The Northern exit was a good ways away, we were actually on the southern side when this happened. The South was a ghetto, primarily consisted of apartment complexes and housing projects. It had gotten the worst of the shelling, which was a smart move by the communists. The Equestrian Royal Security Force (ERSF) pride themselves in Close Quarters Combat. They needed to level the playing field, knowing that Equestria wouldn't take lightly to this.

I moved with my MP3 player in my ears, watching the serenity of the destruction.

'My body doused in ash with two empty cans of gas, the only evidence they had was a police sketch of my mask.'

I tend to be picky on my choice in music, I like to pick what I relate to most in the moments. Nothing was more perfect. The city had gone to hell real fast. We passed by a sign of the ensuing anarchy. A young mare, being beaten on the ground by two thugs. It seems that whoever picks the gun up first wins now.

'It's hard at times they ask when you have to face the facts after the darkness fades to black. They're villains who pillage and kill by the millions! Ponies die for lost cars!'

She was shot on the ground. I reached for my knife, but was restrained by Defiant Visor.

"Some fights aren't ours, I'm sure you understand."

"No, that's not how it works!"

I thrashed out of his arms. Song still playing. I ran at full speed at one of the thugs, who consequently was searching the body. The other one was in the car. I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the bumper of the car. The other thug exited the car. Once he was halfway out, I slammed the car door on his body. He shrieked and tried to get back in.

I slammed it again on his leg, then I opened the door. I pulled his head out and slammed the window breaker just under his nose. His upper row of teeth were destroyed. The other thug ran at me, I grabbed him by the head again and broke the window against it. He fell limp.

I slowly walked back to the group, they watched the whole thing.

"Well, at least we know we have the right Cloud Dasher..."

"Yea, you have the vigilante killer?"

"Guess so."

We kept moving, and I thought about that statement. It just passed my mind with no second thought. It's just a title, it's not who I am. We kept moving, this time Celestial had his Remington out, he was compromising rate of fire for range. It's a smart choice when you play a support role in the team.

We had only moved two blocks, the wreckage was everywhere. We suddenly changed direction.

"What are we doing?"

"We need to move a bit West, if we can get on the highway we should have a quick way out of here since there's no buildings to clear."

"Wait, wouldn't the Commies be there as well?" Celestial called out from the middle of the group. Defiant was quick to answer.

"Well they shouldn't, I'm willing to bet that the highways are jam packed with abandoned cars."

"Sounds fine to me."

We still moved to the west, we had to go through an office building. It was vaguely familiar, something about the way it was. Well maybe not that, it had taken a direct hit from the artillery shell. It was just how it looked. I didn't figure it out until we passed by the bodies. It was the first lead we had on Hoity. It was a old reminder of what I could do now, simply a relic. Half of the body had collapsed, splitting it in half. We could see the top floor, and on there we saw the blinds still drawn on that stallion's office. A big red blood splurge on the window.

Something about it frustrated me.

"Hey Cloud, didn't you do something here?" Helm had spoken out.

"Well yea guess you could say that. We needed information and they had it."

"If by 'get information' you meant massacre ponies, then I guess you did it right." Uttered Defiant.

"Hey what would you do?"

"I'd only fight targets that posed a significant threat. Those ponies were just scared, and you didn't need to scare them."

I thought about this, they were moralistic about their approach to Starlight. Meanwhile I could care less.

"Well we get the same results in the end right?"

"Well first off we were on our way there when that happened. We just planned on asking a few questions and leaving."

"And if he lied?"

"He wouldn't have a reason to, unlike you we don't kill everything that walks."

Defiant had a point, but this didn't help my anger. I had my hoof on my knife each time he spoke.

"Well we can't undo what we've done."

"Got that right."

"Hell, the way Cloud does this is much more fun." Helm added.

"Heh, one too many is never enough."

We kept moving West, towards I-34N. I-34 is a northbound highway that is intersecting upon I-35W, which heads West. We were actually walking under the skybridge of I-35W. Why we hadn't walked on it was beyond me, it looked fine from what I could tell. That was it looked fine until we passed by a pawn shop.

The whole skybridge was obliterated beyond the point of repair, it was a smart move by the communists. If that transport route had been open to the Equestrian Royal Security Force, they would be through the city in a matter of minutes. With that leveled there was no coming through that way without being bottle necked.

The rubble had crushed a small house at the bottom. It was more of a cottage, but it had been crushed nonetheless. I still had music playing, and I didn't even notice.

'My flesh will feed the demon.'

Couldn't disagree.

'I've been chosen to pay with my life. Madmen they find what mad is, turning witches and saints to ashes. Rising masses marching to find heretic blood.'

It fits my life now. The world will stand against me, and from their end I don't blame them. All they know is that I kill, they don't know why. They probably think it's a grudge against the rich or something. In truth, I've been fighting these ponies all along. They'll still want my blood, and I don't blame them.

We had moved past the cottage and I hadn't even noticed. I just kept walking forwards. It was then that I noticed that we had gotten to the intersection between the two highways. There was more to it though.

"We need to move to the other side of the bridge." Defiant had said.

"Wait, why?"

"There's an exit ramp on that side of the road, it leads right onto the main highway."

"Sounds good."

We moved across the street, which was blocked by a 18 wheeler truck that had since flipped. It had taken a house with it. As we moved on, we spotted the exit and ran up onto it.

There we looked eye to eye with death itself.

Author's Notes:

If anyone's interested in the song Cloud is listening to in the beginning, it's 'City' by Hollywood undead. I felt it fit this portion of the book.

Also the second song is 'Heretic' by Avenged Sevenfold. That really just fits the whole fucking book to a tee.

HAPPY 25TH CHAPTER Y'ALL

yes it's intentionally on a cliffhange