Lone Wolf Mercenary Services

by PyraBlue Heart

First published 14th of June, 2015

A group of humans were sent to Equestria with no way back, one of them abandoned the group to find his own place in the world.

About a year ago, seven humans were brought here to Equestria. Thinking it best to stick together they set up a camp just outside of Ponyville. One of the humans however went against the others and had gone rogue.

Six months ago, he started a mercenary group called Lone Wolf, in this group was a grey and orange unicorn, a changeling and a griffin. They take requests from Celestia most of the time, but other ponies usually request to be escorted somewhere safely.

Join them as they accept jobs, do random stuff while they are bored and get into some crazy situations.

*Warning: This story will have some pretty dark moments and has a lot of swearing*

Going Rogue and introductions.

It's been a full year since I was sent here with no way back.

Hi, my names Gray Karmen, I'm from Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. I lived in a small town called Antrim for a few years before getting sent here, but I'm not the only one that was dragged here. There were six others, Carl, Jason, Kate, Josh, Molly and Brian. Three of them I could stand, but the others were just unbearable. When we all met for the first time Carl decided that we should stick together on this foreign world, we all agreed but he proclaimed himself as our leader and expected us to follow his orders. Kate didn't care about anything but her looks, and by God she was ugly. Brian was as dumb as a brick and couldn't even understand what the word omnivore meant.

Josh was only 13 when he got sent here so he still had the necessary childhood innocence to not freak out when he found out he was in a land of magical talking ponies, and besides, the kid was smart for his age. Molly was a likeable person, very independent and not bad to look at, she was the one keeping me sane during the first month. Jason was an engineer on earth, he introduced Equestria to the telephone which is now a part of daily life for the ponies. He was a nice guy and told someone great jokes to lighten the mood around the camp.

Yes, things were balanced out at the camp but there was an incident that caused me to leave the group, or as Carl put it, Going rogue. It was another crappy day at the camp and Carl was being even more of a douchebag than usual. He ordered me to open a can of beer for him.

"Why should I, aren't you supposed to be our big strong leader?" I said sarcastically, he snorted in rage and tried to throw the can at me but I grabbed his arm and threw him over my shoulder into his tent. "You know, if you had just asked nicely I might have opened it for you, but you just had to play soldier didn't you." He was about to charge me but Molly and Josh held him back.

"I want you out of my camp you freeloader!" He snarled at me while struggling to get lose from Molly's death grip.

"Your camp?" I burst out laughing. "Oh my God are you that dense? This isn't your camp, and you are NOT the boss of me." I walked over to my tent and grabbed a bag that contained my personal belongings.

"You dare defy me?" I walked up to him and knocked him under the jaw.

"Who do you think you are, JESUS!? You won't need to worry about me defying you anymore, I'm leaving the group."

"Gray no!" Molly let go of Carl and hugged me. "We can sort this out!"

"I'm sorry Molly, but I can't put up with this anymore, I've got a friend in Canterlot that I'm going to stay with." I looked to Jason and Josh. "Take care of yourselves guys." I turned to Molly and she planted a kiss on my cheek.

"Stay safe." With that I walked off, it took me a two day walk to get to Canterlot but my friend let me stay with him.

He was a unicorn with grey fur and an orange mane, his name was Pyro Flare, his cutie mark was a three layered flame, one layer red, then orange, then yellow. If you haven't guessed already, his special talent is anything to do with fire. He used to be in the royal guard but was kicked out for burning down the barracks. He's learned to control his destructive tendencies so he doesn't burn his house down. We met a few weeks back, I helped him learn how to control his anger and he became my first pony friend.

I tried looking for work but no one wanted to hire me, eventually I met a griffin named Clawback. He was a large griffin and was in a similar situation. I took him back to Pyro's place and we all talked about what to do, we needed money somehow. Eventually we figured out what to do, since we didn't have any other options other than begging we became a mercenary group, we were all quite skilled in combat and none of us were afraid to take a life if needed.

Six months later our group became known all over Equestria and we began accepting jobs from the princess herself. We eventually scrapped together enough cash to buy a building in Canterlot, which would be used as our groups new home, Pyro sold his home as he no longer needed it. We named our group the Lone Wolf Mercenary Services and started holding auditions for a fourth member. After the auditions we found out that none of the candidates were willing to kill, we weren't to keen on killing ponies either but we don't just take random assassination orders, we look into the pony first then decide wether or not they have to die. Princess Celestia was glad that we didn't just kill ponies just because some rich guy slams a bag of bits on my desk. No, we have standards. Most of our requests are escort missions or guard duty, we get a few assassination requests but like I said, we only kill if it is necessary. Any time we have to kill for a client we try to get the target to go into hiding. We may be mercenaries but we still have hearts.

Getting back on track, none of the candidates were up for the job, so we told them to try the royal guard. We went back to our groups building which we now have called The Wolf Den, I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. On the way I stumbled upon a hidden area of the Canterlot gardens where I met a peculiar creature, he looked like a cross between a pony and an inscect. He didn't notice me so I hid behind a tree.

"What was I thinking, there was no way the ponies would accept me, they think I'm a monster." That sparked my interest.

"Y'know, if you were trying to get ponies to accept you, Canterlot isn't the best place for that." I stepped out from behind the tree. "This city's filled with stuck ups and nobles, you'd have been better off in ponyville." He started shivering in fear.

"What are you?"

"I'm a human, or as the snobs around here call me the ape." I stepped closer. "Names Gray by the way, who are you?"

"Oh um, my names Mothball." He started to calm down a bit.

"I don't mean to be rude but...what exactly are you, I've never seen a pony like you before?" He sighed and turned away.

"I'm a changeling, a race of shape shifters that feed off of love, we are also heartless so we can't feel love but on feed off it." I took a cautious step back. "But...I'm an exception, you know the way a bee hive is ruled by a queen?" I nodded. "Well, our species works similar to hives, we have a queen that produces changelings asexually, the queen must be one of the rarest types of changeling, a royal. A royal requires two ponies to create, each royal is born with a heart so that we can survive without feeding."

"So it's like the changeling to equivalent to an Alicorn?"

"In a way, yes. I was born a royal, an heir to the changeling throne. But what my mother, the queen, didn't take into account was that I had gained my fathers personality and free will. I left the hive, hoping to be accepted by the ponies of Equestria, but I guess that's never going to happen." I got a good look at him and noticed some key features. He had blue web like hair, a green beetle like back, a blue stripe running across his stomach, he had holes in his hooves and horn and had emerald eyes with slits for pupils. He was also very tall, not Celestia tall but still tall. "I've got nowhere to go." I started feeling bad for the guy, I started to see myself in him. An idea crept up on me.

"Mothball, how skilled are you in combat?"

"Royals are born with great magical potential and I can also transform into beings like manticores and timberwolves, why?" I smirked.

"I think I know a place where you would be accepted."

"Really?"

"Kid, you're looking at the leader of the Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, if you join us, you'll get a place in our group, a home and you'll be able to choose your own path, what do you say kid, feel like becoming a mercenary?" He looked unsure. "Don't worry kid, we don't really accept assassinations just because we get paid, we have standards." This calmed his nerves a little. I reached out my hand in offering. He stood up straight and placed his hoof in my palm and shook.

"You've got yourself a deal." I smiled and gestured for him to follow me.

"Hey Mothball, might wanna put on a disguise until we get to the Wolf Den."

"You call your home the Wolf Den?"

"You're forgetting what our group is called." He nodded and transformed into a green unicorn with blue hair. "I Should probably tell you what the others are like."

It took awhile to convince Pyro to not torch Mothball but he eventually warmed up to him (pun not intended). Clawback was accepting of him for unknown reasons. Word spread quickly that a changeling had joined our group, and when I say quickly, I mean REALLY quickly. It even reached the camp. Here's what happened when they first found out about Lone Wolf.

"Guys, Gray's in the newspaper!" Yelled Jason.

"Give me that!" Carl snatched the paper right out of his hands. "What the, that freeloader became a mercenary!" Everyone in the camp crowded round to see the article. "Lone Wolf Mercenary Services accept changeling into their group. Leader of the group Gray assures public that the changeling means no harm to the citizens of Equestria." Molly then snatched the paper and began reading it very carefully as to not miss any details.

"Gray's really made a name for himself, huh Josh?"

"Yeah, look at his friends, there's a unicorn and griffin, how'd he find a griffin?"

"I don't know, but at least he's doing well." Carl was cursing over in his tent while Jason was trying to figure out how I was able to start a mercenary group in the first place. Kate was jealous that I was getting so much attention and Brian was busy trying to understand some of the words used in the article, at least he's trying.

A few months have passed and today marked my first full year in Equestria, I hadn't seen any of the other humans for about ten months. I was sitting at my desk in my office reading a newspaper when Clawback burst through the door,

"Hey boss, I'm back from my last assignment!" He tossed a bag of bits on my desk, his payment for the job. I lifted the bag and let the bits spill onto the table, there was easily five hundred bits there.

"Great work Clawback." I lifted one hundred bits out of the pile and handed him back the rest. "Enjoy your payment." Here at Lone wolf we have a rule, 20% of our rewards go to our company vault to pay bills or buy food. We keep the rest to ourselves.

"I'm thinking of taking the rest of the week off, I got any more requests?"

"Nah, there was only one job that came in yesterday and Mothballs taking care of that, should be back any minute now." As soon as I said that Mothball walked through the door. "Hey Mothy, how'd the job go?" He tossed his twenty percent onto the table and sat down on my couch.

"Went off without a hitch boss, just had to take out a few timberwolves."

"Good to here."

"Hey, where's Pyro?" Clawback asked with curiosity.

"He's doing a food run, he'll be back later." The griffin nodded and headed to his room. "Hey Mothy, how'd your date go?" I asked with a smirk. He blushed and turned away.

"You heard about that huh?"

"Come on man, it's good that you're getting out there, at least tell me her name." He sighed in defeat.

"Her names Screwball, and the date went great."

"Good on ya dude, glad it went well."

"You know, I should be thanking you."

"Hmmm?"

"If it weren't for you, I'd never have met her, you took me in and encouraged me to get out there."

"Don't get sappy on me Mothy." I said with a slight laugh. He chuckled and left the room, but stopped in the doorway.

"By the way, happy anniversary Gray." He walked off without letting me say anything. I shook my head and went back to reading.

Later on in the day Pyro had returned from the food run and was stocking the fridge.

"Ok, we got my spicy foods, Clawbacks chicken, Mothballs chocolate stuff and Gray's red meat and vegetables. Also we got two six packs, a few bags of potato chips and chocolate cake, as well as the two 2liter sodas. Did I miss anything?" I was looking over over the list as he stocked up.

"Nope, it's all here. We've still got plenty of milk and cereal so we can last a while." He smirked and walked off. "Oh, and could you guys meet me in my Office, I've got something important to tell you all." He nodded and shot off towards the living area. A few minutes later we were all in my office.

"What's this about boss?" Clawback asked. I chuckled and pulled out four bottles of beer.

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to celebrate my one year anniversary of being in Equestria." They all gasped, the exclusion of Mothball of course. I tossed them their drinks and held mine high. "A toast, to the best year of my life! Cheers!"

"Cheers!" We all bashed our drinks together and started downing the contents. We all burst out laughing and sat down on the two couches in the room. Just then the phone rang on my desk, I picked it up and held it to my ear.

"Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, what can we do for you?"

"Gray, it's me, Celestia."

"Oh, what's up Tia?"

"I need you to do a job for me, the reward is two thousand bits."

"Two thousand bits!?" I gaged for a moment, even with the 20% donation it was still 1600 bits. "Must be a big job."

"It is, I need you to escort princess Cadance from Manehattan to Canterlot."

"Sounds easy enough."

"It won't be as simple as make sure she's safe on a train, you'll have to escort her on foot."

"Alright, now I understand the huge payment, who do you need?"

"I will need you and Mothball, meet me in Manehattan tomorrow at sundown at the train station. I will fill you in more then, and I will supply you on your journey."

"You got it." She hung up and I faced the group. "Mothball, you and I just got a co-op job."

"Really, if it pays two thousand then it must be important."

"It is, I'll fill you in on the train ride, pack your bags, it's a long job." He nodded and headed to the living area. "Clawback, you're in charge until I get back, should be a week or so."

"You got it boss." He saluted and sat in my chair. I shook my head and went to gather my things. I entered my room and collected my equipment. I threw on my cloak which draped down past my knees with a strap on the back, the cloak had our emblem on the right shoulder. I picked up my sword and placed it in the strap on my back. I picked up my throwing knives. I also picked up my magic gauntlet that aloud me to use magic, I mainly use it with my throwing knives, increasing their efficiency. I put on my scarf that covered my mouth when I wore it around my neck and headed to the front of the building.

Never had to escort royalty before, if she can't take the train that means there's someone after her. If not then I'm sure Tia has here reasons. She has faith that we will get Cadance to where she needs to go safely and I won't let her down. I exited the building and waited for Mothball. He was probably telling his marefriend that he'd be away for a few days, can't say I blame him.

This job could be risky, but we've faced dangers like hydras and even a dragon, I think we can take on a few thugs.

Lone Wolf Mercenary Services theme song

Author's Notes:

Mothball is in this story as a tribute to DisenyFanatic23, who you should check out if you have the chance.

Here's some pics of the Lone Wolf group.

One hijacked train ride later...

Mothball and I were currently sitting in a booth on the train to manehatten. I was busy filling him in on the situation. When I mentioned that our mission was to escort the princess of love he looked nervous.

"This isn't gonna end well."

"Relax Mothy, I'm sure Tia will explain everything to the princess. Might wanna be ready to dodge a magic beam though." I chuckled as I finished the sentence and Mothball face hoofed.

"I love ya boss, I really do, but you gotta get some better jokes."

"Be thankful I'm not the kind of boss that forces you to laugh."

"I suppose you're right." The next ten minutes were spent in silence. "Well, we should probably get some sleep. Big day tomorrow." I nodded and threw my legs onto my seat and rested my back against the window with my arms behind my head.

"Night Mothy."

"Night boss." Sleep came easily. I was having a dream about the camp, the good times I shared with Jason, Josh and Molly. I wonder how they're doing, maybe they found a better place to stay. I can't imagine them still living in the camp if Equestrians have gotten used to me. That should benefit them right? It means that ponies won't just run away when they see them. My thoughts were interrupted by shouting at the other end of the train car.

"Alright listen up, hand over your valuables and nopony gets hurt." I peeked around Mothballs seat to see four earth ponies with knives in their mouths going from booth to booth taking the ponies jewellery and bits. I shook Mothball.

"Mothball, we've got company." Hearing this his eyes shot open and looked around the corner. I noticed that the thugs were wearing bandanas with the symbol of a skull on their heads. They weren't random thugs, they were a bandit group. Mothball noticed this too and pulled out a pile of wanted posters and started flicking through them. He landed his hoof on a poster and read it out in a whisper.

"The Skull Bandit Guild, wanted for 3000 bits." We looked to each other and smiled devilishly. I pulled on my magic gauntlet and rose from my seat. I put my hands in my pockets and pulled my scarf over my mouth. I walked out into the open and looked at them.

"You know, it's rude to wake others from their sleep." The ponies jaws dropped.

"He's...h-h-he's from Lone Wolf, what in Tartarus is Lone Wolf doing on this train?!"

I pulled out the wanted poster and looked over it. "Hmmm. You guys seem a tad too weak and unorganised to be worth 3000 bits. I take it there are more of you in the other cars?" One of them gulped and nodded. We were in the middle car so I could use this to our advantage. "Mothball, you handle the back cars, I'll deal with the front." He nodded and headed into the next car. I looked back at the bandits. "I'm gonna give you guys one chance, give everypony back what belongs to them and surrender, or..."

I used my gauntlet to levitate my throwing knives, having them spin in a circle behind me. "...are you going to fight me?" They looked to each other and gulped. "Is that a yes?" They shook their heads and charged at me. I smiled and threw my scarf over a foals eyes. "Sorry kid but this show is for adults only." I shot three of my spinning knives at one of the bandits and he dropped dead. The other three shouted his name and looked at me with anger. I took advantage of their shook and stabbed two of them in the back, causing them to fall unconscious but not dead. I stopped the last one with my sword and held it against his neck. "You done goofed." He threw his knife away and lowered his head. "Good boy, I didn't want to kill your friend over there but to be fair I did warn you." I spotted some rope at the back of the car and tied the three up, the two I stabbed won't bleed out, I avoided any vital bloodlines. I just punctured a pressure point. I looked at the bag that was filled with jewels. "Alright people, get your stuff back."

I lifted the corpse of the dead bandit and wrapped his body in a blanket. I didn't have to worry about the mess, Celestia taught me a spell for cleaning up the blood. How I love this gauntlet, really comes in handy. "Well, time to round up the rest of the cattle." I lifted my scarf off of the foals head and wrapped it around my neck and covered my mouth. If you're wondering why I cover my mouth with it, it's because I think it makes me look awesome. I walked into the next car, there were six more bandits. They started to panic, seriously, why are these guys worth so much? "Come on guys, chill out." I used my gauntlet to freeze them in blocks of ice. "If Mothball was here he'd scold me for that." After a rinse-and-repeat in the next two cars, I came across a room where all of the guards were tied up. "So this is where you guys were." I cut their bonds with my throwing knives and told them the situation was under control. After thanking me they went to arrest the bandits. I returned to my seat and watched as the bandits were teleported to prison by a magic crystal.

The guards returned with two bags of bits. "The bounty has been teleported here by the Canterlot Detention Centre, enjoy your reward sir." I took the bags from his grasp.

"Thank you kindly." He nodded and went to join his squad. I counted the bits and there was 1500 bits in each bag. Mothball returned with a chocolate milkshake held in his magic. He sat down and I tossed him his share. "I take it everything was ok on your end?"

"Mostly, had to kill two of them, after that I just froze the rest in crystallised mucus." You'd think I'd be grossed out by that, but I've known Mothy for awhile, I've got used to it.

"Great minds think alike." He grinned and yawned. "I think we deserve some rest now, would you agree?" He nodded and cast a sleeping spell on himself. "Cheater." I folded my arms and laid back against the window, resuming my dream.

We were awoken by the train slowing down. I looked out the window to find we had a beautiful view of the city.

"Whoa..." We both whispered in unison. I noticed a large statue of a pony wearing a dress...it looked a lot like...

I burst out laughing, Mothball just looked at me confused.

"What's so funny?"

"I just remembered...Manehatten...Manhatten...oh my God." I said between laughs. I calmed down and explained the similarities between this city and NYC.

"Whoa, that's freaky."

"I swear to God if they have their own version of Times Square I'm gonna die laughing." He looked at me confused. "Earth thing, come on, gather your stuff." He nodded and retrieved his equipment, which contained a small green blade, tranquilliser darts, magic crystals and crystalic hatchet.

We exited the train and took in the site of the station, well, mostly me. It presented your standard city train station, which made me feel at home. I grew up in Belfast City back on earth before moving to Antrim, nice enough city, always had some kind of convention going on, which was nice. I always went to anime conventions as my favourite anime character Trafalgar Law. Don't know who that is? Look him up or something I'm not going to waste my time explaining. I will tell you he's from the anime One Piece, that's all. Oh God, I'm sounding like Symbol now aren't I? Wait, where did that come from?

Doesn't matter. We walked up the steps into the main depot, where a familiar face walked up to us.

"Hey general FireFlight, haven't seen you in awhile, how're the kids?"

"They are well, thank you." After introducing Mothball to FireFlight he began to lead us towards the back of the station. "The princess's waiting for you in the back, she has something for you."

"Aw, she shouldn't have." He chuckled and continued, I shot a cocky grin at Mothball. "At least somepony likes my jokes." He gave a tired sigh and continued on. We reached the rear of the building and walked through a black door.

"The princess is around the corner, it was nice to see you again Gray."

