Equestria Handyman

Making their way through the Everfree forest, the mane six follow Fluttershy, as she guides them deeper into the dangerous forest, after telling them the cause of her concerns, and how Chrysalis might be using Mark to make more harm than they originally thought possible.

“I have a bad feeling for having to show you this. The Everfree forest was supposed to be my Marky’s safe haven but if Chrysalis finds out what he is capable of doing I’m afraid of what she could do.”

They all reach a clearing where they see various sets of dummies, a circle lap to run and suspended rings held by logs.

“Mark made this?” Applejack questions impressed at the attention to details.

“Yeah this is his personal training ground, where he honed his skills to, well do what Daring told us.”

“So that is how he did it, well now I’m upset, you mean to tell me all this time he and I could have trained together but he decided to be alone?” Dash exclaimed in frustration.

“This is his safe haven Rainbow Dash, you have to understand, he didn’t exclude you out of spite and merely wanted time alone”

“Fluttershy is right, if Mark wanted to train alone, who are we to judge?” Twilight comments inspecting the dummies or rather the fist marks on them seeing how they were made of stone.

“Oh looks like Marky has been practicing his punchies.” Pinkie played with one of the dummies, “You think he can write his name with his fingers in one of them?”

“Most likely, he has the same power as Rockhoof after all.” Applejack reminds her with a shrug.

“Actually that is the reason I wanted to bring you here, he…has been testing his power.”

“Why? We already did that back at Ponyville with my help. His limit is a boulder the size of 4 chariots piled together.” Twilight mentions.

“It might have started like that but not anymore.”

“What? Did he tell you about how he broke rocks?” Dash questions Fluttershy, still slightly irked.

“No it’s nothing like that, it's just…please girls, you need to promise me that you are not gonna judge him after I tell you this! It is important for you to understand.”

“What is it sugar cube?”

“Promise!” She repeats with finality, as they blink and slowly nods at Pinkie even doing her whole pinkie promise ritual. Once satisfied, Fluttershy sighs and looks down.

“Mark is omnivorous, he can eat fruits and vegetables like we do but can also eat meat. And the flesh of the animals in the Everfree forest with so much protein in them can drastically boost his strength.” She finally explains pointing at a torn down thin tree.

“Ok that is lots to take in.” Dash was the first one to recover. “But so what, you say he can tear down a tree? Big deal, I can break much fatter ones.” Dash waves her arms dismissively but Fluttershy shakes her head. “That is only the tip.”

“Huh?”

Rather than answer Fluttershy grab her wrist and position herself in the center of the gym. “THAT is how strong he can get if he eats meat. Besides training his body to improved he simply didn't stop testing his limits, wondering how far he can go, see if he could reach an unimaginable hight, and after none stop training he did just that”

“What am I looking at Fluttershy? There is nothing there” Dash still looks confused.

“Keep looking, focus your head forward.”

She looks at her friend with a raised eyebrow before the spaces start to line up and she slowly gasps in horror “Holy cow! H-He DID THAT?!”

“Wh…what? What did he do?” Applejack gets confused and Dash is followed closely by the rest, who one by one see the extent of the hit. Leaving a clean imprint on a small mountain nearby and matching with the hole in the air rested a perfect shape of his fist the size of a house.

“That is how he beat a hydra.”

“What?!” They all look at Fluttershy in shock.

“You promised! You can’t make a big deal of this now.”

“Fluttershy this…this is insane! That is just the air pressure! The point blank force behind a fist if he could reach that far…how could he do anything without breaking them?!” Twilight questions still assimilating what she just witnessed.

“Like I said. It’s mainly a boost, and it doesn’t last long but if Chrysalis finds out, she could order him to do something real bad” Fluttershy looks at the distance in worry “We need to save him before it’s too late.” They all nod in agreement.

At that moment on the outskirts of the Minotaur Valley

While hiding under a hood, both Mark and Tirek made their way to the center of town toward a ruined tall tower where the second relic is located. Stopping occasionally when another Holstaur caught Mark’s attention forcing Tirek to drag him along.

“Would you please focus!” He reprimands as he grumbles from having to snap him out of it, for the tenth time.

“Stupid drone, just wanting to fight and Chrysalis say I’m the muscle brain!”

Mark could only glare at him while they made their way to their target.

“Look, I understand, I too would like to show these simple minded cows what real strength looks like, but we have a mission here! So while your marefriend is busy grabbing jewelry we have to go grab those gloves so we can rule everyone got it?”

Mark stays quiet, and nods as they keep walking until finally they find the tower being guarded by two Minotaurs, and lucky for them to be far away from the city.

“Haha easy, wait here wet blanket!”

Tirek rushes in and tackles the first guard hitting his face against the wall of the towel and leaving him unconscious. He goes to deal with the other only to find Mark already having dealt with him, the Minotaur buried in the wall of the tower so far only his hooves were visible, the Minotaur beaten and broken from what looks to have been one punch alone. The only sign that The Hunter had not slain the mighty bull man was a weezing groan escaping the hole in the tower wall.

“What the?” Tirek looks at the damage before looking at the other guard and how he only cracks the wall.

“Lucky shot, that side was clearly weakened…and that guard was probably very sick.”

