Damned Are the Guilty

Punisher was used to being late to the scene of a crime. A body in the street, a missing person case: he'd gotten good at showing up late. Most of the time he had to avenge people rather than save them. Yet he was still never an Avenger for more than five minutes, even when he was the best at it. But while he was used to avenging people, what he wasn't used to doing was avenging an entire city.

But as he sprinted through the streets of Seaddle, he could barely keep the rage that blazed like a wildfire in check. All around him he could see the bodies. Hundreds upon thousands of them, all lying in the streets with their eyes glazed over and the life missing from their eyes. They weren't dead, that was the one consolation prize, but they weren't alive either. In a twisted way, they were kind of like him.

Even though he needed to get to who was responsible for this, Punisher did have to stop a few times to save a couple of ponies that were laying in incredibly dangerous positions. One of them had been stripped of their life in front of a moving tram and by the time Punisher had dragged them off of the tracks they were a few seconds away from being killed.

Another pony that needed saving was a baby in a carriage, which was rolling through the streets by itself. Punisher stopped the carriage, but when he looked inside to see that even the baby's eyes were devoid of any spark even he felt a twinge of horror. And then it was buried by an unstoppable rage. He would get whoever did this. He would make them pay.

A booming laugh washed over the Punisher once he had reached an intersection deeper in the city, a laugh that was as ancient as it was cruel. Punisher's eyes narrowed as he grabbed hold of his assault rifle and moved deeper into the city, a city that was devoid of any spark of personality. Every single pony he had come across was the same and it seemed to him that not one had escaped the fate that the others shared.

'I should have been here earlier,' Punisher thought to himself as another wave of laughter shook the ground beneath him, telling the Punisher that there was something that required killing up ahead. 'If it wasn't for that damn princess I might have actually made it here before Tirek managed to return. And I assume that who was responsible for this.'

After running for thirty minutes Punisher discovered that whoever was behind the attack, and he had a good idea of who it was, hadn't completely drained the city of its life yet. When he reached a small park near the center of Seaddle he could hear the faint sounds of ponies screaming, something none of the ones without a spark in their eyes had done. 'That means whoever is doing this hasn't finished yet. I can still stop him.'

Punisher raced ahead through the park, but momentarily stopped when he saw a massive hole in the center of the grassy area, looking like something had erupted from it. Off to the side of the hole he found a centaur laying on his side, wearing the same glazed look that all of the ponies wore. Punisher walked over to him and grabbed him by one of his horns, yanking his head to the side so that he was forced to look at Punisher.

"What's going on here?" Punisher asked in a deep growl that would make any criminal on his world crap their pants, but to Punisher's annoyance all the centaur did was gaze at Punisher's blandly. "Tell me! What happened here?!" Punisher roared before driving a fist into the centaur's face. The centaur gagged with pain and tears filled his eyes, telling Punisher that even with the glazed look they could still feel something.

"Tirek has risen," the centaur replied in the most depressed tone ever. "He stole the magic of everypony in this city. He took my magic as well. It was an honor, to have my magic be taken from him first. Out of all the centaurs, he chose me." For a moment Punisher saw a sense of pride in the centaur's eyes and it infuriated him.

Punisher pulled out his knife and drove it into the shoulder of the centaur, getting the beast to howl with pain. Punisher twisted the knife until the centaur was screaming, before moving his face in closer to the beasts. "I'm only going to ask once. How do I stop him?"

"Y-you can't," the centaur whimpered, trying to grab at his shoulder to remove the knife. Every time he tried Punisher would twist the knife even harder, getting another scream out of the beast. "He will soon consume all the magic in the land! His power grows with each victim he takes! This time even the Rainbow Power won't be able to stop him! Oh for the love of Faust, have mercy!"

"Sorry, all out of that," Punisher growled as he ripped the knife out of the centaur's shoulder, spun it once in his hand and then drove it straight up through the centaur's jaw. The tip of the blade barely poked out of the top of the centaur's head, but he had only begun to roll his eyes back before Punisher ripped the knife out of him and resumed his run towards the destruction.

'Unstoppable magic force that even the Rainbow Power won't be able to stop? Going to guess that the Rainbow Power is how Twilight and her allies defeated Tirek last time,'' Punisher pieced together, getting a frown to spread across his lips. 'So keeping the villain alive didn't work. Surprise. This time I'll give a more permanent solution to the problem.'

But the solution quickly vanished from Punisher's mind when he rounded a corner and saw a sight that was bizarre for even him. A colossal centaur stood in the center of the streets, one that was nearly seven stories tall and had muscles on top of muscles. He radiated a magical aura that Punisher could feel even though he was at a distance and every time to being took a step the ground beneath Punisher shook slightly. Tirek.

Punisher quickly dove behind cover and hoped that he hadn't been seen. After a few moments of waiting for the shooting to start, he figured that they had missed him. He peeked out from behind his cover to see that Tirek was flanked with two other centaurs, both of who had their heads bowed like they were praying. That also annoyed him.

