‘Ugh.... why is there nothing edible in this damn forest?’

The stallion was almost certain that he’d waste away into nothing in no time if he couldn’t find a town in the next few days. He could feel his gut roar in anger, it too growing impatient from lack of sustenance.

‘Lets see... that last time I had anything to eat was... almost two days ago!? It’s no wonder why I’m starving! I wouldn’t be rotting away right now if the natives here didn’t harvest all the fruit trees around these parts! I mean, come on! They couldn’t have thought of travelers or something?! The selfish pigs! ….Well, that and I don’t exactly trust the plants in this forest. Everfree if I remember right.

Recalling what he had researched, this forest was known as one of the most brutal, dangerous, and unforgiving landscapes in all of Equestria, a statement that the colt could full well agree with right about now....

‘Let’s see.... we’ve got dangerous wildlife, weird plants that manage to grow by themselves, critters that can actually take care of themselves- what a shocker..., and weather that changed without the need of local pegasai.... Eh, I’ve seen worse.... Still, something tells me not to even stand near that blue flower. Probably poisonous or something.’

At least he was thankful there was no official “business” on his trip this time. Still, finding a town for his permanent vacation was going to be fairly difficult. He could name plenty towns that he had been recently run out of these past few months by the ponies who settled there, ranging from Trottingham all the way to Las Pegasus. Hell, just the price for his head would have anypony set for life.

In fact, if this trip into town went anything like the last... Celestia knows how many attempts, he was prooobably(likely) done for...

“Hope” was just a fairytale word parents would feed their foals just to get them to shut up, and the bitter stallion wasn’t going to fall victim to it’s charms at this point. But... maybe- just maybe, this could be it. If he could keep a low profile, retirement might just be possible.... and so was turning into nutrition for the fine soil of this damn forest.

‘Crimson Rays; only twenty two and already thinking about retirement. I’m not getting old already, am I?’

Crimson let his gaze slip to a nearby pond, his reflection catching his eye. His coat was a dirty charcoal; he was of a slightly above-average height, born with a red striped onyx mane- which he kept mid-to-short in length, just enough that it covered everything on the top of his head.

He brushed his bangs out of his face, trying to fix the mussed up pile of hair to no avail. His eyes were a bright crimson- true to his name, which, according to the few ponies in his life that were once deemed “friends”, gifted Crimson a roguish charm that could melt any mare’s heart. His “modesty” and low self-esteem told him otherwise.

‘Psh, whatever. Even if these stupid eyes could do more than make ‘em run away shrieking, I couldn’t smooth-talk a mare to save my life.’ the black colt gave a small chuckle as the thought that passed through his head. ‘Heh, who needs ‘em? Who needs anypony for that matter? I can take care of myself. Been doing it for almost my entire life now, haven’t I? Ponies are nothing but loud, annoying little parrots.’

As his eyes remained glued to the still water, the weight of the stallion’s eyelids had begun to betray him. A chilly wind blew past the heavy cloak that hid everything below the neck of Crimson’s body. Dancing over the pond’s surface, the gust had successfully blurred his reflection, his vision soon following suit...

Seconds passed before the weighted feeling of his eyelids migrated down the rest of his frame, sheer willpower alone saving him from a wet collision snout-first with the pond.

“Willpower”, however, did nothing to regain Crimson’s balance before his withers met the body of a nearby oak tree with a painful slam. Hind legs were next to give out; his rear plopping onto the ground’s grass surface, the stallion clasped a hoof over the bridge of his muzzle with grunt. It felt as if his head were filled with rocks- no, boulders.

‘Augh… even a light breeze can toss me around like a feather... and given the past three days, looks like I can once again chalk ‘insomnia’ to the list,’ Crimson thought to himself in a stiff “tone”. ‘I really am falling apart, huh...’

A heavy breath escaped his lips, transforming into a throaty yawn. His eyes clamped shut, unwilling to view the stallion’s near-blurring vision any longer. And just like that, a wave of drowsiness crashed into every molecule of his body, leaving Crimson leaning against the bark of the tree before he knew it.

