Peacekeeper

The afternoon sun shimmered above the small town of Ponyville. All the town seemed to be teeming with life, and from her bedroom window, Shining Armor could see it all. Mares and foals hurried through the streets carrying bags of groceries. If she listened closely, she could hear the conversations of every pony that past her home, though most of it was idle gossip that didn't interest her in the slightest. Birds chirped and fluttered through the air, and in the distance, and woodpecker could be heard pecking away at a tree. It was such a familiar sound that she could tell where the bird was; close to Ponyville was a dense forest and a grand oak tree at the front. That was where Armor had first found the woodpecker, and ever since, that was where she found it.

That bird was like the rest of Ponyville: predictable, repetitive, and aggravating!

Why did she have to be born in the most uneventful and uninteresting town on the planet? It wasn’t fair! Every day it was the same thing: gleaming sun, chirping birds, and one really annoying woodpecker. It would be nice, even if it was a one-time thing, if something cool happened. At least then she wouldn’t feel like her life was completely pointless.

The greatest day of her life would be the day she’d be old enough to move out. But she was still a kid that didn’t even have her mark; it would be a long, long time before she’d finally be free. Hopefully she could survive until then.

With a heavy sigh, Armor got to her feet and stretched. She needed to think of something to do before the boredom killed her. What should she do though? Race across the rooftops? Nah, she did that yesterday…and every day before that for the past two weeks.

She could hang out with her brother? The thought of spending an afternoon hearing Dusk Shine drone on about books made her shudder. He was nice, and she did love him, but he was painfully dull. That colt could go on for hours talking about anything, even apples.

That’s it! The Apple family had a herd of cows on their farm, and they were just begging to be tipped over. Trying it during the day was incredibly risky; plus she'd been grounded for dumping a bucket of pig feces on the school bully, so her parents would kill her if she snuck out, but that's what made it fun. High stakes made things so much more awesome.

Armor dropped out her window and rubbed her forehooves together, laughing mischievously. She scuttled through town, making sure she stuck to the shadows whenever possible. The round-about surrounding town hall posed a problem though. There was a crowd gathered around a flaming stake, and the Apple family farm was on the other side. Getting past the crowd was going to be tricky. Tricky, but not impossible.

Armor stared at the town hall rooftop and concentrated on her spell. She heard a quick pop and her world disappeared then rematerialized with the rooftop beneath her. Slowly, she peered over the ledge to check if anyone had seen her. To her relief they were all too busy watching the executions. With another pop, she was on the other side of the round-about, completely undetected.

Some ponies were beginning to leave, so the main streets were a bad idea. It’s a good thing she’d memorized a map of town. She knew the alleyways like back of her hoof, and before the crowd had completely scattered, she was at the tall wooden fence of Sweet Apple Acres.

Initially Armor tried to burrow her way under the fence, but then she realized that could trace back to her. The ponies of Ponyville knew how much she loved mischief so she’d definitely be the first suspect. A hole under a fence and a dirty mane was all the evidence her parents would need to ground her for a month. This needed finesse.

Armor backed away from the fence and stuck her tongue out to the side. She lowered her front, ready to burst into a gallop.

Your puny defenses are no match for me!

The mare shot forward and threw herself into the air, clearing the fence by a couple inches, and landed gracefully on the other side. She pretended to bow to a cheering crowd and punched the air in victory. When she saw Granny Smith walking out of the house, Armor barrel-rolled into a bush and waited. Armor eyeballed her as she passed the gate and strolled off towards town.

All clear. Move up on my mark…3, 2, 1, mark!

Armor stumbled out of the bush, much louder than she would have liked, and snuck to the back of the house. She dove into a bale of hay and stuck her face partway out. They were in a pen about a hundred feet away.

Targets in sight. Move up on the all clear.

Armor listened for any hint of the Apple family and, once she was sure the coast was clear, she galloped to the pen and pressed herself up against the wood. This was going to be fun! She stalked along the pen, searching for the perfect target. The calves were definitely a no-go or the mothers would be after her. Did cows have a pack mentality, or whatever it's called? If she went for one, would the rest try to protect her? Oh well, it looked like this was going to be a learning experience for her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.

