//-------------------------------------------------------// Torus’s trashbin -by Torus- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// The cage //-------------------------------------------------------// The cage Twilight gave a heavy sigh as she stepped into the large dimly lit bar, immediately rinkling her muzzle at the thick aroma of alcohol that permeated the building. Looking around, she couldn’t help but note that the large amount of the Customers were hulking Minotaurs and humans, drinking heavily with one another as a soft jazz song played from the jukebox in a corner on the far right. Ignoring her burning nostrils, she made her way to the large elderly gray minotaur behind the counter, casually talking to a wealthy looking white unicorn wearing a dark blue suit. “I’m telling you Brick, my stallion’s going to beat that poor fool into submission,” the stallion said with a confident smirk on his face. The minotaur, Brick, gave a soft chuckle as he shook his head at the pony. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Cuffs. Besides, your guy should be coming out right... about...” he paused, turning to face a door on his left, and as if on cue, a dark blue Pegasus came stumbling through covered in bruises and blood that seemed to be gushing out from his mouth and nostrils. “...now.” The battered stallion collapsed to the wooden floor, panting heavily as two humans rushed over to try and help him back on his hooves. The unicorn’s eyes went wide for a brief second, before narrowing in anger at the wounded fighter. Placing a bill on the wooden counter, he hopped off the stool and stepped before the pegasus’s face. “What the hell happened to you? You told me you’d show that bald ape and get me my cash.” The Pegasus shrugged off the two large men, and narrowed his eyes at the unicorn before him. “I’m done,” he spat, flakes of blood splattering on the ponies face. Cuffs ignored the blood, and gave a frown in confusion at the Pegasus. “Done, what do you mean you’re done?” The Pegasus pointed at the now closed door with a glare. “That, that thing is what I mean. If you want your damn cash so badly, then you can go into that fucking cage and try to get it yourself.” He pushed pass the stunned unicorn, who quickly followed the pony as he exited the building, telling him that he would up his pay. Twilight watched the two leave with a shake of her head, slightly pitying the Pegasus on what he had been through. Turning to the minotaur, she gently cleared her throat to get his attention. “Ahem, Sir?” Brick looked down over the counter to see the purple unicorn looking up at him with a polite smile on her face. Frowning, he gave her a raised eyebrow. “Can I help you, Miss?” Twilight gave him a nod as she used her magic to pull out a folded photo from the depths of her jacket. “Actually yes, I’m looking for this man. Do you happen to know if he’s here?” She unfolded the photo and levitated it over to the minotaur, who looked it over with a critical gaze. He gave her a suspicious look before speaking. “Perhaps, depends on who’s asking,” he said, leaning on the counter with his left arm, while the other was beneath the table. Twilight noticed his posture and frowned. Then, her voice took on more of a serious tone when she answered. “A friend of his. I don’t suppose he mentioned a miss Twilight Sparkle?” At that, his posture relaxed, and he gave her a soft smile. “As a matter of fact he did. Please, follow me.” He gestured with his left hand over to the door the Pegasus had came from, and the unicorn eagerly trailed behind him. Walking through the door, the two entered a long dimly lit hallway with several barrels of alcohol on either side of them. On the other side of the hallway from where they had come from, was another door that was made from metal, and as they drew closer to it, Twilight could hear the distinct sound of heavy rock music playing from the other side. “Alright, he should be in here. Just note that he might be busy at the moment.” Twilight gave a nod, and opened the door. Stepping inside, she winced and flattened her ears against her head from the blaring music that filled the room. Looking around, she saw dozens of Minotaurs and humans surrounding a large metal cage in the middle of the room, roaring and throwing their fists in excitement as two figures stood within. Squinting her eyes, she could make out that one of the fighter’s was a tall muscular blue minotaur, while the other was a human that came just below his shoulder. Slowly, Twilight made her way through the crowd, wanting to get closer to the match to see if the man that was inside was the one she was looking for. Once she made it to the front, she heard a loud bell go off, and watched as the human ran to the minotaur with a bloodcurdling roar, leaped in the air, and slammed his foot in the creatures chest, causing him to go flying backwards and slam his back into the hard metal. Gotcha,] she thought with a smirk. She knew only one man in the world who could send a fully grown minotaorus crashing into a steel