In the Eyes of Deathby HydeYmirChaptersPrologueChapter One: Beginning of a new lifeChapter Two: Old Monster and the RatChapter Three: Blood of the FallenChapter Four: ExperimentsChapter Five: Break Out time.PrologueAuthor's Note I sorta wrote this in the middle of a hurricane because I was bored and forgot about it until now, so yeah. This is Zeldris’ younger brother. Hope you enjoy. If you point out any mistakes, such as spelling and grammar, please point them out. It will be greatly appreciated. Prologue “In other news folks, it’s been five years since the notorious villain group ‘The Court’ have been spotted. Of course, three years back we found who we believe to be the one who called himself The Judge dead on the sidewalk near a local convenience store with a knife in his back. The heinous villain who struck fear into us all identified was Zak Law a local bartender. On record it says he has a brother, his name, Damien Law….” The news anchor continued to comment about the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of the 'The Court'. A man tuned to the Tv as he got dressed for the day. His attire consisted of a navy long sleeve shirt that had ‘DEATH’ written on the back in a fancy font. He wore black Jeans, and had a white belt on. Connected to his jeans was a golden chain that led into his pocket. And he wore specially made shoes that were super comfortable. “One week until the anniversary… hooray.” He said as he tied his long, messy black hair into a ponytail. He grabbed his glasses that were on the counter and put them on their regular spot, his face. “Woof!” His dog barked at him when he opened the fridge, the man just ignored him and let the dog wear himself out. Of course the dog only stopped barking when the man was done with his food. He picked up some of the bacon he had made and began to whistle. “Come here, Zeke.” Zeke ran up to him at the speed of sound and snatched the bacon out of his hand. Zeke chewed it twice before inhaling it. “One day when you choke because you didn’t chew, I will laugh my ass off.” Zeke then looked up to his master with big puppy eyes. He reached down and patted the dog on the head. “Of course I will save you, but I will still laugh. You are my world after all lil buddy." Zeke merely started jumping around in hopes of getting more food. It didn’t work, as the man walked past him and went to the bathroom to take a piss. After he was done relieving himself, he looked in the mirror. He had a nicely trimmed goatee. His skin was still pale white, something he has tried to fix since he was a teen, but no matter what he does he can’t get a tan. He looked himself in the eyes only to see his yellow soulless eyes peering back at him. That’s when he heard a knock at the door, snapping him out of his daze. Hurrying out of his bathroom he jumped over Zeke who was waiting for him to come out. He made his way over to the front door of his apartment and looked out the peep hole and saw his landlord. He let out a sigh and forced a smile, then opened the door. “Ms. Dunn, to what do I owe the pleasure?” She kicked her foot on the ground and let out a huff, “How many times have I told you to call me Vanessa, ya soulless bastard?” She said as she let herself in. He noticed her breath smelled of liquor. "And before you start scolding me i own this building therefore your apartment is MY apartment" Vanessa said with a cheeky smile as she plopped on my couch and turned the tv on. “How many times have I told you not to call me that? If you are going to me anything call me by my name Clayton, or Clay.” Clay stated as he closed the door to his apartment, while rolling his eyes. “And should you really be drinking this early in the morning?” He said as he watched Zeke run up and jump on Vanessa. Clay laughed as Zeke tried to lick her face off. Vanessa using all the might she could muster let out a small, but fierce yell as she pulled Zeke off of her so she could respond to Clayton's comment. “Oh shut up! I can do whatever I want, you should be great full a young lady like myself even came over to see you.” Vanessa said with puffed up cheeks. She then turned to face Zeke, "Isn't that right ZZ, tell him he should treat me better!" She turned Zeke to face his owner and in response he started barking causing Vanessa to smirk. Despite how she was acting, Vanessa is a strawberry blonde woman in her early thirties. She wore a light pink blouse and blue jeans. Along with some white sneakers. Clay walked over to the cabinet ignoring his tyrant landlord for the moment and the use of his dog against him. He pulled out a glass cup and made his way over to the fridge. He clicked on the touchscreen pad a few times and held the cup up to the dispenser and filled up the glass with ice, then water. While Vanessa was ranting about her being young and beautiful, and her mistreatment to poor Zeke, Clay handed her the water. Stopping her rant she downed the glass of water and placed it on the coffee table in front of her. “Thank you.” She said gratefully then continued to play with Zeke as the tv played in the background. “While you sit here in my apartment like there is not a care in the world, I’ll be off at work.” Clay opened the door but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turing back to Vanessa she was using her quirk, Rubber Limbs that allowed her to stretch out her arms and legs like rubber, to get his attention “Don’t forget to pick up food on your way home.” She teased and sent a playful wink his way, then released him and let her arm shoot back to her. Clay didn’t say a word instead let out a sigh and dragged his hand over his face. Still not saying a word he left for work, closing the door behind him. A week has passed… and Clay was sitting in his living room with Zeke. He had the lights off and had only a few candle that lit up the room. On the coffee table layed a picture of him, and another man. This man had dark brown shaggy hair, tanned skin, and a big bright smile on his face. He was wearing a white t-shirt, and sadly you couldn’t see the rest because that picture cut off, but Clay remembered. He also had on black slacks, and bright red shoes. Looking at the picture made him reminisce on the time between them. “I miss you big bro. I miss you… Zak.” Damien muttered under his breath. Zeke nuzzled up to his master in attempt to soothe his heart. And Clay gratefully accepted the love. “Let’s call it a night buddy." Clayton said as he scratched his lil buddy on the head. Putting on a smile he looked at Zeke, "Tomorrow I’m gonna go do something I haven’t done before. I’m going to go to a convention, and when I get back me and you are going to go on a trip overseas.” Zeke barked happily in response. They both fell asleep on the couch that night. “I think this is pretty good. What do you say?” Clay asked Zeke, and in response Zeke did circles while barking. Clay had on black combat pants that he had specially made to be very resilient, along with a black long sleeve shirt. He wore a black utility belt that currently had money, his phone, and a plastic kuni for the hell of it. He also had to go back to the guy who made his shoes and got him to make some tough black combat boots that had a grey outline. Because a week had gone by he grew a nice short, thin beard. He kept his hair out of his ponytail, and had it extra messy. He went to one of his contacts form the old days and got him to make a scarf capture weapon. If you hadn’t guessed by now Clay was going as the Japanese underground hero, Erasure Head. He turned to walked out of the door but Zeke started to whine. Clay stopped gave Zeke some belly rubs, which he knew would cheer his boy up. "I love you man. I'm sorry you couldn't come with me this time, but next ti e im making you a cosplay and we are doing this as a team." Zeke stared up at Clay with no thought behind his eyes, and a extremely fast wagging tail, enjoying the attention. "Now it's not like you are gonna be alone, Vanessa is sure to come over later and cause some trouble. Keep a close eye on her lil buddy and make sure she controls herself." With one final head scratch, Clay walked out the door without looking back. That is one of his biggest regrets. He made his way to the convention and was impressed with the cosplayers that were walking around. There were cosplays form various anime’s, shows, movies, and some professional hero cosplays. As he was walking around he saw many things, a blonde in a red and blue suit yelling at a vendor in rage, an Allmight and Captain Celebrity cosplay cosplayers taking pictures together, and a cool Super Saiyan God Goku cosplay. As he was walking around a certain stall and vendor looked interesting, so Clay walked over. As he was browsing the wears he found the pair of goggles that Erasure Head wears and they looked very well made, so he was going to buy them. Another thing that caught his attention was a small purple gemstone. He picked it up and called out to the shopkeeper. “Hey do you have this in another color? Preferably like black jade.” The guy turned around and saw the gem. Clay tossed it to him and the vendor disappeared into the back. He came back out a minute later with the same type of gemstone in the color Clay asked for. The vendor had a strange sense of fashion, with two large piercings on his lip and head, each sporting a chain. Additionally, he has three smaller piercings on the left side of his jaw. He also has a large scar across his face and a gray ponytail kept up via a bright blue bow. He has on a light blue, sleeveless robe, white pants, and black bandages wrapping both of his forearms. Also, he hangs a strange U-shaped device from his head either in or behind his ears. This vendor was cosplaying as Shigure from Yu Yu Hakusho. Shigure handed Clay the gem. He began to look over it, then placed it on the table with the goggles. “I’d like to buy these two.” Clay stated plainly. The A-Class demon looked over both of the items. “That will be 125 for both. The goggles come with something extra. And I’ll throw in a special product for 40 more dollars, or you can tell me about yourself and see if that gets you anything.”The man dressed as Shigure said with an amused tone. Clay hummed in thought. “Deal, what is the extra item I can get?” He asked as he put the goggles underneath the scarf, and put the gem in one of the Pockets on his belt. Shigure handed him some eye drops. Clay shrugged and put them in the same pocket the gem was in. He took out some money from his belt and handed it to the vendor. “My life isn’t that interesting, I worked for a big corporation my whole life until five years back when they shut down. I have a dog, currently working at a convenience store near my apartment. And my Quirk is Reaper.” Clay said as he gestured to his eyes, they became completely white for a couple of seconds before reverting back to normal. Shigure unhooked his Rinka Enreki-tō from around his waist, and sliced Clay right in between his eyebrows. Blood began to seep down his face and into his eyes. Clay jumped back with incredible strength that shocked him, but he never hit the ground. As he was falling in the void he heard Shigure whisper in his ear. “May you have a happy life, Clayton Crow.” Was all the Clay heard as he blacked out. Walking through the woods a young man appearing to be in his late twenties came across Clay hanging from a tree. The man had long light blue and white hair that was tied into a ponytail, that was resting on his shoulder. He looked like he was trying to grow a beard if the mid sized goatee was anything to go off of. He wore a white button down dress shirt, with black pants and over his shirt he had a cloak that had stars and moons on it. And in the middle of his head he had a white horn. Raising a brow he spoke. “Well what do we have here?” The man used his magic to grab Clay and float him off of the branch he was hanging off of. “I don’t think I’ve seen a creature like you before. You’ll be a fun research project to work on.” The man walked back to where he came from with the unconscious Clay floating next to him. Chapter One: Beginning of a new life“Vitals are normal… doesn’t have wings, so not a Pegasus… obviously no horn… but not an earth pony?” The man mumbled to himself as he looked over Clay’s unconscious form that was strapped to a table. Taking down mental notes as he studied him. “I don’t understand… just what are you?” After saying that Clay’s eyes opened up and he began to thrash around. “Whoa, there take it easy.” He said to the human who was trying to break free. “Hmmphdm!” Clay tried to speak but couldn’t because of the cloth in his mouth. “Hang on, let me get that.” The man said as he fiddled around and pulled the cloth out of his research subjects mouth. Claytons capture then walked over and grabbed a container from the cabinet and gently placed the cloth gag in there. Clay took a deep breath before speaking calmly. “Who are you? And where am I?” However something was off. “What happened to my voice?” He questioned himself in a much quieter tone. “Now I don’t know what happened to your voice, but I can tell where you are.” Clay watched as the man opened his arms wide and adorned a big smile on his face. “You are in my laboratory! And my name is Starswirl.” Clay was about to speak up but was cut off by the pony. “And before you ask, yes I’m