The small band of outlaws galloped across the desert, taking the spoils of another successful heist to their hideout hidden inside an old mineshaft. The group of outlaws stop, catching their breath and taking drinks, it was a long run. The group look at their spoils, feeling good that they had gotten away once again.
"Here's to another job well done, boys!" The leader shouts, raising his waterskin. After a long drink, he turns to face the direction they came from, almost gloatingly. "Ha, them damned sheriffs didn't know what hit 'em when Saddle used that dynamite!"
The group laugh heartily, all except for one, an orange pony with a black mane and blue eyes, clad in a tan duster and a black Stetson hat, by the name of Gunsling.
"You could'a killed them! We swore that we wasn't gonna be murderers."
"So you're fine with armed robbery and it's all fine to shoot at them ponies, but kill one o' them an' it's suddenly passed the line?"
"I just don' wanna end up in the Canterlot dungeon! An' that's where killin's gonna get us!"
"But a lifetime o' armed robbery won't? What'cha gonna do?" Gunsling froze, the reality of his life of crime finally hitting him, forcing him to make a snap decision.
"I'm goin', Lever. I'm done with bein' a criminal."
"We're friends, Gun', ya can't just go off an' leave us." He says, eying the other outlaw with suspicion.
"I ain't bein' a part of this posse if you're gonna start killin'."
"We didn' kill anypony." He whispers, deadly quiet, "But if ya don't come to your senses, I might."
Gunsling narrows his eyes, staring into the other pony's without fear.
"That a threat?" He asks, reaching slowly for his own weapon.
"I don' make threats.." He replies, snapping the revolver upwards with such speed, Gunsling doesn't have a chance to draw his own. The bang echoes across the desert, silent from the standoff, as the proud Lever-Action looks at the lifeless body before him, a hint of regret in his eyes. "Somepony bury 'im."
Chapter 1: Soot and Stone
The remaining gang members depart, leaving their old friend in a hastily dug grave. Ten minutes pass... Then twenty... Twenty-five... Then the Unicorn appears, not with the usual flash of a teleportation spell, but fading in, beginning as a ghostly figure, before becoming more solid.
He approaches the shallow grave, knowing exactly where the body will lie, and digs. He digs until a face appears, eyes closed, hat lying behind it. The newcomer is almost relieved, but continues to dig at the same fervent pace he started, quickly excavating the orange colt.
Ignoring the bloody entrance and exit wounds, a black aura rises from his horn, surrounding the corpse in front of him. Voices whisper around the scene, but the old one silences them
"Not here." He hisses to the disembodied whispering, "Not safe." He glances around, checking for spectators, before levitating the body and using the same fading teleportation spell he arrived with.
The sun setting, the old pony reaches his home out in the desert, taking the lifeless body of Gunsling inside with him.
Once more, the ghostly, black aura surrounds the body, accompanied by the whispers.
"...Take this host, so that you can feel..." whispers the old one, closing his eyes in concentration. "Thou should make the most, for he shall not kneel..." Shadows form around the room, taking an equine shape. "Allow this one your final gift, as revenge is cold and sweet..." The shadows thicken as they move faster, becoming distinctly equine, "From cold embrace, you must lift. Born of betrayal, lies, deceit, Your payment waits, as do their fates."
The shadows surge forwards, into the still body of the Outlaw. The body jerks as they surround it, each shadow trying to find purchase on the body.
Eventually, the shadows die, and the body drops, again lifeless, to the floor.
Hours pass with no change, and the sun rises high over the desert.
The ancient unicorn didn't sleep, and stood guard over Gunsling's body throughout the night, should any... less savoury entities have taken his bargain. When the once dead pony stirs, he doesn't flinch, instead, he gives a small grin.
"Welcome back, Gunsling."
Gunsling groans, feeling stiff from... well, being dead. He opens his eyes and blinks, trying to recall what happened.
"What happened...? Who're you?" mumbles the now living pony.
"I am no one of significance, and you died." States his saviour. Gunsling waits for any further explanation, when none comes, he asks.
"What do ya mean 'I died'?"
With a smile, the unicorn answers.
"Exactly what it sounds like it means. You were dead, non-living. Killed by your closest friends. But now you are alive, able to do whatever you wish, go off on your own adventures, seek revenge, or even just settle down somewhere."
Gunsling paused, he couldn't have been dead, if he had been dead, surely he'd still be dead?
"That's impossible!" he exclaims, "Ya can't come back from bein' dead!"
"You are a living, breathing testimony that what you said isn't true."
Gunsling begins to stand, catching his reflection in a small mirror. Everything about him is the same, apart from the missing
bullet hole... and his eyes. He stumbles in his shock, almost falling back to the floor.
The change in colour was massive, where he had once had sky blue eyes, blood red ones sat.
"It is one of the changes my spell made on you, do not worry, the others are less... obvious."
Gunsling stands there, dumbstruck by his appearance, before finding his voice again.
"S-spell?"
"An ancient one, older than even me." The unicorn lets out a wheezy laugh. "It is a magic outlawed in Celestia's lands, branded 'evil' and 'immoral'. But I do not think you care for laws."
Gunsling, still in shock, looks at the Unicorn.
"Why'd magic like that be outlawed?"
He simply smiles, and waves a hoof.
"It does not matter. Only that it worked. Now, as to your choices." He pauses, examining Gunsling. "Like I said, you are free to choose, however, the debt you owe will be payed, despite your choice. Or you can not choose, and return to death's cold embrace, your debt will be cancelled."
Gunsling mulled over this, it seemed that any debt would be trifle compared to his life.
"I- I'll take it. What's this 'debt' I owe you?"
The Unicorn half-laughs, his lips creaking into a small smile.
"You owe me nothing. It is those I bargained with that you owe."
This unnerved Gunsling, somepony had made a deal on his behalf.
"Well, what do I owe...them?" He asked, cautiously, not knowing what to expect.
"That, I am afraid, I cannot tell you. They will tell you when you are able."
Gunsling blinks, clearly unnerved by what he has heard. While he doesn't fully believe that he died, he does believe that he owes somepony a debt, his life, in fact.
The orange colt thanks the strange unicorn as he leaves, taking with him a map and waterskin (Given by the unicorn, who's only reasoning was 'they' needed him to have the gifts) and setting off on a long walk to Manechester, intending to plan his new life when he arrived.
As he walks through the desert, sun glaring down, he tries to find ways of getting enough money for food, shelter and transport. His only conclusion being the very thing he had turned his back on: Crime.
I can't go back to that, he thinks to himself as he walks, It'd make me as bad as the ponies who just stabbed me right in the back...
A sudden outburst of emotions breaks out at the thought of them; Excitement, annoyance, happiness, longing and above all, anger. They didn't feel like they were entirely his, however. But with a shake of his body, he throws these feelings off.
For now, make it outta this desert.