Chapters A sigh of relief escaped the purple alicorns lips as the doors to her castle opened to her knocking, allowing her access to her home. She walked inside in a slow manner, far more tired than she had let on to her friends and teacher back at Canterlot. Her plan was to find her bath, find her bed and then sleep off the rest of the day unless another crisis popped up.
'But I'm glad I managed to get through to Ratet,' she thought with a weary smile as she walked alone through the halls, knowing that both Spike and Starlight were out at the moment. 'He had the best of intentions, but nopony was ever there to help him find a positive way to apply his magic. Hopefully with the guidance of Celestia and Luna, as well as me from time to time, he'll turn into a real magician.'
Twilight pushed open the door to the bathroom and used her magic to turn the knob above the tub. A stream of hot water descended into the tub below, while Twilight reached under the sink and pulled out a bottle of bubble bath. She smiled at the bottle like it was an old friend before applying the pink liquid to the water. The bubbles rose with her spirits and once the tub was nearly filled she slid herself into the water.
'And with this, another crisis in Equestria has come to an end,' she realized as she covered everything but her face in bubbles as she surrendered herself to their soothing touch. She cracked open her eyes and stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts of victory slowly beginning to fade as another thought crossed her mind. 'But Ratet was another being that believed that the only way that they could undo some injustice was through force and violence. Tirek, Sombra, Discord...how many more like them are out there? And how many of them will we have to face eventually?'
'So many foes and not all of them are world enders like those three...but there are just so many that seek to harm others, to use their powers for their own gain,' Twilight thought with a groan as she slid further into the bubbles. 'How many will it take before the world sees the value in harmony? And how long will we have to fight?'
She shook her head slight to clear her thoughts before her horned glowed with a light that reflected in the bubbles, pulling over a book from the counter next to her that she had been reading during bath time. She resumed her page and lost herself in her book until the water began to get tepid, telling her that she had spent enough time in the bath.
She returned her book, used her magic to remove all of the bubbles that clung to her and rose out of her tub, grabbing the towel to wipe off the water that clung to her coat. She dried herself off before she glanced at herself in the mirror, finding a pony with tired eyes staring back at her. For a moment the both of them stared at each other before they both smiled and Twilight turned towards the door while hanging up her towel.
'Silly Twilight. You can't give up. You've always got to keep fighting,' she reminded herself as she exited the bathroom and headed for her bed chambers, glancing around to see that Spike hadn't cleaned the place up like he said he was going to. Twilight shook her head with a sigh, too tired to finish the job for him. The doors to her chamber opened with a small creak when she placed a hoof upon them and she slipped inside a moment later to find everything exactly as she had left it...aside from the note upon her sheets.
Twilight picked up the note with her magic, which also provided enough light for her to see what had been written.
'Dear Princess Twilight,'
'I hope that you are doing well. I know that I could come and talk to you in pony, but since I don't know when you're coming back I figured that it would be best to leave this in a place that you're sure to see it. Of course, you might just spend your next couple of nights in the library and...anyway, the reason I left this for you is because while you were off saving the world, some rumors popped up about a village at the southern edge of Equestria losing all of its magic. While nopony can really confirm it, it seems like something that you might be interested in. There isn't much information to go on, but this could be a problem if we don't look into it. Also, a number of friendship problems, including one with a possible supervillain, arose while you and your friends were out. Don't worry, I handled it. So all that's left is your paperwork.'
'Your student,'
'Starlight.'
'That's Starlight for you. Barely my pupil for a few months and already has a handle on friendship problems. Maybe even a faster grasp than me,' Twilight realized with a proud smile. 'Maybe she's ready to take my place as Ambassador of Harmony...and maybe it's time for me to finally step up to my princess duties.'
But then Twilight frowned at the letter, already pondering whether or not she would have time in the coming days to take a trip to a place that far away from Ponyville. But the note had been written in an urgent manner and Twilight knew that as a princess it was her duty to look after her subjects, so with a weary sigh for what tomorrow would bring she moved the note to the bedside stand. Twilight pulled back the covers and slipped into them, wrapping her wings close to her body before she rested her head upon her pillow.
'And just like that another crisis pops up that needs our help,' she thought to herself with a sigh. 'Barely home for an hour and already I need to fly to the ends of the world to help with another problem. Sigh...I'm tired. So tired. But I know I need to go. I have to help them. That's my duty.'
Twilight turned over and did her best to try and fall asleep, but her mind continued to wrack her with thoughts of what she might have to do if another threat popped up like Tirek or Sombra. Unbeknownst to herself she began to practice what she would say to the threat when she encountered them. It was her duty as the Princess of Friendship.
[.45]
Smoke lazy drifted into the air while the smell of cigars filled the room where six ponies sat together in front of a large table, each of them staring down at the cards that they held in their hooves. Two of them had cigars clamped in their teeth, while the largest pony glanced over the edge of his fedora at the rest of his crew. All sets of eyes glanced to him and it was only after every one of his crew was looking at him did he let out a chuckle as he placed his cards on the table.
'Straight. Read em and weep boys," he said as he laid the cards upon the table. His crew all let out groans as they tossed their own cards upon the table, none of them able to beat him. He laughed aloud before he reached out with a stick and scooped the large pile of chips over to his side. "Don't feel bad boys, I've been at this way longer than you."
"You're also our boss and would probably kick us out if we beat you too often at cards," one of them said with a chuckle and the boss flicked his cigar at the loud mouth.
"Regardless, it's been a good day," a pony with a green visor said from beside the large stallion. "Our profits have gone up two percent and the best part is our robberies haven't come close to attracting the attention of the princesses. As far as they're concerned, these robberies are just the actions of young ponies that are wild and free. They couldn't care less with all the world ending stuff going on."
"How about a cheer to the princesses? For their inability to look into anything that isn't a magical menace!" the head honcho said with a laugh as he and the other ponies around the table all let out a cheer to the princesses, before a pony in a black suit standing next to the table began to deal a new deck of cards. "I hope each of you are making good on the princesses blindness and are doing your jobs?"
"Yes sir. Every pony at this table has robbed at least one pony in the past three days, while others are making sure to move the illegal goods around," the stallion with the visor said as he looked at a list he held.
"Excellent. At this rate we may just take over this small town. Keep up the good work and perhaps we'll-"
His words were cut off as the light-bulb in the lamp above them short circuited, casting darkness upon the ponies at the table. Each of them shot to their hooves as the rest of the lights in the warehouse went off as well, leaving them in total darkness for a moment. Those with horns caused them to glow to light the area, all of them looking around with uncertainty. Then the lights flickered back on and the ponies all let out a relieved laugh.
"Just a breaker or something going off. One of you should get to work on that before-"
The body of a pony slammed onto the table from above, getting a yelp out of the collective group. All eyes rested upon the pony, one of theirs, who was pouring blood on the table from the massive knife wound in his back...with the knife still in it.
"Holy hell it's Racer. He was supposed to be guarding the entrance," one of the ponies whispered. The moment he did so, all of the ponies began to look around once more into the warehouse, suddenly aware of the shadows within the place. "Do you think it's the princesses?"
"Look at what they did to him! He's dead! The princesses would never do something this brutal!" the boss snarled as he reached into his coat and pulled out a small dart gun. "Keep an eye on those shadows, because whoever did this is a sick bastard! Pin Stripe, take two of ours boys with you and-"
The sound of a gunshot tore through the warehouse and one of the ponies skulls exploded into a shower of brains and blood. The others had just enough time to scream in horror before a man decked out in black armor slammed onto the cards table in front of them. He aimed his assault rifle at the two ponies in front of him and opened fire, punching holes in their bodies while blood sprayed across the floor.
"Holy shit!" one of them screamed before he too was gunned down in a hail of bullets. Another of the gangsters was quick enough with his magic to construct a barrier around both him and the boss, which saved both of their lives when the bullets slammed into the shield.
"I don't know what he's using, but my shield can't take much more!" he screamed to the boss as the both of them backed away from the gunman. Even if they couldn't see his eyes, they could see the area around his eyes narrow as he realized his weapon wasn't having its desired effect.
'I need something stronger,' the Punisher thought as he shoulder his assault rifle before he swung his other gun off of his left shoulder. He grabbed it tight before he pumped it once, hearing the shell slide into place. What sounded like an explosion went off before he could fire and his head swiveled to the warehouse door, where three more ponies armed with crossbows all ran inside. He cast a glance to the pony that he had identified as the boss, seeing that he was smirking from beneath his shield.
Without a second thought the Punisher pulled out a pistol and fired three quick shots, causing the three ponies that were running into the warehouse to fall to the ground with a new hole in each of their heads. Punisher holstered his pistol before he glanced back at the two behind the shield, glad to see that neither of them was happy now. He fired a blast from his shotgun and the barrier shattered into hundreds of pieces, causing both sets of eyes to drown with horror as they could only stare at the man with the white skull.
Punisher hopped off the table and marched over to the two ponies, both of who were too terrified by what they had just witnessed to even tease the thought of running away. He looked from one to the other before he glared down at the boss pony, kicking him in the chest and sending him sprawling onto the ground.
"I'm only going to ask once. Where am I?" the Punisher asked the pony in a tone that was completely devoid of emotion.
"W-what do you mean where are you?" the boss stammered out with fear. Punisher sighed before he reached down to where his pistol was holstered. "Whoa wait a sec, I'll tell you! You're in Delemare, in the south east corner of Equestria!" the boss stammered out, but his eyes widened even further with terror as the Punisher grabbed hold of his pistol and pulled it out of its holster. "Wait! I'm talking! I'm-"
BANG!
A scream erupted from the goons lips as the bosses head snapped back, his body slumping to the side as blood poured from the hole in his head. The Punisher stared at him for a second before he took aim with the pistol, aiming right between the goons eyes.
"I'm only going to ask this once. Where. Am. I?"
"You're in Equestria! A land filled with magic and creatures of all shapes and sizes!" the goon blurted out as quickly as he could, trying not to wet himself. "Since it doesn't look like you're from around here this place is ruled by two alicorns and is mostly dominated by ponies! This is Delemare, a small, out of the way town at the edge of Equestria! Is there anything else you need to know?!"
"How many crime rings are in this town?" the Punisher asked.
"There's only us! This place is so far out of the way that nopony wants to waste any time here! We're the only ones, I promise!" the goon spewed as his while body shook.
"No. You were the only ones."
His pistol fired again and the pony fell to the ground without another sound, leaving the Punisher alone in a warehouse filled with all sorts of items within crates. He marched over to a desk that he had seen coming in and tore it open, finding a map of the land that he took. Nothing else within the desk seemed valuable, so he headed towards the exit of the warehouse. Yet just as he prepared to leave into the night, he spied something that caught his eye.
[.45]
"...and then these punks snatched my purse, pushed me down and ran off into the night," an old mare said to one of the few police ponies that was stationed in Delemare, who was writing down what the mare was saying in a notebook. "I have no doubt they're connected to that gang that showed up here a year ago!"
"If that's the case, them I'm going to need backup if I'm going to help you," the police pony said with a sigh as she pushed her hat back and gazed up at the street light that they were standing under. "But look ma'am, it might just be easier to get a new bag. Dealing with these goons might be more than we can handle. I'll see what I can do, but-"
Her words went silent when the both of them heard the sound of something approaching. Both the old mare and the police pony turned their heads to see a figure walking towards them, one that was barely visible in the light. But was perfectly visible was the white skull upon his armored chest...and the fact that even as he stepped into the light his eyes were still cast in shadow. Both ponies could only stare as the man walked up to them, twice the size of them and far more menacing. He looked from one to the other, before he extended an arm and dropped the old mares purse on the ground.
The two ponies stared at it for a moment before the man turned and began to walk away, neither of them daring to chase after him. All they could do was watch as he moved further and further into the darkness, before he completely vanished into the shadows from where he came.
The sun shone in through the crystal windows of Twilight's palace, moving along the track that Celestia had set for it for the day. The beams of light that entered through the window and shone down upon the Princess of Friendship, who cracked open her eyes as the morning let it self in.
'And another morning in Ponyville begins,' Twilight thought to herself as she sat up in her bed, stretching out her wings and limbs with a groan. She then shook out her mane before smiling at the rising of the sun, preparing herself for a great day. The princess hopped out of the bed and walked to her bathroom, taking proper care of her teeth before she left her room for the castle hallways, which were just as empty as they were the other night.
"Guess Spike and Starlight aren't back yet," Twilight muttered to herself after she peeked into Starlight's room, finding it exactly the same as it was previously. "That business off in Staliongrad must have taken longer than they thought. Guess I'm in charge of castle maintenance today then."
With the castle all to herself, Twilight hummed aloud as she entered into her kitchen. She grabbed hold of a bowl of salad from the kitchen before she sat herself down at the table, using her magic to teleport the newspaper that was always on her front porch at this time into her hooves. As she ate she glanced over the paper, a smile of pride crossing her face when she saw that her and her friends victory over Ratet was on the first page.
'I'm grateful that we were able to talk him down without the need for too much violence,' Twilight thought as she quickly glanced over the article, before flipping through the pages. After taking a moment to chuckle at the funnies, her eyes were caught by a headline that startled her.
"Pony gangsters slaughter in Delemare?" she asked with horror and confusion as she tore through the article with disbelief, the confusion being consumed by the horror as she read more and more into the story. "Wounds to the head that pierced through the front and back of the skull? What kind of weapon or spell could do such a thing? I should write a letter to Celestia and ask."
Not wanting to dwell on such morbid topics, Twilight placed the paper on her table and quickly downed the rest of her food before she walked out of the kitchen. Her mind was locked on the article that she had read as she walked to her private study, throwing open the door and marching over to her desk. She had planned to send Celestia the letter immediately, but she found that her letter would have to wait as a letter from Celestia already awaited her.
"And today started off looking so nice," she muttered to herself as she pulled open the letter, reading over it quickly while shaking her head with disbelief. "And now ponies magic are starting to vanish once again, much like when Tirek roamed the land. Could he be connected to the deaths of the gangster ponies?...Doubtful, that's not his style. Great. Saved the world one day and have to save it again the next."
Twilight let out a bitter sigh as she crumpled up the letter and tossed it to the side, throwing herself into one of her chairs. She sighed as she stared up at the ceiling, trying to think of what she needed to do first. Her thoughts then returned to Ratet and with another groan she realized that she had promised to help him with friendship lessons later that day.
'Alright. First I will head to Canterlot and visit Ratet in his prison cell. Work with him and see how much progress that we can make in a few hours. Next I should look into the being that is stealing magic. If it is Tirek, then I'll need to gather the girls up again from their vacations and put a stop to him,' Twilight planned out before the article she read forced itself into her mind again. 'And if I still have time, I'll send a letter to Delemare and see if the force there can show any light on the matter. Doubt it, but I've got to check.'
Realizing the weight of the long day that was awaiting her, Twilight mentally braced herself as she rose out of her chair. She walked over to her desk and grabbed a quill along with a piece of parchment. She quickly scribbled out a letter to Celestia, telling the princess that she would be on her way to Canterlot within the hour. Without Spike there to teleport her message right to Celestia, Twilight flew out of her castle and to the mailbox that rested right outside of the castle.
"The mailmare should be here within the hour. Gives me time to go around," Twilight muttered to herself as she spread her wings and took to the skies, flying to her one friend that she knew would also be awake at this hour. Her thoughts proved to be true as she flew over Sweet Apple Acres to see an orange earth pony hard at work under apple trees.
"Hey there, Applejack," Twilight greeted as she flew down from above, getting AJ to stop kicking her tree long enough to wave to the princess.
"Howdy, Twi. What's the matter?" Applejack asked with a knowing glance.
"What make you think something's the matter?"
"Because something's almost always the matter when it comes to you. Now spit it out, because this feels like a doozy."
[.45]
The rays of the sun were determined to cast away every shadow in the land of Equestria, whether those shadows hid behind the trees, under rocks or even those cast by skyscrapers. But the shadows that were cast by the sole human in all the land were impervious to the light. So as the Punisher sat on a fallen tree trunk, the sun found that his shadow would not be tarnished by its golden rays.
Not that the Punisher cared at all between the battle of the light and the darkness. At the moment he was studying over the large map that he had taken from the warehouse where he had blown those ponies brains out. With the light of the sun he was finally able to get a better view of the map, but the city names and locations only gave him more questions.
'So...ponies. That's what I'm dealing with here,' Punisher thought to himself as he gazed across the map, making a mental note of each city and landmark that he might need to recognize later. 'Guess they weren't kidding when they said that that mutant girl had the ability to hop dimensions. Might have been too quick on the trigger with her. Killed my only way back to Earth.'
'But ponies...ponies with magic and the ability to talk and who have actually Boston accents...my little girl would love this place,' Punisher realized before he closed his eyes and forced those thoughts away. When he opened his eyes once more they were filled with purpose and a few ideas. 'But this world ain't the paradise she read about. Last night showed me that. This world still has criminals...so at least I know I'll be busy while I look for a way back.'
Punisher placed his gloved finger on the city of Delemare, finding that he was at the very edge of the nation called Equestria. He moved his finger along to find which city was the closest, grimacing when he saw that the distance between the two was quite a distance away. The railroad tracks gave him hope for a quick way to get to the next city.
'Need to be on the lookout for tracks. Might get me there quicker,' Punisher decided before he rolled up the map off of the grass, tucking in behind him before he rose to his feet. He glanced back at the small town of Delemare, narrowing his eyes when he didn't see the station. 'The railroad would have to be somewhere close to the town. Probably missed it on my way out here. If I go back though, I run the risk of them coming after me. Even if they don't know me, they'd know I'm dangerous. Especially after last night.'
But with no other options at the moment besides a long trek to the next city, Punisher sighed before he began his march to find the train station. While he walked he took his assault rifle in his hands, pulling on the magazine and examining how many shots he had left in it.
'Fifteen. And I've got three more magazines attached,' Punisher noted before he returned the magazine into the gun, slipping it over his shoulder before he took up his shotgun and counted the shells that he had left. 'I'm cut off from my storage houses, so I'm going to have to conserve my shots. I've used up a decent amount of pistol ammo, meaning I should give those a rest for a while. Need to keep it up close.'
He slid the shotgun back over his shoulder and returned to silence as he walked towards the town, keeping his eyes and ears open in case of any more trouble. But as he got close to the town he heard the sound of a commotion, causing him to take shelter next to one of the trees that was close to the city while glancing into town.
What he saw was ponies in police outfits running around with images of him clutched in their hooves. Well, images of the skull that he had upon his chest at the very least. But from the little he could hear at his distance, he quickly became certain that the skull was all they knew about him, aside from the fact that he was tall.
The sound of a train whistle snapped his attention away from the police ponies and towards the east side of the town, knowing that what he sought lay in that direction. The Punisher, not wanting to cause more trouble than was necessary, waited until the ponies were out of sight before he made his move. He sprinted past the open areas of the town, making sure to wait until the streets were clear before moving on. While he didn't like having to be so cautious, Punisher knew that he was at a disadvantage in this land and needed to be alert.
'And there's my ticket to the next city,' Punisher thought to himself when he finally laid eyes upon the train station, spying the train out of town that had smoke spewing from the front of it. Rolled down next to a bush and glanced out from behind it, noting how few ponies were actually at the station that early in the morning. What made him snarl slightly was the number of police ponies that were patrolling the area.
'But they're on a pattern. Meaning that they don't really expect trouble,' Punisher noted before he hunkered down and spent the next ten minutes learning the police ponies patterns. When he noticed a huge gap in their timing, he took that moment and sprinted at full speed towards the train. He slid past the police ponies and rolled up on the other side of the train, away from the station and the eyes of the police ponies.
Punisher held his breath for a moment as he waited to see if any of them had managed to spy him, but when the morning remained silent he knew that he hadn't been seen. Taking advantage of the blindness of the ponies he moved past the train cars to the back of the train, glancing around the gold and pink train to see that none of the police were near the caboose door.
"Don't mind if I do," Punisher muttered as he pulled himself onto the back of the caboose, smirking when he found that the door on the caboose wasn't locked. He slid inside of the caboose and closed the door behind him, glancing around quickly to see that no one inside the train had witnessed him. He sighed slightly before he walked through the caboose and slid open the door to the next car slightly, a bit surprised to see that there was no ponies within that car either.
'Must not be a good time for a train ride,' he thought before he crouched down and closed the door behind him. He remained crouched next to one of the cushioned seats, out of view, until he heard the conductor let out a call for all to get on. He pulled out a pistol and waited for the door at the other end to open and for his cover to be blown, but when it never happened he figured that he was safe.
"Might as well stay comfortable," Punisher muttered as he picked himself up and sat down in one of the seats, glancing out the window to see that the train had already left the station. He pulled out his map once more and glanced at it, shaking his head when he took another moment to think about what had happened to him.
'So. Stuck on another world, with talking magical ponies, with no idea how to get home. Heh, not the worse situation I've found myself in,' he figured before he placed the map on the table in front of him, marking the next location with his knife. 'But I will get back to Earth. And nothing, be it criminal or pony, will get in my way. Especially criminals.'
"Alright Ratet, let's try this again," Twilight said with a bit of a groan as she rubbed a hoof across her face, trying to keep her cool while the sphinx raged with frustration at her questions. "Say a pony comes up to you asking for help on where a certain place is located. How do you respond?"
"I would flail them with a whip for being so weak! Rely on your own power and find it yourself!" Ratet roared as he flipped the table that they were sitting at and rose to his hind feet, roaring as he lifted the table and threw it at the cell doors. Twilight let out another sigh as Ratet ran around the room while roaring, before she grabbed him with her magic and slammed his butt back into his seat. She gathered up the table once more and placed it before them, giving Ratet a look that made him sit still.
"Ratet, you cannot flail, burn or cast your foes into eternal damnation whenever they ask you for directions," Twilight sternly told Ratet, though the guards outside of the cell could tell that her patience was beginning to wane. "If you want to be a member of Equestrian society, you will have to understand that you cannot use force or violence to get rid of your problems. Eventually, you're going to have to be nice and kind to others."
"So I can't go around unleashing flames upon my foes?" Ratet asked as if he was having trouble understanding her words.
"No."
"I can't decimate their homes and lay waste to their villages?"
"No."
"I'll have to be nice and ask others for help while also being able to help them in return?"
"Yes."
"NEVER!" Ratet roared as he kicked the table across the room and spread his wings, flying around in a frenzy while spewing magical fire from his mouth. Twilight's right eye twitched as she used all of her willpower to keep from hurling the sphinx into the bars of his cell. Despite his cell being small, Ratet was still able to fly around with incredible speeds which knocked over the papers that Twilight had brought with her.
"And we're done," Twilight said as she rose and walked over to the bars, which were opened for her and allowed her to step out. Ratet tried to fly out as well, but the guards slammed the bars into his face and caused the sphinx to crash into the floor.
"Release me from this prison! I have agreed to your terms on learning about friendship! Why do you still keep me in here?!" he roared as he began to gnaw at the bars.
"Until you can learn to act like a regular pony...or a regular being in general, then you'll stay in here where you won't rain hellfire upon the land," Twilight informed the sphinx before she walked off, letting out a sigh as she rubbed a hoof through her mane. "I swear I can't believe how hard it is to get that sphinx to see how violence is not a solution to all your problems. Sometimes you've got to be nice."
"Rough day, princess?" a voice asked, getting Twilight to turn around to see Celestia's royal advisor walking towards her, a grim look upon his face that instantly made Twilight feel tired. "Well, I am afraid that it is about to get worse."
