Damned Are the Guilty

The clouds swirled in a vortex above the mountaintop where a monstrous beast roared in defiance at the beings around it. The sphinx tore a chunk of stone out of the ground and hurled it at a purple alicorn that was circling around him, roaring in fury when the alicorn blasted the stone out of the sky with a beam of magic. The alicorn narrowed her eyes at the sphinx, who bellowed up in defiance at her.

"This foolish mission of yours has gone on for too long!" Twilight called down to the sphinx as she fired a beam of purple magic at the sphinx, who sliced the magic out of the air with his claws. "Ratet, when will you finally see that power and destruction is not what gives you true power?!"

"When I bring down you and your infernal Rainbow Powers!" Ratet roared back as he kicked off the floor of the stone temple he stood upon, thrusting himself into the air with his lion legs to hurl himself at the princess. "I will bring down that magic that makes you so strong!"

Twilight narrowed her eyes before she weaved to the side, dodging the slash from the sphinx before she spun around and lassoed him with her magic. The sphinx bellowed in fury as Twilight spun around and swung him back into the mountaintop, where Ratet groaned with pain as he glanced up at Twilight once more.

"Don't you get it? What makes me powerful isn't the Rainbow Power or the magic that it grants upon me. It's my friends," Twilight said with the utmost certainty. The sphinx snarled as he channeled the power of the sun into his claws, but before he could attack five other beams of magic struck him in the chest and sent him hurtling backwards. Ratet slammed into the side of a pillar with a groan, glancing up through the pain at the six ponies that floated side by side.

"No...NO! I will not fall to you today!" Ratet bellowed before he muttered the most forbidden incantations, channeling both the power of the sun and the power of the dead into his claws. Twilight shook her head with sorrow before she nodded to her friends, each of them erupting with rainbow power as they prepared their final attack. "I will show to the world that my power, my way of magic, is not the inferior one! I will prove to you all by myself!"

"And that is why you will lose," Twilight promised him. Ratet screamed with all of his might as he slashed towards the Ambassadors, unleashing six slashes of the most ancient of magic that tore apart the sky. Twilight and her friends retaliated with a beam of magic filled with the power of rainbow magic, magic supercharged with friendship, harmony and teamwork. The two magical attacks collided and for a brief moment the inhabitants of the world watched as two attacks of unstoppable magic tried to overpower the other.

Then the Rainbow Power shattered the power of the gods, obliterating the magical attack and leaving nothing in the way between Ratet and the Rainbow Power. His eyes widened with terror before the Rainbow Power descended upon him, causing him to roar as the power engulfed him. A tornado of rainbow magic shot into the sky, blasting away the clouds and allowing the sunlight to shine down upon the land once more.

"And that's a wrap," Rainbow Dash said with a smirk as the Rainbow Power left their bodies, causing the six of them down to the mountaintop.

"And just in time for me to get back to work on the farm," AJ said with a smile as she glanced up at the sun.

"We're not done yet," Twilight said to them as the smoke cleared from the crater that had been created by their Rainbow Power, where a lone figure lay upon his knees with his head hung low. Rainbow and Rarity began to move towards the sphinx, but Twilight held out a wing to stop them before she shook her head. She then walked over to the sphinx herself, slowly approaching Ratet while waiting for any sudden movements.

"It was going to be beautiful," Ratet whispered in a voice that was practically defeated, slowly causing a frown to cross Twilight's face. "In this age of pony magic and superiority, I was going to show the world that there was another magic. Another source of power that those without your alicorn power would be able to use. But once again, only pony magic can be the best. And the rest of us have to scramble over what is left."

"Ratet...it's not the strength of my magic that makes me strong," Twilight repeated with a sad shake of her head before she extended a wing and placed it upon the sphinx's shoulder. "In fact, in terms of actually strength...your power might be stronger than even my alicorn might."

