"And you're sure you don't mind sticking with me?" I asked. Ardiente and I had taken a few days of rest, and were currently outside Manehattan, planning our next move. I wasn't too sure she would stay around, given how she reacted to my massacre at the Blanca headquarters.

"Si, I am sure. Just... don't rip a pony apart in front of me, and I'll be fine. The killing I can deal with." Her voice was slightly uneasy, but I assumed that to be memories of what I did to that one pony. That was fun.

"Well alright. If I have to eat one, I'll just cut them apart, then slice their meat in a way that it isn't recognizable as pony parts. That work?" She nodded in response. That's good.

Hmm, I guess I should mention what I did in the past few days. I got myself clean, for one. Twenty damn years of dirt, grime, filth, blood, semen, and my own fluids built up on me. Why Death didn't fix that when I was sent here is beyond me. I'm going with him just being a massive dick. I also freaked the shit out of Ardiente by showing her my scars. Last I counted, I was up to three thousand seven hundred and fifty eight. Yes, I counted. Yes that is an exact number. No, I didn't have anything better to do. I was locked in a God damned cell eighty percent of the time, what else could I do?

Moving on, Ardiente and I searched through the Blanca household. Found around thee hundred thousand bits. Apparently that's a lot of money. I say that because Ardiente told me so. She's my only source of current information, so I listen to her. ANYWAY!

"Okay so we're going to Canterlot, right? Big... Castle-y thingy on that mountain over there?"

"Si."

"Anything actually fun to do there, or are we just going for the hell of it?"

"A little of both."

"Ah." There was a short pause as she and I walked down the road, about two miles out of Manehattan by this point. What, too fast? Well, not my fault I can cover miles in few seconds sometimes, blame the guys at A.N.G.E.L. for doing it to me. As it was taking for fucking ever to walk, I picked Ardiente and Feral up and jumped my way there. Fucking fast as hell. Got there in a minute. Boom bitch, speed.

"Halt!" Fuck you!

"Fuck you!" Oh hey, I actually said it.

The pony who said it, a white, earth pony stallion wearing gold armor and carrying a spear, scowled at me. Fuck you again! I'll fucking swear if I God damned want to, shit headed asshole pony.

I sighed, "Alright, what?"

"Who are you?" He asked. "There's only one of you humans I know about, and you certainly don't look like him."

I shrugged, which was hard to do carrying a pony and an over-sized wolf, "Well I'm new here just got here a few days ago. Can we go in now, or am I not a allowed?" I set the two in my arms on the ground as I waited for an answer. He frowned again, but nodded and stepped out of the way. Pulling my mask down, I gave him a smile of appreciation, which only served to freak him out. Ha.

Walking the streets was kinda interesting, got a lot of fucking stares from ponies. At least I cleaned the blood and gore off, that would be weird for them to see, I bet. As we were walking, I got an idea of what I wanted to spend those bits on.

"Hey Ardiente," I began, "Know anywhere I can get some sort of large traveling bag or something?"

She smirked a bit, "Better, actually. Follow me, my father and I used to buy from a store here, they sell bags and chests with spacial enlargement spells on them." No idea what the fuck that is, but it sounds cool.

Turns out it was cool. The bag's some type of purse, but the spell on it let's you fit nearly anything into it. Only thing is, it still weighs as much. Eh, not a problem for me. Even got it in a dark brown to match my outfit. Speaking of which...

I opened the door to the clothing store place, which Ardiente told me was reliable. Apparently the mare that owns it made Ardient's mother's suit, on the day she ordered it too. Pretty damn fast.

A bell rang overhead, signaling the pale-ish yellow coated mare behind the counter to look up. She wasn't exactly shocked by my appearance, I guess, but she still stiffened up a bit.

"Excuse me," I said as politely as I could, "I was wondering if you could make a few outfits for me. As you can see, this one isn't the most... Unintimidating to some ponies." Is that even a word? I don't think so, but it kinda works.

The mare brightened up at this, and walked around the counter to stand in front of me, "Of course! Having seen that Dean fellow walking around, I've been wanting to make some human clothes. I just didn't know how to approach him, really, I've heard some rather.... Odd things about his personality."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, sounds right. Maybe. I dunno, only met him once. Hell of a guy, though. If he weren't a man I'd all over that....."

"..."

"Uh, I mean, you didn't hear that."

"Hear what?"

"Exactly. Now, clothes, can you make me some?"

She smiled, "Sure, just remove all of what you have on so I can take measurements." Oh she will not be so cheerful for long...

"Alright," I looked over to Ardiente for a brief second, "just don't faint or throw up or anything."

The mare looked confused, "Why would I do that?"

