A.T.S mode. I caught the blade just barely from touching my spine, breaking it with a span of my wrist, and then landing a hard side kick to his face, sending him into the crate he was using for cover.

I held him there, suspended a couple feet from the ground using my superior leg strength to hold him up. He struggled to break free, slamming his fore- hoof down on my armored leg, but to no avail. When he realized his attempts to escape were non-existent, he tried to choke up a few words in defeat, but couldn’t from the lack of air. I let him go, aiming a gun to his face to prevent him from running away from his temporary freedom.

“Who are you?” he coughed up, rubbing his neck from the awkward position. ‘Time to make V proud.’

“I’m belief, an idea. The idea to end the hypocrisy of those who believe they are righteous when they themselves become a dictator in a world they think is equal.” I say.” I am just one of many. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us, and run. We are the new lunar knights. Pride of the evening armada.”

Silence…

He stared confused, unmoving, like what I just said went into one ear and out the other. I waited for a reply, but none came. Just as I was about to remove the talisman that is causing my magic to fail, I spotted something in the reflection of his eye.

‘Reinforcements.’

I dropped my gun from his head turning to see who was up next for extermination. To my surprise, there were at least five more ships armed to the teeth with mini-gun wielding dragons and griffins with rocket launchers. ‘Fuck you Starlight, Just fuck you.’ I turned to face the zebra again, but he wasn’t there anymore. He must have slipped away during my observation and somehow managed to get to the ships in ten seconds flat.

'Just when I was making progress, I get the mini-army of overkill. Seriously? The closer I get, the more armed these guys’s became. It was really starting to become unfair. '

I check my ammo supply while the zebra went on a rant about how much of a fool I was, telling me my attempt was stupid and that I am stupid for doing it. Yadda, yadda. I didn’t have enough ammo to take them all down, but at least I was out of range of the magic sucker.

I teleported a resupply of ammo from my stash I left just outside of town, as well as teleporting my latest invention; Grenade launcher Gravity hammer. It was a six-foot long beast with a grenade launcher placed inside the wedge with the barrel pointing out of the face. It was made out of dragon scales and dragon bone, making it light as a feather and nearly indestructible. Although the design was still in the simplistic stage, looking like a small round barrel made out of a huge dragons claw that was attached to a pretty white stick. The fear effect that my new overkill weapon at my disposal was very satisfying.

I kept a gun in my left hand while holding my hammer at the trigger in the right, swung over my shoulder, ready for round two. I gave them the most demonic wolfish smile I could muster, making some lose their composure from my insane joy.

All five ships opened fire with everything they got at my location. I Jumped into V.A.T.S again giving me enough time to slam the hammer down, pull the trigger, and get sent flying into the air spinning like a pinwheel.

They quickly realized that I wasn’t dead, just in time for me to land right beside a glutton class orange fight dragon holding two mini-guns, one in each arm. I swung like happy Gillmor, giving the dragon an explosive uppercut. Blood, brains and charred bone dust rained from the sky, sending a deep sense of horror into his friends.

The recoil I’ll have to get used to, because from the blast, the ship lurched down hard, sending all the standing pincushions near the edge off the of ship, killing most of them from the fall. I sent a few more shots down to the survivors, killing any stragglers that wanted to run away.

The other ships didn’t like the fact that I was killing their entire crew with ease. The other four ships turned their guns on the ship I was located on, ready to fire, but I wouldn’t let them. I jumped using the hammer as an accelerator to the bow of the ship. Just as they were about to destroy this hunk of junk, I sent it flying towards them with a hard telekinetic kick, causing three of the five ships to explode from all the gunpowder stored within them, making sure that I didn’t hit my target.

When I saw that he was alive through the fire and the flames. I cleaned up the mess, teleporting the guns to my ship for analysis. Once I recovered from all the suffocating smoke, I realized that my target was making a run for it, and through the town no less. Irritated, I ran after them.

I didn’t have time to bring Lust with me, nor warn Lily that I was about to level a town while trying to capture two runaway ships. I was too low on magic to do so from that talisman. I ran through the shipping yards using what little neutral magic I had left on a speed spell, but just as I thought. They opened fire on me again while trying to fly away.

I dodged all their bullets breaking free of the shipping yards. The people were at a disarray, sending out the alarm of an attack. ‘At least no one will be in the way.’ The ships broke free from each other into two different directions, but I was just after the one with the zebra. I hit a button on my hammer turning it into a Bazooka while running up along the side of a building. I turned on V.A.T.S sending a perfect shot at the dud ship destroying it instantly. Then I cleaned up the mess.

With the one ship left, I eventually caught up to it in the market district. ‘My favorite part of town.’ I sent it one final shot to the balloon of the ship with my grenade hammer, forcing it to crash down on top of several carnival stands, skidding to a violent halt into a building. I slowly walked to the burning ship with my hammer swung over my shoulder. The sun said its final goodbye for the night letting the moon shine brightly over the burning wreckage that was once a ship. The town’s folk retreated into the bunkers, and the dragon hunting squad was sent out to deal with the problem, but there were no dragons here and… HOLY SHIT!