"Likewise, FireFlight." He nodded and went back to his duties. We walked around the corner to see Celestia siting at a table under the light of one lamp on the ceiling, creating a circle of light around the table. "Kinda cliché but alright."

"Hello again, Gray and Mothball. I heard about what happened on the train, thank you for keeping fatalities to a minimum."

"Your welcome, although you might wanna get your guards better training." She nodded and slid a file across the table.

"This file contains a map and some basic information on Cadance, the map will show you the safest route." We nodded and I began studying the file.

"Princess, if I may ask, why did you request for me to come along on this mission? Don't you think the princess will be afraid, after all changelings feed of of love, and she's the princess of love." Mothball asked with worry. Tia giggled and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry Mothball, I have explained everything to my niece. The reason I have requested you to be on this mission is that I am trying to improve your image around Equestria, if you safely escort a princess across the land and keep her out of harms way, then the public will trust you more." Mothball nodded in understanding, but I could sense his nervousness a mile away. This is gonna be a loooooooonnnngg trip. "By the way Gray, the blacksmiths and mages finished your request a few days ago."

My eyes widened and my grin became devilish. "Show me." She nodded and placed a black case on the table and pushed it towards me. I opened it up and looked at my new toy with an insane smile. Inside the case was a pistol made of solid gold. It was thirteen inches long and one and a half inches wide. The bottom of the barrel was rectangular, the grip was made of fine leather. I took it in my hands and noticed that the bottom of the grip was empty. I looked to Celestia and she walked over to the corner of the room. There was an object was covered in a sheet.

Tia pulled off the sheet to reveal a silver machine, it had three buttons on the front, one red, one blue and one gold. There were also three holes under the buttons. "This is your ammunition dispenser, it can magically produce three types of ammunition, explosive, magic-dampening or enchanted."

"Is there any limits to how much ammo it can produce?"

"As long as you give the magic crystals time to cool down, there should be no problems. There is also a heat meter on the side, to warn you in the event of it overheating." I nodded. I pressed the gold button and a magazine of twelve golden enchanted bullets dropped from the slot. I examined the ammunition and smiled, they were easily 50 callibur. I loaded the gun and gave it a once over. I noticed an engraving on the side. There was no writing but there was a few curved lines. "Those lines are only temporary, if you give the weapon a name, it will change to that name." I thought for a moment, then an idea came to me.

"Alright, I shall call it...the Lancelot." The lines glowed and the word Lancelot was engraved.

"An interesting name, must be something from Earth?" I nodded, she smiled and handed me a belt with nine straps. "This is for holding you extra bullets, take five enchanted, two explosive and two magic dampening." I nodded and selected the amount of ammo. In total I had ten mags. I'm still amazed that they managed to create this thing. They even shaped it like I asked, it looks like Alucards Jackle from Hellsing Ultimate, but gold instead of black.

"Thank you for such a lovely present Tia." I placed the Lancelot in a pouch on the belt.

"As long as you don't go around shooting my ponies, I'm happy to accept your requests. Consider this a bonus for escorting my niece such a long way." I nodded and turned to Mothball. "Don't worry, I'm not going to have you carry this around, I will take it to the Wolf Den and place it in your room for when you return." I thanked her.

"So, when do we meet this princess?" I asked rubbing my hands together.

"Come along, we are meeting her in a hotel downtown." With that we exited the room. We walked down a small pathway and headed into a carriage waiting for them. Many ponies tried to take a picture of us as well entered the carriage. When I shut the door Tia closed the curtains with her magic, giving us privacy. The carriage began moving slowly but them picked up some steady speed. I pulled out the Lancelot and examined one of the three different types of bullets. The enchanted ones had a gold shell with a silver tip, the explosive ones were red shelled and silver tipped and the magic-dampening were blue shelled and silver tipped. The only thing on my mind at that moment was this...

I can't wait to use this baby.

Author's Notes:

Another chapter done, I'm actually surprised I got this done so quickly. It may not seem quick to you, but to me it is. I don't have a lot of free time.

Also if anyone caught the Second Universe reference, thank you for reading my other stories.

It's always a kidnapping, isn't it...

The carriage pulled up outside the hotel, only for us to find that the area had been blocked off to the public, and not for a good reason. Outside the hotel there was several injured guards and it was bordered off by police tape. "Oh great, we haven't even got on the job and something's already gone wrong..."

We exited the carriage and a guard rushed up to meet Celestia. "What's going on here?"

"It's the Princess of Love your majesty, she's been kidnapped!"

Celestia gasped, Mothball groaned and I facepalmed. I sighed and turned to the guard. "Do you have any info to where she was taken?"

"Just a marking..." He held a photograph of a moon symbol with two blades down the middle. I looked to Mothball and he started fishing through the wanted posters. He landed on a page and inspected it, a frown formed on his face.

"Dark moon necromancer group, wanted for 10000 bits." Celestias face became filled with fear. "Not much is known about them, but their title speaks for itself..." This job just keeps getting better and better.

"Known location?"

"I can use a tracing spell to show their tracks, but it'll be difficult..." His horn glowed green and several green hoof-prints appeared on the ground. Celestia took notice and was about to send for more guards when I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't even think about it Tia, you saw how your guys performed on the train and here. Let us take care of it." I started following the tracks. "Besides, you hired us to protect Cadence, let us do our job." I flashed her a smile which I then hid with my scarf, Mothball followed, leaving Tia speechless.

Half an hour later we reached a dark ominous cave on the outskirts of the city. "A cave...it's always a fucking cave..."

"I know what you mean boss, is kinda stereotypical for a necromancer hideout."

"Finally we agree on something." I grabbed my sword and started walking towards the entrance. "There's likely going to be multiple flying resurrected in here, you handle them while I deal with the ground forces. Any live ponies are to be stunned or captured and as usual, kill only if necessary." Mothball saluted before floating above me and shape shifting into a Phoenix. "This is going to be good." I held my sword in my hand and Lancelot in my gauntlet. "Let's blow this shit..."

Meanwhile

Deep inside the cave, four hooded ponies were standing around a bound princess Cadence. "Y'know, I should say 'you'll never get away with this' but then I'd be no better than a damsel in distress." She smirked.

"What makes you so sure about that?"

"Yeah, you saw how we dealt with the royal guard."

Suddenly, a black rotten pony burst through the door. "Masters, we are under attack!"

"And why can't you take care of it?" The undead stallion shot over and whispered something into the necromancer ear that made him sweat. "What in the name of Tirek are they doing here?!" The ponies shot out of the room. For the next few minutes there was screaming, loud bangs and pleas of mercy. An undead stallion walked into the room and blocked the door.

He walked over to Cadence with a blade in his magic. "That's it, I don't care about the ransom, if I'm going down again, somepony's coming with me!" He raised the blade in the air, Cadence closed her eyes, preparing for her eminent demise, but it never came. She opened her eyes to see a look of shock on the ghouls face. He fell to the ground revealing several knives in his back, they then pulled out of his disintegrating body and returned to a bipedal creature in a black trench coat.

"I'm sorry but that mare is under our protection." A knife floated towards the ropes around her body and gently cut them off. Cadence dusted herself off and turned to the creature.

"Who are you?"

Grays POV

Oh damn am I still in the shadows? I stepped forward into the light. "Gray Karmen, leader of Lone Wolf Mercenary Services at your service." I gave a respectful bow.

"Oh, you're one of the mercenaries that my aunt hired."

"Yes ma'am. The friendliest mercenary you'll ever meet." I flashed her a smile which appeared to be contagious. She extended her hoof and I took it in my hand.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Gray, I am princess Cadence. Where is your friend?"

"Oh he's just tying up the necromancer gang and putting magic dampening rings on their horns. They were kinda over priced for their bounty though." I looked down to the pile of dust that was once a resurrected. "Seriously, are they ranked like that because the royal guard can't take em out, if so that's pathetic, no offence."

She nodded her head in understanding. "I get what you mean, the guard hasn't been given the best training or equipment, they just can't spare the funds."

"Yet they can dish out 10000 bits for these guys?"

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it. "I'll need to have a talk with my aunt."

I nodded and headed for the door. "Come on, let's not keep Mothball waiting."

Little did we know, there was a shadowy figure watching these events unfold.

"Hmm, these guys seem interesting..."

After one reeeaaaaalllllly awkward introduction with Mothball and Cadence, we were on our way down the now empty streets of Manehattan. I'm going to spare you on the details, since the level of cringe worthy moments were over 9000, mark that reference, off the list. Breaking the fourth wall aside, the two were now getting along just fine.

"So you just left the hive?"

"Pretty much, I wondered Equestria for awhile until I met Gray, he listened to my story and offered me a place to stay."

"Is that so? You weren't kidding by being the friendliest mercenary I'll ever meet." I turned and flashed her a smile, and ruffled Mothys mane.

"Someone had to take care of this guy, it's not like the nobility would have accepted him, heck, they still haven't accepted me." My smile disappeared for a second. "Wait a minute, why do I care? They're all snobs, well except for Fancy Pants and Blueblood, but still." This got a confused look from Cadence.

"Blueblood is nice?"

"Oh, right, you still don't know, Blueblood only acts like a total douche, think of it like a mask he wears, when he's in public like at social events he wears the mask and acts snobbish, but when he's among family and close friends, he takes off the mask and is a fun loving guy when ya get to know him." She showed interest in how I was explaining Blueblood, he is one of best friends and I can understand why he would do such a thing, there isn't a lot of time for him and his close friends to hang out, so he has fake friends to fill that void, not the best method but he is limited, he regularly stops by The Wolf Den for a few beers or just to talk, he jets along with Clawback vey well for some reason...

We arrived at the hotel where Celestia burst out of the door just as soon as we turned the corner. "Why is it that you always show up at the most convenient time?" As usual, my question went unanswered as she hugged Cadence.

"I'm ok auntie, really." She tried to pull away from Tias death grip but ultimately failed. We waited until Celestia was done mothering Cadence for abou ten minutes. "Auntie, shouldn't you thank Gray and Mothball?" Celestia froze and dropped Cadence, she recomposed herself and turned to us.

"Thank you, you saved my beloved niece, and for that I am grateful."

"Just doing what you payed us to do."

"And you do is rather well it would appear."

"Yes, but that is because we add a little bit of flare where ever we go, sometimes literally." This got a chuckle from her. I turned to Mothball and noticed he looked a little down. "If you don't mind princesses, I'm going to take Mothy here out for a drink, he looks like he needs it."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "What about the job?"

"If there is anything I know about these situations it's that nothing else will happen to Candy here for at least another day., but if anything does go wrong..." I tossed Cadence a crystal. "...just add a little bit of magic to this and say you need help, we'll be right there."

"On alright, just don't come back a drunken mess."

"Yes moooooomm." She giggled as we made our way down the street. "Now let's see if we can find a bar around here."

Author's Notes:

Hey there, thanks for being so patient with this. I know it's a bit short but that's because it's a taste of what's coming up next.

Well...who expected this except everyone

Molly has been doing well, ever since the creation of Lone Wolf the humans have been accepted by the ponies of Equestria, and they had all gone their separate ways. Brain was now going to school to try to increase his intelligence, good for him. Jason had been accepted into the Canterlot University Of Technology and was now a teacher there. Kate was living with Brain, they had recently gotten engaged. Carl still refused to leave the camp and called the others traitors to the human race. Josh was living with Molly in Manehatten.

Molly was now an up and coming fashion designer, she used her knowledge of human fashion to create exotic trends and reeled in a lot of money for her designs, Josh even helps her sometimes. During her time in Manehatten she had made many friends and enemies as well.

Tonight she was having a girls night with her friends while Josh was sleeping, they were going to their favourite bar to have a drink. She met up with her friends and they walked into the bar, after ordering their drinks they sat down in a both and started talking.

"Did you girls hear that princess Celestia and princess Cadence are in town?"

The other four mares and Molly nodded.

"I heard that Celestia hired a group of mercenaries to protect Cadence." Molly looked up from her drink.

"Was it Lone Wolf?"

Just then the door to the bar opened but Molly didn't pay attention to who walked in.

"Come on Mothy, I've been through enough crazy shit today, I need a drink."

"Fine, but I'm not dragging your flank back to the hotel if you get drunk again."

"That happened once, and it was Claws fault for challenging me to that drinking game."

"Whatever you say boss..."

The mares giggled and looked at Molly. "What?"

"I think there's your answer." One of the mares pointed behind her and Molly turned around, her eyes widened in shock. There he was, siting on a stool at the bar. He wore a black trench coat with the emblem of a wolf on the shoulder and a huge sword. He had black boots and wore a black and grey scarf. He was sitting in front of her, after ten months she finally saw him again.

Grays POV

Me and Mothy were just sitting in some bar we had found a bit down the ways from the hotel, we didn't come here to get drunk or anything along those lines, I just needed a drink after all of the crazy shit I'd been through today. The bar tender walked over and we ordered two beers. The silence that followed our entrance had subsided and the ponies where now chatting normally. A thing about being in a well known mercenary group is that you'll get a lot of stares, awkward silences, even a few mares winking at you from time to time. You learn to live with it after awhile.

"So Mothy, tell me more about this Screwball." I teased. He frowned and blushed. "Aw, come on Mothy, I'm only teasing, really, I wanna know more about her."

He sighed. "She's amazing, she has a really fun personality, she's got these really hypnotic eyes, literally, her pupils are spirals, and she always wears this little hat, and by Celestia is she beautiful."

"You really like this girl, don't you?"

"Uh-huh, I don't even know how I managed to land somepony like her."

I shoved him a little. "Now don't you be going and saying stuff like that, any mare would be lucky to have ya."

"How so?"

"Well for one you're a prince, you're financially stable, you're a nice and caring guy, and you can give them an exotic experience, if you know what I mean."

"You know, normally I'd shake that off as one of your inappropriate jokes, but thanks, I needed to hear that."

"What I tell you about getting sappy?" He chuckled and took a swig of his bottle.

"What about you boss, you thinking of looking for someone, or have you ever had someone?" Note that at that moment I had no idea that the person I was about to talk about was standing right behind me.

"Nah, but there was this one girl that sparked my interest a while back."

"A girl from the camp?"

"Yeah, her name was Molly, she was one of the best people I had ever met." Mothball suddenly had a grin on his face. "What are you grinning about?"

"Oh nothing, continue." I looked at him suspiciously but carried on.

"She was the only reason I stayed in the camp so for the time I did."

"What did you feel when you left her?"

"I honestly had a pain in my chest about it, but I had to do it, I couldn't stand Carl and the way he treated her and everyone else, if I had stayed I would have tried to kill him."

"Was she a looker?"

"You bet, how anyone could look like her without some kind of surgery I don't know. That perfectly straight black hair, her blue eyes sparkled in the light, and by God did she have the best damn laugh I ever heard and what the hell are you smiling at?"

"Look behind you." He tried to stifle a laugh, I looked at him confused. When I turned around I couldn't believe who I saw standing there, it was Molly. She stood there with her hands to her mouth, a huge red blush on her cheeks. We just stood still, staring into each other's eyes, hers had tears at the sides. I didn't even know what to say, what could I say in that situation, here's your answer, absolutely nothing.

A blush found itself onto my face as I looked at her. You wanna know who she looked like? You know that woman from One Piece called Nico Robin? Yeah, spitting image of her. So a really attractive girl just heard me announce my feelings about her and possibly shares those feelings, what in the flying fuck do I do in this situation?

Author's Notes:

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit, things are getting really awkward for Gray.

If you have an idea for what Gray should do in this situation please put it in the comments, I'll happily do it.

This is a situation I didn't expect to be in...

Shit shit shi shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit

That was what was going through my mind right now. I figured that this awkward silence had gone on long enough.

"Um, hey there...long time no see..." Mothball was holding his stomach laughing, while keeping my gaze on Molly, I punched him off his stool. "You're fired Mothball." He just kept laughing.

Molly just stood there, frozen in place. I moved to the left and she still kept staring at the same spot. I got up and waved my hand in front of her face, still no reaction. Yep, it was official, I broke her. "You ok there Molly?" There was no response, I looked over to a group of mares that appeared to be her friends and gestured towards Molly, they shrugged and went back to drinking. I clicked my fingers a few times but still no response.

Ok, this is either a good response to what she just heard or a horribly bad one, and judging by the redness of her face I think it's the former

I poked her in the shoulder a few times. "You in there Molly, you're making me worried here." Still no response. "Ok, you'll need to breathe soon or you're gonna pass out." Mothball was still laughing on his back on the floor beside me, I kicked him but he didn't stop.

I fucking hate today...

I used my gauntlet to levitate her back to her friends. I figured it was a good idea to get the hell outta there before she woke up from the shock. I paid for our drinks and dragged Mothy out of the bar and down the street, laughing all the way.

"Oh man, you should have seen the look on your face!"

"Don't make me shoot you in the fucking head." He calmed down and started walking by himself. "Mothy."

"Yeah?"

"We're never coming back here, EVER!" This just caused him to burst out laughing and I threw him into a garbage can, closed the lid and shook the thing with all my might. "You're still fired."

Talking with the client

My embarrassment grew to the point that I had whacked Mothball over the head with the Lancelot, rendering him unconscious and unable to laugh. Oh don't look at me like that, he's fine...at least...I think he is.

"You ok there Mothy?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes."

Anyway, I was dragging Mothy through the streets to the hotel. Upon arriving the receptionist gave me Cadences room number and our room key, our room was right across the hall and the entire floor was bordered off to the public, under constant watch by those useless guards. Seriously, this is where the majority of stallions end up? Now I know why there are so few stallions, they all join the guard and get killed due to lack of training.

When I reached our room I set Mothy in his bed and went outside of Cadences room and sat on a chair beside the door to think about some things. That and I didn't want a repeat of earlier. I started thinking about what happened at the bar, I never intended to let Molly know those things, now if done something that I can't just get rid of by shooting it or stabbing it.

"What have you gotten yourself into Gray?" I asked myself before placing my head in my hands. "I need to be more careful when Mothy smirks, it only leads to bad things."

"Bit for your thoughts?" I turned to see Cadence poking her head out oh her door.

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, I was reading a book when I felt some conflicted emotions nearby."

"Oh yeah, princess of love and whatnot." I slumped back in my chair.

"Come in so we can have a talk. You look like you could use a voice of reason." I nodded and followed her into her room. She motioned for me to sit down on a couch and sat beside me. "So, tell me, what's got you so aggravated?" I sighed questioning whether or not to tell my client about my personal business.

"Back at the bar, Mothy and I got into a conversation about relationships, I asked him about a mare he's been dating and he asked me if there was someone in my life or if there ever was. I started describing the only person to ever catch my eye and how much I liked her. Then when I turned around said person was standing right behind me and heard everything."

"What did you do?"

"I left, when she heard me say those things she froze and I couldn't bring her back to reality, so we left." She put a hoof to her chin in thought.

"What was her expression?"

"Looked like a mix between shock, surprise, relief and a few other things I can't really describe." She nodded and thought about the situation.

"What do you plan to do about it?"

"Nothing." Her expression showed shock and confusion.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"But why, it seems like she feels the same way, so why do nothing?"

"My job." She looked at me confused but then she realised what I meant.

"What you're saying is that you CANT do anything about because of your mercenary work." I nodded. "Than why not try to find another job?"

"Because of them." I pulled out a photo of Me, Mothy, Clawback and Pyro. "If I leave the group then the whole team falls apart, they don't have the management skills I do, and they got nowhere else to go. I can't abandon them, their like my brothers. We're a family."

"Why can't you be together anyway, I'm sure you could still make time for each other." I shook my head.

"I don't want to put that burden on her. Every time I go on a job I put myself at risk, I could die on any one of them, imagine what that would be like for her, knowing that the one she's in love with could die at any given moment."

"Gray, I don't know what to say here, you've trapped yourself in a constant argument on whether to leave Lone Wolf or to stay, and your reasons for staying out way the reasons for leaving." I sighed.

"I know." I looked at her with a smile and scratched her ear. "Thanks for listening to me Candy." She huffed.

