Author's Note

Grey Blackle's dialogues are now coloured in turquoise.

Chapter 25: The Ambush of Manehattan

Strict Proclamation is the decomposing body in the container.

"Holy shit..." says Rushy. "This guy was the president?"

"Yeah," says Abe. "What's left of him."

While looking around the place, Jack finds something else inside the container: a small device which looks like a cellphone. When he wants to turn it back to look at the screen, he finds out there's nothing. What's this? Dream Raider slowly stretches his hand, pointing at the device.

"Mr Tyler... that's... that's a portable charger."

"A portable charger?" asks Jack, turning around and looking at Dream Raider being held by W. "Why is there a charger here?"

Dream Raider now looks at W with his bruised eyes. "It's... It's Kobolov's."

"Ok, ok... sir, I'm afraid I have to tell you my cellphone is very low on battery... and the only plug which is Type A is now charging Ragamuffin's cellphone..."

"Be quick and charge it, Kobolov. Tonight I'll be there. Wait for the men that will arrive soon to protect the zone."

"Sure." Kobolov ends the call and looks at Karzov. Both of them are in the small room looking at the five prisoners locked in the safe with a window. "Goddamnit I hate this place," says Kobolov to Karzov. "A big shitty fort with only one good plug. Who in the fuck was the architect of this?"

"This was made in the forties, I think," answers Karzov, looking at the roof. "This was going to be a gold bank in Manehattan, like Pegasus' Fort."

Kobolov raises his eyebrows. He knows the truth about that fort. "Yeah," he says. Karzov looks again and the window and finds out something.

"Hey, that son of a bitch is looking at you again."

Kobolov takes his sunglasses off, revealing his purple eyes. Grey Blackle, the fifth prisoner along with the Rainbooms, can't stop looking at him while playing with his leash. That's the right moment when Kobolov gets nearer the window. Inside the cell, Grey Blackle jumps and goes straight like a missile to the window, getting off his mind. Pinkie Pie and the girls get so scared by the madman's speed their hair get spiky. "O-open!"

"I won't open you," says Kobolov. "You are going to rot here like the fucking psycho you are. If you are hungry, there you have food," he says, pointing at the girls. "Don't mock me."

"Uh?" exclaims Rarity, angry. "You consider my person as food?"

"I'm not talking to you!" says Kobolov to Rarity and then he goes again to Grey Blackle. "The part where you were is now finished, Blackle, so you are not going out, you bitch. You know that you are more like a disadvantage instead of a benefit to Plegovich because your abnormality doesn't work in his project."

Grey Blackle makes an evil smile while his right pupil starts shrinking. "I will p-play with your nostril-ls and make LEGOs with it.."

"Ha!" says Kobolov smiling. "Despite you suffer from a serious personality disorder, Grey... you still have some creative insults..." And then his mouth stays like a straight line. "However, that doesn't mean I'll let you out."

Kobolov gets away from the window raising his middle finger. Grey Blackle starts smashing the window with his head again, making the soldiers laugh, but desperately Rainbow Dash and Applejack get him out of there. "Wait, dude! Calm down!" shouts Rainbow while holding Grey. "If you keep smashing your head you won't be OK!"

Grey immediately grabs Rainbow's blue jacket while being held by Applejack. He has a big scratch on his forehead. "I-I'm already... n-not OK, Rain-rain-rainbow girl..."

On the other side, Kobolov asks Karzov to go to the container and grab the portable charger he forgot when feeding Dream Raider with SP's liver. He admits he hides it there because Ragamuffin has already taken it several times without Kobolov's permission. Then, Pinkie Pie inside the cell gets up and starts caressing Grey's hair. He needed to seriously calm down, and Pinkie is trying her best.

"I don't recommend you to eat me," says Pinkie Pie while his hair is slowly getting poofy. "I've already tried to and my skin is so sweet and sugary it may be risky for diabetics to eat."

"Did you really do that, Pinkie?" asks Rainbow Dash. "Seriously?"

Rarity looks that Kobolov also gets out of the room. "Hey," says Applejack. "I knew you reminded me of somebody, sugar cube," says Applejack. "You are like that folk... uh... I don't remember his name, yikes..."

"Grey Footprints," says Pinkie Pie. That name wakes something up inside of Grey Blackle. His right pupil is now growing up instead of shrinking even more. "Are you Grey Footprints' crazy twin brother?" she asks while twirling her hair, which is now becoming poofy.

Blackle slowly gets up from the floor where Applejack left him. He starts trembling, something that makes Pinkie hug him for a moment. Rarity and the other girls also get nearer Applejack. "W-well, a-a-actually... Grey-y Foot-prints is-s my-y other-r me."