Something was off here…

She slowly turned her head to her left and met the gaze of a large cow. It stared at her, stupidly, as it chewed its cud.

We’ve been compromised! Go loud, go loud!

Shining Armor jumped into the pen and raced at the next closest cow she saw. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH,” she screamed, as if it was a war cry, and threw herself at the cow with all her might. The cow didn’t even seem notice as Armor bounced off her thigh and smacked the ground. “Ow.”

To add insult to injury, the cow looked down at Armor and mooed. “Shut up,” Armor bitterly retorted.

Mission failed.

Armor rolled onto her stomach, and onto a cow pie, and pushed herself to her feet. She was about to leave the pen when all the cows began pacing about uneasily. “Yeah,” she taunted, thinking they were scared of her, “you better run!”

A cow smashed through the pen and rushed out, the rest stampeding behind her. “Uh oh.” She was definitely getting blamed for this. Causing mischief was one thing, but cleaning up was a lot harder. Armor jumped out of the pen and chased after the herd, curious to see what would happen (and see if she could stop it).

It was only a fleeting moment of chaos before all hell broke loose. Seven…wolf-things shot out from behind the trees and swarmed the herd. Whatever these things were, they were fast and they were vicious. Before the herd could even reach the bale Armor had hidden in, they were all ripped apart. Bits and pieces of Gods know what were strewn everywhere; Armor even felt a few droplets of blood hit her from the pen.

When the slaughter was finished, the beasts turned to the Apple family’s household. Armor trembled in terror as they smashed through the door and windows to storm the house.

She snapped back into reality and galloped across the kill zone. The sound and feel of her hooves splashing through pools of blood made her want to scream. Mutilated carcasses of calves and mothers were littered everywhere; the things weren’t even eating them. She couldn’t help but weep as she passed a calf, which had been ripped down the middle, as it whimpered to its dead mother. Ignoring the Apple family’s bloodcurdling screams, she ran around the house and struggled to get over the fence.

Shining Armor ran into town, crying and screaming in horror. She reached home and tried to open the door, but it was locked. “Open the door!” She shrieked and pounded frantically, praying for someone to open the door. “Mom, dad, Dusk, please open the door!” Any second now those things were going to kill her. “Let me in!” She could feel a warm liquid running down her back leg and smashed on the door even harder.

The door swung in and Armor collapsed on the floor in tears. “Good Gods Shining Armor, what happened?” Her father was kneeling at her side, shuddering at the sight of his daughter covered in urine, feces, and blood.

“They’re all dead,” she cried. “They killed everyone!”

“Who’s dead?” He wrapped his forelegs around her and let her cry into his neck. “It’s okay Shining Armor,” he placed a hoof on her head and held her even tighter, “you’re safe.”

Armor opened her eyes and saw her mother holding a sobbing Dusk Shine. “I’m sorry,” she cried, “I’m sorry.” If her dad let her go those things were going to kill her.

“Shhhh it’s alright dear,” her father tried to sooth her, but he was terrified too. Seeing his child in such a traumatized state was unbearable. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

When Dusk had been born, Armor’s parents wanted to use her room as a nursery because it was slightly bigger. “It’s for the baby,” they told her, “you’ll be doing a good thing,” but Armor didn’t care. She was born first, so why should she give up her things for some poop-factory she didn’t even know or care about? Where was the justice in that?

She kicked, screamed, threw tantrums, and cried until her parents finally caved and let her keep her room. The room itself wasn’t that special to Armor; in fact, Dusk’s room was a bit nicer than hers. What she loved about it though, was that it had a window. She’d spend hours staring outside, hoping to spot something interesting. There was no way she’d risk missing out on something incredibly awesome just so her baby brother could have a bit more floorboard to stare at from his crib.

But now the window was unbearable to look at. There was always at least one pony in the room to keep her company, and her dad had bothered to board up the window for her, but it wasn’t enough. Every word or sound she heard as ponies went about their days outside sent chills down her spine. Hours would drag by as Armor stared at the boards, squeezing her pillow for comfort, waiting for the moment when the monsters would break in and tear her apart.

