Paranoia

Chapter ten: Thirteen, Black Briar, Pickle Barrel, Dime show…

Big Macintosh stared up at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. He’d long since came to terms with his actions and did indeed regret what he did. He couldn’t remember much of what happened however, and he doubted Demonheart could ever cause such damage as had been inflicted upon Big Mac. Especially these punctures on his forehooves.

Punctures.

He rolled the word around in his mind for a while, trying to decide whether or not he liked it. It was an interesting word to be sure, but he wasn’t sure. It sounded a bit too… tame for the wounds up his legs, which all ran at least an inch deep. Probably going to leave scars, although the nurse had assured him they’d take care of them in due time.

His face pensive, Big Mac ran the memories of the past few weeks over in his mind. It’d been roughly a month since Demonheart arrived at Ponyville and he’d probably worked harder than anypony else on Sweet Apple Acres. Hard enough to repay his debt several times over to be certain. Big Mac grimaced as he remembered the first twinge of jealousy when he saw Fluttershy step out and coax the stallion out of the clubhouse with such gentle care. He’d shoved it aside, reassuring himself she’d do the same for an animal. He’d taken the Pegasus under his wing so to speak, teaching him the tricks of the trade.

Then Rarity came by. The next twinge of jealousy when he heard that Fluttershy had wanted Demonheart to go down to the spa with her and Rarity. He wasn’t happy with it, but he couldn’t bring himself to say no, so he’d let him go.

Then the party came and it’d all gone to hell on an express elevator.

The way she’d avoided him hurt, and then the way she’d danced with the ebony coated stallion? Nose to nose, fluidly and without any space between them?

Like lovers…

The thought crossed his mind and he vaguely swatted it away, like you’d absently swat at a fly or some similar thing. It was true the pair had been in sync, and the dance had been so breathtakingly beautiful he had smiled, but he still felt the harsh pang of jealousy in him. He’d tried to keep it in check, but it had come out sometimes. Harsh words he didn’t really mean, glares he’d never meant to give. Then there was the day he’d found him with Fluttershy on the hill overlooking the Everfree Forest.

That had started his descent.

He scolded himself for forcing the stallion to work himself almost to the bone, mentally berated himself for refusing anypony entry to see him and lying, telling others he didn’t want to be disturbed whilst he was working. He found a wry smile grow on his face as he remembered Applejack’s oral assault against him after finding out about it. He remembered the final straw with painful clarity.

He saw the distinctly male silhouette of Demonheart walk over to Fluttershy’s bed by the window, he’d seen the gentle nuzzle through the curtains. He saw words were spoken, then he’d seen the hug and it’d snapped something in him.

He heaved a great sigh.

Ah definitely owe him an apology.

~*~

“Tell me!”

“I… I can’t.”

Fluttershy huffed in irritation. It wasn’t an alien emotion to her, she’d been irritated many times, but this was the first time really that she’d ever demanded to be told anything bar the one time she’d been at Sweet Apple Acres, demanding to know what Big Mac said. But this time she refused to let up. The pair, Demonheart and Fluttershy, were still in the midst of the Everfree Forest, now practically reduced to a shouting demand from Fluttershy and a quiet reply from the much larger, much stronger stallion.

“Demonheart, you tell me who she was and what I did so bad to offend her right now or… or…”

She floundered for a decent threat.

“Or I’ll never talk to you again!”

Demonheart, who had his head hanging, eyes fixed firmly on the ground, looked up at her in alarm.

“I… what?”

Fluttershy, putting on much more bravado than she felt, nodded with a sense of finality, already fearing he’d simply let her down again and she’d be forced to keep her threat. He sighed and looked at the ground again.

“Miss Fluttershy…”

He looked up again with pained eyes and Fluttershy felt her heart wrenched by it. It was the look of a broken pony, a sad pony.

A pony with nowhere to call home and nopony to call family.

It was as though he’d shouldered every burden within the confines of the land of Equestria and refused to let go, as though he’d given up everything that’d ever made him happy in exchange for…

In exchange for what?

She felt a hoof on either side of her head and her head was tilted downwards as Demonheart leaned forward and planted a soft, lingering kiss on her forehead. She froze, eyes wide.