The girls didn't expect that, although they didn't fully understand it. Rarity, however, has a plus: "That guy said you suffered from a serious personality disorder."

"The d-d-disorder they-y-y creat-ted in me!" he shouts, and then he tries to go for the window but both Applejack and Rainbow Dash stop him and make him sit down again.

"What do you mean with that?" says Rainbow Dash, looking at Blackle right in his eyes. "What did they do to you?"

Blackle looks at the empty window now and touches Pinkie's poofy hair. "I... I-I w-w-was..."

"Hey!" says Applejack. "Don't tremble, sugar cube. We won't harm ya."

Blackle stops trembling while taking a long breath and slowly caressing his throat. "I was... b-bad... my f-f-family was dead the day they found me... and Ple-Ple... that man trained m-me to becom-me his pet."

"A pet?" says Rarity. "That's horrifying, darling! You are a human being!"

Blackle's eyes shine, even his smaller right pupil when he hears that. "They said... s-s-said I was t-t-trash af-af-after they g-g-got the throne... they said... I-I-I was an a-a... a-a..."

"Say it," says Rainbow Dash.

Immediately Blackle gets up and looks at the window, pointing out at nothing. "AN ANOMALY!"

The girls stay in shock. "They called you an anomaly?" says Pinkie Pie. "For me you are normal."

Blackle's eyes now shine while looking at the girls. "You... you say?"

"Yeah," says Rainbow Dash.

"You... you say I-I am nor-r-rmal?"

"Absolutely, darling, you are a human being," replies Rarity. "Poor of you, being treated as a pet. How traumatic!"

"I-I-I know I've done horrible thi-things... but t-t-they mad-made me d-do it and-and I-I d-d-d-d-didn't want to... t-they trai-trained me to be-become their... the-their... pe-pe-pe-pe-personal killing machine."

"Oh, calm down, sweetie!" says Pinkie Pie, hugging Blackle. "For me you are not that. You are normal."

"You don't look like a killing machine, sugar cube," says Applejack with a smile.

Something inside Blackle changes. He gets up, takes a breath and points at the window again. "I AM NOT AN ANOMALY! I AM GREY BLACKLE, AND I WAS TRAINED BY ALL OF YOU TO BECOME THE DEVIL'S FEAR! AND NOW I WILL BE THEIR FEAR!"

Grey Blackle goes to the window again, but this time he punches it with his fist instead of smashing his head, leaving a small crack on the window. The girls try to stop him again, but once they look at the crack, Pinkie Pie's hair colour clarifies and turns to pink again. Ragamuffin enters the room and looks at the angry Blackle in front of him, but then something interrupts the war. A gunshot is heard from outside the room and everyone knows that something happened.

Meanwhile, Kobolov is in another room of the fort, reading a letter.

February 28th
Dear Mr Kobolov,

Plegovich told me I had to write a letter to you. The two men that decided to save my life are now the ones who are controlling everything in the Pegasus Fort. The three prisoners are OK, locked up in a small cage under the ground.

I was wondering when I'll be going to get my reward for doing your job. A long time ago I met a little girl called Gabby, and sadly she has disappeared since I entered jail because of that failed heist in 2002, you may have heard that. She's the only thing I have and love, and inmates from jail told me the police or the army may have arrested her for purposes related to that horrifying mistake I made, the heist.

This is the first letter I sent to you because Mr Plegovich told me you may know something related to her. The only thing I want is Gabby and my old apartment from Fillydelphia back. It's not money nor anything with economic value. I have already betrayed a man of word, don't make me do this again for leaving me alone.

Gilda.

Gilda, Gilda, Gilda... Kobolov heard of her when she was imprisoned for that failed heist in the National Bank that she and another woman, Chrysalis, tried to do in 2002. He never met her in person, but he knows already that her last written phrase shows a sign of a problematical woman. She already betrayed someone, what would she do with Plegovich and him now? Well, she may die fastly because Plegovich is now the whole country but... that phrase...

"Don't make me do this again for leaving me alone."

What is she trying to do? Warn him? Who in the fuck does she think she is...?

Suddenly, Kobolov hears a gunshot.

2 Minutes Ago

W and Rushy decide to get Dream Raider out of the container while Jack and Abe try to get Strict Proclamation out of the hook. His whole head is literally impaled through it. "Man," says Jack. "What a horrifying death."

"This feeds my theory, Jack," he says while looking at Strict Proclamation. "Look at this. A president of Equestria being murdered in a gruesome way."