Tonight was no different. Dusk was sitting next to her, telling her about his day at school. Armor’s mother was in the room too, but it didn’t seem like she was there to keep her company. The two had never gotten along since…ever. She’d heard her mother talk to her dad after he had put her in bed. Her mother had suggested that maybe Armor had made it up; that maybe, possibly without realizing it, she had killed everyone. What kind of pony says that about their daughter? She was probably just waiting to see if Armor would snap and try to hurt Dusk.

She and her brother had their arguments, and they frequently got on each others’ nerves, but there was no way she would ever dream of hurting Dusk!

The topic was only making her feel worse, so she tried to tune back in to what Dusk was talking about. Apparently the school bully, Pinkamena, was still bitter about Armor’s bucket prank and had started a rumor that Armor had lost her mind and killed everyone before peeing herself. When Dusk confronted Pinkamena about it, she shoved him into a puddle of mud, hitting him and calling Armor a psycho. Dusk was suspended two days for putting a hex on Pinkamena that covered her body in oozing boils. Not that Dusk particularly cared since everything he knew came from books anyway.

Their parents were furious though, and that was kind of funny.

“Don’t worry Armor,” he whispered, rubbing her foreleg, “I’ve got your back.”

His words were comforting, but Armor was still too scared to say anything. Every time she tried to say something, she felt like she was going to scream it and alert the monsters. She could still hear the Apple family’s screams. Why didn’t she try to help? After all her complaining about a dull life, she’d finally been given a chance to be a hero, and what did she do? Cry and wet herself like a damn baby. She was pathetic.

Armor started to cry again and held his hoof. He may have been the young one, but he was much stronger than her. She didn’t know what she’d do if she ever lost him, and she prayed to the Gods that she’d never have to find out.

The silence was eventually broken as her dad poked his head into the room. “Shining Armor?” He said gently, “there’s someone here to see you.”

Armor didn’t say a word, or show any sign that she’d even heard him. She began to panic as the others left the room, but then she heard the heavy clang of metal boots. A large armor clad unicorn walked in front of her and sat quietly. “Do you know what I am, Shining Armor?”

Armor took a quick look at the stallion and went back to staring at the window. His head, neck, and chest were covered by shimmering silver plates. On his chest plate was the symbol of the Solar Empire, a rising phoenix, so he was obviously military. The dead giveaways though were the three horizontal scars on his right foreleg. “You’re a Peacekeeper,” she muttered. “You’re job is to go around the Empire and arrest any pony that’s a threat to the public, so, what? Are you going kill me?” From what Dusk had told her, most ponies in Ponyville didn’t believe her, or maybe they just wanted her gone.

“That’s not all we do,” he said with a shrug, “we also hunt monsters.”

Armor’s ears pricked up and she looked back at him. “Are you saying you believe me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he leaned closer to her and smiled, “and I’m going to need your help.”

“How?” Armor asked, propping herself up.

“Well, you’re the only one who saw whatever attacked the Apple family, so I need you to tell me what I’m going up against.” The way he spoke was very strange. His voice was sincere and friendly, but it felt hollow…fake. This stallion was really unsettling. “What did they look like?”

Whatever, she thought to herself. Weird or not, he wanted to help her and that’s all that mattered. Armor closed her eyes and tried to picture the beasts, not that it was that hard. She could see them ripping apart the herd as clear as if she was still there. “G-grey fur…tall…they looked like wolves only they could stand up…”

“How many were there?”

The image of the dying calf wouldn't go away and she could hear its cries. She could feel and smell blood all around her. “Seven,” she whimpered. “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

“It’s alright,” he said with that same fake niceness, “you can stop now. I think I know what they were.”

“Great,” she said bitterly.

“What you saw was, and this is only a guess,” he said it like it was a light-hearted joke, “was a pack of animals called Sarowolves. They’re close relatives of the Werewolf, except they don’t need a full moon. They also have heightened strength and intell-”

“I don’t care!” Armor shouted and trembled, expecting one to jump through her window. “I don’t care what they are,” she said quietly, “I just want them dead.”

