The shatter of glass only served to make Mack lift his head and look. The bottle lay broken on the floor, but he just could not bring himself to care. How many other bottles had he crawled into over the years? How many ways to make the memories and feelings go away? He grew so tired of the nightmares, thankful the booze could erase them for the most part.
It had started like any real friendship. He had known Dash as foals., both having grown up just a few doors down from each other in cloudsdale. It was Dash that taught him how to fly while his father was away. She had been his best friend, even when others would bully and make fun of him. He could still remember the taunts, the laughter. He never did fly well, just was not his thing, not like her. He was soft spoken, shy, quiet where she was bold and adventurous and brash. She had always stuck up for him and when she knocked some of the bullies around for picking on him he started to grow closer. Of course they never expected to fall in love. A shy stallion who could barely fly, and one of the most brash, proud, and fastest Pegasus in all of Equestria? Things changed after they got their cutie-marks, they grew closer. Dash would spend her free time with him, of course no one saw that side of Dash. On the outside, she was a tomboy, hated mushy stuff, hated to be seen as soft or expose her vulnerable side. He on the other hand got to see it, got close to it. The day that they met Twi, changed things forever. The day they saved her from falling to her death, the day they all became the Elements.
He could remember the moment, they stood proud, watching Luna and Celestia hugging. Having no clue of the reality of what had happened then. Dash had grabbed him, and kissed him. No soft kiss, no light friends kiss. The others had watched, of course AJ just smirked, and while it was all a shock to Mack. The others seem to have known all along. Of course AJ gave a little hoot, Rarity sniffled and wiped her eye with a hankie she pulled from someplace. Pinkie, well she was pinkie and just had huge eyes brimming with happy tears. Twi, a friend now for all of a day, sniffled. When it broke, he just had no clue what to say. It was Dash that spoke first, and in a rare show of emotions in front of others had only said "do you finally get it, dunderhead?" and all I remember doing was nodding kind of lost as I looked back into that rainbow maned mares eyes. Things had happened so fast after that, things he did not want to think about now...
Shaking his head and clearing his mind. That was all gone now, snuffed out by a evil royal court and a jealous and murderous Celestia. Sitting up his hooves crunched broken glass as he moved over the broken bottle and walked to the mirror in the dingy room. The thing that looked back at him was no longer the happy, shy, yellow stallion known as the Element of Kindness. That time had past, it had rotted away and turned into darkness. His cutie mark scared over, 3 butterfly on each side, all with burned skulls over each...all but one on his right flank. One brand for each friend he lost, did it matter anymore? He extended out his wings, well wing. One still intact, the other half missing, the flesh long scared over. Flight taken from him, not that he flew well but he and Dash had loved to glide along the clouds and then hug as they fell, only to break away and glide back up again. That large scar along his barrel, a reminder of Shining Armor's sword.
He had spent a lot of time asking himself why. Why had she turned on them, they were loyal to her, but after the changlings things had started to go weird. In hind sight he saw it clear but back then they worshiped her and the other princesses. Twilight could see no wrong in her mentor, and AJ, bless his heart always tried to see good in everyone. The fact was, the evidence was there, they should have known, he should have known. If he had seen it his friends, his love would still be alive. With a snarl Mack's hoof crashes out and into the mirror sending it into shards to the floor. “WHY” he screamed at the wall, it never had an answer for him. He would not cry, Not tell she lay dead next to the rest of the ones who took his family and love from him. At the flare of anger, he felt the lump in his throat throb and that dark warmth spread out. He choked it down and muttered “no you don't, I control you not the other way around” as if talking to the lump.
Turning and walking to the table along one of the other walls. His hoof reached out and stroked along the arcane weapon laying upright in the grip of a bench vise. Forbiden technology, three long years it had taken him to find it, to refine it, and learn to use it. All his study and research had shown far in history, tens of thousands of years past, things called humans ruled this world. Sure most considered them just a myth but some of the darkest periods of the planets history still lay hidden. He had found such in his search for a way to find his path. This thing, this weapon, brass and steel and wood. The optical setup on it would let him see a target well over half a mile as if he stood next to it. His hoof slid along the custom shape of it, wood he had shaved and carved himself to fit his hoof and shoulder. Just having this kind of technology in Equestria was a death sentence. Sure the Gryphons had something close to this but it was like comparing a simple house fly to an eagle. It had cost him hundreds of thousands of bits, bits he had stolen, killed, murdered for. Of course every last one of the ones he took the life of deserved it. Guards, spys, criminals all working for, her. His eyes turned to look at the row of cone tipped cylinders in their holders. Each one burned with a redish green aura, he could feel the hate from each one, but that did not matter. “now, you all pay for what you did”. He could not see the deathly green and black glow from his throat that emanated in the shape of a butterfly. “Vengeance”
Author's Note
My first story. I know its rough, and please feel free to give me guidance. This won't be a happy story, it won't be warm and fuzzy, its dark, its gritty. The base idea around Mack Fluttershy was taken from an amalgamation of creations such as The Punisher , and other Anti-Hero types.