"Come on, Abe," says Jack. "Do you really think an Elite told Plegovich to do that? He did it on his own! He brought him down and turned into the president!"

"Yes, but... do you remem...?" says Abe, but desperately changes his mind. "No, you don't."

"What?"

"Shiny Estate."

"The governor that Gordo and Ron murdered? Yeah."

"It was an order from the Elite."

"Yes, and how is this related to that?"

"My brother told me the Elite wanted Shiny Estate hanging while being dissected. It was their touch, their message."

"But I think..."

"Shiny Estate was murdered by three gunshots and was not dissected, yes, but the Elite told him that anyway."

While Jack and Abe are discussing, W and Rushy are trying to get Dream Raider out of the container. "Calm down," says W. "We will put you in the car and then we'll do the work."

"This guy needs a doctor, boy," says Rushy while looking at the sawed-off shotgun coming out from his leather jacket. He's afraid it will come out and fall to the floor.

"He will make it, Rushy, he will make it."

When Rushy is about to open the door, he finds out something else is opening it for him. Once the other man opens the door, Karzov and Rushy see each other. The ushanka man turns around and looks at Karzov, who is now shocked looking at the four men. He tries to look for a gun but he realizes he is unarmed. That's when he decides to run to the fort but Rushy fastly draws the shotgun. "No, you're not going to run away, Karzov," says Rushy. He recognizes him.

"You..." says Karzov, shocked while looking at the man. "You know me?"

"You remember me?" says Rushy, getting out of the container while the other three men get out from behind. "My face has changed but... you may remember my name... Alexei Ushin."

Karzov's face changes for the worst while remembering that name. "...Alex?"

"Stop calling me like that, we are not in 1993, you prick."

"Why?" says Karzov, looking at the door, waiting for the right moment to run away. "Why are you doing this?"

Rushy turns around and looks at W. "See this guy? He was one of the men who planned your parents' death." Now W has a different point of view of the man. He looks at him with anger, something that makes Karzov run to the fort. However, his plan fails when Rushy shots him in the back.

"ARGH!" shouts the old man while falling to the ground with his bleeding back. "K... K... KOBOLOV! HELP!" he shouts while having his mouth full of blood.

"No," says Rushy. "You are not going to ask for help now, you fuck... that one was for my friends of La Lima, and this one... is for my father..."

"NO----"

Rushy moves Karzov and now shots him in the chest with the shotgun, killing him. The remaining birds that were around fly away and everyone hears the shots... even the ones from the inside.

Kobolov knows something is wrong, so the first thing he does is taking a pill and gaining his telekinesis again. Ragamuffin gets out of the room but Kobolov tells him to hide inside. Once the soldier opens the entrance door, he looks at four men taking out his prisoner, Dream Raider, and also Karzov dead on the floor. His purple eyes shrink while shouting: "You're gonna pay!"

Kobolov gets inside the fort again and the four men enter the fort, leaving Dream Raider alone. Rushy is the first one to enter but gets thrown into the room's wall because of the telekinesis.

"Come on," says Abe while getting inside. "Another telekinetic man?"

The entrance room is small and has only two doors: the entrance and another room. Kobolov starts coughing while being inside and runs to the other room. Clearly the magic is not on its best day. While Jack and Abe help Rushy to get up, W opens the door to go for Kobolov, who is running away while coughing to another room.

"Wait!" shouts Abe, and he goes behind W. "DON'T RUN AWAY, YOU RAT! GIVE ME BACK MY GRANDDAUGHTER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Rarity heard that shout. Everyone did. Ragamuffin opens the door while Rarity smiles. "That's... that's my grandpa's voice," she says.

"Your grandfather?" says Rainbow Dash. "He came... to rescue us?"

"Duh, why would he come here, Dash?" answers Rarity while looking at Pinkie smiling.

"Flanks," says Grey Blackle while looking at the window crack. "That's Flanks."

"What?" says Rarity, surprised. "You know my grandfather?"

"E-Everyone does."

Ragamuffin is about to come out but closes the door when he hears Kobolov and the other men getting nearer. On the other hand, Kobolov goes upstairs, to a secret second store through another room and passes by the secret room where the girls are staying. W and Abe, who are chasing him, stop when they hear someone shouting:

"GRANDPA!"

Abe immediately stops and looks at the door in front of him. "Go, W," whispers. "Go for him and I'll go here."

W nods his head and runs away while Abe opens the door with just a kick, also hitting Ragamuffin and making him fall to the floor. Abe enters and looks that at the end of a narrow hall, there is a big safe with a window where Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Grey Blackle are being imprisoned. Ragamuffin wants to counter-attack but Abe steps fastly on his hand with one foot and on his throat with the another, pointing a gun to his head. "Open the safe," says Abe.

