War Heart looked to the now shattered window of the suite. He sighed that the group was now in danger of being found by the ones who hold the dead magic. He turned to Cura, “I need you guys to leave this place and find somewhere else to hide…”

Cura nodded, “I’ll talk to Vinyl about it…”

“Talk to me about what?”, Vinyl asked as she walked into the room.

Cura turned to Vinyl, “We need to relocate…”

“What? Why?”

War Heart spoke up, “Those people now know where we are most likely… I’ll stay here and wait for them… I don’t want you guys in danger when they show up…”

Vinyl nodded slowly, “Maybe we’ll get a couple rooms on the lower floors…”

Cura stood up, “I guess we should go take care of that.”, she walked over to the elevator with Vinyl. She waved to War Heart, “See you later.”

War Heart sat on the floor staring out to the city through the broken window.

“Heard about the relocation… You aren’t going to be alone in here.”, Scootaloo stated from behind War Heart.

War Heart turned around to see the young woman looking down at him, “You guys will be looking after the others.”, he said as he looked at his fingers, the bones still sharpened into claws.

Scoot took notice of his fingers, “What’s with your hand?”

War Heart shrugged, “I guess it’s one of the things I can do…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that I’m dealing with the idea of being able to use magic.”

“Really? How does that work?”

“Apparently there is this Dead Magic. I don’t know what it is exactly but I’m able to use it because I was made by the same magic. I absorb it from people and monsters that have it. That guy you saw me kill in Manehattan, I took the same magic from him too. It’s possible that I will be able to use his powers with practice… But I have no idea how to use magic properly, so it is coming along slowly.”

“… You lost me at the part where you said you were ‘made by the same magic’?”

“Yeah, apparently I was killed and brought back by this Dead Magic.”

“Wow…”

War Heart sighed, “I guess the only thing I can do is keep going, keep fighting, and keep protecting what I can.”

Scoot went silent and nodded. She turned around and walked towards the area where everyone else was staying. She entered the room to see the several giant beds all riddled with people. She walked over to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, “Guys, looks like we’re moving out of the suite. The commander is going to stay and wait for enemies. Our mission is to guard the rest of the group.”

Apple Bloom nodded, “All right. I’m surprised he wants to do this alone, though… After what they put him through especially…”

Scoot nodded back, “Yeah… Can’t tell if he’s freaked out or not… He said that all he can do is keep on fighting.”

Apple Bloom rose one of her eyebrows, “How long do ya think he’s been doin’ stuff like this?”

“Well… I guess a little over six years… Ever since that dragon in Ponyville.”

“I’m surprised he isn’t dead yet…”

“He already did die.”

“What? Now yer pullin’ mah leg.”

“He told me himself.”

“What the heck is up with him?”

“Well… Unlucky for one. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes… Sweetie, why don’t you go downstairs and keep an eye on the Doc and Vinyl.”

Sweetie Belle stood up, “Affirmative.”, she droned and she walked out of the room and into the elevator. She waited for a while before the elevator doors opened. She walked out to the lobby to see Vinyl and Cura talking with the clerk.

“Come on, we need some new rooms.”, Vinyl pleaded with the clerk.

“I’m sorry, but your party vandalised our suite. Either stay there or leave the hotel. You are lucky we are not just kicking you out.”, The clerk replied.

Sweetie approached the counter next to Cura and Vinyl, “What is the situation?”, she inquired in her digital tone.

Cura turned to Sweetie, “He won’t let us have another room.”

Sweetie turned to the clerk and back to Cura, “Aggressive Diplomatic Authorisation?”

Cura looked at Sweetie quizzically, “Uh… Okay?”

Sweetie turned to the Clerk and quickly grabbed his hand from over the counter.

“What are you doing?!”, the clerk asked in a panicked tone.

Sweetie turned to Cura and Vinyl, “State your demands.”

Vinyl snapped to attention, “Oh, right. We need a new room.”

