Chapters "How many times do I have to tell you Rainbow, it's going to work!" I start to trot at a slightly faster pace in an effort to stop staring at her face to face, because she is giving me the strangest look. Of course it doesn't work, she just walks at a slightly faster speed and nearly passes me.
"Of course I believe you Black," she rolls her eyes, "It isn't like you are trying to do the near impossible."
I just keep walking forward, mentally filtering her voice out of my head to a dull drone. I sometimes wonder why I would let her follow me on my experiments, she was the poster child for being condescending, at least aimed in my general direction. I look up from my hooves a second to see what I was heading towards. The rocky edge of a mountain cliff jutted up ahead of us. I hold up my hoof in front of her.
"We're here."
I pull the saddlebags off my sides and drop them to the ground with a large clunk. Rainbow Dash shrugs her's off as well and then rubs her wings.
"If this whole awful thing didn't require so many chemicals to work, we could've flown here in at least half the time!" She looks at me again, and starts to speak.
"Well you can fly down right now if you want to," I raise an eyebrow, "Your whining isn't exactly the most helpful thing right now."
I start pulling bottles out of both our bags and laying them out in a line, while she starts speaking indignantly.
"I don't whine! What would make you think that I, one of the most hardcore ponies ever, would ever whine?"
"You just did right then," I look up at her a second with a questioning glance at the comment that she was hardcore. "And by the way, you are anything but hardcore."
I casually pop the corks off the bottles with my magic while turning my head to look at her. Silently steaming, she apparently doesn't have anything to counter that with. I roll my eyes and start pouring the contents of the bottles into an empty vat. Steam starts rising slowly from it. Rainbow Dash walks over and peers over the edge to view the event.
"See this?" I tap the vat. "Not just anypony could figure out how to make this!"
She rolls her eyes. "You think you're so smart just because you're an alicorn, just about anypony could pour things into a bowl."
I sigh and continue to pour in chemicals while looking at her for a second. "Honestly Rainbow, I only think I am smart because I actually am smart. Heritage and body parts have nothing to do with this!" I continue to pour in the liquids and a slightly purple tint is beginning to form. I cock my head quizzically.
"That's odd, it should have turned green by now..."
"So?" Rainbow Dash snorts, "You got the wrong combination. Spin the wheel and try again."
"This isn't any normal concoction Dash! This is necromancy! If anything goes wrong in necromancy, it can be disastrous! Instead of raising the dead, we could raise the un-dead, or kill everypony, or even-!"
"Or you could just get the wrong stinking potion. Seriously Blacky, relax!" She laughs.
"This could be a whole lot more then- Blacky?" I look at her, my face a mirror opposite of her's. "My name is Black Thunder, or, to be casual, Black. Blacky is just pushing the label here."
She smirks. Her simple nickname had hit home, she finally got a decent reaction. As she opens up her mouth to speak again, I hold up my hoof.
"Let me figure out what's the problem here," I start to examine the mixture. "I don't have time for cute, irksome nicknames."
I dip the stirring spoon in and grimace. It starts dissolving in my hoof. I drop it in and pull my hoof back. The sound of it's demise was a low, nearly inaudible hiss. That was pure iron. I'm glad I chose my strongest brewery pot. Trying to hide my evident distress, I turn my head and cover the pot with it's lid, slamming my shoulders down on it. I look over at her and grin
"Looks fine," I chuckle, "Just a minor mishap, shouldn't be too important."
It starts to bubble up slightly and the lid lifts up slightly. I slam my shoulders back down and wince at the pain. Rainbow Dash raises an eyebrow.
"Doesn't look fine to me," She starts to walk over, "Need my help there nerd?"
I shake my head quickly.
"No, we should be perfectly fine. You just might want to put these on and hide behind that rock right there."
I toss her some safety goggles and shoo her over to the large oblong rock by gesturing with my horn. She sighs and slips them on before disappearing behind the boulder. I look back at the vat, and it is steaming over. I have two options here, be a brave, stupid martyr hero for trying to hold back the extremely likely overflow of hazardous waste, or I could hide behind the rock with Dash and make a force field to protect us from it. I breathe out. Option two sounds pretty attractive right now. I dive away from the pot and run over behind the rock. I adjust my flight goggles I always wear and sneak a look at what is happening. The lid has already blown off and oozing black lava-like substance is slowly advancing. It's sparking and fizzing like hell. I move back to my spot and look at my comrade in probable demise.
She is pretty scared, but more composed than any other pony I know would be in this situation. I sigh and hold my face in my hoof. This shouldn't be happening to her, she had a long life to enjoy for herself. Me... well, my fate after this would be a dimly lit laboratory for the rest of my life. I sigh again and look at her.
"Well, by the way the noise that substance is making, it should be exploding into a huge ball of flame engulfing us all before we could escape."
"And how the hay would you know something like that?"
"Science."
I look over. One massive bubble has risen up from it, and it's molten hot. Highly reactive stuff, all the things I put in there.
"Well, if we don't get out of this alive..." Rainbow Dash makes the closest thing to a whimper I ever heard her make.
"Quitter's talk! I said it would engulf us, I didn't say we wouldn't survive!" I look back. "Then again, That wouldn't be too unrealistic."