"Don't call me that." I began walking out the door.

"I'm still gonna call you that, Candy."

"I'm warning you."

"Too bad cause I'm doin it." Before she could say anything else I closed the door and entered my room. I found Mothy dreaming.

"Hehe........hehehehehehehe......." I knew full well what he was dreaming about.

"I swear to god I'm gonna cut your wings off."

So it begins (day 1)

I woke up as the sun rose over the horizon, I stretched and threw my legs off the bed. I walked over to a desk that had my gear laid out, I checked my ammo and reloaded the Lancelot, I sharpened my throwing knives and polished my sword. I placed my gauntlet on my hand and shook Mothy. "Come on Mothy, we need to get going." He cringed before stretching and opened his eyes.

He got up and wiped the sleep from his eyes. He gathered his gear before we exited the room to find Celestia waiting for us. "Good morning you two, I trust you are ready for the journey?"

"All we need is Cadence, the map and supplies then we are good to go." She nodded and floated a dark blue backpack to me and a light blue saddlebag to Mothball.

"These bags are enchanted to be bigger on the inside, all of your supplies and tools are in them." We nodded and Celestia walked into Cadences room. After a few minutes they both emerged from the room and Cadence greeted us, she came to my side and we turned to face Celestia. "I will teleport you to the outskirts of the city, I'm trusting you two to take good care of her." We gave a salute before her horn glowed and we appeared just outside of the city, in front of us was a barren wasteland.

"Well, here we go." With that we set off, we started a slow jog as we made our way through the wastelands.

After a few hours of jogging we reached a small wooded area. "Alright, we'll rest here for an hour or so then we're moving on." I tossed Mothy a bottle of water and offered a sandwich to Cadence. I took a sip of my water and a bite of an apple, I looked at the trees and noticed that some had a few dark figures in them. I set down my snack and punched a tree with my gauntlet. A changeling drone fell from the branch it was sitting on and I brought my fist down onto it. "Mothball, Changelings!" He nodded and took Cadence out of the area.

I turned to see more changelings coming out of hiding. "This does not concern you mercenary, we are here for our prince, the queen demands he ret..." I punched him sending him flying.

"I don't give a fuck what your queen wants, Mothball is a member of Lone Wolf Mercenary Services now, he's not going anywhere as long as there is life in my body." They all growled and charged me, I sent a few knives into the crowd causing many of them to drop dead. I dashed to one of the drones and kneed him it in the stomach then sent him crashing into the ground. One of the drones kicked my leg causing me to stagger, a few knocked me down and pounced on me.

I grabbed my gun and shot them with enchanted ammo. Once I shoved their corpses off me I grabbed the last drone by the neck and held him in the air. "Here's a message for your queen. Mothball isn't going anywhere, so if you ever try to get him back again I will kill you. But if you are so confident that you can beat me. Come at me bitch!" I knew that the queen could see though her spawn, then I crushed the drones neck sending green goo everywhere.

I walked out of the wood to see Mothball guarding Cadence who was hiding in a log. "You take care of things boss?"

"Yeah, but they weren't here for Cadence, they were here for you." He frowned and growled. I placed a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me. "Hey, I'm not letting that bitch take you from us, we're brothers. So don't worry about it." He smiled and nodded. "Alright, let's get going, there's a mountain range a bit up the route, there should be a cave that we can rest in." He nodded and Cadence emerged from the log.

As we set off we failed to notice the dark figure watching us. "They're that loyal to each other, this gets better and better."

Meanwhile at the wolf den

Clawback was relaxing in the living room when the phone rang in the office. He rushed in and answered it. "Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, how can we help you?"

"Hello, who am I speaking to?"

"My name is Clawback ma'am."

"Ah, alright. I need some assistance, I am trying to track down somepony who has stollen something from me and I need some muscle, don't worry, this job won't require any killing, I can pay handsomely."

"Well then you called the right place madam, I'll just need some details then I will be down as soon as I can."

"Oh wonderful, what details do you need darling?" After Clawback got the necessary information from the caller he got ready for job.

"Hey Pyro, I'm going on a job, will be back when it's done!"

"Ok Claw, I'll watch the place!"

"Just don't burn it down!"

"BUCK YOU!!!" Clawback laughed and began flying towards his destination...

Ponyville.

We reached the mountains and found a suitable cave that could house us for the night. I swept the area and Mothy placed some movement spells around the entrance. Our cave went deep underground but cut off about one hundred feet down where there was a large open area. There was three tents, one green, one blac and the other pink.

Mothball and Cadence were sitting by the campfire, Mothy holding a stick with a marshmallow in his hooves. I sat down and took inventory on our supplies, we were good on food and water, there was even a few sweets and bits of meat for me. I hid the meat from Cadence and walked over with two sticks and a bag of marshmallows for her and I. She thanked me and stabbed her fluffy treat as did I, there was a nice silence between us as we roasted our sweets, I decided we were too quiet.

"You should see our friend Pyro try to roast a marshmallow, he lets the thing catch on fire on purpose." This got a smile from Mothball and a giggle from Cadence. "Then he eats it while it's on fire." I chuckled at the memory of our first campaign trip, I then started telling Cadence about it.

"Um, Pyro, you sure you should be waving that around?"

"It's fine Mothball, what's the worst that can happen?"

"Hey guys, I kinda spilled some oil on my feathers, I'm going to go clean up."

"What?" Pyro turned around to quickly and the fire caught the oil on Clawback sending him in flames.

"FIIIIIIIIRRRREEE!!!" He started running around like a madman setting fire to our tents while we chased him.

"No, Clawback calm down!"

"Stop drop and roll, stop drop and roll!"

"Oh, that's gonna leave a burn."

"YOU THINK?!?"

We all laughed. "And to this day Clawback will not go anywhere near a marshmallow without a bucket of water." We all burst out laughing.

"You should see my fiancé on camping trips. He always tries to set everything up by hoof because he's to stubborn to use his horn, saying it the traditional way of doing things. Long story short, he gets tangled in the tent and I have to bail him out." We all shared some more stories until we started to get tired.

"Alright you two, it's time to get some rest, got a lot of walking to do." They nodded and entered they're tents, I lay down on my sleeping bag and closed my eyes, letting sleep take me.

A little problem (day 2)

Author's Notes:

It's back bitches!

Also, I am looking for co-writers for this story. If anyone is interested PM me.

Note that this probably won't be updated often, but I'll try. I really love this story and a lot of you seem to as well.

Enjoy the new chapter my loyal readers and followers.

The next day

Cadence, Mothball and I stared at the problem presented to us with neutral expressions. Said problem happened to be a huge bottomless gorge in the middle of the path we had taken.

"How deep do you think it is?" Asked Mothball as he looked over the edge. I picked up a small rock and dropped it into the abyss...there was no sound of it hitting the ground.

"Well, that's not a good sign." I looked to Mothball and Cadence who both had wings. "You two fly over, I'll find another way around and catch up to you."

"You sure boss?" I nodded and he buzzed his little bug wings, taking flight and landing on the other side of the gorge.

I looked to Cadence who was looking really nervous about something. "You alright Candy?" She shook her head.

"I'm...not really a strong flyer." My left eye twitched slightly as I facepalmed. I rubbed my temples as I tried to think of a way around this.

"Fuck it." I lifted cadence and held her like a javelin. "Mothball, get ready to catch her!" She tried to protest but I began walking back, I then ran forwards and straight up threw Candy over the bottomless pit. She screamed as she flew swiftly over the ravine and into Mothys hooves.

"Are you crazy?!" I shrugged and began walking along the edge.

"You two go on ahead, I'll find another way over." Mothball nodded and he put Candy on his back and began walking away. "Ok, this thing has to stop somewhere."

"HOW LONG IS THIS FUCKING THING?!?!" I had been running for about a full hour now, and the gorge showed no signs of stopping. Looking at the opposite side of the gorge and to my knives I sighed. "Again...Fuck it." I grabbed two of my knives and held one in each hand. I took a running start and jumped into the gorge. I quickly approached the opposite wall of the gorge and drove my knives into the stone. Sliding down a little before stopping, I hung there tightly holding onto my knives. "I've made a terrible mistake."

Three hours later

I finally pushed my torso up to the surface and stood on the green grass, the sweet, sweet grass that grew on flat ground. I threw my tired arms up in victory before collapsing and falling backwards into the gorge again. "FFFFFFFFUUUUUU-!!!!!!!"

Yet another three hours later

Once I managed to climb the gorge walls again I immediately distanced myself from the edge and lay on the ground. "I am...so...getting...paid...extra...for this...shit." After catching my breath and resting my arms I got up and started walking towards a crystal field that Mothball and Candy had walked in the direction of. It was a few miles away so I had to keep a quick pace if I wanted to get there by nightfall.

About fourth minutes later I reached the entrance to the large fields of tall multicoloured crystals. These things were randomly showing up here and there, and for some reason could only be broken by a pony or other creature that was blessed by an alicorn. I had received this blessing from Celestia a few months back as I usually used the crystals on my missions. There was actually a lot to using the crystals, but after your first few tries you can use them effortlessly.

As I walked further into the fields I felt like I was being watched by someone. When you're in my line of work your senses kind of need to be heightened, so you learn to know when a possible hostile is in the area. Looking around I spotted a tip of a pony ear sticking out from behind a large black crystal. "Hey! I see you up there!" I heard a feminine laugh and the pony in question revealed herself. She was a dark grey Thestral with a slick dark purple mane, of course there was the bat wings and golden piercing eyes.

"What gave it away?" Her voice was like a woman's in her late twenties, except it was filled with a bit of sultry and was very smooth.

"The tip of your ear was exposed." I explained. She facehoofed and blushed.

"To be fair, if you weren't so sharp you would have never sensed I was here." I rolled my eyes and she flew down to me.

"So, why are you spying on me? You from some other mercenary group?" I slipped a hand behind myself and held The Lancelot, just in case.

"I was, but then the group started becoming all about the murders and cash and not about the adventures and our bonds. Not to mention that all of the other members were males, treated me like a common whore." Her face took a stern expression before calming down again. "Then I saw a news article about a certain mercenary group, Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, their slogan being 'freindliest group of mercenaries you'll ever meet.' So I thought I'd scope you guys out and see if you're worth joining, and I will say that I have grown to like you lot." She said with a soft smile. I detected no trace of a lie or possible scheme in her voice.

"So you're looking to join Lone Wolf?" She nodded.

"I do have one question though. If you are a group that works together, why call yourselves Lone Wolf?" I smiled and looked to the sky.

"We chose that name because it signifies what our lives were like before the group, we were all lone wolves that left their packs. We found each other and made our own pack. Plus I think it sounds cool." She giggled before walking to my side.

"So, any openings?" She asked hope in her voice.

"Anyone is free to join at anytime, I'll need to know your name first." She smiled and put a hoof to her chest.

"My name is Moonlight Whisper, at your service...boss." I smirked and we began walking side by side until we reached a small cave that Mothball and Candy had set up camp in. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Mothball."

Yet another obstacle (day 3)

I sat down at the entrance to the cave with my sword in my hand. I let Mothball introduce himself to Moonlight. I needed to think of a nickname for our newest member, just a little hobby of mine. I always chose nicknames for my friends.

'Wisp? No...Moon? Nah. Moony? Probably get slapped for that one, I'll put it in the maybe category. Light? Nope...fuck it, Moony it is.'

"You not going to sleep?" I turned my head to see Moonlight walking towards me. "I saw you in that gorge today, how in the name of Tartarus have you not passed out yet?" She sat beside me and looked at me with interest.

"Well, I don't exactly fully trust you just yet, so I'm not letting you take the night watch." She nodded in understanding. "As for how I haven't passed out yet, I honestly don't know." She giggled and looked up at the night sky.

"Hey, have you ever heard of Princess Luna?" I looked at her confused.

"Can't say I have."

"Nearly a thousand years ago, Princess Celestia only controlled the sun. Her sister, Princess Luna managed the moon. Unfortunately the night went unappreciated by the ponies of that era, and Luna soon became jealous of her sister and the praise that her day was given. She became a monster known as Nightmare Moon, and planned to plunge Equestria into eternal night."

"I can already see a shit-ton of problems that would cause her."

"Yes, Celestia managed to seal Nightmare Moon onto the moon, thus creating the legend of 'The Mare on the Moon.' And she's been on the moon ever since."

I looked up at the moon and saw the shape of a pony's head on it. "How come you know all this?"

"It's a story passed down through Thestrals, as our kind was loyal to the Night Princess as were are nocturnal."

"A valid point." I began sharpening my sword with a throwing knife. "So this other Princess is still on the moon." She nodded. "Then I guess if it's nearly the thousand year anniversary of her defeat then that seems like the perfect time to return." Moony just looked at me and smirked.

"That seems to be a common thing in Equestria. Almost a thousand years ago there was all these evil beings that were defeated by Celestia or by a unicorn named Starswirl."

"What hasn't gone wrong in this world?" She smiled and began walking back into the cave.

"What the hell is that thing?!" I had Mothball and Cadence over my shoulders as I ran with Moony flying beside me.

"I don't know just run man!" I looked back to see the giant ogre like creature chasing us.

"Fuck you Shrek!" I pointed The Lancelot at him with an explosive clip and pulled the trigger. The blast hit the east square in the chest and caused it to stagger. "You ain't invading my swamp!"

"The hell does that mean?!" Asked Mothy.

"You don't wanna know man, you really don't wanna know!" I looked to Moonlight who was giggling.

"You guys are so funny!" I groaned and picked up speed.

"Moony! Stop giggling like a schoolgirl for five seconds and distract that thing while I get Cadence to safety!" She stopped her little giggle fest and nodded. She flew back and started flying around the beast.

As we were coming up to a cliff I looked back and sighed.

"Luck my old friend, please don't be a douche right now." I stepped back and sprinted off the edge of the cliff, Cadence and Mothy screaming as we neared the ground. Luckily we landed in a giant mushroom patch and bounced off of one large toadstool. Leaping from mushroom to mushroom I finally got us to safety.

Setting the two dazed ponies down I turned back and began running towards where the monster and Moony were.

"I swear to god Moony if you're dead up there I'm going to kill you." I threw a few of my throwing knives into the side of the cliff, creating makeshift stairs. Once I reached to top I pulled out my sword and sprinted back to Moonlight.

Once I entered the clearing I stopped and watched as Moonlight flew towards the beast at full speed whilst spinning to form a drill-like cone. She drilled right through the things chest and it fell resulting in the ground shaking violently. I stuck my sword in the ground to keep my balance, when the shaking stopped Moony landed in front of me with a confident smile. "So, what did you think?"

I just looked to the dead ogre and back to the over powered Thestral before me. "You wanna get a drink later or something?" I asked, dumbfounded at the sheer power this tiny pony possessed.

"Nope, maybe some other time." She replied with a sly grin before taking off agian.

"Well this was an eventful day." Mothball said as he handed Moony and Cadence sticks and marshmallows while they sat around the campfire.

"Tell me about, how the hell does something that big not get noticed by Celestia?" I asked while lying down on the back of a timberwolf I had punched into submission and had shaped into a bed. When it whined I just elbowed it in the snout to shut it up.

"I think it was living underground until now, we probably disturbed it by grabbing that crystal." Mothball scolded as he looked to Moonlight.

"Hey, I needed to get something for my sister's wedding, sue me." I faceplamned and closed my eyes.

"Goodnight, you crazy fucks."

End of the line (final day pt.1)

I looked out at Canterlot that was just a few more miles away from our current camp. That chase with mega Shrek really picked up the pace and got us far. "I wonder what Clawback and Pyro are doing."

A few days earlier

Clawback landed in Ponyville and walked to the building that the call had came from, the Carousel Boutique. As he checked that his dark blue jacket with the emblem of Lone Wolf on the back was presentable he knocked on the door. He had gotten a few odd looks from the ponies in town, most of them have never seen a griffin before so it was to be expected, there was also the fact he was from a mercenary group so... yeah.

"Just a moment~" A very refined voice sung out from inside. Soon Clawback heard the sound of a lock opening and the door opened to reveal a marshmallow white mare with dark purple curly hair, three diamonds as her cutie mark.

"Hello madam, Clawback of Lone Wolf Mercenary Services. You called about needing a bit of muscle?" Clawback said in a friendly voice.

"Oh, yes. Thank you for coming darling, please come in so I can fill you in on my situation." Clawback nodded and followed the mare inside. "First I should introduce myself, I am Rarity Belle, pleasure to make your acquaintance." She held out her hoof. Being the gentleman that he was, Clawback took it and kissed it.

"Pleasure is all mine madam."

"My my, such a gentlecolt." Rarity giggled before walking over to a table and pulling out a chair. "Now, let's get you up to speed mister Clawback." Nodding Clawback pulled out his own chair and sat down opposite her. "A large amount of my gem storage has been stolen by a pack of Diamond Dogs. Without the gems I won't be able to finish any of my orders, I'll go bankrupt within a few week."

Clawback nodded. "So you need me to take care of the Dogs while you retrieve the gems?" Rarity nodded.

"So, will you help me?"

"Ma'am, consider it done." Rarity gave a sigh of relief. "So, when do you want to leave?"

"Give me a few minutes darling, I need to get a few things." Clawback nodded and idly twiddled his thumbs as he waited.

"I'm sure they're fine." I looked back to the group as they began packing up for the trip ahead. "You guys ready to go, we should be able to get to Canterlot by nightfall." Everyone nodded. I jumped down the cliff and slid down the slope and jumped up to a branch. Swinging from that I landed on a rock in the middle of a circular clearing. "Well this doesn't seem dangerous at all, I mean seriously if you're going to lay a trap for somebody at least put some effort into it." I heard a growl come from the trees surrounding the clearing and a large changeling walked out, his mane long and red, his beetle back and wings were also red. "And who might you be, Buggy the Clown?" I asked while leaning on my sword and checking my nails in boredom.

"I am Prince Insectia! First in line to the changeling throne!" He announced in a pride filled voice.

"Huh, could have swore Mothball was next in line to the throne." I retorted with a smirk, looking to get a rile out of him.

"Don't you dare speak that name to me! My mother has deemed you a serious threat, and entrusted me with the pleasure of killing you and stealing your love!" He scrapped the ground with his hoof and snorted at me.

"Oh really now? If your bitch of a mother really deemed me such a threat, then why did she send you and not come to fight me face to face?" I asked disinterested, tossing The Lancelot in my hand.

"She has other more important matters to attend to." He took a fighting stance and I just looked at him with a neutral expression.

"Find, I was getting bored of your jibber jabber any ways." I pulled my sword out of the ground and pointed it at him. "I wonder how much bug leather is worth."

"Gray!" I turned to see Mothball and the two mares walking into the area. "You and Moonlight have had something to fight on this mission and I've been left with babysitting Cadence, no offence to you Princess but I just need to blow off some steam." Mothy stared down Insecta-dick with a mighty rage.

"Shouldn't you wait until you're back with Screwball to blow off some steam?" I asked jokingly, sheathing my sword and walking over to Candy and Moonlight.

"Shut up Gray." I put up my hands defensively and sat down on a log, getting ready to watch the fight between the two princes.

"Wait." We both turned to Candy who was looking incredibly impatient. "I'm helping."

"Candy, as much as I would love to see you beat the shit out of dick-horn over there our job is to keep you out of danger." I pointed out.

"I hardly call him a danger." She smirked looking over to Insectia who growled.

"You dare mock me!?"

"What you gonna do ab-"

"Oh my God just fight already!" Both Moonlight and I shouted. We both looked to each other and smirked. Candy and Mothy both took fighting stances and stared down the changeling that matched Celestias height.

"I bet fifty bits Mothball will make the finishing move." Said Moony as she pulled a bucket of popcorn out of nowhere.

"Oh I'll take a piece of that action." We both pulled out fifty bits and placed them in a small bag. Turning back to the group they all charged towards each other. 'If things get dusty I'll step in, gotta keep Candy safe or I'll never hear the end of it from Tia.' I pulled out The Lancelot and lay it at my side, just to be sure. Moony looked at me and nodded, pulling out her spear just in case.