wall with that much force. Looking to the man, her suspicions were even more confirmed when she saw his dog tags dangling from around his neck. However, her concentration was broken when she saw the minotaur charging towards the man with his fist drawn back, but instead of ducking away from the blow, the man stepped to the left, grabbed the Minotaur’s arm, and used his momentum to spin the creature’s face into the wall. Then, without warning, he drew his fist back and punched him in the back, causing the horned beast to loose his breath. Twilight watched as the man grabbed the minotaur’s horns, and pulled his face to his raised knee, where he slammed his muzzle repeatedly before releasing him. “Give up, mountain oyster?” he asked, causing several of the humans to burst out laughing, while it merely made several minotaur’s glare at the man in annoyance. However, the one that was in the cage bellowed out a roar of anger, and charged at the man with his horns aimed at his chest. The man stepped to the right, while jokingly yelled, “ole!” as he ran past him and slammed his head against the wall. Twilight winced as she heard the metallic clang as the minotaur’s skull slammed full force, and watched as he collapsed to the ground, completely out cold. The crowd gave groans of frustration, while a few roared in glee as bills were passed to one another. “Well, never in all my years have I seen anything like this.” Twilight watched as a dark yellow earthpony stallion stepped before the crowd, and listened as many of them yelled in agreement. The pony grinned as he looked around at the crowd before continuing. “Telll me, are you just going to let this man, walk out with your money?” Once again, the crowd roared, this time in disapproval. “Then who’s going to come up and challenge the king of the cage?” Before anyone piped up to take the offer, Twilight’s voice called out calmly. “I’ll fight him!” At the sound of her voice, a few men bursted into laughter as a few others simply stared at her as if she was crazy. “Y’all really think you can take him? Ha, you’d might as well fight a hydra instead,” said a dark skinned man on her right. Twilight merely rolled her eyes at the man’s comment as she began to make her way to the cage. “I think I can handle him,” she said in the same calm tone. However, she stopped when she felt the man’s hand rest itself on her flank. Without warning, she bucked her hind legs into the man’s shins, causing him to collapse to his knees. Then, she spun on her left foreleg, and gave a hard right hook to the left side of the man’s jaw, causing a spurt of blood and a few teeth to be knocked from his mouth. She heard the crowd roar in shock as they watched the display, and practically pushed her over towards the entrance of the cage, where the stallion stood waiting for her “Damn, that was some fine work you did back there little lady. Where’d you learn moves like that?” Instead of answering, Twilight removed her jacket, revealing a pair of similar dog tags to the one’s the man was wearing. The stallion gave a impressed whistle at the sight of them, and gave her a respected nod. “Well, that explains that. Ahem, now the rules are simple, anything goes except death. However, I’d advise you don’t buck him in the balls.” Twilight gave a confused look. “I thought you said anything goes?” she asked. The stallion gave a shrug as he looked over at the man. “Yeah, but don’t take it personal.” She gave him an understanding nod, and stepped inside the cage with the man. She looked to wear the unconscious minotaur had been laying minutes prior, but the only indecation that he was even there, was a puddle of blood on the floor as well as a few teeth. “So Rex, who’s ass am I goin–“ Twilight turned her head to see the man staring at her with a frown on his face. She couldn’t help but note on how different he looked since the last time they had met. He had cut his long black hair that used to run down his shoulders, and had grown a bit of stubble around his face. However, the rest of his body seemed to have never changed over the last decade. She watched as his lean, pale skin tensed at the sight of her, only to relax a second later, and felt his emerald green eyes bore into her soul. “What the fuck are you doing here, Twilight?” he asked through gritted teeth. The unicorn gave him a flat look before sarcastically replying. “Good to see you too, Cain. It’s been what, ten years since I last saw you?” Cain narrowed his eyes as he spoke. “Eleven last time I checked. Look, Twi, I don’t know why you came here, but we both know I don’t strike girls. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get my cash.” He turned to leave from the other door that lead into the cage, but the unicorn wasn’t going to be per-swayed so easily. Lighting up her horn, she shot a blast of telekinesis at his back, and watched as he flew into the bars with an audible clang that echoed around the arena. “Funny,” she began, watching as he turned to face her. “Because I remember you always wanting to spar with me back on the base.” She watched as the man’s eyes narrowed in anger, and heard a low animalistic growl from his throat. “You know, usually I’d be the better man and just walk away from a fight I didn’t start, but you’re an exception.” Cain bolted forwards towards the unicorn, who waited patiently as he drew closer and closer with each stride. Then, just as he came mere inches from her, she teleported with a flash of purple, and blinked back into existence behind him, while once again shooting him in the back with a telekinetic blast. “Wow, Cain, after all these years, you still go headfirst into a fight? I thought you would’ve learned something from Dash.” Twilight gave a smug smirk as the man got back up from the hard concrete floor. However, her moment of smugness was broken when she watched as Cain quickly crouched down, and swung both his legs around while balancing on his hands. She felt her legs being kicked out from beneath her, and before she hit the floor, she felt Cain’s left arm pin her to the wall, while his right gave her a hard punch to the gut, knocking the air from her lungs. She watched as he leaned his head close to her, and softly whispered in her ear. “Yeah, I did learn something from her after beating the shit out of her.” He gritted his teeth as he threw the mare across the arena, causing her to slam the back of her head against the wall, momentarily making her dizzy from the impact. Shaking her head, Twilight got back up to see the man slowly walking over to her. Gritting her teeth,she once again teleported and reappeared behind him once again, while giving him a hard kick to the back, causing him to stumble forwards. Again she teleported, this time in front of him, and punched him with a sharp right hoof before teleporting behind him and kicking him in the back of the knee, causing him to fall to all fours. “You know it isn’t fair for you to use magic while I have nothing, right?” Cain asked, turning his head to face her. “I prefer to fight my opponent with everything they have,” she said with a smile. Cain gave a nod in agreement, and slowly stood back up, while also putting on a determined look on his face. “Well then, lets do this like old times. Give me everything you got, goddess of magic.” With that, the two got into a fighting stance that looked foreign to their crowd, who stood in anticipation as they watched the intense fight between the duo. Twilight watched as Cain’s stance went low, his knees bent in a way that he was expecting an attack from ground Level, while his arms were raised in a defensive position, showing an expectant attack from above as well. She thought up a strategy in her mind as she watched him, looking for a clear advantage over her opponent. Then, she saw it, though it was small, barely noticeable to anyone without a keen eye, a slight shift of his right foot, and that was all it took. Grinning, she lit her horn, and ruphly yanked on his leg, but instead of the expectant stumble like she was hoping, she watched as he firmly stayed in place. Huh, he’s actually taking this seriously,] she thought with a frown. Looking up into his eyes, she could still see the determination burning within. Well, if he really wants everything I got, then he’ll get it.] She teleported behind him, her left hindleg aimed to the back of his head, but instead of knocking him out instantly, she watched as he quickly turned to face her, while feeling the side of his right fist connect with her rib cage, knocking her to the left side and landing with a wince on the floor. Getting back to her hooves, Twilight stared at the man both impressed and annoyed. “What, you thought I was joking?” he asked, smirking as he rose up from his stance. Twilight couldn’t help but to give him a flat look. “I didn’t say you weren’t, did I?” Cain shrugged in response. The crowd watched as the two fighters once again collided together in an intense dance of punches, kicks, and spells being thrown around, their lean powerful bodies beginning to Emanate sweat after what must’ve been minutes between the two. Then, they stopped, panting for breath as they stared at one another. Cain had a bloody nose that slanted to the right at an odd angle, and a bruise was beginning to form on the right side of his jaw. Twilight had sustained a swollen lip, a black eye, and a bloody nose from the brawl. “Wh- why- why are you here, Twi?” Cain asked, trying his hardest not to double over and lean on his knees. “Because,” she panted, taking a seat on the stone floor. “I need to talk to you about something.” Cain frowned as he eyed her. “And what would that be?” “Your daughter. I’ve been looking for you to talk to you about her, and let me tell you, when you say you’re going to disappear for a while, you really mean it.” Twilight chuckled as she shook her head. Cain smirked down at his friend. “So you mean to tell me that we fought in a cage match for nothing?”he asked, his smirk quickly turning into a frown. Twilight nodded, as she stood back up. “Pretty much, but you did deserve a good beat down for that one time in