The Everfree Files-Book One: The Gunslinger
Screams, blood, tears, vines. Those four words appear in my nightmares more than often. Even though it has been about twenty years since Equestria was consumed by monstrous trees and sentient vines.
"Twenty years, and I am some how still alive." I told myself with a snicker. I stared down at my glass of cider, its fizz falling out of the wooden mug.
some habit you picked up, buddy. I picked up the mug with my magic, the dark green aura slowly engulfing it and making it levitate. I brought the mug to my lips and sipped on it before slowly placing it back down. It was bitter and had a hint of green apple in it, which tried and failed to make the liquor sweet.
BANG my ears flicked upward at the sound of a hoof slamming a table.
"You're cheating!" A stallions voice yelled, catching my attention. I turned in my barstool and saw a bleach blonde stallion standing up in front of a table of four other stallions. His mane contrasted his blonde fur with a dark purple color. He wasn't necessarily attractive or built to be a fighter, which was more so obvious by the black rimmed reading glasses on his muzzle.
"Sit down, Specs, no pony was cheating, you just lost in a game of luck." A black stallion with a brown beard said from the other side of the table. He wasn't built to fight either, instead he seemed more like a pony that wielded a firearm. His mane matched the beard and was just as messy as it. I studied the him a bit further and without a doubt he had a short pistol on back left leg. He was a unicorn as well, so he could probably kill Specs within seconds if this escalated any further. Specs sat down back down and fixed his glasses.
"Don't think I haven't noticed how you have won the last three rounds. I'm down to my last Chip here." The stallion opposite of him grinned, one of his teeth was made of gold.
"Well, they don't call me Lucky Jet for nothing!" The stallion laughed. Specs turned red slightly from what I could guess was a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
Don't do it, the money isn't worth it. I told the pony mentally as I stood up from the stool. I pulled some chips out of my coat pocket as I levitated my hat on to my head. I turned to make sure the bartender grabbed them before making my way to the table of the two bickering stallions.
"Ah Gunslinger, here to take this ruffian in for cheating?" Specs questioned. I looked at the two for a moment before answering.
"No, actually," I hesitated as I pulled a piece of folded paper out of my other pocket. I unfolded it and showed the paper to him.
"I am here for you." The stallion fell back into his seat and his face became pale.
"You can't be serious." He ran a hoof through his mane.
"You just can't catch a break, can ya Specs." Lucky Jet said before grabbing the paper with his hoof and looking at it. "A thousand blue chips for you, what in the Tartarus did you do to deserve this." He let me take the paper back. I folded it neatly and put it back in my pocket as the black stallion looked at me. "He's a friend, so I can't let you take him. I'll pay double what they are trying to pay you to let him go this time." He levitated his own bag of chips over to the table and set them down with a thud. I shook my head.
"I can't do that, unfortunately." I told him as I activated my magic. Both stallions looked at me confused.
"And why is that, exactly?" Specs asked. Lucky's eyes widened with realization.
"It's no ordinary bounty, this one comes straight from Shining Armor." He looked at Specs. "What did you do?" Specs started to shake.
"How...how did he...no he couldn't have." Specs stood up.
"Don't try and run, otherwise I'd be forced to do something unnecessary." I warned him. Lucky Jet stood up as well and asked the question again.
"What...did...you...do?" He asked again. Specs didn't answer and began to sweat. "Don't do anything stupid, you know who this is, you'll lose." He tried to convince his friend.
"If you care for me enough as a friend, you'd pull that pistol from your hip...and save me." Specs tried to convince his friend. Lucky shook his head.
"Unfortunately, my life is more important to me than yours." Lucky sighed as Specs glared at him.
"Coward." He insulted before spitting on the table. His demeanor changed as he gained some confidence.
"Slinger, if you don't mind me asking, what did he do to get the prince so pissed off." I looked at Lucky and then at Specs.
"You might as well tell him, since this will be the last time you see him. Shining Armor doesn't have the cell room for you." I told him. Specs shook his head.
"That's pretty bold of you to think I'm going to die tonight." I sighed and looked back at Lucky.
"He raped and killed a young filly, one that he taught nonetheless." Lucky looked shocked, so shocked in fact that he sat back down.
"That was you Specs, of all the ponies here, you were the last one I expected to do it. I mean you love teaching the foals and other than a gambling problem you have always been so kind to my daughter. How...how could you." Lucky's sad expression turned into one of anger. "I let you around my daughter, let you foal sit her while I was out...was...was she your next victim?" He stood back up, his horn now glowing. I put my hoof in front of him as Specs took a few steps back.