One bullet (final day pt.2)

Mothball charged Insectia with his horn glowing, he jumped up and headbutted his brother with great force causing a small crater to appear under the large changeling. Mothball jumped out of the way and Cadence fired a magic blast into their opponents chest.

Insectia growled and shot towards Cadence, pinning her against a tree. "Mother promised me that I could keep you as a slave once she was finished with your little friends here, I guess now is a good time to collect." His horn glowed and a spell activated and Candy's body began to change. Before the spell could be completed I loaded The Lancelot with magic dampening rounds and shot one into the bug-horse. He grunted in pain before looking at me.

"If you're gonna pull that kinda shit wait until you've actually taken care of your enemies, have a sense of honour." I scolded laying The Lancelot beside me and folded my arms.

Mothball charged him and knocked him to the ground, Cadence caught her breath and cast a healing spell on herself. Looking down at her attacker she charged her horn and created a magic hammer, bringing it down on the bugs crotch. He screamed like a girl and kicked Cadence in the snout before grabbing her in his magic and slamming her into a tree.

Mothball spat out some green goo which turned into two green crystalic swords. Insectia took notice of this and created his own blades. The two rushed towards each other and clashed blades, taking swings at each other which were either avoided or blocked by another attack.

While Insectia was busy with Mothball, Cadence flew up into the air and charged her horn. A ball of pink energy formed and she slammed it down onto the prince, creating another crater and leaving him spraled out on the ground with a large burn mark on his beetle back.

Insectia grabbed both of them with his magic and repeatedly slammed them into each other before throwing them away. He grabbed Mothball again and held a blade to his throat, before he could make the fatal blow he was tackled by Cadence and punch by her hooves with great force,

Mothball recovered and made a crystalic hammer. He walked over to the now battered Insectia and slammed it onto his chest. Insectia tried to get up but looked up to see Cadence and Mothball looking down at him with evil grins. Both held their magic hammers in the air and brought them down simultaneously, finishing him.

Moonlight and I looked to each other and sighed, each taking our fifty bits back. "Shame, looks like we'll have to find a different bet." I said as I got up.

"How about a drinking contest once we get to the Den?" Moonlight suggested.

"You're on missy."

"Did you just call me missy?" She asked with a playful tone.

"Why, does that offend you?" I looked at her with a sly grin. "If so prepare to hear that name every time I pass you in a hallway or street."

She rolled her eyes and we walked towards Mothy and Candy. The two looked at us with smiles. "So, how did I do?" Candy asked.

"I'll say right now Candy, whatever poor sod is marrying you has to be one brave mother fucker." Her skill in combat was great alright, but it lacked a sense of nature, likely because she isn't a natural born fighter.

"Well a captian of the Royal gaurd has to be brave." She replied with a smile.

"Wait, you're the mare that Shining Armour is engaged to?" I suddenly burst out laughing, falling to the ground and holding my sides. "That sorry excuse for a fighter is-BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" I had fought Shining before, he is terrible at fighting, he relies way too much on defence than offence.

"True he is a bad fighter, but he never backs down from a challenge and is braver than any stallion in Equestria." She defended.

"C-Candy, I know that isn't the real reason you want to marry him!" I said in between laughs. "You just want to be dominant in a relationship." Candy thought for a moment before a look of realisation came to her.

"Sweet Faust, y-you're right." She sat down and out a hoof to her chin in thought. "No wonder I usually try to take charge."

"Oh no that's just a thing all women have, you just don't have the natural instinct for your mate to be the dominant one in the relationship." I finally stopped laughing and we began walking. As I was about to exit the clearing I heard Insectia cough. "You guys go on ahead, I gotta do something first." The group nodded and I walked over to the wounded changeling who glared at me with one eye, the other being swollen and bloody.

"Y-You won't survive... the invasion. You are... my mothers... primary target now." I knelt down in front of him.

"Tell me, are there anymore of you princes?"

He coughed and smirked. "Of course, two princes, one princess. They will make sure... you die!"

I pulled out The Lancelot and loaded it with enchanted ammo. "Let them try, because all it takes is one bullet to the head to kill any one of your kind." I placed the barrel of the gun to his head. "Here's a message to your mother. You try anything like that again and you'll be on the top of my kill list, I will personally beat you down and have a bit of fun with you before killing you and sell your body on the black market where a some creepy stallion will use it as some weird sex toy. So stay away from my friends." With that I pulled the trigger.

A few hours later we were all in Canterlot. We walked to the gates of the castle where Celestia was waiting for us with a warm smile. She rushed forward and brought Candy into a tight hug. "Thank goodness you made it here safely." She let go of Candy and turned to us. "Thank you so much for completing this important task Lone Wolf, as promised, here is your reward." She floated a large sack of bits over to me. "There is double the amount you were promised for that... incident at the gorge."

I shivered at the memory. "Thanks Tia, pleasure doing business with you once again." I placed the bag of bits on Mothy's back and turned to Candy who wrapped me in a hug.

"Thank you Gray."

I patted her on the back and pulled away. "No problem Candy, just doin what I was paid for."

She rolled her eyes and hugged Mothy. "Thank you too Mothball, I enjoyed spending time with you."

"Likewise princess." As Candy was about to walk away Mothball put a hoof on her shoulder. "Um, could you maybe, help me with something?"

"It would depend on what it is, but yes."

"Well, I've started seeing this mare, and I was just wanting to know if the relationship will actually go anywhere." Cadence nodded and followed Mothy down the street. I had taken the bag of bits back and threw it over my shoulder.

"Well, we'll be off then. Gotta get back home and make sure Pyro and Clawback didn't burn the damn place down." I hugged Tia and began walking towards The Wolf Den with our newest member in tow.

I sat in my office with my feet up on my desk, enjoying the peace that my little office brought to me after a long mission. Moony sat on one of my couches while reading a magazine. "So Gray, what's next for us?"

"That depends on what you mean missy." She groaned slightly before continuing.

"What's next for Lone Wolf?"

I looked out the window to my left and watched the sun start to set, causing the sky to go a beautiful orange while sending small Ray's of light through the blinds. "Whatever the world brings to us I suppose."

Author's Notes:

There we go, an end to the first arc of this story. More to come don't worry, I'll try and get the next chapter up quickly this time.

Also as I was writing the chapter we reached 100 likes!

Just a day at the office

A few days later

I sat in my office alone, the ceiling fan being the only source of sound as I leaned back in my chair with my feet up on my desk enjoying the silence. I had decided to take a few days off any missions after the journey with Candy, I needed to think about a few things, those things including Molly. What happened after I left the bar! Did she go looking for me? Was she ,ad at me saying those things then just up and leaving? Those were just a few questions circling around in my head.

Another question was when was I going to run into the other five humans! I know Carl is still at the camp being the stubborn prick he is. Josh is with Molly up in Manehatten, Jason was the closest one to my current position as he was teaching in that university as a technology and science teacher. Brain and Kate though... I can't really remember where they ended up in Equestria. All I know is that they got engaged and Brain was trying to increase his pathetic IQ, again, good for him.

Sighing I reached into one of my drawers and pulled out a ammo magazine for The Lancelot and began idly taking out the enchanted bullets and putting them back in again, failing to notice our newest member Moonlight placing a bag of bits on the table. She stared at me for awhile before tapping my foot with her hoof, I snapped out of my trance and looked at her. "Yes Moonlight?"

"Just dropping off the vault cut for my payment. You doing alright Gray?" She asked concerned.

"I'm fine Missy, just thinking about some complicated stuff is all." She looked at me concerned before exiting the office and leaving me to my business. "Maybe I should go on a mission to get my mind off of this." I shook my head and slapped myself. "No, if I keep avoiding these thoughts I'll never resolve anything." I rubbed my temples before getting out of my chair and walking out of the office. "Maybe a walk will help me think more clearly." With that I walked out the front door of the building with the groups emblem on the top and out into the streets of Canterlot.

Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia sat at her throne while looking over some papers. She set them down and looked to a certain stained glass window, showing her with a blue alicorn. Sighing she placed all of her papers to the side and walked out of the room, needing some air.

As she reached a balcony she looked up at the sky, thinking of the upcoming celebration that brought joy to others but pain to her. As she was about to walk inside a green flame flew towards her and transformed into a scroll. Smiling knowingly Celestia took the scroll in her Maci's and began to read. It was from her faithful student Twilight Sparkle, informing her if an upcoming disaster that Celestia was already well aware of. Trusting her visions Celestia began to set her plan into action, and that started by sending Twilight to Ponyville.

"Let's see if this plays out right, if anything goes wrong I can always trust Lone Wolf to step in if needs be." She sent a response letter and walked back indoors.

As Twilight read the response her eyes widened in shock. "Why isn't she taking this seriously? Equestria could be in danger for Fausts sake!"

"Calm down Twi, if it's the princess saying that you don't need to worry then you can trust her." A young purple dragon said as he stacked a few books. "It's not like we could do anything about it anyway."

Twilight frowned before glancing at a newspaper beside her. Taking it in her magic she opened up to a page where an article on Lone Wolf was shown. "We may not be able to do anything about it, but I know where we can find others who can. Spike, grab my bit purse." With that Twilight walked out of the library with the young drake running behind her with a bag of bits in his claw.

As I walked around Canterlot I got a few waves from some of the friendlier nobles in the city and even had a few mares wink suggestively at me, to which I playfully winked back. Don't judge me, it's a great way to get an ego boost, and I really needed one at that point so it was free game.

"Hello Gray." I smiled as I recognised the voice behind me. I turned around and saw my favourite moustached friend standing there with his wife. Fancy Pants and Fleur, they usually hired one of us if they needed extra security at an auction or showing, and boy did they give generous tips.

"Fancy, Fleur, I haven't seen you two in ages. How are you two lovebirds doing these days?" I ask while I kneel down to eye level. The two ponies smiled warmly and brought me into a hug which I gratefully returned.

"Yes Gray it has been far too long, it is great to see you again my friend." Fancy replied as he pulled away. "As for how we are doing, well, let's just say that we are expecting a new member of the family." Both of them looked to each othe lovingly.

I smiled as I instantly knew what he meant. Knowing what kind of rumours would go around if I yelled I kept it to a whisper. "Fleur, you're pregnant?"

She nodded happily and rubbed her stomach with a hoof. "Yes, an I couldn't be happier, although I'm not looking forward to the pain of the birth though, but I guess that it's worth it to bring a life into the world."

"Oh you don't need to worry about the pain, with female hormones in the brain once the baby is born you almost instantly forget the pain, you'll still feel a little tired depending on how long it takes but you get what I mean."

Fleur smiled warmly. "Always knowing what to say, I'm surprised you don't have a mare for yourself."

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, I'm not cut out for relationships and all of that, and I'm constantly putting my life on the line, could you imagine what that would do to someone if we grew close enough? It would destroy them in at least a few ways."

The two ponies nodded in understanding. "Well, I hate to cut this short but we are on a strict schedule today, it was great seeing you again my human friend but we must be off."

"That's fine Fancy, you're a busy pair, I'll let ya go. See you two lovebirds later."

As we separated I began walking back to the Den. But as I was halfway there I saw a purple aura surrounding me,milling me with dread as I immediately knew who it was.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh no."

Author's Notes:

Let the craziness begin

I need a vacation...

"No Twilight!" I yelled in annoyance.

"Why not? You're a mercenary right? I have the bits to pay you, and this is a serious issue! So why not?" The crazy mate in front of me asked in irritation.

I just stared laughing at her, harder than I should have been. "Twilight, there are so many reasons why I shouldn't and won't do this, far too many in fact. A few being you're crazy, this is something that the likes of Celestia need to be taking care of, I will never, ever do a job for you because of those little 'experiments' you had me go through, this is something that I really shouldn't get involved in and lastly and most importantly..." I leaned down slowly with a smirk. "...I DON'T MESS WITH DEITIES!!!"

She just looked up at me in shock, clearly not expecting to receive such an answer from me, which is surprising since I am known to be a loudmouth.

I stood up straight and folded my arms, I was in no mood to deal with this maniac right now. I was in a good mood after meeting Fancy and Fleur again, but Twinkle here had to trap me in her magic and start going on and on about some great disaster and some crazed alicorn on the moon returning to bring eternal night. I already know this from Moonlight, I don't need to hear it from Twilight.

I actually know Twilights mother, Twilight Velvet. Sweet mare, natural mother from what I've seen. Hell, she once burped Pyro...then Clawback...and then Mothball. I just couldn't help but laugh at the three as they seemed to want more of her motherly affection. There are a good few times where they go to visit her, all three of them, and help her out around the house or something and in return she starts treating them like she's their mother or something, it's actually pretty sweet of her to do that.

I know of Mothy's issues with is whore of a mother, Clawback was abandoned as an egg and was taken in by a dragoness that mistook his egg for an abandoned dragon egg but still raised him as her own and Pyro was abused by his mother since he unintentionally set things on fire from time to time with his out of control magic.

"You don't understand, all of Equestria is at stake here! You can't just let Equestria die because of selfish reasons like that!" Twilight protested.

I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Twilight, I'm only a mercenary alright? I may have fought dragons and lived, I may have killed a few demons of the underworld at some point...that was a strange week for everyone, but I do not mess with powerful entities that literally control the moon and sun. If you want something like this done, either find someone else to do it yourself. Good day to you ma'am." Without letting her continue I walked past her and began heading back to The Den to drink a cold beer and cook up some meat to try and forget that this conversation ever happened.

I lay down on my sun bed on the roof of our building, it was a flat roof so we were able to use it as a relaxing spot to look out over the view of Canterlot. I took a sip of my beer and sighed happily, finally having some peace to think about everything.

"Y'alright boss?" I heard Pyro ask behind me.

I turned my head and sighed. "I'm alright Pyro, just thinkin is all."

"About that girl up in Manehatten?"

"Partially yes." I answered, not bothering to deny the fact that I was letting a woman take over my thoughts. We've all got soft sides here, we may be able to turn into cold blooded killers but outside the job we're all pretty sensitive guys once you get to know us, we don't hide anything from each other.

"Well, what do you think you'll do now? She knows about your feelings for her, what do you think will happen?" He asked as he sat down in the sunbed beside mine.

"Honestly? I think I'll just try to put off a confrontation with her for as long as possible." I took another sip of my drink and looked up at the sky. "I'm just not cut out for that kinda thing man, I can hold down a business bit holding down a relationship ain't one of my many talents." I threw my empty bottle up in the air and shot it with The Lancelot out of boredom. "Just need to get away from this for awhile..."

"Why not go on a vacation?"

I looked over to him with a raised brow. "And leave you guys alone with Moonlight? I'd come back to a pile of rubble if I left you guys alone too long." I chuckled, causing him to file his eyes.

"I mean it Gray, you've been working nonstop for the past few months, you need to unwind somewhere you can get away from all of this, even just for a few days. Moonlight has good management skills, I'm sure that she can keep us in line until you get back, it'll be like you going in a long assignment." He looked at me with worry. "You need this Gray, you can't just keep doing this. Go take a week off on so,e resort while we deal with whatever comes our way. You can worry all you want when you get back, just go and rest for awhile, treat yourself, you've earned it."

I looked at him before I began thinking about what he said, I could use a week away, it's been about three years since I've actually gone on a vacation, even on earth. "Yeah...I guess I could use a vacation." He gave a sigh of relief at my answer. "You guys sure that you'll be alright while I'm gone?"

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

I nodded and ruffled his mane before walking inside to look through some travel magazines to see if there were any resorts that sparked my interest.

I really need a vacation.

Author's Notes:

Oh, look at that, it's back from its second hiatus.

Vacation start

"Alright you lot, I'd say I expect everything to be exactly as I left it, but I know at least one or two things will be broken while I'm gone." I said to the group as I held my suitcase in my hand as I was about to walk out of the Den. "While I'm away Moonlight is in charge."

"What? Why?!" Pyro complained.

"Because she is far more mature than you three, so behave yourselves. And Moonlight, don't you do anything stupid either." I said with a stern expression.

She gave a sultry smile and looked at me with half lidded eyes. "Now why would I ever think of doing something like that? I know you'd just punish me if I did."

I groaned and facepalmed. "No wonder your last group treated you like a whore..." I spoke quietly to myself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, just talking to myself." I quickly countered. I then looked outside and saw my carriage waiting for me. "Well there's my ride. See you lot in a week." After one final wave I left the building before looking back and saying to myself. "Yeah this place is gonna be destroyed while I'm gone." With that I walked up to the carriage outside and said hello to the two pegasui up front before boarding. I placed my bag on one of the seats and put my feet up, knocking the side of the carriage to tell the pegasui up front that I was ready to go.

Soon the carriage began to move down the street before taking to the skies, rising above the clouds and making me reminiscent about taking the plane to the Mediterranean back on earth with my family. "Ah, memories, forcing me to miss my crappy home world."

Meanwhile

Deep underground lay the Changeling Kingdom, made up of various cave systems and a large black castle built in a large cavern, with changelings bucking around by the thousands, going about their duties. Inside the castle sat Queen Chrysalis, a look of rage on her face as she continued to replay the message Gray had sent her in her mind before he killed one of the Royal Changelings.

"He dares to mock me before killing one of my children?! He shall pay dearly for this!" The queen yelled in anger, bringing her hoof down on the black crystalic floor, causing it to crack under the sheer force of her rage. "GAURDS!!!"

Two armoured changelings rushed in and stood at attention.

"Bring the Royals to me! At once!"

"Yes my queen!" They both answered before buzzing off, both sweating in nervousness as Chrysalis raged.

Chrysalis then began pacing back and fourth impatiently waiting for her remaining Royals to arrive. "I swear Lone Wolf, you will all burn in Tartarus for this!"

Two hours later

As the carriage landed on a small island off the coast of Equestria I immediately jumped out and waved to the pegasui who nodded and flew off, they would be returning in a week after my vacation was over. "well, I might as well get checked in and then check the place out."

As I walked towards the resorts main building I looked around with a content smile. It was like anything you would see in a normal tropical resort on earth, palm trees along the path, people in flower shirts, a few families arguing over who forgot what, kids running about whether or their parents sorted out everything, the smell of the sea in the air and of course the sun shining brightly down on the island, on,y a few small clouds cycling the small piece of land in the sea.

I got a few looks, but that was to be expected. A good few of these ponies, Griffins and dragons were from other parts of the world and would have never seen a human before. I'm sure a good few of them just decided that I was some kind of Minotaur and looked the other way. "Nope, not letting the stares get to me, I came here to relax."

As I walked into the main building I was immediately greeted by one of the staff with a genuine smile. After getting checked in at the main desk I was given my room key and headed straight for it to get out of my merc gear and into my swimming trunks, sandals, flower shirt and just relax by the pool and drink whatever fancy named drink I could find on the menu. And I did just that.

Half an hour later I was lying on a sunbed under a large parasol drinking a piña colada to keep things simple. I just lay there with my sunglasses on and a smug smile on my face. "Man this was way overdue." I took a sip of my drink before placing it on the table beside me and lifting up a leaflet that had the times of various activities, trying to see if there was anything to do here other than relax, if there wasn't I was fine with just relaxing anyway, it's what I came here to do after all.

"Let's see, anything to do with old people is off the list like shuffleboard or bingo. Wait a minute this place has a strip club? Eh, if I feel like it I'll go check it out. Scuba diving, poker, etc etc." I shrugged and placed the leaflet down, taking my drink again while enjoying the peace I could get before a bunch of kids would come diving into the pool and start screaming their tiny hearts out.

"Gray? Is that you?"

I smiled at the familiar voice and turned to see none other than FireFlight walking up to me. "FireFlight, what a pleasant surprise! You here with your family or what?" The red unicorn smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, my wife convinced me to take us all on vacation, so she's back at the room with the kids while I check everything out. I'm actually here with my sister and her...coltfriend, as well." That last part was spoken dryly and with hate.