"Because," I began to explain while removing my hat and bandana mask thing, "As you can see on just my face, I have a lot of scars." I took off my coat, gloves, and body armor/vest thing, revealing my almost patchwork body. I guess I'll go a bit in-depth about the scars and shit. My left arm is... Quite messed up. Along with hundreds of crisscrossing scars from beatings and torture, I also have two deep, jagged chunks took from my upper arm, one right over the other. Got those from the... Blighthorns. No, no, don't think about them...

Anyway, there's also a nice patch of flesh that was taken off my upper arm, just below my shoulder, and was covered up by a welded and bolted on fucking metal plate. That happened before I became almost impassive to pain, too. Beyond that, all over my torso and back, lies the bulk of my scars. Seriously, I have over two thousand collected there in total. Also had my left nipple torn off, but that was honestly kind of arousing. Female doctor that did it too, so I won't complain. Other than that, my stomach has another patch of metal plate repaired patches of flesh. Again, it was a female doctor, and it was kind of arousing, so no real problem with me.

Next I removed my pants, boots and socks, placing them with the rest of my clothes. My legs, well, they didn't get off as bad as the rest of me. Just a bunch of scars, and a small patch of flesh with a metal plate on each one, no big deal really. Well my right foot is actually prosthetic, but I was born with that, and the A.N.G.E.L. guys actually did give me a new one. Connected to my nerves too, isn't that neat? One of the things they developed before they got shutdown, but it was too expensive to mass-produce or some shit. Huh, just realized Death never gave me underwear. No that it really mattered, given what happened to me down there.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the best part. One of the doctors decided he would see what would happen if he soldered steel clamps to my vagina. Think about that. Steel clamps. Soldered. To. My. Vagina. No I am not making it up, it really happened. Basically destroyed any possible sex in the future, be it with male or female. Fucking asshole doctor.

"So," I said to the stock-still pony clothes maker person, "clothes?"

"U-uh. Right, right, let's just... Begin, I guess."

I quirked, heh I love that word, an eyebrow, "What, not gonna freak out or faint?"

"Well," she began, "I've seen scars on veteran guards and the occasional gryphon that comes in. You're basically a combination of all of them. Times a hundred."

Shrugging, I followed her to a back room where she would measure me, "Don't get distracted by them, I'd hate for you to poke me with anything sharp and end up staining your floor."

The mare laughed a bit, "Dear, even if I were to stab you with a needle, I don't think you'd bleed enough from just that."

"... I wasn't talking about blood."

"Ha!"

I looked around, confused, "Was that Dean...?"

Well damn, she does make clothes fast, and she makes them pretty well too. I stood in front of a tall mirror in the shop, looking over my new outfit. It consisted of a black tank-top, a pair of baggy, gray jeans, a studded, black leather belt, a silver chain to hang from my pocket, a black bandana with a white Celtic cross on the front to replace the skull one, and a fingerless, black leather glove that ran half way up my left forearm and as belted in place. Pretty neat. I had to wear my boots and hat though, because the mare didn't make those.

Along with my Wraith outfit, I had a few other sets of clothes tucked away in my bag, which was slung over my shoulder. The other sets included some formal attire, and some other casual outfits. Pretty good all in all, only about three thousand bits, but none of my shirts could be made for my right arm. I don't know what Death did to the clothes he gave me, but there was apparently no spell that would allow me to use my claws without permanently vaporizing the sleeve. That and the sleeve would hang limply over the bone, unlike my Wraith clothes.

After leaving, we stood on the side of the street and looked around, hoping to find something fun. A thought occurred to me as I looked in the window of one of the less extravagant stores. Seeing something that caught my eye, I went in, telling Ardiente to wait outside. After some talking, well threatening, I made my purchase and walked back out.

"What did you buy?" My companion asked me.

"These." I said as I pulled a pack from my bag, the label on it reading "Marelboro".

"Cigarettes, really?" Ardiente asked, unamused.

"Well sorry," I put one in my mouth and lit it with the lighter I just bought, "but before they all went crazy back home, I would peddle some off the guards and doctors. Got addicted, sorta. Doesn't matter now anyway they won't affect me." I finished with a shrug and blew a puff of smoke into the air, much to the disgust of some "upper class" ponies. "Bite me." I snapped at them as they walked away.

"So then," Ardiente said, "what now?"

"Well-" I began, only to be cut off by a voice behind me.

"Excuse me... Er... Ma'am?" I turned to see another pony in gold armor. This one was a pegasus.

"Yes?"

He handed me a scroll, some sort of gold seal on it, and said, "The Princess was interested in meeting you, she requests your presence in the castle in an hour. Try not to be late." With that he flew off, not letting me get a word in.

"Alright then..."  I opened the scroll to read it, something about an invitation yadda yadda yadda. "Well, guess we got something to do."

Next Chapter: Escape from Hell- Act I, Pt. VIII: Three's company Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 52 Minutes