The Newcomer

Here I am. Laying on Rarity's couch feeling like the douche I am. She just left for the dance, the reports have been sent to Luna, so I have nothing to do. I should do something. Ponyville is such a goody-goody town they don't even have a good bar. Wait, maybe they do... What was it called? A and K? No. Apple and Kiss? No... The Knife and Apple! Yeah that's it. I wonder if it's still open. Yeah, it probably is.

His thoughts finished, Scourge vaulted off the couch as best he could with his cast. His cast. He thought about it for a second before he made his decision. He bit at the top of it until a small crack appeared in the base of it. He forced his teeth between the crack and used leverage to break apart the cast. It was slow going at first, but it got easier. Soon he tore the cast off and threw it aside. He proceeded to examine his leg. Since he had only been in the cast for about a week, his muscles hadn't weakened very much. He carefully took a step, then another, then another. He was visibly limping, but he was glad to be out of that itchy cast.

Next he went to Rarity's wardrobe. She mostly designed dresses, but once she had made a leather jacket for him. He looked through several closets before he found it, folded, in a glass case. There was one small problem. Said case was locked. Scourge picked up the cast with magic, and threw it at the wall. It was thick glass, so it didn't shatter, but a large crack had appeared. Scourge raised a hoof and stomped on the case, shattering it. This violent action brought back memories of screams of agony, ponies begging for mercy, and the sound of crunching bones.

"No, It's not a pony skull! IT'S NOT!" He screamed as he stepped back. He was so good at hiding his demons. But they still showed from time to time. It was like they were biding their time, waiting for Scourge to do something that would give them the perfect chance to take over.

Scourge sat down for a second, panting. His composure regained, he shook the shards of glass from the jacket and put it on.

"Screw Rarity." Scourge thought angrily. She could clean this up when she got home.

He proceeded to Rarity's washroom and opened the medicine cabinet. As usual there was no medicine in the cabinet. Instead it was filled with hair care products.

"Typical." Scourge sighed.

He grabbed a comb and a squirt bottle. He combed his hair until he stopped looking like someone Rainbow Dash had dried off.

He put the tools back in the cabinet and slammed it shut. Scourge opened the door to find that the sun was just setting creating a beautiful sunset.

"Enjoy beautiful sunset or get buzzed?" Scourge asked himself. He never even thought about it.

Scourge trotted off towards Soresaddle Street, his back turned to the sunset.

The Knife and Apple was on Soresaddle Street, the only shady place in Ponyville. It was the only place ponies could go to get away from the uber-nice part of town. However, most ponies never came here, and he had been told before never to go alone. But that was when he had been a colt. He could take care of himself. As he walked down the street, he spotted several stores that he really wasn't interested in such as, "adult video" stores. He scored his own mares, he didn't watch others score mares. The idea seemed rather stupid to Scourge, but it was popular.

Then Scourge spotted his destination. It wasn't too flashy, besides the neon sign of an apple with a knife piercing it.

"Go figure." Scourge thought dryly.

A stallion, slightly taller and bulkier than him stood outside the door. He wore no accessories and had a cigarette in his mouth.

"Great, if this guy jumps me, I will LOSE it." He thought angrily.

Scourge walked towards the door but before he could open it, the big pony stepped in front of the door.

"What'dya think yer doin?" He asked in a deep voice.

"Going for a drink dumbass." Scourge growled. "Got a problem with that?"

"It aint a free show." The bouncer replied gruffly.

Scourge growled before grabbing a couple of bits and tossing them into the bouncer's face before walking into the bar without so much as a glance back.

Scourge had decided to wear his tough stallion mentality for the night. He had been much to soft around Rarity and the other five. He had only acted like that when he and Luna were alone together. Any other time, he was a jerk. He had been ever since he had come back from the war. If he hadn't been a jerk, he never would have left Rarity.