"Wait, is she still dating Metric Ton?!" He nodded. "The one that beats her?! I thought she ditched the prick months ago."

"Hello gentlecolts." The mood then changed to happy again as another friend showed his pure white face.

"Broblood! What're you doing here?" I greeted as Blueblood reached us.

"I heard that you were coming here on vacation, so I decided to join you and keep you company." He then looked to FireFlight and noticed his expression. "Is something wrong?"

I looked to FireFlight and he nodded. "Come on, let's go somewhere private to talk about this."

Author's Notes:

Seems as though Gray can't go anywhere without drama following him. This is a sort of mini-arc in the story.

Abuse isn't funny

"Well that was a let down." I sighed as we exited the supposed strip club on the resort. "Although, I don't know what I was expecting, you guys are always naked. It's just mares in socks and lingerie." While admittedly it was somewhat sexy, it still didn't meet my standards, so I was left unsatisfied. "What about you guys?" I just looked to Blueblood and FireFlight to see that they were both drooling with huge blushes on their faces. "Well, I guess it would affect you more considering your sex drives."

We had decided to relax for a bit begore getting into the whole abuse thing, might as well enjoy ourselves before going out to try and stop an abusive relationship right? Heheh....this is not what I signed up for.

The next thing on our agenda was a private, low stakes poker game. That would be where we would discuss our little issue.

So, the three of us sat in a room underground just outside the residential area if the resort, FireFlights sisters cabin being next to us above ground, but there was a small window that allowed us to see the building. We just sat around a poker table, the only light coming from a bulb above us, casting the rest of the room into darkness.

I looked to my two cards, a two of diamonds and a queen of hearts, looking to the cards on the table I knew I could easily get a full house. "Raise 50 bits." I said while pushing some of my poker chips into the middle.

"Fold." Blueblood said as he tossed his cards into the middle and leaned back in his chair.

"Call." FireFlight said as he matched my raise.

We then turned over our cards and he facepalmed. "Should have just folded Flighty, you knew you couldn't win but you tried to call me on a bluff." I took in the rounds winnings and added them to my growing pile.

"Damnit how are you so good at this game Gray?" The rounds loser asked while groaning at his loses. "My wife is gonna kill me."

"Hey, it's low stakes, she won't be that mad. Also, you ponies have terrible poker faces, you guys express all of your emotions on your face, meanwhile I am always able to keep a straight face." I explained as I dealt out the next hand.

"Gentlecolts, I think it's the me we addressed the elephant in the room." Blueblood said as he placed his hooves on the table.

"You know elephants actually take that offensively? Like really badly?" I asked as I took a sip of my beer and looked to my new cards.

"Not the point...although that will explain why the ambassadors of the elephant country acted all pissy when one of the gaurds made that joke...anyway, we need to discus this situation with Fires sister and her...partner." Fire sighed and I shrugged, placing my elbows on the table to pay attention to whatever was said. "From what you told me earlier, this is a very complicated issue. Without a guard or officer seeing the attacks then there's nothing we can do, and you have no jurisdiction here FireFlight."

"There is one thing." FireFlight said darkly. "We can go destroy him."

"Woah now, let's not get crazy here." I said with unease, I did not want this to turn into a murder.

"Yes let's get crazy, let's all just get him alone somewhere and kill the bastard!"

"FireFlight, you know I can have you arrested just for saying that." Blueblood said carefully, despite only appearing as a social figure Blue really did have some legitimate power in society.

"Well what if I hire Gray to kill him? That's legal right as long as the contract is solid?"

"Hey, you know what I'm like with killing people FireFlight. I may be pissed at the guy but not enough to-"

We all heard a scream and rushed to the window that showed up the room Fires sister and Metric Ton were staying in. They were only silhouettes othe curtains covering the window though. Apperantly the sister had done something very very small while Metric had left the room...he then slapped her across the face and began yelling.

FireFlight just looked to Blue and I who were staring at the scene with stern expressions. "Let's waste this dick." We both said darkly with our eyes narrowed.

Meanwhile

Mothball walked alongside Screwball through the park in the night, with no one around the two could just be themselves for awhile, Mothball didn't have to disguise himself and Screwball didn't have to hide her eyes. The walked side by side, their fur brushing against each other's.

"It's really nice out isn't it?" Mothball asked as he looked up at the clear, starry sky.

"Yeah, it is, I like nights like this when you can see so many stars." Screwball replied and looked into Mothballs emerald eyes. "The stars sparkle in your eyes you know that?"

"Huh, strange, I was about to say the same thing to you."

Screwball just smirked and raised a brow. She then began walking forward a hit and flicked Mothballs nose with her tail while smirking. "Good answer."

A large blush made its way to Mothballs face, but it soon faded as he got his thoughts under control as he absorbed the love that was given off my the action. He shook himself and ran after his marefriend to catch up.

Meanwhile, a tall changeling mare watched them from the shadows, her dark purple hair seeming like smoke. She narrowed her eyes at Mothball and retreated further into the darkness under the trees.

Mothball just looked in her direction, but found nothing. Shrugging he went back to talking to his significant other with a smile on his face, the love she was giving off was like a feast to him, a good sign of a strong relationship in the making. Suddenly Mothballs stomach growled, his energy may have been restored, but due to being a half breed of a pony and changeling he needed to eat something every now and then.

Screwball just smiled and used her chaos magic to summon a large chocolate milkshake for them to share with two crazy straws.

Author's Notes:

Wanted to show a but of Screwy and Mothy together. Also, the next changeling Royal is on the move it seems. This should be interesting.

Plan into action

"So, how're we gonna do this?" Blueblood asked as we sat around the poker table planning our attack.

"We should get him alone somewhere far into the island, we could probably overpower him and use a spell to kill him." FireFlight suggested.

"Dude, screw the spells or wrestling him to death." I said quickly.

"You have a better plan?" FireFlight asked with a raised brow.

"I don't need a plan, I got da knives." I answered while placing a large pile of my throwing knives on the table with a sadistic smile. "Also I've got my sword and The Lancelot, I can kill him easily, but I think we all want him to die slowly and painfully."

The other two just nodded. "We can start by stabbing his hooves so he can't crawl away, then we start lighting stabbing different parts of his limbs, cut off his tail and put it in his mouth, cut his sack open and shove 'em up his nose before cutting off his horn and leaving him to get mauled by the jungle life!" FireFlight yelled as he stood up with a mighty rage.

"Dude, calm your shit, we hate the guy but that's too far. We'll make him suffer yes but not like that." I protested with disgust. Although I was being a huge hypocrite, I had done far worse to douchebags like Metric Ton.

"Remind me to organise a therapist and anger management classes for you after this is over..." Blueblood commented dryly while shifting uncomfortably.

I rolled my eyes and got to my feet, if I didn't say something soon FireFlight would probably go along with his little plan. "Look, we'll get him secluded then we can beat him within an inch of his life and after some long minutes of agony we put him out of his pathetic misery."

This seemed to please the murderous psychopath beside me as he nodded in approval. "Alright, let's go get this prick."

"I really shouldn't have taught you ponies about human curse words. You had those cute little curse words you'd see in a children's cartoon that slipped right over the kids heads."

"Let's just get this over with, the sooner we finish this guy the better." Blueblood got out of his seat and began walking towards the exit with FireFlight and I in tow while I picked up all my knives with my magic gauntlet and placed them all in my trenchcoat to conceal them and kept my sword hidden with a small invisibility spell, I would use that spell more often if it actually worked on living things, but sadly it doesn't.

All of us were filled with determination (don't any of you dare make an Undertale joke in the comments or I swear to god!), ready to do what needed to be done. We had tried everything begore this, getting them couples therapy, giving him anger management classes and the best life coaches money could buy, yet he still remained the abusive douchebag. Well...not fir much longer, not after we were through with him.

When we got to his rooms door we put on fake smiles and knocked. We heard shouting before FireFlights sister slowly opened the door. She was a pink Pegasus mare with a long, messed up black main. She looked awful, the poor thing, her left eye was bruised slightly and I could tell she'd been hastily coveted up with make up. 'Oh you poor poor thing, don't worry, you won't have to suffer anymore.' I thought to myself, and I'm sure that the others were thinking the same thing.

"Hey sis, can we come in for a second so we can speak to Metric?" FireFlight asked calmly, struggling to keep his emotions in check for much longer after seeing his sister like this, I was already wrapping my fingers around The Lancelot while my other hand twitched in anticipation. Make a sex joke if you want I don't care.

"O-Oh, sure, come in." FlitterFlight opened the door further and stepped to the side to let us in. Blueblood thanked her with a warm smile, FireFlight hugged her and stepped inside while I stayed with her. I was going to let my friends invite Metric out with us while I tended to Flitter. Now, for Metric Ton, imagine the most stereotypical thirty year old man that lives in a crummy apartment building wearing a vest that's dirty and imagine it as a pony, not the best image is it?

He walked out with Blue and Fire. When they were gone I kneeled down in front of Flitter and brushed her mane out of the way gently to get a better view of her eye. She whimpered slight as I accidentally pressed a sore spot. "Shhhhh, it's ok Flitter, it's ok, I'm just going to see the damage and try to heal it the best I can. You're going to be find now." I assured her in a calm, soothing tone.

Her dull pink eyes looked at me with worry, the poor thing was shaking as she could probably guess what was about to happen. "Gray?" She asked shakily.

"What is it Flitter?" I responded gently as I rubbed my gauntlets fingers over her damaged eye while casting a healing spell, healing it slowly as to not cause discomfort.

She stopped shaking for a second as she looked me dead in the eyes, tears pouring down her cheek with a look of anger on her face. "Send him to Tartarus." She answered weakly, but I could sense her built up hate and anger staring to surface.

I just stopped and looked at her, she had only now had the opportunity to openly wish punishment on her supposed lover. I have no idea how she even met the guy or how she fell in love with him. Then again do any of us know how these things start in real life? No, we don't. Just by looking at her I knew putting this asshole in the ground was the right thing to do. "Don't worry Flitter, when we're dime with him he'll be sorry for everything he's done to you d he'll be wishing that he was in Tartarus."

I gently brushed her mane and hugged her as I continued to cast a healing spell on her, repairing her slightly damaged wings and body. "Thank you...thank you for setting me free..."

I sat there for another minute before brushing her cheek and getting up. "I'll be right back." I said darkly, now fuelled with even more determination than before. As I walked in the direction to others had wandered off in I flexed my fingers before clenching my hands into fists, my gauntlet glowing with red energy. "One prick gon die tonight."

Author's Notes:

Dark I know, but still, I generally handle dark themed stories.

I know this is a sensitive topic to cover and that maybe a few of you are or know of someone in an abusive relationship, and this is not trying to make fun of that, it is by no means funny, I'm just using this to develop Grays darker side of his personality. If you'd like to talk about this feel free to PM me.

I'd also appreciate it if you could check out my new HiE story Second Universe: Here and Now

Bring on the pain (part one)

I've dealt with a good deal of assholes, psychopaths, crazies and delinquents in my time here, but by far the one I hated the most was this asshole Metric Ton. There wasn't one asshole on this planet or my old one that I wanted dead more than this prick.

But you don't really want those details do you? No, you're reading this for one specific thing.

You all want to see us beat the living shit out of a Metric right? Well, ask and you shall receive.

I managed to catch up to the group and followed close behind Metric, Blueblood on his left and FireFlight on his right, we had him surrounded and he didn't even know it.

We just kept walking and walking, a good few miles from the resort so no one could disturb us. Blueblood used his magic to cut through several bikes that blocked our path on occasion.

Soon, we entered a clearing that was mostly sheltered by the leaves on the trees other than a hole in the middle that allowed the moon to shine down on the area. I looked around for a moment before coming to a stop. "Alright, this is far enough." I commented dryly, getting nods from my two friends.

"So, what is it that you guys want to do her-" Metric was cut off as he recieved a hard hood to the left cheek by FireFlight. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Metric fell through the air with two teeth coming lose from his jaw, the small lines of blood rising up in the air due to the impact.

As he landed with a loud thud I grinned evilly, feeling the sweet relief of this assholes death growing closer and closer as I watched Blue and FireFlight begin to approach the target, ready to beat him within an inch of his life.

I used my gauntlet to bring Metric to his hooves, he stumbled for a second before shaking his head while holding his head with a hoof. After he had regained his bearings he was quickly put down again by Blue hitting him in the back of the head with a wrench he had found lying around.

I then picked Metric up by the scruff of his neck, stared him dead in the eye and showing him my teeth, making sure that the natural instinct of seeing a predator up close was mixing in with the fear I was instilling him with. Before he could even take in a breath to speak I lifted him up while holding his neck and slammed him into the ground, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Why...why are you doing this?" He shakily got out while we all stared expectedly.

"You know damn well why Metric." FireFlight snapped as he slapped Metric across the face with his wing.

"Damn, wing slap." I thought with mild amusement.

"But I think Blueblood here might have hit you too hard and you've forgotten why we brought you here. So allow me to refresh your memory!" FireFlight then drew his back legs in before launching them into Metrics sides. "You have done nothing but abuse my only sibling, force her to do things she never wanted to do and who knows what else! You've hurt her physically, mentally and emotionally. Now...we're going to return that pain to you. Set her free and end your life...slowly...and very, very painfully."

Blueblood used his magic to drag the injured pony over to him, reached down, and stated showing the wrench down Metrics throat. The asshole tossed and pulled bit couldn't escape Blues magic and could only pray that he had enough air left in his body to survive.

"Blue! That's enough! We aren't killing him like that!" I scolded the prince who shook his head and took the wrench out of Metrics throat. "Now...it's my turn."

I used my gauntlet to bring Metric over but as I wass about the catch him I swung my fist forwards, my gauntlet now clenched into a fist that was now being buried into the guys skin. The look on his face sent measurable amounts of satisfaction and joy washing over my body. I then grabbed him by the neck and used my magic to manipulate my throwing knives to circle him, poking and prodding at his fur, some of then curing below the flesh.

After a good few cuts were made, FireFlight walked up and dropped a bucket of salt water over the stallions body, not sea water mind you, just very salty water. You can imagine the amount of pain he was going through at that moment. But it wasn't enough.

I nodded to Blue who smiled and used his magic to pick up a large branch. We then entered a small game of ping pong, I'd punch him over to Blueblood who would hit him back with the branch. I then decided enough was enough, we were going to end him them, and I wanted it to be me who kills him..

I grabbed him midair and threw him back into the ground, placing him where he really deserved to be, the dirt.

I threw some knives to my friends who smirked begore dashing over to Metick, slicking him to the ground by stabbing him through his limbs and nailing him to the ground.

"H-Hey, think about this you idiots, Blueblood, if you kill me all your privileges will be taken away! Same goes for you FireFlight!" He was begging at this point, tears rolling down his face and the ground around him now covered in a small puddle of blood.

"True, we can't kill you without risk of repercussion." FireFlight began.

"But he can, as long as he's on contract." Blueblood finished whole tossing a bit into my hand as payment.

Author's Notes:

Sorry to cut this short but I am far too tired to continue on right now.

Bring on the pain (part two)

Author's Notes:

You guys wanted brutal murder, you got brutal murder.

Comedy starts again next chapter.

But be warned though. The things that grey does in this chapter...its just fucked up.

"You can't be serious...one bit can't cover a kill order!" Metric cried out in fear as I stared him in the eye. My eyes were filled with unyielding rage, and I made sure to let that show. I wanted him to know, that my face, was the face of death.

"There's no limit to how much someone can pay for a job...it depends on whether or not the mercenary accepts the payment and the job." FireFlight sated with an evil smirk. "And for Gray right now..." I reached behind me and pulled my sword out of its sheath, letting it's edge hit the ground with a loud clang as I held it in my hands. "...I don't think low payment is a problem."

"All that matters now, is the details of the kill." Blueblood added. I was staying silent, waiting for the go ahead to murder this freak. "How do you want it FireFlight?"

"Slow...painful...make the bastard cry and beg before leaving him to the predators." Fire confirmed. He looked up into my glowing red eyes, but I didn't look down to him, only to the one that I was determined to bring a world of pain to. "Go on Gray...fulfill our contract."

That was all I needed to hear. (Things get insanely dark here)

I threw one of my knives into Metrics back leg, causing him to cry out in pain as the blade planted itself deep in his hind leg, causing him to fall over. I then threw another one into his other back leg, rendering him immobile and most importantly...scared shitless. I then began to slowly walk up to him, dragging my sword behind me, the scratching noises being made only adding to my fear factor. Yet again, I flashed my sharp teeth to him to activate that instinct in all prey species. What a great day to be part of a predatory race.

He began to shakily drag himself with his front legs, crawling away from me while fearing fir his life, he knew where he was going after he was killed. His already blood soaked fur was now becoming muddy as rain had began to move in. It started out as a light drizzle before it began to start pouring down with great force, Blue and Fire had taken shelter under a thick cluster of trees as I walked further into the clearing towards my victim.

As he reached the side of a large rock he found himself cornered with his back literally against the wall as he could only watch as I grew closer and closer. As I finally reached him I saw the usually dark blue magic of my gauntlet turn to red as I used it to pull out the blades in his legs, causing more blood to pour from the wounds. I got on one knee and brough myself to eye level with the douchebag, staring into his fear filled eyes before I spun my sword around and brought it down onto his front left hoof, cutting it off completely.

He cried out in agony as he reached for his limb, funding only a bloody stump with a piece of bone sticking out of the middle. I then grabbed the detached limb and slapped him across the face with it, red dots of blood splashing onto my face as I did so. I then stabbed my sword into the ground before ripping the limb in two and shoved one half of it into his mouth while I crushed the other in my gauntlet.

He tried to spit out the piece of leg in his mouth, with a mixture of a gag and an urge to vomit. I clamped his mouth shut with my hand and forced him to swallow the piece of his leg whole. After he did I let go and he began to vomit like crazy. He was losing a lot of blood now, he'd pass out soon enough. I still wasn't satisfied with this.

I took one of my knives in my hand and slid it gently down the side of his face before cutting open the side of his head, revealing a piece of his cracked skull. I then placed one of my thumbs on his left eye and began to crush it slowly. At this point he didn't even have the strength to scream, only whimper madly as I crushed his eyeball with my gauntlet. Soon, it popped like a grape.

As I pulled my thumb out of the bloody eye socket and grabbed his only functionaling leg. I stared him in the eye for a second before ripping his last leg clean off.

"P-P-Please....just...kill me..." He begged, but bus pled fell on deaf ears. I grabbed him by the unmentionables with my gauntlet and crushed his manhood, having saved the pain that only a man could ever feel for last.

He was close to death now, so I grabbed him by his mane and dragged him out of the clearing and towards a cliff. At the bottom of said cliff, were a pack of very hungry wild tigers. I had met tigers before, they were mostly civilised and sentient. But these ones...these were wild, untamed and without reason. I pulled the bastard up to eye level to tell him one last thing. "When you get to Tartarus...tell Insectia to go fuck himself."

And with that...I dropped him. Blue and Fire walked to my sides as we looked down and watched as the wild animals ripped him apart savagely. "There...it's done..." Both of them said quietly.

I just stared at the blood in my hands, the rain beginning to wash it away. I don't like killing anyone, especially in such violent and downright savage ways.

Do I regret killing him the way I did? Yes, I do.

Do I regret actually killing him? No, I didn't.

"Come on, let's go get washed up and go get some drinks." Blueblood said as he patted my back.

"You guys go on ahead...I'll catch up..." I spoke softly, doing my best to clam myself down. My bloodlust and anger still unsatisfied. This was something I always had to fight. It was something that happened to me when I crossed into this world, something got into my brain. Random surges of absolute rage and hunger for blood, it had died down with the help of Celestia and Lone Wolf.

"Ok, we'll see you at the bar." Fire said as they both walked off.

I just stood there in the rain, still as a statue...the blood of a damned soul dripping from my fingers...