I sit there for a moment and let my mind reel in the silence. I decide to stand up and look where the huge bubble was. It has flattened out to a puddle, and it makes no noise.
"Well it seems fine now-"
A large blast and ringing pulses through my ears before I fall to the ground and black out.
Slowly each of my eyes switch from a view of pitch black to red. I lazily wipe a new cut on my forehead. I look down. My hoof has a streak of dark red running down it, but it doesn't look fatal. The rest of my body is bruised and cut at worst everywhere else. The only problem is, the impact of whatever connected with my head has impeded some of my basic abilities. I struggle to sit up but can't. My horn fizzles on any attempt to use my magic, and my wings are pressed under my back. I am basically immobilized.
I glance around to see what damage was created. The general area has been stripped of any life, and any flora is burning. I see a cyan lump lying in fetal position. I gasp and muster my strength to try and move. I flip over and crawl forward towards her. Reaching her slowly, I grab her and turn her over. She's just knocked out, and I can't see a single scratch on her. She's way better off than I am, as she was behind the rock. I look up at said rock. It was battered brutally, and a chunk got knocked off it, lying by where I was. The blunt edge of it has crimson stains littering it. I grimace. This is what hit me. I laugh quietly, then black out again.
I don't know when I woke up again, but I did. My eyes are still closed, but I hear something. A limping figure walks towards me and then a large object slams me into the ground. Some horrible breath is beating up against my cheek, and it sniffs me. A animal-like hiss speaks slowly, and deliberate.
"I smell death on both of them, they are not worth anything to me."
It steps off me and walks away in a jagged stumble on it's back legs. I look up with my shaky vision and stare at the thing that left. It has exposed skin most everywhere, except for it's mane. It seems to walk primarily on it's back legs, which look like strange hands, like a monkey. This is some kind of primate thing, and I don't know how it got here. Not exactly sure I want it here too. It's wearing a broken straitjacket, torn at the shoulders to a sleeveless status. I groan and collapse into the ground for a third time, into the uncertain blackness of sleep.
Silhouettes. Darkened outlines move like their own clouds, even behind the walls. I sniff again and they have moved to entire different locations. By breathing in a steady pattern, the bodies move in a walking manner. They are coming to get me. I grin and lean back as far into the wall as I can. My handcuffs scrape up against my skin, and the pain makes me feel alive. Their hands show no items, but they are gripping small items. Pistols... Juveniles. Don't they realize they aren't allowed to injure their specimen? One of them reaches for a handle and pulls. I pounce and slam into the door opener. He is wearing a protective suit, damn. I kick off him and throw my back into the other one. He slams into the wall and slides down it, gun clattering to the ground. I turn around and he is running to the door. They are much more fun when they are afraid. I laugh and kick him to the floor. He slides between the metal bar doors and starts whimpering.
"Please don't hurt me."
I laugh again.
"Since you asked politely, I'll make it quick."
I slowly walk over to the other side and look over at the locking button. Tensing my wrists, I start to push up against my metal bonds. They fracture easily, not even piercing my skin. They drop to the ground and the unlucky man looks over at them, amazed. He starts sliding away from me, hoping to escape. I jam down on the button with my fist, and he screams. His leg is jammed between it, and I could hear a crack. The force had broken his leg. If it wasn't for the suit, it would have been torn off him in a spray of blood. I casually stand there, hearing him pray to whoever would listen. The religious are much more fun to kill, waiting for a rescuer who won't appear makes their death all the more gratifying. I push down on the button with a finger, and the doors slide open slowly. His leg is in the shape of an L below the knee, and he is fighting hard to keep from passing out. I walk over to him and hold up his chin. He looks up at me, fear shining out stronger than the pain.
"Are you afraid of me?" I slowly hiss out.
He nods and turns his face away from me. I pull it back to face me, and grin again. He pushes his head back into the ground slightly on sight of my incisors. Even though I am only human, I am, as you might say, enhanced. I pull his head back and place my hand under it to keep it in place. The sound of pounding footsteps interrupts this moment and a spin my head around, hissing. More silhouettes are running around the corner, about 30 seconds away. He starts laughing, if raggedly.
"They are going to catch you, and you will never break free. No one else will have to be killed by your menace."
"While I know the first part is definitely true, the other two I would have to disagree on. Don't you know I let all you catch me on purpose?"
He starts to form a question, but I jerk my arms around. I hear a snap and he goes limp. I drop him and stand up. The scent clouds around him start to grow smaller, and his heat signature flickers. He is dead. I walk over to his knocked out friend and make the same of him. The foot steps have stopped pounding and I step over, hands above my head. The silhouettes have turned into humans, even though their scent drifts around. They mix around, and I chuckle. All of them are fearful except one, who simply emits defiance. The commissioner of the asylum stands in front of me, stun gun in hand. Two small men appear at his side, holding a strait jacket. I hold put my arms out, and they run over, strapping it onto my person as fast as they could without being sloppy. They run back into the crowd of armed men and disappear. I slowly walk forward to the commissioner, and he looks over at his two fallen.
"Don't waste your time on them sir, they are, as you would call them, K.I.A."
