Damned Are the Guilty

Horror and an incredible desire to vomit filled Twilight as she gazed down at the now headless centaur, who was bleeding profusely upon the ground. She shakily glanced down at herself to see that a bit of blood had sprayed on her, while the human across from her was already wiping the blood off of his gun with a rag. She wanted to cry, throw up and scream in horror, but then the human turned his eyes towards her and her strength of will kicked in.

"You MONSTER!" Twilight bellowed as she created a barrier of magic around herself, getting the human to raise an eyebrow before she unleashed a blast of magic at his chest. Punisher hadn't been expecting the attack and took the beam right in his second skull, sending him flying across the city street. He landed hard on his back and rolled up to his feet, narrowing his eyes at the raging alicorn. "I am Princess Twilight and you will answer for that!"

'She's strong. Stronger than the centaurs,' Punisher noted as he holstered his pistol and pulled out his shotgun, figuring that he was going to need firepower in order to stop her. 'And her shield is perfect. No openings. No chance for me to get a clear shot. Not good.'

"You killed them! They had surrendered and you MURDERED them!" Twilight bellowed as she ripped a carriage off of the ground and hurled it at Punisher, who rolled out of the way and came back up with his gun aimed right at her. Again he found that her shield was too perfect and he knew that he would be wasting ammo. "How could you kill three living beings like that?!"

"Five, if we're counting the two that ran off," Punisher replied in a voice so cold that even with her barrier Twilight felt the chill. "They were killers. They had attacked innocent. I put them down. End of story."

His words infuriated the alicorn even further and she roared as she fired blasts of magic towards Punisher, who leapt back to avoid the attacks. 'Can't fight her out in the open. She has too much power and too much room to move around. Need to get her enclosed.'

Punisher turned around and raced into the skyscraper behind him, getting Twilight to snarl before she flew in after him. She blew the doors off of its hinges and roared as she entered, but as she glanced around the lobby she found that the Punisher had vanished. She floated into the center of the room, glancing around at the different places where he could be hiding.

Her eyes widened when the lights all turned off suddenly, leaving her magic barrier being the only light left in the room aside from the sun coming in through the blown off doors. Twilight began to glance around with her horn glowing with power, eyes narrowed as she waited for the first sign of movement. A door closed behind her and she spun around to see that the door to the stairwell had just been closed. Without a moments hesitation she flung herself through the door, knocking it over as she entered the stairwell.

Her eyes snapped up as she heard footsteps running on the stairs a few floors above her, getting her rage to return before she rocketed up the stairs. "You won't get away for me! You're going to answer for what you've done!" she roared as she heard another door closed, but barely a second had passed before she blew that door off of it's hinges and flung herself into the room.

"One day I probably will. But that day isn't today."

Twilight narrowed her eyes once more as she found herself amongst numerous cubicles and furniture, providing plenty of places for him to hide. She sent out a scan of magic to see if she could determine his location, but to her surprise the scan came back negative for any living life forms. She began to move forward while glancing around quickly, starting to feel her anger give way to fear.

'He has firearms. I may not know much about them, but I know they are lethal. He's also merciless and knows how to use them. If I lower my guard for even a second he could kill me,' Twilight thought to herself as she moved into the center of the room.

"Was that you're first time watching someone die?"

Twilight spun around, unable to get a location on where he was hiding. She ripped up a cubicle with her magic and hurled in into the other ones, but she snarled when she saw there was no one there.

"No, but it was my first time watching somepony get murdered," she spat back as she fired another blast of magic into a cubicle, which proved a fruitless effort. "Who...what are you anyway? None of the humans that I've ever met would ever kill somepony who has given up!"

"Then consider yourself lucky that you've met good people," his voice echoed throughout the room. Twilight heard movement behind her and she whipped around to see a shadow slither across the wall. She slashed through the area the shadow had been with her magic, cleaving through the area.

"So are you saying that you're not a good person? Because that's that the understatement of the century," Twilight snarled as she moved over to where the shadow had been, but once again the human wasn't there. "Who are you and why are you here? Did you come through the mirror portal or did you find another way?"

"So there is another way back to my world. Good to know." Twilight felt something hit the back of her barrier and she spun around to fire a blast at whatever had hit her shield. To her surprise she found that a lamp had hit her shield, but a moment later she heard something running down the stairs. Twilight snarled before she teleported herself to the ground floor, glaring at the stairwell for a moment.

