The green fox was crying. He had no real intent on crying, yet he was.

He was crying to release the pain. The hollow in his heart found earlier that day.

He was kneeling at an open grave. There was an elaborate mahogany box sitting at one side of the grave. His son and wife were still miles off, which allowed him to release the pain alone.

It all flashed through his mind. The Scamander kid casting the Killing Curse, trying to get out of the spell that Reine had on him during a duel.

He didn’t know what it was. He had no idea. Skorpeon didn’t hate the kid.

He hated the kid’s father.

What twisted man would use that curse on his own wife? He hadn’t meant to, so she was slightly okay.

But Loran Scamander HAD meant to use it. He didn’t mean to kill, but that’s not how it works.

Skorpeon placed the rose he was holding in Reine’s paws. He looked at the headstone itself;

His cheeks stung from the wind, but he couldn’t fell them over the pain in his heart.
“Skorpeon?” He turned, seeing Hermoine and Harry there.
“What do you want?” he growled, “Leave me alone.”
“Skorpeon, listen” Hermoine knelt beside the professor, “I know what it’s like to lose someone. Need I remind you that Ron and the majority of his family was killed in the Battle at Hogwarts while neither Harry or I could do a bleeding thing?”
Skorpeon brushed the hand from his shoulder, “Yes, you lost, Ronald, Charlie, Molly, Arthur, and Ginerva, did you not?” His eye glowed a light blue, then turned blood red, “Who did I lose? I lost Akira and Reine under the roof of Hogwarts. They weren’t just friends. They were FAMILY.”
He turned from the two human, wrapping his cloak around him.
“Ron,” Harry paused for a moment “Ron and Ginny were more than friends to us. Ron was almost my brother. And Ginny--”
Skorpeon snorted, “And Ginny was the girl you dated for a mere five months then shunted out the door when you destroyed Voldemort. Real close, you two.”
Harry closed his eyes, “Ginny was my first true love. She was the only family I had. My parents were killed, my godfather was killed, my mentors all were killed. She was the only thing I had left.”
Skorpeon turned, his eye was turning black “Yeah? Well, Reine was my baby. She was only in her second year.” He heard someone approach. He turned to see his wife, daughter and son climbing the hill.
“Skorpeon.” Krystal wrapped an arm around Skorpeon, sobbing into his shoulder.
Miles, however, distanced himself from the grave. He loved Reine, he loved her more than a sister.
Miles wasn’t really Skorpeon’s son. He and Krystal had adopted him when he ran from Sonic and his team. All he ever said was that Sonic stole his girl, and that was that.
When Reine was born, Miles spent every last second he could with her, always having enough energy to take care of her when neither Skorpeon nor Krystal could. When she got her letter to Hogwarts, Miles was as ecstatic as she was.
Now, that she was dead, Miles was distant again. He hardly spoke and seemed to be on the verge of tears.
“Miles?” Shakirae placed her paw on his shoulder “Come on. Let’s pay her her last respects.”
Miles nodded, pulling the necklace he wore all the time. He never said where he got it, or what it meant. One day, he dropped it down a sink, and he frantically shut the entire bathroom down while he hastily invented a device that could get it out.
He looked at the violet vixen, sleeping peacefully in the coffin. He placed the necklace on her neck, adjusting it so that it sat on the center of her chest.
When Skorpeon noticed that Miles was crying, he placed his paw on his shoulder comfortingly.
“It’s okay Miles.” He tried to comfort his son. Miles, however, smacked Skorpeon’s paw from him, turning tail and running back down the hill, his vibrant blue eyes cascading behind him.
Krystal turned to Skorpeon, her own eyes brimming with tears. “How did it happen?”
Skorpeon sighed, recounting the tale. It took him all of five minutes, but it still was too great for him.
Krystal started to cry when he finished. Together, the two foxes and two humans placed Reine in her final home, carefully covering her with Hogsmeade soil.
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“Get a bleeding GRIP RYDER!” He smacked himself in the face, bringing himself into the present. “I told her two weeks. Two weeks in Ponyville. I’ve been here for three months! I need to leave before the ponies get to me!”
He stood up, “There’s still time. Just wait until Twilight Sparkle is in bed and--”
“And do what?” Rainbow Dash spoke up, causing Skorpeon to pull his pistol on her. Without thinking, he brought the butt if the gun onto her head. With a muffled thunk, Rainbow Dash hit the ground.
Skorpeon merely looked at the Pegasus, then, without another word, turned around and hid in the closest bush.