The Peacekeeper stood up and lowered his head politely. “That’s what I’m here for kid,” he said with a smile. Even though he was going to help, his disposition was really starting to piss Armor off. It felt like he was patronizing her.

He walked to the door, but Armor wasn’t finished. “I can fight,” she said without fear.

The Peacekeeper turned to her with a bemused look that Armor really wanted to hit. “Then maybe you should join the Peacekeepers when you’re older.” He left the room before Armor could think of something else to say.

Her dad walked back in and sat with her until she fell asleep. He tried to stay awake through the night, just in case she had a nightmare, but eventually he too fell asleep. The second he started snoring, Armor knew the coast was clear. Once the snoring started, it was almost impossible to wake him up.

Just to be safe, Armor took care to be as silent as possible as she snuck into Dusk’s room. Since he didn’t have a window, his room was completely dark. It also didn’t help that he had stacks of books everywhere. It wasn’t until she almost knocked down her third stack that she thought to use magic. Her horn glowed dimly and she crept around the books like landmines.

She shoved a hoof over Dusk’s mouth at told him to shut up. “I need you to cover for me. Mom and dad can’t know I’m gone, got it?”

Dusk raised his hoof to his forehead as a salute. She took her hoof off his mouth and crept to the door. “Where are you going?” he whispered.

Armor ran her hoof across her lips, signaling him to shut up. The two stepped into the hallway and Dusk patted her on the shoulder. Then, without a sound, he snuck into her room to cast a decoy spell. Armor didn’t wait to see if it worked and went to the kitchen for a knife.

Her dad had put off reorganizing the kitchen for months, so all the cutlery was jumbled in one drawer that creaked and rattled every time it moved. She slowly pulled it open, cringing every time it made a noise, and grabbed the biggest knife she could find.

With the knife in her mouth, she opened the front door and peeked outside in case the Sarowolves were waiting. Once it seemed clear, she breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door behind her.

If I was a Peacekeeper, where would I go? I’d want someplace high enough to see the town, so I’d probably go to…town hall.

A cat jumped onto a trashcan, tipping it over and making Armor squeak in fright. Freaking cats! She hated them!With a nervous gulp, she turned and set off for town hall. The main streets made her feel too exposed for comfort, but the alleyways just screamed, “Come here and you’re going to die!” so it looked like she’d have to stomach exposure. A song might have lightened the mood, but a single peep would probably be the death of her.

When she reached the roundabout, she peeked out from behind a wall and scanned for danger. It seemed safe, but maybe that was their plan- lower her guard. She shivered at the thought and she swung her knife behind her, brutally slashing the air.

Once she felt that she wasn’t being watched, she looked back at the town hall rooftop. It was hard to see him in a prone position, but Armor could see a few hairs from his unarmormed mane swaying in the breeze. She teleported onto the roof and immediately stared down the barrel of a revolver. “Armor, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I-I w-w-wanted to help,” she trembled. The gun was aimed right between her eyes.

The Peacekeeper sighed and lowered the gun. “Go home kid, you’ll only get hurt.”

“But-”

Instantly, the revolver was pressed against her forehead. “Do. Not. Test me.” Without another word, he lifted Armor off the roof and dropped her on the street. When she glared up at him, he pointed towards home.

With her head hung in shame, she skulked down the street and turned right to go home. The moment she was out of sight, she pressed up against the wall and waited. It’d take a lot more than a gun to the face to change her mind! This wasn’t something she wanted to do, this was something she needed to do. The Apple family was dead because of her, so she had to help make things right. And no, giving a vague description of a pack of psycho-mutts did not count as helping!

The ominous streets of Ponyville, Peacekeepers, Sarowolves, and Gods know what else meant nothing. If she had to die to avenge the Apples, then she would die gladly. Screw waiting around for things to happen! She’d be the one who makes the incredible happen!

Armor hoped a Sarowolf would jump in front of her so she could stab it to death. She wasn’t afraid anymore. Now she was just pissed. A wolf howl echoed through the streets and held her kitchen knife at the ready. She peeked back at town hall just in time to see the Peacekeeper leap, probably fifty feet, onto another rooftop and run off. He was headed toward the annoying woodpecker’s oak tree.

