Hunted by Fate

Ten years pass

I look at the reflection of the glasses that have become a part of me… two cobalt rings are surrounded by a sea of blackness and look back at me 'MONSTER!! FREAK!!' they call me, a remnant of dark magic that returned with Nightmare Moon. Though the new element bearers aren’t aware of my existence there are still ponies that are blinded by their fear and send militias after me when they find out about my eyes.

For the past two weeks I’ve been rooted to this cloud waiting to see how many they would send this time, see what kind of weapons they would use, the last was a five pony squad consisted of nets and spears thinking I was nothing less than a wild animal and since my coat is white I can blend in with the clouds and snow. The sun is rising when I hear marching below me; I put the glasses away, slide into the cloud and position my head slightly outside the bottom looking down at the forest, thirteen this time three pegasi and ten earthers, there never seem to be any unicorns… weapons consist of muskets, flintlock pistols and swords, while three cannons are being pulled by those in front, not military or royal guard since they don’t wear standard Equestrian or royal guard armor, most likely mercenaries I look for capture cages to find none, the “bounty” must have been raised to a higher pay if they killed me.

Check inventory: strapped around both my lower forelegs are twenty throwing knives all have been sharpened at camp, long range weapon is a crossbow with a quiver of 160 bolts minus the one already primed, chest plate supposedly made from unbreakable skin of ineighmian lion, feather shields to propel musket shots, adrenaline trigger for emergency, ten hoof made shrapnel bombs, one large knife 'borrowed' from a Griffin butcher strapped at my waist, and my hooves.

Pegasi are still in flight, earthers are preparing to fire blindly into the forest method of attack from current location: slingshot. I grip two throwing knives in both hooves and open my wings ‘three…two…one… LAUNCH’ thirty seconds till in range, my body is aimed at the pegasi in the center, the wind and cold air of the fall sting at my eyes obscuring the other two, twenty seconds the earthers start to fire the cannons filling the air with thunder, ten seconds I’m in range and throw the knives at the two surrounding pegasi and unsheathe the knife at my waist and opening my wings to slow decent, 'five…four…three…two…one' the throwing knives find their marks in the back of their necks making them drop like stones and before my target reacts I slam onto him with my lower hooves and as we hit the ground the his skull and muzzle crack open giving the grass a shade of bright red.

“SHIT!!!” a gunner yells as I throw three bombs under the cannons as they explode the inertial force of the bombs brake the wheels while the shrapnel killed two earthers.

’ten left sheathe knife and don’t bother with direct confrontation for now’ I thought to myself before the rest could react I opened my wings and darted into the forest “SHOOT THIS MOTHERFUCKER!” I hear one of them shout.

Musket fire erupts behind me ‘60 seconds to reload’; I twist toward it and use the feather shields… the ball bearings bounce off introducing a slight sting to my feathers but not enough to rip them apart I open my wings again and fire the crossbow, the bolt flies and finds its target in a cerulean stallion’s eye then throw another knife that misses a cyan stallion that begins to reload ‘9 left retreat further into the forest’ 20 seconds.

“GO AFTER IT!!” the same voice shouts, obviously mercenaries.

I fly into a tree that has a makeshift camouflage tarp and prime another bolt. ‘158 bolts, 38 knives, and 7 bombs’ I slow my breathing and wait again. Branches snap as the stallions approach some muskets are on saddle mounts, while the pistols are on hoof braces and all have the look of a scared filly in a horror movie.

“Why the FUCK did you talk me into this?!” an emerald stallion squeaks at what seems to be the leader, he looks four younger than me… the leader looks at him with a sickening grin and breaks the boy’s left front legs with the back end of his musket I don’t know what’s worse, the bone protruding from the screaming stallions’ leg or the fact that I finally have a larger group of hunters with actual weapons and are just a bunch of fucking amateurs.

It takes 10 seconds to see that the remaining 8 surrounded the stallions ‘two bombs should be enough’ I begin to light the fuse when the leader starts talking “You said you needed the bits for your family didn’t you?” I freeze for a moment and put the bombs back in my saddle pack and aim the crossbow as the leader continues his vent.

“You said you needed to feed your dimwitted daughter didn’t you?” he thrust the musket onto the boy’s left lower leg breaking it while those surrounding him laughed as the leader continued “We would live like kings and all we needed was to kill this motherfucker, so if you’re going to wimp out on us now, then I suppose we’ll use you as bait” he sneers grabbing a nearby branch.

“How revolting!” I shout jumping from the tarp and land in front of the group allowing them to form a firing line drawing the leader’s attention towards me, his bright yellow coat clashes with a black military cut mane and is complete with a venomous grin filled with chipped and broken teeth… I’ve seen worse.

“So are you just going to stand there and die?” he chuckles.

I focus on my heartbeat “80 seconds” I retort making his chuckle turn into a boisterous laugh, his gang however look like they’re going to shit themselves.

“Alright I’ll bite what will happen in 80 seconds?” he coughs as he regains his breath.

I unsheathe the knife at my waist “80 seconds to kill your group and strangle you with your own intestines.” His smile drops as he scurries behind the firing squad.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!” he roars “KILL THIS THING ALREADY!!!”

The muskets fire... the adrenaline is triggered… everything slows down and becomes brighter; the musket balls are inches away from my face when I jump over them and shoot the cross bow at the silver stallion on the far left, the bolt finds its mark directly into his mouth ‘7 left’ I grab three knives and throw them at the other three next to him… heart, eye, throat ‘4 left’, I flip a switch on the crossbow that activates a bayonet and throw it at the chestnut on the far right ‘3 left’. I finally use the butcher knife to slice the throats of the last two and buck the cyan into the leader who then slams against rotten log as time returns. I move forward as the prick tries to fire a pistol only to hear an agonizing click from the hammer and have no results... I then stab the knife into his gut.

“What are you?” he squawks as I drag the knife across his stomach... I look into his eyes, his pupils are black pins on red platters.

I grip the long snake around my hooves and whisper “Your death.”