Author's Note

Hey everyone, just wanted to once again add a forewarning that this chapter gets pretty graphic. With that out of the way, I would like to thank EvAnZeGeek, who helped me write this chapter as well as encourage me to come back to this story after a while of leaving it on hiatus. With that, let's get started.

Caribou

The dark skies of Earth shone down on me as I gently poked the fire while cooking the animal I hunted down earlier.

I never thought I’d be back here again… at least not like this. The plan was simple, we wait for the next cadets to be trained and we end the zombie threat once and for all…

But I turned my back on Applejack. I didn’t even know if she was still alive, but at that moment? I didn’t even think about her... all I thought about was Clover. But then things got worse. My mother told me the truth about my father… I couldn’t bear to be there and remind her of what he made her do. I wasn’t running away, not again, I just… needed time to think things over, get my head on straight again.

As I sat there and slowly removed my dinner, I heard something from the bushes nearby… I turned and saw nothing, so I went back to the task at hand, slowly setting the small creature on a platter… just to hear it again. At that point, I had enough and pulled out my axe, ready to throw it at the next noise I heard.

“Who’s out there? I don’t mean any trouble if you don’t…” I said as I looked through the bushes, trying to make out who was out there.

Nothing… nothing at all. I slowly lowered my guard, and before I could even get back to my food, I felt a sharp pain in my side as I looked down to see a dart…

I heard loud cheers as I felt my vision grow blurry as I saw dark figures emerge from the bushes as I tried to get up and fight, but I could barely stand up without stumbling over.

“Yeah! Finally-- we’ve been tracking this guy for hours!” One of them cheered.

I tried to swing my axe at him, only for him to step out of my weak swing and gently take it from my hands.

“Damn, not a Pet, though…” Another one of them said.

“Doesn’t matter-- Dainn was specific once he laid eyes on him-- this one’s an exception.” One other said as I finally fell to the ground, my head spinning as my vision went completely dark…

I slowly opened my eyes to see that I was tied down onto some form of cart as I could barely make out what was happening around me…

I barely made out women in certain colored collars, wearing virtually nothing and being led around by men like the ones who captured me…

Wait-- I knew some of them.

I saw Thunderlane from my gym class, Soarin from science, and even Mr. Doodle from my math class… all of them partaking in whatever sick life this was… and the sounds… the begs…

It all barely registered to me at that moment as I was soon taken to a room. The light from the glass windows blinded me for a moment. As my eyes focused, I looked to the center of the room and saw someone I didn’t think I’d see ever again…

Gaverial, my step-father.

“Ahh, Jason… it’s been a long time.” He said as he forcefully tugged on a small leash he had next to his little throne, and… Celestia slowly crawled out on all-fours.

She slowly crawled over to him, fear written all over her eyes as she momentarily glanced at me before looking down at the floor and back at Gaverial.

“What… did you do?!” I asked as I violently tugged at my restraints, fighting desperately to get free.

He only laughed as he gently ran his fingers through her hair. I looked into her eyes and realized what he had been doing to her… I realized what all these people were doing to them.

I only watched in fear as I heard the sounds of metal being grabbed as from the shadows, walked Twilight Sparkle, her hair down, her glasses gone, and wearing a one-piece similar to the one Celestia was wearing, save for not being see-through and clearly made of something more metallic, acting as armor. In her hand was a hot piece of steel, bent into an odd shape, almost like…

A symbol.

“Gaverial, don’t do this!” I cried out as I once again kept pulling on the restraints.