"Don't, otherwise I'll have to kill you too, it's illegal for a pony without a hunting license to kill anypony, remember." Lucky glared at me.
"You can't expect me to-"
"I know, no father should discover something like this, but you've done enough to prove that you are more than capable of taking care of her. Let me handle this." The stallion relaxed a little and nodded.
"I would never lay a hoof on your daughter, Jet, she was like a sister to me." I turned my attention back to Specs who now held a knife in his hoof.
"Put the knife down, I'm trying to make this easy for you here." I told him calmly.
"Sorry Slinger, but you know I can't do that." He lifted his chin up slightly, trying to intimidate me. I took my hat off with a hoof and placed it on the table before pushing my orange and yellow mane out of my green eyes. I then took my jacket off and placed it neatly over my hat. Finally, I removed my gun belt while pulling my knife from it.
"You've got guts, Slinger...especially since you are better with your guns than you are with a knife." Specs told me before taking the knife into his teeth.
"You're right, but I'd rather not waste a bullet on you." I smirked.
"Your attitude changed quickly." Lucky mentioned as I levitated the knife in front of me.
"What can I say, I like it when they fight back, makes me feel better knowing I'm killing scum like him." I said, twirling my knife around. "In fact, lets make it an even playing field." I dropped the wooden hilt of my knife into my mouth and bit down. Specs grinned with the knife in his mouth, his eyes now looked a little more psychotic and he was shaking.
He made the first move and rushed forward, the tip of the knife pointing at my chest. I side stepped to the right and flipped the blade of my knife to the left. Specs tried to stop himself, but his hooves kept moving as the blade raked across the left side of his ribs and through his cutiemark. The stench of blood now filled my nose as I turned and barely managed to duck underneath his knife. He wasn't done either as he swung wildly in front of me, cutting me on my chest, cheek, and forelegs. I winced and jumped back to get away as he stamped his hoof into the wood underneath us. I glanced behind me and realized I was backed into a table, blocking my only escape route since he'd be ready for another side step. I looked around for a moment and realized that I was trapped by tables every where.
I need to take this outside, but how can I draw him out? I thought to myself.
"What's shwrong Shlinger, are you tired already." Specs taunted as best he could with the knife. I shook my head and spread my legs a little. He growled and charged forward, this time a lot faster. I grit my teeth into the knife and waited for him to get close before I jumped backward on to the table. My back hit the wood as his blade grazed my tail. He spun the blade around so the tip was facing downward and he went to stab me in the rib. I rolled off the table and barely managed to dodge another slice as it grazed my cheek.
Thank Celestia I have red fur. I made a break for the door before he could get turned around and ran out the door with him hot on my hooves. He tackled me through the door and down the stairs until we rolled into the dirt and dropped our knives.
"Why are you running, Slinger, are you scared of little ol' me?" We were both breathing heavily as we stood back up and faced each other.
"No, but if we damaged anything in there, it would cost me some of those chips, which is something I'd personally like to avoid." I limped over to my knife and levitated it back into my mouth. "Now letsh finish thish." I told him as he picked up his own knife.
My turn. I charged forward and slid on the ground, swinging my neck back and cutting the back of his two left hooves before stopping on legs. At this point Specs had not only lost his glasses, but his whole left side was caked in blood as well, blood loss would kill him if I didn't end this quickly. He tried to turn but fell on his side, I had cut the nerves in both of his hooves. He coughed up some blood and dropped the knife.
"Damn you!" I let the knife in my mouth fall out and caught it with my magic. At this point a crowd had started to form around us.
"This could...have all been avoided...if you hadn't resisted." I explained as I gestured to the crowd. "You could have died without anypony knowing why, and they could have remembered the good things about you," I continued before point the tip of my blade at him. "but look at you now, a dying pony, who will forever be known as a rapist..."
"No..." he managed to cough out.
"A murderer!" I continued. "And to make all that sound worse, it was defenseless child who had trusted you."
"No!" He yelled as he tried to stumble back on to his hooves. He sobbed as he fell back down.
"You didn't have to change, because the world did, you could have lived a perfectly happy life," I knelt down next to him and put the knife against his throat. "instead you chose to go and ruin everything you had going for you." I said quietly. Specs did his best to laugh.
