Damned Are the Guilty

"Of course there's somepony wanting to destroy the world. Why wouldn't there be?" Twilight asked herself as she gazed down at Whinnyapolis, which was currently being attacked by numerous centaur like creatures that were blasting apart the city with their magic. When she had first teleported to the city she had hoped that it would be a simple case, maybe a misunderstood monster or something easy. "But it's extremists. Of course it would be a ground on a day like today."

She spread her wings to their fullest and hurled herself into the battle, shooting a blast of magic out of her horn as she descended. The blast caught one of the centaur's in the chest and sent him rocketing backwards across the city streets, where he crashed into a trash can. The other four glared up at the princess, who landed without a sound in front of the centaur's.

"Alright, one of you want to give me a good reason for not blasting your butt's into a jail cell?" Twilight asked in a very annoyed tone, but the tone of her voice was lost on the centaur's. "Because I've been having a really rough day and I would appreciate it if this didn't have to end in a fight."

"Bah, it is the princess of friendship. How terrifying," one of the centaurs mocked her with a smirk as magic began to channel within his horns. "Be careful my brothers, she might try to make friends with us if we don't behave."

"Oh no. Maybe she'll threaten to tell our mothers if we don't act real nice," another smirked before he sent a blast of magic into one of the buildings. Twilight snarled before her horn glowed and she grabbed hold of the falling rubble with her magic. The moment she did so one of the centaurs lunged at her, but she vanished in a flash of purple along with the rubble.

"Actually, I was planning on simply talking to you guys and hoping that we could solve this without violence," Twilight said from behind them before each of the four centaurs that were still standing each took a chunk of rubble to the back of the head. "But clearly none of you wish to talk. None of you wish to see how your actions hurt others. It seems that all anything anypony understands lately is violence."

"Of course it will end in violence. We are powerful. Why should we not use our magic to take what we wish?" a centaur asked before he fired a beam of magic towards Twilight, who moved to the side to avoid the blast.

"Not only that, but if we destroy this world before our master can return, then he will have no pony there to oppose him! We will be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams!" another said as he tried to throw a punch at Twilight, but she caught the attack with her magic and flung him over her head.

"All you villains are the same," Twilight said with a disheartened sigh before her horn glowed with a power that made the centaurs back away from her slightly. "You only seek power and fame while caring nothing about those that you have to hurt to get it. Normally I would try to talk to you guys or be nicer, but...I'm really tired today. So I'm just going to put an end to this."

Twilight's eyes flashed before she unleashed a torrent of magic at the centaur's, who created barrier around themselves to deflect her magic. Twilight spread her wings and ascended into the sky, unleashing bolts of alicorn might upon her foes, who moved rapidly to avoid being struck.

"Feh, this battle will take too long! You two! Go off into the city and cause more destruction! For Tirek!" the leader of the centaur's roared before he fired a bolt of magic at Twilight, who deflected the spell with ease. She glared at the two that were running off, but she couldn't chase after them due to the huge amounts of magic that was being fired up at her.

"Tirek, huh? Is he going to be coming back as well?" Twilight asked the centaur's as she weaved in and out of their shots, firing back with her magic when she was given the opening. "Don't you guys remember how that went last time? We beat him and threw him back into his prison."

"You just got lucky! This time, we'll give him so much power that even your rainbow magic will be useless against him!" one of the centaur's roared, taking perfect aim at Twilight. Twilight caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and created a barrier around herself to deflect the spell.

BANG! BANG!

Both the centaurs and Twilight stopped fighting as two loud cracks tore apart the sky. Both sides turned and looked over in the direction where the other centaurs had run off and where the sound had come from. The city was as silent as a crypt, but there was still a single sound that could be heard. The sound of footsteps. Through the dust and rubble walked a sole figure. One that was dressed head to toe in black, with a white skull painted on his chest. But while Twilight knew he was a human, what she didn't know was who he was or what he was doing here.

"Well well, what do we have here?" one of the centaur's asked as it walked towards the human, a smile on its face. "A little being that's lost its way? Don't worry, I promise I'll-" His words went cold when the human looked up at him, glaring at him with eyes that chilled the centaur to the core. For the human had the eyes of a killer. One that had killed so many

And the centaur knew he was next.