"How could today get any worse?! I've literally just spent an hour with a sphinx that tried to burn his way out of his cell before gnawing a hole in his bed?! How could this get any worse?!" Twilight exclaimed with frustration, but when she realized ponies were staring she regained control of herself. "Go ahead, tell me."
"There are creatures attacking Whinnyapolis," the advisor said with a bitter shake of his head, getting Twilight to groan as she gazed up at the ceiling. "We know not what they are, but they are causing destruction and chaos. They've also, according to our reports, been saying something about the return of the dark lord."
"Which dark lord is it this time?" Twilight asked before she shook her head and regained her regal composure, spreading her wings and causing her body to glow with magic. "Nevertheless, I shall deal with this problem myself. If I need my friends help, I will gather them. But in the mean time, tell the princesses where I have gone if I am not back when they return."
"Very good, princess Twilight."
"Let's just hope that these weirdoes are the worst things that I'll have to deal with today," Twilight said before she vanished in a flash of purple.
.45
With only of the sounds of the train moving along to bother him, Frank quickly found himself drifting off into the realm of dreams. Not that the Punisher actually dreamed, for he only had nightmares, but he still needed to sleep. But even with the rhythmic movements of the train he forced himself to keep his eyes open and alert, just in case he hadn't slipped into the train as stealthily as he had thought.
To make sure that he was still hidden, he flashed a glance towards the window of the door at the other end of his car. Something had been standing there, but the moment Frank looked towards the door it vanished in a moment. Frank debated for a moment if he should make sure they wouldn't bother him, but before he could make a decision the door slid open and a stallion walked in.
Frank sized up the stallion in a moment. He was elderly, based on his facial hair and slow movements, while the pipe on his flank informed Frank that he was either fond of tobacco or he did something else that was related to pipes. The stallion gave Frank a look of interest, while Frank gave him one that should have gotten the old stallion to turn around. But to the mild surprise of Frank, the stallion walked over and sat down across from Frank, stroking his beard as he sized the human up.
Frank watched the stallions eyes observe the human's face for a moment, before glancing down at his body. The stallion raised an eyebrow when he saw what Frank was carrying, but whether or not they knew what they were he didn't say. His eyes then came to a rested on the white, and slightly faded, skull sprayed onto the bulletproof armor that Frank wore.
"No wonder everypony in the other car was so afraid of you. You definitely aren't from around here," the old stallion said to Frank, who gave a dark glare in response. The stallion moved back a bit from the look, but aside from adjusting his moustache he didn't say anything. "Well, you've got quite the look stranger. Care to tell me who you are? Oh, where are my manners? I'm Smoke. Pipe Smoke. Pleasure to meet you."
Frank said nothing in reply and continue to glare at the pony in a way that told him that he wasn't wanted here. Whether or not the old stallion got the message Frank couldn't tell, but he chose to grunt and shift his position slightly. "So not going to give me your name, huh? Or are you simply not much for conversation?"
"What do you want?"
Pipe Smoke shivered from the chill within Frank's tone and for a moment he had to look away from the man in black just to regain his willpower. "Oh nothing much, just saw the ponies in the back making a fuss over something and wanted to see who or what it was. Turns out it was a being that I've never seen before who has the manners of an animal. But my Faust what a glare."
"What. Do you. Want?" Frank asked again in a far colder tone, one that made the stallion back away slightly. "You wouldn't bother me unless you want something. What is it?"
"Just a friendly bit of advice, young fella." The stallion chuckled to himself after calling Frank young. Frank's face remained unchanged, but the car around them got colder. "You don't need a frown like that in this land. We're peaceful folks and somepony like you...carries quite a weight with them. I can tell. I've seen eyes like yours on only a few other beings and all of them ended up being trouble."
"You're back here because they're afraid of me," Frank said in a cold tone, able to see through what the stallion was telling him. Pipe raised his eyebrows in surprise before he sighed and lowered his head, losing himself in thought for a moment. Frank leaned forward and made sure that the pony had to look him in the eyes for a brief moment, before Pipe became fascinated with the ground. "So they sent you back here to talk to me. To see if I was dangerous. That sound about right?"
"They didn't send me back, I came back willingly," Pipe Smoke said in a far more quiet voice. Frank nearly cracked a smile at how all of the pony's friendliness had seemed to vanished, but he kept his face cold. "And yes, it was to see if you were dangerous. You wear a skull on your chest and...I can feel death radiating from you."
"What if I am dangerous? What if an old man just walked back here to his death?" Frank asked as he moved closer to Pipe, who seemed to grow smaller as the Punisher got closer. For a long moment Frank stared at the pony, who did everything he could to avoid the Punisher's gaze. Eventually he let out a sigh and gazed up at Frank, all of the fear gone from his eyes.
"I have lived a long time. Longer than most. So if I had to be the one that died, I wouldn't be opposed to it," Pipe said in a voice that was far stronger than before, getting Frank to slightly raise an eyebrow in confusion in the sudden change of attitude. "But that's not the kind of land this is. Equestria...can heal. Can be a place of second chances. A place you can find a new you."
"Attention passengers, we are approaching Whinnyapolis," a voice said as the train began to slow down, but one look out the window told Frank something was wrong. The sky was black with clouds and he could hear what sounded like screaming from his car. "However, I am sorry to inform you that you will be asked to stay on the train once we arrive. There are reports of magical begins tearing up the city and for your own safety, we ask that you stay inside. Thank you for your cooperation."
Frank smirked as he rose to his feet, removing his shotgun from his back and taking it up in his hands. "Sorry old timer, but it seems like this land needs the old me instead of a new me. Nice talk, though. Always nice to meet new people," Frank grunted before he kicked the door to his train car clean off it's hinges. But when he cast a glance back at Pipe Smoke, he found the train car completely empty. Frank narrowed his eyes in response before he heard another scream. He sprang out of the car and onto the station platform, glaring with cold eyes at the ponies that were running for their lives.
Punisher then began to walk forward, the only being in an entire city walking towards the destruction instead of away from it. And for some reason, it made him feel right at home.
"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!
With a pounding in her head and vomit in her mouth Twilight slowly cracked her eyes open, finding herself under a bright light that made her immediately close her eyes once more. Pain flooded through her skull as she slowly forced herself to sit up, gaining her the attention of a pony in a nurses uniform.
"Easy there, Princess. you should be resting," the nurse said as she walked over to Twilight with gauze in her hoof, placing in on Twilight's nose. Twilight grunted as she pushed the pony away from her, before she rubbed the back of her hoof across her nose to see that she had some dried blood there. Twilight fell off the bed and forced herself to stand, but it wasn't easy with the pounding headache she had or the fact that she tasted vomit. "Go easy, Princess. You took quite the blow to the head earlier."
"That human...that murderer. He did this," Twilight grunted with pain as she glanced at the nurse, who was keeping her distance. "Where did the human go? Come on, massive guy in black armor with a skull painted on the front of his suit? He can't be that hard to find."
"Nopony knows, Princess. After he...dealt with the centaur's and knocked you out, he vanished into the side alleys. The Royal Guard and police ponies have been searching for him all afternoon, but he's nowhere to be found," the nurse informed Twilight, who grunted her disapproval before heading for the exit to her hospital room. "Princess Twilight, you should be resting. Aside from the head injury the human gave you, you used a great deal of magic in the battle with the centaur's. You need rest."
"What I need is to find this human, throw him in the strongest dungeon we have and then go to Tartarus and see if Tirek is still being kept there," Twilight replied in a pained tone, getting the nurses eyes to widen slightly.
"Tirek? He's...he's returned?"
"Maybe, maybe not. The centaur's said that there goal was to bring him back from Tatarus and maybe earn his favor," Twilight told the pony before her body began to glow with magical light. "But if he's still there I need to know. And if he's not...then a human with a few guns on the loose will be the least of our problems."
Twilight vanished in a flash of magic as she said this, appearing in the downtown area where she had battled with the centaur's and the human. A glance up at the sky told her that she had been out through the night, meaning that the human had a good amount of time to get away. The cleanup crew and the guards all bowed to Twilight as she appeared, but aside from a head nod to show that she noticed them Twilight ignored them as she got to work.
She began to scan the ground and the buildings with a magical light from her horn, searching for anything that would lead her to the human. Twilight noticed that all three of the bodies were gone along with the blood, making her glad that they were. She was fairly certain that if she saw the dead centaurs again she would throw up. She motioned for some of the guards to come with her as she began to scan back alleys, having them search through the trash that littered the alleyways while she continued to scan with her magic.
She then shivered slightly when she saw a bit of blood shimmering in the morning light and immediately she was back with the centaurs, back watching them be brutally executed by a man with no soul. 'At least, I don't think he has one,' Twilight thought to herself as she recalled the few times she had actually managed to look into the humans eyes, eyes that were devoid of emotion. Eyes as black as a void. She then scoffed at herself as she remembered the line the human had said about his daughter.
'He did that just to get me to lower my guard,' Twilight thought while shaking her head at herself, unable to believe that she had fallen for his lie. "And he had to have been lying. His eyes were just as black even when he mentioned his daughter, if he even has one. I won't fall for it again. But he's tough. I threw him into that wall with enough force to knock him out and he got up without a problem. Gonna have to remember that," she said aloud.
"He was also well trained, Princess," one of the guards said, getting the princess to turn to look at the guard who had spoken. "I watched him fight with the two centaurs that tried to get away from the fight with you. He was brutal and merciless, but also efficient. Precision shots, skilled evasion, and an utter disregard for their lives. He's had training and most likely years of doing what he does. Be careful. He does not seem like the kind of being that would give you a second chance to cross him."
"Just what I need. Only a few days ago my friends and I save the world from a psychotic sphinx, only to have to deal with Tirek extremists and a bloodthirsty human," Twilight growled to herself, but loudly enough to that the guards had to pretend that they weren't listening. "I'm getting so sick of this. For every crazy I change or help find a better way it seems three more pop up. Sigh...come on, let's try a different alley. If we can't find anything there I'm going to send a letter to the princesses and see if they can help me with this."
The guards all looked at each other as Twilight began to move out of the alleyway, none of them sure what to say to the other. One of them made a motion to stay silent about what they had heard and the others nodded in agreement before walking after the princess, each of them secretly hoping that they wouldn't find the human with no regard for life.
.45
With a small grunt Frank woke up, shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts before he pushed himself back up to his feet. His eyes adjusted to the brightness of the morning almost instantly and the moment he was ready he began to move. Frank had taken shelter for the night in a condemned building near the edge of the city, having spent most of the night searching for a place that would allow him to hide while he had slept. Most of the time Frank didn't need much sleep, but between what was going on in the world he found himself in combined with how many sleepless nights he had spent hunting down the mutants, even Frank's endurance needed a break.
'Four hours of rest. Not the worst I've gotten,' Frank thought to himself as he swiftly moved to one of the windows with dirty and shattered glass in it, peering through at the city below. After his actions during the previous day he expected there to be guards and security everywhere, but to his surprise and slight relief he found that, aside from a few patrols, it was business as usual in the streets. 'Either they're dumber than I thought or they don't see me as a threat yet. That's not smart.'
Frank moved towards the stairwell which looked like it was about to collapse at any moment, going over what he had learned the previous day in his mind. 'Two items for me to deal with. The first is that Princess Twilight confirmed for me that there was a way back to the human world from this world. But with the multiverse it could be a world where all the humans look like fish. The other is that the centaur's are trying to resurrect their boss, a demon from hell if what they said was right. Do I stay here and deal with the ponies while trying to stop this demon? Or do I go home and continue my mission?'
Frank recalled the sound of screaming. The sounds of his family dying. He remembered the horror that had never left his soul or the rage at his own helplessness. Then he remembered holding his little girl in his arms and looking into her eyes which were always smiling, except they never would again. He gritted his teeth and steeled his resolve, the answer becoming clear.
'I'll kill the demon. I'll make sure it burns in the deepest pits of this worlds hell. It's bad enough crime is taking my world from me. I won't let crime and evil take a world my daughter would love.' Frank decided to skip the stairs and leapt down three flights of stairs to the bottom of the building. He hit the ground and rolled back up, a single grunt being all he would allow the pain to get out of him. 'I doubt those were the only centaurs that will be trying to resurrect their boss. Cults always have a larger following than most would think. I need to find a place to get started.'
Knowing that he couldn't be seen by anything, Frank stuck to the shadows and made sure that he kept his painted skull to the wall. While there was a good amount of ponies in the streets, as well as a few pegasi that made Frank raise an eyebrow, he found that there wasn't as many citizens as he'd thought there'd be in such a large city. Maybe they weren't a morning species.
A quick break in the pattern gave Frank a chance to run across the street and into another alley. He glanced behind him to make sure that he hadn't been seen and when he was certain that he hadn't, he continued to move through the buildings. The only pony that managed to see him was an old stallion laying in a heap in one of the alleys, but after glancing at the armored human with the skull on his chest, the pony rolled over and figured he was still dreaming.
'Alright. First I need to see if they have a base or anything of the like in this city. Unless this was a random attack, they should have a base somewhere, preferably away from any security or powerful, magical alicorns,' Frank thought to himself as he started to reach the city limits, looking around for any warehouses or run down buildings like the one he had been in. 'I'll beat the information out of them and then find a way to keep Tirek down for good.'
A commotion down by one of the warehouses drew the attention of Frank, who slowly began to creep towards the building through crates that had been set up around the area. When he got to the end he saw something that made him smile, as rare as it was. There were a pair of centaurs standing at near the entrance of the warehouse, both of them talking to a vortex of darkness that was floating in front of the both of them. Inside the vortex all Frank could see was a pair of red eyes, ones that even made the Punisher shiver slightly.
'So that's Tirek. Gives me the same feeling like I'm standing next to Thor,' Frank thought to himself before he unslung the assault rifle from his back and took perfect aim at the centaurs, switching back and forth between both of their heads. He then settled for the centaur on the right and squeezed his finger on the trigger. 'Wonder what Tirek's going to think after he sees this?'
BANG!
"I'm really getting sick of seeing things like this," Twilight said to the guards standing next to her, doing her best not to throw up again as she stared down at numerous deceased centaurs. A report by ponies in the area told her that the human had been in the area, but by the time she and the guards had arrived he had already vanished. 'But not before leaving us a wonderful present of more bodies that need to be buried. Faust alive, did he hack that ones head off with a saw?'
Most of the centaurs had holes in their heads and copious amounts of blood missing, but some of them had been brutalized before they had been killed. Twilight found one that had both of his hands taken off and a bloody hatchet laying on the ground next to him told Twilight his tale. Twilight had to repress the urge to both vomit and cry at the scene, forcing herself to stay strong as she tried to find any clues.
"These ones were tortured," one of the guards said to Twilight, getting the princess to glance over at him. He was kneeling down next to one of the centaurs, only this one had multiple holes in his body and had a contorted look of pain upon his face. Another nightmare for Twilight to deal with. "And it wasn't like he beat them until they talked. This...I've only seen torture like this from the worst of the worst. This is precise, like he knew what he was doing. Dear Faust, I thought your report on humans said they were mostly peaceful."
"Those were the ones that I've met. I've never met anypony like this monster," Twilight whispered as she tried to look away, but when she closed her eyes she found that the pained look of the centaur had been burned into her mind. "Why torture and butcher them like this? Why didn't he just kill them like he did the others?"
"He wanted information. They probably didn't talk. Hence the torture," one of the older guards with a trimmed, white beard said from beside the princess with a small shake of his head. "Clearly some of them held out longer than others. But considering only two were tortured, and the rest are dead, tells me that once he got the information he wanted he killed the rest of them."
"Information...what could they have that he would possibly want?" Twilight asked, but the elder guard could only shrug his shoulders with a sigh. Twilight shook her head and walked out of the warehouse, trying to not stare at the two dead centaurs that had been guarding the entrance to the warehouses. 'This was their base. They were working from in here. That's probably how they were able to get into the city so quickly. The human probably tracked them down last night. But does that mean he's still in the city?'
"I can see why you sent me such an urgent letter. This is hard to look at." Twilight snapped out of her thoughts to see the princess of the sun standing beside her, a pained look upon her face as she looked around at all of the bloodshed. "And yet your reports say that a lone human is responsible for all of this."
"I don't even know if I can call him human. He's merciless," Twilight said with a small shiver, getting Celestia to place a wing around her friend. "His expression didn't change when he gunned down the centaurs that I was fighting. Then when he fought me, his voice never changed from its cold tone, like he was hollow inside. I've never seen anypony like that."
"Um, princesses?" the guard with the beard stated, getting both of the princesses to turn to look at him. "I know that I shouldn't interrupt..."
"Go ahead. Speak your mind."
"Well, Princess Twilight called the human merciless. But that's not entirely true," he began, gaining him a cold look from Twilight.
"Look at the bodies. Look at the torture. After seeing all this, how can you say he's not merciless?" Twilight asked with a fury simmering beneath her calm exterior.
"Well...he didn't kill you," the guard stated and for the first time since her fight with the human Twilight realized that as well. "He gunned down the centaurs without mercy, I agree. What he did in here...will give me nightmares. But he only knocked you out. He left you alive."
"Okay, so he left me alive. Maybe he has a soft spot for princesses," Twilight spat in a sarcastic tone.
"Or maybe there is more to him than we believed," Celestia said in a knowing manner, before nodding to the guard to dismiss him. "Twilight, it is clear that this human is very different than the ones that we know of. We also do not know how he got here or who he is. Perhaps if we can find out the who and how, we can find out the why."
"He still needs to answer for what he's done," Twilight spat with justice burning in her eyes.
"That he does. But first we need to catch him," Celestia said with a small smile, before she pulled out a piece of parchment and began to write something down. When she was done she used her magic to make the scroll disappear, before smiling down at Twilight. "And I think I have figured out what will draw him in."
"What's that, Princess Celestia?"
"If I am right, this human that killed the centaurs is the same one that killed those gangsters in a small town a few days ago," Celestia said with an expression of sorrow on her face. "So many already dead. But he spared you. And I think I know why."
"Because I'm terrifying?"
"No. Because he only kills criminals or monsters," Celestia said with a knowing look and after a moment of thought Twilight could start to piece it together as well.
"Maybe...during our battle he did ask, or rather said, if I was the hero of this world. I told him yes, but I didn't think..." Twilight trailed off, figuring that was a close as she could get to the truth before she brought the human in. "But if we're going to bait him out, then we would need somepony who is evil or a terrifying monster. But they'd also have to be able to survive against...ah."
"You're catching on. I just sent a letter to a good friend of ours, one that has been wanting to make up for betraying us to side with Tirek a few years back," Celestia stated. "I warned him about what the human can do, thanks to your letters, and he should be here any time now."
"And once the human is out in the open...?"
"Bring him in, Twilight," Celestia said with a smile. "I wouldn't dream of taking that pleasure away from you."
.45
It had been a good day. Probably the best one Frank had since he had arrived in the new world. As the human crouched down behind a large trash bin, he allowed himself a moment to rest. The centaur's had been apart of the group that had attacked the city, meaning that they knew the same things that their buddies had. He had killed most of them, but left a few alive to find out more about the demon Tirek.
'Can't believe the first one put up so much of a fight, though,' Frank thought to himself as he loaded shells into his shotgun. 'Thought for sure sawing off his hands would get him to talk. Also going to have to watch out for their magical horns in the future,' Frank finished as he held a hand to his side, where he had been struck by a blast of magic that he hadn't been quick enough to get out of the way of.
Frank had been forced to kill that centaur. Even without his hands, the fools devotion to his demon lord gave him the will to keep fighting Frank. A shot to the head had put an end to that. The second centaur had been much more talkative, especially after a few knife wounds. He gave up everything. The centaur's plans, where most of them were located and a lot about their demon boss. What Frank had learned about him made Frank uneasy.
'A centaur that can steal the magic of those around him and use their power to further his own, becoming more and more invincible with each being he steals magic from. That's unsettling,' Frank thought as he tried to think of ways to kill the demon if it every got to full power, but he came up with very little. 'Got to kill him before he has the chance to achieve his real power. I've killed a few magical beings in my time, but a seventy foot magical monster from hell might be too much for me.'
Frank winced as he felt the magical wound act up, sending a blazing pain coursing through his side. Frank was generally good at suppressing all forms of pain, but the magical wound seemed to be able to get around his sheer willpower. He'd have to remember that the next time he went up against a magical being.
'I need to get out of this city,' he finally thought to himself, putting an end to his momentary respite and forcing himself to stand. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small map of the city. He found the train station and began to move where it was located, doing his best to remain hidden. 'A week. That's how long until they believe they can revive Tirek. But I know where they're going to be hiding. I can kill them all before-'
Frank's thoughts were interrupted when he heard numerous ponies began to scream not too far from him, along with a sound that he had quickly learned to associate with magic. A flash of light erupted in the distance and for a moment Frank thought that he saw a cloud in the shape of a laughing face ascend into the sky. More screams followed the explosion along with more of a light show.
'How many damned times is this place going to be attacked? It's like New York all over again,' Frank thought to himself before he grabbed his rifle and raced out of the alleyway, heading for the explosions and magic. Too his surprise the cause of the chaos wasn't that far from where he had been hiding, but the being behind it was beyond anything he could have imagined. As he skidded to a stop at a street corner, his eyes were immediately drawn to a being that floated above the ground.
It was a mix and match of creatures. A lion leg, a goat horn, and numerous other animals parts made up the being, but what made the Punisher narrow his eyes was the ponies around it, all of who had been turned into statues made of pure gold. Without waiting for an explanation Punisher took aim and fired a three round burst into the back of the beings head, but when the bullets shattered against a magical barrier the Punisher snarled.
"Wow, here already?" the being asked as it's head spun around a full one eighty to face the Punisher, who face didn't change at the strange sight. The being gave Punisher a toothy grin before the rest of his body turned as well, rubbing his hands as he narrowed his eyes at the human. The two locked eyes for a moment and then the being slowly backed away. "Yep, you're him. Exactly like what I heard."
Punisher looked from the being to the golden ponies, his eyes blazing with a hatred as black as hell. "What, them? Don't worry, they're fine. In fact, you could say that they're just...golden!" the being said with a laugh, but once more Punisher's face didn't change. He did, however, try to shoot a bullet into the mouth of the creature, but once more his barrier of magic stopped it.
"Sheesh, right to business, huh?" the being asked before he cracked his neck by rotating his head a full three sixty. "Fine. I can respect that. But first, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Discord, god of chaos. And you are?"
"I'm going to kill you," Punisher replied. He then switched to his shotgun and mentally prepared himself for the task of killing a god.
Punisher knew that he needed to get some distance between the god and him. He backpedaled a bit to gain some distance while chucking a grenade towards Discord, using it more as a distraction than for actual damage. Punisher snarled slightly when Discord caught the grenade with his magic and watched with a toothy grin as it exploded harmlessly. Punisher vaulted over an over turned carriage and hid behind it, trying to formulate a plan of attack.
'So, god of chaos. Able to stop bullets and grenades like they're nothing,' Punisher summed up as he glanced out from behind his cover to see Discord was making the statues dance with one another. 'Need to lure him into a false sense of security. Hopefully I can do that before he decides to take this seriously. If he turns all that power on me...'
Punisher ripped off the door to the carriage and hurled it towards Discord, who lazily drifted out of the way to avoid being hit. Punisher switched his assault rifle to sniper mode and he shot a metal plate to the side of the god, bouncing the bullet off of the metal plate and towards the back of the god. The sniper round hit the magic barrier once more, getting Discord to raise an eyebrow as he glanced behind him.
"Come now, do you really have to kill me? Can't we talk about this over a nice cup of tea?" Discord asked with a chuckle as he snapped his fingers, creating a massive teapot that poured its contents into the streets. Punisher's eyes went wide as a tidal wave of steaming hot tea crashed through the streets and came right towards him. Without wasting a second Punisher leapt up onto the carriage and gripped it tight, seconds before the wave of tea slammed into the side.