“That name is dead to me… from now on, you will call me Dainn! Ruler of the Caribou! Please, Jason, try not to fight back… just let it happen.” He sickly smiled as Twilight walked over to me with a dead tone in her eyes, moved behind me, and pulled up my shirt, leaning into my ear and whispering…

“I’m sorry… just hold on…” She whispered as she drove the steel into my back, forcing me to screech out in pain and anger as I stared into Gaverial’s eyes while he slowly tugged on Celestia’s one-piece. I then was yanked away and taken out of the room as I heard it hit the ground…

When I was removed from the cart, I was pushed inside a dark room with the door slammed shut behind me. As I slowly felt my way around the room, I hesitantly tried feeling the burn on my back as I realized that the room would barely be able to hold another person with how compact the room was. I was also unable to see a thing as I slowly sat down and began processing everything I was just exposed to…

I knew those people-- they were my classmates and some of them were even my friends. Why would they do this? Something so sick and vile?

I didn’t have much time to ponder on it as I began to hear someone from a room next to mine.

“H-hello? Is someone there?” I heard someone ask, a woman, but something in her voice sounded so familiar…

I walked over to the wall I heard her voice from, taking a breath before speaking.

“Hello?” I asked back as I heard a faint gasp from her.

“Oh, thank God! I was just trying to get back to my family and those… animals attacked me! Wha… what’re they going to do to me…?” She faintly whispered as I felt my skin grow pale as I heard loud footsteps from the hallway down from us.

“...I don’t know.” I whispered as her door opened and shut and after a few moments, loud, painful screams rang in my ears as I could do nothing but listen…

As time went on, I was soon covering my ears, trying to block it all out… but nothing worked as they just wouldn’t stop…

And there was nothing I could do to help.

Weeks passed. Every day, my ears were filled with the screams of that poor girl beside me as I was slowly losing my mind, the walls between me and her covered with my scratches and parts of the door scuffed from my kicks. After a while, her screams stopped-- I still... heard it all, but not her screams. And I didn’t even want to know what I was really being fed that whole time…

During that time… I changed. I didn’t know how, but throughout the weeks, it felt like I was taking up more space, my breath sounded heavier, and my back still hurts, but now it felt like it was from something else.

As I slowly banged my head against the wall, just waiting for those animals to come back to her cell, I heard light footsteps walk past her cell and unlock my door. The door swung open, and I saw the silhouette of Twilight Sparkle.

“Jason? Jason!” She cried as she ran over to me, holding me in an embrace.

“I am so, so, so sorry! I had to keep the act up long enough to rally the others, but we can escape now, and--” I shoved her out of the way as I walked out of my cell door and kicked her's down…

As I scanned the room, the smell hit me first, the odors and stenches as I then saw the stains on the floor, the rackety conditions of the small mattress in the corner as I slowly turned to see the poor girl I had to hear being tortured for so many days…

“T-Trixie…?” I barely whispered as I looked to see my evil ex, laying on the floor, her eyes empty, and a black collar around her neck.

She slowly looked up at me before looking down on the floor, barely even acknowledging my presence as from behind us, four of those men entered and saw me, backing away in terror.

“What the fuck is that--” One of them barely mentioned as I let out a loud scream-- no, a roar-- as I grabbed him by the head and flung him around like a ragdoll, blood staining the walls as I threw him against the mattress.

One of them screamed and tried escaping, just to see that Twilight had locked the door with a cold glare in her eyes and he turned around and saw me grab him, lifting him into the air, and tore him in half, his blood and innards pouring onto the floor as I dropped the rest of him.

The other two were cowering in the corner as I took one by the back on his head and rammed him into the cell wall. And then I did it again… and again, and again, increasing in strength each slam until his head was a bloodied pancake.

The last one, I slowly approached as he quickly pleaded for his life.

“P-p-please! We-- we were just having a little fun, that was all--”

I took my hand and slashed at his face, digging into the bone as he fell back dead… I then looked at my hand, seeing that my skin was a faint shade of red, and 5 inch claws emerged from my nails…

I heard the door open and Twilight looked at my rampage in horror for the briefest of moments before looking back at Trixie, slowly kneeling down to her.

“Trixie? It’s me, Twilight… it’s okay, now…” She whispered as Trixie began to bawl into Twilight’s shoulders-- bawl, unlike any cries I had ever heard before and probably since.

