A/N I changed the previous chapter a little bit. Nothing much just gave Celt a week before the GGG instead of a day.

The crack of dawn wakes me up, the same ashen colored sky greeting me like yesterday. The sound of murmurs, the noise of the city, echoes through the alley. The bustling of the heart of the city reaches my ears and disturbs me. I rub my eyes to clear my head.

The ground was less comfortable than I originally thought. The hardened, packed ground stiffened my back and forced me to switch to awkward positions to try to be more comfortable. I slowly rise myself up the boxes of assorted junk, cracking one eyelid open as well. I’m glad I don’t have to stay here long.

I wander about the same empty alleyways that I’ve awaken to the sight of for two mornings so far. My footsteps inch me closer to the town center, a casual pace sets the mood of the morning. I stop by the city boards to check for anything that might catch my eye besides the GGG or what hair style Fleur de Lis has this week.

As I browse the latest rumors and news, I notice a small clipping on the wall with these words streaked across: “Brothers Black Strikes again!” Brothers Black? Sounds like a band name with no originality. I scan the details of the news.

“This trio of ponies, known by the names of Black Sun, Black Wind and Black Soil, along with their mob, has killed yet another member of the royal staff. This marks the seventh murder this mouth. The victims have been murdered with a small calling card left on their corpses. The most recent victim was a blacksmith for the royal guard known as Iron Mane.”

The news slowly follows with a picture of my employer and continues onward about how the royal guard was doing nothing to stop the murders and how their incompetence allowed these murders to go on. The news finally ended with a few stinging words attacking the royal guard’s inability to uphold order forced the citizens to live in fear with these murderers roaming around.

I let out a sigh, noting of my employer’s passing. I only met him a few days ago but still…

"Poor old bastard, I suppose I better go pay my respects."

With that in mind, I take a trip to the market to purchase something to pay my respects with. Afterwards I begin my march towards the blacksmith’s forge, my former place of employment. The walk there has a strained silence to it. An eerie calm takes hold of the street and makes me considers something.

Not a single pony is walking through the street. I don’t even see the ponies that usually try to hide behind their stalls from the mere sight of me. Only wind moves in this desolated street, a breeze bringing more than fresh air arriving.

Why does this remind me of a showdown at high noon? I continue forward, strolling down the street still looking for a sign of anyone or anypony. The sound of my footsteps stomping the earth echoes through the street besides the bellow of wind rushing through the alleyways. My eyes are finally opened to the sight of the familiar workshop, the tall chimney puffing black smog out from its stone lungs.

The sight of the place I worked at for two days starts to expand, the size of it getting larger as my walk takes me closer. My body closes in on the workshop, only a few meters left to cross. The walk to here was rather brief. The sun hadn’t even crawled further upward in the time I took.  I take the first few steps up to the door of the workplace. As my footsteps inch closer to the door, the trotting of hoof steps behind me reaches my ears.

“Brother, it looks like we have another monster to slay!” A voice from behind me rings out.

I turn around to see two strangely familiar ponies. They each have a coat of mango yellow with red manes streaked with white stripes, the strands of hair drooping down their faces. They have black vests covering their torsos and black hats on their heads. They have fedoras here?

I see sheaths hanging from the sides of these loud mouths, hiding swords in them with only the hilts showing. By the shape of the sheaths I can guess that one of them is lugging around a European sword, most likely claymore, and the other is carrying around a sheath of thin design, a rapier most likely inside the sheath.

The only difference between the two pegasi is that the one carrying the claymore is much thicker in build than the other. The muscles bulging through his skin, kind of like that one pegasus from “Hurricane Fluttershy”. You know, the extremely buff one called Roid Rage or whatever name the fandom gave him.

I don’t have time for this.

“Who’re you two clowns?” I snarl as I spit these words out of my mouth.

The larger pegasus steps forward.

“We are Crash and Burn! Monster hunters supreme!”

God, that voice sounds nauseating familiar.

"What do you want and why should I give a damn?" I growl to show my irritated mood.

"Shall we tell him brother?" the pegasus continues onward, completely disregarding or ignoring my growl.

Either this pegasus is very hard of hearing or incredibly stupid.  I’m going to go with the latter.

"Yes we shall, Crash!" agreed the smaller one apparently named Burn.

Oh god… Someone rip my ears off please.

"Oh, we have an opportunity in this..."

"Stop, no. You will not start singing now or anytime while I can hear it!"

"Well brother, it seems this beast isn't very musically inclined."