His permanent frown deepens slightly, and he motions for two of his other guards to pull their downed comrades away. The commissioner walks forward, and I keep pace next to him. We reach a gateway, and the same two men pull my face into a bite guard mask, shrinking away as soon as possible. I chuckle and continue walking. The commissioner has already opened a padded cell door for me, and I step in willingly. He slams it shut, and looks at me one last time. He utters just one word.
"Animal."
He walks away, closing the slot behind him. The room is lit by just one solitary light bulb in a cage, and I sink into the corner of the room. I have time to wait...
Any silhouette that walks by always walks faster when passing my new home, uncomfortable to pass by anywhere near the thing with the largest one man massacre in history. I laugh to myself and stretch my legs out. Even padding can eventually become uncomfortable. I let my mind wander back to the memories of my victims, and grin as I recall memories long since locked up. The first crunch I ever heard was of a small girl, lost in the woods. She found me, and I ended her. It was a good combination, at least on my end of the deal.
Continuing to zone out my nose starts twitching slightly and I try to think of what the new scent is. It is burning leather. I sit there, feeling my leather straps start oozing under a heat source that even I can't think of. I wait there until my restraints have burnt free, then I move the long sleeves around to the heat, cutting the cloth at the shoulders. I now have unrestricted movement. I stand up and walk to the other end of my cell. A dot of pure heat, as small as the point of a laser, is burning into the side of the padding. It starts expanding, and instead of the covering burning, the dot turns into a circular doorway. Currently it leads into space, but none of the effects of space are taking place. I cock my head curiously, and stare at it. The portal is now person size, and the location it leads to is changing, and the darkness of space turns into a cliff. I sniff, and unfamiliar scents mix into my field of vision, tinted strangely. The flora of this area looks strange. I step out and look around. The area is nowhere near realistic, it looks like childish paintings. I step out, and sigh. I had always expected there by different worlds like this, but I never expected to enter one. I walk forward with a little stumbling, I had sat in that one place for a while. I step over and look at the surrounding area. When the rift had opened, bringing me here, it had decimated this place.
Two small horses lay on the ground, not evidently breathing. I walk over to the pure black one with a large gash on his forehead. I raise my eyebrow. He is like a horse of legends, wings and a horn. I look over at the other one, and it too has wings. I dig my foot into the black one's back, leaning in to get a better look at it. I sniff in, and also catch the scent of the blue one. I frown to myself. They are dying.
"I smell death on both of them, they are not worth anything to me."
Shame, I was hoping to kill the first people, or horses, that I set my eyes on when I stepped into this world. New terrains, new nations, new victims. I step off the black one and stumble away, heading towards new flesh.
I sit up and sigh. The wound on my head had starting aching again, and I muster my strength to induce a pain relieving spell on myself. I moan when the relief finally pours in. Using some of my magic, I was able to heal any damage Rainbow Dash and I experienced, but I still have headaches from it, while she hasn't woken up. I wipe some of the failed mixture off myself. It is a strong scent, and I have only smelt it before when near an open grave. I walk over to Rainbow Dash and wipe any of the remains of the potion off with a swipe of my magic. She starts to stir, and I stand over her expectantly. She opens her eyes and looks at me.
"You better have an explanation of why the hay I am lying on the ground here Blacky," She growls.
Damn. I was hoping she had forgotten that.
"A minor explosion occurred and you kind of got knocked out, along with a rift opening and a creepy looking primate let loose," I look at her sarcastically. "We are doing perfectly fine."
She sighs and sits up uneasily.
"I wish you had never decided to bring me up here."
I shrug. For a chance I thought I had something here, but nothing good ever happens with necromancy. It is now a confirmed fact. I pull her up off the ground and she flaps her wings slowly.
"Man, I ache. Some blast, eh?" She laughs and slaps me in the face with her wing.
I flinch slightly when her feathers hit my nose, and sneeze.
She laughs again, and flies into the air.
"C'mon, let's fly into town and forget this whole thing."
"Fine by me," I snort.
I try to loosen up a bit and forget about what happened back there. That... thing has a haunting aspect to it, like a demon. I need to at least let it slip my mind for now, before I can find a good way to get rid of it, otherwise the pressure will drive me insane. I can think of nothing but the feeling of my right eye twitching awkwardly. Buck.
The book in my hooves sits there awkwardly, trying to cover up the account of me staring there blankly, thinking. I set it down slightly and look around. It's Twilight's library, but she's out of town. I set the book down and look around. Nopony is here to witness me at all. I decide to just lean back and close my eyes, letting it all wash away.
"Exciting book?"
I sit up with a cry and look around. Still nopony is here, before a tap on the top of my head denies that notion.
"Did it ever hurt ya to look up?" Rainbow Dash laughs and lands on the ground. "I saw you weren't reading it at all and decided to see what you were doing when I flew by."
I rub my face with my hoof. It had only been a couple hours since this morning when the portal opened, and she was already like her old self. Either she had a short memory, or she was stupid. Well, maybe that was a little harsh, as she was too busy being knocked out to notice the primate walking away. Still, the fact that a portal was drifting in the open to a padded cell room didn't concern her in the slightest.
"Well, I was just thinking about what happened," I speak a half-truth. It wasn't really what happened, it was what came out after that happened. "Seems odd, don't it?"