“I’m sorry Miss Fluttershy… I can’t explain. I… I will see you in a few days… perhaps.”

Leaving these as his last words, he trudged away, ignoring the path entirely. Fluttershy was still frozen, stock still as the electric feeling of his lips against her forehead continued to loop through her system again and again and an unfamiliar feeling of simultaneous euphoria and sheer and utter terror filled her from hoof tips to hair follicles.

What just… I… huh!?

~*~

Demonheart needed space. Away from Sweet Apple Acres, away from Applejack, away from animals, away from Ponyville.

But most of all, away from Fluttershy.

His senses were addled around her and he found himself incapable of thinking entirely clearly, like a fog descending upon his mind, or a mad, capering jester had tumbled into the ordered stack of papers that made up his thoughts. He hadn’t felt more confused in his life, and this was something he’d never thought, or even considered thinking about, nay, even conceived that he would have to consider the thought of fighting for his right to be not only free from Skuld, but free to choose whom he would.

It’s all so damn complicated… Dammit Skuld, I thought you could help.

In his time with the manticores, Skuld had been his playmate, his rival, his sparring partner, his constant guardian, his favourite company.

But most of all, she’d been his best friend.

Through thick and thin the pair had stuck together, getting into trouble left right and centre, normally on Skuld’s insistence. Placating the dragon Skuld had been convinced she could win a duel against had been one of the most interesting events to take place in his more recent history and he could normally think back to those days wiling away the days with (mostly) harmless shenanigans. But now? Now the very thought of her brought a frown to his face. Skuld was the daughter of the chief of their particular tribe. Seems cliché really, and Demonheart oftentimes thought so as well. But it was true, and Skuld, it seems, was hell bent on not allowing him to have any chance of possibly being with Fluttershy.

I can’t let that happen. Not just for me but…

He sighed and stopped walking when he was assaulted by sunshine. Looking up he could see he was in a clearing of sorts. He sighed heavily and lay down; his head helplessly addled and breathed deep the relaxing scent of the wildflowers.

“You’re going to have to show her eventually you know.”

The voice that floated over to him on the wings of joviality was unfamiliar to him and he looked up sharply, looking around and finding nopony in sight. Passing it off as tricks of his mind, he let his head sink back to the ground.

“Oh yes, That’ll do heaps. You just keep thinking then hmm? While you’re thinking, who’s going to fight for Fluttershy?”

Demnoheart, now convinced this was from an outside source, sat up and looked around himself warily.

“Who are you? Come out and face me if you wish to talk, I will not harm you.”

The familiar feeling of the forest was bolstering his confidence, coupled with the fact that the voice was quite distinctly male as it laughed jovially at his words.

“Alright then, don’t get your feathers in a tizzle, I’m coming out.”

True to his word, out stepped possibly the strangest stallion Demonheart had ever seen. Laying across his sides were a set of overly large wings and covering his body were literally hundreds of markings across bare skin. Not stripes of the Zebra tribes, but it seemed tattoos, swirling across his body like the rolling tides and eddying winds. His face was split into a great grin and his eyes twinkled periwinkle blue. His taile and mane were absurdly long, dragging at least six or so inches across the ground in the case of his mane and a good twelve or so in the case of his tail.

“Alright, we’ll get this over with now. Yes, I decided to shave off my fur, yes I know the markings are strange, yes I am well aware of the fact my tail and mane are currently trying to root me to the ground and yes, my wings are really literally that huge.”

Not once did his smile drop, tone waver or eyes stop sparkling. It unnerved Demonheart a little.

Nopony should ever be that happy talking about that sort of thing...

“Who are you?”

The stallion’s smile widened.

“Ah, the crux of the matter. I am simply number thirteen of two hundred and twenty-two. I have many other names, but that one is the one I hear most common. Others are Black Briar, Heart Break, Long Hair, Black Mark, Dingleberry, Horse Shoe, Ghinnis Pail, Orange Juice, Sherry Glass, Border Line…”

He continued on this list of names for quite some time, getting more and more absurd the longer he went. Demonheart simply took the time to stare at him in utter disbelief.

“And of course, who could forget Pickle Barrel?”

The great big smile on the stallion’s face never slipped for an instant. Demonheart kept staring. Eventually the Stallion spoke once more.