"You hypocrite," he coughed up more blood. "you had to change too, the difference is..." he spit more blood onto the dirt beneath him. "...I chose this because I wanted to, but you, heh, no you needed to change." He continued to laugh and cough as I glared down at him. When I had finally heard enough, I moved the blade quickly across his throat.
SHLINK
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"Oh my goodness, not even the princesses can stop it." I heard a voice say from down the hallway.
"We better prepare to evacuate, if the princesses don't stand a chance, I don't think the Elements of Harmony can stop it either." Another voice answered. I crept down the hallway and peeked into the room. Two ponies were sitting on a green couch facing away from me, a mare on the left, a stallion on the right. The mare was bright red in color and had a yellow mane. The stallion was a darker more crimson shade of red and his mane was a bright blue with orange streaks.
"Is everything okay, mommy?" The mare looked back at me and smiled warmly.
"Yes dear, now go back to bed, you have school tomorrow."
"Can daddy read me a bed time story?" My squeaky voice asked quietly. The stallion sighed and got up.
"Sure kiddo, lets get you to bed." He lifted me up on to his back and turned so I could face my mother.
"Goodnight my foal, sleep well." She told me before kissing my forehead. I yawned and waved as my father carried me back to my room.
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"get up!" A voice started to wake me from my slumber. "Son, I need you to get up!" I blinked my eyes open wide and stared face to face with my father. He was sweating profusely and looked scared.
"Where's mommy?" I asked as I started to rub my eyes.
"She's in the living room, now come on, lets pack up some clothes." I looked at my father confused.
"Why?" I asked as I got out of bed.
"Um...we...we are moving! That's right we forgot to tell you, now come on help daddy pack your clothes." I smiled and started to help him as we grabbed as much as we could.
"Rain, come quick!" I heard my mom call for my dad from the living room. He did his best to smile for me.
"Good job, now keep it up, I'll be right back." He told me before galloping out of the room. I quickly finished packing me clothes and grabbed a few toys to bring with me before going to tell my father I was done. When I had gotten to the living room, they were both standing in front of the television, hugging each other.
"The Elements have been defeated! I repeat the Elements of Harmony have fallen! Oh Celestia help us all!" My father switched to a different channel just as I could see the TV. There was a news reporter sitting in behind a desk and he looked just as scared as my father was when he had first woken me up. He was shaking as he held a piece of paper in front of him.
"Things have taken a horrible turn for Equestria today, the Elements of Harmony have disappeared after their fight with the continuous expansion of the Everfree Forest. We have gained information from the Princesses telling everypony to evacuate to the Crystal Empire since the snow and the crystal heart should hold back the Forest. This is our one and only chance of survival," he stopped as another pony ran on screen and gave him a second paper. This time the camera zoomed out a bit and a picture of another pony appeared on the screen. An orange, bald unicorn who wore glasses that covered half his face. He was smiling and looked very happy, unlike everypony else. The news reporter cleared his throat.
"We have just received word that the pony responsible for all of this, is renowned scientist, Atom Beaker. He is now considered dangerous and is wanted by the Equestrian Defense Force for the deaths of thousands including the Elements of Harmony." There was a loud banging sound and the news reporter stood up. He started to back away as screams could be heard off camera. "Please, no...have mercy..." a shadow appeared on the screen and towered over the reporter who started to cry. "Please...d-" there was a loud bang and blood scatter across the wall and apart of the camera.
"Mommy, daddy, what's going on?" My mother gasped as my father turned the television off.
"What are you doing out of your room?" My father asked as knelt down to my height.
"I just came to tell you that I finished packing." I told him, still unaware of what was happening at the time. He held out his hoof.
"Awesome kiddo, now give me a hoof bump." I laughed and bumped his hoof with my own before he picked me up and hugged me.
"Is everything going to be okay daddy?" He smiled warmly and nodded.
"Everything will be just fine, Slinger." Everything faded away.
"Slinger? Equestria to Slinger?" I shook my thoughts away before looking at the pony saying my name. The stallion in front of me wore old guard armor that was purple and white. He was an older pony, his face looked tired and the blue in his mane was faded. He had some wrinkles around his muzzle and eyes and the armor matched that with how much wear and tear it had on it. "Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah...I'm...I'm fine, sorry, I think I just got lost in my thoughts." I told him before taking the bag of chips his pink magic was holding in front of me.
"One thousand blue chips, as promised." I opened the bag to check and then held out a hoof. The stallion took it and gave me a firm hoof shake.
"That's for handling this, by the way, he's dodging our guards left and right for the past month. I'm honestly surprised you found him so easily." He complimented me and lowered his hoof.
