Fires of Reprisal

With a jolt I woke up, it wasn’t a bad dream. Not that I had any, real life was worse than any nightmare. No... something woke me up.

THE ALARM!

Coming fully to my senses in an instant I turned off the silent alarm set to shock me with enough of a jolt to wake up even a hibernating Ursa Minor. Wriggling out of the hole I dug earlier I poked my head out and scanned the horizon… there! Coming into view, obscured slightly by the haze caused by the unbearable sun I saw a lone figure racing in this direction. I cast a quick scope enhancement on my eyes, a headache already starting to form from the heat.

A timberwolf was pounding my way. A scout then. Granted that’s all I run into this far out are scouts. Tirek can’t afford to chase me all the way out here with the bulk of his forces. Once he discovers where I am though that is a totally different story. Quickly bringing up in my head what I know about timberwolves in my head I remember a few things. First off they can’t be eaten. Another wave of shock and pain from my stomach reminds me that while I can’t die it can still hurt like a bitch to not have eaten in probably a week. They also still have a fantastic sense of smell, probably explains why they are in the scout wave. It won’t lose me so that leaves one option. I have to kill it.

First I’m going to wait till it gets a little closer. From the previous ones I’ve killed they are starting to go back once they make sure it’s me they are smelling but won’t try to bring me back by themselves. By themselves alone at least. Once its in teleport range though that is another story entirely

My head pounding, my stomach shrieking, add that to the fact that I haven’t finished resting fully from my last exertion… I’m in no condition to fight this if it’s a trap. Focus on the breathing. Labored as it may be I need to calm it just a little. In and out, in and out. Don’t get too excited by the prospect of a kill. Remember Sunset, you are a professional so act like it.

Its stopped, sniffing a little back and with a howl it turns around and starts running back. That's as much of a head start as I’m going to get.

Channeling magic into my horn I quickly teleport once and then once again immediately after. Chain teleporting right next to it as it was running away. The sudden pop makes its head turn to face me and for a split second, I could swear I saw fear in its emotionless yellow eyes.

Barely giving it time to react I channel magic into my horn again and blast it in the side with a wave of air. Knocking it off to the side and on its back. Jumping on top of it and immediately cutting off all four limbs with the oh so precise cutting magic I’ve gotten so good at... Good it's not going anywhere.

Straddling the creature I press an arm into its throat, cutting off any pathetic whimpering that it was no doubt about to do. Pressing my face into its I open my mouth and breathed foul smelling air, full of sickness and disease onto its face, its eyes start shifting faster. Good I want it to be scared for this next part. Speaking for the first time in a good few days I raggedly whisper.

“You interrupted my nap, my only time away from this sun. This sun that has caused me so much pain and anguish. her sun. Now I’m going to make you feel just a little bit of it, mostly because its fun... Oh don’t worry, this will hurt quite a lot.” I smiled, the action making me feel that my lips cracked in ten different spots again.

Not wanting to waste any more magic than I needed to. I decided on the spot to do this the old fashioned way. Punching it hard in the throat I pirouetted more graceful and deadly than any ballerina could on my front hoof and stomped with my hind leg on its face. Now I’m no earth pony but I would say I’ve been working out so much just to survive that I could beat any of them in a strength contest.

Also incidentally these creatures face can’t beat me in a contest of strength either. Keeping one front hoof squarely on its throat and another on its chest to keep it from rolling over or squirming too much. I kept stomping on its face. This ones for that bitch, this ones for her sister. This ones for Twilight and THIS one is for all her stupid friends!

The last one I decided to put a little extra effort into and I felt it go all the way through and into the ground, marking the final blow and also giving me a hell of a lot of splinters. Too bad that its made of wood so there’s no satisfying squish but it'll do.

I turned around and stood atop its spasming flimsy, brittle corpse. With contempt I tried to spit on it but nothing came out.

“Fuck you, one day I’ll start running the other direction and you will all die with terror.” I felt myself whisper, my throat still too dry to have anything louder come out.

Going back to my hole I found my marker and started trotting away again, I think I only got a few hours of sleep but no matter. I will go until I can’t go any further and then I will go some more. I cannot afford to die at this stage, I’ve only begun.

Nothing important happened over the next week, at least I think it was a week. Just more running, more sleeping and more thinking… always more thinking. With nothing to do or look at for distraction all I could do is think. Think more and more about those who sit atop their thrones of lies. Those who betrayed me. Those who do not have the right to keep living and those that deserve to die by my own hoof. I could only think in small periods of time though, it was tiring after all to think of everypony.

Glancing at my timer I had to look again to make sure I was seeing this correctly. It showed thirty hours! Way more than last weeks, I shouldn’t be improving this fast. Checking to make sure the spell wasn’t screwed up in any ways other than what I had intended… nope it was still fine.

If I have run more than 6 hours more than last time, does this mean I finally conquered sleep? Or stamina? That and I don’t think I need any more stamina training either at this point, but need and want are two separate things I reminded myself so I kept going.