Germany.” Cain nodded as he headed for the cage door. However, before he reached the handle, he heard a member of the crowd call out to the two. “Hey, who won?” Twilight and Cain looked at one another. “You want this one?” Cain asked. Twilight shook her head. “No, I just came to talk to you.” Cain shrugged, and called back to the crowd. “Me.” The crowd groaned, and once again began passing out bills out to one another. Twilight shook her head as she followed her long time friend out of the arena. “I’m never doing that again.” Author's Note This was ment to be a full story where Twilight was the goddess of magic, and Cain was the prince of Eden, but was cursed with immortality by Celestia. He eventually meets his daughter, Sweetie Belle, and has a hard time getting along with him, due to Cain leaving her and her mother, Rarity, who is also a goddess. The ending was supposed to be where Tirek was ment to break from Tartarus, and Cain and him go out in a full on brawl, with both of them dying. Take this story and do what you will of it. //-------------------------------------------------------// Legends, prologue/chapter1 //-------------------------------------------------------// Legends, prologue/chapter1 It was yet another regular day in the capital of Washington DC. The clouds were grey and covered the normally clear blue sky, the warm wind carried the smell of rain that was soon to come, and the air was filled with the sense of loss and mourning. It was, in an ironic way, a perfect day, given the events that were soon to take place. I slightly adjusted my position on the roof’s edge, trying to find a comfortable place on the rough stone, but that was proving a little difficult with the small metal buttons on my jeans digging into my skin. Sighing, I gave up on the futile effort, and simply settled on looking down at the large crowd of people mingling about in the white house’s large courtyard. In front of the group, was a wooden stage with a podium in the center, and behind that, was a white tarp covering a large uneven structure. Possibly another statue for the garden based on the size and bit of white marble peeking out from the bottom of the tarp. “I still think we might be a little too close for comfort,” said a girl with a soft voice from behind me. “If we were any further, we wouldn’t be able to see anythin,” replied another girl’s voice with a southern drawl. “Yeah, plus we wouldn’t be able to get ahold on these good snacks,” said another girl with a high pitched voice, and was quickly followed by the sound of food being eaten. There was a moment of silence for a few seconds, then a girl with a British accent spoke, though there was a tone of confusion laced in her voice. “How were you able to get that without being seen?” she asked, though I doubted she would get a logical answer from the girl. Gently shaking my head, I decided to simply ignore the group and focused on the crowd, though my eyes were scanning over the many faces to spot a specific one out of what must’ve been hundreds. “Where are you, Scoots?” I gently muttered under my breath. I felt a hand gently rest itself on my left shoulder, but didn’t care to acknowledge its presence. “I don’t think she’s coming,” Ra—” “Don’t,” I snapped through gritted teeth. “Don’t ever call me that name again.” I sucked in a breath to calm my nerves, and spoke in as much of a calm manner as possible. “I’m sorry, Twi, it’s just... she’s dead now, and I’d like it to stay that way.” The hand gently tightened its hold on my shoulder, before slowly retracting itself from my body. “Hey, it’s starting, it’s starting,” the high pitched girl called out in an excited manner, and was quickly followed by a round of shhs from the others. I glanced at the podium, and sure enough, the president was standing there with a sad look on his face. He gently cleared his throat, and spoke into the microphone, his voice reverberating from the large speakers on either side of the stage. “My fellow Americans, it brings me with great joy to see hundreds, and possibly thousands at home, to gather for this historical moment.” Yeah, a historical moment my assI thought with a sharp glare towards the man as he continued with his speech. “I would first like to give my condolences to the many families that were involve during the devastating event, and that I will personally make adequate compensations to those involved.” No you’re not, you’re just going to sit on your ass like you’ve been doing for the past three yearsHowever, my thoughts only increased my anger the longer I listened to his speech. I wanted to leave, but I had to stay for her sake. I sucked in a breath, and slowly released it to eas my anger, while releasing my tight hold on the edges of the building, leaving my imprinted fingers and palm on the smooth stone. “I would like to thank Andrew Delson for committing this statue in honor of the six great hero’s that sacrificed themselves to save this great nation. Because without their help, we wouldn’t be here today. Once they were regular high schoolers, going around