The sphinx's head snapped up to stare at Twilight, who gave him a kind smile before she looked back to her friends. "They are the source of my strength. Alone I could not hope to be as powerful as I am now. But with them...our power is unbeatable. With them, the true power of our magic is unlocked. And I can't help but wonder...if you are this strong with your magic by yourself, how strong could you be if you shared it with your friends?"

Ratet looked from Twilight to the other five ambassadors, each of whom nodded at him as his eyes glanced over them. The sphinx then lowered his head as he thought about what Twilight had told him, before he let out a small sigh and shook his head.

"I...do not know what it takes to make friends. All of my life I have been alone, forced to rely on my own power to survive," Ratet admitted, before he gazed up at Twilight with hope in his eyes. "But if you are willing to aid me...maybe I can learn."

"Sure," Twilight said with a large smile. "I'll help you in any way I can."

++++)(++++

Forests in Equestria are generally quiet places, only occasionally disturbed by a pony who wished to talk a walk through them and experience nature first hoof. But as a brilliant flash of white erupted in the center of a forest in the middle of a forest at the edge of Equestria, the peace and quiet of the forest was shattered.

As the flash of light ended a teenager emerged from the center of the light and fell face first into the dirt, spitting up both dirt and blood as she lifted her head and glanced around frantically. She pushed herself up to her feet and whipped her blonde hair out of her eyes, spinning around with terror flashing in her eyes. She held up a hand and pointed it at the trees around her, spinning around once more to look behind her.

When she saw nothing she let out a small sigh, which caused pain to streak up her side. She let out a weak cry as she held a hand to her side, glancing down to see red bleeding down her side. She applied pressure to the gunshot wound while she staggered over to a tree, leaning against it for support as gritted her teeth in pain.

'I'm fine. I escaped,' she thought to herself as she let out a sigh, using her mental powers to suppress the pain that felt like a fire. 'He couldn't have followed me here. It's impossible. He might be scary, he might be the scariest son of a bitch I've ever fought, but he doesn't have powers. He couldn't have-'

Her train of thought was comply decimated when her eyes caught the faintest trace of movement in the trees. A small cry escaped her lips as the pain in her side became an afterthought. With a roar of fury she uprooted a tree with her telekinetic powers and hurled it at the spot where she had seen it. The symbol. The symbol that was followed by bodies. The white skull.

She uprooted tree after tree and hurled them into the forest, so focused on killing the man that might be there that she never noticed that she was screaming the entire time. It was only after she had picked up and hurled every tree within a twenty foot radius that she stopped, taking in pained breaths before she took a step forward to see if she had killed him.

BANG!

The teen screamed in agony as a bullet tore through her knee, shattering the bone and spraying blood across the ground as the bullet went clean through flesh and bone. Agony blazed through her mind as she collapsed to one knee, gritting her teeth as she glanced down at the blood pouring from her knee. She forced the pain down as she used her telekinesis to lift herself slowly back up, leaning on her good leg for support.

A second gunshot tore through the air while the bullet tore through her other knee, sending the screaming girl collapsing into the blood stained dirt. She seethed in pain as she struggled to see through the tears that burned at her eyes, breathing in pained gasp as she tried to push herself back up.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement and with all of her will she spun around, ready to kill whatever was there with her powers. But she didn't see a person standing behind her or even the white skull. All she saw was the butt of a gun. Blood sprayed from her nose at the butt of the gun slammed into her face, causing her to fall onto her back as her vision blurred. She felt a boot place itself upon her chest and pin her to the ground. She gagged as her air was cut off and grabbed hold of the black boot to try to move it, but it refused to budge.

Through her tears she looked past the boot and up to the man it belonged to. He wore a black bodysuit underneath of black pieces of armor, the largest of which being the bulletproof vest that covered his torso. A pistol was holstered on each leg, but what drew the girls full attention was the white skull upon his chest...and the black eyes that gazed down the barrel of the gun that was aimed at her face.

"Y...you can't...be here," she choked out, tears streaming down her face as she tried in vain to concentrate on her powers. But the moment she did so the boot slammed down onto her chest, causing her to scream in pain as she felt her ribs break.