He hid there for maybe three hours before Rainbow Dash came too.
She moaned, rubbing her head. Skorpeon saw her crimson eyes widen as she remembered what he did.
“RyDer!” she yelled “Come out if you know what’s good for you! No one and I mean NO ONE MESSED WITH RAINBOW DASH!” She screamed the last words, falling back to the earth. She began looking around the area.
Skorpeon held his breath as she looked his way. Faintly, he felt something tickle his paw. He brushed it off without thinking. A moment later, it came back.
“AAAAKEEEEYAH!!!” Skorpeon dove from the bush, spiders crawling on his cloak.
“RyDer!” Rainbow Dash ran over to him, “Hold still!” She grabbed his cloak in her mouth, carried him to the stream, and threw the protesting fox into the river.
Skorpeon, unable to swim, tried to reach for the rebreather he kept behind his ear.
It hadn’t been there for near seven years.
He began to panic, taking a lungful of water. He gagged, allowing more precious air to escape. He felt his mind starting to go into panic mode now. It would be a matter of seconds before…

He rolled on his side and coughed water from his lungs. He heard some people whispering behind him. He coughed more water from his lungs as he felt someone pressing their hands to his back, expelling the water at an even faster rate than he could cough.
He spluttered, then took a deep breath.
“…didn’t know he couldn’t swim.” He heard someone say, “What? You think I was trying to kill him?”
Skorpeon snarled, jumping to his feet. He looked at the six ponies.
“Something wrong?” Fluttershy asked “I tried to get all the water from your lungs, but there--”
“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING RAINBOW DASH?!” he yelled, unleashing his fury on the rainbow-maned Pegasus.
“I was only--” she stammered.
“YOU WERE ONLY! YOU WERE ONLY!” He didn’t think; he just brought his foot against her stomach.
“RyDer!” Rarity and Twilight acted at the same time, trapping Skorpeon in a purple and blue bubble.
“LET ME GO!” he roared, trying to claw the bubble apart. “Let me the dickens go!”
Rainbow Dash clutched her stomach. Though Skorpeon couldn’t hear, he could see her coughing.
Twilight mouthed something, running to her friend. Rainbow Dash coughed again, blood spraying from her mouth.
Skorpeon gave a demented smile. The bubble around him vanished as he felt something collide with the back of his skull.
The last thing Skorpeon saw and heard was the crying of the rainbow-maned Pegasus as she collapsed on the ground, unmoving.

Skorpeon awoke with his head bandaged and throbbing like mad. He heard someone talking behind him.
Well, worst comes to worse, it’s the ponies. He groaned inwardly when he saw a rainbow mane in the bed beside him.
Rainbow Dash was facing away from him, breathing shallowly. HE could tell she was awake, because she was propping herself up on one forelock.
He silently stood, reaching for the knife strapped to his shoulder. Skorpeon crept up to the unexpecting Pegasus, paw stretched out to grab her forehead.
Rainbow Dash’s shriek was muffled by Skorpeon’s paw. She felt something grab her forehead, pulling her back into the deep black eyes of the fox. He grinned as she felt something cold and metallic touch her throat.
She realized that was his knife.
She realized he was grinning savagely.
She was going to die.
Rainbow Dash felt the blade sink into her throat, the pressure releasing on her head. She heard yelling and a bang.
Rainbow Dash blacked out of consciousness, a mysterious flash of green the last thing she saw.