"L... L... Let me go..." whispers Ragamuffin while being choked with Abe's foot.

"Open the fucking safe," answers the grandfather after getting his foot out of his throat and getting Ragamuffin up. Abe closes the door and Ragamuffin slowly opens the safe. Grey Blackle is the first one to come out, jumping onto Ragamuffin and starting to choke him. Rarity and the girls try to separate them, but Abe is the ace that does it, punching Grey Blackle in the face and getting him out of there. Now Grey Blackle is the victim, being choked by Abe after being smashed onto a wall. "I expect you didn't touch my granddaughter, you son of a bitch."

"I... I didn't..."

"Grandpa!" shouts Rarity, trying to separate him from Grey Blackle. "Please, he's a good person!"

"Good person?" says Abe, turning around Rarity and sarcastically smiling. "This son of a bitch is a good person for you?"

"Please, grandpa!" shouts Rarity. "He's harmless."

Abe laughs out loud. "Harmless? You don't know this man."

"He knows you, grandpa," says Rarity. "Why?"

Abe shuts up for a moment and decides to let Blackle go, but once he lets his hands off his neck, Grey jumps onto Ragamuffin and starts strangling him again. "No time for that, Rarity," says Abe. "We need to get out of here."

After Applejack and Pinkie Pie get Grey Blackle out of there, Ragamuffin gets up with his hands up and says: "Please, don't kill me."

Abe points his gun at Ragamuffin but doesn't shoot. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you."

"I... I met Rarity and his friends on a ship, long story... I had... um... an affair with Rarity and... well..."

"He broke my heart, grandpa!" shouts Rarity. "He doesn't deserve such a painful fate but... he betrayed all of us and put me in this unhygienic place for two days!"

Abe decides to listen to Rarity and don't kill him. He doesn't want to kill a young man in front of his granddaughter. However, this kid is not going to get free so easily. He slowly puts his gun down and kicks him fastly, right in his balls, and then he smashes him onto the floor. "Consider yourself lucky, asshole," says Abe, and all of them go away from the room, except for Ragamuffin.

"Wait!" shouts Ragamuffin. "Wait, no! There is something... next door that belongs to Rainbow Dash..."

Everyone hears that and looks at Rainbow. "Well, thank you," says Abe, and then he closes the door. Grey Blackle, who grabbed a key from Ragamuffin's pocket, decides to put the key in the keylock: it matches. "Lock him up, Blackle," says Abe.

Grey smiles. "Alright," he says, and then he locks the young boy up.

"WAIT, NO! PLEASE! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!"

"Isn't that too much for Ragamuffin?" asks Rarity to his grandfather while going next door. "I mean..."

"You are too generous, Rarity," answers his grandfather. "You gave him your heart and he gave you two days locked up in a cell."

Rarity takes a breath while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie try to open another door. However, Grey Blackle jumps onto the door and breaks it in half. On the inside, there is only a desk and a window. Abe enters along with the girls and finds a letter written for Kobolov, from someone named Gilda. Once he moves the letter away, he finds something that calls Rainbow's attention.

"My..." says Rainbow Dash, trying to hide his shock and joy. "MY GEODE IS HERE!"

There is a third store filled with shelves and almost no light. Maybe it was intended to keep the gold right there on the abandoned project of Manehattan. W enters there to look for Kobolov but doesn't find him... he only looks at the dirty broken walls which are written with aerosol. Some graffitis say:

"JAKOB" "FUCK YOU" "PLEGOVICHS WON'T MAKE IT" "DIESEL > EQUESTRIA"

Maybe its author was Jakob Diesel, the guy Rushy said before. However, there is one graffiti that calls his attention: "PLEGOVICHS WON'T MAKE IT". Was he also an enemy of them? What happened? Who was him? Was he also... consumed by the Plegovichs? Did he also turn into a punisher? He finds out there is another graffiti, the fifth one, up there on the roof, only one word which makes W tremble:

"DISAPPOINTMENT"

Disappointed of what? Of himself? Of whom? Was he going through the same stuff as his?

"Jakob Diesel." W immediately draws his gun while staring at the shelves around. He still doesn't find Kobolov. "I never met him. You neither. He died in 1987, when three gangsters hanged him in public, in the old Los Mantos' House, which belonged to the government. Sometimes when Plegovich told me his story, he reminded me of you."

"Get the fuck out! From wherever you fucking are, Kobolov!"

"Do you know who was one of the three gangsters that killed Diesel?"

"WHERE ARE YOU, KOBOLOV?"

"Your father."

