Arthur's Honor

It had been a few days since the bar fight in Valentine. The boys had tormented Kieran enough for him to reveal an O'Driscoll campsite not too far away. After dealing with the nearby competition, and allowing Kieran into the gang, Arthur finally got himself a new horse. She was not that tall of a horse, but she had a shiny black coat. He hadn't decided what to name her yet as he was far too busy. He approaches Leopold Strauss who had a job for him
"What did you want? You loaning already?" Asked Arthur.
"You know how it is, people is happy to borrow off someone like me. But, More enthusiastically paying back to someone like you." Said the German with a cynical grin.
"Of course." Responded Arthur. "Who are they?"
"Let me see." Said Strauss.

He opens his ledger, with a lick of his thumb he looks through his book to find the names of the people that owed him money.
"A Chick Mathews, works at Guthrie farm. He's a hand I believe. Mr. Wróbel, the smallholder at Painted Sky, runs the operations there... badly. Miss Lilly Millet is a ranch maid up at Emerald Ranch." Strauss read off.
"And here was me believing Dutch's bluster about us helping folk." Responded Arthur.
"It's legal work, Mr. Morgan." Said Strauss. "Debtors belong in prison, we are doing them a favor."
"Aye, I'll make sure they see it in them terms." Said Arthur as he was about to turn away.
"Ah, there is one more I did briefly forget about." Said Strauss as Arthur turned back towards him. "This farmer, preacher, feller I met in Valentine, Mr. Downes.
"The opinionated little do-gooder?" Arthur asked. "Yeah I know the one. I certainly know the type."
"Thank you Herr Morgan." Said Strauss. "He's more slippery than he seems. I've tried being polite, don't take any nonsense."
"Nonsense, Me?" Joked Arthur.
"If he does not have the money, beat him." Strauss said bluntly.
"Well, I usually do." Said Arthur finally turning his back.
"I know, I know." Said Strauss with a sadistic chuckle.

Arthur mounts his horse and decides to visit Mr. Downes first. He rides down a dirt path for around a half hour before pulling up at the small farm house. In a small garden a small sickly man can be seen tending to it. Arthur hops off his horse and clears his throat, loud enough to catch Mr. Downes' attention. He gasps as he looks up at Arthur who had a very angry expression.
"You, uh. Whatever do you want?" Said Mr. Downes.
"Mr. Thomas Downes, you owe me money!" Said Arthur sternly as he stepped into the garden. "We ain't a charity." As Arthur got closer, Thomas Downes swung the rake he was holding at Arthur, fearful of the man. Arthur blocks it easily and punches Mr. Downes hard in the face, knocking him to the ground. If Arthur wasn't mad before, he was pissed now.
"Please, I have a family sir, please!" Begged Mr. Downes as he tried scooting away from Arthur.
"I don't care about your family!" Said Arthur as he planted his boot across Mr. Downes' face.

The kick busted the lip of Mr. Downes as blood began to run down his chin. Arthur continued to punish the man by giving him an undeserved beating, punching him, kicking him. The man's face swelled up and bruised as Arthur showed him no kind of mercy or compassion. He then picks him up and holds him against the fence surrounding the garden and gets in his face.
"You borrowed money from my business partner Herr Strauss! You owe him, you took the money! He wants it back, what's not to understand!?" Arthur yelled in the poor man's face. Thomas Downes coughs violently, spraying blood all over Arthur's face and even getting in his mouth. Arthur takes a second to wipe off his face as looks back at Mr. Downes. He holds his fist up to punch him again, but instead he just grabs ahold of his collar. "Where's our money!?"
"I don't have it." Said Thomas Downes, exhausted and weak.
"Sell your place." Said Arthur coldly.
"We already owe more than it's worth."
"Then sell your wife, or your family, or something!" Arthur Yelled back. "We ain't your idea of charity! Is that clear!?"

By now, Thomas Downes' wife, Edith, and her son had heard the commotion and had ran out of the house. Horror stretched across their face seeing Arthur holding onto a savagely beaten Thomas. Thomas continued to cough in a sickly manner as Arthur let him go, letting thomas drop to the ground.
"Thomas!" Edith yelled as she ran up to the garden.
"What you looking at!? Yelled Arthur, stepping out of the garden. "I said what you looking at woman!?"
"My husband isn't well!" Cried Edith. "If we could just have more..."
"Like I said, we ain't nobody's idea of charity! Get us the money!" Arthur yelled, cutting her off. Arthur hops on his horse as Thomas's wife and son come to his aid. Arhtur begins to ride off from the farm. He spits the taste of blood out of his mouth as he continues down the dirt road to go collect the debt from others.

As Arthur rode a creeping cold slowly rose up his back. He tries to shake it off but it soon creeps up to his shoulders, as if the cold wind grew a hand and placed it on his shoulder. He looks down to un fact see something there, a hand, but it wasn't a hand, but the paw of a lion. This causes Arthur to yell and jump, spooking his own horse that bucks him off. Arthur lands on the ground shoulder first, sending a shock wave of pain down his arm. He opens his eyes while on the ground to see two feet standing over him, one hoofed, the other scaly. This spooks Arthur agin to roll over onto his back and scoot back to whatever was standing over him. He looks up to see who it was, only to meet the eyes of Discord, now appearing out of his dream.
"Well done Arthur." Discord cackled.
"Get the hell away from me you!" Said Arthur slowly getting to his feet.
"I told you Arthur, the more bad you do, the closer I get." Said Discord. "Oh you should have seen the look on her face after what you had just done."
"On whose face? That fools wife?" Asked Arthur. Discord then chuckles at him.
"No, Celestia's." Discord said with a smile.