Punisher could feel the heat from the tea even though he wasn't in it and from the way it melted lampposts, he was glad that he wasn't. He cast a glance at one of the few golden statues that used to be a living being to find that they were completely unaffected by the tea, getting Punisher to narrow his eyes with suspicion.
"Tea not your thing? Sorry, I just never know what my friends like," Discord said with a laugh as he snapped his fingers and a moment later the river of tea vanished, allowing Punisher to leap off onto solid ground. He took aim with his shotgun, but he didn't pull the trigger as he knew he'd be wasting bullets. With a snarl he raced down a side alley, leaping onto a ladder and started to pull himself towards the rooftops two rungs at a time.
'Reality control, with no rhyme or reason for his actions. He's a god of chaos alright,' Punisher figured out as he rolled onto the rooftops, racing over to the edge and glancing down to see Discord floating through the street, looking around with mild interest for the human. Punisher pulled out a small disc and took careful aim, before throwing it like a ninja star towards Discord. It struck the back of his shield, but unlike the bullets the adhesive on the disc prevented it from falling to the ground.
'Let's see if this gets him rattled,' Punisher thought before he hurled himself off the smaller building, landing on Discords back and wrapping his arms around the gods neck. Discord spun his neck around a full one eighty to see what the heck Punisher was doing, but the moment he did so Punisher slammed a fist into the face of Discord. To Punishers surprise, the blow knocked Discords head off of his shoulders and sent it tumbling through the streets.
"Oh dear, I seem to be falling apart," Discord said with a small chuckle before the rest of his body fell apart as well, leaving Punisher to fall through the air and to the streets bellow. He slammed into the roof of a carriage, getting him to grunt in pain as he bounced off and collapsed onto the ground. He ignored the pain as he forced himself back up to his feet, glaring over at the chaos god. Discord let out a laugh as he body reformed, fixing him to perfection a moment later. But Punisher could also see that the explosive disc that he had attached to the god had remained attached as well.
"I swear this always happens to me whenever I meet new people," Discord said in a flustered voice as he clutched at his limbs, which were still trying to fall off. But the smile on his face told the Punisher that he was simply being baited or mocked. He didn't know which he found more irritating. "But dear Faust in heaven you are determined to kill me, aren't you? Is that how you greet any stranger you meet, by trying to turn them into a corpse?"
"I punish the guilty. And that's what you are," Punisher replied curtly before whipping out his shotgun, taking aim at the god and preparing to fire. Discord smirked and leaned in towards the Punisher, having perfect faith in his godly magic. That fact alone made the Punisher crack a thin smile. He pressed a small button on his glove and detonated the disc, causing a massive explosion to shatter Discord's barrier and hurl the god into the streets. He skidded to a stop at the Punisher's feet, where the human placed a boot on the gods throat and aimed the shotgun at his head.
"Guilty? Me? Guilty of what?" Discord asked, able to talk perfectly fine despite Punisher's efforts to crush his throat. "Pouring you a drink? Trying to be your friend? Or if you mean all those ponies, they're perfectly fine." Discord snapped his fingers and a moment later all of the ponies that had been in gold were free, all of them looking over at Punisher with fear in their eyes. "Hi everypony, how's it going?"
"Um, hi Discord," one of them said back, but their voice caused Punisher's eyes to narrow. They weren't afraid of Discord, who had just turned them all into gold, but were afraid of him. Punisher glanced down at the still smiling god, who raised his eyebrows at Punisher in a mocking way.
"You're not afraid of him? After what he did?" Punisher asked them, his voice alone getting the crowd of ponies to back away from him.
"What? Turn us into gold. He asked if he could do that and we said sure," one of the braver ponies said to Punisher, who looked at the pony with confusion. He then glanced down at Discord once more to see that the god was working on his nails.
"You didn't hurt them?" Punisher asked slowly, like he was missing a part of a joke.
"Of course not! These are my friends!" Discord said as he motioned to the ponies with a toothy grin. "I'm not evil, at least not anymore, and I've come to appreciate every pony in this crazy world of mine. Everypony that you came here to defend agreed to scream and get turned to gold," Discord said as his smile turned sinister. "I'm not evil, my murder happy friend. I'm bait."
And then a layer of purple magic wrapped itself around Punisher, ripping him from his feet and hurling him into the air. Before he could realize what was happening the magic slammed him into the side of a building with enough force to crack the side of it. Pain flooded Punisher's senses before he was slammed into another building, striking his head as he did so and causing his vision to go blurry.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the purple alicorn from yesterday, horn aglow and a smile of vengeance upon her face. Punisher was then lifted into the air above the ground, before he was dropped into the streets below. He glared at the alicorn all the way to the ground and then everything went black.
.45
"I'll admit, that felt good," Twilight said as to Celestia as the two walked over to where the human lay motionless in the streets, a bloody scrap on the side of his head from slamming into a building. As Twilight begrudgingly healed the wound, Celestia walked over to where Discord lay and extended a hoof to him.
"Thank you for helping us with our human problem, Discord," Celestia said as he took her hoof, pulling him back up to his feet.
"It was no problem at all, my dear. But thank you for the warning about his weapons in advanced. I may be a god, but I'm certain that even one of those bullets would have done some serious damage to me. Why, they may have knocked some sense into me," Discord smiled with a small bow to Celestia, before the both of them looked over at Twilight, who was securing the human. She used her magic to pin his limbs to his side, before trapping him in a sphere of magic that even Discord would have trouble punching through.
"I am glad that you are safe, though," Celestia told Discord, who raised an eyebrow in interest. "After everything that this human has done, I was afraid that he would kill you as well. But was my idea correct?"
"Yep. The moment I showed him that the ponies liked me and that they were fine, he seemed confused with how to deal with me," Discord said with a toothy grin, before rubbing his hands together. "This was fun and all, but now I believe I get to have my end of the bargain. If either of you need me, I will be redecorating Princess Luna's room."
He vanished in a laugh, getting Twilight to look over at Celestia with a smirk. "You got him to help us by allowing him to redecorate your sisters room?"
"Well, I wasn't going to let him change my room," Celestia said as she held a hoof to her heart, smiling at Twilight. Her smile then left her face as she glared down at the human, who was still fast asleep. "And speaking of my sister, I will contact her and see if she can learn anything about our new guest from his dreams. But until then, we cannot keep him trapped in your magic. Well we could, but I'm afraid of leaving him..."
"How about we throw him in a dungeon cell and forget about him for fifty or sixty years?" Twilight asked with a grim smile, one that gained her a look from Celestia. "I'm kidding, princess. At least about the years. But I do think we should take him to our most secure prison. He's already killed so many."
"That I can agree on. We need a place to watch and learn about him while keeping him contained at the same time," Celestia agreed with her student, while also adding her magic to Twilight's so that the magical restraints around the human were strengthened. "I do not want him in the Canterlot Dungeons, though. Aside from the guards being useless, that place has a history of being broken out of. And this is the last inmate I'd want to escape."
"How about the forest prison? Nopony ever wants to escape it because the surrounding area is so inhospitable and is inhabited with ferocious monsters," Twilight suggested and a moment later Celestia nodded in agreement.
"Yes, that seems like the best solution for now," Celestia agreed with a shake of her head before she and Twilight picked up the human with their magic. "And I cannot wait to see how this human reacts when he finds himself in an inescapable place. Perhaps he'll finally learn how to make nice."
Twilight laughed at the thought before both princesses vanished with their prisoner in a flash of light.
The scream of a child snapped Frank back to his senses and a moment later he shot up off the floor, ready to fight to the bitter death. But as the memories faded and reality sunk in, he found that he might not be having to fight as soon as he thought. He glanced around to see that he was incased in a cell that looked to be made entirely made of crystals, crystals that looked incredibly tough. A few bits of furniture decorated the area, but what drew his full attention was the purple alicorn sitting on the other side of one of the crystal walls, smirking at him.
"Well well, the fearsome human finally awakens," Twilight said in a mocking voice as Frank slowly walked over to the wall, placing a hand on it. The moment he did so he felt a powerful current of magic surge through his hand, forcing him to release he grip. "Yeah, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not unless you want pure alicorn magic rocking through your body. But by all means, go ahead and try. I'd love to see how much you can take."
Frank glanced behind him to see there was a small window that was also covered in crystals, but aside from the sun he couldn't see anything through the tiny hole. He frowned before slowly turning back to glare at Twilight, who was smirking up at him.
Frank looked down at himself to see that he was also missing a few of his items. Almost all of his guns had been taken, along with his bullet proof vest with the skull on it. All he had was his black, long sleeved shirt, his combat pants and combat boots. They had even taken his gloves.
"I would have let you keep your toys, but since you don't seem to share well with others I figured it wouldn't be fair to let you have your things," Twilight continued on in a mocking voice from the other side of the cell, getting Frank to watch her talk with narrowed eyes. "And stop giving me that glare. It's not going to work. You're trapped in there. Hell, you're trapped in the best prison that this world has to offer. You're going to be in here for a long time."
Frank wanted to laugh at her statement, as no prison had ever held him for long, but as he looked around past the crystal cell he realized that her statement might be more than just bragging. What looked to be teleportation pads lay around the main area that he could see, while a massive courtyard was far below him. Guards patrolled with strange weapons that Frank couldn't make out, but he knew that they would most likely hurt.
Then he remembered what he had learned from the centaurs and how close they might be to resurrecting their demonic master. He then flashed another look to Twilight, who was giving him a look of loathing. He knew it was a long shot, but if he wanted to get out of here quickly he had to try.
"I'm not the real threat here," he said in his nicest tone he could muster, but at this point "nicest" meant a cold voice that could chill anyone. Twilight smirked at him, but motioned for him to keep going. "Tirek is the real threat. If what I learned from his henchmen is true, and I don't doubt it, then there are only a few days before he rises. You have to-"
"Let me just stop you right there. I don't have to do anything," Twilight said with a cold glare, one that Frank was surprised she could make. "I know that Tirek is close to rising. My friends and I are already on it. We beat him before and we could do it again. But I had to make sure I was here, ensuring that the most dangerous criminal in Equestria was behind bars, so to speak."
"You are smart," Frank said with a dry laugh. "You've already figured out how dangerous I am."
"Yeah, I pieced it together when you blew the brains out of the back of the centaurs skulls. And then we found the ones that you tortured to get that information out of them," Twilight spat back with venom in her voice. "So there is no way in hell I would let you out of there, even if Tirek is rising. You wanna know why? Because as terrible as he is, I know what to expect with him. But I don't know what you might do next. And that is why I made sure to throw you in here first."
"I'm not you're enemy. I'm theirs," Frank said one last time, but Twilight smirked and shook her head at him before turning to leave.
"Because you're not a criminal? You're not a psychopath that kills others because he wants to? That somehow you're better than those you kill?" Twilight asked in her most mocking voice yet, getting Frank to narrow his eyes at her.
"I am a criminal. I'm not better than them. But I'm a criminal that hunts other criminals. The fear of me keeps criminals from going out at night. You need me to help you with this," Frank informed her as he grabbed at the bars, but a surge far stronger than the one before it tore through his body. Frank was flung across his cell and slammed into the wall, where he slid to the ground with pain flooding his eyes.
"What I need is for you to stay in here for sixty years or so," Twilight replied in a voice as sharp and cold as ice as she chucked in a single apple for him. "After that, maybe we can talk about parole. Maybe a few years earlier if you're really nice. But until then, get comfortable. This is your new home. You'll have a few visitors, namely Luna once she's done with her mission, but after that, get used to be lonely. You'll be here for a long time."
Twilight turned and walked away after saying her peace, allowing two guards that had been hiding in the shadows to flank Frank's cell and stand there. Frank tasted blood as he rose back to his feet, but as he wiped a bit of blood off of his lips with his thumb, a thin smile spread across his face as he picked up the fruit.
'So objects can't go out, but they can come in. So the guards can pacify their inmates before they can get too rowdy,' Frank thought to himself as he started to watch the patterns of the guards, along with where they appeared and disappeared in the teleporter pads. Along with one that had a strange crystal around his neck. 'And I have a feeling everything works that way in here.'
.45
"How did it go?" Celestia asked Twilight as her former student emerged from the prison, an angry smile on Twilight's face as she exited the place. "From the expression on your face, it seems that you had quite the talk with the human. Did you find out anything about him?"
"That we may need to worry about shifting him to a nut house eventually. Because he's crazy," Twilight said with a shake of her head. "He tried to convince me to let him out so that he could help us find Tirek. And by find, I'm fairly certain that he meant kill. Not that he did a good job, because he's still stuck in there."
"Glad to see that you avoided temptation," Celestia said with a small chuckle as she and Twilight headed for the princesses airship, which had brought them there. "But did he give up anything about Tirek?"
"He said that we need his help to bring down Tirek. That we only have a few days before Tirek rises and rains fire from the sky and all that," Twilight said with a bitter sigh, one that made Celestia look down at the other princess with surprise. "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia. It's just...this is the third time that we've had to deal with Tirek. And then we just got done dealing with Chrysalis again. And then we had to stop Ratet from destroying all magic..."
"Twilight."
"All I'm saying is I'm getting tired of constantly fighting evil. Why can't evil just take a break?" Twilight asked her mentor. "You had a successful thousand years with no issues, but the moment I become princess it's like every villain in the world returns. I don't know if I can constantly fight evil every few weeks for the next thousand years. I don't know if I'm that strong."
"Well Twilight, you could always fully accept your princess duties and pass off your Element to Starlight, if you feel she is ready," Celestia suggested, getting Twilight to shake her head. "And speaking of your princess duties, you have another appointment with Ratet tomorrow. Remember, you promised to help him understand the magic of friendship and harmony."
"I know I did, princess. I just wish that all of this stuff wasn't going on all at the same time," Twilight groaned as she stared up at the sky. "He's just so hard to handle. It's like he doesn't want to listen to anything that doesn't support his opinion. Have you ever had to deal with anypony like that?"
"All the time, my former student. The trick is that you trick them into thinking that what you're saying is what they actually want," Celestia said with a wink to Twilight. "It's hard to master, but once you do it is helpful in getting even the most stubborn pony to see reason. I can show you how to do it if you wish?"
"Thank you Celestia, that sounds like something I could use," Twilight agreed, before she stopped for a moment and glanced back at the princess. She narrowed her eyes with a look of concern, before she turned and joined with Celestia again. "Do you think we should have more security in there? I mean, that human is one of the most brutal-"
"He is cruel, that is certain, but that place was created to hold the strongest of monsters and the most powerful of magic users. Without his weapons, he will not be getting out of there," Celestia assured Twilight as she glanced up at the sky, smiling when there wasn't a cloud in the sky. "But let us move on to happier topics. Anything coming up that you are looking forward to?"
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to stopping Tirek and then spending the next six weeks in my bubble bath," Twilight replied, getting Celestia to smirk.
"That sounds like a good idea, Twilight. Perhaps I should try a bubble bath once more."
"Well well, I got to say that after four days you've officially been recognized as the quietest inmate in here," one of the guards said to Frank, who was sitting in silence on the bed within his cell. Frank didn't turn to look at the guard and continued to stare at the wall, lost deep within his own thoughts. "I mean, not one threat about how you're going to break out and rain fire upon the world. What a nice change of pace."
"I know, especially considering how Princess Twilight seemed to downright hate you," the second guard in charge of keeping Frank secure said with a laugh. "Then again, you did kill a bunch of criminals and fanatics in a brutal fashion. I can see why she would get mad at that."
"Ah who's going to miss them? They were a blight on our society anyway. If anything we should be thanking you for getting rid of them, but Princess Twilight declared your actions as murder. And once a princess sets a sentence, only another princess can change it. And I bet none of the other princesses would like you much," the first guard said.
Frank once again remained silent, not allowing the guards to bait him into any form of talk. He didn't know if the princesses were trying to worm information out of him by having the guards seem to be on his side, but it wouldn't work either way. If things went the way he wanted to, no pony in this land would like him after tonight. A whistle sounded somewhere off in the prison, the same whistle that Frank heard every evening around this time. Just around the time when the sun was beginning to set.
"Wow, feeding time already. Amazing how quickly these four days have gone," the second guard said before removing the crystal from around his throat and waving it across the doors to Franks cell. The door vanished in a flash of light and that alone got Frank to turn his head to look at the ponies. "Time to go eat, human. Rules of the house, you act good you get to eat with the rest of your well behaved friends. Don't make us regret doing this now."
Frank slowly rose up and walked to the exit of his cell, stopping deliberately to make it look like he wasn't sure. The guards motioned for him to move on with smirks on their faces, smirks that told Frank that they didn't see him as a threat. 'If I had to wager, I figure that Twilight told them all about me and they think that just because I don't have my guns means I can't kill them. Dangerous way of thinking.'
But it wasn't the time to move yet. He knew that much. So without a word he allowed himself to be led to the cafeteria, the only place in the prison that he couldn't see from his see through cell. Along the way he had the chance to look into other cells, seeing the inmates that were held within. Some of them were regular unicorns or ponies, pacing or glaring out at the guards. Some we beings that Frank recognized from mythologies. Others were nightmares that he couldn't begin to fathom. But whenever any of them, even the nightmares, looked into Franks eyes, they realized that none of them were as close to terrifying as he was.
"Alright human, here we are," the guards said to Frank, opening the doors for him and allowing him to enter the cafeteria. Numerous tables were strewn across the place while a small line of prisoners were gathered around a slot on the wall that dispensed food. A water trough seemed to be the only place in the room for refreshments, but even from a distance Frank could tell the water didn't look too clean.
But the water was far from the filthiest thing in the room. The moment he began to walk into the room every eye in the cafeteria turned to look at him. Most of the eyes held him with interest. Some of them saw him as new prey. And only one of the prisoners, huddled in the corner, looked at Frank with fear in his eyes.
"Have fun human, try to get along," the guards said to Frank before they left, sealing the door behind them. Frank rubbed his wrist, glad that he wasn't wearing handcuffs this time. He walked over to the line and waited, not wanting to tip his hand just yet. He couldn't look too suspicious. But even though he tried to act normal, he was still the tallest being in the room and the only human. He knew that would make him a target.
He grabbed a tray and held it out in front of the slot, having to bend over slightly. A moment later what looked to be a mix of apples, carrots and grass was dumped onto his tray. From the way they dispensed the food Frank was supposed to think that this was slop, but compared to other prisons the food here looked pretty good.
He found a table that was unoccupied and sat down by himself, removing the grass before sniffing the apple sauce. He smelled no drugs or poisons, so he ate quickly. By the time five other inmates all sat down next to him, he had already finished his meal aside from the grass. He glanced at the inmates with mild interest, seeing that three of them were regular ponies. One of them had a lot of scars and was a unicorn. He seemed to be the boss. And the other was a black insect that Frank hadn't seen yet.
"So you're the new blood, huh? The one that made Twilight descend from on high to throw your ass in here," the unicorn said with a sneer, one that was met with a cold stare from Frank. "Don't see what all the fuss is about. Don't sense any magic on ya and you don't look that strong."
Frank ignored the horse as he glanced up at the platforms above them, watching as a guard looked at the clock. Almost time for the guards to swap. Almost time for him to get out. The pony said something else and Frank turned his attention back to the horse, an uninterested look on his face.
"What, you think you're better than us just because the princess threw you in here? You think that you're the baddest guy in here? Let me tell you, you're not," the unicorn snarled, but Frank was paying little attention. A door up above opened and a new set of guards walked in. One of them, one that he had been watching for a while, was new and not looking out as well as he should. Frank tensed his muscles, getting ready to move.
"Hoof over here burned down a building. Razer there caused a stampede that knocked over a small town. And me...I'm here because I turned plenty of Canterlot families to stone. Foals and all." Slowly, Frank lowered his eyes from the guards above to the unicorn in front of him, who was smirking at Frank as if he had said something funny. Frank knew better. He knew that he had one chance to get out and he needed to act now. "We're all bad boys in here. We've all ruined our fair share of families. So what did you do-"
Punisher lashed out with his hand and slammed his fist into the face of the unicorn, breaking his nose and snapping his head back. Faster than the others could react Punisher vaulted over the table and drove two boots into the ponies flanking the unicorn, dropping them to the floor. He tackled the unicorn and grabbed his horn, snapping it off of his skull with a grunt. The pony didn't even have the chance to cry out before Punisher drove the horn through the eye of the unicorns.
One of the guards cried out from above as Punisher drove the impaled unicorn into the ground, before turning to face his next attacker. One of the ponies that had flanked the unicorn, Razer, lunged at Punisher, but faster than the pony though possible Punisher got behind him. He grabbed hold of the pony's skull from behind before swiftly moving his arms, snapping the pony's neck in a single movement. He tossed the body to the side and grabbed Hoof by the throat, lifting the pony with one arm and driving his skull into the edge of the table. A few more blows like that caved the skull in, ending Hoof.
Something tackled Punisher from behind and he was driven to the floor, but his greater strength allowed him to roll out of the beings grip and get back to his feet. He turned to see the insect flying in front of him, a smirk on its face as it sized him up. It then raced at him, preparing to strike Punisher in the face. Frank had other ideas. He grabbed the insect out of the air and slammed his skull into its, stunning it for a moment. Punisher grabbed its head and drove it into the trough, holding the head of the insect under the murky water. It thrashed and fought, but Punisher was far to experienced at drowning foes to release his grip. After a moment the insect stopped struggling and went limp. Punisher released the bug, keeping its head underwater just to be safe, before he turned to see that the guards were now on him.
"By order of the princess, stand down!" one of the four guards yelled at Punisher, who saw that the younger one was with them. That almost made him smile. The electricity crackling along the end of one of their weapons got rid of the smile. Punisher moved first, lunging at the first guard and driving a knee into his face. The guard was caught off guard and went down without a sound, but his defeat spurred the other guards into action. Punisher drew the sword that the guard had been carrying and charged the guards, blocking their spears with the blade.
He rolled underneath of a strike and sprang to his feet right in front of the new guard, glaring into his eyes for a moment to unnerve the rookie. A slash of Punishers blade severed the crystal around the pony's neck, getting the rookie to yelp before the butt of the blade made him take a nap. Punisher grabbed the crystal and immediately raced for the exit, drop kicking a pair of guards out of his way. He spied another inmate trying to stay out of the way and he hurled the blade at him, impaling the pony to the wall with his weapon.
He kicked off the wall and grabbed hold of the balcony above, pulling himself up to see another pair of guards racing towards him. A thin smile crossed Punisher's lips as he recognized the both of them. And from the way they glared at him, they knew him as well.
"We let you out and this is how you repay us?" one of them asked as he activated his spear, sending electricity across the tip. "Well you better believe that we won't make that mistake twice!" The guard lunged at Punisher, but he was already in motion. He grabbed the gold part of the sphere and yanked it out of the guards grasp, before he twirled and drove the edge of the staff across the guards face. He dropped the ground, just in time for Punisher to turn to see the other guard lunging at him. Punisher deflected the spear strike with his own weapon, knocking the guard off balance and giving Punisher an opening.
He slipped around behind the guard and wrapped his arms around the pony's throat, slowly beginning to choke him out. It would have been quicker to simply break the guards neck, but the guards had been nice to Frank. He figured that they were good guys. When the guard went limp Punisher released him, spending just a second to make sure he was breathing before he took off. He used the crystal he had taken to open the door in front of him, racing into the halls of the prison.