Bingo!

Armor galloped through the alleyways, never bothering to check the rooftops, and skidded to a halt in front of the oak tree. Damn, she missed him!

Now what?

As if the Gods were answering her, a twig snapped somewhere in the trees to her right. She looked up and saluted the stars with a smile. “Much obliged.”

Hastily, she rushed into the forest with her knife pointed like a bayonet. In the thrill of the moment, Armor forgot that bravery didn’t mean she was sneaky. Twigs snapped, leaves and bushes rustled, birds squawked in surprise, but Armor didn’t notice or care. The Sarowolves were close; she could feel it. If only she ‘felt’ the tree root before it tripped her.

Armor took a deep breath and calmed down. A Peacekeeper would wait and listen for a sign, so that’s what she did. She closed her eyes and pricked her ears every which way for a lead.

Trees…wind…SARO- no just an owl…growling…boom.

Armor opened her eyes and grinned proudly. They were going to rue ever stepping into her territory. She spun her knife in the air and fantasized how she would kill each one as she stalked through the forest without a sound. She was in the zone!

She could hear them arguing with each other, getting louder with every step.

“Just give us a breather man! Rorschak’s been shot for God’s sake.”

“A breather?” another hissed. For savage monsters, they spoke surprisingly eloquently. “You want to take a break with a Peacekeeper running after us? Are you insane or just incredibly stupid?”

“Well what are you suggesting,” the first growled, “that we leave him to die?”

“If it lets us live, you’re damn right!”

Armor saw them through the bushes and held her knife close. However she failed to notice a fallen tree branch and squeaked as it snapped beneath her hoof.

“Scatter!”

Damn it!

She leapt over the bush, ready to be swarmed, but the wolves were already gone. Rorschak was on the ground bleeding from his side, but the sight of the puny mare swinging a knife at nothing made him burst into laughter.

“You messed with the wrong town pal,” Armor said boldly. She swung the blade at his head and gulped when he swatted it away. “I-I have magic.”

“I saw,” he mocked, “impressive.” Before Armor could even scream, the Sarowolf had both hands around her throat. He squeezed tighter and tighter laughing dementedly. “I’m going to pop your head like a zit,” he chimed. Armor hit him with her forelegs, but seeing her squirm helplessly only made the kill more fun.

A gunshot rang through the air and Rorschak fell onto her, dead. Armor gasped and coughed, taking in every breath as if it was her last. A blue aura threw the corpse off of her and slammed her against a tree.

The Peacekeeper was glaring at her, and he was pissed.

Shining Armor had her ear pressed up against the bedroom door, listening intently as the Peacekeeper yelled at her parents. She didn’t regret sneaking out, but she did feel bad for her parents.

“I am not here to take care of your child,” she heard the Peacekeeper shout, “control your damn daughter or I swear to Solaris I will put a bullet in her skull for hindering a Peacekeeper investigation.” Armor flinched when he shouted, “Do I make myself clear!”

The door slammed shut violently as the Peacekeeper’s hoofsteps clanged down the street. Armor could hear her parents walking up the hallway and she scrambled back just in time to avoid being hit by the door. Her dad walked in ahead of her mother and glared with a look of disappointment and bottled-up rage. Whenever he was angry he’d grind his teeth together, and right now his jaw looked like it was having a seizure.

“Dad I-”

“Don’t,” he voice trembled with anger, “don’t.”

Her mother was pacing around the room, and from the look of the fur under her eyes, she’d been crying. “You could have been killed,” she said, too angry to look her daughter in the eyes, “why can’t you ever just do what you’re told? You always have to make things so difficult for everyone around you.”

This was the first time Armor felt like her mother was being sincere, and it made her want to cry. “Mom I’m sorry,” she whimpered, “I’m sorry but I-”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses,” she cried. She knelt down and put a hoof on Armor’s mane. “I just want you to behave. Please Shining Armor, I don’t want to lose you.”

