Those who took the sword

I slowly looked around the alley. Everything was getting fuzzy... Probably blood loss. I looked at my right hand, which was stained a deep crimson then put it back over the wound. Wonder if Micky’s okay... I thought to myself. We had been ambushed by the reds. Worst frakkin gang in the whole world, and I had the distinct embarrassment of getting offed by one of them.

I started thinking of how I had gotten here, not like I had anything else to do while I waited for the inevitable after all.

~oOo~

I walked up to our apartment as I did every day after school, unlocked the door and walked inside and looked around. Small place with a combination living/dining room and a small kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a hallway with one door on each side, and a door at the end. Home sweet home.

Then I heard it. There was the sound of crying coming from mom’s room. I rushed down the hallway and looked inside. Sure enough, mom was crying and holding a piece of paper. I walked over and picked it up, then began to read it.

“Dear Ms. Summers

We regret to inform you that your bills are past due. You have until the 30th to pack your things and arrange for new living arrangements.

Sincerely

Mr. Dotters”

30th... that was 30 days. How ironic

I looked at her. She was obviously in no state to offer any answers, so I just gave her a hug and waited. I knew that ever since dad died we had been having trouble paying all our bills, but I didn’t know it had gotten this bad. And since we had no other family to turn to... Well, I was actually pretty curious as to what we were going to do next.

I wasn’t actually worried about anything. I never had been, because if things ever get as bad as they possibly can, you have nowhere to go but up.

My words of wisdom for you. Anyways, When she finally calmed down, she looked at me with determination in her eyes. “Hunter... We’re going to have to move.”

“I know,” I replied. It had been rather obvious to me. But sometimes you just need to acknowledge the elephant in the room before you shove him out. 3 weeks later we had sold most of our stuff, and bought a gun and a new house in the ghetto.

I walked up to our new apartment and put the key in the lock.

“Hey, whitey... your new around here aintcha?”

I stopped dead, then looked behind me. There was some moronic thug just standing there like he expected me to drop to my knees and worship him or something. “whaaa? How could you possibly not recognize me?” I asked in the most sincere voice I could manage.

He jerked his head back in surprise.”What’cho talkin bout foo? I know you’re new here.” He declared.

By all the gods. If everyone here is half as stupid as this one I’m never leaving this apartment without a good reason. I thought to myself Ah, well... Time to screw with a thug. “I can’t believe you don’t remember your oldest, and best friend.” I said as I walked up to him, giving him the most disappointed face I could dredge up.

“Wha?... Is that you Tristen?!” He practically shouted it in my ear

“You got another oldest and best friend I don’t know about?” I asked bs’ing my way through the craziest high five I could make up. He is going to be absolutely pissed when he finds out.I chuckled at the thought.

Well, it took him 3 hours to realize I had no idea who the hell “Tristen” was. And when he did he was, as expected, absolutely furious. Fortunately the head of his gang, Mickey had an excellent sense of humor. He told me if I joined his gang I could help pay off my mom’s bills with all the extra cash I’de be making. And He wouldn’t have to kill me. Well, it was good enough for me.

So, I began my life in “Those who took the sword” one of the most ruthless gangs on the block. And I’m almost proud to say I definitely contributed a bit to that reputation.  It may seem horrible, but I was the gangs hitman. If someone was giving Mickey problems, he’d point them out and I’d visit them one dark night and “take care” of them.

It bothered me at first, and mom tried to ask questions about where the money was coming from. But, I just told her and myself “morals don’t pay bills,” and that was pretty much the end of it.

~oOo~

And so, life had been pretty good up until today. The “reds” as they called themselves had decided that offing Mickey was a good idea. And since I was his guard for today, I took on six guys so he could escape.

And here I was. 4 corpses and me, laying in a dark alley about to become the fifth. “I’m sure Mickey can handle 2 of these losers” I whispered to myself. Despite pretty much forcing me to join with that death threat of his, Mickey looked out for everyone in his gang. And he was actually my friend.

*Clack, clack, clack, clack*

Sounded like someone wearing a suit of armor was walking up. All clanky, like in an anime or something. I looked up to see who was there and how they would respond. Maybe this wasn’t it for me after all.

A girl, probably 18 though I never was a good judge of such things. She was walking up to me wearing a full suit of armor. It was surprising, but after how I had found the “blues” leader... Well it was so horrible and shocking, I never really could bring myself to object to any lesser strangeness after that. I could also never quite bring myself to talk about it either *shudder*

She was beautiful, long dark hair, gold trimmed armor. And a look on her face that told me she would not be calling anyone to help me. “Buck my life in 27 different flavors,” I whispered. After I became a brony I stopped using the f-word, as well as most other curse words. It  always sounded so much better to me anyways and left the door open for more creativity.

She finally reached me and began to laugh.

“just what in the name of all the elder gods is funny about this?” I growled. It hurt my throat a bit, but it was worth it.

“You use some of the most unique obscenities... It’s one of the reasons I like you,” She replied, with a rather happy look on her face. Well, if the armor left any doubt, that last statement proved she was crazy.

“So... what? you’ve been stalking me or something? No, nevermind that’s not important right now. Could you please call an ambulance, or at least do something to stop this bleeding?” I asked. I was sure she’d say no, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Well. I won’t call anyone, and I most certainly can’t save this body. But~...” She happily chirped, as if seeing someone bleeding to death was something to be happy about.