"Well what part would that be? The explosion, the portal, or what happened before those two?"
I just stare at her.
"You know what I'm talking about, dumb ass," She snorts. "So was that your final death wish above everything else?"
"To be consumed in a ball of flame? Yeah, that's top on everypony's bucket list," I roll my eyes sarcastically. "Maybe somepony would find me and serve me with a side of fries."
"I honestly am surprised that you would risk your life over a potion to raise the dead. It would be funny if it weren't so sad."
I laugh and lean my back onto the bench. She sits over on another one. I levitate her a Daring Do and leave myself to my own thoughts. Wincing, I pull myself back out. At least I kept myself sane for a full five minutes before thinking of that lurching figure again. I don't know what intrigues me so much about it. I have seen, and captured, manticores before easily, and they are definitely much more deadlier when provoked than that thing. It could barely stand for Pete's sake! I sigh and rub my face again. I feel like I grow heavier when I finally figure it out. It was in a broken strait jacket. Whatever it was/is, it is intelligent, and insane. I groan and roll off the bench.
"Are you dying or something?" Rainbow Dash peeks over the top of her book. "If you need some mouth-to-mouth I'm not budging."
"No, I'm fine. Just had a weird thought," I sit back up on the bench. "If only you knew..."
"How large the porn stash at your house is?"
I look up at her, and she grins smugly.
"Shut up."
I pull out a blank piece of parchment, and start sketching by using my horn on the quill. It moves expertly across the page, and after a while an image starts to take form of the thing's back. I finish it up and look at it. Not pretty, but it is an exact black and white copy of what I saw. I write a note on the back.
I need your best ponies working on this. What is this thing? -Black Thunder
I send it to Celestia and sit back. I just have to wait for a response, nothing else I can do. As if on cue, a piece of parchment drops down onto my lap. I unroll it, and a more detailed drawing of the same creature, if not a different one, sits there, along with a dictionary entry.
Human- noun. Homo Sapiens
Discovered in a freak magic accident, these mammalian creatures are as smart as ponies, if not smarter in some cases. They have higher technology then we have reached so far, but can be more prone to wickedness. To prevent further issues, any portals to Earth, their home planet, have been sealed forever. See Earth for further answers.
I raise both my eyebrows. A note accompanies it and I read it.
Black Thunder, only a few ponies have ever seen or heard of humans. How did you hear of them? - Princess Celestia
Best not to tell her what happened, and figure out the problem myself. It could mean hell for me if she found out. Besides, upon flipping to a diagram of a human, they don't look so tough. I look at the parchment, and it bursts into flames. Oops. It was "lost" in transmission. It will turn out much better for me if I never have to answer how that thing got here. I drop the crisped sheet to the ground and stamp out the ashes, kicking them into the fireplace. My filly companion is too ensnared in her book to notice. I walk over to the bench and adjust my goggles, before flying over to the door. I step out and look around. Everything seems fine, nopony seems to be panicking in any manor what so ever.
I fly back inside the library and look around. Something lands on my shoulders. Fearing that it is the human, I teleport away on an instinct, only to see Dash drop to the ground where I was. She stands up and looks around.
"Black? Where are you?" She looks around the room for me.
Well, time for me to make it look like it was intentional, and with ninja precision, I sneak up behind her and grab her under the arm pits, turning visible again.
"If this was a real attack, you'd be dead."
I laugh and set her down. She snorts and walks back over to her book, lying on the bench.
"I wasn't even trying to get you," She says.
I roll my eyes and decide not to argue with her.
The light outside has dimmed to pitch black, and I stand up, stretching. Rainbow already went home a while back, and I am alone. I walk over to the door and start to open it, where a small, plump orange pony with a brown mustache has his hoof raised in a knocking position. I raise my eyebrow.
"If you want Twilight she's not home right now-"
"I know, Black. I need you, not that book worm."
I cough.
"If you must know, you happen to be insulting the pony who took down Nightm-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," He wheezes. "Just listen. There's been a murder."
The bushes do not make a sound as I drift through them. I inhale deeply then sigh out. The woods is where I feel most comfortable, mingling with my fellow hunters, like wolves. It can be a little irritating though, when my nose picks up all these different scents when I have bigger game to kill.
I look over at the closest house, and the silhouette scent is strongly smelling of food. He is dining, and heavily. I edge up to the house side, back gripping the primitive structure. I slide up to the window and break it's lock easily with my front two fingers. I push it up silently and crawl in, closing it behind me. I see a purple unicorn sitting on a couch, with unkempt yellow hair. He is sitting on a sofa, gorging himself on hay. He is eating it from a plate with a fork, slouching and not looking up. I deliberately stomp once with my foot, only loud enough for him to hear. He spins around and hay slides out from his mouth as he mumbles.
"What the hay are you?"
I grin, and he recoils.
"I am a great many number of things, my friend. Merciful, is not one of them."
Fidgeting around, he wipes any spit from his chin. Not exactly sure what I meant, he is confused and frightened. Wonderful.