W starts messing around the shelves. "My father? Huh?"

Your father participated in Jakob Diesel's murder because he tried to kill him once. He also killed Lemur, who you may know as Abraham Flanks' brother. Wade said that Jakob Diesel was the executioner of the mafia... and if they let him go, all of them would have died."

Suddenly, W finds Kobolov behind a shelf. "What would your father have done if he found out... you are slowly turning into the executioner of today?"

Something changes in W when Kobolov says that. "NO!" he shouts, but he suddenly gets thrown away to a shelf because of the telekinesis, and also Kobolov is not OK. He coughs and spits blood, maybe the magic didn't digest too well this day.

"I knew you were alive!" says Kobolov, grabbing W's gun. "I just... felt that, and when I found out Garry and Chalk died, I knew you hanged their heads. Don't tell me why, but I knew you were coming back... but if you want to kill me, I will riddle you easily."

Kobolov is about to shoot W in the head but when he fires the gun, he finds out is unloaded. W laughs. "I was only using that gun to play a joke on you, dumbass. Time to fight."

"To fight?" says Kobolov, chuckling, and then he throws W away to another shelf, breaking it in half. "Time to break all these shelves with you, I say."

W is now hurt. He's not sure but he thinks his back is bleeding again, but when Kobolov is about to get him up and throw him away again, something happens. Someone gets in the middle.

A sound of wind and a figure who runs in the highest speed they've ever seen stops between Kobolov and W. A girl with rainbow hair. "Hey, dude," she says with a grin. "Thanks for leaving that geode here."

"What?" says Kobolov, but then he gets trapped by Rainbow Dash and both of them get out of the room, crashing through a wall and eventually falling to the ground. W immediately wakes up with his wounded back. "RAINBOW DASH!" he shouts. Suddenly, Rushy, Jack and Applejack appear on the third store to look at the scene.

Down below, both Kobolov and Rainbow Dash are injured but not severely. Both of them are filled with scratches and bruises, but they are not bleeding. Then, Rarity comes out of the fort along with Grey Blackle, Pinkie Pie and Abe.

"RAINBOW! RAINBOW!" shouts Rarity. "CAN YOU SEE ME? HEAR ME?"

"RAINBOW!" shouts Pinkie, while shaking her. "How many fingers do you see? Tell me!"

Rainbow Dash starts coughing and breathing. "Um... I'm alright. My whole body hurts but thankfully my speed muffled it. Can you help me to get up?"

Abe also helps Rainbow Dash to get up, while Kobolov is slowly opening his eyes. He had the worst injure of the fall because his back directly crashed onto the wall which broke in pieces. He can barely move now and he's very injured and exhausted to use his powers. Now he thinks why in the hell did he leave that geode there. Was it because he wanted to study it? Or was it another shit? Argh, nevermind.

W, Rushy, Jack and Applejack also get out of the fort and look at the injured Kobolov next to the container and also next to Karzov's body. Dream Raider is still there, with his open eyes.

Once he looks at W, Grey Blackle gets in front of him and both of them look at each other. "T-t-the man who came back."

W looks at Blackle and thinks about what should he do. In spite of his reckless appearance and loyalty to Plegovich, Event said he wasn't necessary to kill. "Get out of here, Blackle," says W. "I need to get rid of something."

Then, the others start realizing it. Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, now with her poofy hair, look at W who was supposedly dead. "Um... W?" asks Rarity. "What... what the...?"

"I never died, Rarity," answers W. "Plegovich invented it all." That's the only answer he gives before helping Dream Raider to get up. "I came for you firstly, Dreamo. I'll get you in the car. Hey, someone."

Applejack decides to help and Dream Raider now looks at W while being moved by the cowgirl. "They... they faked your death?"

"Eeyup," says W, at a Big Mac-style that makes Applejack chuckle and remembers her brother.

Dream Raider smiles and slowly shakes his head. "I had no fucking idea."

"I-I knew you we-we-were hiding something, mis-mister."

Blackle is now next to W while Applejack is carrying Dream Raider to the car by her own. "I told you," says W. "Get out of here. Don't make me harm you."

"B-but... I am... I am n-no more in favour of of-of Plegovich."

"Stop lying," says W.

"He's not lying!" shouts Pinkie Pie. "He told us that."

"He doesn't seem evil to me," says Rarity. "He looks more... adorable."

Jack and Rushy chuckle. "Adorable?" says Rushy. "Yes... it is the most adorable psychopath torturer I've ever seen. I remember you, Grey Blackle. You didn't change a fucking shit."

Blackle recognizes that voice and starts moving his neck to look for an answer. "A-A-A-Alex?"