blind,” Starswirl said as he pointed to his eyes. They were light blue and looked like the most beautiful crystals that were shattered. “Ok... not what I was gonna ask, but—” “Before you start talking I have one question.” Starswirl walked over to clay and placed a hand over his heart. “What are you? You don’t have any magic so you're not a pony.” He began to use his other hand to examine other parts of Clays body, searching for abnormalities. Always keeping one hand on his heart. “Magic? There is no such thing.” Clay said in protest and disbelief, still unable to grasp the situation he is in. This caused Starswirl to explode into laughter. After he calmed down he shook his head and motioned clay to continue. “And pony? Both me and you are human by the looks of it.” Clay said, confused. He noticed the horn on Starswirl's head but just assumed it was just a mutation from his quirk which is quite common. “No such thing. Look around you fool! Everything you see is made up of magic, and everything uses magic to function! Magic is what breathes life into each and everything on the planet.” Starswirl motioned to the room around him. After his exclamation, Starswirl grabbed Clay's right hand and loosened his restraints to get better access. Then brought it up to his face to get a closer look. “You don’t have any magic but you have this peculiar gem embedded into your hand, which seems to be leaking some sort of miasma... it is a type of unknown enegry unlike anything I've ever seen.” Starswirl said as he used magic to inspect the unknown energy source embedded in Clay's hand. Looking over to what he was talking about Clay noticed that on his hand laid the gem he bought. It was embedded in hand held by some sort of jewelry. (The purple is black jade) With Starswirl absorbed in the endless possibilities that come with Clay's new fashion piece, Clayton took the opportunity to yank his hand out of Starswils grip, startling the blind pony out of his knowledge obsessed trance. Within the second he freed his hand, Clay, quickly ripped the restraints off of his other arm. Then just ask quickly undid the restraints on his legs. Starswirl managed to begin to cast a spell, however his glowing horn gave him away causing Clay to grab Starswirl by the collar and slam him into the nearest wall. The wizard struggled a little bit before passing out and falling to the ground. Clay didn't notice that the wizards horn only went out after he had fallen unconscious. After looking over his unconscious capture he dusted himself off. "I need to figure out where the hell I am. And what the hell is going on?" Clay said to himself as he started at the gem on his hand in confusion. "I need to get the fuck out of here before i can figure any of this out." He stated plainly and left the room. Clay now stood in the hallway of the basement under what appeared to be some type of laboratory/research facility. He heard what sounded like armor clanking coming from the left so he ran to the right. Luckily he found a staircase that led to the main floor. Unluckily for him in the room the staircase led to there were approximately twenty fully armored guards, armed with spears. In front of them was a red-headed woman wearing a crown and a horn. She had a golden breastplate with the symbol of an ink and quill in the middle of it. Beautiful white wings adorned her back and underneath she wore a white tunic with brown boots. On her waist laid a longsword in a jewel-encrusted sheath. ‘Shit. I could at most take ten before going down. And that seems to be the only way in and out. I could test my luck and see how many guards are behind me.’ Clay thought to himself as he peered around the corner scouting out his opponents before dismissing the thought. ‘The woman seems to be the hardest to deal with. It’s all or nothing here.’ He thought as he gripped his scarf. 'I should have at least practiced with this thing..." He thought before he resolved his nerves. Sprinting from around the corner he used his scarf to grab the redhead woman’s hand. Yanking it back to him the woman flew towards him. Unexpectedly managed to react to Claytons suprise attack and used her wings to readjusted herself mid air. With her new angle in the air she flapped her wings causing her to change at Clay with an extraordinary amount of speed he had never see before. Without thinking, Clay let go of the scarf and tried to close the distance in an attempt to cushion the attack that the redheaded monster was about to unleash on him. He knew he had to act before she could draw her sword. With the slack gone the woman went to draw her sword, but Clay had other plans. He kicked her with in the stomach as soon as she got close enough then used her face as a springboard to spin in the air, brining an axe kick down on her head. However, that didn’t stop the monster. Jumping a few steps back, she unsheathed her sword and went for a horizontal slash. It was too quick to avoid so Clay used his scarf to try and parry the blow. The sword hit the scarf and luckily didn’t pierce him, but the blunt force of the blow was still received. Jumping back as far as he could, Clay ended up surrounded by the group guards in the room. Ten appeared to be the horned kind, five were winged and the other five looked to be normal humans. With a smile on her face, the woman wiped some blood from her mouth. “What’s your name?” She asked curiously, as she had not had this much fun in a while. Clay let out a chuckle. “How rude of you... you're supposed to introduce yourself before asking for someone else’s name.” Saying this got a laugh out of the woman. ‘Good. This little talk is letting me catch my breath.’ Clay thought. “How rude of me.” She said sarcastically. “My name is Lauren Faust, however, you may have the pleasure of calling me Faust.” She said as she stuck out her hand. Walking up to her Clay took a knee and grabbed her hand and brought it up to his face. “My name is Clayton Crow. You can call me Clay.” With a smile on his face, Clay pulled her hand down catching her off guard, causing her to fall towards him. With his left hand, he uppercuted her with enough force to send her flying backwards. Using the shock of the guards to his advantage he jumped up and did a backflip. While in the air he wrapped his scarf around one of the guards throats and used him like a domino knocking down the rest of the guards with him. Landing on the ground he saw Faust looking at him with a crazed grin on her faces and the amount of bloodlust emanating off of her had caused her eyes to glow red. Using two hands she grabbed her sword and held it above her head. Her horn ignited with a light blue aura. “It’s been a while since I used this move, I hope you survive!!” She spoke in a bloodthirsty state. Clay’s own bloodlust filled the room as well. With the amount of pressure being emitted from the pair all of the younger guards fell to the ground unconscious. Clay's eyes began to glow red and his hair started to float upwards. “Bring it on, Faust!” The gem on his hand started to emit a dark green light, and energy spread all through his body empowering him. The room turned red, and Faust flipped her sword from the flat to the edge. Her magic turning a sickly red that resembled blood. “Blood Moon!” Her sword, coated in a red aura came down on Clay. Clay's scarf seemed to float around him and moved at his thought. Using his hand he directed his scarf and wrapped it around Faust sword redirected the slash. The slash cut through the ground and left a huge hole in the back of the building. Using this to his advantage, he ran up to Faust and kicked her in the stomach. Launching her to the wall. Not giving her time to recover he used his scarf to grab her arm and pulled her back to him. Their eyes locked and a shiver went down his spine. Her eyes were still glowing red and her smile reappeared on her face. He blinked causing his quirk to deactivate, he didn’t even know he had it activated the whole time. He let go of the scarf causing it to go slack, hoping it would give him enough time to formulate a plan. However, Faust used her wings to launch herself at him once again. Coating her fist in the red magic aura she plunged it straight through this stomach. Ending the fight with the move that started it. “AHHH!” Clay screamed as she plunged her fist through his stomach. He vomited blood as the red tint in the room vanished and went back to normal. All of the guards at this point were unconscious. Faust ripped her hand out and looked down at him then to her hand. “That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, Clayton Crow.” She walked out of the building flying back to her castle. ‘Hopefully, Star will heal him. He could be useful…’ She thought as she made her way back to the castle. Starswirl came up from the basement of his laboratory and found Clay’s body. “You're not dead… YES! You're alive!” Clay coughed up some more blood which snapped Starswirl back into reality. “Oh dear, you're alive but barely.” He cast a healing spell that stopped the bleeding. The blind pony hoisted Clay on his back and brought him outside. After a couple of minutes of running through the forest, he made his way to a cave. In the cave, there was a natural spring that had green water in it. “Huugrh!” He grunted as he threw Clay into the spring. “Phew… now I just have to wait for him or get up. Hopefully, Faust won’t yell at me for using the Healing Spring on him.” Starswirl said as he waited for Clay to be healed. After waiting for around half and hour Starswirl fell asleep thinking ‘A little power nap won’t hurt anypony!’ After falling asleep it only took another ten minutes for the water started bubbling violently as Clay rose from it spring and walked out. His clothes were fully repaired and all of his things were still on him. He looked over and saw Star sleeping. ‘I need to find the nearest town… thank you Starswirl.. and goodbye.’ He thought as he walked out of the cave leaving Starswirl sleeping peacefully. Chapter Two: Old Monster and the RatSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter Three: Blood of the FallenAuthor's Note Hey guys longest chapter I wrote yet. Hope ya like. Oh yeah after this Clay will be open for crossovers... so hit me up! Chapter Three: Blood of the Fallen Coughing up blood, Clay spoke. “How did it come to this…” Clay said, laying on the ground bloody and beaten. As he laid there he began to lose consciousness. “I should have never accepted that job….” Clay said coughing up blood, before falling unconscious. Flashback, A couple of weeks ago After establishing himself as a new player in the underworld Clay began his new life in Equestria. Known under the alias of Ghost, Clay took on hits from anyone who had money. Like this he built his reputation up for the better part of ten years. After all that time he became the deadliest contract killer that Equestria had ever seen, until he was approached by a strange pony in a hood… A bar room Sitting at his usual table Clay was having dinner until he was interrupted. A hooded figure was standing above him staring. “You- You’re the Ghost aren’t you? You have on that mask.” The figure said shakily. From the tone of their voice they sound like a woman, an older one at that. Giving her a slight nod the lady took a seat. “Speak.” Clay said as he continued to eat his food. During his time in Equestria, Clay had his mask enchanted with multiple spells. One such spell allowed him to reshape his mask with a thought. So when he wanted to eat he could leave the mask on, but make it so that it had a hole for his mouth. “I need you to kill somepony for me…. Yeah.” She said as she rubbed her arm nervously. “I need you to kill Sir Adolf Blueblood.” She said, the last part was quieter than the rest. One of the biggest selling points on the Ghost is that he doesn’t ask questions. He just gets the job done. Nodding his head Clay stuck his hand out which was promptly filled with a large bag of bits or as he calls them gold coins. Sticking the pouch in his bag on the floor he finished up his dinner with the woman sitting across from him awkwardly. Getting up he walked over to the bartender, as he made his way over the lady left in a hurry. “I need the location of one Adlof Blueblood.” Clay said, causing the barroom to go quiet. Everyone knew that whenever he asked the bartender for the location of someone, that was his next target. “Sir Adolf Blueblood? I don’t know…” the bartender said hesitantly. “Don’t mess with me Sliver Glass.” Ghost stated calmly. “Geez, I was joking, joking. Although this will cost you a bit more-” Sliver was cut off by Clay slamming a bag of gold coins on the table. This one was smaller than the one he received from the hooded lady. “Hot damn,” Silver said, letting out a whistle. “That’s a lot of bits. Ok, Blueblood should be in the capital where the princesses are located. He is the former Captain of the Knights that protect the princesses.” Clay nodded and headed for the door. “Oh and in case you didn’t know, the capital is located in the Everfree forest!” The bartender called out as Clay walked out of the door. When he got to the main road he hailed a carriage that was being pulled by an Earth Pony. From all of his years in this new world Clay discovered that there are multiple types of ponies. The main three being Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony. The unicorn had a horn on their heads that allowed them to use magic, which is different from quirks. The pegasus has wings and can control the weather. And the earth ponies are by far the physically strongest out of all the others. “Hey there the name is Popcorn! Now where might I be takin’ you today?” The earth pony asked in a chipper tone. “The Everfree, more specifically the Castle of the two sisters.” Clay said tiredly. “Umm I can take you to the City of Eclipse but I can’t take you directly to the castle.” Clay stared at the man confused. “The City of Eclipse is the town that surrounds the Castle.” “Ah. Sure, that works.” Clay said as he boarded the carriage. It was about a six hour long journey to the City of Eclipse. As Clay settled down on the Carriage he began to check all of his equipment, which has become part of his routine. He no longer wore his Aizawa costume as it got old and torn up over the years; now he wears an old turtle neck cloak, underneath he wears chainmail followed by a black shirt. And on top of all that was his scarf. His lower half consisted of some black tactical cargo pants and a pair of sneakers. And of course he has a bag that he takes with him everywhere since he technically doesn’t have a home. Reaching into a holster on his waist he pulled out a dagger. It’s a heavy full black dagger that he picked up year one in this new world. Cleaning it has become a soothing action to him. After cleaning his dagger and sorting out his belongings Clay got comfortable and went to sleep. Three hours later “Stop the carriage.” Clay said as he shot awake for his nap. He could feel the bloodlust of four creatures coming from in front of them. Popcorn confused, stopped and watched as three earth ponies and a griffin came from the bushes in front of them. Before popcorn could say anything Clay walked out to meet with the four. The griffin standing in the middle was taller than Clay by about a head and was smoking a cigar. The only weapon that Clay took notice of on him was a short sword on his waist. The other three also had weapons but Clay didn’t take them into consideration. “Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” Clay said as he took a step closer to the giant bird. “If we go the easy way nobody will have to get hurt. Now if we take the hard way, one of you is going to die.” Clay took another step forward trying to scare them off. He really wanted to go back to sleep. The group began looking at each other in silence before they all burst into laughter. The main griffin stepped up. “You think you're a tough guy don’t ya. I don’t see no horn on your head so that means no magic. No wings means no flight. That makes ya an earth pony.” The griffin said in a deep raspy voice. Taking a puff from his cigar he blew the smoke into Clay’s face. “Let’s see you try to beat us—” before the griffin could finish his sentence Clay kicked his opponents legs out from under him causing the griffin to fall on the ground. When on the ground Clay stomped on the griffins neck until he fell unconscious. All of the ponies were horrified at what just happened. One of the three charged at Clay who countered with a spin kick to the jaw, breaking it in the process, knocking his opponent clean out. The other two took out their swords to which Clay took out his dagger. Instead of charging at Clay they dropped their swords and started to run away. Clay on the other hand wrapped his scarf around his daggers hilt and threw it into the back of one of the ponies. Ripping it out he went to throw it at the other one, but he got too far away. Shrugging his shoulders Clay made his way back to the carriage while cleaning his dagger. Popcorn looked at Clay in fear. “Thank ya for saving m-me.” He said as his whole body was trembling. That was the most violence that poor Popcorn had ever seen in his life. “Yep.” Clay said nonchalantly as he got back into a comfortable position in the carriage. “If you get me to Eclipse before nightfall I’ll tip you extra.” He said trying to get Popcorn's mind off of the brutality. “Yessir!” Steam blew out Popcorn's nose as he reared up. He only has two hours before nightfall, but still three hours of land left to cover. What Popcorn does not know is that Clay planned to give him a good tip for the start. The hours flew by as Popcorn raced against the sunset. All of his efforts weren’t for nothing, because in the end Popcorn made it to Eclipse City before the sun set. Clay was still sleeping when Popcorn made it to the City, so they both rested under a tree on the outskirts of the city limits. After an hour of rest Clay woke up to Popcorn next to him in the carriage. After gathering all his stuff Clay slowly and made his way out of the carriage as not to disturb Popcorn. And just like he promised Clay left a big bag of bits, around 150. “Goodbye, Popcorn.” With that said Clay made his way into the city. Clay’s main goal was to find his target and scout out the surrounding area. And since it was nighttime he was also looking for an inn to stay at. He found the castle of two sisters easily as it was the largest building in the forest. Next to the castle there were two mansions. One of the mansions had the insignia of a Compass Rose, the main part being yellow, and the parts in between being blue. The other mansion had the insignia of an Eclipse. Going off of common sense, Clay made his way over to the Compass Rose household. While stealthy going over, he noticed that the Mansion had a sizable chimney. Using his scarf and knife, he made a grappling hook that he used to throw on the roof. His plan was to go down the chimney when everyone was asleep and take out his target. While on the roof Clay looked down in the back to see if any windows were open that would make for a good escape route. That’s when he felt it. Clay turned around fast enough to see a sword aiming down on him. Using his scarf he managed to block the sword, barely at that. Clay knocked his opponent down with a kick that knocked his feet from under him. The mysterious attacker fell down and without a second to lose Clay kicked him off the room. “Who the hell are you.” Clay said silently as he gripped his scarf. He turned around to walk away but as he did an arrow shot him in the head. “Ahhggh!” He yelled out as he stumbled backwards. Clay reached up and grabbed the arrow out of his forehead, but when he did grab it his mask split in two and fell off. “Motherfucker,” Clay cursed under his breath. “That’s a weird word.” A voice came from behind Clay. He whipped his head around to see no one. “Peekaboo!” The same voice said from behind Clay once again. Once again Clay turned around only to be slashed by a sword across his chest, the sword ripping through his chainmail. Screaming out in pain Clay stumbled backwards and fell off the roof, causing blood to spill everywhere. Coughing up blood Clay tried to get up only to find out that his right leg was broken. “Damn, I got to get away.” Pushing through the pain Clay stood up and made a break for it. As he was running further into the forest he looked back every couple of seconds to make sure nobody was following him. After a few minutes he found a cave and took cover In it. ‘How did he get on the roof without me noticing.’ He thought to himself as he used his scarf to bandage his wounds. ‘And he clearly was behind me, but when I turned around he wasn’t there. But instead he was where I was just looking. He didn’t make a sound…’ A thought clicked in his head. ‘I didn’t think they would appear here but it had to have been a quirk…’ Clay grunted as he wrapped his chest wound tightly. Once that was done he walked out of the cave to find a sturdy stick. He used that and some of his scarf to make a splint for his leg. “Better than nothing.” He said as he coughed up more blood. Leaning against the cave wall Clay went to take off his mask, only to remember that it was broken in the fight. ‘Where did that arrow come from…’ was his last thought as he drifted into unconsciousness. Daybroke and with it Clay rose. Still in pain for last night's encounter all he could do was sit there and think. ‘If I’m up against quirk users I’ll have to use my quirk. I haven’t used that in almost ten years. There was no need to until now.’ Clay put a hand over his face. Touching his forehead he laughed. ‘That’s dried blood.. that arrow pieces me through my mask.’ With that Clay went back to sleep. It was nighttime, Clay has been awake for a few hours now. He collected some berries around the forest and went back to his cave. He repeated this process for about a week. After a week he was good enough to move and all that was left from the slash on his chest was a huge scar. He still had a limp but his legs no longer seemed to be broken. He doesn’t know how he healed so quickly but he isn’t complaining. Since it was night and Clay was feeling like he could finish the job, he decided to go back to the Blueblood Manor. However this time he waited until a servant walked out and jumped him. He took the servants uniform and styled his hair down to cover his skin. He still wore his scarf and under it rested his goggles. He stuck his knife in his pocket. Once he had his disguise on he walked through the front door. He made his way to the second floor and walked up to a short red female Pegasus with a blond mane that was wearing the same uniform as him. She was holding some kind of stick. “Excuse me, do you know where Sir Adolf is?” Clay asked the pony with a fake smile. Not like she can see it with his hair covering it. She blinked. “Sir Adolf? You mean Sir Blueblood.” She used the stick and smacked Clay in the shins. That hurt a lot more than he cared to say, especially with his sore leg. “Now what makes you think you have the privilege to bother Sir Blueblood?” She questioned with an eyebrow raised. Clay reached up to scratch his head. He motioned for the Pegasus to lean in closer to him. She did reluctantly. “His mistress told me to deliver a message to him.” Clay whispered in a nervous tone. A quarter of that nervousness was really, he had no idea if Blueblood had a mistress or not. It’s just that when his client is a female it’s usually because her husband is cheating on her. The Pegasus’ eyes shot open before she played it off. “He is on the third floor, 5th room on the right.” She said as she walked away quickly. Following her instructions he quickly found his way to Adolf. Knocking on the door a woman half naked opened it. Pushing her out of the way he found a old fat unicorn sitting on a bed surrounded by multiple younger female ponies. Looking at the fat white unicorn with a blonde mane he spoke, “Are you Adolf?” Clay questioned as his dead yellow eyes peered through his hair. Adolf Blueblood's face turned red. Once Clay saw that, it confirmed that he was in fact Adolf. He started to wrapped his scarf around his knife. “Who are you to come in here and interrupt my—” Blueblood didn’t finish his sentence, because Clay buried his knife in the unicorns neck. Using his scarf Clay recalled his knife making a fountain of blood gush out of Blueblood’s neck out onto the surrounding ponies who were in bed with him. They all were in shock from what just happened so Clay had a minute before the screaming started. “Welp, my job is done.” Clay said as he made his way out of the mansion. On his way out he saw that same red Pegasus, she was carrying a towel. Clay walked up and snatched the towel from her causing her to stop dead in her tracks. “What do you think you're doing!” She yelled as she scowled at the human. She looked down and froze. Clay was cleaning his knife and scarf with the towel he just took from her. “Is that b-b-blood?” She questioned with her ears pinned back on her head. Right on que the screams started from upstairs. Clay slicked his hair back to reveal that he wasn’t a pony. “Yes it is. Thank you for the directions and the towel. You were a great help.” Clay said as he smiled kindly. The Pegasus fell to her knees in shock. Clay walked out of the mansion without any trouble. “Where do you think you're going?” The same voice from last night asked. Clay tensed. “Not a talkative one, are you?” The mysterious pony questioned. No response. “Well then. Can we at least exchange names? I like to know my opponent's name before I kill them.” The ponies' tone grew darker as he spoke. Clay reached under his scarf to find his goggles. He gripped them hard, then took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. “My name is Clayton Crow, otherwise known as the Ghost. I’m what you would call a contract killer.” He took his goggles from underneath his scarf, but he accidentally dropped them. He dropped them into a portal at that. He didn’t realize but at that time he made a token. His goggles split and made multiple copies of itself and dispersed into the multiverse. The pony nor Clay realized what happened because it all happened in an instant. He picked up his goggles, and turned around to confront the pony. The pony was a midnight blue earth pony with a long black spiky mane. He had piercing black eyes. He wore no shirt exposing his hard earned, sculpted muscles. He sported a scar that’s in the shape of an X that covers his entire lower left side of his torsos. He wore some ragged brown torn up pants, and with that he wore black leather fur boots. The armor he wore was a black leather shoulder and arm guard brace that was on his right arm. And for his left side all he wore was a black leather arm brace. It was the same as his armor on his right arm just without the shoulder guard. “Will then Clayton Crow I go by the name Shao Dow. I’m what you would call a bodyguard.” The earth pony now known as Shao Dow introduced himself. “I’m surprised you healed so quickly from our last encounter. But really man did you have to kill our biggest employer yet? Like he played us so much and we barely had to do anything.” Shao Dow sulked. ‘We,” Clay thought. ‘That means the bow user is here..’ Scanning the area Clay couldn’t find hide nor hair of anybody but the pony in front of him. Clay was staring dead at the pony but in an instant the pony was gone. “Tsk. Tsk. Your mind is not focused on the battle.” Shao Dow spoke from behind Clay. Immediately Clay did a spin kick which the pony blocked with his arm. “You're strong for whatever you are.. but not strong enough.” Shao Dow grabbed Clay's leg and threw him into the air. The pony jumped up and elbowed Clay back to the ground before Clay could correct himself. “Damn.”Clay mumbled. Shao Dow was standing right infront of Clay taunting him. Pulling his knife Clay tried to stab Shao Dow to which The pony vanished right in front of his eyes. “As suspected. You have a quirk.” Clay said as he could feel Shao Dows sword coming down on him from behind. Dashing forward, the pony appeared in front of Clay, sword raised and smiling. Clay’s hair started to float up and his eyes turned read. “Gotcha.” Shao Dow brought his sword down on Clay hard, to which Clay parried with his knife. Sliding along the ponies blade Clay ran up and kicked him in the balls. Screaming out in pain the pony fell to his knees. Using this chance, clay grabbed the sword from out of Shao Dow’s hand. Raising it above his head Clay was about to bring it down on the pony. An arrow could be heard whistling through the air. “Found you.” Clay said as he spun and caught the arrow right before it made contact with his head. Tightening his grasp on his knife he threw it in the direction that the arrow came from. A scream could be heard. “Sis!” Shao Dow yelled out. He got back on his feet faster than Clay had expected. He went to take the sword from the human’s hand but instead got an arrow in his unprotected shoulder. Pushing through the pain the pony kicked Clay, throwing him to the side. His hair went down as he rolled on the ground. From the distance you could hear a woman yell, ‘I’m ok!’ Shao Dow ripped the arrow from his shoulder causing blood to flow out. “I’m gonna kill you, you… whatever you are!” He screamed in rage. “You can try.” Clay said as he slowly got up. His hair rose once again as his eyes locked on to Shao Dow. “But I just won’t die.” Using his scarf Clay wrapped it around the ponies neck, choking him slowly. The archer shot two more arrows from the same position, expecting this, Clay knocked them away. However he didn’t suspect four more Arrows to come from behind him. The arrows lodged themselves between his joints. Right in his elbows and kneecaps. Wasting no time Clay cut off the parts of the arrow sticking out and left the arrow heads in. Not being able to take the pain Clay blinked, giving Shao Dow the full use of his quirk. Taking out two daggers from behind his back, Shao Dow began teleporting around Clay, cutting him in quick succession. Clay had no time to counter him. More arrows were fired and found their way into Clay’s back. Causing him to scream out in pain. Falling to his knees Clay couldn’t take it anymore. He gathered the strength to open his eyes once more activating his quirk. “What an annoying power.” Shao Dow said right before he slashed Clay’s eyes, shattering his goggles. Leaving him blinded. That’s when Clay started to panic. “My eyes! No. No no no no no…. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! MY EYES!” Clay got up and started flailing around desperately. Having enough of Clay, Shao Dow ran his sword through his gut. Coughing up blood, Clay spoke. “How did it come to this…” Clay said, as he laid on the ground bloody and beaten. As he laid there He began to lose consciousness. “I should have never accepted that job….” Clay said coughing up blood, before falling unconscious. Chapter Four: ExperimentsSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter Five: Break Out time.One week later (Clay POV) It’s been one week since I decided that I’m going to break out. And progress has not been made. My goal was to get some meat on my bones before I attempt the break out, but sadly I didn’t gain any weight. Those experiments left me as skinny as a twig. “Oi. It’s dinner time!” The guard yelled to get my attention. I didn’t bother looking at him, I knew he was there before he announced himself. My senses grew a lot stronger for some reason. He began to bang on the bars trying to get a reaction out of me. “I said dinner time.” He spoke calmly. I gave him a thumbs up and he walked away. I heard him let out a sigh once he got further down the hallway. On the wall of my cell I made a sketch. My claws are retractable like cat claws. And they come from my fingernails. They are strong enough to cut the concrete wall like butter. They remind me of those white haired boys claws on Hunter Hunter something… my brother watched that a lot. Except my hands don’t get all veiny. The sketch I made was what I remembered of the castle's layout. I didn’t have much to go off of, but it was enough. “Now all I have to do is wait.” I quietly said to myself. After an hour of waiting it was time for the guards to switch shifts. Once the guard in front of my cell walked far enough always, I cut through the metal bars letting them fall to the floor. (3rd POV) After watching the bars hit the ground, Clay stepped out of his cell. He rolled his shoulders and began walking briskly out of the dungeon. Once he got to the main corridor of the dungeon he peaked around the corner to see many guards along the walls. He noted that it was a wide space and a high ceiling. That’s when an idea hit him. And something else also hit him. “WE HA-” Before the guard could alert the others Clay quickly rushed over to him and punched him in the gut, knocking him out. ‘Phew’ Clay said internally. He dragged the unconscious guard to his cell and put him in it. Now back to his plan. Clay brought out his claws and silently hopped onto the wall. Using his claws he dug into the wall and with his inhuman strength scaled the walls and ceiling. Doing this got him out of the dungeon in around ten minutes. ‘I wonder why the guards didn’t notice I left my cell? Anyways..’ After that thought he jumped down into a hallway. He ran through the hallways of the castle like a madman until he found the exit. The guards were immediately alerted by him running around. They tried to stop him multiple times but Clay jumped over their head and kept running. The only ones that posed a problem for Clay were the unicorns. So when he saw one he’d just knock them out. Eventually he got frustrated that he couldn’t find the exit so he stopped to ask for help. “Excuse me.” Clay said to a maid that was cleaning a vase in one of the castle corridors. She was started by him and screamed. He put a hand on her mouth. “Can you point me to the… wait never mind.” He let go of the poor mare and jumped out of the window next to them. He had been so focused on finding the exit that he forgot he could just make one. While he was falling out of the window he could feel heat coming from his left. It was Starswirl and a couple of other unicorns shooting fireballs at him. Having no way to dodge he put his arms up to block. The fireballs made impact but did no real damage. With his skin being more durable from the experiments his arms barely burned. He hit the ground hard. But unlike before at the mansion, this time he is far more durable. He quickly got up and brushed the dirt off of himself. “You couldn’t wait another week?! Come on!” Starswirl yelled and began launching a variety of spells at Clay. Clay was avoiding them as best as he could. After a couple seconds the other unicorns began firing upon Clay as well but at a slower rate than Starswirl. While he was focusing on Starswirl and the others he heard the flapping of wings come from behind him. Looking over his shoulder he saw Faust flying straight at him while also avoiding the magic spells. In her hand was a sword pointed directly at him. Clay stopped moving and let the spells come straight at him. Both Faust and Starswirl noticed this and felt that something was wrong. As both the spells and Faust inched closer to Clay, he was busy gathering all the strength in his legs for one moment. He jumped! He jumped as high as he could, causing Faust to take the spells head on. She tried to pull back but wasn’t quick enough. She used her sword to block some of them while weaving through the spells. Of course, she took some hits but they were nothing to her. “Hold!” Starswirl bellowed out the order. Earth ponies and Pegasus soon came rushing out only to witness Clay axe kick Faust’s blade. No damage was dealt to the sword, but Clay's leg went numb when he made contact. Clay then kicked off of the blade to put some distance between them. Faust however immediately closed the distance by launching her sword like a spear. Clay still midair gets run through the gut by the sword. He landed on his feet only to fall to his knees coughing up blood. He slowly got up to see Faust wielding some floating stones. He tried to run away, but Starswirl stopped him. Some magic ropes sprang up from the ground and held Clay in place. Before he could break free a bright rainbow light enveloped him. His vision faded as all he could see was white. Starswirl’s eyes widened. “What a strange power…” he said in wonder while witnessing what just happened. This was the first time they had used it. Well what just happened was that Faust used the elements of harmony on Clay. Or as they were calling them, the Harmonic Stones. They were the product of a strange tree that Starswirl had discovered. He found them and brought them back to his queen. They had no idea what it would do but they knew how powerful it could be. They agreed to only use them if necessary. And apparently Faust found it necessary. Once the elements hit Clay a bright light flashed blinding everyone. When the light died down they could all see a small tree take the place of Clay. In the middle of the tree, Faust's sword could be seen sticking out both ends. Starswirl made his way over to Faust to discuss what happened. Faust raised her hand in the air catching all of her subjects' attention. “I have slain the enemy! You may rest now my loyal followers!” She shouted with a smile on her face. Every pony raised their fist in the air just like Faust and let out a victory scream of their own. ‘We will talk later, Starswirl.’ Faust used telepathy to say to Starswirl who nodded in response. And just like that 1,500 years passed by… everyone had forgotten about Clay. But as the days go by his tree withers even more. Until one day after a long time his tree began to crack until finally it revealed a person laying on the ground with a rusted sword in his stomach. His eyes fluttered open. “I’m no longer a tree!” He yelled at the top of his lungs once he realized what happened. He tried to get up only for his legs to fail him. “I’ve been a tree for so long I forgot how to walk…” he tried to get up again. Instead of moving he did what he did to move when he was a tree, he thought about where he wanted to be. He wanted to be on his feet. And now he’s on his feet. Except he didn’t actually move his legs… he used a quirk. He used Shao Dows quirk, Teleportation. He found out about this quirk while he was a tree. When he was a tree he had the ability to move from tree to tree by the roots. But after a while he learned to subconsciously transport himself to a tree just by thinking about it. This was the first time that he teleported his whole body instead of just his consciousness. “Hmm ok.” Clay thought. He then spent the next few minutes learning how to walk again. He was back at the castle and over time it had deteriorated. As did his clothes.. he was walking around naked with a rusty sword sticking out of him. He forgot that the sword was there because it’s been there for so long he stopped caring about it. He took it out anyways so it doesn’t leave any more damage than it already did. The wound started to bleed so he used his ripped up clothes to wrap around it, stopping the bleeding. Sometime later he found a suitable pair of clothes in one of the ruins of the Blueblood mansion. He found a long sleeve old torn dark grey shirt. With it he found and wore a pair of black pants with black boots. And low and behold his scarf was hanging on the wall. He grabbed it and put it around his neck where it was supposed to be. It looked like it didn't age a day, like him. He patted the dust off of his new clothes and nodded his head in satisfaction. A loud noise came from his stomach reminding him that he needed to eat. “I can’t wait to eat again.” Clay said as he started making his way to the forest. Author's Note Umm should I continue to write this in first or third person? Or do should I just switch it up every now and again? Oh and Clay’s time as a tree will be touched on more in later chapters. I need quirk ideas ._.