His thoughts were interrupted by the smell of alcohol and the sound of an announcer. Scourge was too late to hear what he had said. But he couldn't understand why a bar would need an announcer until he heard the whooping and jeers of various stallions gathered around a stripper pole. Most of the crowd was comprised of the ponies too shady to show themselves at the dance. It wasn't a great crowd.

"Idiot." He muttered. "The Knife and Apple is a gentlecolt's club. How could you forget that?"

He sat down at the bar and thumped some bits on the counter.

A stallion walked up to him. "How can ah help you?" He asked. He must be related to the apples as he shared a small part of their accent.

"I'll have whatever you recommend." Scourge replied.

The bartender left and quickly returned with a yellow colored drink. Scourge took a sip, it tasted sweet, but it did taste like it had a significant amount of alcohol in it.

"Not bad." Scourge said.

"Name's Hard Cider, ah own this place."

"Who're you?" He asked after a short pause.

Scourge considered refusing to reveal his name, but decided against it.

"Scourge." He replied as he took a long sip, his glass was now half empty.

"Scourge, what kinda name is that?" Hard Cider asked.

Scourge's eyes narrowed. "The kind of name somepony earns for killing just for the hell of-" His eyes widened and he stopped talking as if someone had just grabbed his throat.

"What?!" Hard Cider asked, visibly disturbed.

"I- Er- I just-" He stuttered. "I- don't mean-"

"Calm down. Ah don't think anypony heard you." He whispered.

"I'm sorry I'm just-" Scourge sighed."-Having a bad day."

"That's fine. But were you serious?" Cider asked gently.

"More or less." Scourge said.

Hard Cider decided to learn a little more about this stranger.

The dance was going well, in Rarity's opinion. She took great pride in how great she and her friends looked in the dresses she had made. The music was good and it was lots of fun, but she couldn't stop thinking about Scourge. What if he did something awful? Well... That was more or less his usual routine. Do something stupid, spend threat of the day regretting it, go to sleep, wake up, and repeat. Yes, he was an idiot, but a rather charming one at that.

Rarity decided that as long as Scourge stayed at the boutique, he couldn't do much damage.

"An so I says, gimme one good reason whai ah shouldn't crush you like tha bug you is?" Scourge slurred. Yes, he was quite drunk.

Hard Cider almost burst out laughing, the story was terribly cruel, but the way Scourge told it was hilarious.

"See, I couldn't undershtand what he was trying ta say cuz he was cryin to mush, so I-" Scourge began the ending but stopped and looked at Cider, confused.

"What is it?" Cider asked.

"H-hold on a tick." He said.

He appeared to think for a few seconds asking, "Wh- why am I tellin you dis story?"

"Ah dunno." Cider replied.

"Well, shince you've-" He blinked several times before continuing. "Well, shince you've learned enough about meh" He leaned in close. "I've got a plan!"

"Wait, what?" Cider asked before scourge ran off to the room behind the strip pole.

"Aw shit. This won't end well." Cider said.

As the next stripper finished and went into the back, rustling could be heard in the rooms before Scourge himself walked onstage, levitating a microphone in front of his mouth.

"Yo, I figured you pervs could use a break from the strippers." He said into the microphone.

"No we don't!" One stallion yelled.

Scourge squinted and looked directly at the rude stallion "Yeah, you look like you really need a break from the strippers."

Most of the crowd laughed at this, and while they were distracted Scourge teleported the pole to the room at the back.

A few stallions groaned.

"Don't worry, imma put it back." Scourge said.

Cider was laughing, he still had no idea what Scourge was doing, but he looked so stupid.

Scourge tossed a record to Cider that he must have stolen from the bar and began to sing Rock Bottom by Eminem. (I couldn't get the link in, sorry.)

The music began to play.

"Listen up, this song is dedicated to all the happy ponies."

Several stallions looked around, confused.

"All the happy ponies who have real nice lives, and no idea what it's like to be broke as buck."

One stallion let out a whoop.

The beat developed as Scourge began to rap. "I feel like I'm walkin' a tight rope without circus net. I'm a nervous wreck. I deserve respect but I work a sweat for this worthless check. I'm bout ta-"

Then he abruptly fell off the stage as everypony in the Knife and Apple burst out laughing.