Skorpeon was tied down with the magic of the four unicorns. His paws were forced behind him, his chest on his knees.
“Skorpeon Kingsleigh RyDer!” Nightmare Moon slowly trotted up to the incapacitated fox, eyes glowing a vivid white, “You have tried to kill a pony, have you not?”
Skorpeon’s answer was a snarl, not unlike the guttural growl of a bloodhound. He looked up into the eyes of the Queen of the Night, his own eyes black with rage.
“Cok mo we, 0ei awdehudk raksx.” He growled in the Dinosaur Language.
Princess Celestia positioned herself next to her sister, both Alicorns glaring down upon the fox.
“He’s usually not like this, sister.” Nightmare Moon told the elder. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“He still killed Rainbow Dash.” Celestia said in undertone.
Suddenly, Skorpeon started fighting his bonds.
“Let me go!” Everypony present heard the panic in his voice. “Let me go! I can heal her!”
A flash of light caused Nightmare Moon to transform into her own self, a young and beautiful black Alicorn with purple hair standing in her place.
Skorpeon, unrelenting, let out a cry: “FORCE!” The four unicorns felt a massive wave of air knock them into the hospital walls. Skorpeon jumped up and whipped his wand out in the same motion.
He dove to the bed of the bleeding Pegasus, crying bitterly when he saw what he did; slit her throat.
Skorpeon cursed himself. He had done PRECISELY the opposite of what he swore to do when he became what he tried to hide…

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Skorpeon and Krystal stood in the bitter cold of an Earthen night. They were waiting for someone. And they had no idea where he was.
“He said ten, right?” Krystal looked to the green fox, who nodded a confirmation.
He looked at a device embedded in his left arm. “He’s only ten minutes late.” He looked at his wife, noticing how much she was shivering. He took his trench coat off, placing it on his shoulders. Though he was wearing a t-shirt, Skorpeon wasn’t being affected by the cold. Yet.
They stood around for maybe ten more minutes, Skorpeon’s ragged breaths becoming more and more visible in the night air.
Snow started to fall around them when they heard something; the rumbling of a motorcycle engine.
Krystal leaned around Skorpeon, a red-orange glow illuminating the sky. Skorpeon drew a breath and grabbed Krystal by the waist.
He dragged Krystal behind the short wall, tapping a small camera onto the back of the wall. Krystal pulled a small flat device, slid her finger on the screen, and tapped an icon of a camera.
They saw, on the pocket-sized device, a creature step from the motorcycle. He had the build of a man. He was wearing a leather jacket with massive spikes on the shoulders. A trucking chain lay wrapped around his torso three times.
He looked around, and it was his face that caught Skorpeon and Krystal’s breath in their throats.
Instead of a face, there was a skull. The man had no flesh on his face. The glow emitting around him was what they noticed to be FIRE.
This man was on fire.
“Come out.” They heard him whisper. It was a loud whisper, if there was a thing.
“Who is this?” Krystal asked, “What is this?”
The creature looked to where the camera lay. He heard a small gasp, a feminine one, accentuated with a muffled yelp.
The flaming creature stalked towards the camera, picking it up in a flaming hand. He examined it in every angle. He set it down, and, seeing no one around, walked back to his bike and took off.
Skorpeon whipped the invisibility cloak from the two of them, thankful that creature was simple enough not to check the glimmering silver that was elevating the snow in a weird shape.
“What the crap was that?” Krystal asked, terror in her eyes.
Skorpeon shook his head. “I have no idea.” He bent at the tracks in the road. “Must be some pyrotechnic junkie…”
Krystal knelt beside her husband. The tracks left behind the bike were still smoking. The snow was melted, and the asphalt was still bubbling from where the bike had idled.
“Whatever it was,” Skorpeon said, standing up, “I think we should be grateful is gone.”
They heard a chuckling behind them. “Oh, ye of little faith.”
Skorpeon whirled, wand at the ready. He felt the dark aura of the figure behind him. “Who are you?”
The man chuckled again. He was wearing black robes that ended in tendrils of smoke. He carried in his hands a walking stick, adorned with a devil’s head on the end. His face was old and wrinkled, yet still had the look of a man at thirty.
“My name is not important.” He said, “I need help getting that man you just saw go past.”
“Yeah, no deal.” Skorpeon turned back around, trying to get his wife away from that dark man. He found his progress barred when a stream of smoke slid between the two of them. It swirled for a moment, the man walking through it again.
“I merely want some help.” He chuckled.
Skorpeon, however, pointed at the man, “I know who you are.” He growled “Your Mephistopheles. The Son of Morning’s brother.”
Mephistopheles’ face contorted into a spine-chilling skull, then back again. “Yes. I am.” He pointed at Skorpeon, “And you are Skorpeon RyDer, how fitting of a name.”
Skorpeon smacked the man’s hand from his face, “What do you want, devil spawn?”
Mephistopheles grinned, revealing a hundred sharp teeth in his maw, “I simply want that man ended. I need your help to corner him.”
“And what will you steal from us?” Krystal asked, her voice wavering on edge of fear.
Mephistopheles looked at Krystal, “I want no repayment for this… deed.”
Skorpeon snorted, “You want our souls. I know how you work.”
The man looked at Skorpeon, noting how his eyes were turning black, “But, what you don’t understand, RyDer.” He spread his fingers apart, hand encasing in a black fire, “If we ask a service, we can… induce, the service of those we feel right for the job.”
Skorpeon didn’t react fast enough; Mephistopheles placed his hand in the fox’s chest. Skorpeon felt the skin burn under his hand, and literally felt smoke streaming from his eyes.
His eyes rolled into his head. Skorpeon felt the burning escalate, the dark tendrils of night encompassing his vision as he fell to the snow-covered ground with a muffled thump.