PrologueAuthor's Note I sorta wrote this in the middle of a hurricane because I was bored and forgot about it until now, so yeah. This is Zeldris’ younger brother. Hope you enjoy. If you point out any mistakes, such as spelling and grammar, please point them out. It will be greatly appreciated. Prologue “In other news folks, it’s been five years since the notorious villain group ‘The Court’ have been spotted. Of course, three years back we found who we believe to be the one who called himself The Judge dead on the sidewalk near a local convenience store with a knife in his back. The heinous villain who struck fear into us all identified was Zak Law a local bartender. On record it says he has a brother, his name, Damien Law….” The news anchor continued to comment about the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of the 'The Court'. A man tuned to the Tv as he got dressed for the day. His attire consisted of a navy long sleeve shirt that had ‘DEATH’ written on the back in a fancy font. He wore black Jeans, and had a white belt on. Connected to his jeans was a golden chain that led into his pocket. And he wore specially made shoes that were super comfortable. “One week until the anniversary… hooray.” He said as he tied his long, messy black hair into a ponytail. He grabbed his glasses that were on the counter and put them on their regular spot, his face. “Woof!” His dog barked at him when he opened the fridge, the man just ignored him and let the dog wear himself out. Of course the dog only stopped barking when the man was done with his food. He picked up some of the bacon he had made and began to whistle. “Come here, Zeke.” Zeke ran up to him at the speed of sound and snatched the bacon out of his hand. Zeke chewed it twice before inhaling it. “One day when you choke because you didn’t chew, I will laugh my ass off.” Zeke then looked up to his master with big puppy eyes. He reached down and patted the dog on the head. “Of course I will save you, but I will still laugh. You are my world after all lil buddy." Zeke merely started jumping around in hopes of getting more food. It didn’t work, as the man walked past him and went to the bathroom to take a piss. After he was done relieving himself, he looked in the mirror. He had a nicely trimmed goatee. His skin was still pale white, something he has tried to fix since he was a teen, but no matter what he does he can’t get a tan. He looked himself in the eyes only to see his yellow soulless eyes peering back at him. That’s when he heard a knock at the door, snapping him out of his daze. Hurrying out of his bathroom he jumped over Zeke who was waiting for him to come out. He made his way over to the front door of his apartment and looked out the peep hole and saw his landlord. He let out a sigh and forced a smile, then opened the door. “Ms. Dunn, to what do I owe the pleasure?” She kicked her foot on the ground and let out a huff, “How many times have I told you to call me Vanessa, ya soulless bastard?” She said as she let herself in. He noticed her breath smelled of liquor. "And before you start scolding me i own this building therefore your apartment is MY apartment" Vanessa said with a cheeky smile as she plopped on my couch and turned the tv on. “How many times have I told you not to call me that? If you are going to me anything call me by my name Clayton, or Clay.” Clay stated as he closed the door to his apartment, while rolling his eyes. “And should you really be drinking this early in the morning?” He said as he watched Zeke run up and jump on Vanessa. Clay laughed as Zeke tried to lick her face off. Vanessa using all the might she could muster let out a small, but fierce yell as she pulled Zeke off of her so she could respond to Clayton's comment. “Oh shut up! I can do whatever I want, you should be great full a young lady like myself even came over to see you.” Vanessa said with puffed up cheeks. She then turned to face Zeke, "Isn't that right ZZ, tell him he should treat me better!" She turned Zeke to face his owner and in response he started barking causing Vanessa to smirk. Despite how she was acting, Vanessa is a strawberry blonde woman in her early thirties. She wore a light pink blouse and blue jeans. Along with some white sneakers. Clay walked over to the cabinet ignoring his tyrant landlord for the moment and the use of his dog against him. He pulled out a glass cup and made his way over to the fridge. He clicked on the touchscreen pad a few times and held the cup up to the dispenser and filled up the glass with ice, then water. While Vanessa was ranting about her being young and beautiful, and her mistreatment to poor Zeke, Clay handed her the water. Stopping her rant she downed the glass of water and placed it on the coffee table in front of her. “Thank you.” She said gratefully then continued to play with Zeke as the tv played in the background. “While you sit here in my apartment like there is not a care in the world, I’ll be off at work.” Clay opened the door but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turing back to Vanessa she was using her quirk, Rubber Limbs that allowed her to stretch out her arms and legs like rubber, to get his attention “Don’t forget to pick up food on your way home.” She teased and sent a playful wink his way, then released him and let her arm shoot back to her. Clay didn’t say a word instead let out a sigh and dragged his hand over his face. Still not saying a word he left for work, closing the door behind him. A week has passed… and Clay was sitting in his living room with Zeke. He had the lights off and had only a few candle that lit up the room. On the coffee table layed a picture of him, and another man. This man had dark brown shaggy hair, tanned skin, and a big bright smile on his face. He was wearing a white t-shirt, and sadly you couldn’t see the rest because that picture cut off, but Clay remembered. He also had on black slacks, and bright red shoes. Looking at the picture made him reminisce on the time between them. “I miss you big bro. I miss you… Zak.” Damien muttered under his breath. Zeke nuzzled up to his master in attempt to soothe his heart. And Clay gratefully accepted the love. “Let’s call it a night buddy." Clayton said as he scratched his lil buddy on the head. Putting on a smile he looked at Zeke, "Tomorrow I’m gonna go do something I haven’t done before. I’m going to go to a convention, and when I get back me and you are going to go on a trip overseas.” Zeke barked happily in response. They both fell asleep on the couch that night. “I think this is pretty good. What do you say?” Clay asked Zeke, and in response Zeke did circles while barking. Clay had on black combat pants that he had specially made to be very resilient, along with a black long sleeve shirt. He wore a black utility belt that currently had money, his phone, and a plastic kuni for the hell of it. He also had to go back to the guy who made his shoes and got him to make some tough black combat boots that had a grey outline. Because a week had gone by he grew a nice short, thin beard. He kept his hair out of his ponytail, and had it extra messy. He went to one of his contacts form the old days and got him to make a scarf capture weapon. If you hadn’t guessed by now Clay was going as the Japanese underground hero, Erasure Head. He turned to walked out of the door but Zeke started to whine. Clay stopped gave Zeke some belly rubs, which he knew would cheer his boy up. "I love you man. I'm sorry you couldn't come with me this time, but next ti e im making you a cosplay and we are doing this as a team." Zeke stared up at Clay with no thought behind his eyes, and a extremely fast wagging tail, enjoying the attention. "Now it's not like you are gonna be alone, Vanessa is sure to come over later and cause some trouble. Keep a close eye on her lil buddy and make sure she controls herself." With one final head scratch, Clay walked out the door without looking back. That is one of his biggest regrets. He made his way to the convention and was impressed with the cosplayers that were walking around. There were cosplays form various anime’s, shows, movies, and some professional hero cosplays. As he was walking around he saw many things, a blonde in a red and blue suit yelling at a vendor in rage, an Allmight and Captain Celebrity cosplay cosplayers taking pictures together, and a cool Super Saiyan God Goku cosplay. As he was walking around a certain stall and vendor looked interesting, so Clay walked over. As he was browsing the wears he found the pair of goggles that Erasure Head wears and they looked very well made, so he was going to buy them. Another thing that caught his attention was a small purple gemstone. He picked it up and called out to the shopkeeper. “Hey do you have this in another color? Preferably like black jade.” The guy turned around and saw the gem. Clay tossed it to him and the vendor disappeared into the back. He came back out a minute later with the same type of gemstone in the color Clay asked for. The vendor had a strange sense of fashion, with two large piercings on his lip and head, each sporting a chain. Additionally, he has three smaller piercings on the left side of his jaw. He also has a large scar across his face and a gray ponytail kept up via a bright blue bow. He has on a light blue, sleeveless robe, white pants, and black bandages wrapping both of his forearms. Also, he hangs a strange U-shaped device from his head either in or behind his ears. This vendor was cosplaying as Shigure from Yu Yu Hakusho. Shigure handed Clay the gem. He began to look over it, then placed it on the table with the goggles. “I’d like to buy these two.” Clay stated plainly. The A-Class demon looked over both of the items. “That will be 125 for both. The goggles come with something extra. And I’ll throw in a special product for 40 more dollars, or you can tell me about yourself and see if that gets you anything.”The man dressed as Shigure said with an amused tone. Clay hummed in thought. “Deal, what is the extra item I can get?” He asked as he put the goggles underneath the scarf, and put the gem in one of the Pockets on his belt. Shigure handed him some eye drops. Clay shrugged and put them in the same pocket the gem was in. He took out some money from his belt and handed it to the vendor. “My life isn’t that interesting, I worked for a big corporation my whole life until five years back when they shut down. I have a dog, currently working at a convenience store near my apartment. And my Quirk is Reaper.” Clay said as he gestured to his eyes, they became completely white for a couple of seconds before reverting back to normal. Shigure unhooked his Rinka Enreki-tō from around his waist, and sliced Clay right in between his eyebrows. Blood began to seep down his face and into his eyes. Clay jumped back with incredible strength that shocked him, but he never hit the ground. As he was falling in the void he heard Shigure whisper in his ear. “May you have a happy life, Clayton Crow.” Was all the Clay heard as he blacked out. Walking through the woods a young man appearing to be in his late twenties came across Clay hanging from a tree. The man had long light blue and white hair that was tied into a ponytail, that was resting on his shoulder. He looked like he was trying to grow a beard if the mid sized goatee was anything to go off of. He wore a white button down dress shirt, with black pants and over his shirt he had a cloak that had stars and moons on it. And in the middle of his head he had a white horn. Raising a brow he spoke. “Well what do we have here?” The man used his magic to grab Clay and float him off of the branch he was hanging off of. “I don’t think I’ve seen a creature like you before. You’ll be a fun research project to work on.” The man walked back to where he came from with the unconscious Clay floating next to him.
