“LEON, WHAT THE HAY IS THIS?!” Twilight screamed, throwing a copy of today’s The Celestial Times onto the table.

I smirked at the front page, ‘An Open Letter To Princess Celestia’ huh? “There a problem, Twilight? It’s not like I lied now.”

“Leon. It’s not cool.” Spike said, frowning.

I sighed, “Allow me to explain my actions.” I gestured at them and waited for them to be seated before continuing, “You see, when I first met Celestia, yes, the guards were physical and rude with me, but then when I saw her she started assuming that I had already agreed to her plan. She wanted me to kill someone, Twilight! I’m not a killer, was I excessively rude to her? Yes, I was frustrated and the way she looked at me and smiled annoyed me. Then when I took her words to their exact meaning, not killing Sombra but defeating him in chess, she started blaming me for trauma that ponies had suffered and then she called me greedy and power hungry.”

“That’s the reason you...wait, Celestia sent you to kill Sombra?” Twilight gasped, “No! She’d never do that!”

I pinched my nose, “Twilight, I don’t blame her for wanting to sent someone to kill Sombra. She is in charge of a country, it’s her duty to protect it from threats. No, my issue is with her already assuming I would just go kill someone. I’m not killer. And for what she wanted to give me, why would I work just for some public thanks? I’m...well, I was poor. Twilight, there is nothing wrong for wanting payment for doing a job, is there?” I lowered my head, “I...will admit that publishing that letter was perhaps a bit rash, but I will not have her insult my parents! I am not a degenerate, and I’m sure as hell not a bastard! Yes, the letter may have been a bad idea, but right now she understands where we stand, and I will never print a retraction.”

Twilight groaned and dropped her head onto the table, “Leon...don’t you think that this will just lead to more problems? How the heck did you get The Celestial Times to even publish that letter?”

“Everyone sells at the right price, in my case it simply was enough to loosen their standards. Ten thousand bits did the job. Along with a promise that my letter would get them more readers, in the end that’s all it took. I guess it helped that newspaper companies don’t have good morals to begin with.”

“Ten thousand bits?!” Her jaw dropped, “Where did you get that money?!”

I smirked, “Like I said, I didn’t work for free.”

“So you spent all your money on that one letter?” Spike asked.

I chuckled, “Let’s just say, when the money gets here I can keep us going with comics for a long time.”

He just stared, “Leon. How much exactly?”

I grinned, “One million, four hundred and fifty five thousand.” Both their jaws dropped. “I already asked Luna to give fifteen thousand to an orphanage in Canterlot and when it gets here I plan on donating some of it around town.”

“Are...are you planning on buying popularity?!” Twilight stared at me.

“What? No! I meant to the school and to one or two other places.” That raised a point though. Was I becoming too much like my parents? “Which raises another point, I...may have lied about my family life.”

She blinked, “What are you talking about?”

I smiled sheepishly, “Me and my parents...have a slightly strained relationship. The life I told you was of a friend’s.”

“Wait...so you’re not struggling with money?”

I flinched before deflecting the question, “Not anymore.” I didn’t give her a chance to say anything else and stood up, “Just...think over what I’ve said, actually read what I wrote. Read it carefully, read it smart. I’ll be around town.” With that I made my way outside.

All the noise stopped as I left the library. I looked around and saw everyone staring at me. I nodded, “Morning, everyone.” That seemed to break them out of it and they went off on their daily lives. I sighed in relief, that could have gone badly. I made my way to Sugarcube Corner to get some breakfast, keeping an eye on the crowd as I did. By the end of the week everything would settle down.

I pushed open the door to Pinkie’s workplace and was pleasantly surprised to find no queue. “Hi, Leon.” Pinkie yawned. She looked terrible, her mane was hanging down and her eyes were all droopy.

“You alright, Pinkie?” I asked.

She tried for a smile, “Yeah, the morning’s just been hectic today, all sorts of ponies coming in and asking about Princess Celestia and my Pinkie Sense was going off all night.”

I winced, I never meant for this to affect anyone but Celestia, “Sorry, Pinkie, that’s my fault.”

She shook her head, “No, no. Nothing to worry about. I read the paper. Your writing is pretty.” She started slumping and quickly shook herself awake. “What...what can I get you?”

“Just a chocolate muffin, Pinks.” I was worried about her.

She bagged it up for me. “Five...five bits.” As I slid her the last of my money her body gave up and she fell to the floor and after a few seconds she started snoring.