"Got you," she snarled the moment the human with the white skull raced through the door, his eyes going wide in surprise when he saw she was floating there. Before he could move Twilight grabbed him with her magic and hurled him across the room, driving him head first into a wall. Punisher grunted in pain as he impacted, but he rolled up to his feet and took aim at one of Twilight's legs with his assault rifle.

Despite knowing it was coming Twilight couldn't help but jump when the rifle cracked. She gritted her teeth as the bullet impacted her shield, but to her internal relief the barrier held. Punisher's eyes narrowed for a second before he grabbed a chair and hurled it at Twilight, who destroyed it with a blast of magic.

"Don't bother trying to run. I will catch you," Twilight promised Punisher, who was slowly trying to move to the exit. Twilight vanished in a flash of magic and appeared at the doors, getting Punisher to narrow his eyes.

'So she can teleport. And it doesn't bother her in the least,' Punisher noted as he started to formulate a plan. "I'm not your enemy here, horse. You're a hero or protector of this reality, that much I can tell. I don't want to fight you."

"Because you know you'll lose," Twilight spat back before she unleashed her magic upon Punisher once more, who dove out of the way of the magical blast. Twilight had been predicting the movement and grabbed him out of the air with her magic, using her unbelievable power to pin the human to the ground. Despite being an incredibly strong human being, Punisher found that he wasn't able to break through the magic.

"This is over," Twilight said as she floated over to the pinned Punisher, who was still straining against the magic. He was pinned and knew that he needed something to break her concentration, if even for a moment. "You're coming with me and we're going to find out just who you are. And then you're going to answer for what you've done, because as much as I like to give others chances, those centaurs weren't the first you've murdered, are they?"

"I stopped counting years ago," Punisher replied with a look at Twilight, smiling slightly when he found that she was still keeping her barrier of magic up around herself. "You're smart and clever with your magic. Yeah, my little girl would probably consider you her favorite. She always did like the smart ones."

"You...have a daughter?" Twilight asked with confusion, the rage dulling for a moment. And at the same time, Punisher felt the magic around him weaken slightly. That was his moment. Faster than Twilight believed possible he broke free of her spell and kicked her in the side of the head with a boot. She had lowered her guard after hearing him speak, so her barrier couldn't completely protect her from the blow. She staggered back before she felt arms wrap around her waist and a moment later she was suplexed into the ground.

Twilight cried out in pain as she felt the back of her head bounce off of the ground, causing pain to blaze through her head. She felt her concentration break and she felt her magical barrier fall, causing fear to rip through her mid. Before she could muster the will to summon another spell a fist caught her in the side of the face, sending her tumbling across the ground.

Punisher marched over to Twilight and lifted her by her horn, hurling her across the room and into the side of a table. Twilight cried out in pain as she crashed through the table before she tumbled across the ground, groaning weakly as she tried to push herself back up. Punisher pulled out his rifle and took perfect aim at Twilight's head, before letting out a small sigh as he lowered the gun. He flipped it around in his hands and grabbed it by the barrel, while walking towards the still recovering Twilight.

"I will stop you," Twilight promised Punisher as she glared up at him, defiance and rage in her eyes. It was the same kind of rage that Punisher had seen in the eyes of Daredevil or Spiderman, after they had witnessed him punish a criminal. "I will bring you down!"

"They all say that," Punisher replied before he swung the butt of his gun into her face, snapping her head to the side and dropping her to the ground. Punisher stared down at her for a moment before he holstered his assault rifle and turned towards the exit, not looking back at the unconscious alicorn. He walked by the dead centaurs without giving them another look, but he did notice that ponies were slowly starting to come back into the city, telling him that it was time to leave.

'Tirek. They mentioned that they were doing this for another being. And the Twilight mentioned something about Tartarus before I killed the others,' Punisher recalled as he slipped into a back alley, not wanting to be seen by anyone else. 'That means a demon or some evil threat. Guess I'm going to be busy a little longer here. But there is a way back. I'll look into that eventually.'

He began to move through the alleys and side roads, making sure to stay out of sight. But he found his thoughts occasionally going back to Twilight and a bitter smile crossed his face. 'Magical powers, princesses with wings and talking ponies. My little girl really would have loved it here. Too bad that I don't.'