“I’m sorry we can’t give you a new-”, the Clerk was interrupted by Sweetie squeezing his hand with force he did not expect. He cringed in pain as Sweetie broke some bones in his hand, “On second thought, you can have room number 641 on the sixth floor!”, he spoke without hesitation.

Sweetie released his hand, “Diplomatic Protocols Disengaged.”

The Clerk dropped a key on the counter with a tag on it that read ‘641’.

Vinyl picked up the key, “Thanks…”, she said before heading towards the elevator with Cura and Sweetie.

A woman stood in the lobby, watching Sweetie Belle and the other two go into the elevator. When the doors closed she walked over to the elevator, watching the numbers above the door as they went to the top floor. She smiled and spoke in a sultry tone, “Excellent…”

Cura, Vinyl, and Sweetie went back up to the room. They passed War Heart and went into the room that everyone was staying. They started telling everyone about the situation.

War Heart sat in the main room, still looking out the window. He heard a whistling sound coming from the roof outside. He turned to the door and stood up, “What was that…?”, he asked himself as he walked towards the door. He opened it to see a woman in a black dress standing on the edge of the roof. Her hair was a silvery colour and her eyes were green. War Heart closed the door behind him as he walked out onto the roof, “What are you?”, he asked, seeing the obvious glowing green light emanating from her.

She chuckled, “You are definitely a difficult one to dispose of…”, she stated, completely ignoring War Heart’s question. She walked towards him slowly, “You see, I am one of the Dead Masters… Master of Blood.”

War Heart glared at the Dead Master, “So you’re the one putting the Dead Magic into these people…”

“And you’re the one that killed my brother, my neonates, and made a scene in my city. You wield my brother’s power with no prowess or finesse like he did.”

War Heart felt a burning sensation on his neck.

“Oh, you feel that, huh? That’s because you’re marked.”, she grinned to show off pointed fangs, “I can do so much with my power over blood, like this.”, she snapped her fingers.

War Heart cringed as he felt searing pain in his neck. He was brought to his hands and knees. He felt extremely nauseous.

The Blood Master walked up to War Heart, “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

War Heart felt some kind of substance begin bubbling in his gut and force its way up his esophagus. He retched and then began to vomit up blood.

“What’s the matter? Not feeling so swell?”, she asked mockingly as she kicked War Heart in the ribs.

War Heart fell over on his side, continuing to take punishment from the Master of Blood.

She knelt down beside him, “I thought you would’ve lasted longer. What a shame…”, she shook her head in disappointment. She placed her hand on his chest.

War Heart looked at her hand to see the Dead Magic pouring out of him and into her. His vision blurred as it left him weakened. Everything grew dark as the last of it poured out of him.

The Master of Blood stood up, feeling the power of the Dead Magic strengthen her. She chuckled as she basked in the feeling of all the magic. She heard the door to the main room open. She turned around quickly to see Sweetie Belle walk out and close the door behind her. The Blood Master chuckled again, “Run along, young one. You don’t have to die today.”

Sweetie looked down at War Heart, “ID: Commander, Status: Deceased.”, she looked at the Master of Blood, “Target: High Profile, Danger Levels: High, Escalating to Threat Level Two.”, Sweetie droned as her eyes began to glow red and her voice grow deep in tone. She went into a fighting stance facing the Master of Blood.

The Dead Master smirked, “You think you can kill me because you can make your eyes glow?”, she cracked her knuckles.

“Initiate Attack Protocol One.”, Sweetie charged at her and swung a punch towards her chest. Her fist stopped as the Blood Master caught Sweetie’s hand.

“And now I’ll drain the life from you…”, the Dead Master announced as she tried to drain the life force from Sweetie. She was surprised when Sweetie was not growing weaker at all, “How are you…?”

“Target Strength: Critical, Escalating to Threat Level Three: Maximum Power. Deleting Combat Protocols, Engaging Reactive Procedures.”, Sweetie announced as her veins began to glow bright blue. She grabbed the Master of Blood’s arm and swung her in a circle, releasing her to send her flying across the roof.