He is gripping the fork in his right hoof intensely, like it is a lifeline keeping him from drowning. I walk over to the opposite end of the couch than him, and he squishes himself into the arm rest cushions. Mouth still flaunting my mandibles, I step forward as slowly as possible. He starts to stand up and I shoot forward like an arrow, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him back into the cushions. He whimpers like a child.
"Are you going to... e-e-eat me?" He whimpers out, straining over shock.
I laugh loudly, and he eases up slightly.
"Of course not my friend, you probably taste disgusting," I laugh again.
He lightens up slightly, regardless of the fact that I insulted him. He starts to chuckle himself.
"Of course, that won't stop me from killing you anyways, even if I won't eat your corpse."
He stops chuckling and gulps, looking up at me.
"Yes, I shall do this in the normal fashion. Breaking your neck, and then, for an added bonus, I might take your horn with me as a souvenir."
He continues to stare at me, frightened to the point that his face has gone pale and he is sweating quite a large amount.
"Don't worry, your death will be quick if you cooperate."
I rub mane down his back, sure to scratch the back of his skin with my nails. He bristles up slightly and shudders. I can feel a trickle of blood roll down through his fur, and he can feel it as well. I rub my finger through the blood and pull it up. Stained pure red, I realize I must have cut pretty deep. I flash my finger in front of his face, being sure he sees how much of his life juices has flown onto my hand. I wipe it on his face and put my hands on his shoulders. Pulling him to face me one more time, I lean in and bite the air, threatening to shred him with my incisors. His face is pure white as he stares at me.
"Relax...," I hiss out quietly. "One small twitch and this is all over."
I slash down his chest to his stomach, and he screams. I put my hand over his mouth and look at the damage done. A wide gash goes through his skin, from the same level as the shoulders down to his intestines. I wipe my claws on his fur, and he is choking slightly at the immense pain. I grin at him and whisper.
"I lied."
I dig my feet and hands into his legs and arms, and he is screaming again. I revel in the carnage momentarily before stepping off. I sit down beside him, and he looks over at me, frightened.
"Shhh," I hold up my finger and shush him.
He starts whimpering quietly. Placing my hands on his shoulders, I move them slowly to his neck. I rub my hands around it, and he shivers. I slowly slide my nail across his neck, and it starts to bleed. Grinning, I move my hand to his chin, while moving the other to his shoulder.
"Goodbye."
With a flick of the wrist, his head jerks to the side with a snap, and his body goes limp. His eyes stare off into space, unblinking. I chuckle to myself and stand up. Some people kill for revenge. Others for the loot. Some even justify themselves as doing it for the "glory", as if the victory of a nation is a worthy reason to massacre. Myself? Why, I simply do it for the entertainment. I am not insane, I merely have interesting tastes.
Sighing out the breath I did not realize I was holding, I can feel myself shake slightly, a sensation I have not felt in a while. Adrenaline stops to flow through my veins after a few seconds, and I stand up again. Adrenaline hasn't flowed through me in a long time...
For the first time ever I am alone. I don't understand this feeling, every part of the routine is exactly the same, except that I am in a strange world. I don't like that feeling.
A glint catches my eye and I sway my head slightly to face it. The horn in the middle of this horse's forehead glows unnaturally in the dim light, which piques my curiosity. With a quick snap I yank it off, giving only a slight tug on my arm. Turning it around to inspect it, I see bits and pieces of nerves, along with bone and fatty acids. This horn is it's own brain. I turn it over again and again in my hand. From what I can see the horn on this horse is like a finger. The nerve endings have a sense of touch, and it appears to have some function other than display. The bone inside it was connected to it's skull, and the nerves also connected to the dominant brain.
I slit a hole in some excess fabric on my jacket, forming a pocket. Slipping the horn into it, I cover up the hole and walk to the same window. Looking back for one more second, I jump out and disappear into the night.
A small wisp of smoke curls in the air, forming a tendril in the air. A murmur coming from a red glowing stub hanging in the air near the ground.
"Damn those weather ponies..."
A light mist has formed on the ground, barely enough to impair vision, but enough to make it uncomfortably humid. The stub goes dark and I hear a string of curses ooze like venom from the darkness.
"Here," I grab at the area where the smoke came from and clench an object. I hold it up to the end of my horn and it lights itself. The now lit cigarette is yanked out of my hoof and pulled into it's previous position.
"My horn would've done fine thanks."
Silence. The air does nothing but get thicker. The longer the time goes on the faster the puffs of smoke coming from beside me seem to be happening, until a lone figure steps out in front of us. The voice sounds younger than the normal age of any police I have heard before.
"No sign of anypony ever being on this lot captain. Not a single hoofprint out of the ordinary, and it certainly couldn't have been suicide. No sign of a weapon. This one is for you, sir."
He chuckles grimly. "Aren't they all..."
He pulls a magnum out of a holster on his chest, I can very barely see the glint of the six barrels from the cigarette.
"You sure you didn't see anypony inside? Sounds like bullshit to me, if there is no evidence of the suspect is leaving than he must still be there." He snorts and I can hear the click of him loading. "I've been working here longer than any of you have been alive, and one thing I know for sure, they always leave evidence."