The creature from before felt it; another soul damaged. He turned the bike around, pulling his weapon from the bottom of his bike. He induced a fraction of his Hell-Fyre into it, transforming it into his choise weapon.
When he got close enough, he saw a green figure in the ground, with a blue one lying on top. He could faintly hear her crying.
That’s where he was hiding. The creature placed the gun back in its spot, pulling up to the spot he was at mere minutes before.
The blue creature looked up at him, tears streaming from her face. Her eyes widened when she saw him.
“Get back!” She yelled with a slight British accent. Fitting for her beauty.
“Relax.” He said in his oddly comforting growl, “I’m a friend.”
She was holding the red figure in her arms, slipping her hand under his shirt. She pulled a black device from within, aiming it right at the flaming creature. “I’ll do it.” She said, pulling the catch with her teeth, “I swear to God I’ll do it.”
He placed his hands at his shoulders, forcing the Hell-Fyre to cease. Faintly, his skin returned. His har grew back, revealing the jet-black hair going to his shoulders. A slight goatee adorned his chin, and his eyes were the greenest the young vixen had ever seen.
“Relax.” The man said again, “I’m a friend.”
Krystal didn’t think, she just twitched her finger.
The man’s skin erupted in flame where the bullet hit. The skin reformed immediately, preventing the bullet form wounding him.
The man looked at her, trying his best to appear concerned, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Krystal looked at the man, nodding silently.
The human picked Skorpeon up and fireman-slung him over his shoulder, “C’mon, it’s not far to my warehouse. Get warmed up, and I’ll tell you all I know about that man.”
He touched his bike, and, and as if it were clay, he extended the length of it to accommodate two more people.
He slung Skorpeon on the back, allowing Krystal to sit behind him.
When Krystal was seated, the man kicked his bike in gear, racing off at high speeds. Krystal, though her husband was possibly comatose because of Mephistopheles, couldn’t help but suppress a yell of delight as the ice-cold air ripped though her hip-length hair.
The trip took about fifteen minutes, leaving Krystal thoroughly chilled. She was visibly shivering, and the man made a mental note to get her something warm to drink.
Krystal picked Skorpeon up off the bike, cradling him like an infant. The man flipped a tiny hatch closed as a door opened up in the wall. He wheeled his bike into the building, setting it in the middle of the floor.
When he got his bike standing, he grabbed the table in by the couch and tipped it, letting its contents fall to the floor.
“Put him here.” He said, rushing into the kitchen.
Krystal set Skorpeon down on the table, something catching her eye. She picked up a book that had fallen to the ground.
“Mystic Legends of the Old West.” She read aloud. She sat on the couch, keeping a wary eye on Skorpeon. She began to read,
It's said that the West was built on legends. And that legends are a way of understanding things greater than ourselves. Forces that shape our lives, events that defy explanation. Individuals whose lives soar to the heavens or fall to the earth.
One such man, by the name of Carter Slade, had a certain ring to his legend. They say he went to the most evil city on Earth, gathering the souls of the wicked, and possessed.
When time came to hand over the contract, however, Carter rode off into the night, leaving the man--
“Leaving the Devil without his contract. He couldn’t consume the souls of the city. He failed.” The man set a jug of water on the couch beside Skorpeon. “I know that story.”
Krystal looked at the human, “And you are?”
He laughed, tipping a wine glass full of red and yellow jelly beans into his mouth. “I’m sorry, my name is Johnny Blaze.”
Krystal held her paw out, shaking his hand, “Krystal RyDer.”
Johnny pulled a remote from the side of his couch, clicking a channel on.
“Not going to worry about Skorpeon? Just going to sit and watch TV?” Krystal looked at Johnny as if he was rather peculiar. In all senses, he was.
“Not much I can do. He’s just lost his soul and been infused with a massive power. I’d be surprised if he woke up within the hour.”
“Yeah, well you don’t know my Skorpeon.” She muttered to herself. She placed a paw on his cheek, stroking it gently. Something clicked.
“What did you say?” she asked, Johnny’s words finally sinking in.
“Didn’t say anything.” He said, immersed in the show.
“No, when I asked you if all you were going to do was watch TV.”
“Ah, I said he just had his soul taken from him. I felt it when he collapsed.”
Krystal gaped at Johnny, “And you know this how?”
Suddenly, Skorpeon stirred, causing Johnny to jump.
“How is he--”
“He’s my Skorpeon. He can handle anything.” Krystal helped Skorpeon sit up. “You okay?”
Skorpeon muttered, “Water,” and his head fell on her lap.
Johnny handed Krystal the jug of water and a cup. She gave the cup to Skorpeon and filled it, suppressing a giggle when he downed it in three swallows.
When Skorpeon had drunk his fill (Johnny had to refill the jug three times in the process,) Skorpeon found he could think clearly again.
“What happened?” he croaked, “All I remember is a man placing his hand on my chest.”
“That was Mephistopheles” Johnny explained, “He now has you under his full control.”
Skorpeon shuddered, “What do you mean?”
“I mean you’re like me.” He said, trying to find the right words.
“A Rider?” Skorpeon asked, burying his face in his paws.
Blaze gaped again, perturbed by his knowledge, “I’m sorry?”
“You say I’m like you. You say that you know what happened with one glance. I’ve read reports about you.” Skorpeon shook his head, his heart sinking, “You, as I recall, are a Ghost Rider. Forever enslaved to do the work of the devil.”
Johnny looked at the fox, “Yeah. You handled that well…”
Skorpeon simply looked into the eyes of the human. “I’ve been downright POSSESSED. This is nothing.”
“Right.” Krystal said, “You were just attacked by the brother of the devil, and you shrug it off as if it’s nothing.”
“It is nothing.” Skorpeon said, “Did you see what happened when he touched me?” Krystal shook her head, he answered her, “His lip curled in rage. He can’t get to me. Yeah, he infused the power, but he now knows that there are two Riders against him now.”
Krystal looked at Skorpeon as if he was crazy, “And that because of…”
Skorpeon pulled a small chain from his neck with his dog tags. He fingered a certain one. On the front was a gladiator-like figure. “A Stripling Warrior.” He said. He turned it over, reading the inscription on the back.