I shook my head, “Get some sleep, Pinkie.” I walked passed her and opened the door to the kitchen. “Ah, Mrs Cake?” I said when I spotted the blue mare.

“Oh, Leon, deary!” She smiled, “What’s wrong?”

“Pinkie’s collapsed.” I said bluntly.

“What?!” She came rushing out of the kitchen and to Pinkie’s side. “What happened?!”

“I think she’s exhausted. She mentioned her senses kept her up all night.”

“Ooh, I told her to take it easy.” She turned to me, “Leon, can you help me carry her to bed?”

I blinked, “Uh, sure.” I walked over and hoisted her onto my back, carrying around my guns had definitely made me stronger, but I was still quite weak and I could barely walk with Pinkie on my back. “Lead the way.” I wheezed.

“This way, dear.” As I followed Mrs Cake every step felt like a mile, damn it, Pinkie, lose some weight. After struggling up the stairs, almost losing my balance more than once, I staggered into her room and dropped her onto her bed.

I panted heavily, “Why? Why is she so heavy?”

“Thank you, Leon.” Mrs Cake gave me a smile.

I shrugged, “Eh, no problem. Just...make sure she gets some rest.”

“You’ve got a good heart.” She said. “Just ignore what the others say.”

I sighed, “I’m guessing I’ve made some enemies with that letter, huh?”

She looked away, “There are some ponies who you’ve made angry. Some…”

I read between the lines, “Some want me gone.”

“Yes.”

I sighed, “Right. Well, I’ll be off.”

As I left Sugarcube Corner I kept an eye out and spotted more than a few glares in my direction. I guess it was too much to hope that I could badmouth Celestia and everything would go on as normal. Then again, they were just glaring, it’s not like they were attacking me. Hopefully. Either way I had to clear my head. I entered the Everfree, maybe I’d go visit Zecora, perhaps she’d need some help or have some tea.

I wasn’t deep in when I came across something...odd in a clearing. I stopped and stared at the...I didn’t even know what to call it. The small, purple, swirling explosion just...hovered there, at chest height, almost...almost like it was waiting for something. For someone.

I cautiously approached the thing, half expecting it to detonate. When it didn’t I just stood there, thinking about what I should do. I could go get some help, but I didn’t know if I could even find it again. Without realising it my hand started reaching for it. I blinked, what was the worst that could happen? As I made contact it flared up brightly and as I backed away from the light it exploded soundlessly. When the light died down there was someone stood there. A human.

He wore something that wouldn’t be out of place in Victorian era London. A brown waistcoat, white shirt and red tie underneath a long black trench coat. Black and white striped trousers and black business shoes. To top it all off he wore a black bowler hat and carried a black cane with a large ruby at the tip.

He looked like a well dressed gentleman. But...the grin on his face and look in his eyes told a different story. I didn’t want to get to close to him. As his eyes landed on me his grin changed to a scowl. “Oh, great. A human, I thought I'd left you guys behind a few dozen centuries ago.” What? What hell did that mean? “Oh well, let's fix that!” He reached into his coat, dropped the cane and pulled out a large hunting knife.

“What the fuck?!” I squeaked.

“C’mere, you little shit.” He made his way towards me. As I backed up, somewhere in the back of my mind I recognised his accent. It was rough and filled with anger...but it was English. He was a fellow countryman.

He lunged at me and I somehow managed to twist out of his path, through sheer luck. “Stop it, you idiot!” I yelled.

“Nah.” He smirked, quickly turned and swung his knife at my neck. I shrieked and ducked, feeling to blade take off a few hairs.

“Knock it off! I’m not your enemy here!” I shouted, not drawing my gun. I was not about to shoot someone! Not if I had a chance to talk him down.

“Don’t care! You’re a human,” he spat the word with contempt, “that means you die!” He swung at me with his knife again. I jumped to the side and put a few feet between us.

“We’re both human!” I screamed.

His face turned into a snarl, “I am not one of you bastards!” With that he threw his knife and it sunk into my stomach. I fell to the ground as blood slowly started to pool around me. As I lay there, bleeding out he let out a bored sigh, “Now I’m bored. Boredy, bored, bored!” He shrugged, “Eh. Maybe the ponies around here’ll be more interesting.”

Seeing no escape, and as I was in no way shape or form able to fight him like I was, I held up my handgun and closed my eyes before shooting myself in the head. As I respawned in the air I saw him over my corpse, ripping the knife out of my old body’s stomach. “You were a pussy, boy!” He laughed before I threw a kick at his head, missed, hit him in the kidneys and I fell to the ground in a heap. He grunted before turning around as I scrambled to my feet and backing away from him. He gave me a confused look, “Did I slaughter your twin or something?”