.45

The centaur roared at the Punisher as it cocked back a fist and threw the blow right at the human's head. But by the time the fist struck where the Punisher had been standing, he had already rolled out of the way and sprang back up to his feet. Punisher took aim at the centaurs head, feeling his finger graze the trigger before something grabbed hold of the back of his vest and yanked him off of his feet. He landed on his back with a grunt, forcing him to sit up as a purple alicorn landed in front of him.

"I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but you need to leave now," Twilight ordered before she created a sphere of magic to protect the both of them from the onslaught of magic that was launched her way.

"You think I need protecting?" Punisher asked as he stood back up, wondering whether or not the pony deserved his wrath.

"Of course. You're clearly out of your league here. Go, I'll make sure to keep you safe!" Twilight promised before a crack appeared in her barrier, forcing Twilight to grit her teeth as the barrier began to shatter.

"Heh, so you're a hero, huh?"

"Guess so. Why do you ask?" Twilight grunted.

"Because that gives me one less target." Twilight felt something strike her in the back of the head, causing pain to erupt through her skull as she fell to the ground. Her barrier fell and allowed the magical attacks to come through, but Punisher had already scooped up Twilight and ran over behind some rubble. He dropped her off there before switching to his assault rifle, glancing around the corner to see where the centaurs were.

"Three more of them. Arrogant, powerful and easy to kill," Punisher muttered. He dashed out from behind the shelter of the rubble and took aim at the first centaur. The being didn't do anything to defend himself as the human came running at him and instead chose to motion for Punisher to bring it. It was the last thing he'd ever do.

The Punisher took perfect aim and squeezed on the trigger, firing a single shot out of his rifle. The bullet tore through the skull of the centaur and blew his brains out of the back of his head in a spray of blood, getting him to fall with his arrogant smile still on his face. The other two centaurs gasped in horror at what befell their comrade before they erected barrier of magic around their forms to defend themselves.

They tried to, at least, but with training and a lifetime of practice, Punisher whipped around after killing one of the centaurs and fired at the second one, slipping the bullet past his barrier and blowing off the side of the beasts head. He went down in a bloody cry of pain, leaving Punisher with only one centaur left to deal with.

"What in the Tartarus are you?!" the centaur roared from behind his magic shield as he fire bolts of magic at the Punisher, who dove behind cover to avoid being hit. He took a moment to collect himself before he rolled out of the way once more, just in time to avoid being blow up by a torrent of powerful magic. "You've killed my brothers! My family!"

"I promise if you stay still, I can help you see them again," Punisher replied in a tone even colder than ice, glaring down the centaur before slipping behind a carriage for protection. The centaur bellowed with fury before he unleashed hellfire upon the carriage, blasting it to pieces. The centaur unleashed shot after shot after shot into the carriage, shaking the earth with the force of his magic. After a full minute of unleashing his magic he finally stopped, so tired from his spells that he lowered his shield before marching towards where the Punisher had been hiding.

He found the human laying motionless on his back, eyes closed and head tilted at an odd angle. The centaur stared down at him for a moment before he let out a laugh to the sky, one that was more relieved than happy. "Haha, seems that you were not some force of death after all. You are weak, while I am-"

"Dead."

Punisher sat up and took aim at the centaurs head with his pistol. The centaur let out a curse as ancient as it was fowl before a barrier of magic appeared around his head. Punisher narrowed his eyes before lowering his pistol at the beasts legs and fired four shots with precision. The centaur bellowed with pain as he fell to his side, blood erupting from all four of his legs. He tried to turn to face the Punisher, but the butt end of a pistol drove him to the dirt.

"Die," Punisher said as he took aim at the centaur's head, but before he could pull the trigger an explosion of purple magic erupted from beside him. Both he and the centaur turned to see an infuriated alicorn floating towards them, her body radiating pure magic.

"I will only say this once. Both of you STAND DOWN or there will be hell to pay!" Twilight roared, her eyes completely consumed by her magic. The centaur looked from her to the Punisher before slowly raising his hands to surrender. Punisher cast a glance of mild interest at Twilight, who was seething at him. He could feel her power, a power that he had only felt on more magical heroes and villains. He knew getting on her bad side would be a problem. But he didn't care.

BANG!