'If what I've learned is right and this place resembles anything of a human prison, then what I'm looking for should be...' Punisher stopped as he ran to a room that had one word hanging over the door. Evidence. This time a smile did cross Punisher's face as he waved open the door, walking inside to see an evidence locker. He spent only a moment looking around before he found what he had came for.
Numerous firearms. Multiple explosives. And a black, bulletproof vest with a white skull painted on the front of it. He quickly gathered up his items and slipped on his vest, just in time to hear yelling and the sound of dozens of hooves running across the crystal. But that wasn't what bothered Punisher. What bothered him was that he only had a few days to stop the rise of a demon.
"Time to go."
The clean up crew arrived at the prison the next day, forcing the guards to keep all prisoners within their cells while they started to clean. News had spread fast at the Crystal Empire, where the prison was located, about how the human, a being with no magic or special abilities, had escaped the inescapable prison. That didn't just gain the attention of the locals that lived nearby, but also the princesses that had put them there.
"How?" was all Twilight could say to her mentor as she and Celestia gazed down at the cafeteria, where numerous ponies in cleaning garb were mopping up what remained of the inmates that had made the mistake of dealing with the human. "How did he get out of here? This place was specifically designed to keep psychos like him in! He shouldn't have been able to leave his cell, let alone break out of the entire place, with his gear mind you!"
"Calm yourself Twilight, being upset will not help anypony right now," Celestia replied calmly to Twilight, while the princess of the sun made sure to keep her own confusion in check. But just like her student, she too was wondering how the human had managed to break free of the prison. While the two of them had been walking through the place they found nothing destroyed, no signs of doors being forced and aside from a few stunned guards, who were alright aside from their damaged pride, and the corpses, there was no indication of how he got out.
"I think I can answer that question, princess," a voice said from behind the two and the both of them turned to see the prison warden walking towards them, with two other guards in tow. "These are the two idiots that let the human out of their cell. I was going to roast them myself, but I figured that the both of you would want to get your hooves on them first."
"Oh I would love nothing more," Twilight snarled as she took a step forward, but Celestia stopped her advance by extending her wing before she herself walked towards the two. Both of them kept their eyes glued to the floor, but after a second they looked up to see a cold stare drilling into them.
"I will only ask this once. Why did you let the human out of his cell?" Celestia said in a calm voice to the both of them, but her calm tone made the both of them far more fearful than they would have been had she yelled. "He was an S class dangerous criminal, on the same class as Tirek or Sombra. Would either of you had let either of those two out of their cell?"
"No princess, but...we have a rule here that if an inmate is quiet and well-behaved for more than three days, they are allowed a small break out of their cell," one of the guards spoke up in a tone that was practically a whisper and he stopped talking when the princess turned her gaze towards him. "Also...we didn't see how he could be so threatening. No magic. No claws or weapons. Just a...guy."
"That's what I thought too. And then he killed three centaurs and nearly caved my head in with the butt of his gun," Twilight said in a whisper to the both of them, but neither of them heard her. Celestia gave Twilight a look to stay quiet before she turned her focus back to the two guards once more.
"Do either of you have any idea where he might have gone? If he was so desperate to break out, then it's clear that he had a place that he needed to get to quickly," Celestia asked them, but the both of them shook their heads. Twilight nudged Celestia and motioned her head to the side. Celestia nodded before she glared at the two guards. "I would love to find a way to punish you for your incompetence, but I have a killer to hunt down. The warden will deal with you while I clean up your mess. Dismissed."
Celestia turned away as the warden began to yell at the two, walking over to where Twilight was standing. the princess of friendship was overlooking the cafeteria, shaking her head with utter disdain on her face. "How many more lives have to be lost before we can bring this killer in? How many more have to suffer?"
"Hopefully none, my former student. But this human is crafty and he is determined. Those are two of the hardest qualities to fight against," Celestia wisely said to Twilight, who nodded her head in agreement. "You know where he is going though, don't you?"
"Not exactly, but I know what he's after. Tirek," Twilight said. The moment his name was spoken the air in the room seemed to chill, getting the workers down below to shiver slightly. "He mentioned Tirek when I spoke to him in here, said that he would need our help to beat him. I have a feeling he knows where Tirek is going to try to return."
"Well, that would be good for us if we knew where the human was, but we do not. Therefor, we cannot use him to track down Tirek also," Celestia grunted with a shake of her head. "And I do not like the fact that the human broke out so quickly. If he had more time to hunt down Tirek, he would most likely have rested up in here longer or taken more time to plan. The fact that he broke our so quickly..."
"Tells us that Tirek is soon to return," Twilight finished for her former teacher, the chill that had filled the room starting to fill up her heart. "And we barely managed to defeat Tirek last time. One of the only reasons we did was because he was so arrogant. This time he'll most likely be better prepared. But first thing is first. We need to find the human."
"My sister and I will hunt the human. You need to go back to Canterlot and have another lesson with Ratet," Celestia reminded Twilight, who groaned as she slammed her head into the railing in front of her. But when she lifted her head again, Celestia could see a weariness that she had not seen since the last time she had looked in a mirror.
"Hey Celestia, how do you do it?" Twilight asked, getting Celestia to raise an eyebrow. "How did you keep fighting the forces of evil for so long? I've only been doing it a few years and already I'm tired of all the fighting. Any tips you can give me?"
"The honest answer is that I didn't, Twilight. At first it was easy. I was a new alicorn, filled with power and wanted to stop every threat that attacked my home. But unfortunately, I found that there were more forces of evil than alicorn princesses and I quickly burned out. When my sister became an alicorn we doubled teamed evil, such as Sombra and Discord, but once I banished her to the moon I no longer had the strength to fight by myself. That is where Starswirl and his alliance came into play."
"I see. And for the longest time Starswirl defend Equestria," Twilight finished for Celestia, before giving her friend a confused look. "So then, what should I do? It's only been a few years and yet..."
"If are truly ready to give up the fight, then you should pass on your element to somepony you trust, much like I sorta did with you and your friends," Celestia said, before she turned to leave with a small sigh. "But honestly Twilight, I do not know what to tell you. Evil will continue to fight, whether we do or not. Keep fighting or throw in the towel. That is your choice."
Twilight groaned as she rested her head against the railing, lightly placing it down so not to hurt herself like last time. She wasn't sure what to think, but she knew that she needed to stop the human. But every time she closed her eyes she could still see the dead faces of the centaurs that had been killed. She could see the cold gaze that glared her down. She could hear the voice of the man that had almost killed her.
.45
Five days had been wasted. Five days that Frank could have used to hunt down where the demon was going to rise. Five days that he could have used to find where Tirek was and stop him from rising. But instead he had to deal with the ponies and their issues with him. Even though the heroes of earth did the same, at the very least they knew to hear him out when he had information about villains and evil forces.
'Damn that princess, next time I'll make sure she stays down and can't interfere,' Frank thought to himself as he raced through a forest far from the empire, refusing to take a break until he knew for certain that he was away from the ponies. Fortunately for him, he found that the prison that the ponies had taken him to wasn't that far from where the demon was supposedly going to come back, but it was another day and a half run with no rest.
'Sure. Why would it be easy? Nothing in my life ever has,' Frank thought to himself as he ran, hoping that he could get to where Tirek was going to be resurrected before the ponies could figure out the location as well. He was good. One of the best. But if he had to fight a demonic bringer of the end while having to deal with alicorns who could pick him up with their magic, then he would be in deep trouble.
Fortunately, he had used the prison to his advantage. The food there was pretty good by prison standards and he had made sure to rest to entire time, allowing him to get back to one hundred percent before he decided to break out. He would have wished to either not be in there at all or be in there longer, but life wasn't fair. He learned that a long time ago.
'Got to keep going. Got to stop this,' Frank thought to himself, almost smiling at how out of his field this was. He wasn't the go to guy for supernatural forces. He dealt with the scum on the streets, the scum in the million dollar buildings. The scum that needed to be cleaned up. He shouldn't be fighting these evils. He should be trying to find a way back to the scum of his world. But he felt...that he needed to protect this world, even if the ponies here wanted to bring him down. Not for them. But for his little girl, who would have loved Equestria so much.
And if saving this world meant Frank could imagine his girls smile, then it was worth it.
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.
Pain. That was all Frank could feel as he felt his conscious return to him. The pain of broken bones and internal bleeding was nothing compared to the agony he was going through, but it still wasn't the worst pain that he had ever felt before. The night he lost everything still trumped that. But the pain he was feeling still hurt like hell.
Doing his best to ignore the pain he forced his eyes open to see that he was staring up a brick ceiling, while laying on another bed. He tilted his head slightly to see that there was a small window in his room, but it had a pair of bars covering it. Bars that he recognized all too well.
With a grunt he sat up and found that once again he was in a prison cell, but this was a little different than the ones he was used to or had been in. This one was simple, small and had a massive gate instead of bars that was blazing with magic that crackled like lightning, telling Frank that touching them was a bad idea. Then he looked through the bars to the other side to see the princess that he had come to loath on the other side. Princess Twilight.
"Finally awake, huh? We've got to stop meeting like this," Twilight said in a cold voice to Frank, who forced himself to get to his feet and stretch out his aching body. He glanced down at himself to see that while his body was hurting, there was no physical damage that he could find. "Wondering how you're still alive? You can thank us for that. We found your broken and dying body and used our magic to get you healthy again. Then we threw your ass in here."
Frank glanced over at Twilight, making sure she couldn't read his expression as he glared at her. "What about Tirek? Did you and your allies manage to bring him down?"
"No. He was gone by the time we got there. Along with nearly all the magic in the city," Twilight replied with the tiniest hint of confusion in her eyes. She was trying to hide it, but for a brief second Frank could see it. "We saw the destruction he caused as well. The ponies devoid of magic and life. So I'm not going be able to talk long. I've got another monster to find."
"You said nearly all the magic. He missed some?"
"Yeah, two ponies and a foal. They managed to get away. And according to them, it was thanks to you," Twilight said in a dry voice, one that nearly got a smirk out of Frank. She wasn't happy that she had to admit that he had helped others. But then her dark glare returned to her and Frank felt the mood shift. "But now that you've met Tirek, how do you feel being so utterly crushed by him?"
Frank felt her words sink into him, knowing that was right. He had been crushed by Tirek. His weapons hadn't had worked, his planning was thrown out the window and in order to let others escape he had been nearly killed himself. But Tirek was still out there. Was still a monster that was ruining the lives of others. And Frank wanted him dead.
"I'm ready for round two," Frank said to Twilight in a voice filled with nothing but murder, but to his surprise Twilight smirked at his response before she looked at the cell he was trapped in.
"Yeah, that ain't happening. By round two, you mean another attempt to murder him. I'm not letting that happen," Twilight responded with a look to Frank, who glared at her in reply. "My friends and I already have enough on our plate without having to deal with you. And seeing as you escaped from your previous cell, we made this one, especially for you. Indestructible stone. A gate made of sheer magical power. And two guards that, unlike your previous one, won't be tricked by your words."
"You need me to help bring him down," Frank tried to reason with her once more, knowing that they wouldn't be able to beat Tirek. "He isn't the same as you remember. If he can survive bullets, the I'm fairly certain that he can withstand your magic."
"See, I would believe you and would want your help if you weren't a murdering sociopath just like Tirek," Twilight snapped back with a dark glare. "And don't tell me that you did it because you wanted to help others. You've killed over ten beings since you got in this land. But I'm fairly certain that you've killed a far greater number than that on your world. In fact I can see it. There's murder in your eyes."
"I kill the scum that hurts the innocent. And Tirek has hurt the innocent. He needs to be brought down," Frank said with a snarl, one that was met with narrowed eyes. "I can track him. Once I've seen a criminal, I can always find them again. I can help-"
"Shut up!...just...stop..." Twilight whispered as she held a hoof to her head. "I've got to find Tirek. Faust only knows what he's up to. So allow me to make this perfectly clear to you so that I won't have to repeat it. The only way you'll ever get close to Tirek is if I let you. And I'm not going to let you. I'm going to let rot in this cell for the rest of your life while I go stop a rampaging beast. And after what you've done and how many you've killed, I feel that may be too nice for you. Maybe once we catch Tirek, I'll make put him in the cell across from you. Bet both of you would hate that."
Twilight turned as she said this and walked out of the room, leaving Frank to glare through the gate as she left. A moment later she was replaced with two other alicorns, one as white as snow and the other as dark as the night. They radiated power and authority, all of which was directed at Frank. He glared at them in reply, not backing down an inch.
"So this is the human that has been causing you so much trouble. The one that has claimed so many lives," Luna muttered aloud as she sized up the Frank, not looking impressed. "I know that he wielded dangerous weapons, but still, I cannot see how you had so much trouble with him, sister. He does not look that dangerous."
"The trail of bodies he has left would say otherwise, sister," Celestia replied as she looked into Frank's eyes, able to see through him and into the darkness of his soul. "In the week he has been here he has already slain so many. All of them criminals, yes, but living beings all the same. The safest place for him is behind this gate."
"I will get out of here. And then I'll bring down Tirek. Gate or no gate," Frank promised the two princesses. Luna let out a small chuckle at his words, but Celestia gazed at him with a dead serious expression before she poured more of her magic into the cell that held him.
"Highly unlikely. This cell was built specifically for you," Celestia replied as she backed away from the gate a bit. "As dangerous as your are, you are only human. Not even superhuman. Breaking out of here would require power that you are not capable of generating. So as Twilight said, unless she lets you out, you're staying in here for a long time."
.45
The moon was resting high in the sky as Twilight descended onto the prison in Canterlot, tired and angry from a long day of hard work and nothing to show for it. Her efforts to find Tirek had been for naught. She had no luck tracking down the centaur and do to her inability to, another city had lost their magic to him and his wrath. And now she had to return to the prison that held a human that she hated above nearly all others. Her day couldn't possibly get any better.
The guards moved to the side and allowed her to enter the prison area, a place she never liked to visit. She let out a tired sigh as she walked into the first row of cells, shaking her head and forcing herself to move forward. As she walked she found that some of the cells that had been previously empty were now filled with inhabitants. She wasn't surprised. With the rise of Tirek, crime had gone up. She hated to see that.
'And just the other day rumors of another ancient foe surfacing reached us. How many ancient evils are there in this world?' Twilight asked herself as she walked, ignoring the cries that were thrown at her as she passed. 'And even in Ponyville the Flim-Flam brothers tried to scam everypony out of their own homes. Just another day in Equestria.'
She shook those thoughts off as she walked into the special holding cells, spying the princess of the night sitting in a chair on the outside of the human's cell. She looked bored, but still alert. Twilight glanced inside the container to see that the human was fast asleep in his bed, though Twilight didn't know if he was faking or not.
"Hello, Princess Twilight," Luna greeted Twilight as she entered, turning to look at Twilight with bored eyes. "How have you been doing? It's been what, three days since your were last in here?"
"Yeah and I've got nothing to show for it," Twilight replied as she sat down next to Luna, recounting her tales of failure for the princess to hear. When she was done Luna nodded with a bitter smile, as if she understood what Twilight was going through.
"You are not the only one that has had trouble doing your job the past couple of days. I too have been struggling with the human," Luna informed Twilight, who raised an eyebrow at the princess of the night. "See how he's fast asleep there? Well, he's done that three times now. And three times I have tried to enter into his dreams so that I can learn more about him. But I can't."
"Are you having trouble entering dreams?" Twilight asked.
"No. I can enter other dreams just fine. But whenever I try to enter his, it's like a wall of sheer willpower keeps me out. Like he won't let me in. I've never ran into anything like that before," Luna grumbled as she shook her head. "Well, standing around being upset about it won't do any good. What are you going to do next to find Tirek?"
"I don't know," Twilight admitted. "I've tried every spell, every trick in my book to try and find him, but whatever magic he's using to hide himself is beyond me and my friends. I can't send in Discord because of what happened last time and I don't want him to steal your powers, so I have to do this with only them. And it's not enough. Every day we lose more and more ponies to him. The human was right. He's different this time."
"Heh, you know the end of the world is close when we say the human is right. Perhaps when the sun comes up I can come with you and help you to-"
"Frank Castle."
Both Twilight and Luna snapped their heads towards the bed, where the human was now sitting up at glaring at the both of them. He let out a long sigh, like he had finally decided to do something that he didn't want to do. "Frank Castle. Not the human. I'm tired of hearing that. Call me by my name. Or call me what everyone else calls me. Punisher."
"Punisher, huh? That you're "superhero" name?" Twilight asked with a smirk, but there was curiosity in her eyes now. "Why choose now to tell us your name? Fairly certain that you could have done that when we first met, if you weren't so busy murdering."
"Because I'm tired of keeping her out of my head," Frank replied as he cast a glance at Luna, before refocusing on Twilight. "So if you want to know so badly why I do what I do, fine. I'll tell you. I'll tell you why I'm so messed up. And then when I'm done, you can decide if I'm a simple murderer or not. Sit down, ponies. Story time."
"You're story? You're origin story? What, you get bit by a radioactive jerk and became one yourself?" Twilight asked with a smirk, hardly even flinching when Frank gave her a stare as cold as the abyss. "What makes you think that anything you say will get me to change my opinion of you? Not even mind control would get me to change what I know about you."
"Funny how concrete your opinion is before you've heard what I have to say. We'll see how strong your conviction is afterwards," Frank said with a snarl before he tightened his grip on his own hands and stared at the floor for a second, his eyes softening for a moment as he recalled something. Twilight and Luna both noticed the change and shared a glance with each other, neither of them sure what to make of the change.
"I was a soldier. Defended my home, served my country, and even got married and had a family," Frank began, clenching his hands together with enough force to break his own hands, struggling to recall the memories. "Fought in wars, killed people...was nearly killed by other people. But I made it through. And then I finally got to make it back home."
"They were all waiting for me. Maria, Frank Jr...Lisa." Twilight noticed that Frank's voice caught on that name and he lowered his head further so that neither of them could see his eyes. "They were happy to see me. My wife cried. My son cried. My little Lisa was strong though. She didn't cry. She just smiled, like she knew I'd be back. That made me cry and as you've probably guessed, I don't cry. Happy reunion. Years of happiness ahead of us."
"I do not believe I like the tone in your voice," Luna muttered to Frank, noticing that his voice had become very dark as he continued to speak. He glanced at her with a look that would haunt her nightmares. He took a moment to cage the rage once more before he continued.
"I'm going to make this as brief as I can. Recalling memories like this don't do anyone any good. The first few months were great. We were together. We were happy. Then one night we decided to go to an amusement park. My little girl wanted to go so badly, especially since I was back. Sure, why not? Sounded like fun. We played, we had fun and my boy even managed to knock over those rigged bottles. Had a great arm. I was so proud of him. My wife had a picnic all planned out for us. Great night to do so."
Both Luna and Twilight had questions that they wanted to ask, but they were prisoners of the Punisher's story. And from the tone of his voice, they were waiting for the happy tell to go south. Then Frank's eyes turned to slits and his grip tightened, to the point where the two princesses could hear the bones in his hands popping.
"But at the picnic we saw something that we weren't supposed to. Something that I should have seen and stopped. Two gangs were meeting up in the park, for God knows what reason. They talked. Then they shouted. Then they started shooting. I tried to get my family out of there, but the shooting was over quickly. One gang had wiped out the other. Then they turned their gaze to us."
"Why would they do that? You were just a family that was having a picnic," Luna asked, getting Frank to turn his eyes towards her. If it was possible, his eyes seemed to be even blacker than before, like there was no soul behind them.
"We witnessed something that we weren't supposed to. We were witnesses. And they don't leave witnesses," Frank replied, getting both Luna and Twilight to look at Frank with knots forming in their stomachs. "The first shot hit my wife and killed her instantly. She died painlessly. The second shot hit Frank Jr. in the side. I hear him cry out as he goes down. I throw myself over him, trying to keep him safe. But I couldn't. Another shot got him. Nothing I could do. But the fourth shot though...the fourth shot hits my Lisa. In the face."
Frank took a long moment of silence after he said that, having to use all of his fortitude to keep himself from showing any emotion. Twilight and Luna couldn't find the strength to utter a sound, they could only listen as Frank regained his voice. "Time crawled to a halt. I got shot in the side, but at that point I wasn't feeling anymore. I crawled over to my daughter and pulled her into my arms. Her beautiful, smiling face was...gone. She was gone."
"That was it. I was ready to die. I looked up from my girl to see one of them pointing a gun at my face. I didn't try to stop him. I closed my eyes. I heard the gunshot. And that should have been it."
"Wait a moment...you...you were..." Twilight stammered out, but couldn't finish the sentence. Frank looked up at her and slowly lifted his hand, moving his black hair away from his forehead and revealed a small, circular scar that was above his eye.
"But I didn't die. I didn't get to be with my family again. I woke up a few months later, in a lot of pain. But there was a reason I woke up. I didn't realize it at first, but it quickly became clear to me. I couldn't die yet. Not until those that had taken my family from me had paid. Not until every piece of shit, every criminal scum, every supervillain ruler of the world bastard that thinks that they can do what they want had paid. And from that day forth I never stopped making them pay. I never stopped punishing them. The day I realized that I had to make them suffer was the same day I killed my first man. From then on, I've never looked back. I've never stopped. No matter what was thrown at me or what was done to me, I kept on punishing them."
His voice was colder than hell, but he had gripped his hands so tightly that one of his fingers had been dislocated. Frank noticed it after a moment of seething and straightened it out, wincing slightly as he did so. He then gazed up a the two princesses, neither of them knew what to say.
"Now tell me, all knowing princess. Do I sound like a regular, run of the mill killer to you? No. I'm much worse," Punisher whispered before he closed his eyes and rested his head on his hands. "I'm done talking with the both of you for tonight. When you want to talk about Tirek, you know where to find me."
"Oh dear Faust," Twilight whispered to herself as she looked down at the floor, trying to fully comprehend what she had just been told. She didn't want to believe it was true, but when she had looked into Frank's eyes, she could tell he wasn't lying. The pain was far too genuine. Every action, every word and everything he had done since he had arrived made sense to her now. Why he so brutally killed criminals...and why he wouldn't kill her.
"Frank..." Twilight whispered, but he didn't raise his eyes again. Twilight could tell that words wouldn't work on him. She rose from where she had been sitting and walked to the edge of the room, with Luna joining her a moment later. "Dear Faust, Luna. That story. How...how can somepony go through all that? How could the people on his world be so...cruel?"
"According to his story, easily," Luna said in a calmer voice, but Twilight could tell that she too was doing everything in her power to stay strong. "His children...dear Faust, they even killed his children. It is no wonder he is so cold and merciless. After that, it's a miracle that he managed to hold on to his sanity at all."
"The scary thing is, princess..." Twilight began as she looked back to where the Punisher was sitting silently in his cell. The moonlight fell through the window and illuminated the cell with a pale glow, but in turn the brightness of the light made the shadow Frank cast all the more darker. "I don't think he did."
.45
Twilight appeared in the center of her castle in flash of violet light, startling a young dragon that had been laying on the ground and reading comics. Spike waved to Twilight and said something to her, but she was so far gone in her own thoughts that Spike had to practically throw himself in front of her to get her attention.
"Sorry Spike, I was thinking about something," she apologized to the dragon with purple scales and green fins. "It's nothing important though, so you should just go to bed."
"I'd say you're lying to me," Spike replied in a no-nonsense tone. Twilight looked down at Spike, but after a moment she realized she was looking at him in a different light. He wasn't just her assistant or her dragon friend. He was like a son to her, or maybe a little brother. Family. And then Frank's story came back into the forefront of her mind. She then swiftly pulled Spike into a tight hug, surprising the dragon. The surprise change to concern when he realized that Twilight was shaking as she held him. "Twilight? What's wrong?"