Just as the dragon hunting squad was beginning their approach to the ship to save any survivors. A full grown red dragon in full armor, wielding a fucking anti-ship canon in one hand and a railgun in the other, landed on them, killing them instantly. The zebra that I was after jumped on the shoulder of the dragon without a single scratch on him. The dragon let out a ear raping roar destroying every window within a ten mile radius.

I looked at my little 44.’s realizing that my tiny guns wouldn’t work on this beast. I sent them back home as well as my hammer in exchange for Nix and Lumen. With both my swords in hand and unsheathed, encasing my arms in pure black flame. I smiled in sadistic glee to my new foe. The zebra pointed to me, giving the dragon an order for my destruction. If Aqua had this thing at her disposal, then I will need a much bigger crew and guns.

‘I don’t have much magica left, so time to cheat with one of my new tricks.’

Just as he fired a round from his railgun destroying the marketplace just with the pressurized sound wave following the iron spike barreling straight for me. I turned on V.A.T.S one more time. I caught the over-electrified bullet with my bare hands. Then absorbed the electrical energy, stopping the bullet dead in its tracks, recharging my neutral magica.

Just as I was recovering from the shot, I realized that I was pushed back several blocks from my original location. I dropped that spear shaped iron spike, starring down the dragon with a cheeky smirk plastered on my face. The dragon reloaded for another shot while sending two regular basketball sized shells my way. I focused all my neutral magic bitch slapping the two shells with my swords, destroying a neighborhood, all on one spell.

“Velocitatem et potential!” (Speed and power) I screamed, feeling the spell take immediate effect.

The dragon sent another railway round at me, but using my new found strength, I caught the bullet. Using the momentum, I sent it fly back to the dragon. The bullet I sent back cut the railgun arm clean off, making the dragon drop to one leg, crying in agonizing pain. I teleported the gun to my ship, then I bolted straight for the dragon.

The dragon, however, didn’t let the pain of losing his arm take his attention away from me. While I ran towards him, he sent a barrage of oversized bullets my way. I turned onto another street dodging these bullets only to be fired at through the buildings I was using to flank the bastard from behind. Just as I was about to finally get close enough to land a finishing blow, a lost, scared foal was trapped under a pile of rubble and its mother was desperately trying to save her.

I stopped my sprint to save the foal, but when the mother saw me, she instantly went into the defensive, crouching over the foal in a fit of raging tears. ‘I don’t have time for this.’ I thought. I walked up to the mother pushing her aside while I freed the foal.

“GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MONSTER!” she cried throwing a rock at me. I let it hit me. I knew it was my fault for leveling a town. Another town.

“You alright little one,” I smiled to the freed foal. The little girl dressed up as a princess nodded fearfully in response. I handed her back to her livid mother telling them that the foal will be fine and to get out of here. They ran off after the mother made sure her daughter was fine, leaving me with the dragon.

I ran through a crumbling building that was being shot at by the dragon. It took me a second to reach the roof, and a second to run out of magic, again, but at least I was right beside him now. The zebra couldn’t believe I wasn’t dead yet, and frankly, neither could I. They stopped their barrage to reload for another, but if they have such an overkill weapon on their side, then no wonder why they haven’t had a single problem with the trade routes on the high road. They had fucking flying tanks!

The dragon finished reloading just in time for me to begin my final assault. The zebra sent a barrage of bullets of his own along with the dragon. They destroyed the building that I used to be on, but that would be their final attack. I landed on the dragons arm as he was aiming for another shot. I left a single slice on his arm, causing the dragon to erupt in hellfire from Nix, finishing him off for good. The zebra jumped off just in time to dodge the dragon to fall in a heap of ash and metal, but before he could get away again. I landed on him, pinning him down on the only building left standing in the marketplace. I took the talisman off from around his neck and broke it, sending the remains to my ship for study. I held Nix to his throat, still smiling like a madman. ’Or maybe it was from the adrenaline pumping through my veins?’

“You thought you can run away or fight your way out, but Aqua had the same idea and failed just like you did now,” I growled. “So you are coming with me, and you are going to cooperate. Do you understand?”

“Fuck. You!” she snarled back.

I kicked him upside the head, knocking him out cold. I teleported him back to my ship to a prison cell, using the remaining chaos magic I had left. I turned around to see the carnage that I have wrought in this small town, or rather, was a small town. The battle with overkill dragon blitz destroyed every single building used for housing, and the streets didn’t do so well either. Pipes jutted out of the ground sending water both clean and dirty flooding a few of the streets. Whatever wasn’t just a pile of rubble, was on fire. The civilians poured back into their decimated town, some were too shocked to say anything, some search for anyone that ended up hurt from the crossfire, while others fell to their knees in a fit of agony for their town.

I checked how much chaos magic I had left. ‘Not enough, but oh well. Being bedridden for a few days wouldn’t hurt.’ I sighed. I forced myself to cast one more spell fixing the entire town in an instant. I sheathed my swords then sent them back home, then I turned myself back into my griffin self. I flew down the newly repaired marketplace in search for my girls. Thankfully, I found them quite quickly. Azura dropped her pillow case of candy, jumping into my arms bawling like a baby. Lily was almost there too, but somehow manage to keep her composure. I grabbed their bags of candy, too tired to say anything and teleported us home.