"Don't bother. I know that your powers are based on concentration," the man said in a tone that was devoid of all emotion, yet that same tone caused her to practically wet herself. "So as long as you are in constant pain..." She screamed out in pain once again as he drove his other boot into one of her knees, the agony nearly causing her to black out.

"Why? Why are you after me?" she sobbed as she tried to move away from the armored man, but he placed another boot on her chest and pushed her down. "I haven't done anything to anyone!"

"Tell that to those other teens that you helped to kill," the man replied in a cold tone, one that felt like the voice of death itself. "Tell that to the parents that tried to protect the mutant kids that you stole for your boss. For Magneto."

"But I didn't-"

"You brought down a house upon them. I watched the parents get put in bags," the man finished before she could say anything. The teen let out a whimper as the man took perfect aim at her skull...before he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and yanked her to her feet. He slammed a fist into her gut with such force that she began to cough up blood. He then grabbed her by the throat and dragged her over to a tree, where he threw her spine first into the bark before he cracked her across the ribs with his gun. An elbow to the nose caused her to slump to the base of the tree, where she could only gaze up at the white skull with tear stained eyes.

"Seventeen years old...and already you have torn apart so many," the Punisher said in a whisper as he took aim at her head once more with his assault rifle, knowing that with one pull of the trigger he would end her. Then he scowled and drove his knee into her face, shattering her nose and drenching his knee in her blood. She let out a weak groan as she fell to her side, sobbing in pain as she lay on the ground. Punisher narrowed his eyes at her before he turned and began to walk away, never noticing her beginning to sit back up with rage in her eyes.

"I turned eighteen two days ago, you dumb fuck," she seethed under her breath as she concentrated with all of her might to lift one of the splintered trees, taking aim at the back of the Punishers head. "And don't you dare turn your back on the Brother-"

The Punisher whipped around and fired his pistol, the bullet piercing through her forehead and blowing her brains out of the back of her skull. Her words died on her lips as her eyes rolled back in her head, her body slumping over a moment later. The tree limb that she had been lifting fell to the ground with a thud, leaving the Punisher in complete silence as he stared down at her body.

"Happy birthday," he muttered before he turned and began to walk out of the forest, holstering his pistol as he walked. He didn't know how long he walked for, but he was aware that he wasn't in a forest on Earth that he remembered. As he gazed at some of the creatures there, he was starting to believe that he wasn't on Earth anymore. 'I knew she could teleport. But could she hop dimensions?...Doesn't matter.'

A beast that had three heads passed him by without a second thought, though the Punisher was interested by the fact that each head was different. A number of rabbits blocked his way at one point, but they took one look at the man and ran. He ran across a bear that had menace in its eyes and for a long moment the two glared at each other. The bear sniffed Punisher and its nose wrinkled as it smelled something. It smelled death.

"Smart move," Punisher muttered to the bear as the beast lumber back into the forest, leaving a clear path to the exit for the Punisher. As he exited the forest he found that himself standing not too far away from the edge of a small city, one that he didn't recognize. For a brief moment he considered whether or not he should approach the city before a sound distracted him.

He glanced over to see what looked like a group of three horses kicking an older looking horse that was cowering on the ground. One of the horses snatched what looked like a purse from the older horse before the three of them raced off towards some of the buildings on the outskirt of the city. The older pony slowly pushed themselves up to their hooves and hobbled after the other horses, but after a moment they fell to their knees.

"Stupid highway robbing punks...taking my purse like they own the place," she groaned in pain as she tried to push herself after them. "If I was younger I would..." Whatever she would have done she never got to say, as her breath was stolen from her as a black clad man with a white skull on his body armor walked by her. Her mouth couldn't form words and all her eyes could do was watch as the figure walked by her. She didn't know who or even what he was, nor did she know what he was carrying. But she did know one thing.

He was heading in the same direction the muggers had gone.