Morning after...

Author's Notes:

Yeah we're back to the normal shit you've come to expect from this story

I walked through the rain slowly, allowing the raindrops to wash the blood off of my coat, face and hands. It would still stain, but the blood wouldn't be as noticeable on my way to my cabin where I could change into another set of clothes. The red glow of my gauntlet faded out and returened to its natural blue, as did my eyes. I took in a deep breath of fresh air and sighed heavily. I never enjoyed it, even if it was someone who had wiped out hundreds, I still hated killing. Yet, at times, I still do it, sometimes nonchalantly.

Still, the bastard deserved to die. Maybe not in that way, I mean I literally crushed his nuts in my gauntlet, what kinda guy does that to another guy? It's like an unspoken rule between men, not below the belt blows. Yet, I break that rule in the name of sweet sweet revenge.

But hey, why don't we skip all this drama and get back into a lighter mood eh? You must want a break after that last chapter.

The Next Day

I woke up the next morning with a blistering headache, I won't lie, me and the guys had a little too much to drink the night before, so I was experiencing the mother of all hangovers since exhaustion and mental strain were also added to the headaches and just me generally feeling like shit. I was lucky as the curtain was covering the windows of the room, so there was no blinding light to make me feel even worse.

I just lay there for awhile, letting myself wake up a bit more before rolling onto my side. As I did, I felt my hand land on something soft and warm. I felt about the object for a few moments before I recognised what this thing was. It was a sleeping pony. I opened my eyes to see some mare lying in bed with me, that would have been alright considering it had happened a few times before. The reason it wasn't ok was because the mare in my bed was none other than FlitterFlight. "Oh for fucks sake..."

I checked myself and found that I was indeed naked and slightly sweaty. Well, looks like I just fucked my friends sister...this will not end well for me. I sighed and lay down on my back, waiting fir the headache to pass when I felt Flitter wrapping her hooves around my arm as she snuggled into me while still sleeping. I accepted my fate and allowed her to keep cuddling my arm. How the hell was I supposed to explain all of this to FireFlight?

I'd deal with it when I reached that point, right now I had to take my mind off of Metric. Kinda hard when his girlfriend who I had just fucked was hugging my arm. Guess this was something I couldn't escape, much like what was coming when I had to face FireFlight. If Mothy were here he'd just be on the floor laughing by now avoiding my knives. Clawback would just shrug it off. Pyro would either join in on the laughing or start congratulating me. Echo, would probably get jealous.

After awhile, Flitter started to stir. When she opened her eyes she rubbed them to make sure she wasn't seeing things. I got up and got into a dark blue t-shirt and simple jeans as I was just planning on relaxing during that day. Flitter just sat there covering her face with the blanket while muttering about how stupid she was.

I sat her down and told her it was alright and that shit happens, sometimes people get drunk and do stupid things when t hey try to unwind. I also told her that I was not going to enter a relationship because of this, and she herself said the same. Her for getting over !etric and me for...well, let's just say I haven't forgotten about what happened in Manehatten with Molly.

Anyway, we agreed to put the incident behind us and remain as friends. Maybe if I don't get things sorted with Molly I can go to Flitter. It's a thought.

Anyway, once we got ourselves cleaned up and the smell of sweat and...other things...were gone, we both set out to get some breakfast. Flitter perched herself on my shoulder, wanting to be close to someone that she trusted. She wasn't going to recover from the abuse Metric had given her for awhile, so I let her be.

As we were about to walk into the hotels dining area we saw a collection of ponies gathered in a small crowd. Curious as to what was happening I walked over and looked over the crowd...only to facepalm as I saw what was in the centre of the crowd. Turns out, Fire and Blue hadn't gone to sleep, they only kept drinking and were now in a brah-down. No fighting, just a bunch of fighting words in sentences ending with the word brah.

I looked to see Fires wife with her wings covering her face while his two kids just stated at him in disapproval. When a kid stares at you with those eyes you know you've fucked up, no matter the species.

I rolled my eyes as I walked through the crowd before grabbing the two by the back of the head and slamming their faces together, knocking them out cold and causing them to drop their drinks. I told Flitter to go get her own breakfast while I got the two drunk ponies in my arms back to their rooms.

Well, at least I'll be getting peace today to just relax and forget about everything, with the company of Flitter of course, she needed to be around a friend.

Hopefully I got all the negative shit out of the way so that I can actually relax during my stay here, I didn't pay a few thousand bits just to have to deal with the shot I was trying to get away from. Just a day in the life of me I guess.

Old wounds

"You slept with my sister?!" FireFlight yelled in anger as he snapped himself out of his drunken state, his eyes burning with anger.

"Dude, it's not anything bad, Flitter and I are just friends, we just had a little too much to drink and fooled around a little bit." I said calmly, I did not want to have to knock him out to get him to calm down.

"Of course it's bad! We murder the guy who has been abusing her for years and you up and sleep with her?! What the fuck Gray?!"

"At least she was with someone she could trust and wouldn't think of using her for selfish purposes." Blueblood chimed in as he sat with an ice pack over his head, still recovering from the serious hangover he had received as a result of a full night of drinking that should have killed the both of them before the halfway point. Man these ponies are stubborn.

"But what kind of guy fucks his best friends sister?!"

"A lot of guys actually..." Blue and I said at the same time.

A few days later

I placed the last of my things in my bag and sighed. My vacation was over and it wad time to return to Lone Wolf, which I was actually grateful for. While I had been able to relax and unwind, I still missed the antics of my friends, I also had to make sure the Den wasn't burned to the ground with all of my shit in the rubble.

It was the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, held in Ponyville. We'd soon see if Twilights crazy ramblings about that prophecy were right. They most likely were if what Moonlight had said was true. I wasn't going to do anything about it, I had my own shit to deal with, Celestia can sort out her own family problems and I did not want to fuck with a goddess of the moon.

I put on my mercenary gear and polished off The Lancelot before setting it in its pouch on my belt. I used my gauntlet to float my knives into the inside if my coat and placed my sword on my back. My bag was filled with gifts for the gang, souvenirs and my clothes. I waved goodbye to the hotel staff and parted ways with Blue and Fire. Flitter planted a soft kiss on my cheek before floating off, bringing a smile to my face. I hope that she finds a guy that will take good care of her one day, if she ends up with another asshole I'm holding an intervention.

I quietly hopped into the arranged carriage and knocked the side of the cart, signalling the guys up front to get a move on. Soon we were high above the resort and passing over the ocean. I looked down at the area where we had killed Metric Ton. I was just glad it was so far way from the resort that no one would ever look there.

As the carriage landed back in Canterlot I watched the moon eclipse the sun. Looks like Twiilght was right. "Damn sibling rivalry, when it's not about a TV remote it's about the control of an entire nation." I shrugged and began walking back to the Den to get settled in again.

As I walked into the street where my home was located I saw someone standing there. Someone who I should have put in the ground long ago....

Carl.

He stood at the other end of the street, a look of utter detest plastered on his face. "Finally found you, all these months and now I finally get to confront you, you fucking traitor!" He yelled.

I rolled my eyes as I groaned. "Fuck off Carl, I don't need to hear the desperate cries of a man with nothing left!" I yelled back as I tried to walk into my home, only to have a rock thrown right at the side of my head, causing a small amount of blood to trickle down the side of my face.

"You will not ignore me! You will know how you've-" He wasn't able to finish as I walked over to him and punched him right in the face with my gauntlet, most likely breaking something as he fell to the ground.

"You have no authority over me fucktard! All you are is a sad man with no sense of what he wants to do, you tried to act high and mighty and as a result you drove those around you away! And you know what?! We've all been a hell of a lot happier since we all ditched your sorry ass!" I kicked him in the side, grabbed him by the neck and held him up to my face. "So stop trying to act the hard man, run back to your little camp, curl up in a tent and rot the fuck away." I threw him down and walked back towards my home.

"You can't run forever! You need me! You all need-" I had put up with him long enough, so I grabbed him in my magic and sent him flying through the air towards his little camp of loneliness. I didn't care if he survived the fall of not, I just wanted him gone.

As I walked into the Den I ducked as a pillow was thrown my way. Looking to my friends I saw that they were in pillow forts, one on each side of the living room with Moony and Mothy on one side with Pyro and Clawback on the other. They all just looked at me in fear, not expecting me to be home so soon from my guess. I just smirked and used my magic to hold up multiple pillows before aiming them at them, causing them all to gulp. "You've got two options, clean all this up now or keep going and face my wrath, which will it be?"

Immediately all the pillows were returned to their right places and they all sat in a line with worried looks, waiting for my judgement.

"Heh, that's better, now clean this place up, it's filthy in here." I chuckled as they sighed in relief and got to cleaning up their mess.

Turning around I made my way to my office where I threw my bag down and sat in my swivel chair, put my arms behind my head, rested my feet on the desk and leaned back to take a nap.

Home sweet home.

Author's Notes:

One week ago, this story Lone Wolf Mercenary Services became a year old!

Complaints from a disgruntled unicorn

One day later

Word of advice to you, if Twilight asks you to do something you should probably do it. Not for the reward or the job, not even for her. But if you do it, it will save you the bitching that follows if you end up turning her down. Seriously, after everything was cleaned up in Ponyville she marched right up to The Den, threw open my office door and started bitching about this and that, complaining that if I had accepted the job things would have been easier.

I stopped listening like three seconds into it, but the background noise of her voice while I was trying to relax and clear my head was just so damn annoying. I was tempted to just toss her out, but I knew that would just result in even more bitching. This was not what I wanted to come home to after my vacation...

Needless to say I did my best to ignore her by thinking of random things. 'Still got a lot of bits left, the vault is almost full and we've got more jobs coming up that should keep us steady for another month or two. Maybe we could buy a bigger place? Nah too much paperwork and we have enough room as it is. What about a yacht? Do ponies even have yachts? If so what are they like? Are they like the ones on earth? Unlikely. Eh I'm sure there's a magazine somewhere that can tell me this stuff. Is she still bitching about not taking care of Nightmare Moon? Dear God how long can a woman complain for? ...yeah I already know where that thought is going, that came out why more sexist than I intended it to be.'

"Are you even listening to me!?" Twilight slammed her hooves onto my desk to get my attention.

"Twilight just get out of my office. I just don't care, so either make a request or get out, I'm busy." I responded in a bored tone, making it clear that I was not in the mood to deal with this kinda shit.

"No way buster. You brought this on yourself!"

"And you brought this on yourself." She tilted her head in confusion before I opened my window with my magic and tossed her out before closing it. "Oh thank God..." I slumped back in my chair and sighed in relief. "I am so getting a restraining order on her..."

A few days later

I stood outside the prison cell of the inmate that I was hired to watch over. Simple job for 400 bits, just had to make sure he didn't get out for the day before the guy could be transferred to a high security prison. So I stood there, my back against the wall while I tossed a knife in my hand. Now, this job would have been nice and quiet, if not for the fact that the guy in the cell was singing in a deep, rough not to bad singing voice at the top of his lungs.

"HIGH-WAY TOOO THE, DANGER ZONE!!! HIGH-WAY TOOO THE, DANGER ZONE!!!"

I swear to god I have no fucking clue how he knows about that song but he's ruining it for me. So I slammed my fist into the cell door and yelled. "Shut up in there! How the hell do you even know that song?!"

"Don't know don't care!" He took in a breath before singing again. "KNOCK ME DOWN LIKE A DOMINO!!!"

"It's take me down!"

"If you insist!" I heard a loud bang from the reinforced metal door. "Ow! Damnit!"

"Dumbass..."

"Hey! I want my phone call!"

"You can't have a phone call!"

"Why not!?"

"You killed one of Celestia's Knights!"

"Allegedly."

"You also robbed various stores while killing the store clerks!"

"A...llegedly."

"And! You ate the worlds entire supply, of twinkies!" Yes, they have those here. Well they DID until this clown ate 'em all.

"...yeah ok that was me."

I groaned as I sat down and took out a flask.

"You really think you you should be drinking on the job?" I heard the criminal ask while peeking his head through the bars.

"It's ok, it's just cola." I took a swing and sighed happily. "Been too long since I had one of these."

"Can I have some?"

"Nope."

"Damn..."

"Could you just shut up? My job is almost done, so just be quiet before I change that life sentence to the death penalty." I pointed my knives up to his face with a glare.

"Alright alright jeez..." He pulled his head back into the cell and walked to the end of the room.

I nodded while taking another swing of the flask, enjoying the peace.

"Although there is one thing." I jumped as he was suddenly back at the door of the cell.

"What?!" I demanded while glaring at him, the sudden scare almost caused me to spill my drink.

"It's important don't you worry, it's a message from someone that really doesn't like you. At all."

I quickly pieced together what he was saying and growled. "Go on..."

"She says...'watch who you hold close, you never know who I can replace' after that she just left." He answered with a smirk. Before I could question him, two large, heavily armoured stallions walked by me and unlocked the cell, ready to transfer the criminal. "Think on that Gray! You'll never know until it's too late!" He yelled as he was dragged around a corner.

One of the stallions had placed a bag of bits in my hand. I just shook my head and made my way out of the prison, ready to call it a day. I was in no mood to deal with any of Chrysalis' shit at that moment, so I just headed for home. All of that stuff he said could wait until the day after. I needed a drink.

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed

Oh great...

Another day, another idiotic moment to add to the long list of bullshit that was beginning to get longer and longer each damn hour. I looked to the broken coffee maker on our kitchen counter then turned to the others who were all gathered in the kitchen. "Alright, who broke it?"

Everyone was silent before Pyro walked forward. "It was m-"

"No, it wasn't you, who broke it?"

"Wait how is it not me?"

"Because if it was you there'd be fire everywhere! Look, I'm not mad, I just wanna know who did it."

Pyro stepped back and hung his head low. "The last one near it was Mothball." Clawback said as he pointed to the changeling.

"Oh don't pin this in me I don't even drink the stuff!"

Then why were you near it?"

"Because my chocolate pancakes are kept in the cabinet below you you all know this!" Everyone was silent for awhile. "Moonlight has been quiet all this time..."

"Oh don't you dare shift the blame here!"

At this point I just let it go and decided to go out for a drink and let them tire themselves out. Yeah, it was pretty early in the morning but a beer it two never hurt anyone....yeah not even gonna continue with that. As I stepped out of The Den I heard the four of them yelling until there were three sounds of glass shattering and the shouting stopped.

"It's ok! I just knocked empty bottles over their heads!" Pyro called.

I rolled my eyes and pressed on, I knew a bar in the shadier side of the city that was always open. Being a mercenary, a lot of the contracts I take on lead me to places where all the typical thugs and mysterious characters in trenchcoats and fedoras stand in the centre of a street light. You get the picture. Not everyone in those places are that bad though, yeah most of them are crooks but there's a few good hearted guys there that just need the cash, like my friend Triple Pint, who runs the bar I mentioned.

If you were to keep walking down a single long path towards the mountain side you'd begin to see the scenery change gradually. The houses becoming duller and slightly worn down, mostly just a less welcoming environment. It's not a really really worn down and no building were falling apart, there may be a few homeless ponies but that's to be expected in any city, just look at New York or London, or any city on earth or whatever other okanets house sentient life in this universe.

As I walked down one of the streets I heard what sounded like yelling coming from an alley. Not that it was unexpected, it was just more the pitch of it, it wasn't the sound of some random pony getting mugged or worse, it was a foal. I would have stepped in anyway, but this just gave me more of a reason to go into the alley.

As I walked in I saw three colts standing around a filly who looked a little roughed up. They were threatening her and one moved to kick her with his back legs. Now, I don't condon violence against children, but this little bastard had it coming. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and held him up to me, showing my angry face and flashing my teeth. Perks of being of a predator race in a land where the majority are prey, you can use those almost unshaded instincts against them. "Alright twerp, you are gonna run along and leave this kid alone, or else this is going to have to get very ugly." I growled.

I dropped him and he scurried off with his two friends, leaving the filly to look up at me and tilt her head, probably seeing a human for the first time. "Um...thanks mister."

"Don't mention it kid, run along and stay outta trouble." I waved as I walked out of the alley and resumed my trek towards the bar. I heard the sound of tiny footsteps behind me and turned around to see the filly was following me. "Uh...kid? Why're you following me?"

"Because I'm alone." She responded.

"Yeah so am I but I don't go around following people I just met, especially not in a place like this."

"You stopped those bullies and didn't demand a reward, you're a nice person." She explained as she pointed her hoof at me.

Figuring she'd go away if I kept to myself I ignored her and continued on. As I came closer and closer to the bar I realised that the hoofsteps weren't going away, and if I've learned anything from watching TV and movies on earth, I knew where this was heading. "Don't you have any parents that are looking for you?"

"Nope, my parents abandoned me."

"An orphanage then or something?'

"Nope, homeless."

"Shot! Come on man think of a way out!" My mind screamed at me. Then I thought of something that might put her off following me home. "I share a house with a changeling, a griffin, a Thestral and a unicorn that can't control his fire magic."

"Cool."

"Shit!" I could drop her off at some orphanage or whatever, but I knew she'd just escape and find me somehow. "Fine...come on..." I'd let her tag along until I found someone to take her. She then just kept following me, but now walked beside me. She had dark grey fur and messy brown hair, a band aid under her left eye. Her eyes were also brown and she had a tiny set of wings. "What's your name anyway?"

"Don't have one, people just usually call me Scrap."

"Eh...I'm sure I can think of something to call ya..." I didn't even know why I was going through with it, maybe it was just my kinder side showing a bit, which hasn't really happened since Metric. I dunno, but what I did know was the more than ever, I needed a drink.

Author's Notes:

Yep, new character. This was something I wanted to do earlier, Scrap was supposed to be there from the beginning.

If you have any name suggestions for Scrap that'd be great and I'd love to hear them.

The next job

I set the empty beer bottle down on the bars counter and look to Scrap, who was sitting on the stool next to me drinking a bottle of soda through a straw. I'm just lucky this place had some kid friendly drinks in stock, luckily the kids from around this area were seen as potential customers so the owner brought in some nonalcoholic drinks to make a few more bits. I sighed as I placed some more bits on the counter and got us both more drinks.

I shook my head as Scrap immediately grabbed the second drink and began slurping it down greedily. "Sheesh, it's not going anywhere you know?" I said with concern that she'd end up having it go down the wrong pipe if she wasn't too careful.

She stopped drinking and looked up at me. "I like it, I haven't had anything this tasty before." She said with her seemingly normal expression, her eyes slightly cross and her mouth always marked with a small frown.

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it, you look like you could use some enjoyment in your life." My kinder side was definitely starting to come back, something I welcomed. It made me feel better and it made others feel more comfortable around me, and it seemed to be doing Scrap some good. "So, what's your story kid?" I asked as I took a sip of my alcohol.

Scrap looked away and took another sip of her cola. "I don't know. I've lived on the streets as long as I can remember. Trying to get as much bits as I could to survive. Then I met you."

I raised a brow and set my drink down. "What about your parents?"

"I don't know, they just left one day and never came back." She looked away again and wiped a small tear off her cheek.

I sighed and gently grabbed her by the scruff of the neck before bringing her into a one armed hug. She was stiff for a moment before she began to relax, but only a little. "It's alright kid, you don't have to say anything else."

She looked up at me before nuzzling into my coat.

"Come on, I think it's about time I showed you where you'll be staying for now."

Back at the Den

I walked through the front door with Scrap following behind me. "Alright, I'll introduce you. Be warned though, one or two may hug you very, very hard." She looked at me strangely before nodding and sticking to my side. I smiled and turned around, I took in a large breath before yelling. "MOTHBALL, CLAWBACK, PYRO, MOONLIGHT, GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE!!!"

Immediately the four were in the front room in a line all sitting down with worried looks. "W-What's wrong Boss?" Mothy asked shakily.

I smirked and stepped aside to reveal Scrap. "We've got a new addition."

