Outbreak: Hellish Hate

Three hundred twenty-one meters. Three hundred twenty-one meters away is Sugarcube Corner. And Allen just killed Spike the Dragon. Four hours and seven seconds ago, Atrocitous sent me after two separate Elite Caribou Guards. I might be tough, but I lack weight. Those assholes tossed me around and I had to use my skills as a marksmare to kill them. As for right now? I’m really confused. I was pointing my crossbow right at the face of the third elite Caribou, but my old supplier of strawberries just rushed up to him. She’s clothed in her usual dress and vest combo and she lacks a collar.

“Don’t Hurt Damian!” Strawberry Fields cries out as she wraps herself around the surprised Caribou. The Caribou gently removes Fields from his body.

“Strawberry, this was going to happen sooner or later and we both know that.”
The Caribou tells her, moving his focus to me, “You must be Bon Bon. Strawberry told me a lot about you, especially how you help her with her disability.”

“I’ve been told that you did terrible things.” I tell the Caribou, my voice holding no confidence, “You have victims that cry out for vengeance, and I’m here to bring it.”

“This must be about the Bostallion Massacre. I understand. Just do me a favor and make sure to keep Strawberry Fields safe. You of all ponies should remember that she’s autistic.”

I lower my crossbow.

“Look, I’m not sure about you. You don’t-“

“I’m responsible for the deaths of fifty stallions that were going to kill Dainn. They weren’t brainwashed, they were trying to rebel. If I didn’t kill them, Dainn would’ve found out about Strawberry.”

“Your case does not protect you from vengeance, Damian of Dainn’s personal guard!”

I looked behind myself to see Atrocitous walking up from behind me. He seems pissed off and he’s pointing his ring at the Caribou.

“I cannot promise a painless death.”

“Bon Bon, remember to let Strawberry grow a garden.” The Caribou tells me, “You know it’s her safe place.”

I switch my crossbow to my crossbow pistols and point them at the fat lipped alien.

“You don’t know what your stepping into, Atrocitous.” I threaten.

“Stay out of my way or taste hellish hate!”

“I can’t let you hurt Strawberry Fields.”

Atrocitous lunges for the Caribou, but I launch two explosive bolts into his side, blasting him away. I put a pistol away as Atrocitous soars my way. I time myself and jump right as he attempts to tackle me, putting a bolt into his spine. Without a second thought, I draw my full-sized crossbow and pin Dex-Starr to a wall with a bolt that prevents him from using his power. I aim for Atrocitous and hit him with a power-stopping bolt as well.

“Stay down, or I aim for the head.”

“You Fool! Your Actions Hold Consequences!”

“And your actions would’ve killed the right pony for the wrong reason! I don’t doubt for a second that he killed those ponies, but he didn’t want to!”

“That Does Not Mask His Actions!”

“That might be so, but he’s not responsible for his actions! The Caribou responsible is dead!”

“With Blood And Rage Of Crimson Red!” Atrocitous gets off the ground and pulls the arrows out of himself, “Ripped From A Corpse So Freshly Dead!”

“Ah, shit.”

Atrocitous forms a red spike on his hand that he impales me on and lifts me into the air. Suddenly, the surroundings change to red stone landscaping at somewhere that is not Equestria.

“Together With Our Hellish Hate!!” Atrocitous punches me off the spike and into a stalagmite, “We’ll Burn You All!!” A large, red bull emerges out of Atrocitous’ chest and slams me through the stalagmite, flinging me to the ground, “THAT IS YOUR FATE!!!”

Atrocitous drenches me in his blood as he hurls it all over my body, leaving me to burn. We return to where we were standing, the Caribou horrified to see me covered in blood.

“It appears that your services are no longer required,” Atrocitous says, moving his focus to the Caribou.

“My turn.”

Atrocitous looks back at me only to find that I’m gone. I’ve activated a prototype cloaking device that allows me to sneak up, draw a combat knife, and slice through Atrocitous’ calf. Then I jump over him and do a handstand to buck him hard in the face. I get back to my hooves, draw explosive knives, and stab him in both shoulders. I leap high into the air and set off the explosives, flinging Atrocitous to the ground. As Atrocitous looks to the sky, I decloak and block out the sun as I aim my crossbow right at the symbol on Atrocitous’ chest. I load and fire a paralyzing bolt right into Atrocitous’ chest right before landing hard on Atrocitous’ face, backflipping off of the alien.

“I guess that prototype cloaking device I stole works,” I remark, switching the crossbow for a crossbow pistol. She points the pistol right at Atrocitous’ head, “Don’t make me put you down.”

“H-how could you survive such an attack?” Atrocitous asks before coughing up some blood.