The Blood Master landed on her feet gracefully, “Looks like you have a few tricks up your sleeve…”, she said to herself before sprinting towards Sweetie.

Sweetie charged at her, swinging a punch at her head to contact nothing but air.

Blood Master ducked under Sweetie’s punch, extending some bone claws from her fingers and swinging them at Sweetie as she turned around.

Sweetie grabbed The Dead Master’s wrist and squeezed, making a crunching sound as the bones broke. Sweetie smashed her forehead into the Blood Master’s, making the Dead Master stumble back a few feet.

Blood Master shook her head and healed the bones in her wrist. She glared at Sweetie’s emotionless expression. She quickly ran over to War Heart and threw him off the roof. She smirked as Sweetie ran towards the edge of the roof.

Sweetie sprinted towards the edge of the roof, and towards the Blood Master. She got in close and tackled the Blood Master, who had a look of surprise as Sweetie pushed her off the edge. Sweetie wrapped her arms around the Dead Master, her arms tight against her body as they both fell head first towards the ground below. Sweetie shifted her body, making the two of them rotate on their way down. As they were two floors away from the ground, Sweetie threw the Dead Master towards the ground. Sweetie shifted again and landed on her feet, leaving an indent in the street where she landed. She looked over to the Dead Master, who was in a broken and crumpled heap on the pavement. She squirmed as she tried to get back up. Sweetie walked over to her, she crouched down and grabbed the Dead Master by the head and started pushing her thumbs into her eyes. The Dead Master screamed and writhed as her eyes burst. She was still alive from that, Sweetie placed her hand on the Blood Master’s face, muffling the screams and began pushing down with incredible force, caving in the Master’s skull and silencing her once and for all. Sweetie stood up and looked over to War Heart’s broken body which was only mere meters away. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his chest, “No Pulse detected. Status: Deceased. Confirmed.”, she said as she started dragging him towards the entrance to the hotel. She only got to the body of the Blood Master’s body before War Heart gasped. Sweetie turned to him to see him slowly breathing, “Status: Alive.”, she stated as she let him go.

War Heart felt the Dead Magic returning to him. His body started to repair itself. He felt something strange as he grew fangs. He sat up and shook his head, “How did I get here?”

“You were thrown from the roof in combat.”, Sweetie answered, her veins no longer glowing, eyes back to normal and her voice was no longer menacing.

War Heart continued to take deep breaths and looked over to the Blood Master’s corpse and sighed, “At least that’s over…”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sat waiting for Sweetie to come back. Apple Bloom stood up, sick of waiting, “I’m gonna go find what’s keepin’ her.”, she told Scoot.

Scoot nodded to her and proceeded to sharpen her knives.

Apple Bloom stepped outside and into the main room, closing the door behind her. She walked to the middle of the floor, noticing nobody was in the room, not even War Heart, “Where the heck did they go?”, she asked herself as she heard the door to the elevator open. She walked to the elevator, expecting it was War Heart or Sweetie, “You know you outta’ tell us you were goin’ somewh-”, she looked into the elevator to see three men in black robes and hoods, one of them swinging his fist into her face before she could react. The force was enough to knock her off her feet and out of consciousness.

Scoot heard a thud from the other room, she looked at the door quizzically. She stood up and walked over to the door, stepping out into the main room to see Apple Bloom on the floor. She ran over to Apple Bloom and knelt next to her, “She must’ve fain-”, she couldn’t finish her sentence as one of the hooded men snuck up on her and hit her on the back of the head. She faded quickly before flopping onto the floor.

Riff was in the room with everyone else, he glided along the minds of everyone in the room. He soon heard another voice he didn’t recognize. He turned to the door, now not hearing Scoot or Apple Bloom’s thoughts. He squinted at the door and stood up. He walked over to the door. Everybody at the moment was either asleep or busy talking. He opened the door to see the three man standing over Scoot and Apple Bloom. He closed the door behind him, “Hey guys, How’s it going?”, he asked in his usual casual spacey tone.