‘Would it be too early if… Nah, it’s not worth passing out over once I finally make it. Besides, I’m usually active under the younger sister’s sky most of the time anyway, what difference would it make now…’

It was settled; with each chirp that rang inside his ear drums, occasional gust of wind licking his fur and mane, and ray of sunlight bleeding through the leaves’ defences in the branches above, the stallion’s conscious slowly drifted further and further, leaving him with only his final thoughts…

‘Mother nature sure is… great… thank you for letting forests be so nice and…..’

Fwssh…

‘.....Quiet. Oooh boy….’

The most routine part of his old career. Whether it was going to be for the bits or a more personal agenda, this was only going to end in… blood.

Fwsh...

Crimson was impressed; the sounds were actually becoming less frequent and much more subtle. ‘Professionals...’, Crimson painfully suppressed the urge to smirk; all muscle movement needed to cease if he really wanted to look asleep.

The look on their faces were always worth it…

That is, if they still had a face.

FWSSH!

A hidden hoof reached deeper into his cloak ever so subtly…. ‘That’s it, just a liiittle more, and…’

FFF-SHWINNG!!!

A red liquid flew down the edge of the jet black katana like a waterfall. It poured from his bangs like raindrops; blood even oozed down the black stallion’s muzzle, just over the crooked grin that had been dying to come out.

As if pausing for dramatic effect, the body before him lost balance and fell to the ground lifeless along with half a spear, torso separate from the rest of the flesh as more blood had begun to stain the blades of grass.

Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty.

“Amatuer…” Crimson growled under his breath, the first word to leave his throat within forty-eight hours. His vocal cords were feeling a tad rusty, but maybe his new friends could help him with that…

The stallion hadn’t bothered to get to his hooves as he sheathed his sword, watching as five figures before him came into view. All equine from the look of it, which wouldn’t had been as much as a challenge to decipher if not for each pony being draped in a full black gis and a mask over their muzzles, hiding the under half of their faces.

“Those getups… the masks…“ Crimson’s smile stretched, foreign blood trickling down his forehead. “So, looks like getting rid of your leader wasn’t punishment enough for you wannabes, eh?.”

“You high and mighty brat…” the one upfront snarled- and judging by the pitch, a mare, adjusting a spiked club over her shoulder that easily outsized two of her. Not like any of that mattered to him... “We have come to erase you, Crimson Shadow, and rid the wrongdoings you have unleashed upon this world!”

“You can try, but there’s plenty enough of my wrongdoings to fill an entire Equestria-sized country.” Crimson stared off into the distance, a look of something opposite of malice flickering in his crimson orbs.

Not for long, however, as this his eyes pierced right stoically back into the mare’s, causing her to flinch. “Look, how about I be nice for a change. I don’t have time to deal with you posers, therefore you have five seconds to get out of my face. Though if you all wish to see your leader again so soon, I can make time.”

“You little shit...” the clansmare’s teeth clenched under her mask, irony being she was a head shorter than the Shadow. “You dare threaten us- the clan Nichibotsu Clan, when you are in no position to-”

“Five.”

“How dare you-”

“Four.”

The mare once again adjusts her bulky club-

“Three.”

And lunged.

“Tw-”

BOOOM….

Seconds passed before the giant cloud of dirt was mostly clear, as the mare found herself standing before not only a dirt crater wide enough to build a swimming pool in, but also the stump of the tree the black stallion had come close to dozing off under.

The black stallion, however, was nowhere to be seen-

“One.”

Eyes the size of saucers, she could feel herself trembling without control, too afraid to even look over her shoulder.

“Come on, you could at least look your opponent in the eyes in the middle of a fight…”

Halfway from doing so, any breath of air left in the clansmare’s body was knocked out with a single blow, the culprit being the hilt of a katana revealing itself from the final cloud of dirt and into her gut. Hooves leaving the ground, her body was launched several feet before slamming into a bark pillar with a loud THUNK, dropping like a fly from the dented oaktree.

‘If she wasn’t out cold before, I’ll bet she felt that one.’ Crimson smiled as he sheathed the rest of his sword. Resting a hoof over the rusty iron handle, he plucked the eight foot club from the dirt and chucked it behind him without so much as giving a glance, resulting in the nearly two-hundred pound weapon smashing into the ribcage of a second charging spear wielder before both skid along the ground. Crimson didn’t need to pay a glance to know that the victim’s chest cavity was likely a little more revealing…

“D-Die, you little frea- gwah?!”

