Rise of the Night/Run of Night

Shadowstep waited for hours while Lyla showed Kit the ropes. He didn't think it would take this long nor would she want to take this long showing someone the basic ropes. He had almost just given up hope and decided to go to sleep when Luke, Lyla's next in charge came storming in to the room.

“Shadow, Congo needs to see you asap” he said between breaths gasping for air. Shadow followed Luke into Congo's office where Congo was arguing with Shiva very loudly. Luke went and ran off somewhere leaving Shadow to wait for the two lupus to stop fighting. He looked around while he waited until something caught his eye. It was photos of Lyla and a note.

Shadow,
Funny how traditional methods are useless on you. But here we are, years later and I've finally found out how to properly torture you. And I don't even have to touch you. Interesting, isn't it?
Behave and I won't do worse. I like her pretty as much as you do.
I offer a trade. Your life for hers. You'll know she's safe and the council gets what they want. We all walk away happy.
Leave your response in Ponyville. I'll be sure to get it, one way or another.
-Jon "Kit" Pierce

He cursed to himself silently as he realized that it wasn't the gang the council wanted this time. It was him. Lyla just got caught in a bad place at the wrong time and the council would use her to use his weakness. He silently rushed out of the office not going to wait for Congo or Shiva to tell him not to do anything. He had to do something. He couldn't sit by while a family member was in danger, let alone Lyla. He would do almost anything to get her back. He ran out of the caves and hopped into one of the trucks that was parked outside not being used. He drove straight to Ponyville with only two thoughts in his mind. One how to save Lyla and keep her alive and safe, two how to rip that fuckers head clean off of his spinal cord.

He finally reached Ponyville after about thirty minutes of driving. He parked the truck on the outskirts of town just to be safe. He wandered around till he finally found her. Lyla was propped up in a chair next to the train station. He ran right over there and tried to undo the rope that bound her hands and legs.

“Ah ah ah. That's not how this game is played Shadow.” 'Kit' said walking out from the shadows. “First lets be clear on the rules. You come with me and she can go back to her little pack of mutts. The council really doesn't care about them as much as they do you so they will be left alone. So long as you cooperate with us. Second rule you try something stupid or try to escape, we tell the local guard that the diamond dong killed Captain Shadowstep and decided to leave town for a while. You already burned down your house with a body that could almost be mistaken for you. Thirdly I'm being paid for your 'safe' travel to Appleloosa where the council will do what they want and I can go home and do what the fuck I want so let's try and be as safe as we can.”

“Fine but she is untied the moment I agree or I kill you right here and now and you never go near her again or else I can make some bullshit lie about how you beat me or some other bullshit to the council and I don't think they will pay top dollar to a man who can't even resist hitting the product.” Shadow said as he saw 'Kit's' face wrinkle. He knew Kit, Jon, or who ever this man was, wasn't going to risk a lower paycheck due to not playing fair for once.

“Fine she goes free once you and I agree. And don't worry I didn't have fun with her. Gave her some nice nap time juice but other then that she's fine.” he said pulling a pair of handcuffs out. They were anti magi cuffs designed to stop the magic of any magi who was touching them. Even magi holding them to put on other magi. Shadow held his hands forward and he slapped the cuffs on him. 'Kit' then turned and pulled out a knife cutting the rope.

“Now lets go” he said pushing Shadow onto a train toward Appleloosa. After they were on the train he pushed Shadow into a train car that had a small jail cell in it.

“Can't even give us first class. Figured the council would be so cheap.” 'Kit' muttered as he pulled a small needle out and injected Shadow with the same drug that he gave Lyla the first time. Shadow slowly started to stagger forward until he finally hit the floor asleep. 'Kit shut the cage door behind him and sat in the chair thinking why would the council want him so badly, what about this magi made him so damn important?

Shadow woke up a few hours later. He was Still in the cell as 'Kit' snored loudly. Everything was quite until a crackle emerged from the radio next to 'Kit'.

“Um boss we got what looks to be a cow standing on the tracks. Do you want us to stop?” a voice asked. 'Kit' rubbed his eyes and sighed.

“Its a fucking cow run the damn thing over we're on a time frame here.” 'Kit said into the radio. The train didn't stop until an ear shatter explosion and the groaning of metal being twisted around sounded. The entire train seemed to shake and finally the train started to tumble and fall apart. The small train car the Shadow and 'Kit' were in started to roll and be hammered by other pieces of the train. Sounds of both men hitting the walls and floor of the car and cursing and grunts of pain could be heard as the car rolled of the tracks and down a small hill next to the train tracks. Shadow was the first one to come to, noticing that the door the cell had been ripped off. He slowly got to his feet still feeling some of the after effects of the drug. He heard a gurgling sound as he looked over and saw 'Kit' on the ground with a piece of metal erupting from his chest. His left arm was pinned underneath the broken jail cell door. His right hand weakly trying to pull the metal out of his chest. Shadow walked over to him and simply looked down at the man.

“You caused her so much pain, so much agony she couldn't sleep without crying the first night she was back. I figured you would have learned a lesson from your partner who I killed. I figured once they saw what kind of monster I can become the council would let us have some breathing room, but you proved me wrong. I now know that the council won't stop, won't let me have a life I can enjoy. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take the fight to them. I'm gonna drag their families into the street and set them on fire as they watch helplessly. I'm gonna take everything they built over the past six years and I'm going to tear it down and watch their world crumble.” he said looking at the man who had caused so much pain and agony to Lyla for the past few days. He slowly placed his foot on the mans throat and slowly applied pressure, listening to the gasps of air the man made trying to get air. He applied more pressure till he heard a sickening wet crunch of the mans throat being crushed under his boot and the snapping of the spinal cord behind it. He started to feel the drug trying to kick back in and tried to make his way out of the train car. He looked back over the hill to see a fire and several people moving. He figured survivors, but survivors didn't steal food and water from a destroyed train. He fell to the ground again hearing voice shouting and a light pour upon him.

“Hey Wildcard we got us a live one.” one of the voice shouted. He tried to look at where the voices came from as they surrounded his body. Hands ran up and down his body as they were looking for anything to use or find. A pair of hands quickly found his dog tags and pulled them off of him.

“Whoa this guy's a captain in the lunar guard. Check it out.” he said as he passed the tags around.

“Funny if he's a captain why is he in cuffs and more importantly why does he look like he's been running from something?” one of the voices asked.

“No clue but we take him as he is. Maybe he can give us some answers on why a train that was supposed to be full of supplies is almost empty except for the dead bodies and him.” a voice that sounded more in control of the group said as a pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders and picked him off the ground. Shadow tried to get a look around as he slowly slipped back to sleep.