“Fuck you, arsehole!” I yelled, pulling out my handgun. “Don't move!”

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah, like that’ll stop me.”

I scoffed, “A bullet to the brain will kill you. I don’t care how badass you think you are.”

He gave me a smug grin, “Yeah, that’s what they all think.” He started singing, “You’re in for a big surpriiiiiise!”

That grin unnerved me. “Back. Up.” I gestured with my gun.

“Nah, I’ma kill you now.” He lunging at me again.

I squawked in shock and fell to the ground and he kicked the gun out of my hand before sinking his knife into my right hand, pinning it to the ground. I let out a scream as he began kicking me in the ribs. After several kicks my scream turned into a roar and, not really thinking, ripped the knife out of my hand and sunk it into his leg. He grunted and ripped the knife out of his leg.

“Hey, you got me.” He grinned. Why wasn’t he screaming?! Why wasn’t he clutching his leg?! “Eh, that’s annoying.” He was just ignoring the blood pouring from his wound! Why wasn’t he doing anything?!

He kicked me in the jaw and I felt pain and felt a few teeth shatter. I started crawling away, I couldn’t fight this psycho! Why wasn’t he reacting to pain?! As he walked over to me, that same crazed grin on his face, I grabbed a handful of dirt and as he kicked me over I threw it all in his face. As he swore and brought a hand up to his eyes I rose and punched him in the dick before bringing my fist into his face. I then ran off to get some room between us. When I turned around he was right in front of me and grabbed me by the throat and slammed me onto the ground.

“That. Was rude, dipshit.” He laughed, cracking his head to the side.

I grabbed a rock and smashed it against his head, “Let go, let me go!” I screeched before he snapped my neck.

As I respawned above him I brought both my feet down onto his head before crashing onto the ground. As I caught my breath I felt a knife sink into my chest over and over. I spluttered and gasped for air before I felt a cold, metal feeling in my heart.

As I respawned felt a boot connect with my chest. As pain spread across my chest the bastard grabbed my neck. “You...what are you?” He asked, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. “You die. And you...what? Reincarnate? Instantly?”

“I...don’t...know.” I croaked out.

He shrugged, “Eh, who cares? It’ll just make this more fun, kiddo!” He plunged his fingers into my eyes and as I screamed he snapped my neck.

I respawned once again. I immediately leapt away from him and pulled out my handgun. “Back the hell up!” He started walking towards me. “I’m warning you!” I cried. I didn’t want to shoot him! I didn’t want to kill anyone! “I’ll shoot!”

He grinned widely, “Ha! You don’t have the balls!” I gulped. Why did the gun feel so heavy? I lined up the gun with his chest. He stopped. “Holy crap, you’re actually going to shoot, aren’t you, pussy?” He smirked, “Go ahead!” He spread his arms out in a dramatic bow, “Kill me, you'd be doing me a favour.” I hesitated. I...couldn’t just shoot him, could I? After another couple of seconds he scoffed, “Fucking pussy.” He started walking towards me.

I pointed the gun towards his legs and fired. A leg shot wasn’t lethal, right? His knee jerked out underneath him and dropped to the floor. “Holy shit…” I muttered. I actually hit what I was aiming for?

“Well, fucking, done!” He clapped. What? W...Why isn’t he in pain? He stood up. He shouldn’t be able to do that! I fired at his leg again and he dropped for a second before continuing towards me. I shot his leg again and again, but the same thing just happened, despite the blood that was pouring out of his legs he just continued towards me.

“WHY WON’T YOU STAY DOWN?!” I screamed, not wanting to kill him.

He laughed, “You don’t get it, do you?” He flipped his knife before suddenly plunging it into the side of his skull and out the other side, covered in blood and brain. I gasped in shock and horror. How...how could someone just take their own life like that? “I can’t die.” I looked up and saw he was still standing there, twisting the knife inside his head. That...that couldn’t be...that’s impossible! He pulled out the knife, “Man! That itch had been bugging me for ages!” I dropped my gun. It was worthless. I...how was I supposed to fight him?! “Hey, what’s the matter?” He looked at me, “Ah! You’ve gotten it, haven’t you? You’re just giving up because you know you can’t kill me.” He sneered, “That’s what disgusts me about you humans, you talk about an indomitable human spirit, but at the first signs of a foe you can’t fight you give up!” I just stared, my fists tightening as I started to grow hot. “You humans are just pathetic! Just a bunch of cowards! Why don’t you-” Before he could say another word I slugged his across the face. “Ha! That’s more-” I broke his nose with a punch.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I roared, kicking him in the balls and breaking his leg. “JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!” I jumped backwards, scooping up my handgun and reloading with the spare magazine I had in my pocket.