Arthur looked confused at Discord, he hadn't seen Celestia since the night after the bar fight a few days ago. He had almost forgotten the whole encounter if it wasn't for Discord popping back out now. Arthur couldn't tell if his mind was trying to piece together all his hallucinations, or if the two beings Arthur has been seeing are in fact real, and they know each other.
"I... I haven't seen her in days." Said Arthur.
"Oh I know you haven't. The more bad you do, the less you see of her, and the more you will see of me. You spared Jimmy Brooks' life, gave you an audience with Celestia outside of your dreams, and now that you have done this, beating the poor defenseless sick man, you now see me." Discord grinned. "Oh the look on Celestia's face, it was priceless! As soon as you swung that first punch on that poor farmer, she began to weep."
"I don't... I don't care!" Arthur yelled. "You ain't real, I know it." Discord responded with his grin getting wider and more devilish.
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. It matters not to me what you believe Arthur, in fact, I welcome your carelessness. It benefits me in the long run, now that you have set in motion your own end." Said Discord.
"The hell you talking about!? You and that bitch keep talking about my end! I ain't going anywhere, and you and that crazy bitch can go back to hell where you crawled from!" Yelled Arthur.

Discord began to chuckle, his chuckle then soon turned into a laugh, then into a demonic cackle. Arthur continues to back away from Discord as his laughter grew out of control. Arthur closes his eyes, just wanting him to go away and leave him alone. He counts to 3 before opening his eyes, when he does, Discord is in fact gone, but his laughter still booms in Arthur's head. Arthur approaches a tree on the side of the road and leans against it. He rubs his eyes and wipes his brow as he that falls to the ground. The experiences with Discord have the opposite feeling then he feels with Celestia. While Arthur feels calm and warm around her, all he feels around Discord is fear, agony, and anger. It was almost like every experience with him is a traumatic event. Arthur takes a minute to calm himself down, bending down and picking up his hat before placing it back on his head. He whistles for his horse which approaches him from the tree line. He hops back on it and goes on to collect the rest of the debt money Strauss had sent him to get.

It took Arthur all day to collect the debt money from the others. Wróbel didn't speak English, causing a lot of difficulties there, Lilly Millet turned the whole ordeal into a fight when her friend Cooper attacked Arthur who Arthur quickly knocked unconscious, and Chick Mathews decided to run leading to a chase on horseback. Arthur slowly strolled into camp well past midnight, he put the debt money into the camp funds before turning in for the night. It didn't take long for sleep to envelope Arthur, but his actions of the day played again in his dreams. His chase with Chick, his fight with Cooper, his raiding of Wróbel's house, and finally his savage attack on Thomas Downes. That moment replayed in his mind over and over again, causing Arthur to turn in his sleep uncomfortably. Eventually, after the moment is played in his mind one more time, his mind then focuses on a dirt road leading to a river. Standing at the river, was the Winged Unicorn Celestia. She seemed to look at Arthur with a sad expression on her face, tears flowed from her eyes as she just continued to stare into Arthur's soul. Arthur could feel his chest tightening, as if Celestia was portraying her sadness onto Arthur. After staring at Arthur for what felt like an eternity, Celectia closes her eyes as tears fall from her cheeks. She turned her back on him as she began to walk away. Arthur felt himself go to one knee as the sadness he was feeling was getting unbearable. Eventually he could hear someone saying his name.
"Arthur... Arthur... What's wrong?... Arthur... Wake up..."

Arthur snaps his eyes open and quickly looks to his side, Hosea was next to him with his hands on his chest trying to wake Arthur up.
"Arthur, good god son, wake up." Said Hosea.
"The... hell?" Arthur said as he sat up.
"You were giving me a fright Arthur. You looked like you were having a nightmare." Said Hosea. "Shaking and whimpering and so forth.
"It... was no nightmare." Said Arthur as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Good, good. Just making sure. I ain't never seen a man shake as you, and I have seen many at the end of my gun who were scared shitless for their own life. You take care of yourself Arthur." Said Hosea as he began to leave. "Get yourself a good meal, Charles brought back a good looking stag that Pearson put in his stew. May do you some good to get some grub in your belly."
"Will do Hosea." Said Arthur, he pulled his hand away from his face to see his fingers were damp.

Tears? Was Arthur really crying? The face of Celestia's weeping face flashed in Arthurs mind again, with it, the same tightening in his chest as sadness returned to him. He shakes his head to get his mind straight. He stands up, and approaches Pearson's wagon, stepping past the pot of stew and walking behind Pearson's wagon. There was a bucket of water which the group used for drinking and cooking. He picks up a ladle and gets himself a big glug of water. He dips it in one more time and splashes his face with it, hoping for it to wake him up a bit. The vision of Celestia soon fades from mind as that was exactly what he needed. He wipes the water away with his hands and goes on to start his day.