Absolute Overhaul

Being several days into their return trip, the group has finally made it back from the backlands and are about to exit the everfree forest within about an hour. Despite this, it didn’t take much for everyone to notice Silver not acting like himself. When they were passing through the Everfree on their way to the changeling hive, Spike asked him not to attract so many timberwolves but Silver took it as a challenge to try to get a timberwolf to attack him. Yet, now he was absolutely quiet, observing every single detail around him. It was clear that he found something very off-putting.

“Hey Crimson,” Silver said,

“Yes, I feel it too.” Crimson replied before Silver could even ask his question, “Her magic still lingers in the air.”

“I see.” Silver said, trying to hide his rage in his voice,

“What’s going on?” Twilight inquired, “Who is ‘her’?”

“Princess Cadence, I assume you are familiar with her.” Crimson replied, “Ever since Chrysalis’ failed invasion in Canterlot, Chrysalis has given us a kill on sight order if we found her during any of our other jobs.”

Twilight felt horrible knowing that she played a big part in releasing Cadence during Chrysalis’ invasion of Canterlot. “But why would she be in Ponyville?”

“The only good news about this situation is that she isn't here any longer.” Crimson replied, “And the reason why she was here was more than likely to kill Chisaki, or at least decommission him for a while.”

“After encountering him, I bet she got killed before she even knew what she was up against..” Rainbow said confidently, “From what Fluttershy said, he’d won a four against one against some ponies who work for Mare Snuff.”

“But this time, I wouldn’t be so confident in him.” Silver said, “Cadence is an alicorn which gives her both immense strength and a near limitless mana-pool. And she may not look like it, but she is very skilled in both combat and magic. I actually learned that the hard way. I also doubt that she was the only one who was sent here, because Celestia wouldn’t send one of her best assets alone if she had heard about what Overhaul can do.”

“So you're saying it could’ve ended up being 100 against 1?” Spike asked

Twilight spoke before either mercenary could answer, “Not necessarily, there is a likely chance that my brother, Shining armor, was the only one accompanying her. And his magic shields are near impossible to break from the outside, so there is no guarantee that Chisaki could get to them.”

“But that's not even the worst part.” Crimson said, “We’re almost there, so it would be easier to show it to you instead of explaining it.”

Crimson was right, the exit to the forest was just up ahead. But what had happened to Chisaki that was causing them so much displeasure? While Twilight doubts that Cisaki was killed during his encounter with Cadence, she seriously doubted he was completely unscaved from that encounter. Arriving at the shallow river that separated the Everfree and Ponyville, it was obvious that a fight had broken out here sometime ago. The land was torn up, two massive curved pillars were made, making a giant arc of dirt and stone with a blood splatters at the collision point. What once was a bustling little town looked almost completely deserted now. They could only see a few ponies walking around but none of them quickly vanished back indoors once they were seen.

“Okay…” Pinkie pie said, “This is creepy.”

“You have not seen anything yet.” Silver said as he opened the door to Fluttershy’s cottage

Inside was a complete mess, what once was a lounge area for guests had been utterly destroyed. Broken glass was scattered everywhere from a broken lamp, the couches had been slashed by what looked like claws, tables had been turned over, nothing was spared. Standing at the center of this destruction was Chisaki who wasn’t looking, much less acting, like himself. Once he had noticed them at the door, he lunged at them with murderous intent.

With one quick motion, Silver countered Overhaul’s attack with a swift punch to his gut, knocking him to the other side of the room. Silver stretched out his iron gauntlet, summoning a black-ish purple fire in his hands. Clamping down on this fire, onyx black chains sprouted from the floorboards binding Chisaki to the floor by each of his four limbs. Writhing around, Chisaki growled like a wild animal as he tried to break the chains only for them to not budge in the slightest..

“OH MY GOODNESS! What happened to him?” Rarity asked, terrified at what had just happened

“This is Cadence trump card,” Silver explained, “it is an amalgamation of several different spells. The base spell was originally a changeling aphrodisiac. Crimson is more familiar with it than I am, he can explain the rest.”

“The spell was used as a torture method by changelings during the reign of Queen Insectonia, Chrysalis’ mother.” Crimson explained as he approached Chisaki's writhing body, “The victim would have their hands bound above their head as the magic aphrodisiac’s effects would grow more powerful with each hour, driving the victim mad. Although, it’s usage had been completely halted after it was considered far too unreliable compared to the other methods of that era. But after Queen Inseconia death, the spell’s contents fell into pony hand’s and eventually into Cadence’s.”

“Wait you knew Queen Insectonia?” Twilight asked,

“Knew her?” Silver responded, “Ha! We were her personal assassins for over 300 years!”

“Elder brother, shut up.” Crimson demanded, “I need to concentrate.”

Crimson applied the palms of his gauntlet against Chisaki’s chest, making a purple glow at the contact point shortly afterwards. Removing his hand, a small pinkish-purple orb appeared in his hand, a physical embodiment of Cadence's magic. Clasping his hand shut, Crimson shattered the orb in tiny fragments and let them drop to the ground where they quickly dissipated into smoke.