Mark only rolls his eyes and they pull the unconscious guard inside before heading to the center of the room where a giant manhole was placed. Lifting the lid they find a set of stairs leading to a very dark tunnel.

“Ok let’s go” Tirek advances but Mark stops him. “What?”

He pointed at the stairs clearly made for Minotaurs and then pointed at his horse half.

“Think you can use them?”

“Wow so he can talk then.”

“Can you use them?” Mark repeats and after looking at the latter again he sighs in frustration.

“No.”

“And we don’t know how deep that tunnel is, want to risk breaking your legs by jumping?”

“Just get in there! And bring me the damn gloves!”

Tirek yells in frustration as Mark nods and enters.

“And if you see something magical there, bring that too. I’m starving.”

The human rolled his eyes as he made his descent as Tirek stayed to be a guard. Once at the bottom he inspected the place showing various images of Minotaurs showing their power by lifting boulders or in the middle of a battle. Engraved in the walls.

He takes a step forward only for the room to turn red and the gravity increasing forcing him to crouch struggling to move. Torches light up and in the middle of the room pillars of stone block the path occasionally leading to an altar where the gauntlets rest

Finding a pattern he tries to advance only for the title to turn blue and the gravity now pulls him with force toward a spike wall, grabbing a nearby pillar Mark grabs hold and steps on another tile that return the room to red.

Catching his breath Mark starts to think of something coming with an idea as he grabs hold of a loose chain and wraps it around the base of a statue. Turning the tile to blue again he grabs hold of said piece, and quickly chips away the base enough that with one punch it break loose completely and lets him use it as a shield for the spikes and hit the tile with a piece of rock to turn things back to red once more, leaving him in front of the gauntlets.

Standing up as much as possible he grabs them, shutting down the mechanism and letting him breathe once more to admire the gold metallic pieces with the face of two bulls at the shoulderpads with a space for the gems at their forehead, which he places before putting them on.

Suddenly the room turned blue once more and Mark was launched back against the wall, acting on instinct he raised his right arm and he found himself suspended in the air from two gravity forces and near the stair. Using his other arm he pulls himself toward it and exits the trap leaving him time to understand how the relic works.

‘Right is push and Left is pull. Gauntlets that let you manipulate gravity, awesome.’

He suddenly heard a commotion on the surface and rushing out he saw Tirek fighting a bunch of guards.

“What did you do!?” Mark chastised Tirek.

“You were the one that left a hole in the wall! This is YOUR fault!”

“Growling Mark used his new toy and pushed everyone around Tirek away before hugging his frame and aiming his arm down to push them into the air faster than the javelin could reach them. “A little warning would have been nice.” Tirek grumbles “And I’m taking one of those when we get back!”

He kept complaining as they reached their hideout, where Chrysalis was waiting.

“Ah my hunter returns!” She says in happiness.

“I’m fine too, thanks for asking.” Tirek grumbles. “This better be worth it Chrysalis we almost died back there.”

“Oh quit whining, here, have this and shut up!” She tosses him a necklace. “Don’t go saying we don’t include you.”

She then notices how Mark was bleeding from the side of his chest. “You were hit!” She rushes towards him and inspects the wound.

“Oh big whoop, that is a scratch” Tirek puts the necklace on and shivers at the energy. “Hey I could get used to this, Haha now only one left.” He mentions looking at the ring only to notice how Chrysalis was removing the shirt and inspecting the wound making him groan.

“This is exactly why I hate shows of affection.” He turns to leave, but Chrysalis ignores him and instead licks her finger to pull a strand of green goo from her mouth, “this might be cold but it has healing properties.”

Mark nods and shivers when she applies the goo in his injury forming an improvised set of stitches and numbing the pain.

“There, that should do it. And unlike the inferior form of medicine ponies use, my method will guarantee not a single scar will remain.”

She admits in pride, before getting surprised when Mark cups her cheek and brings her down to smile at her with adoration. “thank you my sweet changeling.” She was shocked once he spoke and even more so when he brought them into a soul searing kiss that made her get side tracked, and enjoy the love and skill of his tongue before returning to reality and the glow in their eyes to recast the spell before breaking apart, much to the humans confusion as he looks at her with hurtful eyes.

“O-Ok! T-that is enough.” Chrysalis speaks with a cracked voice before clearing her throat. “That is enough, b-better go practice with your new toys or something. I need to go prepare the last piece of the puzzle.”

Mark looks down dejectevely before nodding and walking away.

‘By the hive that was close! This human is dangerous!’

She looks at him suspiciously before looking at the vial they planned to use against Discord.

‘Should I dispose of him, I…no! No! I will not be intimidated! I will bend his will! No creature is more dangerous than me! No hunter will be able to tame me!’

She nods to herself before going back to study.

News of what happened in the land of the Minotaurs soon made headlines as the Princesses had a visit of a very angry king seeking blood for the humiliation of been robbed in broad daylight, forcing her to calm him down, do whatever she could to de-escalate the situation and not turn this into an international incident.

As bad as that is, it also gave both the princess and Twilight the clue of what was going on, and what Chrysalis, and now Tirek was after, and subsequently filled them with dread after finding out how dangerous those weapons could become.