“I’m an agent trained in killing monsters and reality-bending entities.” I respond while offering a hand to Atrocitous, “That, and I’m wearing armor specifically built to sustain an agent like me.”

“What is your armor made from?”

“It’s made from a long list of fancy materials, some magically enhanced. Basically, I survived being impaled because the armor protects me that well.”

“Indeed. Do not make me test how much torment it can make you handle.” Atrocitous warns me before trapping me in a field of energy that I can’t escape. But right as he’s ready to strike the Caribou, Strawberry Fields wraps herself around the Caribou, “Move out of my way, foolish girl.”

“If you’re going to hurt Damian, then do it to me too.” Strawberry says, holding the Caribou tighter, "I can’t imagine living without him.”

“What are you going to do, Atrocitous.” I say, not even trying to move, “You said something about his victims demanding vengeance, did you not? Kill her, and you will have ended up achieving irony by gaining an innocent victim killed by you.”

“... If I did that, Dex-Starr himself would attack me...”

As I make an attempt to break free, a bluish-purple colored humanoid figure forms behind Atrocitous and puts a four-fingered hand onto his shoulder.

“Compassion can make us do many things, Atrocitous.” The figure explains in a calm, caring voice that could soothe a crying foal, “You of all people should know how some emotions can trigger others. Such as Dex-Starr’s compassion towards Wallflower Blush, or Allen Busterfield’s defense of Dinky Hooves. If you’d like, you can observe the show of compassion in front of you.”

Atrocitous looks at the faceless form, then back at Strawberry Fields. He lowers his ring and releases me as the form beings to disappear.

“Remember just how connected emotions are. If you take the time to think about it, rage can be fueled by compassion...”

And with that, the figure fades completely and Atrocitous stares at his ring and back to Strawberry.

“... I see now that I have almost made an error. In killing your partner, I would find myself being hunted by my fellow Red Lanterns.” Atrocious looks over to me with eyes trying to hide his disappointments in himself. But then they go back to being filled with rage and hatred at something that's behind me, “But killing you would help to quench my search for vengeance.”

I turn around to see one very tall and very muscular Caribou who's smiling as he looks down at me. I recognize him immediately.

“You mother fucker,” I grumble in an angered annoyance.

“Your owner should've kept a better eye on you, Bon Bon.” The large Caribou says to me. I don't think he notices the fact that Atrocitous just pulled a literal red lantern out of nowhere. I need to keep him distracted...

“You want to know something?”

“A good whore keeps her mouth shut, you know. I could use my cock to help you.”

“When you kidnapped me, I could’ve left whenever I wanted.”

“Oh? Really? How so?”

“The same way that you woke up and went straight to the hospital. It sounds like you weren’t smart enough to figure out that the poison joke flower has an actually poisonous cousin that’s red instead of blue, or that the flower left in your kitchen went missing.”

The large Caribou wanted to say something, but Strawberry’s boyfriend reaches for the sword at his waist and draws it.

“Leave this place, John.” Strawberry’s boyfriend warns.

“What can you do to me, Damian?” The larger Caribou asks. Suddenly, Dex-Starr begins to walk towards the large Caribou, making the cutest mews as he approaches him. The cat looks up to the Caribou with an adorable smile before continuing on his way. He reaches the Caribou’s legs and starts nuzzling his legs.

“Awww, come here you cute little thing.” The Caribou says gently as he picks up Dex-Starr and starts patting his head. The cat looks into the eyes of Caribou with another cute smile... And then scowls with exposed teeth.

“DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEE!!!” Dex-Starr yells out like a battle cry as he slashes the Caribou’s throat wide open. Blood is leaking onto the cat’s fur, leaving him drenched in blood as the dead Caribou falls to the ground. Dex-Starr floats away shortly after the Caribou hits the ground, shaking the blood off his fur, I good kitty.

“Indeed,” Atrocitous complements.

“I believe that the conflict is over?” Strawberry’s boyfriend says, confused by what just happened. I’ve got to agree, I don’t know what the fuck just happened either.

“So let me get this straight.” I say, trying to understand what I saw, “A tabby just slaughtered a big problem while making a cute face, right?”

“Are there any other house cats that you know of that can accomplish such a feat?”
Atrocitous asks.

“Okay. Damian, is it?” I ask Strawberry’s boyfriend.

“Yes, Damian Lite.” Damian answers.

“Let’s both agree to ignore what just happened. I’ll take it that Strawberry couldn’t be brainwashed?”

“Yes, how could you guess?”

“A lucky guess what I’m going to report back to my old employer. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m only worried about Strawberry. She’s more fragile than most.”

“By the time my red friends and I are done, you won’t have to worry about keeping her safe. Besides, Allen is basically filtering out the old empire from Ponyville.”