The very tip of his horn lights up to give a dim view of the near surroundings. Through the tired creases of his large blocky face I thought I saw him dancing through the vigor in his eyes, even through his age. At any moment I could expect him to jump out of his skin and reveal a younger, but still experienced stallion. I look over at the stallion to my left that gave the news, and I see a mirror opposite of what is to my right. What little torso I can see is muscular and slim, while his face looks more like a colt than that of an adult, but seems to be in the process of changing shape. The light dims more as the older walks away. I stand there and wait for any sign of need of myself. Mostly I feel like the jackass than anything else. I get pulled under for trivial bits of work this way and that just because more than 6 extremities, and I am not talking about limbs.
The unicorn walks back, no longer holding a gun. "Not the first time I've been wrong."
He turns and looks over at me. "Didn't anybody tell you to leave yet?"
I raise my eyebrow, but he might not see the difference in the low light of his horn.
"Why did you bring me along in the first place then?"
"Somepony called me, higher up in command and such. Said they were on watch for a demon thing, huban or something... Anonymous tip from a crazy pony if you ask me, but they are taking it seriously."
I wince. I was hoping to keep this human thing under wraps. Wait, murder? They suspect it to have murdered somepony? "And they suspect a demon behind this murder?"
"Well, the horn on him was cleanly cut off, no knife, sword, or ax could have done something like that. Not even magic could cleanly cut a horn off like that that viciously." He coughs deeply, and then just stands there. He's not the only one with a dislike of myself, but I digress. Sighing, I walk down the road out of his view, but instead of heading home I turn around and run silently over to the house that is under investigation. Passing some caution tape, I duck under and run into the backyard and look around. It's getting brighter as the sun starts to creep up behind the mountains, but the mist still makes it pretty dark out, only just light enough to see right in front of yourself. I creep close to a window sill and take a closer look. It has been dusted for hoof prints and it seems to have only found bird tracks on the window sill.
Wait, bird tracks? They are large enough to belong to a flamingo, and they don't look natural. There is a swirling, curving pattern there that is near impossible to decipher, along with longer claws than normal. I look around for any more tracks in the dirt, but there are none to be found. I take some dirt and rub it on the marks on the windowsill,so that nopony will find out anymore than I know. Possibly my biggest threat right now would be a higher authority figure finding out.
Well, I sure as hell hope so.
A minor complication. That would describe this whole farce I seem to have gotten myself into. The same routine as normal, and it is almost a boost up, with a free escape and easier victims. It's comical if you think about it. I find myself grinning at this notion. What are the odds of alternative universes where they speak my own language? Not very good ones at that, but I seem to have hit the jackpot. Passing a pond I thought I could see another man trailing me, but it must have been my imagination. Words flash inside my head, ones kept down inside a dark part of myself I dare not touch. Scientist. It described me once, yet I push it down inside me again. The bubbling in my throat dies down, along with a feeling of giddiness. I walk silently through the trees, no leaves or grass betraying my approach, regardless of nothing being there to be alerted. I have been walking hours without tiring even the slightest, and the ground has begun to slope upwards. Walking along a linear path cut out before me, I step into a clearing and look up. Possibly the largest castle I have ever seen is on a cliff side, along with a city to accompany it. This should be fun.
Darkness drops it's veil over reality, and my senses start to thrive once again. There is such a large amount of body heat coming from everywhere it is exciting. The castle itself in particular. Gripping firmly the brick wall in front of me, I hoist myself up onto the wall and climb. The distant sound of chatter is starting to get louder, but for now the quiet click of nails against rock is what dominates. I reach and balcony and flip over the railing. Light streams into my vision and I blink several times to readjust my vision. The open glass doorway leads into a large decorative bedroom, more comfort items than a store that stocks them itself. Everything is too fancy. Treading lightly around the glassware, I step to the door inside and lean my ear against it. I do not hear anything, but I can smell horse outside. Two of them, apparently guarding the door. I open the door, slamming it quickly to the side and jabbing my fist in the one not injured. The one on my left moans, while the one on my right looks at me in silent horror as the blood from the claw marks starts to drip down his chest. He sinks to the ground as I yank out my hand, and as I pull the door back I see another pure white guard stallion cradling his snout in his hoof. I grab his neck and twist quickly, ending that nose pain quick nicely. Looking to the left, and looking to the right, once each, I drag them both into the previous room's closet and leave them there.
The hallway leads to a large staircase, which is brightly lit. I squint slightly as I look at the huge room that it leads to. A giant, seething, ugly mass of color is streaming through. The mass is of individuals, horses of many different colors, are covered with frills and mutton leg sleeves, among others. This place seems like an odd version of Victorian England, to compare it to anything. My nose is filled to the brim with the pungent aroma of perfume and warm blood, and the buzz of conversation wells in my ears. This assault of my senses suspends my emotions for a second before I leap back into reality. I move back into the shadows, still surveying the scene. One large white horse seems to be surveying the whole scene, possibly the closest to realistic one I have seen so far, except that she has horns, wings, and perpetual hair. She greets everyone with a sincere voice, but to me she sounds like a snake oil salesman. I instantly despise the smooth wavy female voice. She would make a fine prize to catch, if only I had the chance to get her. The mob will not die down a single bit, and the variety of things streaming in won't cease. Blue, red, white, orange, pink, rainbow, no end to the cheery colors. Not once before had I found myself at such a lack of an idea.