"I...I just had a long day, that's all," she said, but she wasn't certain if she was trying to reassure herself or Spike. "I'm just stuck on a dilemma, that's all."
"Well tell me about it. I've done nothing but nap today, so I'm wide awake," Spike said with a supporting smile as he pulled up a pair of chairs for the both of them. Once the both of them sat down, Twilight glanced at her dragon, wondering how to possibly tell him what she had learned.
"I...caught another villain. One that's meaner and scarier than the others," Twilight said, technically speaking the truth. "He's done a lot of terrible things, things that are going to make it hard for me to sleep tonight. But he does all these things because everything he loved was taken from him. So he's acting out of...revenge. And after hearing his story, I don't know what to do with him."
Spike thought about what Twilight told him for a moment, before he smiled at her with an idea in his eyes. "Why not try to help him? The same way you did Starlight and Discord? Both of them were villains at one point and you helped to change them? Heck, Discord didn't even have a tragic backstory and we managed to get him on our side. And maybe with some affection and caring, even this guy can change. Won't know till you try."
"I...I don't know, Spike. After Ratet, I was planning on taking my princess role more seriously," Twilight said as she rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, recalling the look in Frank's eyes. "And honestly, I don't think this guy is willing to give me a chance. He might be too far gone. He's...given up."
"He might think that, but if you give up on him then he is gone for good," Spike replied, getting Twilight to give him a curious look. "Come on Twilight, help reform one last villain before you become a full fledged princess. If this guy is as broken as you say he is, then you have to at least try to help him. I know I'd do the same if it were you...after I used your bits to buy those comics I wanted, of course."
Twilight shook her head at the little dragon, wondering how he could be so silly and yet so wise at the same time. "You're right Spike, I have to at least try. And if this is going to be my last villain reformed, then I'll do everything in my power to help him. Thanks, Spike."
"No problem. How about you pay me back by raising my allowance?"
"Not a chance, Spike."
Frank heard the door that lead into his cell being opened, telling him that he was going to have to put up with one of the princesses once more. He shifted to his back and glanced at the gate that blocked off his cell, raising an eyebrow with surprise when he saw the princess of friendship staring through the transparent material at him. He couldn't read the look on her face, which was a first for him.
"Come to bother me about my past some more?" Frank asked Twilight as he sat up and grunted, his body still aching from having been slapped around by Tirek. When Twilight failed to answer he tilted his head to glance at her, finding her giving him a look that he couldn't place. It wasn't anger, more like pity or sympathy. "Or have you finally come to your senses and are ready to let me help you bring down Tirek once and for all?"
"Frank..." He hated it when someone said his name like that. It was the way Daredevil and Spider-man said his name. It was a way that meant the person, or pony, felt sorry for him, felt pity for his life. He never wanted pity. He wanted blood. From her tone alone he was tempted to just turn away from her, but he knew that she most likely wouldn't go away unless he listened.
"I've been thinking it over and talking with my friends...and we're not sure what to make of you," Twilight began with a tone filled with sympathy, but all Frank gave her in reply was a stare of ice. "You are a killer...but you're hurting. You're in pain. That much is clear to us now."
"What gave it away? When Tirek knocked me through the side of a building?" Frank replied in a dry tone. Twilight lifted her gaze to the ceiling, where a light fixture decorated with crystal and jewels hung above. Frank had spent many hours staring at the light fixture, lost in his own thoughts, but every once in a while he would wonder why his prison would have something as nice as that in it.
"No. From your story, it's clear to us now that you're a broken man, one that feels that he's lost everything," Twilight explained to Frank. He was tempted to roll his eyes at her obvious diagnosis, but he forced himself to remain emotionless. He didn't want her to think that she could get his emotions out of him unless he wanted her to. "You may be a villain, a monster...but at one point you were a good person. And my friends and I believe that we want to try and help you become that person again."
Frank stared into her eyes for a full minute to make sure that she was absolutely serious. When he had discerned that she was, he looked up at the ceiling and allowed himself to chuckle at her words. It was the most joyous that he had sounded since he had arrived in the land and the sudden mirth surprised him. But when he looked back at Twilight, he found that his laugh had creeped her out.
"Help me become the old me? You mean fix me, right?" Frank asked Twilight, cracking another smile when she nodded in reply. "Quite the optimist, aren't you? What makes you even think that I want to be helped in the first place? Maybe I like the person that I've become."
"I doubt that. If you had truly given into the person that you think you are, the Punisher, then you would have discarded the memories of your family long ago," Twilight said with conviction. "If I had to wager a guess, you hunt down and brutalize criminals to try and make up for the criminals that you failed to stop. The ones that took everything from you. But it's never enough. No matter how many you hurt, the pain never goes away, does it?"
"Well, you got some of that right, kid," Frank grunted before he sat forward and laid his hands on his knees, taking in a deep breath. "It is never enough. No matter how many of them I kill. Because I know there's more. I know that there's hundreds of thousands more out there that need to be punished. That's what keeps me going."
"It's Twilight, not kid. And I disagree. The memory of your family, their love and kindness, is what keeps you going," Twilight shot back, though her words didn't change Frank's expression. "And deep inside, I'd wager that all you want is them back."
"You a doctor now, kid?" Frank asked, glad to see that calling Twilight kid was upsetting her. "Or are you just delusional? Because I'm fairly certain I know what's wrong with me. And I bet you do too, you just don't want to admit it."
"Admit what, that you're in pain? That you're still grieving the loss of your family?"
"No. That I'm just as bad as those I kill. That I'm a monster," Frank whispered.
"I can't believe that. Not as long as I believe that there's hope for you. And I think you do as well. Or else you would have put a gun to your chin and ended it long ago. You want to be helped, but don't believe that you should be," Twilight put forward and this time got one of Frank's eyebrows to go up. "And you wouldn't be the first "monster" that I've helped. What to hear who else I've changed?"
"I bet you're going to tell me all about them."
"First there was Trixie, a mare that hated me for showing her up. So much so that she bought an alicorn amulet that gave her the powers that I now wield. And then she tried to take over my home with it. Sound pretty nasty, doesn't she?"
"Maybe if you're six."
"But I overcame her powers by outthinking her. And then, when she was at her weakest, I helped her to see the error of her ways, how hatred hadn't improved her life," Twilight said with pride, ignoring Frank's words. "And she was the first one of my foes."
"You know what else would have solved that? Bullet to the brain. Much faster, less of a fuss."
Twilight gave him a look after he said that, but continued on anyway. "Then there was Discord. Yeah, the same one that tricked you and got you captured the first time. He was a god of chaos, one that had been sealed away for a thousand years only to escape once more and tried to rain ruin and chaos upon our land. Know how we helped him?"
"I bet it involves a lot of talking and preachy shit."
"We became friends with him. All along, even with how evil he claimed to be and all the power he wielded, all Discord wanted was a true friend, somepony that actually cared about him. And that's what Fluttershy did for him. She gave him a friend," Twilight said with pride. "We didn't need to kill him, as I'm sure you would if you could. We just helped him."
"Sure you did. And yet the guards were telling me in my old prison how Discord helped Tirek become powerful the first chance he got. Seems your friendship counted for shit when it mattered," Frank shot at Twilight, who took a step back as if his words had struck her. "If you had killed him, Tirek wouldn't have gotten that power the first time and then we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Okay, so Discord is a bit of a loose cannon, but that's his nature. Starlight, my own student who will so replace me, once went back in time to erase my friends friendships so that we could never access the power to save the world!" Twilight said with some heat to Frank. "And she did all of that because she was hurt by what she saw as a betrayal by her childhood friend. We helped her overcome that."
"That sounds difficult, especially for a five year old. In fact, I helped my little girl with that same problem when she was seven and we had to move," Frank snarled with a look that made Twilight flinch. "If those are your villains, then you're words mean less to me than I originally thought. You want to know what real evil sounds like?"
"Real evil are people that steal from the weak and helpless because they can. Real evil is people that kill for fun or because they don't like what the other person says. Real evil rapes and enslaves others just for the kicks or because they know they won't get caught. Real evil tears apart a family that did nothing wrong," Frank said to Twilight, rising out of his bed and glaring into her eyes as he said this. "So tell me, Twilight, have you had to deal with real evil? Do you think you could change people like that?"
Twilight locked eyes with Frank and for a long moment she held her ground. But then she glanced down to the side and Frank saw doubt enter her eyes. He smirked the moment he saw her weakness and walked back over to his bed, leaning against the wall beside it. "See? You don't have the conviction to try and help someone like me. If they're misunderstood or lonely, sure. But the real evil, Twilight? Evil like Tirek? That is what you can't deal with. So I have to."
"Alright, so I've never dealt with anypony like that before...anypony like you. But I want you to give me a chance," Twilight demanded as the fire reignited in her eyes and she walked up to the gate of the cell, glaring up at Frank. "Give me a chance to show that you're wrong. That there is still a good person in there. A father and a husband that just wants to be with his family again. Let me help you."
'She's such a fool. She really thinks she can do it.' Frank shook his head at the pony, but then he looked around at his cell and began to weigh his options. Then he thought of the centaur, the one that had broken him and killed so many during their last encounter. And how he wanted to bring him down. Then he looked at Twilight once more and recalled how his little girl would have given everything to go on an adventure with a creature like Twilight.
"You get one chance. But only because I'm tired of staring at this ceiling," Frank finally agreed with a grunt. Twilight gave him a smirk in reply before her horn began to glow, creating a band of magic that wrapped itself around his throat. Frank poked at it and felt magic rip through his body.
"Did you really think that I would let you out without a little insurance?" Twilight asked Frank as she opened the gate for him, allowing him to step out of his cell. "That collar will give you the zapping of your life if you do ANYTHING to harm another living being or try to run off. Try it, speak it or even think it and you get zapped. We clear?"
"Am I going to get my guns back?"
"Hell no."
"Then we're clear," Punisher said, a large smile crossing his face and creeping Twilight out. "Now then, let's go see where all the pretty little ponies live. Maybe then I'll have something to really laugh about."
"You think so, but by the end of this I bet I'll be the one laughing," Twilight promised as she lead Frank out of the cell. 'That felt...too easy. I thought for sure that he'd put up more of a fight. So either he really is just in pain...or he's planning something and I need to be very, very careful.'
The following morning Frank was subjected to having to deal with Twilight's friends one at a time. Apparently Twilight thought that the best way to try to change him back to who he used to be was to have each of her friends, each of who seemed to represent a different virtue, talk to him and try to remind of him of a time he valued those virtues. He knew they were wasting their time. He wondered how long it would be until they noticed. But until then, he wanted to see how long it to him to get under their skin.
Rarity was the first. He didn't know why she wanted the first crack at him, but when he found her sitting down across from his cell, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in surprise. She was wearing a dress and seemed to be wearing even more makeup than before. If Frank was capable of being creeped out at that point his career, he probably would be.
"Surprised that I'm up first, darling?" Rarity asked him, each of her words holding the same tone of a person that was acting sophisticated. Frank didn't care. "Yes, I wanted first crack at you, especially how after you talked to my friends yesterday. I may not look it dear, but I'm very good at helping others to realize their mistakes."
"You mean you get them to do what you want." It was a guess, but from her air and the way she held herself, Frank figured that the pony was used to getting her way. When he saw her face shift slightly, it told him he was on the right track. "So how do you do it? Bribe them with money? With a favor? With your body?"
Rarity looked horrified. "Are you insinuating-"
"The dress with that makeup? Hooker. No question about it," Frank continued on, watching the rage and disgust burn in Rarity's eyes. "But maybe I'm wrong. You have too much confidence to be one of them. Slut, perhaps? No, you seem to dignified for that. Maybe you just do it for fun. Get your kicks."
"Listen and listen well, human. I am the Ambassador of Generosity and I-"
"Oh, so you give everyone a chance to get inside of you. Slut it is." Frank had to resist the urge to smile as he watched Rarity's face go from white to red, though whether it anger or embarrassment he couldn't tell. He was getting to her, though. Her manner was starting to break down. He could hear her muttering curses under her breath and the rage was causing the makeup to begin to smear.
"While I have enjoyed this little chat, I think I'm done here," Frank said to Rarity as he turned away from her and leaned against the wall of his cell, still able to hear her making choking sounds. "Twilight's upstairs though, if you feel like being generous. Seems like she could use some generosity."
With as much cold dignity as she could muster, Rarity rose out of her chair and walked out of the chamber. Frank did allow himself to smile when he heard her muffled scream come through his wall. One down, five to go. 'Not that these little talks are a bad thing,' Frank thought as he tried the same bar he'd been trying all night, finding that it moved a little now. 'Just need a little more of a push.'
Applejack was next. From the look on her face when she had entered, clearly Rarity had told her what Frank had said about the mare. He gave her a cold stare as she sat down and instantly started to tell him off. Once she was done with that, she glanced at the collar around his neck.
"Still think that's a bit much, especially with you locked up," AJ muttered.
"Truthfully, it shows that Twilight's learned she needs insurance when dealing with me. Shows she's learning. Now gone on, tell me your sob story." Applejack did just that. She told him about her own life, her own family and how she had to deal with losing her parents.
"So ah know what it's like to lose yer family as well," Applejack said in a pleading tone, but her eyes only held contempt for the human. "But ya have to live on fer their memory. What would they want ya to do, Frank? Would they want ya to go around and slaughter all these beings? No, they'd-"
"Applejack, let me ask you a question since you're so concerned with family. What would do if your sister, Applebloom was it, was murdered right in front of you?" Frank asked, his question getting the color to drain from her face. "What would you do if some being just blew her brains out right in front of you, for no reason other than he could? Then he did the same with your brother. Then your grandma. Would you be satisfied with just their memory? Or would you want his blood? Would you ever stop punishing them? Tell me. Honestly."
Applejack didn't come back after that.
Rainbow was next, but instead of trying to appeal to the good inside Frank she just talked about all the different ways that she would beat him up. He found her bragging amusing. Then he told her of how he watched his platoon be blown apart by enemy fire. That shut her up.
Pinkie was after Dash, though just like Dash, Pinkie didn't seem to appeal to the humanity in Frank either. She just kept trying to convince Frank how great it was to smile and how nice it was to have so many friends that cared about them. Frank then told her a story about what happened to the last friends that he had made and how what was left of them could have fit into a plastic bag when he had found their remains.
Fluttershy never showed.
"So you've sent Rarity away in a rage, got Applejack to question what she would do in your shoes, made Rainbow Dash stare at a wall with a look of horror on her face and now Pinkie has...well, she's trying to figure out which ponies in town would want to be friends with you since your old ones are gone. I swear she's stronger than all of us," Twilight summarized for Frank, her rage barely contained as she glared through the bars at Frank. "In one day you've managed to do what no other villain could do. You've broken my friends."
"Is that supposed to be hard? I told them all the truth. Guess they couldn't handle it," Frank replied with a shrug as he leaned back in his cell.
"No, you used manipulative words and stories to change the topic. You didn't even give any of them the chance to try and help you," Twilight said.
"Guilty as charged. So now what? I don't want to change and I've made it clear that I can deal with your friends attempts to change me. What now, oh all knowing princess?" Frank asked. He was genuinely curious. Each of her friends had attempted to change him. He'd shut them down before they could start just to see how they would react. But just as he had predicted, none of them had the ability to stomach him. Or his life.
"For today, we're done," Twilight scowled as she turned and headed for the exit. "But you better start shaping up. Because if you're so adamant on not getting any help, then we'll simply imprison you for the rest of your life after all you've done."
"Seems like you're pouring a lot of time into me. Don't you have a centaur to stop?"
"Celestia, Luna and Discord have been searching for Tirek for these past couple of days. So far...nothing. But we will find him. And when we find him, we'll deal with him," Twilight replied with a cold stare. "And then we can finally deal with you. Even if that means an eternity in prison."
"The heroes of my earth said the same thing. And I still got out. You're nowhere close to their level," Frank replied. Twilight left the chamber, slamming the door behind her and pounding up the stairs. The moment he was alone Frank placed his hands on the cell bar that was loose and began to work it even further. He knew that he needed to act quickly. Every moment he spent in the cell was another moment that Tirek was out there, attacking the innocent. Frank had no love for this world, but he still punished the guilty no matter where they were. That was his oath.
Then he heard a sound that made him stop working a few hours later. The sound of feet descending the stairs. Feet was the key word. Not hooves. That thought alone got him to stop working and turn his attention to the door, which opened a moment later and a small purple and green lizard entered the room. The design of the creature caught Frank off guard and for a moment the two stared at each other in interest.
"You're taller than I'd thought you'd be," the lizard said at last, giving Frank the once over before walking over to the chair that the other had used and sat down across from Frank. "Don't look that dangerous. Of course, Twilight said that just because you don't look dangerous doesn't mean that you aren't. You really killed all those centaurs and ponies, huh?"
"You're taking that news better than your friends," Frank replied, not able to pinpoint the lizards age. He sounded like a kid. Not a little kid, but not yet a teen. Close, though. Kinda like the kids his little girl used to hang out with.
"It sounds horrible. I'm grateful that I didn't have to see it. But I honestly thought that such a bloodthirsty monster would look more...monstrous."
"I'm a human, kid. Nothing more monstrous than us," Frank replied.
"Spike. Not kid. Spike the dragon," Spike the dragon corrected for Frank.
"Why you down here, kid? If you heard how dangerous I am, then shouldn't you stay away?" Frank asked.
"You're only dangerous to criminals. Which I'm not. So I'm pretty sure I'm safe," Spike replied. It was then Frank realized just how terrified of him the lizard was, but he was doing an incredible job hiding it from him. "I've also faced down a tyrant made of shadow, brought a new age to the dragons of this world and helped to save hundreds of ponies from being crushed to death. Danger is nothing new to me."
"Brave kid. You how old, ten?"
"Twelve. Close guess," Spike replied before giving Frank the bravest glare that he could muster, but the action nearly made Frank smirk. "And I came down here to tell you that we're not afraid of you. No matter how dangerous you are, I'm not afraid of you."
"You switched from we to I there. You trying to prove how brave you are?" Frank asked Spike, who swallowed hard instead of answering.
"You hurt Twilight, who's the closest thing to a mother I have. I'm here to tell you that if you do it again...I'll...kill you."
Frank knew it muster have taken every last ounce of courage the kid had to say that. Frank also didn't believe a word of it. 'He's trying to intimidate me. Trying to make me think that just because he says that he'll kill me means that he'd actually do it. He won't. He doesn't have what it takes. He's brave. Not a killer.'
"You'd kill me, huh? So you'd be a killer, just like me?"
"If I...had to be."
"Don't be like me, kid. No one should be like me," Frank replied, trying to get rid of the harsh tone in his voice. He couldn't blame Spike for trying to scare him. Frank had attacked his family. Spike was trying to make sure it wouldn't happen again. He could respect that. "You're different from Twilight and her friends. She sees me as someone she can save. You see me for what I really am, don't you?"
"A monster," was all Spike replied with, but his tone made his thoughts clear. "Nothing more. Nothing less."
"Smart kid. You've already picked up on it. Did she tell you my story?"
"You had a tragic life. Doesn't make up for all the lives you've ruined," Spike replied with fire literally spewing from his mouth. "I had a tragic life as well. Abandoned by my parents. Left to die in the cold. If Celestia hadn't found me, I wouldn't have made it out of my egg. I was left to die. Don't see me running around killing every bad guy in my way."
"You've got a good heart. Stay that way. Maybe you'll be better than me one day."
"I'm already better than you. I chose to be better. I chose to be strong."
"You calling me weak?"
"You are weak. That's why you gave up."
Frank looked at the little dragon for a long time after hearing that, while more and more of the fear faded from the little guys voice. Frank believed almost everything the kid had said, except for the killing him thing. Spike didn't have it in him. But with the way he was acting towards Frank, Frank wouldn't be surprised if he had stood up to the villains of this world.
"Maybe you're right, Spike," Frank replied as he laid down on his bed, using body language to tell Spike that the talk was over. "This was an interesting talk. You're smarter than your friends, that's for sure. They just talk about nonsense. You know what's real."
"I do. I know that they're the heroes and that you're the one trapped in this cell," Spike replied before Frank heard him leave the room. Despite himself a smile crossed Franks face as Spike's words stayed in his mind.
'At least there's someone here that talks some sense.'
Hoofsteps.
Punisher's eyes snapped open as he heard the faintest sound of hoofsteps coming from the room above his cell, so faint that if he wasn't on guard for the princess he would have most likely never have heard it. But he was always on guard. Punisher rose out of his bed without a sound and cupped an ear with his hand, listening closely.
'Heavy hoofstep. Not a pony. At least, not one of the ones I've met,' Punisher figured out before he began to think. Whoever they were, they were sneaking around in the castle. 'I've only seen two ponies larger than the ones that have been bothering me. Celestia and Luna. But why would they need to sneak around their fellow princesses castle? What other massive creatures have hooves?'
The answer came to him immediately. Centaurs. Punisher narrowed his eyes as he realized this, his idea making perfect sense. Even though Twilight was focusing most of her efforts on him, she was still an enemy of Tirek and if Punisher gambled, he would wager that Tirek would want Twilight out of the picture as quickly as possible.
Punisher had no love for Twilight, but if she was killed in her sleep and the centaur vanished before the other found them, he had no doubt that he would be the one blamed. Maybe that would be enough to get the ponies to actually kill him. And he wasn't ready to die yet.
With a kick that had caved in many skulls Punisher knocked the loose bar out of the cell and sent it spinning across the room. It hit the wall and made a loud sound, one that made the hoofsteps stop above him. He had two reasons for doing this. First, the being would slow down, meaning that he might get to it before it got to Twilight. Second, if Twilight was as on guard as she said she was, maybe the sound would wake her.
While he couldn't slip through the hole made by the missing bar, Punisher was able to now reach the lock on the outside. He removed a lock pick from his boot (one of two items that Twilight had failed to take from him) and in a few moments had the cell door open. He stealthily slid out of his cell and crawled up the stairs, doing his best to make no sound whatsoever.
'Best chances is for me to take them from behind and stick close. Don't give them the chance to use their magic,' Punisher thought to himself as he pushed open the door to the dungeon, glancing around for a moment to make sure the centaur wasn't anywhere close. When the coast was clear, Punisher pushed the door open.
A loud scream pierced the night followed by the sound of a scuffle, telling Punisher that he might be already too late. He moved into a full on sprint, following the sound of the scuffle as best he could through the castle, which had an annoying habit of making the sound echo. He tracked the sound down to what he assumed was Twilight's bedroom, finding the door blasted off of its hinges.
He peeked through the doorframe to see that Twilight was glaring at a centaur who wasn't much bigger than Punisher. The centaur's back was to Twilight and the two of them were glaring at each other, but there was absolute terror mixed in with the rage that Twilight held. A whimper sounded from beside the centaur and Punished pieced together that the beast had Spike, meaning that Twilight was in a bad way.
"Let him go," Twilight said in a voice that made the castle shake beneath the Punisher, making him wonder just how much power she really held within her body. The centaur shook their head in reply and lifted their right hand, revealing that indeed the beast was holding Spike. He squeezed his fist and made Spike whimper in pain, which instantly caused the fire in Twilight's eyes to cool.
"Not a chance! Lord Tirek has given me the chance to prove myself and I won't let it go to waste!" Punisher bit back a curse when he heard the centaur talk. His voice sounded younger. Not as young as Spike, but he couldn't quite call him an adult. Maybe a late teen. "And I know how powerful you are, Twilight. That's why I've got insurance right here. You won't dare attack me while I've got your dragon."