But Punisher's eyes were drawn back to Tirek and just how powerful he felt. Even Punisher, who generally didn't go up against magical foes, could sense why this guy was a big deal. 'Stealth is my best option right now,' Punisher thought as he picked up his rifle and took careful aim at the back of the centaur's head. 'One good shot. That's all I need to put this demon back in his grave. But I should wait till he's alone. If this doesn't work, I don't like my chances of going one on three.'

Tirek had other ideas. The centaur drew back a fist and slammed it into the side of one of the buildings. A smile crossed his face as he drew his arm out of the building and saw that he was holding three ponies in his grip now. They screamed with fear as he gazed upon them, before he opened his maw wide. Punisher's eyes widened with disbelief as the centaur began to suck the very magic out of the ponies, drawing the color out of their eyes and even the mark off of their flank. By the time Punisher remembered to act Tirek had already tossed the ponies to the side.

'Stay calm, Frank. He's already drained them. Not worth losing the element of surprise,' Punisher thought as he picked up an item and took aim at a tunnel below them, hoping that the noise would cause the centaurs to split up. Before he could throw it Tirek drove his fist back into the building and when he withdrew it again Punisher found that he was holding two adults...and a child.

"Truly this lands magic is the best," Tirek said with a laugh before he opened his maw once more.

BANG!

Tirek roared as something struck him in the back of the head, the surprise from being struck causing him to release the ponies that he had grabbed. The ponies hit the ground in a dazed state, but when the human in black raced over to them they found the ability to move once more.

"Get out of here!" Punisher roared at them before he aimed his rifle at Tirek and switched to automatic. Bullets poured from the end of his gun as he fired into the face of Tirek, doing his best to cover for the ponies as they ran for their lives. The sound of gunfire echoed throughout the city, filling the eerie calm of the city with the sound of death. But he quickly ran out of bullets and had to let up his pressure on Tirek, allowing the centaur to pull a hand away from his face and glare down at the human.

Despite not being afraid of the giant centaur, Punisher quickly found that he was getting more and more uneasy about his chances. The bullets, while leaving quite the mark on Tirek, hadn't managed to penetrate his skin, leaving Punisher to deal with a pissed off magical monster that towered over the human. Despite all of this, Punisher reloaded and prepared to fire again.

"Ah yes, I have heard of you," Tirek said with a smile, but there was a rage like a volcano with his voice. He slammed a fist towards where Punisher had been standing, but when the fist hit the ground the human had already rolled out of the way. Yet the shockwave generated from the impact still hurled Punisher across the street, where he was very quickly introduced to the side of a carriage. "You are the human that has killed a good number of my kind. I do not take kindly to that. But I sense you have no magic in you, so if they were slain by one so weak, perhaps they deserved it."

Pain lanced up Punisher's body as he shakily rose to his feet, shaking the pain out of his eyes before he glared at Tirek, who was chasing after the ponies once more. Punisher raised his rifle and fired at Tirek's eyes, getting the beast to roar as he switched its targets. The ponies turned the corner and raced off, while Punisher emptied another clip into the centaur. But just like before, the bullets only hurt Tirek. They didn't kill him.

"You think that you have saved anypony, human?" Tirek asked Punisher as the human reloaded, Tireks' voice alone enough to shake the ground beneath them. "You think that you can kill me and save them from my wrath? Allow me to show you," Tirek began as the space between his two horns began to glow, making every hair on the back of Punisher's neck to stand on end, "How wrong you are!"

Tirek then swung his head towards the buildings, opening his maw as wide as it could go. Screams echoed throughout the city as all of the magic from the ponies was sucked into Tirek, making the city go completely quiet a moment later. Tirek then spun his head towards a group of ponies behind them and sucked the magic out of them as well, including a number of foals that were with them.

"NO!" Punisher roared as he switched to his shotgun and raced up to Tirek, firing shotgun blasts point blank into the side of Tirek. But faster than he would have believed Tirek spun towards Punisher, grabbing the human by the face and hoisting him into the air.

"Behold human, the new age of Tirek," Tirek said with a laugh as he motioned his hand towards all the ponies that were now laying motionless in the streets, hundreds upon thousands of them. But all Punisher could see was the little foals whose eyes were devoid of anything. "All of their magic is now mine. And soon, the world will bow to me. It won't have a choice."

"I'm going to kill you. I won't stop until you're burning in hell," Punisher promised the centaur, who smiled at Punisher as if he was a puppy that had done something cute.

"Doubtful. Because unless you can come back from the dead, this is the last we will see of each other," Tirek said with a laugh before he hurled Punisher into the side of a building. Punisher nearly blacked out from the pain of his body breaking from the impact, but with his iron will he managed to hold on to consciousness. But when he saw the magic in Tirek's horns take aim at him, he wished he hadn't.

"Farewell, human."

And then Punisher was consumed with magic.