Chapter One: Beginning of a new life“Vitals are normal… doesn’t have wings, so not a Pegasus… obviously no horn… but not an earth pony?” The man mumbled to himself as he looked over Clay’s unconscious form that was strapped to a table. Taking down mental notes as he studied him. “I don’t understand… just what are you?” After saying that Clay’s eyes opened up and he began to thrash around. “Whoa, there take it easy.” He said to the human who was trying to break free. “Hmmphdm!” Clay tried to speak but couldn’t because of the cloth in his mouth. “Hang on, let me get that.” The man said as he fiddled around and pulled the cloth out of his research subjects mouth. Claytons capture then walked over and grabbed a container from the cabinet and gently placed the cloth gag in there. Clay took a deep breath before speaking calmly. “Who are you? And where am I?” However something was off. “What happened to my voice?” He questioned himself in a much quieter tone. “Now I don’t know what happened to your voice, but I can tell where you are.” Clay watched as the man opened his arms wide and adorned a big smile on his face. “You are in my laboratory! And my name is Starswirl.” Clay was about to speak up but was cut off by the pony. “And before you ask, yes I’m blind,” Starswirl said as he pointed to his eyes. They were light blue and looked like the most beautiful crystals that were shattered. “Ok... not what I was gonna ask, but—” “Before you start talking I have one question.” Starswirl walked over to clay and placed a hand over his heart. “What are you? You don’t have any magic so you're not a pony.” He began to use his other hand to examine other parts of Clays body, searching for abnormalities. Always keeping one hand on his heart. “Magic? There is no such thing.” Clay said in protest and disbelief, still unable to grasp the situation he is in. This caused Starswirl to explode into laughter. After he calmed down he shook his head and motioned clay to continue. “And pony? Both me and you are human by the looks of it.” Clay said, confused. He noticed the horn on Starswirl's head but just assumed it was just a mutation from his quirk which is quite common. “No such thing. Look around you fool! Everything you see is made up of magic, and everything uses magic to function! Magic is what breathes life into each and everything on the planet.” Starswirl motioned to the room around him. After his exclamation, Starswirl grabbed Clay's right hand and loosened his restraints to get better access. Then brought it up to his face to get a closer look. “You don’t have any magic but you have this peculiar gem embedded into your hand, which seems to be leaking some sort of miasma... it is a type of unknown enegry unlike anything I've ever seen.” Starswirl said as he used magic to inspect the unknown energy source embedded in Clay's hand. Looking over to what he was talking about Clay noticed that on his hand laid the gem he bought. It was embedded in hand held by some sort of jewelry. (The purple is black jade) With Starswirl absorbed in the endless possibilities that come with Clay's new fashion piece, Clayton took the opportunity to yank his hand out of Starswils grip, startling the blind pony out of his knowledge obsessed trance. Within the second he freed his hand, Clay, quickly ripped the restraints off of his other arm. Then just ask quickly undid the restraints on his legs. Starswirl managed to begin to cast a spell, however his glowing horn gave him away causing Clay to grab Starswirl by the collar and slam him into the nearest wall. The wizard struggled a little bit before passing out and falling to the ground. Clay didn't notice that the wizards horn only went out after he had fallen unconscious. After looking over his unconscious capture he dusted himself off. "I need to figure out where the hell I am. And what the hell is going on?" Clay said to himself as he started at the gem on his hand in confusion. "I need to get the fuck out of here before i can figure any of this out." He stated plainly and left the room. Clay now stood in the hallway of the basement under what appeared to be some type of laboratory/research facility. He heard what sounded like armor clanking coming from the left so he ran to the right. Luckily he found a staircase that led to the main floor. Unluckily for him in the room the staircase led to there were approximately twenty fully armored guards, armed with spears. In front of them was a red-headed woman wearing a crown and a horn. She had a golden breastplate with the symbol of an ink and quill in the middle of it. Beautiful white wings adorned her back and underneath she wore a white tunic with brown boots. On her waist laid a longsword in a jewel-encrusted sheath. ‘Shit. I could at most take ten before going down. And that seems to be the only way in and out. I could test my luck and see how many guards are behind me.’ Clay thought to himself as he peered around the corner scouting out his opponents before dismissing the thought. ‘The woman seems to be the hardest to deal with. It’s all or nothing here.’ He thought as he gripped his scarf. 'I should have at least practiced with this thing..." He thought before he resolved his nerves. Sprinting from around the corner he used his scarf to grab the redhead woman’s hand. Yanking it back to him the woman flew towards him. Unexpectedly managed to react to Claytons suprise attack and used her wings to readjusted herself mid air. With her new angle in the air she flapped her wings causing her to change at Clay with an extraordinary amount of speed he had never see before. Without thinking, Clay let go of the scarf and tried to close the distance in an attempt to cushion the attack that the redheaded monster was about to unleash on him. He knew he had to act before she could draw her sword. With the slack gone the woman went to draw her sword, but Clay had other plans. He kicked her with in the stomach as soon as she got close enough then used her face as a springboard to spin in the air, brining an axe kick down on her head. However, that didn’t stop the monster. Jumping a few steps back, she unsheathed her sword and went for a horizontal slash. It was too quick to avoid so Clay used his scarf to try and parry the blow. The sword hit the scarf and luckily didn’t pierce him, but the blunt force of the blow was still received. Jumping back as far as he could, Clay ended up surrounded by the group guards in the room. Ten appeared to be the horned kind, five were winged and the other five looked to be normal humans. With a smile on her face, the woman wiped some blood from her mouth. “What’s your name?” She asked curiously, as she had not had this much fun in a while. Clay let out a chuckle. “How rude of you... you're supposed to introduce yourself before asking for someone else’s name.” Saying this got a laugh out of the woman. ‘Good. This little talk is letting me catch my breath.’ Clay thought. “How rude of me.” She said sarcastically. “My name is Lauren Faust, however, you may have the pleasure of calling me Faust.” She said as she stuck out her hand. Walking up to her Clay took a knee and grabbed her hand and brought it up to his face. “My name is Clayton Crow. You can call me Clay.” With a smile on his face, Clay pulled her hand down catching her off guard, causing her to fall towards him. With his left hand, he uppercuted her with enough force to send her flying backwards. Using the shock of the guards to his advantage he jumped up and did a backflip. While in the air he wrapped his scarf around one of the guards throats and used him like a domino knocking down the rest of the guards with him. Landing on the ground he saw Faust looking at him with a crazed grin on her faces and the amount of bloodlust emanating off of her had caused her eyes to glow red. Using two hands she grabbed her sword and held it above her head. Her horn ignited with a light blue aura. “It’s been a while since I used this move, I hope you survive!!” She spoke in a bloodthirsty state. Clay’s own bloodlust filled the room as well. With the amount of pressure being emitted from the pair all of the younger guards fell to the ground unconscious. Clay's eyes began to glow red and his hair started to float upwards. “Bring it on, Faust!” The gem on his hand started to emit a dark green light, and energy spread all through his body empowering him. The room turned red, and Faust flipped her sword from the flat to the edge. Her magic turning a sickly red that resembled blood. “Blood Moon!” Her sword, coated in a red aura came down on Clay. Clay's scarf seemed to float around him and moved at his thought. Using his hand he directed his scarf and wrapped it around Faust sword redirected the slash. The slash cut through the ground and left a huge hole in the back of the building. Using this to his advantage, he ran up to Faust and kicked her in the stomach. Launching her to the wall. Not giving her time to recover he used his scarf to grab her arm and pulled her back to him. Their eyes locked and a shiver went down his spine. Her eyes were still glowing red and her smile reappeared on her face. He blinked causing his quirk to deactivate, he didn’t even know he had it activated the whole time. He let go of the scarf causing it to go slack, hoping it would give him enough time to formulate a plan. However, Faust used her wings to launch herself at him once again. Coating her fist in the red magic aura she plunged it straight through this stomach. Ending the fight with the move that started it. “AHHH!” Clay screamed as she plunged her fist through his stomach. He vomited blood as the red tint in the room vanished and went back to normal. All of the guards at this point were unconscious. Faust ripped her hand out and looked down at him then to her hand. “That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, Clayton Crow.” She walked out of the building flying back to her castle. ‘Hopefully, Star will heal him. He could be useful…’ She thought as she made her way back to the castle. Starswirl came up from the basement of his laboratory and found Clay’s body. “You're not dead… YES! You're alive!” Clay coughed up some more blood which snapped Starswirl back into reality. “Oh dear, you're alive but barely.” He cast a healing spell that stopped the bleeding. The blind pony hoisted Clay on his back and brought him outside. After a couple of minutes of running through the forest, he made his way to a cave. In the cave, there was a natural spring that had green water in it. “Huugrh!” He grunted as he threw Clay into the spring. “Phew… now I just have to wait for him or get up. Hopefully, Faust won’t yell at me for using the Healing Spring on him.” Starswirl said as he waited for Clay to be healed. After waiting for around half and hour Starswirl fell asleep thinking ‘A little power nap won’t hurt anypony!’ After falling asleep it only took another ten minutes for the water started bubbling violently as Clay rose from it spring and walked out. His clothes were fully repaired and all of his things were still on him. He looked over and saw Star sleeping. ‘I need to find the nearest town… thank you Starswirl.. and goodbye.’ He thought as he walked out of the cave leaving Starswirl sleeping peacefully.
Chapter Two: Old Monster and the RatSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter Three: Blood of the FallenAuthor's Note Hey guys longest chapter I wrote yet. Hope ya like. Oh yeah after this Clay will be open for crossovers... so hit me up! Chapter Three: Blood of the Fallen Coughing up blood, Clay spoke. “How did it come to this…” Clay said, laying on the ground bloody and beaten. As he laid there he began to lose consciousness. “I should have never accepted that job….” Clay said coughing up blood, before falling unconscious. Flashback, A couple of weeks ago After establishing himself as a new player in the underworld Clay began his new life in Equestria. Known under the alias of Ghost, Clay took on hits from anyone who had money. Like this he built his reputation up for the better part of ten years. After all that time he became the deadliest contract killer that Equestria had ever seen, until he was approached by a strange pony in a hood… A bar room Sitting at his usual table Clay was having dinner until he was interrupted. A hooded figure was standing above him staring. “You- You’re the Ghost aren’t you? You have on that mask.” The figure said shakily. From the tone of their voice they sound like a woman, an older one at that. Giving her a slight nod the lady took a seat. “Speak.” Clay said as he continued to eat his food. During his time in Equestria, Clay had his mask enchanted with multiple spells. One such spell allowed him to reshape his mask with a thought. So when he wanted to eat he could leave the mask on, but make it so that it had a hole for his mouth. “I need you to kill somepony for me…. Yeah.” She said as she rubbed her arm nervously. “I need you to kill Sir Adolf Blueblood.” She said, the last part was quieter than the rest. One of the biggest selling points on the Ghost is that he doesn’t ask questions. He just gets the job done. Nodding his head Clay stuck his hand out which was promptly filled with a large bag of bits or as he calls them gold coins. Sticking the pouch in his bag on the floor he finished up his dinner with the woman sitting across from him awkwardly. Getting up he walked over to the bartender, as he made his way over the lady left in a hurry. “I need the location of one Adlof Blueblood.” Clay said, causing the barroom to go quiet. Everyone knew that whenever he asked the bartender for the location of someone, that was his next target. “Sir Adolf Blueblood? I don’t know…” the bartender said hesitantly. “Don’t mess with me Sliver Glass.” Ghost stated calmly. “Geez, I was joking, joking. Although this will cost you a bit more-” Sliver was cut off by Clay slamming a bag of gold coins on the table. This one was smaller than the one he received from the hooded lady. “Hot damn,” Silver said, letting out a whistle. “That’s a lot of bits. Ok, Blueblood should be in the capital where the princesses are located. He is the former Captain of the Knights that protect the princesses.” Clay nodded and headed for the door. “Oh and in case you didn’t know, the capital is located in the Everfree forest!” The bartender called out as Clay walked out of the door. When he got to the main road he hailed a carriage that was being pulled by an Earth Pony. From all of his years in this new world Clay discovered that there are multiple types of ponies. The main three being Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony. The unicorn had a horn on their heads that allowed them to use magic, which