“Back to the original predicament, you’re going to have to tell her sooner or later you know.”

Still no answer from the utterly overwhelmed and disbelieving Demonheart. The smile dropped and the stallion sighed.

“Okay, fine. You don’t believe me about anything I just said do you?”

Demonheart shook his head.

“Hm. Well I’ll tell you what. I’ll show you instead hmm?”

Demonheart cocked his head, obviously both curious and sceptical of what was about to happen. The grin reappeared on the stallion’s face.

“Here’s Black Briar, comin’ atcha!”

~*~

From the entrance to the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy paused. She could have sworn she heard a familiar voice echoing past her but she wasn’t sure. The words, however, were ones she was fairly certain none of her friends would ever use, especially no Twilight or Rarity, and it was a male voice anyway. Not to mention she’d never heard Big Mac swear AND he was in the hospital.

Well Demonheart would never scream out anything like that… would he?

~*~

Demonheart gaped at the dark coated stallion before him in utter disbelief. His wings were gone, he’d grown fur, his mane and tail had shortened and upon his head was a long, tapered horn! Across his flank was, true to his word, a length of tangled briar as a cutie mark.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” the ebony Pegasus screamed again.

Black Briar roared with laughter at the reaction, tears coming to his eyes in his mirth.

“Oh! You should see your face! Priceless!”

Still laughing, the stallion’s body began to shift and change. His mane and tail changed colour slowly from a deep purple to the strangely colourless hairs that had occupied his hair before and his coat began to swirl, turning slowly into ink that flowed over his body, recreating his tattoos. Then, a large portion of them sprouted from his midsection and formed wings, steadily changing colour until they were the same periwinkle blue as his glistening eyes.

“Now then! Are you ready to talk or what?”

~*~

“Fluttershy!”

So deep was the yellow Pegasus In thought, she barely registered that her name was called out. After taking a second or two to process what had just occurred, she looked up to see Applejack running over to her. It took a moment for AJ to finally catch up to her and she stopped for a moment, panting.

“Sorry Shy, Ah have to ask ya since he seems to see ya much more than anypony else. Have ya seen Demon? He’s gone run off on us!”

Again, registering what Applejack asked her took her a few seconds and she looked blankly at AJ for those seconds before her eyes lit up in recognition.

“Oh…” She said sadly, “Yes, I have…”

AJ peered at her friend cautiously, concern lacing her face.

“Ya alright Sugarcube? Somethin’ wrong?”

Fluttershy shrugged, honestly not knowing.

“I’m not sure… I’m just trying t figure it out now…”

AJ paused for a moment, concern still written plainly across her face before she nodded.

“Okay. So uh, ya said ya saw Demon?”

“Mhmm. Back there.” She said, waving vaguely in the direction of the Everfree Forest. AJ frowned.

“Where’s that?”

“The forest. Where else? He seems to like it in there.”

~*~

“I… I understand what you’re saying but…”

Demonheart looked at his hooves, head held low. Across on the other side of the glade stood Thirteen, or as Demon had taken to calling him, Black Briar, who looked as jovial as before despite the sombre tone of the conversation.

“You stand to lose much should you not tell her you know.”

Demonheart let out a snort before he could stop himself.

“Don’t be absurd. I have no possessions in this town… Nor in any.”

“I wasn’t talking about material possessions.”

Demonheart winced. He’d been hoping to avoid the idea that he’d lose her friendship and, dare he say it, chance to make the tentative thing blossom.

“I’m not sure we need to go into that…”

“Don’t we?”

Demonheart nodded at the voice. A split second later, the voice was at his ear and he froze.

“I hope not. I’d hate to have to see you two being ripped apart.”

All sense of joviality were gone, vanished without a trace. In its place was a dead calm, almost unflinchingly unconcerned carelessness.

“All the joy from your life, every motif of, every courier of, every piece, every particle, ever singular atom of it will be obliterated from your system if you fail to defeat your opponent in two days time. I trust this is incentive enough for you to understand the gravity of the situation and to give you something to think about while you sleep.”

Demonheart frowned.

“S..Sleep?”

Which is precisely when Black Briar rather coldly struck Demonheart hard on head, knocking him out before smiling grimly.

“Sleep well old boy. I have places to go.”