and hanging out with one another like each one of us does with our own friends, but they one day became something we only thought was in fairy tails and myths. They became true legends.” With that, the large tarp was removed, and the crowd a plodded when the statue was revealed for all to see. I had to say, it was impressive. The statue showed six girls in their final moments. They were standing atop of what looked to be a mountain, with two of them having their wings spread out like angels, another pair held their hands out before them, each one seeming to glow with the help of lights, and a final pair holding a weapon towards their opponent. On the other side, was a large serpent like creature with several mismatched limbs throughout its body. His eyes were crazed and glowed a hellish red with madness at the mere sight of the six girls. On the base of the statue, was a gold plack that had something written on it. Narrowing my eyes, I was barely able to make out the words, Long live the Legends, written in bold letters. One of the girls let out an impressed whistle once the crowd had slowly departed from the statue, either going back to talking to one another, or simply leaving to do something else. However, there was a single person that stayed glued before the memorial with two others on either side of her. From the way her dark messy purple hair was angled, I could tell that she was staring up at the statue along with the other two beside her. I couldn’t help the small smile to form on my face once I saw that she was wearing my piolet’s jacket, the old dark brown leather hanging loose around her small form. Sorry I couldn’t be there for you, Scooter I thought, rising to my feet while also dusting off my jeans. Sighing I turned to face my friends, who stared at the three girls with sad and pained looks. “Ready?” I asked, breaking their focus. A girl with long slightly purple hair released a heavy sigh as she adjusted her white jacket. “Yes Darling, I believe we are,” she said with a soft smile. I looked to the others, who gave their own forms of conformation. Nodding, I quickly removed the long light brown trench coat I had been wearing for the past hour. Letting it fall unceremoniously to the ground, I allowed the two large cyan wings on my back to stretch to their full length. Looking at each of the nine foot long feathery appendages, I gave a smile of pride at how well I had been able to adjust to them since the fall. “Umm, Rainbow, do you want me to carry Pinkie and you take Applejack?” Fluttershy asked. I looked at her for a moment, her long pink hair partially covering her teal eyes. I looked at the two for a brief moment, Applejack was leaning against the edge of the rooftop with her arms crossed over her chest, while Pinkie stood a few inches away from Rarity, lightly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she finished what looked to be a cupcake in hand. “Yeah, sure,” I said, watching as she unfolded her own large golden wings from her back. “Just try to keep up, alright?” She nodded, and walked over to Pinkie, grabbed her by her armpits, and with one powerful flap of her wings, the two were airborne. Sighing, I looked over at Twilight and Rarity, who were holding our bags over their shoulders. “You guys sure you don’t need my help carrying those?” Rarity gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Rainbow Dash, how many times do we need to tell you that we are fine, right, Twilight?” The girl in question gave a nod of agreement, but looked as if she was going to crumble to her knees from the sheer weight on her back. “See?” Rarity said with a confident smile. ‘We’ll be fine. Now run along, we’ll meet you at the hotel, alright?” I let out a defeated sigh, and simply gave the two a small nod. If they want to teleport all our stuff across several miles without our help, then that’s on them. Walking over to Applejack, I gave her a gentle shove as she continued to stare at the three girls from the rim of her stetson. “Hey, you ready, Cowgirl?” I asked. She let out a sad sigh as she nodded, and turned around to where her back was now facing me. Wrapping my arms around her stomach, I tightened my hold to make sure she didn’t slip from my grip. However, just as I was about to lift my friend in the air, I watched as a sly smirk crossed her face from the corner of my eye. “Enjoying yourself back there?” she asked teasingly, while giving me a quick wink. “Shut up.” She let out a soft chuckle as I got us airborne, and headed to the general direction of the hotel the six of us were staying at. As I flew, I couldn’t help my thoughts to think back on how this whole thing started, and how the six of us got to this point in our lives. To think, this all happened because of a really fucked up storm. I thought, steeling a glance at the rapidly dissipating statue. I swear to you, Sam I thought intensely as I turned back to face Fluttershy’s gliding form ahead of us. I’ll find a way to fix this. Chapter 1 “You’re kidding,” I said, closing my locker after putting away a few of my