All there is to do is wait.
I'm not good at waiting. Not without a reward, or something to occupy time. I have no thoughts right now, other than to stare at the mass. That is, until I see a change of shade. A black lump moves in the large doorway, then instantly moves to the side, a corner away from the rest. It stands there, not moving, like myself. No other mass of color moves closer, like the mirror opposite of a black hole. I go into a coma like state, not paying attention except for the familiarity of the darkness across the room. At one point something multicolored came over to it and absconded with my happiness, but then moved away after a while. The longer it stays there, the more, slowly but surely, the group weans, yet too slowly to let me move in less than 2 hours. The black lump starts moving again, across the large room closer to the large white horse near where I crouch. It reaches it's target, and comes into focus more. This confrontation of ying and yang seem inversely similar, in opposites. The black horse tries to speak to the white one, and it listens for a small amount, but then the white one seems to shoo it away. It lingers for a moment, then flies into the air and heads straight at me. I snap back into focus and action, jumping into the hallway, and moving away. The horse is flying around the corner, being chased by some yelling figures behind him. I manage to remain out of view of all of them, but they are in hot pursuit. Through a maze of upper corridors and a few stairwells I end up at a dead end, a large glass window. There are still pounding hooves near me, but they seem scattered now. I wait there for a second, looking out into the dark sky. Suddenly, a yell rises up and the black horse flies past the window, being pursued by other guards. The rest still indoors start running towards the closest window to the action outdoors. The one right in front of me. I look back and forth, considering what to do as the pounding moves closer. The twitch in my mouth becomes a grin. I've always wanted to skydive.
I kick open the window, which is connected to a short deck. I climb up onto the rail of the deck, turn myself to face the horses right about to enter the room, and step off. I can faintly hear something call out "What the hell was that?", before I disappear out of view. The enhanced muscular and bone strength of my legs should cushion my fall of this height. At least in theory. That is, until, I get the receiving end of a bag of muscle. I can feel the breath knocked out of me as I plummet, along with whatever flew straight at me. I land painfully on a slope, and roll down it as the rocks rip at my back. When the spinning finally stops I slowly roll over and grip at the dirt, pushing myself up, and blinking. A small amount of blood is on the ground where I lay, and my back feels slick. A few meters away lays what I ran into, a white armored horse guard like the two I killed before, and obviously with a few bones broken. He manages to open one eye and stare at me, then it widens and he shudders to get up. He starts to wince as he crawls up and tries to move away from me as fast as he can. I move determinedly and start catching up to him as the pebbles below gnaw at my hands. He starts flapping his surprisingly undamaged wings, and he starts to leave the ground. Taking my last chance of him not slinking back to raise a larger alarm, I pounce on his back and send him sinking like a rock to the ground. My hand grips the back of his skull, and I pound his face once into the ground. He starts coughing up dirt, and I pull him over to a rock. Bashing his head a second time, his body stiffens then relaxes as the blood starts to roll down to co-mingle with the ground. Standing up, I dust my hands and chest of any blood, his or my own, and look up. The sun is coming up now, we must have been under for an hour. To the trees, I must disappear. I don't want them finding me any sooner than is necessary.
And that may be sooner than I think.
I told her what I knew. Which, was of course, nothing, but it's a start. The state of affairs right now is or could be pretty grim with the human on the loose, and he just killed somepony. That about sums up what I told her. She was anything but impressed. With a slight raise of the eyebrows and a faint grin you would give someone out of his right mind she stared at me. Needless to say she wasn't taking me seriously.
"Honestly!" I say, "There is a human being here, he's murdered somepony in town, and his tracks disappeared into the woods towards the most populated place in Equestria, Canterlot! This is serious!"
She laughs jestingly and looks at me with an incredulous look, dripping with sarcasm.
"Last time I checked you didn't believe in urban myths."
She's right.
"Well, yes, but I'm not lying. I saw it with my own eyes after that accident, and he is the unknown killer of that unicorn in town!"
"Even if I believe you, what do you want me to do about it? The way you rave about thing thing makes it sound pretty unbeatable, why would you try to take this on with just the two of us?"
"We're not taking this thing on alone. I plan on confronting Celestia about it today,before any innocents get harmed. I tried to keep this under wraps before, but this is too big of a problem for a lone stallion to take on. Problem is, I checked, and she is booked the whole day planning the gala for tonight, unable to answer a letter or take an appointment, and there are no available tickets this late," I smirk confidently even though the odds appear to be stacked.
"I'm not giving you my ticket, if that's what you are wondering. If not, what the heck do you have in mind?"
"You still have that fancy dress of your's don't you?"
The carriage rocks back and forth slightly as the stallions pulling the cart up front move over cobbled roads. Rainbow Dash sits there quietly, looking ahead, as I adjust my bow tie. I had to dig up my good tuxedo for this occasion, and it's a little faded, but it's not noticeable. I tug my overcoat in place again and look over at her.
"How do I look?"
"Like an idiot," she looks over at me. "Like always."
The cab is quiet for a second.