Scourge got up, his cheeks as red as Big Mac's normally were.

"Uh, everypony gets two rounds of drinks on meh!" He yelled as he ran over to the bar.

"This should cover it!" He said as he slammed a bag of bits down on the counter.

"How am I going to get the pole back into place?" Cider called.

Scourge ran up the stairs, taking them three at a time until he broke free and ran past the bouncer, into the pitch black streets.

He sat, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and began banging his head on the ground.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."

Jacknife wasn't a bad pony, he had just been involved with the wrong crowd for much too long. His family, the Knifes, or Knives, as they were normally called were a small band of criminals.

Jacknife and his two associates, Switchblade and Cutthroat, were out to rob somepony so that they could pay their rent. They had been searching all night until they spotted a stallion in a designer leather jacket and a silver, black diamond studded crest banging his head on the ground.

"Jackpot."

Scourge's head was staring to go numb when he heard a hoarse voice call to him.

"I'm gonna need your bits." The voice said.

"How come?" Scourge asked stupidly.

"Because if you don't give them to me, I'll beat 'em out of ya." The voice replied, as an earth pony roughly Scourge's size, with a silver coat and an orange mane stepped into the dim moonlight.

"Pfft. Come take 'em" Scourge challenged.

"Alright, you asked for it." He said as he galloped towards Scourge.

He stopped a couple feet from Scourge.

"Last chance." The stallion said, holding out a hoof.

"Go buck yourself." Scourge replied.

With that the earth pony wound up and threw a punch at Scourge.

Scourge dodged the punch and threw two of his own. One hit the earth pony square in the jaw the other hit him in the nose. Scourge's opponent stumbled backwards as Scourge kicked him in the ribs. Said stallion fell to the ground.

"To continue my earlier question, you need my bits because you don't have a job. You're a loser. I shouldn't have wasted my time with you." Scourge said with an disgusted scowl as he stood over the downed stallion. It seemed he was resisting the alcohol's influence, a sign of extreme mental power.

"NOW!" Jacknife called.

With that, two stallions grabbed Scourge, one on each fore hoof , and held him up.

"What?!" Scourge gasped.

Jacknife wiped the blood from his nose and smiled at Scourge. "It seems the tables have turned, eh?" He asked as he punched Scourge in the face as hard as he could.

Scourge's head spun, he had never been expecting to be hit like that. He had fought a few assassins when he worked for Luna, but his victories had always been flawless. It had been years since he had been hit like that.

"You fool. You can't fight me yourself, so you cheat?!" Scourge asked, enraged.

"Pretty much." Jacknife sneered as he hit Scourge again. One of the stallions holding Scourge laughed.

Scourge knew he couldn't take much more of this.

"Fine. Take my bits." He said as he spat out blood. He was too dizzy to use magic.

"Aww look who changed their mind." He said as he hit Scourge again, harder than before.

Scourge hung his head as he spit out a tooth.

"Ya see, I was just going to take your bits, but since you had your little temper tantrum back there, I think I'll just beat you and drown you in the gutter."

Scourge's expression turned from one of defiance to one of horror.

"Pathetic." A voice in his head said to him.

"What?" Scourge asked mentally.

"Scourge, conqueror of every battlefield he has set hoof on, is going to die at the hands of three low life criminals?" The voice asked him. It sounded relatively like his, except it was deeper, and slightly distorted.

"Can you help me?!" Scourge asked, desperate.

"Yes. Yes I can. But you must give me control." It said.

"Control?" He asked.

"Yes, you will be incredibly powerful, but you must give me control."

"How about a trial run of sorts?" Scourge asked.

"Excuse me?" The voice asked.

"Give me a small taste of the power." Scourge said.

"You're hardly in a position to bargain. But alright." The voice sighed

"Who are you?" Scourge asked, he knew the voice was leaving.

The voice chuckled. "Who am I? Hehe, I'm you of course." It said.