He raised an eyebrow and snapped his legs back into place, “You know I’m not down, right?”

I took a step forwards, and started firing. I was about a foot away, there was no way I was missing my target. Bullet after bullet shot through his head until he had fifteen holes in his head. “Counting on it.” I spat.

He blinked. “Ow. That hurt. Not been shot for a long while, but that’s not going to kill me.”

I dropped and rooted about in the pockets of my old body and ejected the magazine from the spare handgun that the body had, glad that whenever I died whatever I had on me appeared on my new body too. I quickly reloaded, maybe took six, seven seconds, maybe the training must have finally been working, and took another step forwards and began shooting him in the left knee. After using up all my ammo I had I took the opportunity I had from him complaining about the state of his clothes to rush around to the rest of the bodies and loot all the magazines I could. I walked back up to him and started firing into his left knee again, occasionally dodging his punches. By the time I had one magazine left his knee was barely connected.

“Are you quite done?!” He snapped.

“Almost!” I yelled. With a strong kick I snapped his leg off. “Ha!” I yelled, ignoring how macabre what I had just done was. “You’re finished.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

I nodded, “You may not die, but your wounds don’t heal quickly, do they? Without that leg you’re stuck there unless you want to crawl.”

He smiled, “Pretty observant of you. Yeah, I’m kind of glad I just stood here and let you do that. I get you now, you’re always thinking during a fight.” Wait...he let me? “But, unfortunately for you, I’ve got excellent balance.” With that he sped forwards, hopping at inhuman speeds and delivering a punch to my face.

I fell to the ground and clutched my face. “How?! You’re can’t be...be…” The things he said, leaving humanity behind, not being shot for ages...it all lead to...

“You got it, don’t you?” He laughed. “You know what I am!”

I gulped. “You...you’re immortal, aren’t you?”

“Got it in one, kid.” He smirked.

“Leon?” A voice called out.

My blood ran cold and I scrambled to my feet, and spotted Spike at the edge of the treeline. “Spike, get out of here!”

“No way, Leon, I’m not leaving! What’s going on?! Everyone’s freaking out at the gunshots!” He froze, “Is that blood?!” He spotted the psycho, “Who...who’s that?!”

“Listen, I can’t stay dead, you do! I’ll be fine!” I shouted, pointing my gun at the...immortal.

“Dead? This guy’s a killer?!” He screamed.

I grimaced, “SPIKE! JUST GO! I’LL BE FINE!” I roared. I had to make sure he was okay!

“Leon…” That wasn’t Spike. I looked at the psycho. Was...he wiping a tear from his eyes? He looked me in the eyes, “That’s your name?” He asked, all hints of violence and bloodlust gone.

I frowned, “Yeah.”

He had a haunted look in his eyes and...were his hands shaking? He started laughing, “Oh, bloody hell. Is this some sign? Or something like that? The first human I find after all this time and you have to have that name.” He sighed, “Alright, kid. I’ll stop trying to kill you.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe a psycho like you.” I spat.

“I’m not a psycho. I think. Anyway, the name’s Gary.” He said, scooping up his cane.

“Yeah, you hate humanity for some reason, don’t you?” I scoffed.

“I'm not some emo, little shit who hates humans because it's cool. No, I have my reasons, and I'm only going to tell who I want to, and that doesn't include you, kiddo, so fuck off.”

“Uh huh. Sure.” I kept an eye on him, whilst making sure Spike was okay.

“Well, whatever. I’m interested in you, kid. You get a pass for being human by being mildly interesting.” He shrugged, “See you around.” With that the same purple explosion that brought him here engulfed him and disappeared.

I sighed and turned back to Spike. “Who was that guy?” He asked.

“I don’t have the slightest clue.” I sighed.

Author's Note

Hey, everyone. Now before anything, I just wanted to say that this doesn't make Leon a Displaced. That's not this type of story. Leon and Gary's universes and connected, that's the only reason Gary managed to pop over. There's not going to be over characters from other stories. Gary is the only one from another universe coming over. That said, there's going to be a lot more of Gary. Both in this story and in his own story (Currently under work).

Now, next chapter we'll be getting back to the arc.

Kill count.
This chapter: 4
Total: 75