"Certainly not brother, perhaps we should just make it so that he doesn't have to hear music anymore."

…You know what? Those voices are so annoying, just give me the gun and I’ll blast my ears off me.

The two idiots finally focus their eyes back at me.

"Capital idea brother, so monster… are you ready to die at the hoofs of the famous Crash and Burn brothers?" inquired Burn.

God these two feel familiar but where... I freeze. The mango yellow coat, the red mane so gelled up, it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s made of jelly. It took only a few seconds to match this pair of morons to Flim and Flam. What are you, bored up there?

There’s probably a good chance they know I’m the one who put Flim and Flam in jail. Maybe that’s the reason they’re trying to kill me?

"You two wouldn't happen to know the two dumbasses I put in jail named Flim and Flam, would you?" I question in an exasperated tone, my head throbbing from the headache I’m having from these two idiots.

The two turn their heads to each other and… it’s almost as if I can hear the gears in their minds slowly creaking to a conclusion. Finally, their faces light up and they sharply turn their heads towards me, surprise in their eyes.

"YOU PUT OUR COUSINS IN JAIL!" They both yell at me in synchronization.

Apparently stupidity is contagious.

"Yes, I did. They tried to rob me so I taught them an extremely painful lesson in failure."

After the period of surprise in their eyes… 5... 4… 3… 2… 1… ok, now their eyes are coated in rage, a boiling resentment cracking just beyond the surface.

"Well Crash, it seems this beast needs to be taught a lesson in proper manners when dealing with famous ponies doesn't he?" Burn remarks with a snarling fury.

"Very much so brother, may I be the first to take off one of his limbs?" Crash asks in a much more angered tone then before.

"After you," Burn says before he grips his rapier with his teeth.

"Thank you" Crash replies, unsheathing his claymore. His teeth bite down on the hilt, steadying the claymore with his jaws.

The street holds a strained silence. The tension between the two and me is thick enough to cut with a knife. There are only the three of us in the street, waiting for a signal to start the fight. The air warms up with anticipation. My brow sweats a little. A drop of sweat slides down my face and falls down with a splat.

With that, Crash’s legs dash fore at me, a furious lunge that tears at the air. He closes in a single moment, his jaw preparing to swing down the sword. The upraised sword swings down, preparing to cleave a chunk of my arm off.

I silently laugh. I remember my first fight here, a memory of a bloodthirsty beast.

This is so much easier than the manticore. The manticore was unpredictable at least.

I reach out with my mechanical arm and grab at the swung claymore. A tight grip on the blade, the claymore abruptly stops. He tries to wrench the sword out of my grasp but my iron grip refuses to waver, keeping a firm clasp on the steel.

I take advantage of this chance and bring out my crossbow. The crossbow is pointed at him like a fixed glare locked on him.

“Obtusum vis!” Mass forms at the centre of the crossbow. A swirl of dark energy gathers on the crossbow. The ‘arrow’ that forms shows no shape of an actual arrow. Only a pulsating black mass shows its shape, a force that pushes away everything, even air. There is only a mass as black as the Flim Flam brothers’ heart. The outline of the bolt shows no sign of being able to pierce flesh. The bolt shows more the shape of a mortar bomb, a bullet meant to slam into the body, crushing bones and breaking limbs.

The bullet is aimed point blank at the stallion. He sees the bullet for a second and a gulping sound escapes his throat. I pull the trigger and the bolt launches forward, a forceful motion shoots through the air. The bullet smashes dead centre at his chest, the cracking of bones echoes through the street.

The blast flings him through the street with the impact of a train crashing into him. His body slams into a fruit cart, the groaning of wood escaping through the air before a violent crack shatters the innocent cart. Crash is laying on the ground now.

“My, you’re a strong brute, aren’t you?” he says with a smug tone as his mouth violently coughs out air. He slowly gets up from the rubble of what was once a fruit cart. The smug tone tells me he’s still got some fight in him.

My teeth grind in a snarl, a growling disdain lets out from my lips. I hate that tone, the kind that tells of one’s ego as if it’s their only quality. It’s the same kind that smug ass used before he sent me here.

I decide to make them realize how screwed they truly are. With a calm demeanor, I start to crush the claymore still in my hand. Using only one hand, I tighten my hold on the blade. The crumbling of the blade comes slow at first. It’s like the sound of rocks being mashed together, a jarring crack filling the air. Soon cracks start to form, at first a line or two appears but soon they start to spread like cobwebs of ruin.