"Oh, come on," says Rushy. "Another one who calls me Alex? The last one who called me like that is lying dead right here," he says, pointing at Karzov's body. The girls find out there is a real corpse right there and turn around, except for Pinkie Pie.

"Woooh," she says. "There's too much tomato sauce on the chest of this man. Shall I wake him up to tell him?"

Rushy raises his eyebrow, confused. "Um... girl..."

"MAN! MISTER!" shouts Pinkie Pie. "Do you listen to me? Hey!"

"N-No! He is... he is... s-s-sleeping... d-d-don't w-w-wake him up-p-p!"

"Oh..." says Pinkie Pie, rubbing her hair. "Well, I'd better not do it..." and then she waves her hand at Karzov's body. "Bye bye!"

"See?" says Rarity, trying not to look at Karzov while looking at his grandpa. "He is innocent, grandpa. He can't be a killing machine."

However, Kobolov starts gasping and that's the right moment where Blackle starts his game. He jumps onto Kobolov and slaps him in the face. "You son of a bitch," whispers Kobolov.

"T-this... i-is... for... beating me up with a f-f-f-fucking baton."

Grey Blackle shows his bloodthirst when he grabs Kobolov by his neck and throws him away to the container. Then, he grabs his head and fastly starts smashing it against the container while biting one of his ears. Rarity and the girls get shocked while looking at Grey, and Abe starts laughing, looking at his granddaughter which has just turned around.

"I told you," says Abe to Rarity while W gets Blackle out of there.

"WAIT!" W shouts. "STOP RIGHT NOW!"

W grabs Blackle by his back and gets him off Kobolov, but he is trying to get off W so bad that Applejack, Rushy and also Jack help him to get Blackle off Kobolov. Once they calm down Grey, W looks that Kobolov is still alive, although one of his ears are ripped off and his forehead is bleeding, having a completely red face. He is almost unconscious but he is still breathing and coughing.

W now grabs the gun Kobolov robbed from him and loads it. "Wait!" says Rarity. "Are you...?"

Once he is about to shoot Kobolov in the head, two cars appear in front of the fort. They know who they are.

"GIRLS!" shouts Abe. "TAKE COVER!"

Six men get out of the cars and start firing their guns, but then the time stops. Someone needs to work. Rainbow Dash slowly gets up because he was lying on the ground and takes a breath. He rubs her hair one more time and starts running, taking the bullets away from her friends and the gangsters and also disarming the men, but then she finds out there's one figure who has a higher speed than the others, although it can't match hers: Grey Blackle jumps on one of the men and breaks his neck. The sound of the neck being broken is so slow that Dash hears it, detail by detail. Once she stops disarming all of them, she fastly punches them to stop Blackle from killing people.

Crash! And suddenly time goes back again.

Four men fall to the floor after being punched by Rainbow Dash, while two other men are already dead because of Blackle. "Hey, dude!" shouts Rainbow Dash. "Don't kill them! They are people!"

The others find out what is happening. Rainbow Dash did it all along with Blackle. However, two men grab Dash from behind and Grey Blackle punches one of them. W runs onto the other man and tackles him, making both of them to crash against a car. Both Blackle and W grab the henchman's guns from the floor and kill the two men with a shot on the head. Rainbow Dash, who was left on the ground, gets shocked at how the movements they did were the same. The other two men also get up, but Blackle easily kills them both with his gun. All of them dead. Blackle took five, W took one.

"Harmless, huh?" says Abe, laughing. Rarity is trying to find water to clean her face and take a breath after everything she saw. Pinkie Pie is still trying to figure out why Karzov is asleep while Applejack and Rushy are getting her out of there. Jack and Rushy find out Kobolov is moving by his own, he is now sitting on the ground, laying his back against the container, looking at everything. His head is bleeding: ear ripped off, open forehead. W goes back to where he was and finds out Kobolov has opened his eyes.

"You know," whispers Kobolov while looking at W. "I'm actually proud."

"Of what?" says Rushy. Everyone now is looking at the fallen soldier.

"I'm proud you will be the one who will murder me, Bedmaker. I should have stayed in the army but... my temptations put me here. Kill me."

Rarity sighs. "Is it necessary...?"

"Yes, Rarity," says W, almost angrily and with fiery eyes, looking to Kobolov. "I have to kill him."

"Wait," says Rainbow Dash. "Ask him about the other geodes. Where are they?"

Kobolov takes a breath. "Gilda's got them," he says. "She's in Las Pegasus Fort."

The girls look at each other while hearing that. Pegasus Fort. Are the geodes there? For Real?