They all looked around before looking down and spotting the filly. Mothy and Pyro just looked suprised, Clawback was grinning while Moony looked as if she was itching to cuddle Scrap.

"Guys, this is Scrap, she'll be staying with us for awhile. So be nice, try not to give her anything that could kill her, and don't bring up her parents or whatever else." I stated while pulling out a knife. "If you break these rules, well...you know by now." They all nodded and returned their focus to the suprisingly adorable filly. "Now Scrap, these are Mothball, Clawback, Pyro and Moonlight. We're the Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, friendliest mercenaries you'll ever meet. Don't be suprised if they start fighting each other, it's just what they do. Just make yourself at home."

"Did one of your one night stands come back to bite you?" Pyro asked as he looked up at me.

"Haha, very funny, no I found her on the streets." I looked down to see Scrap silently judging me. "I had a few in my first few months here ok?! I don't do it anymore!"

I decided to leave them all to their own devices, letting them get to know each other a little while I looked through some more job offers, one of which caught my interest. "Well, this one should be fun. Clawback, Pyro!"

The next day

Pyro, Clawback and I all stepped off the train and looked around at the town known as Apploosa. "Huh, horse reference, what a shock...

"What?" Both of them asked.

"Nothing." I shook my head and began walking around the western styled town while placing a stetson on my head.

"Where did you get that?" Pyro asked with a raised brow.

"Don't know, don't care."

We kept walking and talking, trying to find the guy that was had offered us a job, the details being very vague. Naturally, I had to check it out. "Why'd we even take this job if we don't know what it is?" Clawback asked as he swatted a mosquito with his wing.

"Because if there's anything we're good at its doing random shit for funnsies and getting into trouble for said shit, and I am bored out of my mind so let's go."

"You sure it was a good idea to leave Scrap with Mothball and Moonlight? I don't think those two are cut out to look after a kid." Pyro asked with concern.

"Are any of us?" I asked back.

"Clawback maybe?"

I looked to the griffin and he shrugged. "I did help raise my younger siblings."

"Eh, Mothball is alright with kids, and Scrap can take care of herself anyway, there's no real reason to worry...I think...other than Moon..." I shook my head and continued on. "Look, there's a bar slash brothel, chances are our guy is in there."

Author's Notes:

So Scrap is now in the Den and Gary is getting back to his normal self. This'll be fun.

FYI, Scrap is more of a roommate and friend rather than a kid for Gray. Granted there will be some moments between the group and the filly, but beyond that not much.

Kinda cloak and dagger don't you think?

Pushing the door to the bar slash brothel we were immediately greeted by a scene you'd usually see in an old western movie, except that instead of overdressed unattractive prostitutes walking around with their hands on one hip, there were actually attractive mares either wearing nothing, socks or just a stetson on their heads, chatting up a suprisingly large amount of stallion, each having some degree of facial hair. I guess this place was one of the few places where their population was mainly stallions given its location and lifestyle.

I ducked my head as some random drunk guy threw his empty bottle at us and smashed against the wall. "Now this is my kinda place. Random acts of violence, booze, smells of regret and no true happiness whatsoever." I took in a large breath and sighed happily. "It's the little things in life..." I said as I tilted my head to avoid a fork thrown at me.

"I dunno man. I'm getting some pretty aggressive stares from those guys over there..." Clawback said uncomfortably as he looked over to a table full of stallings who were glaring at him.

"And look at that! They even have a local racist group! All we need is a sherif with a monopoly guy moustache and a girl with a thick accent talking about foreigners and this place is awesome!" I laughed as I grabbed a plate thrown at me by the same guy and threw it right back in his face. "Alright, let's see if we can find out client in here. Oh, and if someone gets in your face, don't be afraid to smack up a bitch." I cracked my neck a little before making my way to the bar. We all sat down on the stools and ordered some drinks before turning and looking out for anyone that seemed suspicious.

Sure enough, there was a guy in a cloak sitting in a booth by himself in a corner. "Alright, I'll go over and make sure this is our guy, try not to cause any trouble while I'm gone." I stated in a joking fashion before walking over to the stranger. "Hey there stranger, you the one who sent in that job offer?" I asked as I reached him. He looked at me for a moment before looking to the symbol on my shoulder.

"Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, correct?" He asked, his voice slightly echoed.

"Yep, Gray Karmen at your service." I sat down in the chair opposite him and smiled. "So, what's a mysterious guy like you wanting me to hire a group of mercenaries for?"

He looked at me for a moment before reaching down and pulling up a piece of paper with a symbol on it. "Do you recognise this symbol?"

I raised a brow and looked to what was on the paper. "Yeah, that's the emblem of The Skull Bandit Guild. What of them?" You remember those guys from the train ride up to Manehatten right? Ah...good times.

"I need them taken out." He stated firmly.

"Hate to tell ya this bud, but I don't do killing orders. Plus I put the guys were put away weeks ago, they're all in Canterlot Prison." I said with a slightly hostile tone at first.

"You stopped a small group of them, they had many other members and they've only grown since you took out their colleagues. They're interfering with my businesses...deliveries...and I need them gone by any means. I am willing to pay you 1000 bits and some of my stock if the job is done, given that you will also be receiving the reward from the bounty placed on their heads."

I just looked at him suspiciously. "And what exactly is it that you supply?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out. Now, do we have a deal?" He asked as he extended his dark grey hoof.

"Well, I've broken enough laws to be considered public enemy number one at this point, might as well add to that list of shit I get away with." I took his hoof in my hand and shook it.

"Good...the hideout is beyond the two mountains behind the apple orchard. I will be here when I know the job is done, do not fail." With that he just kinda faded out of existence.

"If I hadn't dealt with cultists or supernatural entities before I'd say that was weird." Shaking my head I got out of the chair and walked back over to Pyro and Clawback who were talking to two mares. I rolled my eyes and gave the mares a small bag of bits each. "There, you two go have your fun."

"You sure Gray? What about the job?" Pyro asked unsure.

"It can wait, you two haven't gotten any action in who knows how long, so go have your fun." I dismissed with a wave of my hand.

"Well, alright, but what're you gonna do?" Clawback asked as he began to walk away with the mare at his side.

I placed a medium sized bag of bits in the bar counter for the owner of the place before turning around and cracking my knuckles. "Something I have wanted to do since I was ten years old."

The owner came out and took the bits, knowing full well what was about to happen. He and the other staff members went into a back room while my friends went upstairs with their mares. I walked up to the guy who kept throwing shit at me and punched him right in the face. The whole bar went quiet before a glorious bar fight broke out.

Ponies beat each other with chairs, kicked and punched each other in the face and side, some smashed their bottles and charged random guys with them and one guy even managed to find a golf club to whack his opponents with. I grinned like a madman as I grabbed the guy who I had punched by the throat and smashed him through a table before turning around and punching a random guy in the face with my gauntlet.

A group of foals just sat outside a window and watched it all take place with a small bucket of popcorn between them.

My grin never left my face as I grabbed a nearby stool and used it as a golf club to punt a guy out of the bar and into the street before throwing it at another guy be slapping the shit out if some crazy mare that came out with a shotgun...how she got it I don't know...all I know is I never saw another gun other than my own again.

Anyway, this was an opportunity to vent some rage and built up aggression. And damn was it fun.

Eager to fight

I downed the contents of some kind of liquor I had managed to find as I relaxed in the chair I had made by stacking the unconsous bodies of those involved in the fight on top of each other. It took awhile, but I managed to punch every single bastard in the building in the face, with each receiving a kick to the balls, for shits and giggles. No rules in a bar fight, just pure, unadulterated, chaos and mass amounts of violence.

Needless to say, that really relieved a crapton of stress. The room was silent, the only sounds that could be heard were a few noises from the outside and the faint sound of creaking on the top floor. I smirked as I pulled out another random bottle and drank it all down, somehow spitting fire while I burped. As I waited for my two friends to finish their business with those mares upstairs I polished the blood off of my gauntlet. No one was dead, but I don't think a few of them will be able to chew for awhile.

As a guy underneath me began to regain conciousness I hit him in the head with the butt of The Lancelot, sending him right back to sleep town. "Sorry if that gave you a skull fracture, but you're a magic horse, I'm sure you'll be fine." Soon, the creaking stopped and groans of pleasure could be heard. I knew exactly what had happened and shook my head. "Took 'em long enough." Due to my slightly drunken state I giggled at the last two words. "Heheh...long enough."

As the four of them came down the slightly damaged steps the mares kisses the guys on their cheeks and walked to the back room, both Clawback and Pyro having stupid grins and blushes in their faces while holding the mares numbers.

"You two look happy." The nodded while shaking themselves out of their sex induced trances. "Now come on, let's go give my old friends in the Skull Bandits a little visit. And once this is done, we're getting both of you tested."

They looked at me with raised brows.

"Hey, those mares were hookers and service stallions that live out in these dirty conditions, and some may be inbred...who knows what they could be carrying in them. Just being safe."

"Wow, way to kill our fun man..." Pyro groaned as I got out if my chair of my victims.

"Hey, I treated you guys there, I think I at least deserve a thank you after you two haven't gotten any action for the past year and a half."

Pyro rolled his eyes while Clawback shook his head. "It has been a rough few matting seasons for me in recent years, so this was nice, thank you Gray." The griffin pat my side before walking out the door.

"Let's just go, I can tell this bandit group is fairly large, and we have to take all of them out, which won't exactly be easy." Pyro said as he walked out of the building by my side.

"Well, it's a chance for you to go all out again, you won't need to hold back since our objective is to just beat the crap out of every single one." I smirked as I ruffled his mane. "So Pyro, once we're there, burn EVERYTHING."

He smiled evilly at this as his horn became coated in fire. "With pleasure."

Now with Clawback at my other side, the three of us began walking towards the two mountains behind the huge apple orchard. "I wonder what the others are up to..."

Meanwhile

In the living room of the Wolf Den, Mothball sat next to Screwball, who was cuddled up to the changeling as they enjoyed the time they were sharing. Scrap watched them from the end of the hallway, a curious expression on her face. Turning around she walked into the main office where Moonlight was hanging from the ceiling fan with her bat wings wrapped around her, the room in complete darkness until Scrap turned on the light.

Moonlight groaned as she tucked in her wings and dropped back onto the floor before Turing around abd giving the young foal a smile. "Did you need something Scrap?"

"Can you answer something for me?" She asked with her usual tone.

"It depends on the question, but ok."

Scrap looked down the hall again and turned back to Moonlight. "Mothball abd that mare are different species right?"

"Yes, they are. Why?"

Scrap looked back briefly and raised a brow. "Then why are they together?"

Moonlight looked slightly shocked at the filly. "What do you mean?"

"In the backstreets, everyone says that you need to be with someone the same as you and that being with another species is a bad thing. It's not just them, the ponies in Canterlot say it all the time. So why are they together?" She asked with curiousity, not hatred or discrimination.

Moonlight just stared at her shocked, what the hell was she talking about? "Scrap, listen, I want you to forget all about that alright? What they all said is wrong."

"How so?"

Moonlight brought Scrap out to the hall and pointed to the cuddling couple. "If that's such a bad thing, then why are they so happy together?"

Scrap tilted her head as she thought. "I don't know."

"There's something you need to know, the ponies in the backstreets and Canterlot aren't good people, they lie, they cheat and they act like they're the most important thing in the damn planet. Whatever they said is untrue. Come here a second." Scrap followed Moonlight into their shared room and looked to a photo of a few other ponies and creatures with Moonlight. "Look at them, everyone other than me in this picture is in a relationship with each other, only one is the same species, even then they are the same gender. Love isn't defined by species or gender, it is something that exists in all of us."

Scrap looked to her confused. "Then why do people say those things?"

"People don't agree with that stuff, either because they were brought up that way or are just trying to insult others. Don't believe them, love isn't limited, it is something that can't be controlled or understood." Moonlight ruffled Scraps mane. "Now, what else did everyone tell you?"

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed. I figured I'd give Scrap a bit of a more harsh upbringing, as an orphan she's having to learn about things from those around her and not a parent or teacher. All she knows is what she's been told.

Reason to fight

Pyro, Clawback and I just stared at the base of the Skull Bandits, the two of them with titled heads while my expression was one of unamusement. The side of the mountain had been covered in steel plates, all shoddily hammered together, while above the entrance to the base there was a massive skull, with two barred windows where the eyeholes were. The whole thing just reminded me of all those cranky pirate cove toy sets you'd get your kids on earth, also reminding me of one of Dr Wilys fortresses in the Mega Man Games. "Well, someone is getting sued over this..."

"So, we just go destroy everything and beat the living hell out of everyone right?" Pyro asked as his horn sparked with anticipation.

Both Clawback and I stood back as I nodded. "Yep, go nuts Pyro." The both of us ran and ducked began cover as Pyro grinned like a madman and his horn was covered in flames.

"BURN!!!" He charged up his horn, creating a large ball of fire before sending a huge wave of flames towards the Skull Bandit base. Many of the bandits outside were burned severely, rendered unconscious due to overstimulation, the bastards are lucky they don't have to feel the burns of Pyro's flames. Most of the wooden structures outside were immediately reduced to ash, some of the supports on the entrance and main building were damaged as well. Pyro laughed like a maniac as he charged in with flames burning all around him. As soon as he stepped inside the building, we heard screams, inane laughter and saw flashes of orange from cracks in the damaged structure. "BURN!!! BUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRNNNNNN AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"How many ponies do you think he's going to kill in there?" Clawback asked as he readied his talons, which now had armoured gloves in them with blades along the claws.

"Maybe a few, but he has enough self control to not kill anyone in that state."

"He's laughing like a manic and destroying a building from the inside out while smiling like a psychopath, burning everything in his way..."

"I said enough control not total control."

As we rushed past the wall of flames in our way, three bandits jumped on my back and attempted to stab my with their makeshift knives. I grabbed two of them and smashed their heads together while Clawback grabbed the other with his talons and slammed him into the wall. As we went around beating the shot out of everything that moved, and everything that didn't move, we started coming across some photos of certain ponies, places and foreign dignitaries. I picked up a couple of the photos and files she placed them in my coat to bring to Celestia later, these guys were planning something big, good thing we were sent to trash the place.

Guess that's another plot to destroy governments that I've put a stop to unintentionally. This happens more often than you'd think. Hell, with the stuff I've done, I could be considered a hero. But...there's a few things stopping me from being considered one.

Here's the thing though, we may do stuff like stop changelings, beat up thugs and take down criminals, but don't be mistaken, we ain't good people. We've lied, cheated, killed, stole, whatever law there is we've most likely broke it on more than one occasion. We're mercenaries, not heroes. Now, we still do stuff out of the kindness of our own hearts, and we do got morals. But at the end of the day, we accept jobs, we get payed to do those jobs, and we do those jobs to the best of our abilities.

Yeah, we crack jokes, act friendly and the princess may have a soft spot for us, but even she knows what we've done. She's payed us to do some of that stuff herself. Take what happened with Candy for example, we were payed to look after her, we didn't have to act friendly. That came from getting to know her and personal interaction. We may be good friends now, but she was still just part of another job.

Yeah, we try to be good and all that, but we still do stuff that would make the devil go "Dude..."

Now, with being a mercenary, there are moments were you have to be the villian, the hero and whatever other title is out there. There are moments you'll laugh, cry, smile, frown, frolic about like a little girl in a field of flowers. And there are the moments where you will just be so furious and enraged all sense of logic and thought get smashed through that fucking window. And I was about to have one if those moments.

As we met up with the nearly exhausted Pyro who lay on his back, twitching and giggling to himself while acting as if he had the greatest orgasm of his life, Clawback and I knocked the rest of the bandits down before reaching the back room. "Alright, everything else is destroyed and everyone is unconscious, paralysed or dead, let's get them out and teleported to prison before we blow this place to hell."

"Hey...uh...Gray? You might want to see this!" Clawback called from the other side if the room in slight panic. Running over to him I looked to what he had in his hand, a screen of some sort. Taking it off of him I looked to it and a recording started to play.

"Hello Lone Wolf leader Gray Karmen." A stallion wearing a black hood and a skull over his face spoke, most likely the leader of the skull Bandits, Draken Bones. "You've been a thorn in my side for quite some time, and it seems my new partners have similar issues with you interfering with their plans."

The recording moved and revealed a changeling Royal. A tall changeling mare stood with a smirk on her face. her dark purple hair seeming like smoke. "Yes, and now I, Princess Diptera, along with Draken here, shall now interfere with both your business, AND your personal feelings!" What was shown next caused me to nearly crush the screen in my hands.

Molly, gagged and tied to a chair surrounded by hungry looking changelings and angry bandits sat unconscious with signs that she had been heavily abused by her captors.

"If you want to see here again, try and find her, you'll get no clues or even a little hint from us. Now...happy hunting!" With that the screen went black.

I stood there frozen, my body stopped responding to my own commands. I could feel myself glaring with a fiery rage at the cracked screen, my hands shaking in absolute anger.

"Oh crap...his eyes are changing, we gotta move! Go!" Clawback yelled as he picked up Pyro and the two ran out of the building.

The screen was instantly reduced to dust as I crushed it with my gauntlet, which was now busting with a dark red aura. I growled like a savage animal as I clenched my sharp teeth.

Two things were certain. Somebody was going to be ripped to pieces, and I'd need a new coat once I was done.

Nobody, NOBODY messes with me like that and lives to see the next sunrise. "Big mistake motherfucker..."

Author's Notes:

Yep, we gonna have a rampage on our hands.

The hunt

2 days later, third person

Pyro and Clawback placed their 20% cut into the Dens safe, having collected their payment for the Skull Bandit job. They were also awarded a few bags of pot, but they had a feeling they wouldn't be using it for awhile. When the three had got home, Scrap had run up to meet Gray, but quickly read his mood and went back to Moonlight, who had taken her under her wing, teaching her how society really was, teaching her of the good and the bad.

When Gray had gathered more of his gear and devoured a large meal, he burst out of the Den with a list of places that were suspected changeling hideouts. Pyro had rushed to Celestia to fill her in on the situation, and had any available teams searching for the kidnappers.

After finding an underground nest, Gray had charged in guns blazing, making sure to wound as many as he could, but took his rage out on a few by slaughtering them in brutal and horrific ways, his eyes constantly red.

Once he was done completely destroying the nest, he dragged the survivoring changelings into a nearby cave and threw them against the hard stone wall, green goo splattering over it. He pick one up by the neck and grabbed one of its back legs before beginning to squeeze with his gauntlet. "Now, here's how this is gonna go down. You're gonna tell me everything you know, or I'll slowly crush each of your limbs until you bleed out or die from the pain. Now, start, talking!" He demanded.

The drone cried out in pain, it wanted to stop the pain and just say what it knew, but Chrysalis and the other royals connected to their hive mind were constantly telling it not too, or else. Either way, it would die a slow, painful death. "Glory...to the...Queen..." It coughed out before taking out a knife and stabbing itself in the side of the head.

"Pathetic..." Gray threw its corpse to the side before picking up the next one. "Now, are you gonna let yourself suffer or are you gonna tell me what I want to know?" He asked in an alarmingly calm and creepy tone as he held the next in the same position, only this time he glanced down. "Oh, a female eh? Well, I guess there's more than one way to make you suffer..." He said with a sadistic grin, causing the changeling to shake in fear and try to close her legs. "Oh relax you moron I may be overtaken by anger but I'm not a fucking rapist like you guys." He said with annoyance before chrushing her neck. "Seriously, learn to take a joke."

"In this kind of situation, no one would think that was a joke." Gray looked back to see Pyro walking into the cave. "Seriously dude, it was fucked up."

"I know, but I'm a fucked up person."

"No denying that, not by a long shot."

"Hmm." Gray picked up another drome to repeat the process. "You mind taking one of these and interrogating them? Will make this go a lot faster."

"Yeah, about that, I don't think we're gonna get anywhere tortuing these guys." Pyro stated as he poked one of the corpses. "Why not just let them go and try and find the hive ourselves?"