Finally one last crunch of steel groans out before the blade gives way to the strength of my grip. They become fragments of what was a cleaver of flesh. The crisp sound of the blade’s sudden change in shape causes the two to shiver, their eyes fixated in fear of the sight they just saw.

The blade drops to the ground and falls, making a nice clank as the blade meets the stone pattern of Canterlot’s streets. I look at the sight of the two brothers fixed in fear, shaking intensely at what they’re fighting. Not done yet, I aim my crossbow down on the thick steel.

“Confringo!” I utter the word of decay. A bolt of red hue forms on the crossbow, a tainted feel seeps from this cursed arrow. The air itself seems to corrode from simply being around this bolt. I pull the trigger and the cursed arrow is launched down the claymore.

The moment the bolt smashes into the blade, the signs of decay work their plagued touch on the unwavering steel. The rust comes slowly, in the shape of brown crystals. The first to go are the sides of the blade, the tiny pieces of the further corroding blade just trickling from the main mass of steel.

It spreads from there, becoming a weakened form of what was once strong.

The brown touches of rust cling their rotten touch tighter onto the claymore as the blade starts to deteriorate. The wrapping on the handle begin to rot along with the hilt. The wood and the wrappings slowly fall off, decaying into dust as they descend. The blade soon corrodes into a skeleton of its former glory, a twisted form of what was once strong.

The dust of what was once Crash’s claymore is soon carried away by the calm breeze of day whisking away all traces of weakness with the light of a still bright sky. Only the gold that was on the hilt was left intact.

I bend down and pick up the gold that is the only proof left of the claymore’s existence. I hold the gold up in plain sight for Crash to see, dangling it in front of him with a cruel smile forming on my face.

“Oops… I’m sorry, did I do that?” I taunt him by swinging the gold in front of his face, a golden pendulum shining in front of his eyes.

“Why you little…!” Crash steps forward, his legs crouching to prepare for a charge.

“Brother, allow me to take this oaf.” Burn stops his brother by stepping in front of him, the rapier in his mouth poising to strike at me.

“Nice blade,” I sneer at him, “but mine’s better.” The moment after I say that, the same blade that saved me from the manticore shoots out from my mechanical hand.

The blade shined in the sun, the blood from the manticore that I had slain earlier was still sprayed on it, a brown crust decorating the edge and showing how peerless the blade was. As his eyes scan the blade, Burn’s throat let out a gulping sound as his eyes latch onto the brown crust.

After that moment of timid fear, he slowly starts to advance on me until he comes right at my side. He raises his blade, the sword of execution about to thrust down. The upraised sword lunges down at me, hoping to run through my heart.

Taking full advantage of his predictable movements, the rapier is blocked. My bladed hand stopping the blade’s run suddenly as it meets the rapier.

I quickly take action in this moment of stopped motion and smash his head with a kick to his face. The marks of disorientation show on his face, the glassed eyes and the shocked look on his face. It was as if he didn’t recognize what had just happened. His body backs off for a few seconds to regain his composure and mind.

It takes three seconds for him to regain some form of consciousness. For me, it was more than enough time to chip at his blade. As the light of his eyes shines again, I’m already swinging my arm at his rapier. The impact of the bladed arm meeting the rapier chips the tip clean off, a cracking sound telling how quick and easy the deed was.

I prepare my second swing, preparing to smash into his rapier again. The upraised arm in the air, I swing it down full force to snap off the rapier’s thin blade-

I retreat my sword arm with a sudden motion. The pegasus before me, regained awareness and slashed at my sword arm, a feeble attempt at trying to prevent my strike. The piercing of the steel trying to run through my metal arm fails flat as the sword reaches only my coat, cutting only a thin point in the coat’s fabric.

He quickly backs away, a smirk on his face as if he had just won the fight.

“What’s this? It seems he was armored the whole time! Hah! Brother he chea-” The sentence remains unfinished as my blade arms slams against his rapier.

A look of utter confusion crosses his face. Maybe it was at the shock of being interrupted. Maybe why I didn’t slash at his head and cleave it clean off, letting his head meet the earth for the last time.

Both brothers show shock in their faces as the top half of the rapier snaps off with a violent jerk as my sword arm bashes against the steel. As their shocked faces went on, I smash again with a smaller part of the blade breaking off with a snap. I continue to swing the arm at full force at his blade until only a stump remains of the once proud rapier. He looks at me with eyes afraid of what will happen next. I point my crossbow at him, fixed on his chest like a predator’s gaze on a prey.