Armor nuzzled her mother’s foreleg and started to cry. “Okay,” was all she could manage. But life is like a drug addicted friend- no matter how much you want to change, it’ll always try to stop you…

Three days had passed since Armor fought the Sarowolf and it finally seemed time to head back to school. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing her classmates, but getting back into a normal routine would be good. Normality for Armor always involved mischief, but she’d promised her mom she’d behave; at least, that was the plan.

“I’m starting to think this was a bad idea,” she told Dusk as they approached the school. Since Ponyville wasn’t that large of a town, the decision was made to put all the students in one school.

“You’ll be fine,” Dusk reassured, “the big story now is that Clover Green threw up in the lunch room. Plus,” he nudged Armor, “you’ll have me by your side whenever possible.”

“It’s the unpossible parts I’m worried about.”

“Did you really just say that?” Dusk was appalled with her bad grammar. “Impossible,” he corrected.

“Shut up,” she laughed.

Dusk was about to lecture her on the importance of proper grammar when his saddlebag tore open, spilling his books on the ground. Armor didn’t notice as her brother stopped to pick them up, but she did hear Pinkamena.

“Good morning Dusk,” Pinkamena said bitterly. Where she and posy of skanks (Armor didn’t know their actual names, so she nicknamed them Skanks One, Two, and Three) had come from, Armor had no clue.

“Hello Pink-”

Before he could finish, Pinkamena shoved him to the ground. “I didn’t say you could talk!”

Armor floated Dusk’s belongings to herself and loudly cleared her throat. “Dusk, your bag wouldn’t break so often if you’d just stop carrying so many books.” She smiled at Pinkamena.

Be polite.

A crowd had gathered around them, eagerly awaiting a fight. “Well, look who it is,” Pinkamena smirked, “your mommy finally get tired of changing your sheets?”

The crowd ‘ooed’ and some kid shouted, “Oooo Armor, you gonna’ take that?” Why was there always at least one idiot trying to speed up the fight?

“Don’t you think you should wear a diaper, just to be safe?”

“Oooooooh snap,” the same idiot called.

The insults were pretty lazy, but for some reason Armor couldn’t keep quiet. “So Pinkie,” she said with a smile, “I heard my brother gave you some pretty nasty boils.” Armor chuckled lightly as Pinkamena glared at Dusk. “Gosh,” Armor shook her bangs to the side, “it must’ve been nice not having your dad try to fuck you in your sleep.”

Every pony around her gaped in shock; not even the idiot said anything. “Come on Dusk, we’ll be late for class.” Dusk scrambled to her side and picked up his books. “Pinkie,” Armor nodded, “skanks.”

The crowd silently parted, letting the siblings pass, and stared at Armor. As they walked into the school, Armor heard a scream and, before she could turn her head, Pinkamena was on top of her. Cheers could be heard as the two rolled around pummeling each other.

The fight didn't last long before a teacher had thrown them both into the Principal’s office. Armor was furious that she was the first to get a lecture. “The school day hasn’t even started, and already you’ve picked a fight,” the earth pony scolded. “Listen Shining Armor, I understand that what happened was traumatizing, but you can’t take it out on your peers.”

“Whoa,” Armor interrupted, offended, “this had nothing to do with that. She was bullying my brother, and I stopped her.”

“You should have gotten an adult-”

“A teacher? That’s your solution to me and my brother getting harassed? If I wasn’t there, that bitch would’ve-”

“Language!”

“Fuck you!” Armor shouted, rising to her feet. “That bitch told everyone in school that I killed the Apple family! Where the fuck were the teachers then, huh? My brother got his ass kicked when he told her to stop, and you suspended him! How the hell is that fair?”

“He put a hex on her-”

“Because she beat him up!”

“The way you handled the situation was unacceptable-”

“Why, because I didn’t ask nicely? Am I supposed to care more about her feelings than the safety and well-being of me and my brother? That makes no fucking sense!”

“W-”

“She tells the entire school I’m a murderer that wets the bed, but Gods forbid I make up one fucking thing about her!”

“What you said wasn’t a lie!” He immediately regretted saying that, but Armor had a way of pushing his buttons.

“Wait,” Armor mumbled, “w-what?”

“Her birth father- If this happens again,” he said calmly, “you’re expelled. Go to class before you make things worse.”

