I woke up on that couch a little late, and by a little I mean I woke up midday. It was a knock on the door, and whoever it was wasn't patient. I looked through the peephole, which they probably didn't know was there since they were geared up. Balaclavas, Magazine vests, and M4s. It wasn't the police, they didn't have any designation. I decided to play along.

"One minute please!" I said in a fake accent, which really threw them off.

I waltzed on over to the couch, where the M70 was, and clicked it onto full auto.

They knocked again. My guess was that as soon as I opened the door they'd open fire, so I put a full magazine through the door. On the other side two armed ponies fell from the second story of the motel, one landed on a car, clinging to life. The other slammed against the concrete. They were bleeding fast. Everypony in the complex was outside, some screaming and some staring. I grabbed all their attention when I walked out with my vest on. I pulled a magazine out of the admin pouch of my vest (I stored the magazines there since I didn't have any proper magazine pouch) and pushed the magazine against the back of the other. The first flew out and off the edge of the building and clacked against the ground, the second secure in the rifle. I rocked the bolt and folded the stock, making my way down the stairs.

Everypony stared as I walked down. They were silent, a filly cried softly in the background. I shot the one on the concrete in the back of the head, which removed half of it. The other one looked down from the bent hood of a white SUV.

"Here's the deal, you tell me what you know and you'll see a hospital, fair deal?"

He nodded as he coughed up blood. The rounds I put in him only hit the legs, save for a few stragglers that hit his ears and scraped his body. He probably had the fact that I aimed the for the center of the door instead of spraying horizontally.

"Can you speak?"

"Sorta..."

Well that's good, don't want to do the 'one snap for yes two for no' treatment.

"I'm guessing you're with Starlight right?"

He shook his head no. Which didn't make much sense.

"Who else then?"

He stuttered, the blood loss and shock might've been getting to him.

"His name, Torn Banner..."

"Who's this 'Torn Banner' buck huh?"

He didn't answer, he was staring up.

I couldn't put my hoof on it, but I've heard that before... Somewhere... It made me think about Yakyakistan...

"Who is he!"

"He's... He's the prophet..."

He coughed blood once more, One of the shots must've broken a rib and hurt his lung. The ambulance sped around the corner, almost hitting a pony that was crossing the street. Once the EMTs were out they managed to get him on a stretcher, and his friend in a bodybag. They questioned me, and when asked to remove the balaclava I refused. As I was answering what my name was, which was not what I wanted to do while wearing a balaclava, a gunshot sounded from inside the ambulance.

It was followed by three more, and then a final one followed by silence. The EMTs rushed to the ambulance and opened the door, the body of two EMTs fell from their position in the back of the van, one of the windows was shot out and cut the EMT's hoof. I walked towards there and peeked in. It was a mess of white and red, blood and brains. The pony's mask had a large red hole going both in and out of it, and it looked like a bag full of some semi-liquid substance. I knew better.

The police arrived soon after, they must've first thought it was an accident. Now they knew better. I grabbed Octavia and made my way to a new motel. Something wasn't right. Torn Banner? I've heard the name somewhere. My gear was in the back seat of the car as I drove, Octavia spoke for the first time in a while.

"What happened out there?"

"Same old, we have a new player. Some buck named 'Torn Banner'. I'm getting a weird feeling about him."

"Sounds like another problem."

"He already tried to kill me, so I'm pretty sure he's gotten the word that I'm kicking Starlight's ass and he wants me gone."

Whether he was an enemy or friend of Starlight I didn't know. All I knew was that I had trouble coming.