“Bon Bon?” Strawberry Fields is trying to get my attention, “Do you know how he’s doing? I-is there any way that I can help him? I want to pay him back for what he did for me.”

She just made me remember exactly what she’s talking about. Four years, five months, and eight days in the past, when Allen relapsed on being hateful. Strawberry Fields is a mare with high functioning autism. She could originally take care of herself when her parents would check on her every now and then, but her parents got a little too old to keep doing it. I learned a lot running the candy shop that I did because she would always visit me on weekends to bring me strawberries that she supplied me with. When I found out that her parents were becoming unable to support her, Lyra and I volunteered to look after her. I wouldn’t say that she’s a daughter or sister to me, but she still means a lot. I would check on her every day to make sure that she did her chores, that she made the right friends, and that she didn’t have anything to take that pretty smile off her face.

One day when I checked on her, she wasn’t there. I got worried and searched all of Ponyville for her. Then Fluttershy told me that she was going to the Everfree. When Allen heard about it, he grabbed his rifle and went looking for Strawberry. Me being suspicious, I followed Allen to make sure that his relapse didn’t hurt anypony. Allen found Strawberry getting attacked by something that I was going to call the E.P.A. to catch and examine. It called itself a “Yellow Lantern”, and it said something about it having power over fear. I watched Allen make it scream over scaring Strawberry Fields.

When Allen took Strawberry back to Ponyville- and he held her in his arms all the way to her home- I took the time to tactically acquire from that “Yellow Lantern”. I still have it hidden in my shop. I wonder if it’s related to these Red Lanterns. But that’s not important. What is important is that Strawberry wants to pay it back to Allen for making what could’ve been a horrifying memory into one she appreciates, Even if she doesn’t know that Allen tortured the thing.

“... Remember when I taught you how to make those strawberry candies that I sell a lot of during Nightmare Night?” I ask Strawberry.

“Yes, I loved making those!” Strawberry says with her unique form of joy that warmed even Allen’s heart.

“Well, seeing as your place hasn’t changed, why don’t you make his favorite candies?”

Strawberry eeked with excitement as she heads over to her backyard. I then look Damian in the eyes.

“I’ll take it that you’re doing absolutely nothing wrong to her?”

“There are those amongst the Caribou who were against Dainn’s rule.” Damian tells me, “I was actually plotting to kill my fellow partners over the things we did. They knew I disagreed and they all tried to scare me because they thought they were big. But they were just big piles of shit.”

“Keep Strawberry safe. That’s all I ask. You know how special she is and you know what she needs.”

“I don’t need a lecture about the mare that I intend to marry. She’s a wonderful mare who showed me light when I thought that I cursed to see darkness.”

“She’ll do that to ya.”

“Bon Bon!” Atrocitous calls out, "Your services are required!"

“Give me a moment!” I tell him, redirecting my attention to Damian, “You seem to know her well, but just remember this. I used to be a complete bitch who almost forgot what it means to be Pony. But I went looking for a strawberry supplier and came across her experiencing a meltdown over not knowing what to do with her abnormally large amount of strawberries from her small bushes. Helping her out helped me out. She really is a gem. Keep her that way.”

“Like I said, I intend to marry her.” Damian reminds me, “Don't worry about her safety.”

Satisfied with his answer, I head towards Atrocitous. As I catch up to him, he gestures towards Derpy and Dinky.

“Behold! The doing of a Red Lantern!” Atrocitous states proudly, “By showing the one known as Spike his rage, Allen has bested him in a display of strength. Spike’s greed made him strong, but Allen’s rage made him stronger!”

“I’ve got a question about the Lanterns… Are there others?” I want my question answered so I can take note on that ring that I tactically acquired.

“There is an entire spectrum of emotion. Red represents rage, and your stolen yellow ring represents fear.”

“You're not going to take it, are you?”

“Only if you use it wrongfully. You can use a power ring and not be part of its corps. Besides, the leader of the Yellow Lanterns has passed away.”

“How did he die?”

“He escaped punishment for too long, and his death was part of a treaty between my Red Lanterns and another corps known as the Green Lanterns. The Green Lanterns had new rules that allowed them to kill, but not all of them could handle death. The treaty has my Red Lanterns replace the Alpha Green Lanterns and has us do the killing. My Red Lantern Corps has since been able to prosper, though I sense that you may end up seeing a Green Lantern by the end of this day.”

“I don't intend to use that thing-“

“You might consider it. A power ring is a weapon only limited by one’s imagination. If you can instill great fear, that Yellow Lantern ring may become more useful, if not fitting. But only use it on the deserving, lest you find yourself being hunted by a Red Lantern.”

“… Noted.”

With our conversation finished, we continue on our way to Dainn’s Castle. I’m needed for whatever Atrocitous has planned, and I think I’m starting to like that plan.