Without a word, Armor walked out of his office and looked at Pinkamena, who was crying. “Um, Pinkie?” Armor felt terrible, but she had no idea what to say. “I…I’m sorry.”

She ignored Armor and walked into the Principal’s office, but Armor didn’t want to leave. She had to make things right, even if it was Pinkamena. Waiting quietly in the hallway was agonizing.

“Pinkie,” Armor said when she finally came out, still crying, “could-”

“Leave me alone,” she choked. Her legs gave out and she broke down by the adjacent wall, sobbing into her hooves. “Just go away!”

Armor moved to Pinkamena’s side and let her cry. “You’re right,” she said once Pinkamena’s tears began to stop, “I could have helped them, but I was too scared to do anything. They were killed, and I let it happen.”

“You’re just a kid,” Pinkamena muttered, “You would have been killed too.”

“Or maybe I could have saved them.” Armor looked at the floor in shame. “Distracted the things while the Apples escaped, snuk up on them with a knife, or, I don’t know, something else.” She sighed and held up her hoof. “Truce?”

Pinkamena rubbed her eye, sniveling, and gave a weak smile.

Seeing Armor and Pinkamena sit together during lunch nearly blew Dusk’s mind. For all the books he’d read, after everything he’d learned, he couldn’t figure out how they’d become friends. For the first few days, the two fillies would sit with each other silently, which felt like the uneasy silence in the eye of a hurricane, but after a week, the two were best friends.

They’d talk about their day, complain, and occasionally have what Armor called ‘joke wars.’ Most of the jokes were terrible or crude, but the two thought they were hilarious. Pinkamena stopped bullying and, for once, Armor found school bearable.

A month later, the two were walking past town hall, laughing after another joke war. When the Peacekeeper strolled past them though, Armor stopped dead. He was leaving.

“Hey,” Armor shouted, “where are you going?”

The Peacekeeper didn’t bother looking at her when he spoke. “It’s time for me to leave.”

Armor chased after him, panting anxiously. “W-what about the Sarowolves? They’re still out there.”

“I haven’t seen anything in a month and I can’t wait here forever.”

“So you’re abandoning us?”

He sighed and looked down at Armor. “This isn’t my choice Shining Armor, I’ve been given another assignment. I’ve been teaching a group of ponies on what to look out for alright? They’ll take care of you if the Sarowolves try anything.”

“But-”

The Peacekeeper’s horn glowed and a blue aura surrounded his body. “I’ll check back in a week.” He warped away before Armor could say anything, leaving her in tears.

It took three nights before Armor could fall asleep, but even then she didn’t sleep for long. Her dad rushed into her room, tore the sheets off her bed, and shook her awake. “Wake up Armor,” he whispered frantically, “you need to get up!”

“Dad,” she asked groggily, “w-”

He pulled her out of bed and rushed her downstairs, her mother was doing the same with Dusk. Her dad pulled a large knife from the kitchen drawer and eyed the ceiling nervously. Something was running across the rooftops. “The streets aren’t safe,” he whispered, slowly pushing open the backdoor and rushing his family into the alleyway. The roar of burning buildings and the shrieks of ponies filled the air.

The four galloped through the alleys, but they didn't get far before a large Sarowolf jumped down in front of them, smiling. Two more Sarowolves looked down at them from the rooftops and laughed as Armor’s father attacked. The wolf in front of them ducked under the knife and slammed his head against the wall.

Armor’s mother dropped to her knees, screaming in agony. The wolf smothered her with one massive hand and held her head in the pool of blood. “Ah ah ah,” he sang in a high cheery voice, “if any of you make so much as a peep, I’ll rip out their tongue and feed it to the others.” He rushed in front of Armor and smelled her neck. “Yes, you’re the one from the forest,” he smiled as he cut her cheek with one claw. “We have something special for you.” Armor shuddered as he licked the blood off her face.

The three were taken to town hall, where every other pony had been gathered, and pinned to the ground. Five ponies with rifles slung over their shoulders had been hung from the rooftop for all to see. Armor saw fillies sobbing as their parents tried to consol them, couples, both young and old, holding each other as they waited for the end, and a few ponies with broken legs.