"Oh it wasn't easy, I had to ask around every district to find out where he was hiding." I informed him. I placed the bag of chips in my pocket and looked back at him.
"My offer still stands for you to join the guard, ya know." I shook my head.
"I don't belong in the guard, sir, plus I think your stallions would hate me even more if I was apart of it." I explained. He sighed and turned away from me to look up at the wall behind him. It was at least thirty stories tall and had several ponies on top of it armed with guns and other weapons.
"What ever you say, kid. What ever you say." He told me as he started to walk along the wall.
"How's it holding up, if you don't mind me asking." He looked at me and then back at the wall. It was made of stone and steel and was thick as well.
"Well the wall is doing fine for now, there isn't a lot of damage or anything, but I'm afraid that something or somepony will eventually break through it. The Crystal Heart on the other hoof, is still losing power. Cadence and Flurry Heart are struggling to keep their own magic from fading as well." Shining Armor looked even more somber when mentioning his wife and daughter. "I don't know how long we have until its power is completely gone and...and the Everfree continues its expansion." He informed me. He then took a step on to a wooden contraption and closed the gate. "As you know, this information is to be kept from the public, we don't need them knowing that the only two princesses alive are losing their magic, nor do we want them finding out that the Crystal Heart's magic is fading as well." I nodded and turned away from him.
"Yeah, I understand, tell Flurry I said hello, and if you need anything else done," I turned and smiled. "for the right price I will take it on." The prince nodded and made a gesture with his hoof. The contraption then began to rise to the top of the wall and I was left alone at the bottom. I was lucky enough to even obtain information like this and even more lucky that I had become friends with the daughter of Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor. When we had first met I thought she was some weird form of mutation, considering it was believed that all of the princesses were killed by the Everfree Forest. Fortunately, I had been wrong and the Crystal Empire became a home of sorts for me.
I looked at the castle in the distance and sighed. It used to be something beautiful to look at, but after it was first revealed that the Crystal Heart's magic was fading, the castle had lost its shine. Now it was nothing more than a pretty house that the royal family lived in. The two princesses hadn't been seen for months now and some ponies thought they might be dead. This would be the reason the crime rates escalated tremendously, causing the Prince to hire more guards and even mercenaries to protect this place. It had originally taken six years to accommodate for all the ponies that had made their way here, but eventually the walls and homes were built to handle everything. The Empire would continue to expand for years until ponies stopped showing up. The Heart would then start to lose its magic and the empire would be divided into the rich and the poor districts.
Once upon a time you could feel welcome and safe when you came here. I looked at a few of the make shift buildings around me. Now this place looks like any other civilization out there, broken and full of monsters. I grimaced at the thought and began my trek home. The poor districts expanded almost all the way to where the original homes of the empire sat, but with the power of the Heart, that place looked untouched. It was quite a drastic change when you stood at the line where the dirt paths were a lighter brown and the houses had every other color but brown in them. Even the ponies looked and acted different in the area.
I was lucky enough to live right on that border, the poor side of it anyways. I always found it strange how bright the backyard of my house was, while the house itself was dark and looked abandoned. In reality it was, I barely spent any time in here as I was usually out on a job, so I never really kept the place clean. On the plus side, it made the rich cringe any time they saw it, which always put a smile on my face. I made my way into the building and closed the door behind me as quickly as I could.
"I'm home!" I called out as I took my hat off and placed it along with my coat on the coat rack. I chuckled at my joke as no pony showed up to greet me. "That's right, it's quiet here, unlike the outside world."
"No...you needed to change." I looked around for a moment.
"Everything is going to be just fine."
"...renowned scientist Atom Beaker..."
"The voices..." I covered my ears and fell to the floor.
"you plan to kill him, with that weak body." I let go of my ears and stood back up.
"you are ready." I smiled and looked into a mirror close by.
"remind me of who I am." I stepped closer to the mirror on my wall and took note of my injuries.
"who...who are you..."
"No wait...please...I didn't mean to-" BANG
"Who am I?" I pulled my revolver from my holster with my magic and aimed it at the mirror. The image in the mirror grinned.
"You...are...the Gunslinger." It said as I pulled the trigger.
BANG
Author's Note
So for those of you wondering where this went and why I stopped trying to continue the story. I noticed how horrible the writing for it was and decided it was time to start over, so I did...this is the beginning of a rewrite to this story. And I plan on making this story one of my best works. This is Silvermoon signing off...PEACE OUT!