With Cadence’s magic removed, Chisaki quickly calmed down before closing his eyes and passing out. Once everyone’s adrenaline rush had ended, they began to take in even more details of Chisaki’s state. His skin was pale, and there were large bags under his eyes, as if he had not slept in a few days. The clothes he wore had been torn in several places, revealing bruised skin all along his arms and legs.

“His condition is extreme, not quite critical yet.” Silver said, knelt down and inspected Chisaki’s body, “Judging by his condition, has been rampaging for 2 days now, and today would’ve been considered the third. An indirect side effect of this spell is malnutrition and dehydration, because the victim is usually too preoccupied with trying to satisfy their desires to worry about anything else.” Silver turned his attention to the rest of the group, who were too scared to approach any further, “You, the yellow one. Come here.”

Fluttershy walked up to them before Silver spoke to her, “Your name is Fluttershy, and you were the owner of this house, right?”

“Y-yes sir,” she replied trying her best to maintain her composure

“I will help you take Chisaki upto a guest room, and lay him down on a bed.” Silver instructed, “Wake him up in about an hour, I’ll have something made for him to eat and drink by then. You just need to make sure his condition doesn’t worsen to a critical state.”

Fluttershy nodded, before Silver picked up Chisaki and placed him on his back. As Silver followed her up the stairs, Fluttershy led him to her room because she no longer had a guest room. Normally Fluttershy would use the main floor as a guest room, but that was in no condition to be used as such. Opening the door, Silver paused for a moment before speaking.

“This is your room, isn’t it?” Silver asked rhetorically before dropping Chisaki onto her bed. “How scandalous.”

Fluttershy brushed brightly at that comment, as Silver left the room and closed the door behind him without saying another word. It was almost as if he hadn’t even said it.

Fluttershy had only been given one thing to do, and that was to look after Chisaki’s condition for the next hour. There was no questioning that it was extremely important, but within fifteen minutes it left her feeling so useless. She wanted a way to help him, but there wasn’t anything that she could do to help him… Well… There was one thing she could do.

Fluttershy removed Chisaki’s mask allowing her to take off his coat and shirt much easier. She was relieved to see that most of his wounds were superficial and didn’t require to be tended to much, but there was a large scratch on his chest that had started healing already. Walking over to her closet, Fluttershy pulled out an old first aid kit, the box was a little dusty but everything inside was still brand new. She poured some alcohol onto a small cotton ball before she began cleaning his wounds. Even in an unconscious state, Chisaki’s body seethed whenever an open wound came into contact with the alcohol.

After a little while of trying to clean the wound, Fluttershy grabbed some bandage and began wrapping it around Chisaki’s chest. Tucking the end of the bandage in, so that it wouldn’t come undone, Fluttershy was happy at the job she had done. By no means was it professional quality, but it would hold. But not too much later, Chisaki slowly began regaining consciousness.

“Ow…” Chisaki said, as he tried to prop himself up on Fluttershy’s bed, “I feel like s**t”

“Don’t push yourself! You are still recovering.” Fluttershy said

“I don’t intend to.” Chisaki said, before going into a small coughing fit,

“Hold on, I’ll get you some water.” Fluttershy said

“Wait,” Chisaki said, “Could you stay here?”

Fluttershy was a little surprised at his request, but she gladly obliged. “Of course.”

At first Fluttershy thought that Chisaki was going to tell her something else to do, but he stayed silent as he stared off into space. For what felt like an eternity, not a single word was spoken between them.

“I’m sorry.” Cisaki said, surprising Fluttershy, “I got cocky and wasn't able to stop them. I had the chance to end them, several even, but I chose to entertain myself by holding back on them which only resulted in me into this condition. I thought I had hurt them enough so that they’d just bleed out over the next couple hours, but I heard something that would tell me otherwise. I vividly recall hearing the flicker of a teleportation spell, that is the last thing I can recall before my memory becomes hazy.”

Fluttershy tried to stop him mid rant, but failed miserably. “But there is still some good to come out of this, I found a way to end this all. There is a spell that allows me to reset this world, but getting to the point where I will be able to use it will be no easy task.”

Fluttershy thought this was just some made up mid-recovery ramblings, but Chisaki’s eyes told her something else. He was serious and the fire that drove him to do everything he had done up to this point grew exponentially now that he had a clear path to take to reach his goal.

A few days later, Chisaki had recovered and had begun making preparations for his grand plan. As the day grew long Chisaki wrote down every step he would need to take in great detail, just so someone had his plans in case he didn’t survive. Eventually a looming shadow was cast down upon him, followed by an unfamiliar voice.

“So you must be Overhaul?” Chisaki looked up and saw Chrysalis standing in front of him

“And I assume you are the queen of the changelings?” Chisaki replied

“Yes I am.” Chrysalis responded, “Over the past couple of days I have been considering your offer to have an alliance between both the changelings and the ponies loyal to you. If your goal truly is to kill Celestia then I will accept your offer.”

“You must be mistaken about my goals.” Chisaki said, “My goal is to reform this world, not kill Celestia. Will that be one of the steps to my goal? More than likely. But that does not mean it is my goal. I wish to salvage as much as I can from the ashes and build a new world, one without hate nor predijust nor fear. This world I will create will be an Absolute Overhaul from the world you know.”