is different from quirks. The pegasus has wings and can control the weather. And the earth ponies are by far the physically strongest out of all the others. “Hey there the name is Popcorn! Now where might I be takin’ you today?” The earth pony asked in a chipper tone. “The Everfree, more specifically the Castle of the two sisters.” Clay said tiredly. “Umm I can take you to the City of Eclipse but I can’t take you directly to the castle.” Clay stared at the man confused. “The City of Eclipse is the town that surrounds the Castle.” “Ah. Sure, that works.” Clay said as he boarded the carriage. It was about a six hour long journey to the City of Eclipse. As Clay settled down on the Carriage he began to check all of his equipment, which has become part of his routine. He no longer wore his Aizawa costume as it got old and torn up over the years; now he wears an old turtle neck cloak, underneath he wears chainmail followed by a black shirt. And on top of all that was his scarf. His lower half consisted of some black tactical cargo pants and a pair of sneakers. And of course he has a bag that he takes with him everywhere since he technically doesn’t have a home. Reaching into a holster on his waist he pulled out a dagger. It’s a heavy full black dagger that he picked up year one in this new world. Cleaning it has become a soothing action to him. After cleaning his dagger and sorting out his belongings Clay got comfortable and went to sleep. Three hours later “Stop the carriage.” Clay said as he shot awake for his nap. He could feel the bloodlust of four creatures coming from in front of them. Popcorn confused, stopped and watched as three earth ponies and a griffin came from the bushes in front of them. Before popcorn could say anything Clay walked out to meet with the four. The griffin standing in the middle was taller than Clay by about a head and was smoking a cigar. The only weapon that Clay took notice of on him was a short sword on his waist. The other three also had weapons but Clay didn’t take them into consideration. “Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” Clay said as he took a step closer to the giant bird. “If we go the easy way nobody will have to get hurt. Now if we take the hard way, one of you is going to die.” Clay took another step forward trying to scare them off. He really wanted to go back to sleep. The group began looking at each other in silence before they all burst into laughter. The main griffin stepped up. “You think you're a tough guy don’t ya. I don’t see no horn on your head so that means no magic. No wings means no flight. That makes ya an earth pony.” The griffin said in a deep raspy voice. Taking a puff from his cigar he blew the smoke into Clay’s face. “Let’s see you try to beat us—” before the griffin could finish his sentence Clay kicked his opponents legs out from under him causing the griffin to fall on the ground. When on the ground Clay stomped on the griffins neck until he fell unconscious. All of the ponies were horrified at what just happened. One of the three charged at Clay who countered with a spin kick to the jaw, breaking it in the process, knocking his opponent clean out. The other two took out their swords to which Clay took out his dagger. Instead of charging at Clay they dropped their swords and started to run away. Clay on the other hand wrapped his scarf around his daggers hilt and threw it into the back of one of the ponies. Ripping it out he went to throw it at the other one, but he got too far away. Shrugging his shoulders Clay made his way back to the carriage while cleaning his dagger. Popcorn looked at Clay in fear. “Thank ya for saving m-me.” He said as his whole body was trembling. That was the most violence that poor Popcorn had ever seen in his life. “Yep.” Clay said nonchalantly as he got back into a comfortable position in the carriage. “If you get me to Eclipse before nightfall I’ll tip you extra.” He said trying to get Popcorn's mind off of the brutality. “Yessir!” Steam blew out Popcorn's nose as he reared up. He only has two hours before nightfall, but still three hours of land left to cover. What Popcorn does not know is that Clay planned to give him a good tip for the start. The hours flew by as Popcorn raced against the sunset. All of his efforts weren’t for nothing, because in the end Popcorn made it to Eclipse City before the sun set. Clay was still sleeping when Popcorn made it to the City, so they both rested under a tree on the outskirts of the city limits. After an hour of rest Clay woke up to Popcorn next to him in the carriage. After gathering all his stuff Clay slowly and made his way out of the carriage as not to disturb Popcorn. And just like he promised Clay left a big bag of bits, around 150. “Goodbye, Popcorn.” With that said Clay made his way into the city. Clay’s main goal was to find his target and scout out the surrounding area. And since it was nighttime he was also looking for an inn to stay at. He found the castle of two sisters easily as it was the largest building in the forest. Next to the castle there were two mansions. One of the mansions had the insignia of a Compass Rose, the main part being yellow, and the parts in between being blue. The other mansion had the insignia of an Eclipse. Going off of common sense, Clay made his way over to the Compass Rose household. While stealthy going over, he noticed that the Mansion had a sizable chimney. Using his scarf and knife, he made a grappling hook that he used to throw on the roof. His plan was to go down the chimney when everyone was asleep and take out his target. While on the roof Clay looked down in the back to see if any windows were open that would make for a good escape route. That’s when he felt it. Clay turned around fast enough to see a sword aiming down on him. Using his scarf he managed to block the sword, barely at that. Clay knocked his opponent down with a kick that knocked his feet from under him. The mysterious attacker fell down and without a second to lose Clay kicked him off the room. “Who the hell are you.” Clay said silently as he gripped his scarf. He turned around to walk away but as he did an arrow shot him in the head. “Ahhggh!” He yelled out as he stumbled backwards. Clay reached up and grabbed the arrow out of his forehead, but when he did grab it his mask split in two and fell off. “Motherfucker,” Clay cursed under his breath. “That’s a weird word.” A voice came from behind Clay. He whipped his head around to see no one. “Peekaboo!” The same voice said from behind Clay once again. Once again Clay turned around only to be slashed by a sword across his chest, the sword ripping through his chainmail. Screaming out in pain Clay stumbled backwards and fell off the roof, causing blood to spill everywhere. Coughing up blood Clay tried to get up only to find out that his right leg was broken. “Damn, I got to get away.” Pushing through the pain Clay stood up and made a break for it. As he was running further into the forest he looked back every couple of seconds to make sure nobody was following him. After a few minutes he found a cave and took cover In it. ‘How did he get on the roof without me noticing.’ He thought to himself as he used his scarf to bandage his wounds. ‘And he clearly was behind me, but when I turned around he wasn’t there. But instead he was where I was just looking. He didn’t make a sound…’ A thought clicked in his head. ‘I didn’t think they would appear here but it had to have been a quirk…’ Clay grunted as he wrapped his chest wound tightly. Once that was done he walked out of the cave to find a sturdy stick. He used that and some of his scarf to make a splint for his leg. “Better than nothing.” He said as he coughed up more blood. Leaning against the cave wall Clay went to take off his mask, only to remember that it was broken in the fight. ‘Where did that arrow come from…’ was his last thought as he drifted into unconsciousness. Daybroke and with it Clay rose. Still in pain for last night's encounter all he could do was sit there and think. ‘If I’m up against quirk users I’ll have to use my quirk. I haven’t used that in almost ten years. There was no need to until now.’ Clay put a hand over his face. Touching his forehead he laughed. ‘That’s dried blood.. that arrow pieces me through my mask.’ With that Clay went back to sleep. It was nighttime, Clay has been awake for a few hours now. He collected some berries around the forest and went back to his cave. He repeated this process for about a week. After a week he was good enough to move and all that was left from the slash on his chest was a huge scar. He still had a limp but his legs no longer seemed to be broken. He doesn’t know how he healed so quickly but he isn’t complaining. Since it was night and Clay was feeling like he could finish the job, he decided to go back to the Blueblood Manor. However this time he waited until a servant walked out and jumped him. He took the servants uniform and styled his hair down to cover his skin. He still wore his scarf and under it rested his goggles. He stuck his knife in his pocket. Once he had his disguise on he walked through the front door. He made his way to the second floor and walked up to a short red female Pegasus with a blond mane that was wearing the same uniform as him. She was holding some kind of stick. “Excuse me, do you know where Sir Adolf is?” Clay asked the pony with a fake smile. Not like she can see it with his hair covering it. She blinked. “Sir Adolf? You mean Sir Blueblood.” She used the stick and smacked Clay in the shins. That hurt a lot more than he cared to say, especially with his sore leg. “Now what makes you think you have the privilege to bother Sir Blueblood?” She questioned with an eyebrow raised. Clay reached up to scratch his head. He motioned for the Pegasus to lean in closer to him. She did reluctantly. “His mistress told me to deliver a message to him.” Clay whispered in a nervous tone. A quarter of that nervousness was really, he had no idea if Blueblood had a mistress or not. It’s just that when his client is a female it’s usually because her husband is cheating on her. The Pegasus’ eyes shot open before she played it off. “He is on the third floor, 5th room on the right.” She said as she walked away quickly. Following her instructions he quickly found his way to Adolf. Knocking on the door a woman half naked opened it. Pushing her out of the way he found a old fat unicorn sitting on a bed surrounded by multiple younger female ponies. Looking at the fat white unicorn with a blonde mane he spoke, “Are you Adolf?” Clay questioned as his dead yellow eyes peered through his hair. Adolf Blueblood's face turned red. Once Clay saw that, it confirmed that he was in fact Adolf. He started to wrapped his scarf around his knife. “Who are you to come in here and interrupt my—” Blueblood didn’t finish his sentence, because Clay buried his knife in the unicorns neck. Using his scarf Clay recalled his knife making a fountain of blood gush out of Blueblood’s neck out onto the surrounding ponies who were in bed with him. They all were in shock from what just happened so Clay had a minute before the screaming started. “Welp, my job is done.” Clay said as he made his way out of the mansion. On his way out he saw that same red Pegasus, she was carrying a towel. Clay walked up and snatched the towel from her causing her to stop dead in her tracks. “What do you think you're doing!” She yelled as she scowled at the human. She looked down and froze. Clay was cleaning his knife and scarf with the towel he just took from her. “Is that b-b-blood?” She questioned with her ears pinned back on her head. Right on que the screams started from upstairs. Clay slicked his hair back to reveal that he wasn’t a pony. “Yes it is. Thank you for the directions and the towel. You were a great help.” Clay said as he smiled kindly. The Pegasus fell to her knees in shock. Clay walked out of the mansion without any trouble. “Where do you think you're going?” The same voice from last night asked. Clay tensed. “Not a talkative one, are you?” The mysterious pony questioned. No response. “Well then. Can we at least exchange names? I like to know my opponent's name before I kill them.” The ponies' tone grew darker as he spoke. Clay reached under his scarf to find his goggles. He gripped them hard, then took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. “My name is Clayton Crow, otherwise known as the Ghost. I’m what you would call a contract killer.” He took his goggles from underneath his scarf, but he accidentally dropped them. He dropped them into a portal at that. He didn’t realize but at that time he made a token. His goggles split and made multiple copies of itself and dispersed into the multiverse. The pony nor Clay realized what happened because it all happened in an instant. He picked up his goggles, and turned around to confront the pony. The pony was a midnight blue earth pony with a long black spiky mane. He had piercing black eyes. He wore no shirt exposing his hard earned, sculpted muscles. He sported a scar that’s in the shape of an X that covers his entire lower left side of his torsos. He wore some ragged brown torn up pants, and with that he wore black leather fur boots. The armor he wore was a black leather shoulder and arm guard brace that was on his right arm. And for his left side all he wore was a black leather arm brace. It was the same as his armor on his right arm just without the shoulder guard. “Will then Clayton Crow I go by the name Shao Dow. I’m what you would call a bodyguard.” The earth pony now known as Shao Dow introduced himself. “I’m surprised you healed so quickly from our last encounter. But really man did you have to kill our biggest employer yet? Like he played us so much and we barely had to do anything.” Shao Dow sulked. ‘We,” Clay thought. ‘That means the bow user is here..’ Scanning the area Clay couldn’t find hide nor hair of anybody but the pony in front of him. Clay was staring dead at the pony but in an instant the pony was gone. “Tsk. Tsk. Your mind is not focused on the battle.” Shao Dow spoke from behind Clay. Immediately Clay did a spin kick which the pony blocked with his arm. “You're strong for whatever you are.. but not strong enough.” Shao Dow grabbed Clay's leg and threw him into the air. The pony jumped up and elbowed Clay back to the ground before Clay could correct himself. “Damn.”Clay mumbled. Shao Dow was standing right infront of Clay taunting him. Pulling his knife Clay tried to stab Shao Dow to which The pony vanished right in front of his eyes. “As suspected. You have a quirk.” Clay said as he could feel Shao Dows sword coming down on him from behind. Dashing forward, the pony appeared in front of Clay, sword raised and smiling. Clay’s hair started to float up and his eyes turned read. “Gotcha.” Shao Dow brought his sword down on Clay hard, to which Clay parried with his knife. Sliding along the ponies blade Clay ran up and kicked him in the balls. Screaming out in pain the pony fell to his knees. Using this chance, clay grabbed the sword from out of Shao Dow’s hand. Raising it above his head Clay was about to bring it down on the pony. An arrow could be heard whistling through the air. “Found you.” Clay said as he spun and caught the arrow right before it made contact with his head. Tightening his grasp on his knife he threw it in the direction that the arrow came from. A scream could be heard. “Sis!” Shao Dow yelled out. He got back on his feet faster than Clay had expected. He went to take the sword from the human’s hand but instead got an arrow in his unprotected shoulder. Pushing through the pain the pony kicked Clay, throwing him to the side. His hair went down as he rolled on the ground. From the distance you could hear a woman yell, ‘I’m ok!’ Shao Dow ripped the arrow from his shoulder causing blood to flow out. “I’m gonna kill you, you… whatever you are!” He screamed in rage. “You can try.” Clay said as he slowly got up. His hair rose once again as his eyes locked on to Shao Dow. “But I just won’t die.” Using his scarf Clay wrapped it around the ponies neck, choking him slowly. The archer shot two more arrows from the same position, expecting this, Clay knocked them away. However he didn’t suspect four more Arrows to come from behind him. The arrows lodged themselves between his joints. Right in his elbows and kneecaps. Wasting no time Clay cut off the parts of the arrow sticking out and left the arrow heads in. Not being able to take the pain Clay blinked, giving Shao Dow the full use of his quirk. Taking out two daggers from behind his back, Shao Dow began teleporting around Clay, cutting him in quick succession. Clay had no time to counter him. More arrows were fired and found their way into Clay’s back. Causing him to scream out in pain. Falling to his knees Clay couldn’t take it anymore. He gathered the strength to open his eyes once more activating his quirk. “What an annoying power.” Shao Dow said right before he slashed Clay’s eyes, shattering his goggles. Leaving him blinded. That’s when Clay started to panic. “My eyes! No. No no no no no…. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! MY EYES!” Clay got up and started flailing around desperately. Having enough of Clay, Shao Dow ran his sword through his gut. Coughing up blood, Clay spoke. “How did it come to this…” Clay said, as he laid on the ground bloody and beaten. As he laid there He began to lose consciousness. “I should have never accepted that job….” Clay said coughing up blood, before falling unconscious.
Chapter Four: ExperimentsSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter Five: Break Out time.One week later (Clay POV) It’s been one week since I decided that I’m going to break out. And progress has not been made. My goal was to get some meat on my bones before I attempt the break out, but sadly I didn’t gain any weight. Those experiments left me as skinny as a twig. “Oi. It’s dinner time!” The guard yelled to get my attention. I didn’t bother looking at him, I knew he was there before he announced himself. My senses grew a lot stronger for some reason. He began to bang on the bars trying to get a reaction out of me. “I said dinner time.” He spoke calmly. I gave him a thumbs up and he walked away. I heard him let out a sigh once he got further down the hallway. On the wall of my cell I made a sketch. My claws are retractable like cat claws. And they come from my fingernails. They are strong enough to cut the concrete wall like butter. They remind me of those white haired boys claws on Hunter Hunter something… my brother watched that a lot. Except my hands don’t get all veiny. The sketch I made was what I remembered of the castle's layout. I didn’t have much to go off of, but it was enough. “Now all I have to do is wait.” I quietly said to myself. After an hour of waiting it was time for the guards to switch shifts. Once the guard in front of my cell walked far enough always, I cut through the metal bars letting them fall to the floor. (3rd POV) After watching the bars hit the ground, Clay stepped out of his cell. He rolled his shoulders and began walking briskly out of the dungeon. Once he got to the main corridor of the dungeon he peaked around the corner to see many guards along the walls. He noted that it was a wide space and a high ceiling. That’s when an idea hit him. And something else also hit him. “WE HA-” Before the guard could alert the others Clay quickly rushed over to him and punched him in the gut, knocking him out. ‘Phew’ Clay said internally. He dragged the unconscious guard to his cell and put him in it. Now back to his plan. Clay brought out his claws and silently hopped onto the wall. Using his claws he dug into the wall and with his inhuman strength scaled the walls and ceiling. Doing this got him out of the dungeon in around ten minutes. ‘I wonder why the guards didn’t notice I left my cell? Anyways..’ After that thought he jumped down into a hallway. He ran through the hallways of the castle like a madman until he found the exit. The guards were immediately alerted by him running around. They tried to stop him multiple times but Clay jumped over their head and kept running. The only ones that posed a problem for Clay were the unicorns. So when he saw one he’d just knock them out. Eventually he got frustrated that he couldn’t find the exit so he stopped to ask for help. “Excuse me.” Clay said to a maid that was cleaning a vase in one of the castle corridors. She was started by him and screamed. He put a hand on her mouth. “Can you point me to the… wait never mind.” He let go of the poor mare and jumped out of the window next to them. He had been so focused on finding the exit that he forgot he could just make one. While he was falling out of the window he could feel heat coming from his left. It was Starswirl and a couple of other unicorns shooting fireballs at him. Having no way to dodge he put his arms up to block. The fireballs made impact but did no real damage. With his skin being more durable from the experiments his arms barely burned. He hit the ground hard. But unlike before at the mansion, this time he is far more durable. He quickly got up and brushed the dirt off of himself. “You couldn’t wait another week?! Come on!” Starswirl yelled and began launching a variety of spells at Clay. Clay was avoiding them as best as he could. After a couple seconds the other unicorns began firing upon Clay as well but at a slower rate than Starswirl. While he was focusing on Starswirl and the others he heard the flapping of wings come from behind him. Looking over his shoulder he saw Faust flying straight at him while also avoiding the magic spells. In her hand was a sword pointed directly at him. Clay stopped moving and let the spells come straight at him. Both Faust and Starswirl noticed this and felt that something was wrong. As both the spells and Faust inched closer to Clay, he was busy gathering all the strength in his legs for one moment. He jumped! He jumped as high as he could, causing Faust to take the spells head on. She tried to pull back but wasn’t quick enough. She used her sword to block some of them while weaving through the spells. Of course, she took some hits but they were nothing to her. “Hold!” Starswirl bellowed out the order. Earth ponies and Pegasus soon came rushing out only to witness Clay axe kick Faust’s blade. No damage was dealt to the sword, but Clay's leg went numb when he made contact. Clay then kicked off of the blade to put some distance between them. Faust however immediately closed the distance by launching her sword like a spear. Clay still midair gets run through the gut by the sword. He landed on his feet only to fall to his knees coughing up blood. He slowly got up to see Faust wielding some floating stones. He tried to run away, but Starswirl stopped him. Some magic ropes sprang up from the ground and held Clay in place. Before he could break free a bright rainbow light enveloped him. His vision faded as all he could see was white. Starswirl’s eyes widened. “What a strange power…” he said in wonder while witnessing what just happened. This was the first time they had used it. Well what just happened was that Faust used the elements of harmony on Clay. Or as they were calling them, the Harmonic Stones. They were the product of a strange tree that Starswirl had discovered. He found them and brought them back to his queen. They had no idea what it would do but they knew how powerful it could be. They agreed to only use them if necessary. And apparently Faust found it necessary. Once the elements hit Clay a bright light flashed blinding everyone. When the light died down they could all see a small tree take the place of Clay. In the middle of the tree, Faust's sword could be seen sticking out both ends. Starswirl made his way over to Faust to discuss what happened. Faust raised her hand in the air catching all of her subjects' attention. “I have slain the enemy! You may rest now my loyal followers!” She shouted with a smile on her face. Every pony raised their fist in the air just like Faust and let out a victory scream of their own. ‘We will talk later, Starswirl.’ Faust used telepathy to say to Starswirl who nodded in response. And just like that 1,500 years passed by… everyone had forgotten about Clay. But as the days go by his tree withers even more. Until one day after a long time his tree began to crack until finally it revealed a person laying on the ground with a rusted sword in his stomach. His eyes fluttered open. “I’m no longer a tree!” He yelled at the top of his lungs once he realized what happened. He tried to get up only for his legs to fail him. “I’ve been a tree for so long I forgot how to walk…” he tried to get up again. Instead of moving he did what he did to move when he was a tree, he thought about where he wanted to be. He wanted to be on his feet. And now he’s on his feet. Except he didn’t actually move his legs… he used a quirk. He used Shao Dows quirk, Teleportation. He found out about this quirk while he was a tree. When he was a tree he had the ability to move from tree to tree by the roots. But after a while he learned to subconsciously transport himself to a tree just by thinking about it. This was the first time that he teleported his whole body instead of just his consciousness. “Hmm ok.” Clay thought. He then spent the next few minutes learning how to walk again. He was back at the castle and over time it had deteriorated. As did his clothes.. he was walking around naked with a rusty sword sticking out of him. He forgot that the sword was there because it’s been there for so long he stopped caring about it. He took it out anyways so it doesn’t leave any more damage than it already did. The wound started to bleed so he used his ripped up clothes to wrap around it, stopping the bleeding. Sometime later he found a suitable pair of clothes in one of the ruins of the Blueblood mansion. He found a long sleeve old torn dark grey shirt. With it he found and wore a pair of black pants with black boots. And low and behold his scarf was hanging on the wall. He grabbed it and put it around his neck where it was supposed to be. It looked like it didn't age a day, like him. He patted the dust off of his new clothes and nodded his head in satisfaction. A loud noise came from his stomach reminding him that he needed to eat. “I can’t wait to eat again.” Clay said as he started making his way to the forest. Author's Note Umm should I continue to write this in first or third person? Or do should I just switch it up every now and again? Oh and Clay’s time as a tree will be touched on more in later chapters. I need quirk ideas ._.