After forty hours of constant running and magic use I finally stopped in my tracks and just stood there for a moment, surrounded by the ever blistering ground and the ever boiling sky. Not a living thing in sight.

Now that I can run basically forever and never need any sleep and my magic can replenish crazy fast… I guess the logical thing would be to increase my burst strength. How would I go about this? Nothing to punch on the ground, I guess I could make some punching bags out of the rock with my magic and then start working on those… wait I just remembered something. Most ponies never see it but the Princesses are fast. Like faster than a wonderbolt even on the ground. I once saw it as a filly when I fell off a bridge and she dashed over 100 meters in the blink of an eye to keep me from falling and hitting my head. Good thing she didn’t let me fall either, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to kill her. I’ll have to remind her of that.

Either way, I’ll need speed and lots of it. If they can cave in my throat before I can even strike back then that would indeed be a problem. I’ll do sprint bursts instead of running, that will help. I’ll sprint as fast as I can and then trot for a few seconds and do that over and over.

How will I be able to know if I’m improving though? I know! I’ll combine a medical sensing spell with a speed detecting spell and use that. Good thing I paid attention in magic theory. Thinking past the constant pain and agony for a second I got the underlying foundation of the spell in my head and with a quick flick of the horn it was there, hovering in front of me.

Starting at a trot I then broke out into a dead sprint. Pumping my legs as fast as I could manage and ignoring the shrieks of pain shooting up my thighs, I sprinted as fast as I could. Counting the seconds when I got to 10 I slowed down to a trot again and looked at my display.

40 km/h. I could do better than that. Fuck that I need to do way better than that. If she could do 1000 meters a second to save a filly than I need to go way faster than 11 meters a second. At least I have time. Feeling my lips split again I realized I had smiled without realizing it. Oh, I am so going to enjoy this when I get out.

Breaking again into a dead sprint I continued on. Alternating between sprinting and trotting I made my way across the endless desert. No longer sleeping and no longer stopping. My magic and that bitch’s sun my only companions. Except my thoughts, always my thoughts to keep me going, keep me strong, and keeping me focused. The pain kept trying to distract me but without any rest, it was easy to ignore it as it was just always there. It would be like complaining about the weather. It was always there so no use in even thinking about it.

It might have been days, weeks or months? I no longer could tell or care. Just the constant sprinting, the constant pain, the constant sun and my scarred mind. Only thinking of one thing now. Hate. I had been thinking about hate for so long I could barely remember who it was about. I probably would have forgotten if that thing above my head didn't remind me every second of every waking moment. Reminding me of that bitch and everyone around her.

I did remember to keep improving, eventually just constantly sprinting. Never stopping, never taking a break. Just constant and never ending. Like my torture in this place. This place that she and her... sister? She had a sister right? I think so yeah. Oh well. if I just go kill her and every pony around her in that hideously white castle then that should cover everything.

After what felt like eternity I was sprinting so fast that I could keep going at 1500 meters a second. Fast enough to deal with her... What was her name again? I cant remember but I remember her, every sadistic and two faced move she makes. Manipulating everything and every one around her. Sitting white and porcelain on top of her ivory throne of lies. Everything that she has touched deserves to be destroyed and never heard from again once the screams stop.

Shes tough though. Tough enough to withstand even the hardest of hits. So I'll hit harder. I'll work on my punching till I can punch a hole clean through solid rock. Using my magic instinctively, what was the name of this spell again? No matter. I used magic to made a condensed pillar of rock, harder than the hardest of rock and I punched it hard.

For the first time in an eternity, a moan of pain escaped my scarred and blasted lips. After all that running and sprinting, the shock of hitting a rock as hard as I could sent a tremor throughout my entire body and made my hoof instantly go numb. The agony shooting up my bone felt like I was getting my limb ripped off. I don't have time for this. This must be done. Bear with it.

Again.

And again.

One more time, don't think about the pain.

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT.

Embrace the pain. Relish it.

Again.

Like a mantra I repeated in my head over and over as I punch the rock as hard as I could. I was making small dents in it already from my already increased speed and strength. Just gotta keep going Sunset I reminded myself. It was hard to think about much other than the pain so I just kept repeating again and hitting the rock. Alternating between my four hooves when one became too numb to feel anymore.

Eventually even my toughened hooves started to split open and start bleeding but I kept going, The blood didn't matter, the pain didn't matter. Not even the sun mattered right now. The only two things that mattered were the words hate and again. Hate filled my soul, caused my already bloodshot eyes to burn and my mind was filled with one word.

Again.

Eventually I wore the rock down to my knees and without hesitating made another, and another. And another.

I must have worn through twenty dozen rocks before I finally was able to punch straight through a solid piece of hardened and condensed rocks. A perfect hoof shaped hole right through it.

Why am I sitting? My arms wont move, and I'm falling to the ground. Am I going to die here? I can't die. Not yet, not until I've killed her. Must keep going... again...