Twilight's face told Punisher that the centaur was right. With a worry in her eyes that looked similar to a mother afraid for her child, Twilight folded in her wings and gazed at the floor, surrendering silently. She wasn't going to be able to save Spike and Punisher was facing a similar situation. His only weapon was a lock pick. Good for a painful stab, but he doubted he could kill the centaur in a single strike. And if he failed, Spike's life would be the cost of his failure. Punisher couldn't watched another child die due to his weakness. He needed to wait for an opening.
"Why are you doing this? Tirek seeks to bring about the ruin of the world," Twilight said in a whisper.
"No, he seeks to bring down Equestria and the ponies who thought themselves superior to the rest of the world, to the rest of us races," the centaur corrected as magic began to form in his horns, which Punisher noticed where shorter than the others that he had fought. Almost like they were still growing. "And he will. In fact, soon all of Equestria will fall to him. Your precious little castle that sits so high above the rest of us will be brought to earth. Then we'll see who is superior when you're down with all of us!"
"I get it. You're upset at the way we've treated you. As royalty, the blame is mine. But please, let Spike go. He's done nothing to you." Despite being a cold hearted bastard, even Frank felt a twinge in his heart at the desperate pleading in Twilight's voice. Spike was practically her son, according to him. Frank knew the pain she was feeling at the moment. But the Punisher needed to focus or neither of them would make it out.
Yet Punisher took that moment to look into Twilight's eyes and he saw something that he had never seen before. A rage. It was barely there, practically invisible due to the sorrow and fear that was clouding the princesses eyes. But it was a rage nonetheless. A rage he knew well. His rage.
But then the centaur did something Punisher wasn't expecting, something that made Twilight's rage dissipate. He glanced at Spike and for a moment seemed uncertain. "Very well, the dragon will not have to suffer. After all, you're magic is all that Tirek wants." The centaur then lifted a small medal, one that made Twilight's eyes go wide. "That's right, once we've taken your magic and sealed you away, it will be easy to-"
Punisher almost smiled as he heard the centaur roar. Spike, upon seeing his foster mother in danger, unleashed a burst of fire into the eye of the centaur. The beast let out a roar as he dropped the dragon and clutched at his left eye with his free hand. The moment Spike was free he raced to Twilight, who scooped him into her arms. The centaur roared with more pain than fury as he pointed the medal at Twilight, but then another yell filled the room.
"DIE!" Punisher roared as he landed on the back of the centaur, driving the lock pick into the eye that hadn't been burned. The centaur screamed in pain as he lost his other eye, before Punisher wrapped his arms around the waist of the centaur and drove him into the wall. With the precision of a fighter Punisher beat the hell out of the centaur, leaving his face a pulpy and broken mess when he was done punching the beast. He then took aim at the pick with an open palm, knowing that a strong enough blow would drive it through the beasts head.
"Frank..." Punisher turned around to look at Twilight, who was clutching a shivering Spike in her arms. Both of their eyes were on Punisher and both of them looked terrified. Punisher then looked down slightly to see the medal resting in front of Twilight, glowing with an energy that seemed to be sucking the magic out of her. "Don't do it. Please, don't."
"He attacked you in your sleep. Kidnapped your son. Nearly took away your magic. And you want me to spare him?" Punisher asked in a voice so murderous that the centaur felt like his life was being drained away. "You've got to be fucking with me. I'm surprised you haven't ripped him apart with your bare hooves already."
"This...isn't right. This isn't how it should be," Twilight said, her voice shaky even though she tried to sound strong. "He wasn't going to hurt Spike. He wasn't going to kill me. He's just following the orders of Tirek."
"And that makes him guiltless?" Punisher asked in a voice filled with disgust. If this centaur had attacked his kids, they would have been able to carry out his remains in a tin can. "You only have his word that he wasn't going to hurt you or Spike. Maybe he would have. Could you live with that?"
"No. Just like I couldn't live with it if you killed him and I did nothing to stop you," Twilight replied with more confidence as she began to walk towards Punisher, though the medal made her collapse to a knee. "Frank, what would your wife think of your actions? What would your kids want you to do?"
"Wouldn't know. They're all dead because of monsters like this," Punisher replied as he took aim at the pick once more, ignoring the pain filled sobs of the centaur.
"Yes you do. You said you were your daughters hero. What would she think of this? What would she want you to do?" Twilight asked. Punisher glanced back at her, planning on smirking at her. Did she know how many times a hero had tried to pull the "What would your family want?" trick on him? But then he caught Spike's eyes, eyes that almost seemed to be smirking at Frank. That made him pause for a moment. Spike's eyes seemed to annoy him, almost as if he had seen that look before. A look that made him growl.
Then Punisher turned his eyes back towards the centaur, who had made no effort to escape. He was far too terrified to even move. Punisher then moved his face in close to the side of the centaurs head, making sure his mouth was right next to the beasts ear before he spoke.
"How old are you?"
"W-what?" the creature sniveled back.
"This is your only chance. And whisper."
"F-fifteen," the creature whispered back in a sob. Punisher moved his head back and narrowed his eyes at the beast, go over his options. He should kill him. That was no question. Then Punisher glanced back over his shoulder at Spike, who was giving him an awfully familiar look. Then it hit him. Spike was giving him the same look his daughter gave him when he had messed up and was refusing to admit it.
'Ignore it and finish this,' Frank thought to himself as he began to thrust his arm forward...before another idea came to his mind. He snarled at the idea, but instead of ramming the pick through the skull of the centaur Frank slammed his forehead into the bridge of the centaurs nose. The creature fell to the ground without another sound, allowing Frank to glance back at the surprised faces of Twilight and Spike.
"You...didn't kill him?" Twilight asked with a look of disbelief on her face, almost as if she couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. "Why?"
"Because we need him alive to tell us where Tirek is," Punisher replied as he reached down and yanked the pick out of the eye of the centaur, wiping the bloody tool on one of Twilight's curtains. Then he glared back at Spike, who had a look Punisher couldn't read. "And maybe to show you that I'm not as weak as you believe."
Frank ignored the looks that the ponies were giving him, having grown tired of the constant looks of disgust or hatred that they always wore when he was around. Instead his focused his attention on the centaur that was trapped within a bubble of magic that floated above them, who in turn looked down at the six ambassadors with uncertainty. But he refused to meet Frank's eyes.
Twilight had used her magic to heal the damage done by Spike's fire, but the wound caused by Frank had been too deep to heal with her magic. Another fact that made Twilight's friends glare at him when they had been told what had happened the previous night. The only time the looks of rage had vanished from their faces is when Twilight told them that Frank hadn't killed the centaur and had only knocked them out.
Twilight had also trapped the centaur within an unbreakable sphere of magic, much like the one she had used on Frank. Once her friends had shown up they had all moved into the map room, where the princess rested the sphere above the table. She and her friends sat down at their places at the table, while Frank stood at the head and glared up at the centaur, continuing to ignore the looks he was being given.
"Ah'm sorry that ya had to go through all of that, Twilight," Applejack apologetically said to Twilight and her other friends nodded their condolences to Twilight as well. "That sounds like quite the ordeal. Ah'm sorry that we weren't there to help."
"It's alright, everypony. We were caught completely off-guard by this attack. I'm just grateful nopony was seriously hurt," Twilight replied with an unsure glance at Frank, who didn't meet her eyes. "And I'm also glad to see that I was the only one to be attacked. I'm glad that none of you were harmed."
"Doesn't make sense. Why would Tirek only send one centaur to deal with you?" Frank asked aloud, but he was talking more to himself than any of the ponies in the room. "And why only you? Why not your other colorful friends? He has an army, so he should have been able to pick off the weaker members of your group."
"And who among us would happen to be the weaker members, in your oh so wise opinion?" Rarity asked.
"Well, considering he only considered Twilight the only real threat, I'd have to say all of you."
"Listen here, you little..."
"So why only you?" Frank asked the centaur in the bubble, who flinched as though struck when Frank spoke to them. "Why did Tirek only send one of you to kill Twilight when a large force would have more likely succeeded. Is he just that dumb or is there another reason?"
"It was a right of passage for me! To prove that I'm worthy to stand among Tirek!" the centaur replied with a hint of pride in his voice, but a look from Princess Twilight got rid of it a moment later.
"It almost ended you in a grave. If not for myself and Spike here, you would most likely be there right now," Twilight informed the centaur, never seeing Frank smirk slightly at Twilight's words. The centaur ceased to talk after that, but did keep his eyes on Frank. "So in return for us saving your life, you're going to answer some questions."
"A-and if I refuse?"
"Then I'm going to have all ponies and dragons leave the room, then lock you in," Twilight replied in a cold voice, one that Frank hadn't heard her use in a while. The centaur counted the ponies and Spike, before his eye went wide when he realized who would be left. "That's right. You and him. Make no mistake, I may have saved your life, but you attacked Spike. My family. I would love nothing more than to feed you to Punisher, but as he said, we need you alive. Now talk."
"Okay okay. Tirek is planning an attack on Canterlot in three days time," the centaur admitted, getting the group, aside from Frank, to gasp in shock. "He's also bringing a weapon that will allow him to cancel out any magic weaker than alicorn magic, which will also somewhat protect him from your rainbow powers. Not completely, but enough to battle with the six of you. His twenty or so followers will be with him, making sure that no pony interferes. There, I talked. Now promise you won't leave me alone with that."
Twilight called a huddle and brought her friends in. "This is bad. If what this centaur is saying is true, then we'll be in for the fight of our lives. And if Tirek really has an artifact like that, then we won't be able to count on any support."
"Not to mention that we barely defeated Tirek the last time he showed up," Fluttershy reminded the group, who all nodded to show that they remembered.
"So all we have to do is get to Tirek and destroy is artifact before he gets to us. No big deal," Rainbow Dash said.
"No, it is a big deal. The artifact cancels out any magic aside from Rainbow Power that gets close to it. That would most likely include our natural magic," Twilight reminded the group, who all widened their eyes in shock. "And in that weakened state there is no way we could beat Tirek."
"So what yer saying is we need somepony with no magic whatsoever in them to destroy Tirek's artifact, so the rest of us can bring him down," Applejack told the group, instantly getting her a look from Twilight.
"Don't you say it."
"Do we have a choice?" Applejack replied, glaring into the princesses eyes. "Who would you say is the bigger threat between the two of them?"
"Honestly, I couldn't say."
"Okay, how about this? Which one of them will destroy our friends and family while also taking over our world and enslaving all pony kind?" AJ asked, getting Twilight to scowl in response. "Twilight, this may be one of those situations where we may have to pick the lesser of two evils. Punisher is a nightmare and a killer, but he's not currently out to wipe out our way of life and he hates Tirek as much as us. Enemy of my enemy..."
"He will kill Tirek if he gets the chance. And there is no way that I'm going to let anymore die on my watch," Twilight replied with some fire in her voice while her eyes dared any of her friends to argue with her.
"Well, he didn't kill that one centaur," Spike pointed out, getting Twilight to turn her gaze towards him.
"Spike, he didn't kill them because he wanted information. Punisher even said so himself."
"Yeah, but he could have just tortured him in front of us and then killed him. With the state we were in, we might not have been able to stop him. And he knew that," Spike pointed out, getting Twi to narrow her eyes before she glanced over at Frank, who was staring up at the bubble. "Why let the centaur go? Why let us interrogate him when in the past he never cared about us?"
"I...don't know? Why, you have an idea?"
"He said something about showing me he wasn't as weak as I believed. Back when I talked with him a few days ago." Twilight gave Spike a cold glare after he revealed that to her. "I called him weak and he seemed to take offense to it. Maybe he's a prideful human and can't stand being seen as weak? I don't know, but whatever the reason he didn't kill the centaur. Maybe we can get him to work with us."
Twilight thought about Spike's words for a moment before she broke free of the huddle and walked over to the bubble, using her magic to burst it before levitating the shaking centaur to the ground. "You want to kill him right?" Twilight asked Frank, who gave her a look that she couldn't read. "Well go ahead. He's right here. Do it."
Twilight wasn't going to let it happen, but she figured that if Punisher held a code to kill all criminals that he met, he wouldn't be able to pass up this chance. Yet to her surprise, Frank glanced down at the centaur before his eyes narrowed and he turned away.
"Like I told the kid, I'm not as weak as he thinks. I'm far stronger than any of you would believe."
Twilight had to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. Frank decided that he had enough waiting around and started to walk towards the exit of the room, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts so that she could chase after him.
"What was that all about?" Twilight asked Frank before he could push open the door and leave the room. "You would behead one of Tirek's goons in front of me with a smile on your face, but the moment Spike says something to you you stop your murdering? Why?"
"I like Spike. He's to only one of you I can tolerate," Frank replied, though he didn't really answer Twilight's question. He tried to push the doors open once more, but a clamp of purple magic prevented him from doing so.
"The full answer."
"I don't like to hurt children, alright? And if I were to kill that centaur in front of Spike," Frank replied while glancing back at the others, but for a moment Twilight wasn't sure if he was looking at Spike or the centaur. "Well, you can figure out the rest. You're smart, right?"
Twilight's brain was working on overdrive trying to figure out what Frank was saying. He wouldn't kill the centaur because Spike was watching? Was that the reason he didn't try to kill the centaur when she "gave" him the chance to?
'He might believe that he's dead on the inside, that he's a killer whose only purpose is to make all criminals pay, but deep down he still really cares for children. I guess...his father's instincts weren't completely suppressed, as much as he wants them to be,' Twilight thought to herself with a nod of understanding. "Where do you think you're going?"
"After Tirek. You heard the centaur. He's going to be here in three days and I plan to meet him," Frank replied as he glared down at Twilight.
"So you can what, get killed like the last time you fought him?" Twilight mocked with a thin smirk on her face.
"This time will be different."
"Of course it would be. You'd be going in without your weapons, so he'll kill you much faster this time."
"You have something to say? Say it."
"I don't like you, Frank. I don't think I'm ever going to like you," Twilight began, before her face hardened and she seemed to accept something. "But Applejack is right. Tirek is ready for us and our magic. And none of our non-magical allies stand a chance against him. Then there's you. The most ruthless and deadly human that I've ever met. A human with no powers."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm not willing to trust you, Frank. Not completely. But if you're willing to hear me out," Twilight said, before a devious smirk crossed her face. "Then I think that I could convince you to help fight with us."
The sound of hoofsteps approaching got Frank to crack open his eyes. He glanced to his side to see that Twilight had finally come to the place that she had sent him to. That was over three hours ago. Not that he would let her see any annoyance on his face. So as she approached she was received with the same, cold stare that he always gave her.
"You're late," was all Frank said to her, but to his moderate surprise his words got her to smile.
"Actually, I never said what time we'd be meeting up. I just sent you here early so that I knew were you would be for a few hours," Twilight replied before she turned her gaze upon the door next to them, a frown spreading across her face in the process. "You know, you never did tell me how you managed to get out of that cell."
"It was made for magical beings and ponies. Not me," Frank replied curtly. Twilight sighed as her horn began to glow, using her magic to cause the door to glow with the same light as her horn. A low rumble filled the room as the doors slowly began to slide open. As it opened Twilight walked inside, motioning for Frank to follow suit. He did so, only for his eyes to widen a slight amount when he found what the large door was concealing.
"Weapons, huh?" he asked. Dozens of strange and bizarre weapons were hung along the walls of the small room, each of them in a different shape and color. He couldn't begin to guess what some of them were and the only ones he recognized were the ones with blades on them. "Why bring me in here? I thought you didn't trust me."
"I don't. Not entirely," Twilight replied in an honest tone as she glanced at each of the weapons, before nodding her head at a strange tube of crystal that looked almost like a rifle. She picked it up with her hooves and walked over to Frank, holding out the tube to him. "But last night you earned the chance to earn my trust. We're going after Tirek and I want your help in bringing him down."
"Because his weapon cancel out your ponies magic," Frank repeated as he grabbed the tube and examined it. He leaned the weapon against his shoulder and held it like he would a gun, nodding his head when he found that it felt like it had been modified for him. "Also noticed that you were kind enough to remove my collar. Bad idea keeping a dog like me off of his leash."
"If you're going to be the one getting close to Tirek, then the collar would just be destroyed by his medal. Besides, you can't kill him with that," Twilight said. She nodded her head towards the weapon, getting Frank to place the butt of it on the ground. "Tirek's not the only one with a magic neutralizer. That right there is a staff that I've modified to be held like one of your weapons. But instead of firing bullets that kill people, this staff fires a beam of anti-magic that can either knock out or severely hinder a magic user."
"Strong enough to take out Tirek?"
"Doubtful, but it should be enough to stun him or giving him a wicked headache."
"Not sure I like the idea of going up against a foe that can kill me in an instant with a weapon that gives him a headache," Frank murmured.
"Well it's either that or you don't go. I have no issues with throwing you back into that cell and leaving you to rot," Twilight reminded Frank of what his fate could be. "But if I've learned anything about you, it's that you never give up. So if you were given the chance to bring down somepony you hated, you would take that chance."
"You're not afraid that I might kill him during our little scuffle?" Frank asked as he began to practice moving and swinging the tube, trying to figure out his new weapon.
"I doubt you could kill him. Besides, I'm going to be there to make sure that you don't try anything stupid. Your purpose in the mission would be to destroy the medal that he'd be using against us. Most magic absorbing weapons are composed of a weak material that can't take physical hits. That tube is one of them. Be careful when using it or you might break it."
"I'll keep that in mind. But now I have a question for you. Where's that pony that you wanted to take over? Starlight something?" Frank glanced down to see that Twilight's eyes had shrunk, telling him that he had struck something. "Surprised I know? I hear things, Twilight and I'm very good at noticing things around me. Like the letter that you left open on the desk in your room."
"You read that...while fighting the centaur?" Twilight asked with disbelief.
"So what's the reason with you quitting the fight? Too tired of dealing with scum and evil? Or have you finally realized that your methods don't work as well as you thought?"
"Neither, you piece of...I am giving up my position of Ambassador because my princess duties have become far more numerous, meaning that I can't do both them and fight evil while expecting to have a life. So I am leaving the evil fighting to my student. And she has proven herself to be more than worthy of taking my place."
"So you are giving up then. Makes sense. I can see the quit in your eyes."
"Sure you do. Oh yeah, I also dug this out for you," Twilight said before using her magic to teleport something into the air over Frank. He reached out and grabbed hold of it, only to find that it was his bulletproof vest with the white skull painted on the front of it. "You're going to need your body armor in this fight and I figured that you'd want to wear something a little stylish."
"You're mockery needs work," Frank grunted as he slipped the vest over his shoulder, buckling it up and practicing moving in it a few times. He nodded when he found it fit perfectly before he tried to move towards the exit, only for his path to be blocked by Twilight.
"Before you go out there, before I trust you at all, I need you to make a promise," Twilight said in a tone so soft that Frank was barely able to hear her. "I need you to promise me, Pinkie promise me, that you will not kill any of Tirek's forces. You can't kill Tirek, but you've proven you can kill his forces. I need your word."
"You think that even if I make a little promise to you that I'd honor it? They're all dead, Twilight. And you can't change that."
"Then I'm going to lock you up once more and let you sit here while we deal with Tirek," Twilight spat back with a lot more anger in her voice. "Frank, don't you get what I'm trying to do for you?! I'm trying to help you become the hero that you once were, the hero that your kids looked up to! Stopping Tirek, helping us to save our world; this could be the chance for you to finally take a step back towards the person that you used to be, not this punisher of evil that you think you really are!"
Twilight had expected Frank to mock her words or give some reason for why she was wrong about him, but he simply stared down at her with an expression that she couldn't read. Was it pity...or was it something else?
"Why do believe that deep down I'm a broken soul. I've shot at you, knocked you out, attacked your way of life and even mental damaged your friends. And yet you still won't give up on me? Why?"
"Because...you're probably going to be the last broken soul that I help as an ambassador," Twilight replied as her eyes became heavier, revealing to Frank the stress that she had been under for so long. "I don't think I can keep it up anymore. The constant fighting, the trying to change the minds of those that seek to destroy us. Besides, Starlight has credibility as a former villain. A lot of those we stop listen to her more than they do me nowadays. It's time for me to step back."
"So if I can help one last lost soul find peace before I move on to my full time life as a princess...then that would be the best way to go," Twilight finished before giving Frank a smirk. "Not to mention that if I don't help you, nopony in this land will. They all hate you too much."
"So am I supposed to thank you for hating me less?" Frank asked with a dry look. Twilight shrugged in reply before she turned and started to walk away. "Fine. I Pinkie promise that I won't kill any of Tirek's little henchmen."
Twilight's eyes widened to their fullest before she turned around to gaze up at Frank, who was giving her a thin smile. "Since you're willing to trust me, maybe I should give you an actual reason do so. Besides, if I kill any of them I'm going to have to deal with more of your speeches and I can't handle any more of those. But I will hurt them, in ways that they didn't know they could be hurt. We clear?"
"It's...baby steps, Frank. Baby steps," Twilight replied with a large smile spreading on her face, not able to believe what she was hearing. Twin flashes of light went off at the end of the corridor and a moment later Celestia and Luna stood in the castle.
"Twilight. We bring news. We have found Tirek," Luna said to the princess, whose eyes widened once more at the news.
"He is hiding out in the old castle at the edge of Everfree Forest. Seems that he's made it his base for the time being," Celestia continued before giving Frank a look. "Is he on board?"
"I think so."
"Non-lethal?"
"I can only hope."
"Then gather the rest of the supplies you need while we round up your friends. We attack as soon as we are able. Today Tirek falls."
The group moved under the cover of the Everfree Forest. "Due to this forest having a magical nature of its own, it's highly unlikely that Tirek would be able to sense us coming through it," Twilight explained to Frank as she and the other Ambassadors moved through the darkness of the forest, with Spike riding on the princesses back. "Celestia and Luna will be circling Ponyville in hopes to distract Tirek's henchmen if any of them are watching us. Hopefully we can catch him off guard. Once we've started fighting, the two will join us."
"And if we can't then we're all dead," Punisher replied as he vaulted over a fallen tree and kept up the run. Despite each of the ponies being incredibly fit, all of them were surprised that Frank was out running all of them. "Got to say, this reminds me a bit of my time back in the service. Almost makes me feel human again."
Then Punisher flashed a smile that sent chills down the ponies spines and in that moment they wondered if he had been all there even with his family. A few minutes later Punisher held up a fist and slid to a stop, getting the group to stop as well. He then slowly walked forward, coming to a stop in a small clearing. Punisher narrowed his eyes before making a motion with his hand for the group to go around. When they started to argue he pointed the rifle at them with murderous eyes. That got them moving.
"There was a trap set in the clearing," Punisher told the ponies once they were far enough away.
"How did you notice it?" Spike asked.
"Ground was disturbed. And since grass hadn't grown over it yet, it was new. Course, some monster might have upturned it, but I'm not taking chances," Punisher replied.
The group moved through the forest without much talk. Each of them knew that they had the upper hoof in this fight. Tirek wasn't at his full power and they had the element of surprise. Still, each of them knew that he couldn't be underestimated. The last time they had underestimated a foe it had almost cost them their world.
"We should be coming up on the castle soon," Twilight informed the group once they reached a part of the forest that seemed to get even darker. "We'll need to be on guard. Not only from Tirek and his forces, but also for any monsters that might be lurking here. The last thing we need is a pointless fight drawing Tirek's attention."
"So keep the chatter to a minimum. If his ears are half as good as mine, then he'll hear your annoying voice from miles away," Punisher said with a growl as he lead the group into the darkness.
"Remind me again why we are bringing him with us?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight.