Kobolov coughs again and W sits down in front of him. "I'm actually thinking about those things I told you up there on the fort, W. Your Bedmaker personality is going away... and you are slowly turning into the executioner of the mafia."

"Stop calling me like that," says W.

"It's the truth, W," he whispers. "Now I think you are able... able to kill Plegovich. Something I would never have thought if you were the W of before. That's because you are slowly gaining a new, reckless personality."

W grabs his gun and touches Kobolov's head with it. Everyone is listening to the soldier, although the girls feel uncomfortable while looking at the scene... that eventually will turn into a crime. They don't want to end this in that way, but they know this is not the right moment to argue about it, just because this whole thing since it started months ago, is an awkward situation. "Shut the fuck up," says the Bedmaker.

Kobolov smiles for the last time. "It's the truth, W. You are winning... you are now about to kill me thanks to your new personality... if you were the infantile kid you were before the Train... you would never have done this, but you know who you are turning into, boy... if you kill Plegovich... you will turn into Plegovich."

W's skin freezes when he hears that. He knows... in the inside, at the bottom of his heart... he may be right. But no, no, NO! HE IS NOT PLEGOVICH! HE WON'T BE! HE IS WALTER WATERS, THE BEDMAKER! "I am the Bedmaker, Kobolov. Not Plegovich."

Kobolov chuckles. "You clearly don't understand."

"Open your mouth."

"Sure," says the soldier, and by the time he opens the mouth W has already put the barrel inside, touching his tongue.

"G-g-goodbye, Kobolov," says Grey Blackle, waving his hand and smiling with an evil face.

Kobolov raises his middle finger to Grey one more time and looks at W with those purple eyes which are now weaker than ever. The weakest soldier of the army. "It was a pleasure to meet you, W," he says, although it is barely understandable because of the barrel holding his tongue. However, W's face doesn't make a single change, not even a small, small grin. He only says:

"Not for me," and then he shots once.

GRIGORI KOBOLOV

The green container now has a stain of blood and a corpse under it. Kobolov is dead and everyone is silent, especially W for what has just said Kobolov. He doesn't believe it and also doesn't know why, but he really felt those last words.

"That's because you are slowly gaining a new, reckless personality."

"It's the truth, W. You are winning... you are now about to kill me thanks to your new personality... if you were the infantile kid you were before the Train... you would never have done this."

"If you kill Plegovich... you will turn into Plegovich."

"Have you ever felt guilty of killing someone?"

"And you care about people?"

They are spinning around his head. They go on and on and on. They don't stop. WON'T stop. Never. "Oh god," says W while holding his head, which he feels he is about to fall over.

"Calm down," says Abe, while Jack and Rushy are comforting him. "We finished."

The girls turn around and look at W, stressed and also laying on the ground. "Finished?" says W, closing his eyes. "We haven't even started."

"You killed the three most important consiglieres, right-hand men of Plegovich after Sergei, W," says Jack. "We clearly made something."

"And everything in one day," says Rushy. "That's what I call revenge."

"I'm not OK," says W, rubbing his head. "I don't feel right. I just..."

"It's OK!" says Jack. "It's OK! Calm down!"

"No, it's... it's..." says W, breathing fastly. "Those words... I... I..."

"You are not turning into anything, W," says Abe. "Calm down, it was just Kobolov raving."

"He may be raving but... I don't know..." W starts trembling, unstoppably. He is now pale, something that call the girls' attention. "His words were... oh my god... I feel so... different."

"Calm down, calm down," says Jack, hugging his partner. "Come on, I'll get you up."

Everyone, even the girls, helps W to get up and he stays in the car where Dream Raider is. Both friends look at each other in a desperate situation. W, calming himself down, remembers an old song he heard: On a Clear Day you will See Forever, by the Peddlers. At the same time he is playing it in his head, Dreamo, his friend, nods his head looking at him. W does the same and does a circle with his hand, meaning an old thing he used to make with Dream Raider on his childhood, to refer the O-word, better known as the Orphanage. Dream Raider also does the same.

W suddenly decides to cut another loose end.

"Blackle," he says. "Come here."

The girls don't understand it, but the gangsters know that something won't end up well there. Blackle runs to W, happily and laughing. "A-a-awaiting for your w-w-words... mister Waters."

Blackle gets next to W but the Bedmaker doesn't do anything. He takes a long breath thinking of what he should do. Seconds later, the decision is made. He gets out a gun and points at Grey Blackle right in the head.

Shall he kill him? Is it necessary? His partners react by opening their eyes. The girls gasp and start:

"NO!" shouts Pinkie Pie. "DON'T STAIN HIM WITH TOMATO SAUCE!"