Gray stopped and sighed. "You know, you almost had me convinced." He pulled out The Lancelot and planted a pulled between Pyro's eyes, his corpse changing to a changeling before falling down. "You're getting better, but still sloppy."

"I told that idiot it wouldn't work..." One of the wounded drones spoke shakily.

"Was he the kind of guy that just doesn't listen?"

"Yeah, idiot..." It spoke before bleeding out.

"You know, this is just a waste of time, you guys just won't talk." With that, he dropped the changeling in his hand and walked out.

The remaining changelings looked to each other, confused as to why they were spared. Then, one placed a hoof to the ground which landed in a puddle of black liquid. Now that they noticed, they found the whole area was covered in the liquid.

Outside the cave, Gray lit a match and threw it into the cave, causing it to burst into flames as he slowly walked away. "And that, ladies, gentlemen and all parts of that technicolour rainbow in between, is how you cook changeling steak in a badass fashion."

"Gray!" Looking up, Gray spotted Moonlight flying above him with Scrap on her back. "Celestia sent a letter! One of her squads found a large hideout!" She called down as Scrap tossed a scroll down to the human.

As he read it, his anger began to rise as he saw the location of the hideout/hive. The location of the old human campsite. "Of all places..."

"Hey, you ok?" Scrap called down curiously.

"No, no I'm not." Gray replied as he threw the scroll down and began to walk in the direction of the campsite, clenching his fist while grasping The Lancelot with his gauntlet, red energy seeping from the tip of the gun.

Moonlight landed on a nearby cliff and sat down, letting Scrap off her back so she could stretch her legs a little before heading back to Canterlot. "What's got him so mad anyway?" The filly asked with her usual curiosity.

"Oh yeah, you don't know." Moonlight scratched her chin in thought. "Let's just say that some really bad ponies took someone very close to him."

"You mean someone he loves?"

Moonlight nodded slightly and sighed. "Well, let's get you home, I don't think you want to see the carnage that he's about to cause...me on the other hoof..." She said as she pulled a bucket of popcorn and a soda out of nowhere.

"I'm used to seeing ponies get hurt." Scrap countered as she took some of the popcorn and began to nibble.

"I know, you haven't had the greatest childhood...but seriously, what he's about to do isn't pretty, it'll probably be worse than when the last guy pissed him off this much..."

Author's Notes:

Tried third person this time for some reason. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. And yes, there will be another chapter with the same level of brutality as the torture chapter. For this chapter I wanted to put at least some trace of comedy but still keep it in a serious tone.

Anyway, if you see any mistakes let me know and I'll fix it.

Long time coming

Of all places they could have set up a nest, it had to be by the old campsite. Of course, why not right? Kidnap the woman I love and bring her to the last place I'd ever want to visit. One thing was for sure, after I torched the place, I'd have the head of Chrysalis hung above my fireplace by the end of the month. Clawback, Pyro and Mothball were tagging behind me, with all their gear on with determined expressions on their faces. The only reason Moony wasn't here for the attack was that someone had to look after Scrap.

I had told the guys they didn't need to come, this was personal and I wanted it to just be me that tore the place apart, but of course they didn't listen. "You fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us." Is what they had said with the biggest shit eating grins you would have ever seen. They wanted to tear Chrysalis apart just as much as I did, but fit now, ripping another one of her precious royals into itty bitty pieces was close enough. Mothball was probably harbouring the same level of anger I was. Not because if Molly, but because of his hatred of his other royal brothers and sisters and what they were doing.

Although I guess there was one silver lining to this situation, I'd be able to take out another royal along with Draken and the rest of the Skull Bandits at the same time.

However...there was one obstacle blocking my way to the nest. Someone was still in the camp, I knew who it was, you probably already guessed by now right? Yeah, it's that asshole Carl.

When me and the guys reached the old campsite, we found all but one of the tents destroyed, Carl standing in front of a pathetic camp fire made of tiny branches, leaves and thin sticks. "Well, look who it is, the first traitor, and he's brought his little fuck buddies." He mocked as he turned to me with a glare.

Pyro was about to torch him but I placed a hand on his back, signaling for him to back off. I motioned for them to move ahead, this was something I was dealing with myself. The three looked at me with concern before nodding, walking past the grouchy old man in front of me.

"What? No quips? No long speech about how much of an asshole I a-"

"What is your problem?" I interrupted him with a question that should have been answered by now.

"Don't interrupt m-"

"Shut up and answer the question asshole." I snapped firmly while pointing my gun at him, something he didn't expect me to have. "Why do you always give everyone a hard time and why do you think you're better than every single being on this damn planet?" He stood there in silence, he tried to speak several times but came out with nothing. "Nothing huh? Well I'll tell you something. All you are is a narcissist who doesn't care about anyone but himself. You think you're too good for everybody else, well guess what? Everyone left because no matter who the met in this world, they'd still be more pleasant to be around than you."

I lowered my gun and saw the look of rage on his face.

"You know, I'm sure there's a reason you're such an ass, but I can't find it. Some kind of disorder I guess, but that's not important, YOU aren't important, so I'm done wasting my time with you." I put my weapon away and walked right past him. "Have a nice loveless life Carl, burn in hell."

After a few minutes of walking, I had caught up to the three others, all waiting outside the nest entrance with two unconscious bandits and three dead changelings laying on the ground. "Damn you guys don't mess around. Alright, let's do this thing."

"You seem...awfully calm." Mothball commented as he pulled out his dagger.

"Well, what happened back there was kind of therapeutic, so you won't have to worry about me going into a blood soaked rage, other than when I get my hands on Diptera and Draken." I replied with a frown while punching my fist into my palm. "Now, let's do what we do best."

"Mess shit up?" The three asked with grins.

"Mess shit up." When we were about to run in, we heard the sound of flapping wings comikg from above. Looking up, I saw Cadence and Moonlight flying down to us. "Hey where did you leave Scrap?" I demanded from the bat pony.

"Relax, she's with Celestia."

Meanwhile

Scrap stared at the slice of cake in front of her and looked to Celestia, who was wasting what could be considered a full triple layer cake. "You really think you should be eating that?"

Celestia swallowed what cake was in her mouth and wiped her lips. "Beg your pardon?"

"You know that cake is just gonna go to your already fat flank right?"

Celestia did a spit take while a nearby gaurd struggled to not laugh, while the one next to him tilted his head to get a better view of the princess's plot to see if the filly was right. He just pucked his lips slightly with half lidded eyes and nodded slowly before going back to being like one of those guards with the big black fur hats that are the joke for any American comedy set in London.

"I'm sure they'll get along." I was starting to really like this bat pony.

"Why're you here Candy? Don't you have a husband to whip into shape?" I joked as I tossed one of my knives into the air over and over.

"Shiny can do without me for awhile. Besides, this is a matter of love that involves you, there is no way I'm passing this up. Also I just really hate changelings, no offence Mothy."

"You know it only feels like offence was intended after you say 'no offence.'"

"Let's get back on track here." I stated as I clapped my hands together, causing the five to look at me. "Now, game plan, go in and destroy as much shut as you can and beat the helll out of anyone you can, but the leaders are mine." I turned around and pointed to the nests cave. "Now, into the unknown!"

Author's Notes:

If you see any mistakes please point them out in the comments or via PM, thank you

Into the nest

You know something? Seeing a nest of changelings burn in front of you with dozens of the little fuckers running about in fear is oddly satisfying. Me, Clawback, Pyro, Candy, Mothy and Moony walked side by side picking off the bugs as they tried to stop us. Some of the smarter ones had used, well whatever that green stuff they produce is called, to build barricades or protective layers around themselves. Some even wore thick armour that spells and stabbing weapons couldn't penetrate. That's why we have Clawback, the guys talons can penetrate almost any armour, they guy is a freakin tank, cracked the armoured ones like fuckin walnuts.

Mothball and Cadence dealt with any that got too close either by stabbing them in the face or blasting them point blank. Pyro was focusing on burning the nest and making sure we had a clear path to leave through when we killed everything in the damn place. Draken and Diptera were hiding away in the deepest parts of the nest like a couple of cowards, probably making friendship bracelets or something. They have Molly with them, probably gonna use her as a shield or as a bargaining chip, try to have me on my knees begging them to let her go. Not happening, the only ones that will be begging are those two, begging for mercy. Yeah, I'm fresh outta that at the moment.

I kill Draken, the Skull Bandits fall apart, I kill Diptera, I feel better and it brings me closer to getting Chrysalis to come out and fight me herself to put an end to alll this bullshit. I'm spending time on this that I could be using to take a job or relax, I wouldn't even bother if they didn't have the girl I'm pretty much in love with tied up and held hostage. Some people just have to make things personal don't they?

Some of the bandits had set up cannons furtherbdown the main hallway which did prove problematic. They may have just shot cannon balls, but those things are destructive on their own. We ended up hiding behind various thick walls to protect ourselves, firing the occasional spell or explosive bullet when we could. We couldn't really advance any further with those things in the way, they were too heavy to lift with even Cadences magic and if we got hit by even one of them it was game over, we can take a beating but we ain't invincible.

Month had managed to sneak around and disguised himself as one of the bandits, blending in for a few moments before planting explosives on the cannons and backing up behind cover. The resulting blast either knocked the bandits unconscious or filled their bodies with sharp pieces of metal. Either way, the path was clear.

"These guys really need to either get a better trainer or fire their strategist, because these guys seem to be too weak to be their leaders personal guard." Clawback said as he threw a wounded bandit to the side.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that, if Chrysalis is so dead set on killing us why not send all of her best fighters at once, on,y so much we can deal with at one time." Pyro added as he used his magic to set another section on fire.

I just shrugged and threw a knife into a fleeing bandits back leg. "I don't know, but if she's keeping all of her best to herself it just makes what we're doing right now easier."

And just as I finished my sentence, one of the walls of the nest was blown to pieces, we had to shield our eyes to avoid being blinded by the dust. Once the dust had settled we took fighting stances as two large figures stood in front of us. Large, and I mean REALLY large changelings glared down at us, everything except their red eyes covered in spiked grey armour, each of them almost three times my size. "Well...guess we know where the elite guard is..."

One of them raises a hoof and attempts to crush me beneath it, only for me to roll to the side. Unfortunately I was a moron and rolled to the other guard who tried to crush me with his two front hooves. I was dragged backwards by a light blue aura as the ground was struck by the guard. "Gray, you go on ahead, we'll deal with these two." Candy says as she grabs me in her aura again to throw me over the two beasts.

"Why? You stand a better chance of eating these two if I stay and help."

"They're just stalling for time! You need to get to your friend! We can handle this!" She yells as she throws me into the air.

I land behind the two guards that had their attention locked on my friends in front of them. I just shook my head and ran on ahead, no point in arguing with Candy at a time like this. As I run I notice that there were no bandits or changelings about. Either we got them all on our way in, they all retreated or they're being smart and hiding from me.

It didn't take long for me to reach my destination, a large door made of smooth, black marble stone stood at the end of the hallway and I could tell it was the entrance to the main chamber, because everyone knows the fanciest door leads to the main chamber.

Well, that and there is literally a neon sign that says "main chamber" above it with a little painted arrow beneath it.

I push one of the doors open and find myself in a large dome shaped chamber with a large circular platform in the middle, stadium like rows of seats surrounding it with a small podium near the far end of the platform next to a throne of some kind. And there, on the throne, sitting bound and gagged, is Molly.

I would have rushed over to her, but I knew that she wouldn't just be left out in the open like this, something was up. She caught sight of me and tried to call out something to me, but her gag prevented her from speaking at all. Our eyes meet and she stops as I put a finger to my lip to silence her and shaking me head. She understands and sits back, no longer trying to call out to me. "Alright you cunts, where the hell are you?" I ask out loud walking over and stepping into the wide platform.

I hear the sound of a typical evil laugh before the two leaders appear before me, both clad in armour as changelings and bandits fill the seats around the platform.

"So nice of you to join us Gray, I was getting rather bored waiting for you." Diptera purrs as she licks her lips with her snake like tongue.

"You've caused us a lot of trouble, and wasted a lot of our time. So, why don't we akip any monologues, speeches or whatever and get to the part where we try to kill each other?" Draken asks with a psychotic grin.

I just glare and allow a blood hungry grin to form on my face as I unsheath my sword and spin my knives around me. "I couldn't agree more..."

Author's Notes:

This one took awhile, damn. Sorry, I've had a major case of writers block lately.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and if you see any mistakes please point them out to me.

The rescue

I jumped out of the way of a huge dark purple hammer that left large cracks in the arena floor and I charged forward, grabbing Diptera by the throat and slamming her into the ground, the impact causing her to stop her spell and the hammer disappeared.

Draken charged me from the side and crashed into my side, knocking me off of the bug bitch before he jumped with a blade in his mouth. I rolled out of the way of the blade and smacked him away with a backhand from my gauntlet, which sent him flying into the stone walls.

Diptera got to her hooves and began buzzing her wings, taking to the sky. Perfect, if there's one thing that I couldn't deal with well, it was flying enemies, those were usually Mothy or Pyro's fortes.

I pulled out some of my knives with my magic and began throwing them towards her, only for her to dodge them or block them with a magic barrier. I pulled my knifes back and tried grabbing her in my magic, only for her to break out of the hold with her own magic before forming a large amount of clear purple buzz saw blades. My eyes widened and I threw out all of my knives and had them spin around me violently for protection.

The knives managed to block most of the buzz saws, but a few slipped through and stabbed into various parts of my body. Before they could start spinning and cause more damage I pulled them out and threw them towards Draken who had tried to sneak up on me to stab me in the back. His armour blocked most but two managed to stab into one of his back legs. Diptera saw this and dispelled her blades.

I used this brief moment to pull out The Lancelot and blasted her out of the sky with an explosive shot. She had managed to block most of the damage, but the flames of the blast burnt her wing slightly, so she was grounded for the most part.

I cringed in pain as I held one of my wounds from the saws, focusing the magic in my gauntlet towards closing the wounds, blood dripping down my arms.

I quickly changed the magazine in my gun and shot a magic dampening bullet into Diptera's leg, that would at least keep her from walking and casting more spells.

Draken grunted in pain as he charge me with his injured leg and slammed himself into my chest, knocking me backwards slightly. He then spun around and kicked my knee with his good leg and then when I collapsed to one knee he spun around and punched me in the face with his hoof. I fell to my side and could feel the blood drip down the side of my head as he closed in on me. As he got close enough to strike again I grabbed his mane and slammed his face into the ground, a few of his teeth cracking and breaking, flying out of his mouth along with a large amount of his blood.

I lifted myself up and unsheathed my sword, as I was about to bring it down on him I heard a soft clang. I looked over and found that Diptera had pulled the magic dampening bullet out with her mouth and now stood on her three good hooves while her wounded one healed.

"Ah fuck..." I groaned before being blasted away by a huge beam of energy, my back slamming into the hard stone wall, causing me to cough up some blood and collapse to my hands and knees.

Draken and Diptera walked up to me and looked down at me with twisted grins. As Draken was about to drive his blade into me I grabbed it, spun it around shoved it into his chest. His eyes went wide as he stumbled back, a trail of red drops of blood following him before he collapsed.

Diptera growled and pounced, only for me to grab her by the throat and push her face up against the wall, ready to finish the fight. Before I could, a large swarm of changelings and groups of bandits charged out of their hiding spots towards me. "Shit!" There was no way I could take on so many alone, although, lucky for me, I didn't need to.

The groups closest to me were blasted away as my friends burst trough the stone doors and moved in between the small army and me.

"Jesus, what took you Idiots so long?" I asked with a playful smirk.

Moony chuckled and tossed the head of one of the changeling elite guards over her shoulder. "This big boys lasted a lot longer than we expected. Anyway..." She growled with a predatory smirk. "...let's finish."

"Trying too hard with the sex metaphors Moony, trying way too hard."

"Oh shut up and kill that buggy slut already!"

"Hey, don't call my sister a slut before I do! I'm family, I get first dibs!" Mothy shouted in annoyance.

"Can we just kill things please?!" Candy exclaimed as she charged forward and impaled a changeling with her horn.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely sending her fiancé a sympathy card. Poor bastard doesn't know what he's getting into.

"Now..." I said while turning back to Diptera. "...as for you." I began pressing her into the wall with greater force, her kicking and thrashing to try and break free. She tried to use her magic but I used one of my knives to cut off her horn, leaving her defenceless. "Any last cryptic words for me from your whore of a mother?"

"Just you...wait...you'll regret all of this...soon...she'll kill you and...everyone you love!" The bug bitch spat out with hatred in her voice.

"Eh, I'd like to see her try. When you get to hell, tell Insectia he's a sissy, bye!" With one final push her head exploded into a delightful gory pile of grey matter and changeling blood.

Wiping the blood and gore off of my hands, I walked past th ongoing slaughter that my friends were so invested in committing and hurried over to Molly. "Sorry you had to see all that Molls, here let's get you out of those ropes." I said while cutting her free with a knife, letting her remove her gag herself while I cut the last binds around her legs. "Alright, let's get you out of he-"

"Wait." She interrupted, grabbing my sleeve.

"Huh?"

For a few moments, the two of us locked eyes, something that made me both extremely comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. "Gray...I...I think we need to have a...talk."

I sighed and picked her up bridal style, causing her to gasp in surprise. "Now's probably not the time, let's get you out of this hellhole and hopefully with a couple of years of therapy leave this memory behind us."

I didn't let her talk as I ran out of the room and into the cave system we fought through to get here, the clear and bloody path we left behind guiding me to the exit. The running hurt with some of my wounds still open, and the fact that I probably had a few broken bones, but the sooner we got out of there the better.

When we finally reached the exit I set Molly down on a rock to sit on while I collapsed onto my back, breathing heavily. "Gray? What's wrong?" Molly asked with concern.

"Damage...catching up to me...don't worry, happens all the time...*cough* ok that's blood."

Molly just shook her head and placed a hand on my forehead. "You're too reckless."

"Probably, but running straight into situations where I'm probably gonna die is kinda my job so...kinda have to be." I laughed before coughing again. "Ok that's more blood."

Molly just remained silent with a conflicted look on that beautiful face of hers.

"Hey, what's with the sad look?" I asked with a smile.

"Gray...did you mean all those things you said at that bar in Manehatten?"

My smile faded and I sighed. "Yeah...I did." Oh boy, here we go, prepare for the sappy stuff.

"...how long have you felt that way?"

"Probably from the moment I saw ya honestly, never seen such a beautiful girl like ya before, Ireland ain't exactly priding itself on it women." I admitted with a laugh.

"I see..." She whispered, looking really unsure of what to say.

I'm not great with this kinda thing, especially after a fight like that which took most of my energy outta me, but this had to happen sooner or later. "Honestly you scared me when you froze up like ya did, although it really made Mothball laugh like an idiot, don't worry though, I threw his bug ass in the trash after he did, literally."

This got her to chuckle a little, a small smile appearing on her face. "Yeah, sorry about that, it was just such a shock and my brain just kinda..."

"Fucked off?" I suggested.

"Ha, yeah I guess." She laughed a little more before cupping my cheek in her hand. "It was just surprising to hear that...you felt the same way."

My eyes widened a bit in surprise as she leaned down towards me.

"Gray, can we stop being a pair of idiots and actually be honest with each other about all this dumb bullshit?" She asked with a confused smile.

"We ain't ever gonna stop being a pair of morons, me especially, but with all that's happened I think we should at least talk about this mo-" I was cut off as she placed her lips on mine.

Uh...score for me I guess?

Things are gonna get complicated...

You know what? Fuck it, why not?

I returned the kiss and brought her closer to me, wanting to reach for that sweet ass but figured that it would ruin the moment.

There would be plenty of grabbing that ass later. Right now it was cliche romantic shit.

Author's Notes:

And it gets an update for the first time in forever. Honestly I'm just writing this when I feel like it.

Won't be long before the end though, got a few more chapters ahead, so hope ya can wait and bear with me a little while longer.