I slowly walked past them as I realized my surroundings-- it was the prison Gaverial was sentenced to before the world ended…

Good-- live like animals, die like animals.

“The things they did...oh God...” Trixie said, choking up on her own words while I looked around.

This place has got to be the closest to hell you would ever get, and like hell would I leave this place still standing. Every slave they have here… is just more fuel to my rage.

“I’m gonna make these bastards pay for what they did… and I’m gonna make sure these people are free.” I said, feeling my rage beginning to fuel up more.

The claws came back, my skin started showing signs of fading to red, and I just realized that my grunts were now growls.

“Twilight, get Trixie to safety… get the others while you’re out there… I won’t be able to.” I heard Twilight say something but I didn’t hear her because I was already sprinting through the halls, my claws scraping the sides of the walls.

I could sense guards nearby and I turned a corner to see two more there, they spotted me and one fell back as another charged at me. I grabbed him by his arm and sliced it clean off as he held his open wound while I grabbed his face and ripped his mouth clean off before striking his friend on the ground in the face with his own fist. I saw teeth fly onto the wall as he screamed in pain, I then sensed a third one coming around the corner, I then grabbed the second guy and threw him at the third guy and I heard a crunch.

I ran to the third guy and punched straight into his lower torso area and started ripping his intestines out, I then forcefully wrapped the string around his neck, tied it up and tied it to the ceiling as I saw him hang and choke on his own organs. More of his organs spilled out onto the floor as I grabbed his blade and stabbed the second guard in the hip and then ran to leave him to die. I grabbed the mouthless one’s leg and dragged him across the floor a bit before I let him go after I saw that his facial features had slid off of his head and were smeared across the concrete ground.

The more I encountered, the more blood I was bathed in. I sprinted past one guard and punched him as hard as I could, with his head exploding into a pool of blood and shards of skull. I kept sprinting, determined to find that animal and make him pay. I then dragged another guard by his own intestines and accidentally ripped a part of his skeleton out of his own body after I slammed him against the wall, I then stomped his heart as it fell out of his body, staining my shoes.

Great, part of me liked those shoes.

Throughout the time I was running, I punched through the doors which had slaves inside there, some about to be used. I put a stop to it and they were soon helped by Twilight, doing clean-up if I missed anyone.

I could then sense something, Celestia… I had to get to her. I kept running, I rammed right through a guard which caused him to turn into a complete mush of blood, guts and limbs. I gave no sympathy as I saw another one who tried to shoot at me, I then kicked him in the leg, causing it to break and bend the other way, grabbed his gun and unloaded the clip into him, killing him. I then threw his body against the wall and kicked his head in. As I kept running and killing, I could feel myself getting close to Celestia.

I then broke through another door… there he was. Celestia was there as well… a bit bloody and her already-torn clothes ripped, wearing only a bra and underwear. And there was Gaverial… unbuttoning his pants but then turned to me and instantly got his clothes back on. I was fuming with rage, I wanted to kill him right there… but I thought killing him quickly was the easy way out.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled at him, he grabbed a knife as he charged at me, I dodged the slash and punched him in the face.

Gaverial stumbled a bit and slashed at me, successfully slicing at my chest which gave me a slight cut. I kicked him and dodged the knife as he threw it.

“You are going to fucking pay for what you’ve done!” I screamed in a bit of a roar.

“What I’ve done? Come on, J, just let this whole thing go and you could easily be one of my top guys!” He ducked as I threw a punch at him, he elbowed me in the back as I then kicked his face which caused a bit of blood to spew out of his face.

I punched him in the gut, grabbed him by the leg and sliced his leg a bit, he kicked me in the nose as I then grabbed the door and threw it at him, it collided with his chest. He was flung to the wall, I saw the terror in Celestia’s eyes… I sharpened my claws and grabbed him by his hair, and started punching him in the face repeatedly, I then was about to slice his throat open and force him to swallow his own throat until…

“Jason! Jason! Jason, stop!” I heard a familiar voice say, I turned to then see… Chrysalis?