"Wait, no!" also shouts Rainbow Dash. "He did it to protect us! Don't do it!"

"It is not necessary, W!" shouts Rarity.

The girls want to interfere but suddenly the gangsters stop them. He helped them, but Abe, Jack and Rushy know the true nature of Grey Blackle and know he is so inhuman it might be a problem, so he may be better dead than alive. Everything depends on W. His life depends on W.

Blackle says for the first time a whole lot of words without stuttering: "Please, think about what you are doing," he says, while his pupil is growing up, almost being as big as his normal one. "We are looking for the same thing, W... Both of us want to kill Plegovich, and I swear I'm not lying. I won't ever, ever lie to the man who has the same desires as me. And I admit I am crazy, I am a psycho, a torturer, a killing machine... but in the end, on our insides... we are the same person, W. We are looking for the same ending, looking for the same head, looking for revenge. If you don't kill me, I promise I will be your most loyal ally, worker and friend... sir.

Sir. And it goes again. He called him sir, just like he would call Plegovich. Is Kobolov right or not? Is his desire for revenge changing him? If it is, is it changing it positively... or negatively? Is he slowly turning into another Plegovich? No... he mustn't turn into another Plegovich, he must think... The girls and his partners are still fighting and shouting. W looks at Dream Raider one more time, and his friend tells him what he has to do... the O... the circle with his hand... what he must do.

"Have you ever felt guilty of killing someone?"

"And you care about people?"

The O... the O...

He is not Nicholas Plegovich, but Walter Waters. No.

"Just one thing, Blackle," says W. "Don't. Ever. Call me... sir."

Eventually, W puts the gun down and the girls stop shouting. His partners stop interfering, and Blackle's pupil shrinks again while stretching his hand. "We are on the same spot... i-i-i-isn't it?" W still hasn't changed his face, but he stretches hands with Blackle. "I sw-swear I will work with you until the end, Waters. You-you know... psy-psychos don't lie."

"Yes," says W. "I decided to let him go. He will work with me, guys. If he does something I don't like, you know what's going to happen. It's my decision."

Then, the Bedmaker approaches the girls who are confused and shocked about what's been happening. "Girls," he says. "I know everything that has been happening since that... train day is strange... so I'll summarize it for you. Plegovich has turned into the President of Equestria, something you may know but... we are here to stop it. You too. Now we are taking you to Canterlot High."

"...And where's the President?" says Rainbow Dash. "Strict Proclamation?"

The gangsters now look at the green container, which is closed. "Right there," says Rushy, pointing out at the container. "If you are sensitive, I don't recommend you to look at him, girls. His head has been impaled by some kind of industrial hook chained to the container's roof."

The girls think about it and get disgusted by just imagining that. "What should we do with him?" says Abe. "Shall we...?"

"Wait," says W. Then he approaches at Jack. "I think the most probable answer of this is no but..."

"But what?" says Jack.

"You still have your swiss knife? Remember?"

"Oh..." says Jack. "Of course not. I don't have it here."

"Wait!" shouts Grey Blackle while looking at Karzov's body. "Karzov has a swiss knife here."

W approaches Karzov's body and grabs the swiss knife given to him by Blackle. It's a small and red one, but works. When he is about to open the container's door, he looks that Kobolov's cellphone is on the ground. He grabs it and sends a message. Then, he exclaims: "Watch the smell. Especially you, Rarity, with your Canterlot nose."

"Hey," says Rarity, offended. "I've been several days without taking a shower because of this. My hygiene has been slowly decaying, darling, so I can put up with any kind of smell..."

W opens the door and the container releases that awful stench coming out of Strict Proclamation's body, something that makes everyone cover their noses except for Blackle. W almost closes the door, letting a tiny flash of light illuminate SP's chest, and comes out minutes later.

"Take," says W and gives the swiss knife to Jack. "You might replace the old one with this."

"What did you do?" asks Rainbow Dash.

W raises his shoulders, changing his face for the first time after Kobolov's death making a small grin. "A message. Do you know I like writing curse words in Spanish? I really like the maldito hijo de puta one."

"And how is that related with the knife, folk?" asks Applejack.

"Figure it out!" shouts W while opening the car door where Dream Raider is. "Now... it's time."

"Time for what?" says Rarity while everyone is approaching the cars.

"Time to go back to Canterlot."

"And What about our geodes?"

"We'll Talk about that when we arrive to Canterlot High," says Abe. "Now, let's take a breath... For god's sake."

Rarity takes a breath and a tear comes out of her eyes. "Time to come back home," she whispers to herself.