I didn’t want to, but seeing as how I had no real choice, I took the bait. “but?”

“I could send you to Equestria where you can have a whole new body just for you. And a new life, all yours to create.”

I sighed. Why did she like showing off her insanity so much?

“That’s not very nice you know. I’m not crazy after all.”

“Yes I’m sure my manners are very important right no... Wait a minute. did you just respond to my thoughts?” I rasped out.

“Mhmm”

raise your right hand and swear to the sixty three armed bear goddess that you won’t pull any tricks when you send me to Equestria I thought. “Hah, try guessing what I thought that time!” I was dying sure. And playing with a crazy lady when your dying is not exactly a smart thing to do. But, well she wasn’t going to get me help and I had never been accused of being overly intelligent.

To my surprise she raised her right hand, and said “m’kay, I swear.”

I blinked at her. Well buck me in a freezer, she actually can read minds. “now wai...” The world went black before I could ask her anything more.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“Everybodys screamin, I try to make a sound but no one hears me~”

When did I set my alarm clock? I asked myself as I reached over to my nightsand

“I’m slippin off the edge, I’m hangin by a thread. I wanna start this over again”

I throw my hand down to press snooze. Only I smack the ground instead.

“So I try to hold, on to a time when nothing mattered and I can’t explain what happened”

buck it... I like this song

Suddenly the song stopped playing. “Aww, you’re no fun.” said a girl from somewhere

I open my eyes to see her still wearing her armor and giving me a pout.

“well excuse me,” I said... Or tried to at least. What came out sounded more something like “Mmmrrwooorrooaaar,” I blinked and put my hand up to my face. gah! Not only was my hand not a hand, it seemed I had a snout.

“Aww, why the long face?” She asked, interrupting my rather impressive cursing strek. I sent her my most impressive glare. “sheesh, the pun wasn’t that bad was it?” She asked, giving me a concerned look.

Meh... But I was on a role that time, and you threw me off! I thought towards her. If speaking wasn’t working, at least I knew she could read minds.

“Oh... well, sorry about that. I needed us to get on topic though.” She said, with an apologetic gleam in her eye.

I shrugged. Only when I did I felt something that hadn’t been there before move with the shrug. I blinked and looked at my back. Where shoulder blades should have been was an impressive set of leathery wings. They were tan on the outside and matched the rest of my fur, but the inside was an almost crimson red. And beyond that... Scorpion tail.

I looked back at the probably-not-actually-crazy lady in her shiny suit of armor. Sooo... I’m a manticore?

She smiled encouragingly. “mhmm, and that means?”

I’m in equestria?

“Bingo!” She shouted

was his name-o! I couldn’t help but add, she giggled a little at my stupid pun. It made me feel happy that she enjoyed a good pun. So, what happens now? I mean... I can’t go help Mickey, or continue to help pay the bills now can I? And what happened to my old body?

Her gaze turned thoughtful as we looked at each other. “Well, I’ll tell you honestly. Your old body is dead. So you’re stuck here, as a manticore. That means you no longer get to affect earth directly.”

Hmm... No more going back to earth. Mom would probably have a lot less trouble with her bills now that she didn’t have to pay for 2, but then again I had been a significant source of income for her. She didn’t actually think of me that way, but I prefer to think as a realist and that’s how it was.

“Tell you what” The girl startled me out of my line of thought. “If you promise to be my piece, I’ll make all your mom’s bills disappear, and send a few of the boys Mickey’s way to make sure he is all right.”

I stared at her for several seconds. I don’t get it. What do you mean by “your piece”? I asked. I didn’t know what she was on about, but she had just offered to solve my problems. So if I could do whatever this was, it was a sure thing.

“My piece in the game silly,” She said, giving me a very pointed look.

The game?

As I watched she facepalmed. “Of course, you’re a human. You wouldn’t know about The game. Well, I can’t tell you too much but~...”

I continued to stare at her. She got me that once, but I was low on time. Here it seemed, I had all the time in the world so I wasn’t going to rise to the bait a second time. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Several seconds later my curiosity overcame my need to not answer. “But?”

“Huzzah! That’s twice I’ve gotten you to say it!” She yelled, throwing her fist into the air. Then she looked at me and saw my glare. “Oh fine, spoil sport.” She grumbled. “Basically an old friend of mine sent out a bunch of invitations to play a game. The only thing you need to participate in the game is a “piece,” A human willing to be your proxy in Equestria. And the rules of the game prevent me from explaining anymore than that.”

Ok... So how do I win this “game” for you? I was still a bit suspicious, because of the whole “crapton of what appear to be gods and goddesses screwing around with mortal lives” thing, but it actually sounded pretty interesting.

“Oooh! So you’ll play?” She asked, clapping her hands together and giving me what appeared to be her best puppy dog eyes.

I was annoyed that she ignored my question. How do I win?I repeated, after all I may have already decided to help, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to get as much info out of this as I could.

Her smile faded into a pout, and she turned up the puppy stare. “I can’t tell you. But I really, really want to play. So pleeeaaaaaase?” She begged.

I sighed. Fine, fine. I’ll play as your piece. Just remember your promise though.

She cheered and jumped off of the stump she had been sitting on and ran over to me. “Alright, so you can telepathically communicate with other humans, no matter what they have been turned into, but other than that you can’t speak to anything else. Just humans, understand?”

Got it. I thought.

She looked at me for a moment longer, then nodded and disappeared in a flash of light.