"See if I ask your opinion on anything again." I close up my jacket and look outside. The dazzling lights of the party are just up ahead, and the sound of ponies talking starts to thicken. The ride continues like this for a little longer, with the effects slowly getting louder and brighter while the hoofsteps stay at the same intensity. We finally reach the castle front and I nod to her to show her that I am here. She sighs.
"Did you have any better plan than this?"
"Yes and it involved mugging you for the ticket. Come on, let's go."
I step up and behind her as she opens the door and starts stepping down. Taking in a short breath, I grab the hem of the tail end of her dress and jump under. Rainbow Lurches slightly then keeps walking, and I almost run into her. It is really uncomfortable trying to crouch under and walk at the same pace as she does at the same time, and she seems really ticked.
"Did you know your cutie mark looks really nice up close?" I whisper only loud enough for her to hear.
She kicks me right where it hurts and I stagger for a second. I furiously whisper at her.
"What the hell was that for? I was trying to make you feel better."
"That made me feel a lot better though," she whispers, almost laughing. She stops immediately though and she moved around a bit, as though she was more uncomfortable for a second, then she keeps walking normally.
"We just passed the guards," she whispers to me. "Pretty soon we should be able to separate unsuspected."
I pull up the hem a bit and look out. We are close to the large doorway that leads to the palace.
"Alright, head to the right a bit, I need you to dispense me at the bushes so they don't see me climb out. That could be awkward."
She heads to the right and walks over to a bench. Some ponies are gathered around a bit farther away, but not close enough to see anything suspicious.
"Walk right over to the bush now and but your back to it."
She does that without a hitch, and I start to climb out. It is at that point that some thorns start to snag on my tux. I try to pull myself out but then I trip on Rainbow's tail, and she cries out. She falls over and hits me, and we both tumble into the bushes. I can feel fabric rolling around and the sting of thorns along with the flow of blood from the cuts.
"Way to be inconspicuous Rainbow," I hiss to her as well as I can with a stem jammed down my throat.
"It's not my fault you pulled me under," She growls back.
I noisily yank this way and that to pull away the awful thorns. My head is doused in petals as I mostly grab the unoffensive flowers. Rainbow stands up right next to me, hair mused up and face angrily flushed.
"Never do that to me again Black, or at least not right into a rose bush!" She loosens the necklace around her neck then looks ahead. She flushes even pinker and looks embarrassed. She grabs my shoulder and points me towards where she is looking. Right in front of us is a fancy looking couple looking right out disgusted at us. I look down at myself and see that my bow tie is askew, the front of my shirt is ripped open, and the worst part, there is a rose stuck quite painfully inside my mouth. I yank it out to the subtle taste of copper.
"Nothing to see here folks," I try to sound as casual as possible. "Get yourselves some martinis or something."
The walk away slowly, still facing us half the way with the awful looks on their faces. I turn to Rainbow.
"At least this is less suspicious than sneaking in."
She slugs me right in the chest and growls again.
"They think that I.... with YOU of all ponies!"
"You would rather do it with somepony else?" I smirk and have myself a little chuckle.
She kicks me again where it hurts. Hard. I jerk over as she steps out of the bush with as much dignity as she can, fixing her dress as much as possible. I grab my top hat and step out also, pulling my coat back on and trying to cover any cuts. My mouth is still bleeding a bit. I shrug my shoulders and walk into the line streaming inside. As soon as it empties into the larger room I move to the right, hugging the wall with my back. There are too many ponies in here to reach Celestia and talk to her, I will have to wait it out a little bit til the stream of them comes to a close.
And I wait. For a while actually. This is possibly one of the most popular years at the gala I have seen yet. The crowd has only waned slightly through the night, and now is as good a time as any to try to tell her about the problem. I step right into the herd slowly moving to her, staring directly at her. Of course she didn't see me in the cloud, when you are the essential cog of a monarchy you have to be a damn good politician, looking everypony who passes you in the eye. When I finally do reach her she looks at me like she looks at everypony else.
I whisper to her, "The human is near the castle!"
She whispers out of the corner of her mouth, "I can take care of it, it's no threat."
"He dismembered that stallion in Ponyville!"
She waves her hoof in a dismissive way.
"The guards are on high alert, and we have a team hunting it down. It won't be able to get anywhere within the area of Canterlot without getting captured. Now, I really need to continue."
I admit this isn't the best idea, but I need to see all her human information right now before the human reaches the castle urgently. No time to ask permission. I fly right up into the air, and Celestia takes one side glance at me, the smile sliding off her face. I fly at top speed up the right staircase, to one of her upper libraries where she must keep all her information. I heard of it from somepony. I turn around the corner to the sound of yelling guards and minor crowd chaos. I take several turns this way and that searching for the library, til I finally find it. I quickly shut the door and pull the latch down to block it best I can. The door is being beat on repeatedly. I look around for a book with information on humans, and I see an interesting looking book hidden behind a bookcase, sticking out slightly. I yank it out right as the door is broken down. No time to look back. I sprint as fast as I can then dive out the open window. I almost hit the ground then I spread my wings, lifting myself up slightly to stop myself from dying. I fly through the air towards the forest, at least I am almost entirely black, so it makes it easier to just jump down to the ground and hide, no need to even try to turn invisible. So I jump down to the ground as they fly overhead.
As I disappear into the night.