I slowly dropped the beaten Gaverial as she, Twilight, Luna, and even Cinch walked out, accompanied by several others wearing black collars.

“We can take him to the Kingdom-- he’ll spend the rest of his life rotting in a cell, like what he did with us…” She said to me as she took a moment to look away from the bloodbath I turned his throne room into.

I looked back down at him, beaten and bloodied, his nose dangling from his face as I sighed and dropped him to the floor with a thud…

As I turned from him, I felt my body slowly change back to normal as my claws faded away… the only thing that stayed were my wings. After a moment, I looked around and the reality of what I did finally came to me…

“Oh… oh, God…” I whispered as I fell to my knees, realizing that I broke the vow of Aikido, to never, ever take a life…

And yet I did just that today.

“And now… you know everything.” Jason said as I slowly looked around to see who was left in the room.

Blossom had her hands to her mouth, my father looked down at the floor with his eyes closed and his fists tightened and turning red, and I could barely respond to what I had just heard…

“I… I’m so sorry you had to go through that…” I managed, not knowing what else to say.

After a moment, Celestia stepped forward, the reason behind her stern demeanor now clear.

“I hope you know now why we can’t just charge against the New World Order, not without taking time to rally whatever allies we have and plan a counter-attack… we will not strike first unless we have to. Now go home… all of you, please.” She said as her demeanor broke with her voice near the end of her speech.

I knew that Rainbow left earlier so I went to our house and Twilight’s faint cries filled the entrance as I turned to see her being held by Rainbow, her brand visible…

“I… I couldn’t listen anymore. Not after hearing what they put him through.” Rainbow said, resting her fingers in Twilight’s hair.

I slowly sat on the other side and Twilight soon shifted her position, laying on my lap while Rainbow sat next to me, our thighs touching as we both comforted Twilight…

“I’m so sorry I didn’t come looking for you…” I said to her as my voice began to crack imagining the things Gaverial did to her.

She sniffled and nuzzled into my leg a tad.

“There’s no way you would’ve known I was alive, still, let along being put through… that.” She said.

After a moment of pondering, I knew what I had to say.

“If either of you… wanna stop this… just say the word, okay? I don’t want either of you to think that you’re… being forced to--”

Twilight got off of our laps and stood right at me, leaning towards me as I did nothing but watch.

“You listen to me, Kyle Williams-- you are nothing like that monster! You are kind and loving and everything you’ve done has been for the greater good. He only wanted to writhe in his own filth until he died…” She bitterly added as she soon held me in an embrace, one that Rainbow soon joined.

“Yeah… what she said.” Rainbow added as I tightened the embrace. “I never once could see how someone could actually do that… and continue on in their life. Someone who acts like they’re invincible but is really weak once they’re finally beaten...” She said, possibly recalling her earlier days at Sanctuary.

I knew what I had to say as I knocked on Celestia’s door, waiting for a response. After a moment, her door opened, and Celestia was there, glancing at me with hardly any emotion.

“Henry? How’re you doing?” She asked me as I took a breath.

“I’m fine, I just… wanted to apologize. I knew Gaverial longer than you were a principal and from the beginning I knew something was wrong with him. I failed Jessica by letting her marry him, and I failed you for not doing something sooner. If I knew he’d become what he did…” I started, unable to finish that statement.

She hummed for a moment and sighed, waiting for me to finish my sentence.

“...I would’ve killed him.” I said to her.

After a moment, she moved from the door and took a step closer.

“Would you have been able to have done that?” She asked me.

I took a breath, and I answered.

“It wouldn’t have been the first life I’ve taken, and I would’ve done anything to protect Jessica and my nephew.” I said to her.