The leader walked into the crowd and pulled a young filly into the air, crushing the parents when they tried to fight back. He walked up to Armor and made her watch as he choked it to death. Armor squirmed and cried as she saw the light fade from the filly's eyes. “Let’s have some fun,” he grinned and tossed the body aside.

One by one the leader brought forth a pony and slaughtered it in front of Armor. She was forced to watch as the ponies she grew up with were suffocated, beaten, mauled, burned, shredded…If she tried to look away, the kill was drawn out.

The last pony to be brought up was Pinkamena. Time halted as the two friends stared into each others’ eyes, crying as they nodded farewell. Pinkamena gave a weak smile as her head was wrenched sideways with a sickening series of pops. “Wow,” the leader laughed, “did you hear the way her neck bones snapped? Hey,” he yelled to the three Sarowolves watching from the rooftops, “tell me wasn’t beautiful!”

The wolves yipped and cackled with glee along with their leader. “Now,” he chimed, spinning back to the three ponies left, “who’s next? Eeny…meeny…miny…moe.” His long index finger was pointed at Armor’s mother. He grabbed her by the neck and propped her in front of her children.

“It’s okay,” she cried, “you’re going to be alright. Dusk, Shining, never give up on each other okay? Dusk, I know you’re going to grow up to do great things. Shining, you need to be strong for your brother, no matter how hard things get. I know we’ve had more than our fair share of fights, but I could never ask for a more courageous and loving daughter. I love y-”

Before she could finish, the leader ran a claw across her neck, cutting her jugular. Only once the blood stopped spurting did he drop her to the ground. “What a boring speech,” he sighed. The leader walked over and knelt so close to Armor his snout could almost touch her muzzle. “Any last words Shining? Don’t worry, you can talk.”

Tears were streaming down Armor’s cheeks. “Why are you doing this?”

The Sarowolf cackled shrilly at her question. “Why?” He shouted to the others, “she wants to know why we’re doing this!” All the wolves laughed as he knelt back down. “Because it’s fun.”

There was a long period where the only sound was of the town burning until Dusk Shine broke into loud, terrified sobs. “Oh,” the leader said, grabbing Dusk, “looks like we have a volunteer for the tongue ripping!”

Armor shrieked and fought to break free of the Sarowolf holding her, but she was too weak. The leader pried open Dusk’s mouth and pinched two claws onto the tongue, making Dusk scream as it bled.

Dusk’s screams, her mother’s last words, or Gods know what filled Armor with utter fury. Magic surged through her and she screamed as her eyes burned a blinding white. The leader dropped Dusk and cocked his head in confusion. He hadn’t expected this, and he looked scared.

He felt a mild headache that quickly turned into an agonizing migraine and he gripped his skull, screaming. His last moments were spent in excruciating pain until his head exploded like a firecracker in a watermelon. Armor looked at the two stunned wolves behind her and forced their bodies to disintegrate, starting from their feet so they lived as long as possible. When they were nothing but ash, she turned to the other three and charged.

A line of fire swiveled through the air and down the gullet of the nearest wolf. Without stopping, Armor lifted the wolf up and hurled it into one of its pack mates with bone crushing force. The one remaining wolf leapt at her, snarling, only to be impaled through the chest with a piece of wood.

Armor jumped onto the beast and savagely bashed its face with her hoof. It was already dead, but she couldn’t stop. It wasn’t enough; they didn’t suffer enough. They needed to feel the same terror and pain she felt. No, they needed something worse.

The wolf’s skull cracked in, but still Armor couldn’t stop. She wanted them back so she could torture them to death. A thousand years wouldn’t be enough time for them to suffer. The thought of them burning forever in Hell wasn’t enough for her. She needed to be the one to make them suffer.

Armor punched the face, which could no longer be considered a face, harder and faster than ever. The squishing and splashing accompanying each hit rang in her ears. It sickened her, but  she couldn’t stop. Even when Dusk put a hoof on her shoulder, she kept hitting. Even after Dusk pulled her away, she went on beating and splashing in the pool of blood...