"Because he's the only one that can get close to Tirek without being affected by the medal. Also...I didn't want to let him out of my sight. Who knows what he might do," Twilight muttered in reply with a nasty stare. "So everypony stay quiet. Don't blow this."
The rest of the journey was spent in silence, with none of the group being much for conversation. A few times Spike or one of the others had tried to ask Punisher a question about his past, but he would silence them instantly with a glare filled with ice. So when the run down castle at the edge of the Everfree Forest came into view, the group was visibly relieved despite knowing what was inside.
"I'm not walking across that," Punisher told the ponies when they spied a rickety bridge dangling over a large chasm. None of them seemed happy that the bridge was the only way across. "Can't you use your magic to get us across?"
"I could, but there's a chance my alicorn magic might alert Tirek," Twilight pondered as she placed a hoof under her chin. Rainbow Dash then let out a loud sigh before she grabbed hold of Applejack and Rarity, zipping the both of them across the chasm. She placed them down before flying back over to grab Pinkie. Fluttershy and Twilight caught on and flew across as well, leaving Punisher alone.
"Grab on," Rainbow Dash said once she flew back over, extending a hoof to Punisher. For a long minute he stared at her hoof before grabbing hold of it with a grip like iron. Rainbow Dash began to fly the two across, but at a much slower pace. "So let me ask you this," she said in a whisper to Punisher, nothing but seething rage in her voice. "If I dropped you here, what would you do?"
"Die, most likely," Punisher replied in a tone that was devoid of any emotion. Rainbow Dash seemed to ponder that idea, but if she was going to act on it Punisher would never know as they reached the other side a moment later. She let go of him and he landed boots first in front of the castle, glaring up at the ancient structure with narrowed eyes.
"Alright team, let's head inside and stop Tirek," Twilight said to the group as she started to walk in, but Punisher grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.
"Go in through the front. How did you last as long as you did?" Punisher asked her. Twilight tried to say something in response, but Punisher walked past her and grabbed hold of a handhold on the side of the castle. "We go in through the top. Gain the high ground and see what we can find out about Tirek. Maybe we can take him out without him never seeing us."
The group figured that it was pointless to argue, so they went with his idea. After making sure Spike was secure, Twilight flew up with AJ holding onto her hooves. Rainbow flew up Rarity and Fluttershy barely managed to pull up Pinkie. With their ability to fly the passed Punisher and waited at the top of the castle for him to catch up. Once he pulled himself up with them he walked over to one of the shattered windows, peeking inside.
"I see...one centaur, laying on the ground," he whispered to the group, narrowing his eyes. "Other than that, I can't make out much else. We need to move in. Each of you take a separate window and move silently."
Without waiting for a response Punisher moved into the window, avoiding the shattered glass as he slid onto one of the beams that hung far above the room below. Of the side he spied the fliers slip inside, while those stuck on the ground took longer to get in. But they weren't his biggest concern. What was below him grabbed hold of his full attention.
Centaur's were everywhere. Dozens of them lay on the ground, no life in their eyes and only weak groans telling Punisher that they weren't dead. But he couldn't figure out what had happened to them. From the way their eyes seemed dull and lifeless...along with the weak positions.
"What do you think happened?" Twilight asked in a whisper as she flew over with Spike still on her back. Castle thought it over for a moment, trying to remember if he had ever come across a situation like this before in his career as a killer.
"Their eyes...and the way they seem devoid of life...it's almost like the ponies in-" Realization kicked in and Punisher hurled himself out of the window he had come in. A moment later six spheres of magic wrapped themselves around Twilight and her friends, getting them all to yelp with surprise as they were pulled from their hiding places and into the long hallway below them.
"What's going on?!" Applejack yelled as she bucked the sphere, only to find it wouldn't budge. All of the other Ambassadors tried to break free as well, but the spheres were too strong. The spheres then began to move, floating through the castle and up one of the long towers. When the spheres came to a stop the ponies all narrowed their eyes at where they had been brought to.
A massive centaur stood in front of a large, stain glass window, hands clasped behind his back as he stared at the image of the two princesses of the sun and moon that had been infused into the image. He then turned to face his guest, revealing a large smile complimented with a white beard.
"Tirek," Twilight said with venom in her voice, getting Tirek's smile to widen.
"Ah, Princess Twilight. So nice of you to join me. And I see that you brought all of your little friends as well," Tirek said as he extended his arms to the other Ambassadors, all of who gave him the same look of loathing. "It's always pleasing when a plan comes together."
"A plan...this was a trap, wasn't it?" Twilight asked and her answer was another smile from the centaur. "That's why you sent your lackey to attack me. So that we'd capture them and be lured out here."
"To be fair, I wouldn't have minded if he killed you or took your magic, but yes, that was the plan. And you fell for it gloriously," Tirek smiled before turning to look back at the image of the princesses. "I admit, I was concerned about my return. I feared that I would barely be back for ten minutes before the six of you were upon me once more. But how lucky that there was another madman running around the land at the exact time I came back."
"You mean the Punisher?" Pinkie asked.
"Punisher. That is a fitting name. What became of him?"
"We threw him in prison and melted the key to his cell," Rainbow spat.
"Pity. Perhaps when I'm done with you I'll find him and thank him. From the other side of the bars, of course," Tirek said with a laugh before he turned to face the ponies once more. "Confused as to how I became so powerful so quickly? Simple. The last time I came to the world, I made a mistake in making a spectacle of myself, drawing too much attention to myself. That made it easy for you to find me."
"You didn't really try to hide," Fluttershy muttered.
"So this time I had my minions gather enough magic to return me to my natural strength, so that when I returned I was ready to fight. And then I drained the magic from them," Tirek said with a wicked smile. "With their power added onto the power of all those that they drained, I feel stronger than I have since the last time we fought. And this time, I have a weapon that will nullify your pony magic. But I'm sure you already knew about that."
"Yer little buddy told us. Said ya had an amulet or something that could make this a fair fight," Applejack added. Tirek snickered as he pulled out a small medal that had an image of the sun and moon carved into it.
"Yes, this little beauty will negate your powers to a point that will allow me to deal with you like foals," Tirek laughed as he started to move forward with the medal extended. "So my victory is certain. And to think, all it took to bring down the greatest champions of Equestria was a human that killed and a small trinket."
"You know, it's funny that you should mention the human," Spike said with a smile, one that stopped Tirek in his tracks. Tirek raised an eyebrow before a blast of crystal shattered the medal in a single shot. Tirek's eyes went wide as he stared down at where his ace in the hole had been a moment ago, before he looked up to see Punisher in the rafters with a weapon pressed against his shoulder.
"What in the...?" Tirek asked before Punisher fired six more shots, freeing each of the trapped ponies. They fell to the ground and activated their rainbow powers the moment they landed, getting Tirek to roar with fury as he was blinded by their light. When he could see again he found himself staring down the very powers that had bested him previously, only this time there was a dragon and human with them.
"Why?" Tirek asked Punisher, who gaze was like a black hole amongst so many bright colors. "I was told that you fought against the ponies. That you hated them."
"I did and I do. But they offered me something I couldn't pass up," Punisher said as he lifted the rifle and aimed it right between Tirek's eyes. "Another shot at you."
Then Punisher fired.
Tirek roared with a fury that shook the whole of the castle as he swatted the shot out of his face, steam erupting from his nostrils as he glared down the Punisher. Tirek lowered his horns and threw himself full throttle towards the human, who barely had time to register the attack. A flash of magic went off and Punisher found himself on the other side of the tower, regaining his senses just in time to see Tirek plough through the other side of the room.
"Eyes on the prize, Frank. Time to stop Tirek once again!" Twilight said to him as her friends threw themselves into battle against the centaur. Tirek bellowed at their attack before he started to shoot magical blasts from his horns, tearing through the roof of the tower and raining bricks down upon them. Punisher threw himself out of the way to avoid being crushed while Twilight joined her friends in the battle with her friends.
"He's even stronger than last time," Punisher grunted to himself as he pushed himself back up to his feet, before glancing to his side to see that Spike was standing next to him. "Shouldn't you be somewhere safe? Battlefield like this isn't a place for little dragons like yourselves."
"I'm right where I need to be. And haven't you forgotten? I'm the dragon that took down Sombra. I can handle this," Spike said with confidence right before Punisher had to tackle him out of the way from a blast of magic that was sent hurtling their way. Punisher rolled up to his feet with the dragon clutched in one arm with his rifle raised in the other.
He shot a blast of anti-magic crystal towards Tirek, but once more the centaur saw the attack and swatted it out of the air once more. Tirek did grit his teeth though as he held his hand in front of his face, which had a black mark on the back of it from where the shot had struck him. For a brief second the centaur glared at Punisher, before he was forced to defend himself from the onslaught of ponies once more.
"Haven't you had enough, Tirek?" Twilight asked the centaur as she unleashed an attack of rainbow magic so powerful into Tirek that the centaur was nearly blown out the side of the tower. Tirek managed to move to the side and fall out of the magical blast, but as he turned to glare up at Twilight he was blasted from the side by the other Ambassadors.
"Had enough of what?! My desire to rule this land?! To see you all crushed beneath my hooves?! NEVER! I will never stop until I have taken this land and your magic for the rest of eternity!" Tirek roared as he fired a massive beam of magic from between his two horns, forcing the ponies before him to dive out of the way of his attack.
"You won't win, Tirek. Haven't you figured that out, yet?" Twilight asked Tirek as she blasted him in the back, sending him skidding across the floor and into one of the walls. "For all your boasting, you're weaker than you were last time, all of your followers you consumed for your own selfish desires and this time you don't even have any leverage against us. You can't win."
"Then I simply haven't fought hard enough!" Tirek bellowed as he stood up and swung a fist towards the floating Rainbow Dash, catching her in the chest and sending her flying through the roof. Tirek channeled his anger and turned all of his power upon AJ, whose rainbow power protected her from being disintegrated, but the force of the blast was still enough to send her flying. Tirek then spun and lunged towards Fluttershy, whose eyes went wide at his approach.
A second shot of crystal magic caught Tirek in the side of the head and sent him off course, causing him to crash into the side of the tower wall. His broke through whatever furniture that had been left there and he fell to the ground in a spray of splinters. Rage boiled his blood as he rose once more, aiming all of his hatred towards the Punisher.
"I will kill you slowly, human. I promise that," Tirek said to Punisher.
"Get in line," Punisher replied before firing again. This time Tirek tore out a chunk on wall and hurled it towards Punisher, who reacted in time to grab Spike and hurl the both of them out of the way. The downside to grabbing the dragon was that he dropped the crystal weapon, leaving it to be crushed beneath the chunk of wall. Punisher rolled up to his feet to see Tirek barreling towards the both of them.
"Get out of here," Punisher said to Spike before practically threw him across the room. Tirek was upon Punisher a moment later, tackling the human and driving him into the wall. Tirek slammed a hand around Punisher, who let out a roar of pain as he felt his body being crushed by the grip of the centaur.
"You do not belong here, mortal. Not in a battle of gods," Tirek snarled at Punisher, who held onto enough strength to glare into the eyes of Tirek without letting the pain consume him. "So before I snuff out your feeble life, allow me to ask you a single question. Why would you dare to face me again after I crushed you so easily last time?"
"Because someone needs to put down sick bastards like you. Because you need to see that even with all your power and all the fear you generate...you're nothing more than dead men," Punisher replied with a look so black, so cold, so devoid of emotion that even Tirek moved back slightly. Tirek shook his head and refocused, bringing back a fist to crush the Punisher for good.
"We're not done with you!"
Six beams of rainbow light wrapped themselves around Tirek's arm, yanking him away from Punisher and allowing the human to fall to the ground. Punisher grunted in pain as he landed, everything in his body hurting like crazy. Through the pain he could vaguely see the six Ambassadors fighting with Tirek, while Spike ran over to check on him.
"Didn't know you cared about be," Punisher grunted as Spike helped him to sit up.
"I don't. But if you die now, Twilight will never get you to see the error of your ways and then I'll never get to rub it in your face," Spike replied with a wry smile, one that made even the Punisher chuckle slightly. Punisher leaned up against the nearest wall and pushed himself back to his feet, but he could tell from the way the battle was going that Tirek was about to lose.
Tirek shook with power before he let out a scream, one that was followed by a massive blast of energy that consumed the six Ambassadors of Harmony, before disintegrating the ceiling and causing a massive explosion in the sky. For a brief moment Tirek let out a smile, believing himself to have won, but then a burst of rainbow magic dashed his hopes. His eyes sank as the Ambassadors floated above him, protected in a shield of rainbow that hadn't even wavered at his most powerful attack.
"How...this is...not possible," Tirek muttered to himself as he started to back away, backing towards Punisher and Spike without his knowledge. The six Ambassadors floated to the ground in front of them, each of them glaring at him aside from Twilight, who gave him a sad look.
"Tirek, that's enough. Please, put a stop to all of this," Twilight pleaded with him. But despite her words, Tirek's rage boiled forth once more and he began to charge with magic once more.
"NO! I am a god! I will not lose to the likes of you!" Tirek roared as he summoned his magic once more, but before he could fire Twilight and her friends unleashed their own power against him. Tirek let out a bellow as his magic was consumed by the rainbow power, before the rest of him was enveloped by magic as well. The magic that he had stolen was torn from his body and thanks to the rainbow power was returned to who truly owned it. Tirek began to shrink as more and more magic left him, until he was barely taller than the ponies and far older.
"No..." he whispered as he fell to his knees, looking down at his shriveled hands with disbelief forming in his eyes. "This cannot be. I had it all planned. I can't lose again."
"Tirek...enough. Please, you're beaten. You're done. Just stop fighting," Twilight begged the centaur, but once more her words had the opposite effect. Tirek forced himself to stand up, trying to summon forth whatever strength he had left to decimate the foes that stood before him.
"I cannot! I must take over your world! I must prove that your friendship is weak!"
"Why? Why do you have to prove that? What could possibly drive you to this madness?" Twilight asked.
"My...brother," Tirek admitted, his voice cracking as he said the words. "My brother, my best friend, fought at my side for so long. We were inseparable, defeating all in our path. But then we came to Equestria and your devil magic changed him! Turned him against me! He betrayed me, his best friend, for a bunch of horses that never deserved to be in our presence! And for that...I will kill all of you!"
Tirek shot a small blast of magic towards the six, but the strength of the rainbow power canceled out the spell before it could reach them. But none of the six gazed at Tirek with hateful eyes anymore. All of them held pity for the centaur.
"Tirek, I can't begin to imagine how it feels to have your family betray you. But what he did...was because he knew you were wrong," Twilight began, expecting another wave of anger. But Tirek only held defeat in his eyes. "What you were using your magic for...that isn't right. Conquering, destroying...he saw that. That's why he turned against you."
"He left me to rot in Tartarus. He betrayed me," Tirek whispered.
"Yes, he helped imprison you in Tartarus. Did you know what the princesses originally wanted to do? They wanted to destroy you. And they had the power to do so. Your brother pleaded with them to spare you. He allied himself with us...so that he could help you live," Twilight revealed, getting Tirek to look at her with surprise. "I only found out recently, when you returned from Tartarus again."
"Then...he..."
"Tirek, you need to ask yourself a question. Is this what your brother would want? All this destruction, violence...watching you tear yourself apart trying to destroy all those that you believed had wronged you?" Twilight asked and this time Tirek didn't have an answer. "Or would he want you to move on? To be happy? To find peace?"
Tirek thought about her words for a long time, his face constantly changing from looks of rage to just sorrow. Then, after a time, he lifted his eyes to meet Twilight's, all of the anger replaced with weariness and regret.
"Perhaps I have been too consumed with my anger. My brother...always tried to make me happy. Always did what was best for me, even if I couldn't see it," Tirek said with a bitter smile as he lowered his magical energy, letting out a sigh as he knelt down. He then gave the six a smile, which they gave back to him in reply. "Perhaps you are right, princess. Perhaps it is time to let go...and to start making amends for all my actions."
"Tirek, I'm proud of you. You've finally-"
BANG!
Blood sprayed from the front of Tirek's skull as the bullet tore through it, spraying brains all over the ground in front of the Ambassadors. The rainbow power prevented any of the blood from touching them, but no amount of power could stop the horror and agony that washed over them. The other five stared at the now dead centaur that lay on the ground, while only Twilight could lift her eyes towards Punisher, who was pointing a gun that looked an awful lot like the side of his boot, which Twilight noticed looked like a holster.
"Finally," Punisher said as he lowered the gun and spat to the side. "I thought he'd never lower his guard."
No sound could be heard in the top of the tower, except for the sound of Punisher putting his hidden pistol back into the side of his boot. All eyes were glued to the dead Tirek, whose blood was starting to pool in the center of the room. Eternity seemed to pass as the ponies and dragon stared at the dead foe of theirs. Then, slowly, Twilight raised her head to look at the Punisher.
"Why?" she asked with tears welling in her eyes.
"I'm the Punisher. It's what I do," Punisher replied calmly before he grunted in pain slightly and held a hand to his side.
"B-but I thought...you promised that...I don't understand," Twilight stammered out, her normally sharp mind now finding it impossible to figure out a reason for what Frank had done. "I thought that we had finally made a breakthrough. You said that..."
"I wouldn't kill any of Tirek's henchmen. And I haven't. They're all still alive. Unless I decide to go change that," Punisher replied as he walked over to Tirek's body, staring down at it for a moment before lifting his head towards the ponies. Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity all had tears in their eyes and looks of shock on their faces, while Dash and AJ glared at Punisher with a wrath that was only eclipsed by his own. And Twilight continued to stare at him as if she was lost.
"And as for a breakthrough, don't kid yourself, Twilight. There was never any breakthrough. I planned to kill Tirek from the first time he got away from me," Punisher revealed to Twilight, whose eyes shrunk like his words had pierced her heart. "And I knew that all of you would lead me right to him, if I stuck around long enough."
"But...about Spike...you said that you weren't weak. You would prove..."
"Prove what? That I wasn't weak by sparing them? That's what I told you to get you off my back for a few minutes," Punisher said before looking back at Spike, whose rage and disbelief actually impressed Punisher. "I do like Spike. Because he's real. He understands what I am, more so than any of you. But you just wouldn't leave me alone. So I told you what you wanted to hear. In my own way, of course. That I'd give you a chance. That I'd fight with you. So you wouldn't be pointing your weapons at me."
"But...why lie to us? Frank, why did you-?"
"There's another thing. Frank Castle. Do you really think that by calling me by my real name that you're somehow reaching out to him?" Punisher asked Twilight as he walked right up to her, glaring into her eyes. "Allow me to make this perfectly clear. The very first person I killed as the Punisher...was Frank Castle."
Twilight sat down, staring at the floor like her whole world had come crashing down. Punisher walked back over to Tirek and placed a finger to his neck, making sure that the centaur hadn't magically come back from the dead, like some villains liked to do. Once he was certain that he was dead, Punisher rose up and glanced over his shoulder at the Ambassadors.
"Don't act all surprised. You should have seen this coming. But I guess all of you were so certain that I could change, that you never really thought that I'd be playing you," Punisher said to them before shaking his head and walking up to the stain glass image of the princesses. "These two would be the hardest to trick. They're old and have experience. Not to mention, I couldn't fight them or you. Not with your magic being too powerful for me. So I told them my story, hoping to gain their sympathy. Didn't count on getting yours, Twilight."
"He was going to be different! He was...he..."
"So he says, but it's like this. You believe that others are good and can be saved. That's why you got taken advantage of. And if I was willing to bet, Tirek was playing you as well. I see scum like this for what they really are and put them down before they can take advantage of others," Punisher said in a tone filled with finality. "And scum like this deserves to be put down. To be punished."
"So...everything you've said. All yours words, your actions...were just to trick me. To get me to help you?" Twilight asked Punisher, who never saw Spike back away from Twilight. As if he could sense what was coming, when nopony else could.
"You said it yourself. The only way I would get to Tirek is if you let me. So I had to trick you above everyone else. Fortunately for me, you wanted so badly to believe that you were saving me that you never saw through my ploy. Thanks to you, this was easier than it would have been," Punisher said with a small bow to Twilight before turning away. "So my killing Tirek is thanks to you, Twilight. I couldn't have done it so easily without you."
Twilight stared at the ground for a long moment, her eyes hidden by her bangs. The weight of Punishers words, and actions, finally seemed to be reaching her for the first time. Then she threw her head back and screamed.
"GGGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
Punisher spun around just in time to take a purple blur to the gut, one that hurled him through the stain glass and sent him tumbling onto the rooftop about a story below. He snarled in pain as he rolled up to his feet, but when he looked skyward he realized that he was in far worse shape than he thought.
Twilight floated above him, her eyes glowing completely violet. Her entire body was covered in magic and her sheer power shook the very planet beneath the both of them. And upon her face was a look of absolute wrath, all of which was directed towards the Punisher.
"I'LL END YOU!" Twilight screamed as she fired a beam of magic towards Punisher, one that tore apart the rooftop. Punisher hurled himself out of the way just in time, but when he looked behind him to see where the blast had gone a massive explosion erupted in the distance, shaking the landscape.
Instinct saved the Punisher's life, as it forced him to roll out of the way of a purple blur that sliced apart the air where he had been standing. He rolled to his feet and whipped out his pistol, but in a flash of magic he was hurled across the rooftops and into the a solid brick wall. Pain flooded through his body, but fear kept him focused and allowed him to take aim at Twilight.
He fired a shot at her leg, but the magical barrier disintegrated the bullet before it could reach her body. But when she saw the gun, her eyes narrowed and her magical aura seemed to increase even further. She fired a blast of magic at him that he barely managed to get out of the way of, but in a flash she was upon him, lifting him by his vest. He threw a left hook at her, but that turned out to be a terrible decision as magic grabbed his arm.
"ARGH!" Punisher screamed as Twilight's magic decimated his arm, incinerating the limb with her magic and burning it to ash. She snarled into his face before hurling him at one of the turrets beside her.
He smashed clean through the brick and fell another story onto a large rooftop, landing hard enough on his back to break a good number of his ribs. He slowly rolled onto his side and spat out blood, before weakly pushing himself back up in time to see Twilight descending upon him like a divine angle.
"YOU ARE RIGHT, PUNISHER! FOR THE FIRST TIME, I SEE YOU FOR WHAT YOU TRULY ARE!" Twilight spoke in a voice that sounded like the heavens themselves had come down. She spoke like a royal. "YOU ARE SCUM! YOU ARE EVIL! AND YOU DESERVED TO BE...PUNISHED! I, PRINCESS TWILIGHT, SENTANCE YOU TO DEATH!"
Twilight shot a blast of magic into the heavens that caused them to come crashing down a moment later, causing what looked to be stars to begin to decimate the area where the two were fighting. Punisher had to move faster than he ever had in his life to avoid being crushed and even then he could barely stay ahead. One star would have claimed his life if he hadn't thrown himself off of the side of the roof, slamming into the muddy ground far below.
'My left arm's gone. It's gone and most of my ribs are broken,' Punisher realized as he pulled himself out of the mud, everything hurting badly. He shakily pushed himself back up to his feet with his only arm and turned to see Twilight floating above him. The divine justice in her eyes would have driven any other being to their knees, but all Punisher did in response to looking into her eyes was narrow his own and spit to the side.
Twilight yanked him into the air with her magic, wrapping his entire body in it so he couldn't move. He strained with all of his might, but even if half of his body wasn't broken and he had both his arms he wouldn't have been able to break free. All he could do was glare coldly into the eyes of Twilight, as she took aim at his heart with her horn.
"And with this...Equestria is purged of a great evil," Twilight whispered as her horn glowed as bright as the sun. He was a dead man. He knew there was no chance of stopping her. Punisher wanted to close his eyes, to just let it finally happen, but he forced himself to glare into Twilight's until she finally killed him.