Scourge was thrown back into reality as he saw Jacknife winding up again. His crest was dimly glowing. He no longer felt dizzy or drunk.

"STOP!" Scourge commanded, his voice deeper than he remembered.

Jacknife looked very surprised before asking. "Or what?"

"Let me go. Or this will end very badly for you." Scourge replied.

"You're bluffing." Jacknife replied as he wound up again.

Scourge watched as Jacknife threw a punch with every ounce of strength he could muster. Scourge watched the blow advance on him and at the last second, he caught the hoof in his mouth.

Jacknife looked at Scourge with a horrified expression for a split second before Scourge turned his his head quickly to one side.

SNAP! Scourge both heard and felt the earth pony's bone crack.

"AUGH!" Jacknife screamed in agony as he stumbled backwards, clutching his wounded fore hoof.

Scourge then kicked out the leg of one of the brutes holding him, before bringing his fore hoofs together in front of his face. This caused the two stallions to hit heads and then both fall to the ground, dazed.

Scourge grabbed one of the downed stallions and dragged him across the road.

"THIS, is for not fighting fair." He said almost happily as he picked up the stallion and forced his head through an old tree. His head could be seen poking through the other side, but at least he was still breathing.

Jacknife was now scared for his life. But he simply sat, clutching his wounded arm, in to much pain to move. He saw that Cutthroat's head had been forced through an old tree.

He watched in horror as Scourge turned to face Switchblade. As he slowly walked towards the downed stallion, Switchblade groaned and clutched his head, unaware of Scourge. Scourge grabbed him by the back of the neck and held him up. Jacknife covered his eyes so that he couldn't watch what was happening.

"THIS, is for laughing." Scourge snarled.

"JACK! HELP M-" His cry for help was interrupted by a terrible crunching sound.

Jack uncovered his eyes to find Scourge mere inches away from him.

"L-leave me alone!" He yelled.

Scourge smiled at this, revealing a missing tooth. Jacknife watched in horror as another tooth slowly grew in to fill the old one's place.

"W-what are you?" He asked in horror.

An insane look crept into Scourge's eyes as he smiled, but this wasn't the smile of a stallion, it was the smile of a monster.

"I'm your worst nightmare kid." He said as he picked up Jacknife by the mane.

"What are you doing?!" He screamed.

Scourge said nothing as he threw Jack with all the force he could muster. Jack flew twenty feet down the street until he hit the front door of the Knife and Apple, shattering the cheap wood to splinters. Then he fell down the stairs and lay at the bottom, unmoving.

Scourge threw his head back and laughed like the maniac he had become.

"Sweet Celestia, that felt good!" He said.

"Sorry, but the trial run's finished." A familiar voice said.

"What?! No! I need more!" He protested.

"I had a felling you'd say that." The voice replied smugly. "The Elementals are coming for you. They'll be here soon. Each one has a jewel attached to it. Kill them, take the jewels and replace the jewels currently on the crest with the Elemental's jewels. Then the power will be yours."

"I'll do it." Scourge replied. "Wait, crest?! You're the crest?!"

"I'm your past memories and your worst desires coupled with the crest's power." The voice said. "Call me.. True Scourge. I've been waiting a very long time for this."

Scourge sensed his leg's strength returning to normal. He realized that the crest could heal him.

"Such power! I need more, the full potential of this crest will be amazing! Imagine what I could do!" Scourge thought as he galloped back to Carousel Boutique. The fact that it was three in the morning didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Yes, imagine."

Author's Note

Hey, I'm sorry this one took so long. I really hope that this one is worth waiting for. I hugely appreciate any constructive criticism and your comments will all be read! Also,  Alexstrazsa is drawing cover art for me! He is hugely talented, a great writer and an amazing artist! You should really check him out. Also, the Knife and Apple and Hard Cider are EIMikkno's creations, not mine. I'd like to thank him for letting me use them. And I'd like to thank Firebirdtops, my dedicated editor. You rock man!

Thanks again, Scourge012 out.