Krystal looked at him, “He can’t get to you because…”

Johnny was smiling, “He can’t get to him because he’s righteous. I recognize that. I had a buddy who had one of them.”

Skorpeon tucked the dog tags back in his shirt. “He gave me the powers of a Rider, but he doesn’t have my soul. He can’t touch me.”

Krystal smiled, as did Blaze. “You do realize what you need to do?”

Skorpeon shrugged, “I’ve been protecting the innocent my entire life. Having the control to burn people’s soul makes no difference now.”

Johnny cocked an eyebrow, “You sure know a lot of being a Rider.”

“I told you, I read reports and stories. You’re really popular from where Krystal and I are from.”

“But I was actually referring to helping me take down the devil himself.”

Skorpeon smirked, “Boy, I was ready to take him down even before I was born. Protecting the innocent is my life. And damn is it a long one.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was snapped back into the present when he felt someone trying to pull him away from Rainbow Dash.
“Let me go!” he said, “I can heal her! I can save her!”
They didn’t listen. Resorting to a last measure, Skorpeon grabbed their hoof, slamming Pinkie Pie to the ground.
“I won’t let you kill her!” she said, “She’s my friend!”
Skorpeon didn’t listen. Instead, he placed his wand at Rainbow Dash’s throat, muttering a bit of latin.
Her throat sealed, leaving not even a scar.
Princess Luna and Celestia were in the doorway. Skorpeon, tears still in his eyes, looked at the Princess of the Sun and Moon, “This. This did not happen. Agreed? She had a nightmare.”
The princesses nodded, sensing his remorse.