"TWILIGHT, NO!"
Twilight's horn stopped an inch from the skull on his vest and Twilight turned to see her friends and Spike flying down from above. Twilight lowered herself to the ground and stared at Spike, who ran over to her with tears in her eyes.
"Stay back, Spike. I am ending this," Twilight said to the dragon before glaring at Punisher once more.
"No Twilight, you can't do this! Don't kill him!" Spike begged.
"Why not? It is clear he doesn't care about life. It is clear that he feels no guilt for his actions nor does he have any hope of changing! Nopony would mourn his death," Twilight replied, her eyes burning a hole into Punishers soul.
"I don't care about that! I don't care what happens to him. But I do care what happens to you. Because I love you and don't want to see you go down this path!" Spike cried out, pleading with every ounce of his hearth. "You're consumed with vengeance. And if you kill him in this state, you might one day...become like him!"
The air turned silent at Spike's words, aside from the sinister humming that the alicorns magical pressure was causing. Twilight looked at Spike, her eyes still glowing purple but now some of the fury was gone. "But Spike, I wouldn't-"
"You're doing it right now! You've been doing it for days," Spike said with tears streaming from his face. "I've watched as you've changed. You've gotten angrier, meaner and far less caring than the Twilight I know. Fighting him has changed you, made you go down a path you normally wouldn't. But I didn't say anything because it was still you, because I could still see your normal self still in there. But now you're at the crossroad!"
"Spike, I-"
"You're going to kill him...because you couldn't stop him from killing Tirek. And that's what he did. He kills criminals...because he couldn't stop them from killing his family. He's trying to make up for his failure. And that was the very first step that led him to being the Punisher...and you're about to take that same step down a road you can't come back from. I know you're angry, I know you're hurt, but please. Don't be Punisher. Be Twilight. Be my mom."
Twilight stared at Spike for a long moment after he said this, her eyes still blazing with a light that was fueled with rage. But then, after a few moments, she blinked once and the violet vanished from her eyes. Her eyes returned to their regular color and surprised filled them, finally realizing that he was crying. She looked from Punisher to Spike, regret and pain filling up her eyes as she saw the pain the dragon was in. Twilight then let out a sigh before giving a thankful smile to Spike.
"You're right, Spike. You're always there giving me that advice when I need it," Twilight said before turning her gaze back to the Punisher. "And maybe that's what you lacked all these years. Somepony to tell you when you were about to go too far."
"Still trying to save me?" Punisher asked weakly.
"No. I'm done with you. I'm going to find the deepest hole in Equestria and dump you in there. I've given up on you," Twilight replied in a bitter tone as her horn began to glow again.
"Sorry, kid, but I'm done here."
Faster than any of the ponies thought possible Punisher whipped the pistol towards Twilight's legs. Twilight had been expecting the attack however, and swatted Punisher's hand to the side. What neither of them had been expecting was for the gun to go off because of the scuffle.
BANG!
The sound of the gunshot tore apart the air, but the surprise Punisher felt by the gun going off was quickly suppressed by the horror of what he heard after that. The sound of a child crying out in pain.
"SPIKE!" Twilight screamed as she chucked the Punisher to the side and raced over to Spike, who was laying on the ground with all of Twilight's friends trying to help him. Instantly Twilight used her magic to numb the pain while moving Spike to see that his left arm was bleeding.
"Don't worry, Twilight, it's a nick at best. It'll hurt like the dickens, but he'll be fine," AJ comforted Twilight. She flashed her friend a grateful look before using her magic to start to heal Spike.
"It's okay, Spike. It only glanced you. You're going to be alright," Twilight whispered as she held her baby dragon tight. For a moment, all was silent, except for the steady breathing of Spike. Twilight then gently placed him down at stood up.
Then the rage returned, but in a force that made the previous rage seem like a small outburst in comparison. The very sky above began to change as Twilight charged with magic. Holes in the very fabric of Equestria formed in the air as her sheer will tore apart the world. Her wrath was not one of a being seeking justice, not a being trying to avenge a fallen being. Hers was of a mother about to confront to one that hurt her child. A rage unmatchable. Twilight's body turned into a bright light as she slowly rounded on the Punisher, not sure herself what she was about to do to him. But all of her rage was slowed for a moment when she saw his face.
The fire in his eyes was gone. The stubbornness and will that had carried him to his point had vanished like the mist, leaving only a ragged old man missing a limb standing where a monster had once stood. But there was something in his eyes that Twilight never expected to see. Something that, as he gazed upon the injured Spike, stopped Twilight's anger. Guilt. There was guilt in his eyes, a guilt that had crushed the will and strength when nothing else could. And for a moment, Punisher looked human.
"He'll live?" Frank asked Twilight in a whisper, smirking when Twilight nodded. "Heh, I was...so determined to get away...to get back...that I shot a child. I shot...your son. All over a bullshit reason." Twilight narrowed her eyes, unable to predict what Punisher was about to do next. Then he looked at her one last time, with a look of finality in his eyes.
"I'm...so sorry, Twilight. So sorry for hurting him. He's a good kid. I actually respect him. And yet I just...you probably want to burn me alive right now. Tear me apart and throw me into the sun. And I would let you. But you won't have to. I'll burn soon enough. Because after what I just did," Frank whispered before placing the gun under his chin. "Means that someone...needs to punish me. Bye, kid."
BANG!
'I should be dead.'
That was the first thought to cross the Punisher's mind as he felt his consciousness return to him. He remembered fighting Tirek, shooting him dead, being practically ripped apart by Twilight and finally, shooting a child. That act alone had driven Punisher to putting his own gun under his jaw and planning on ending it all. To finally punish a criminal that had spent too long avoiding his punishment.
'But I hurt like hell and can taste blood in my mouth. And I'm fairly certain that if I went to heaven, I wouldn't be feeling pain. And if I went to hell, it would hurt infinitely worse than this. So where am I?'
Daring to see what had become of him, Punisher opened his eyes. His eyes widened slightly when he saw that he was suspended twenty feet in the air, pinned to some kind of machine. His arm and legs were both incased in metal, a metal that he knew he wouldn't be able to break through. He pulled once just to test it, but found that only his right arm responded. The left one was still gone. Then he looked down to see that there was a large and very thick sheet of glass in front of him, one that had a certain purple alicorn on the other side.
"So, you've finally woken up," Twilight said in a dry tone to Punisher, who sighed as he leaned his head back as far as it could go.
"Purgatory it is. Why are you here, Twilight? And why am I alive? Last time I checked, I was trying to put an end to a criminal that has plagued your world for too long," Punisher said to Twilight, who smirked at Punisher's words before pulling up a seat for herself.
"See, that's where you lost me on what goes on inside your head. At first I thought you were a bloodthirsty monster. Then I thought you were a broken spirit that killed to try and make up for what happened to his family. Then I thought you were the reaper himself. And now here we are, you in a prison like this after trying to kill yourself...because you shot Spike. Why?"
"I didn't mean to shoot him. During our scuffle, I-"
"Don't bullshit me Punisher, you know what I meant. Why did you try to kill yourself?"
"Heh, no longer putting up with my lies. Seems you have learned a thing or two," Punisher smirked before the weight of his actions weighed upon him once more. "I shot a child, Twilight. A completely, innocent being and I nearly killed him. All because I wanted to get away, to avoid my fate like I always have. But if my quest to punish the guilty means that I would do the very same thing that was done to my family...then I deserve to die. I deserve to be punished."
"So you actually felt genuine guilt for shooting Spike. Got to admit, I thought that you were beyond guilt for your actions," Twilight put forward.
"I don't feel a thing for the criminals I punish. But for the innocent that I hurt...my turn for a question, Twilight. Why did you save me?" Punisher asked, getting Twilight to raise an eyebrow. "You probably stopped the bullet with magic or some bullshit like that, I don't doubt it. What I don't understand is your reason for doing so. You said it yourself. I deserved to die."
Twilight didn't answer Punisher right away. Instead she leaned back in the chair and stared at him for a while, long enough for Punisher to observe her as well. He couldn't sense any anger coming from her nor could he sense the disdain that she often showed towards him. But when he looked into her eyes he found for the first time she wasn't looking at him like he was a killer or that he was someone that needed to be saved. She was looking at him.
"You did. At least, in that moment you did. Yet when you shot Spike, we both knew it was an accident. I was going to tear the rest of your limbs off, but it was an accident none the less. Then I saw it in your eyes. Guilt. Regret. Horror. And they were the most genuine emotions I've ever seen on your ugly mug," Twilight said in a stern voice.
"A monster wouldn't feel guilt for hurting a child. A being that killed every criminal in his path without batting an eye wouldn't put a gun to his chin for nicking a child's arm, an accidental shot at that. But it broke you. Shooting Spike destroyed the Punisher that I've come to know. Why?"
"...because I made a promise on the graves of my families. That I would punish every criminal like the ones that had taken their lives. But I also made a vow to never take the life of an innocent and never dare to fire upon a child, even if they deserved it. Because if I did...I would finally become the very same being like the ones I punished. I would be the monster that made me. And I crossed that line and moved myself to the top of my list. I became the criminal that needed to punished the most. So what are you waiting for? Punish me."
Twilight took another moment after that, but this time she kept her head low and didn't look Punisher in the eyes. But it was a look Punisher knew well. Many criminals did it right before he killed them. She was looking inside at herself. At her actions. At who she was.
"...you were right about me also. About me quitting too easily," Twilight replied after that moment of silence, getting Punisher to raise his head to look at the pony. "I was ready to call it quits because I thought that I wasn't really making a difference. That I could do more as a princess than a pony that helped those like...well, you. But now I see that was just an excuse for me to give up."
"But because I've met you, I realize I can't give up. Because I know see what giving up can do to a pony. Giving up on your dreams, your morals...yourself, would turn me into somepony like you. Somepony that is just a mistake away from becoming the very thing they hate. If I gave up, then who would help those like you?"
"Twilight, I don't want or deserve your help...after what I did-"
"I'd say you deserve it all the more," Twilight cut in, locking eyes with the Punisher so that he could see how serious she was. "Your guilt over hurting Spike, the fact that you nearly took your life after doing so, showed me something that I had never thought I would see. That you have a soul. It's small, its broken and it barely sees use anymore, but it's still in there. And even with everything you've done, all the lives you've ruined and beings you've hurt, your soul still won't die. Frank Castle won't die."
"You want him to be dead because it makes what you do easier. But Frank, if he's anything like you, is too stubborn to die. That's why you respect Spike. That's why it drove you to suicide when you hurt him. Because Frank Castle, the father, is still in there. And he still feels the pain of watching his baby child die...and child that did nothing wrong...and would never inflict that kind of pain on anypony else. Because he knows there's no worse pain than that."
Punisher was silent for a long time, thinking over what Twilight had said to him. 'Maybe she's right. Maybe Frank is still in me somewhere. But it doesn't matter. I've made up my mind. If she won't let me die, then I'll go back to punishing the guilty. It's what I do.'
"Even if what you said is true, it doesn't change anything. I'm still the Punisher. I still punish the guilty. And once I get out of here, I'll resume punishing those who kill the innocent...before I finally punish myself." The smile that Twilight gave Punisher in reply caught him off guard and for a moment he gave her a concerned look.
"Not happening. See, you were out for a long time. Long enough for me to think up a few ways to counter you. This cell is made entirely of the strongest metals in the land. This prison? You're the only prisoner in here, so there's no other criminals for you to hurt. The staff? All golems made of stone that are emotionless drones. Break them all you like, they just reform. Also there's the fact that this prison is really high up in the sky. And made of clouds, except for what you're strapped to. Only way you get out of here is if you can fly."
"That won't stop me," Punisher told her, but to his surprise she smiled. It wasn't a mocking smile or a condescending one. It was just a genuine smile.
"Maybe you will. I wouldn't put it past you. But then what? We've destroyed your guns, so you're weapons are gone. And you're left arm is most likely gone for good. Even magic can't fix what happened to it. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Discord is the warden of this prison? Which also happens to be in his dimension? No? Well, good luck dealing with all that."
"Why tell me all this? Why bother coming to meet me when I wake up? You've got me locked up. You've finally got me. Why come here at all?" Punisher asked, genuinely confused.
"Because like I said, Frank, I'm done giving up. I'm going to be both a princess of Equestria and a defender of harmony. I'm going to have fun with my friends and battle giant monsters that want to take over my world. And most of all I'm going to help that broken and cold soul of yours shine once more. You've shown me that no matter how far gone somepony might seem, there is always a spark. A spark of...humanity in them."
"And I needed to see that. I needed to see it from somepony like you. Who I thought was beyond saving. You've strengthened my resolve. In a way...the Punisher saved me. Saved me from going down a path I would hate to go down. So to thank you, I'm going to help you. I'm going to help Frank Castle. I'm not giving up on him. No matter how long it takes."
"Really? Because even if it is possible, it would still take an awfully long time," Punisher reminded her, but once again all Twilight did was smile at Punisher.
"Well, after what you did you're in here until the end of time. And I'm immortal, so I don't have to worry about ageing. So don't worry Frank, we've got all the time in the world. All eternity if need be. Now if you need me, I've got somewhere to be."
"Where are you off to?"
"Anger management classes. Seems that I've unintentionally learned a few things from you. But I'm trying to get better. And somewhere deep down, maybe you are to. Classes start at ten tomorrow morning. Looks sharp."
And with that Twilight rose from her chair and walked to the edge of the room, stopping to look back at Punisher and smile at him one last time before she walked through the wall. Punisher watched until the cloud reformed before he tugged at one of his restraints. Nothing. He then looked down to realize that the ground was made of cloud. He could almost see through it and on the other side he wasn't sure what he was looking at.
Then he thought of Twilight's words, but more importantly, the conviction in her eyes. For the first time since he'd met her, she finally had a look in her eyes akin to the heroes of his Earth. Like she knew for certain that she could help him become the man he once was. She had imprisoned him completely and even saved his own life, even if he didn't feel he deserved it. But most of all...she didn't just believe in him. She believed in herself. Believed, for the first time, that she really could save Frank Castle. And in the face of such conviction, conviction Punisher knew that even he couldn't break, Punisher chuckled.
"Not bad, Twilight," Frank smiled. "Not bad."
Author's Note
Maybe even the darkest of souls can find their way, if they have the right light guiding them. And maybe even those that feel they aren't worth saving deserved to be saved. Who knows. But as we move onto our next story, we go from a man seeking to punish criminals to a world needing of something more. Someone who will hear their prayers, someone who will tear asunder the heavens to save their lives. Someone that can give them comfort in knowing there is a divine being looking out for them. For in the next story, the ponies will realize that to have the powers of a god...
Means ye must be worthy.
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.
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.'
It looked right out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Dozens of ponies walked through the streets while houses that looked like something Frank would see in a fantasy. From the station he could spy a house made of gingerbread, a post office and some other strange buildings. A castle composed of numerous crystals towered over the small village at the edge of his vision, a castle that he figured belonged to Twilight. But what drew his full attention was a feeling of...peace that washed over the village. A peace he hadn't felt in so long.
"Nothing special," he muttered aloud so that Twilight could hear. He ignored the look that he was certain the princess was giving him as he glanced down at himself, feeling naked without his weapons or body armor. Twilight had refused to give back any of his weapons or his armor, leaving him almost without any of his gear. And then there was the collar of magic, which he had never bothered to try and remove. It wouldn't come off easy.
"Figured you say something along those lines," Twilight shot back before she started to look around. Frank looked around as well, noting that the ponies on the platform didn't know what to make of him. There wasn't fear in their eyes, just uncertainty. He didn't know if he should be amused or insulted by their lack of fear.
Twilight waved to a group of ponies at the edge of the platform and instantly Frank could tell that they were her friends. Not from how happy she was to see them or how they all gave him the same look Twilight had given him, but their eyes. Eyes that held within them a hidden power, one that Frank didn't want turned against him.
"Sure you want to introduce me to your friends? Might accidentally hurt one of them," Frank warned Twilight.
"You still got the collar on? Then we're all good," Twilight replied as she walked forward, while Punisher calculated the distance he could get if he kicked her in the back of her head. The moment he did so, the collar flared to life and blazed through his body with magic. The collar's magic hurt like hell, but Frank remained rooted in place. He hadn't budged when the greatest heroes and villains of his world had tried to move him. Here wouldn't be any different. It was only when his skin started to burn that Twilight herself ceased the spell and gave him a look.
"Howdy Twilight. This the "problem" you told us about in yer letter?" the orange pony said as she and the others approached.
'Applejack,' Frank noted instantly, having been informed of Twilight's friends by the princess herself. Of course, she had only told him about all the "impossible" challenges that they had overcome in an attempt to try to get him not to mess with them. He wasn't intimidated in the least.
Applejack looked strong, but that was it. Rarity smelled like perfume and had a build that told Frank she would break if she tried to fight him. Rainbow Dash supposedly could fly so fast she could create sonic booms. Trouble, but not unbeatable. Pinkie had a large and beaming smile on her face, as if she could never stop smiling. They wouldn't get along. And Fluttershy wouldn't even look him in the eyes. She was no threat.
"Yes, this is Frank Castle A.K.A the Punisher," Twilight introduced. They all looked up at him, besides Fluttershy, and Frank replied with a cold stare devoid of any emotion. Pinkie was the only one that wasn't visibly affected by the look.
"Punisher? That's quite the funny nickname you got there," Rainbow Dash said with a laugh, trying to look brave. But she was only trying. She was scared. Frank had heard that same tone so many times from criminals that genuine bravery from any that approached him surprised him. "Why do they call you that? Do you make people sit in the corner when they do something bad?"
"No. I'm called that because by the time local law enforcement finds the corpses of the criminals I've punished, the amount of torture that I put them through before I executed them would make having a person ripped apart by horses look like a mercy in comparison."
Twilight let out a small sigh as she watched the horror spread across the faces of her friends, mostly on Applejack's. The others didn't know what to think of what Frank had just said. Applejack, with honesty being her core virtue, could tell that every word Frank said was the truth. And it horrified her.
"S-so, tough guy, huh?" Rainbow Dash stammered out after a moment, trying to put her brave face back on as she took a small step towards Frank. "I heard about what you do from Twilight. Punish the guilty, huh? Well then, you think that you'd be good enough to beat a pony that can move faster than sound?"
"If the day ever came when you found yourself in my crosshairs...pray that you never do...then I would slit your throat in your sleep and leave you to drown in a pool of your own blood," Frank replied as he glared into Rainbow's eyes with the eyes of a murderer. Rainbow Dash backed away from Frank as he said this, all her bravado gone. "And by the next morning I would forget that you ever existed. You'd just be another corpse to add to the pile."
Frank watched with a thin smirk as Rainbow Dash began to sweat, but he wasn't just watching her face. All of Twilight's friends were now looking at him with absolute horror on their faces, except for Fluttershy, who looked to be on the verge of passing out. He then slowly turned to look at the other civilians that had been listening in on the conversation, the same horror in their eyes as well.
"Let me make this clear so you all know who you are dealing with. Twilight probably told you that I have a tragic past and she is right. But do not think for a moment that I will not gut all of you at a moments notice and leave what remains of your bodies for the local buzzards," Frank whispered to the five before looking at Twilight, making sure she understood as well. "I am not a good person, no matter how much she wants to believe I am. I'm a monster. And I'm the reason there are far more tombstones in the city cemetery."
The collar activated again and magic tore through Frank's body, but once more he refused to show any sign of pain. He glare down at Twilight until she ceased the spell, leaving the smell of burned flesh and some smoke coming off of his neck. The two glared at the other before Twilight turned back to her friends.
"Twilight, you seriously can't be thinking of bringing that...soulless monster into your home," Rarity asked with her voice practically a whisper.
"Of course I'm not. He well be staying inside my castles dungeon," Twilight said as she glared up at Frank, waiting for the objection that never came. "Yeah, I have one of those. Don't think that because I let you out of your other prison that I'm giving you free reign of my place."
"Why are you even bothering with him? Let him rot in a cell," Applejack snarled as she flashed Frank a nasty look.
"Because Applejack...as horrible as he is, at one point he was a good person," Twilight said with a sigh. "And just like Starlight, just like Discord, I need to see if I can help him become that person once more."
"You have bigger matters to worry about than me," Frank reminded the group of ponies. "Tirek is loose and since you are the group that beat him last time, God only knows how, then he'll most likely be coming for you. You need-"
"Another word out of your mouth and you'll need a hospital," Twilight whispered in a grim tone to Frank, who gave her a look in reply. "You've already said enough. Pinkie, I want you to take Fluttershy home and stay with her. She's going to need some company."
"Okay, Twilight!" Pinkie said with a smile that was as pure as the sun, making Frank raise an eyebrow in surprise. A moment ago she was as disgusted as her friends and then in the next she was fine. The same couldn't be said for Fluttershy, who looked as pale as the criminals Frank had hunted when they realized he was there.
"Splitting up your forces when someone like me is your foe. Not smart," Frank remarked to Twilight, who narrowed her eyes in response before she grabbed hold of him with her magic. Despite his resolve, her overwhelming magical power forced him to his knees, where she moved her lips close to his ear.
"Listen and listen well. These ponies here, my friends, are only here because I asked them to be. I am the only pony in this entire world that give a crap about you. If I deem you a lost cause, then we'll throw you into our deepest, darkest dungeon and forget all about you. You want to avoid that, keep your attitude in check."
"Believe me Twilight, you haven't seen anything yet," Frank whispered back, his tone chilling the air despite the sun shining brightly overhead. He then turned his head, against her magic, to look Twilight dead in the eyes. "But seeing as you are kind enough to house me while I am here, I supposed I will...restrain myself from filling the streets of your home with the blood of criminals. Can't say for how long, though."
Twilight narrowed her eyes before her eyes and horn began to glow, casting out waves of magic that every being within a five mile radius felt. For a moment Frank thought she was going to kill him then and there, but instead he felt his form vanish as he was teleported from the station. A moment later he felt his being reform and he collapsed to his knees, trying to get the world to stop spinning.
With his unbreakable will he managed to regain control of himself, forcing himself to stand back up. He looked around to see that he was in another cell, but this one was far more decorative than the last one. That was because of the numerous crystals that made up the walls and bars of the cell. He walked over to the bars and tested his strength against them. They remained strong.
'Going to take me a while to figure out how to get out of this,' Frank thought as he slammed a shoulder against the bars, only for his shoulder to complain. He then ran a finger across the collar that was still attached to his neck, grimacing as pain flooded across his neck. 'But this is the real problem. I can't take it off, at least not without seriously injuring myself. But Twilight won't willingly take this off. Need to think.'
Before he could begin that train of thought, another flash of magical light went off in his cell and he found the princess of friendship standing before him. She glanced at him before looking around at his cell, nodding to herself when she found nothing of concern. She then laid her eyes upon the human fully before she pulled up a stool, sitting down upon the stool while also using her magic to summon a book.
"That your diary?" Frank asked her with a smirk. To his surprise, Twilight smirked back.
"Nope. It's called "How to be an outstanding citizen in Equestria". Since you're new here, I figured that you should hear this," she replied with a small joy in her voice as she cleared her throat and opened the book. Frank gave her no response, which seemed to disappoint her for a moment. "And after we're done with this, tomorrow we'll start your friendship lessons and trying to help you regain your soul."
"You're welcome to try," Frank replied as he leaned against the cell, half of his brain focusing on what Twilight was saying. But the other half planned and it planned well. All he needed was time. And he would have plenty of that in here. But Tirek was also out there. So he needed to act. And act soon.