“Obtusum vis!” I shout the words of impact, waiting for the bolt to appear. The crossbow remains as still as always, no masses of energy gathering to become a bolt. I examine the crossbow more carefully. Maybe it needs to recharge after such a big use of energy…

I look back at the dynamic duo that has turned their backs on me. The trotting of hooves alarms me of their intentions. As they start to run away, I close the distance immediately and grab their tails.

“Doesn’t work that way, boys,” I let a laugh out as I pull them by their tails back to me, an evil grin creeping at my mouth. “Ever wanted to learn to fly?”

They both shook their heads in no. I merely guffaw at the fear etched on their faces as I start to spin their tails round. At first, they start to jerkily move in a roundabout manner, dragging their hooves across the ground in a rotation. After a while, I manage to lift the two off the ground, still spinning round and round in circles.

When the moment is ripe, I decide to let them go. Throwing them in the air, they rip through the sky. I can still see them until after a minute, as they turn into dots melting into the ashen sky. They’ll probably land outside of Canterlot, probably. I turn my back from the sky to do what I came here to do.

As I ascend up the stairs to the patio where the forge and smith are kept, I open my bag and take out a small rose. A dark pink flushes the flower’s petals. I spot the anvil that I first saw him working at. I place the rose on the anvil and pay my respects to the old fart I had met just two days ago.

I feel the anvil once more. It’s lukewarm now as if he was working on it a few hours ago. Now it’ll probably be cold for a long time.

After the paying of respects to Iron Mane, I get up and start to take the short walk to the market, where the ponies start to come out and set up shop. Right before I arrive at the town centre, I stuff the gold from Crash’s hilt into my bag.

The chatter of gossip and rumors floods the town centre. Most of them are of the same nature, nonsense meant more for shock value than honesty. There’s one rumor that talks of a monster with a metallic arm that beat up two monster hunters. I whistle innocently at that piece of news.

As I enter the market, I decide upon what I want to buy. After I finish deciding what to get, I set out to search for vendors and shops carrying the items I want. After a day of through searching and bartering, my bag contain the new contents of ink, paper and a feather pen in case I ever want to try to draw again.

I also bought a new pillow of passable quality, not too rough but definitely not cuddly. It would still be more comfortable than sleeping in the alley without something like this. I swear my back’s going to kill me if I try to sleep like that again. As I set out for the alleyways, to stay the day before sleeping, a voice catches my ear.

"Mr. Monster," said a small voice from the side of me "is it true you beat up those two mean monster hunters?"

I turn my head and look down to see a small light purple unicorn filly with a blonde mane. I swear I’ve seen her before. I decide to tell her the truth."Yes, it's true."

"It was cool how you cut up the skinny one’s sword," the little filly looked up at me with big eyes, "are you gonna tell your monster family about how you beat those mean ol'brothers?"

I smile a little. This filly’s kind of amusing. I’ll humor her a little.

"Maybe someday little filly, maybe someday."

A feminine voice calls out from the market. A gray pegasus with a blonde mane quickly rushes behind the small filly. She’s crossed eyed, her eyes going in opposite directions. It takes me only a few seconds to realize one of the most popular ponies on the show. Oh my god it's Derpy! Oh wait, or maybe it's Ditsy, the damn fan base could never decide. I try to remain calm as the pegasus approaches me.

"Dinky there you are, you had me worried for a second!" Derpy says to the small unicorn. Dinky? Oh, how could I forget, Dinky is Derpy's daughter in some fictions! I mentally dope slap myself at forgetting this. Derpy turns her head toward me, staring at least one eye at me. Instead of shrieking for help from a monster or running away in fear like every citizen of Canterlot has done, she simply said:

"Oh I know you! You’re that thing I almost squashed 3 times back in Ponyville!"

"Actually, 4 times but who's counting right?" I says with a smile. Derpy remembers me. How fun.

"Heh, sorry, well come on Dinky, let's get home for our nightly muffin!"

"YAY, MUFFINS!" the infant squeals in joy.

The mother and the child walk away and out the alley and into the city streets. It allows me to be left to my thoughts. A thought of loneliness creeps into my head. I wonder how my parents are doing right now....

I gaze at the sky, a vivid blue and puffy whites filling my eyes with a landscape of clouds and clear blue backgrounds. It doesn’t seem like today’s going to end anytime soon. I stare down at the ground, waiting for today to end so I could sleep. As I wish today would end, a voice echoes through the alley.

"So... I take it you went to pay your final respects?" Next Chapter: Meeting the Wolf (6) Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 15 Minutes