Where the clanscolt had made a horizontal swipe, the only thing his sword had made contact with was the air. The same couldn’t be said for the back of his head, as an airborne buck left him face first inside the bark of another oaktree.

Once a forehoof touched the ground, Crimson’s strength allowed him to right himself onto his hind legs before the rest of his body had made solid contact with the dirt. Either side of him, however, were two clansponies with swords aimed and ready to pierce his jugular. “It’s over this time, Crimson Shadow!”

“Pssh.”

In the blink of an eye, the clanscolts had found their swords pointed at each other’s necks, given no time left to stop their forward assaults. Luckily for them, an ebony blade made it clear they didn’t have to…

“Well, that was… underwhelming.” Crimson swatted the red fluid from his sword, his attention anywhere but the two ponies falling to the ground with blood-doused, sliced-open stomachs. “Didn’t even have’ta pull out the other tools to-”

fffwissh…

THUNK

Crimson felt a thin stream of warm liquid trickle down from the scratch on his cheek, though made no efforts to directly acknowledge the small wound. If his ears had been any slower, however-

fffwissh

Crimson tilted his head to avoid the first shot-

THUNK

fffwissh

-and leapt back to maneuver the second aimed for his hooves.

THUNK

With only enough time for a quick analysis, the stallion scanned the forest to find three arrows; the first two arrows impaled into two trees across from each other, the third dug half underground where Crimson once stood. ‘I see. He’s on the move. Smart, I’ll give him that...’

Relaxing his muscles, Crimson’s eyes slid shut. ‘I need to stay calm, I won’t be able to pinpoint his location if I rely on his previous marks...’ Sight wouldn’t help him win this battle; sound would be his only ally, and his powerful ears would be his weapon...

Fwssh

…

fffwissh!

CRACK

‘There!’

Before the split arrow’s halves could touch a single blade of grass behind him, Crimson quickly spun his blade flat side down and smacked the ground with all of his strength. The result proved to be a monstrous cloud of dirt pillaring over even the oak trees of the forest.

“W-What!” The clanscolt quickly loaded a new arrow into his bow and raced out of the bushes. He had no choice but to flee his spot, or face the same fate as his comrades-

Shunk!

With a yelp, the archer came to a screeching halt, falling to his haunches before a small dagger stabbed inches between his legs. His muscles tightened….

“You know what, forget the advice I gave your mare buddy and don’t turn around. Makes both our jobs easier…”

The ignored warning was rewarded with the metal hilt of a sword smacking the archer between the eyes, equine sized dead weight dropping snout first into the dirt.

“Told ya. Only made things worse for yourself. Slightly, anyway…”

And thus this fight- loosely put, had concluded.

The stallion noted the archer boasted a unicorn horn, explaining the quickness of his fired shots. Any other race would’ve required a crummy hook to adorn their hoof to pull the bowstring, still incomparable to the speed and precision a little magic could accomplish.

‘Alright! Now that this lil’ distraction has been dealt with, looks like I can’t afford any survivors this time…’

********************************************************************************************************

It couldn’t be avoided. The remaining husks still managing to grasp faintly to life had been put down with a swift stab to the throat. They had already witnessed the black stallion’s face, not the overly dramatic and frightening pony on the wanted poster. He wouldn’t take any risks.

Disposing them was as simple as strapping them to a fallen tree trunk by steel wires, where they were dumped into the surprisingly deep waters of the pond and left to sink. While finishing up washing the blood from his fur by the shallow end of the pond, his ears alarmed him of the sound bubbles on top of the surface made in the deeper waters. A bone traveled from the deeper waters, given only seconds of air before engulfed by a row of teeth…

Recalling that he had almost fallen into the waters in a delirious state, a chill ran up the stallion’s spine.

Crimson was currently trotting passed each tree after finally spotting a dirt road, thanking his former opponents for leaving him much more awake. Passing out would have to wait until after he found a warm hotel bed to sleep the rest of the morning away.

Crimson stopped to squint at the words written along a wooden sign.

“...Ponyville….”

He had finally made it….

Author's Notes:

This is ENTIRELY rewritten, not just the revised first chapter. Hope it's a lot better than the original, and for those newcomers, I hope you'll actually consider giving the rest a read now.