calculus books inside. The girl that stood to my left only shrugged as she closed her own locker, a textbook on world history clutched tightly against her chest. “That’s what I heard, Raina. I just hope the school doesn’t plan to actually go through with it,” Faith said, giving another shrug as she drew a lock of her strawberry blond hair away from her green eyes. I could only shake my head at her as we began making our way down the hallway. For as long as I’ve known Faith Summers, I’ve never seen her so serious, well, when it didn’t concern a sick or injured animal. But when she told me that we might be leaving school early due to a very bad storm, she looked as if we were the dying animal, and that the storm was a car about to hit us. “Did they tell you how bad it was?” She frowned as she thought for a moment before answering. “Umm, I think my dad said it was either a cat three or four.” I could only stare at her in shock, my eyes going wide as her words sank in. “Christ!” I said, practically blurting the word out. Faith gave me a disapproving look, as if I had said something bad about her pet rabbit. I shook my head frantically, my light red hair temporarily getting into my eyes before finding its way back behind my ear. “Sorry, but you’d think the school would’ve made us leave sooner if the storm was really that bad, right?” “Yes, but storm’s can change, Rainbow,” she said softly, giving me a smirk as she quickly glanced in my direction. Now it was my turn to give her the disapproving look. I leaned close to her face, and spoke in a harsh whisper that I hoped only she could hear. “I thought we’d agreed to never talk about that,” I hissed. “And I thought we’d agree that you’d never use Christ’s name in vane,” she retorted. I opened my mouth to reply, but gave a wince as the minute bell rang out through the nearly empty halls. Sighing I turned to face my friend, and watched as she gave a final smile and light shrug. “You better get to class.” I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, don’t want Mr. Cranky to give me another week of detention again.” Faith nodded, and turned to the right once we made our way to the intersection the two of us usually take on our way to our final class of the day. However, before Faith made it half way down the hall, I called out to her. “Oh, hey, you still coming over to my place after school with the rest of the girls?” “Yeah, just pick me up at the car loop, okay?” I gave a nod, before turning to the other direction and quickly making my way into the classroom before the late bell sounded off. “Good to see that you actually decided to join us on time, Miss. Delsin,” Mr. Crancky said with a smirk from his desk in the corner. I gave him a weak grin as I took my own seat. “Well, I Author's Note Honestly, like the previous chapter, I had no idea for this one. //-------------------------------------------------------// The facility //-------------------------------------------------------// The facility Twilight Sparkle slowly lifted her head, a low, pained groan spilling from her lips as her eyes fluttered open. Slowly, she lifted her left hoof up to her temple, feeling an intense, throbbing pain running through her skull. She felt a wet, sticky substance on her hoof, and was confused upon contact. With a frown, she slowly began running the apendage across her forehead, but immediately stopped and grimaced in pain once she reached just above her left brow, and quickly retracted her hoof once she discovered the cause of her pain. There, just below her horn, was a gash about an inch in length running across the right side of her forehead and ending just past her right temple. Gritting her teeth, she glanced at her hoof, and immediately felt an intense wave of nausea roll through her body. Closing her eyes, she began taking in deep, long breaths through her nostrils and out her mouth, trying to keep her guts from spilling out onto the dirt covered stone floor. Once the roiling of her stomach subsided, she once again opened her eyes, but avoided looking at her blood covered hoof, instead on deciding to get a good idea on her surroundings. However, that was difficult to do when all that surrounded her was nothing but complete and utter darkness. Frowning, she squinted her eyes, waiting as her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, and what she saw made her eyes go wide in horror. All around her, were dozens of ponies laying on the ground in various positions with there eyes closed, seeming lifeless to the unicorn’s eyes. Gulping, she slowly lifted herself on shaky, unsteady hooves, not taking her eyes off what must’ve been dozens of corpses that seemed to be everywhere she turned. Her ears quickly perked and swiveled to the left when the sound of another voice released its own low groan of pain, and the lavender unicorn whipped her head to face the pony. There, laying a few feet away from her, was a cyan blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. Author's Note Honestly, I have no idea on what I was going to do with this one.