The three man all snapped their gaze towards Riff in unison. They remained silent as they stared at him.

“Something the matter?”, Riff asked, still in his usual tone. He began to hear their thoughts again, ‘We’ll have to move quick and neutralise this guy…’, Riff thought for a second, “What does neutralise mean?”, he asked them.

One of the hooded ones looked at his comrades who returned the same look of confusion.

Riff continued to hear their thoughts, ‘What is this guy doing…?’, Riff looked at them with a confused expression, “I don’t know, what are you doing?” Their thoughts continued, ‘Can he hear our thoughts?’, Riff smiled, “Yeah, it’s pretty metal.”

All the men in cloaks looked at each other. One started walking up to Riff.

Riff looked at him, not hearing his thoughts at the moment, “What’s up m-”, he stopped speaking as the hooded man grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his feet. Riff choked and was unable to breath, his eyes widened and his veins began to glow.

The hooded man cringed as his head felt like it was splitting open. He fell to his knees, releasing Riff who was coughing from being strangled.

Riff gasped for air, “Not cool… Man…”

The other two men in cloaks looked at each other, wondering why their comrade collapsed.

The man that attacked Riff stood up and looked at him in anger. He rose up to strike Riff.

Riff reacted instinctively, his veins glowing brightly as the man collapsed to the floor, holding his head in agony.

The man writhed on the floor as Riff stared at him. He felt a sharp ringing in his mind that would shatter glass. His eyes, ears, and nose bled. He soon fainted from the pain that was wrought on him.

Riff stopped glowing when the man stopped moving, “Whoa, man…”, Riff looked frightened as he turned to the other two men that watched their comrade fall before them.

The two men slowly backed away towards the elevator, knowing that they will probably share their comrade’s fate if they tried anything. They entered the elevator and closed the doors, descending to the ground floor.

Riff was breathing heavily, still freaked out over what happened. He soon spaced out and stared at the ceiling, regaining his regular composure.

Vinyl poked her head out the door, she saw Riff sitting on the floor in front of a hooded guy with blood coming out of his eyes, ears, and nose. She ran over to Riff, “Are you okay, Riff?”, she asked quickly in concern.

Riff took a few seconds before he looked at Vinyl, “Oh hey, when did you get here?”, he asked as if nothing happened.

“Riff, Who is that guy?”, she asked a she pointed to the hooded man on the floor.

Riff stared at him for a few seconds, “A dude…?”

Vinyl sighed, knowing she wouldn’t get much else from him. She walked over to the other room and opened the door, “Hey, doc, we got some injured in here.”, she called out to Cura, who ran out into the main room to see two of the Crusaders and a hooded stranger on the floor.

Cura mainly directed her attention to the stranger, “Who is this…? And what happened to him?”, she asked aloud.

Vinyl stood beside her with arms crossed, “Well… I don’t know who it is… As for your second question…”, she motioned over to Riff, “Riff did that…”

Cura looked at Vinyl with a confused expression, “Excuse me? HE did it? I don’t recall him being the violent type.”

Vinyl took a deep breath, “You know how he can project his thoughts? Well when he gets scared, for example when someone actually attacks him physically, he freaks out and uses that power. At that point… I’ll let Spectre explain. Hey Spectre!”

Spectre walked over to Cura and Vinyl, “Yes?”

“Tell the Doc here when you made the mistake of actually hitting Riff.”, Vinyl told her.

Spectre rolled her eyes, “Yeah, he was being an idiot during practice and I got so pissed I decided to take a swing. He freaked out and I felt this ringing in my head and I ended up in the hospital for a week.”

Cura had a look of concern, “And you didn’t think I should be aware of this?”

Vinyl shrugged, “You never asked. Plus, why would anyone in the group actually attack Riff?”

“’cause he‘s an idiot…”, Spectre muttered in a grudging tone.

Vinyl looked at Spectre and shook her head, “Who’s the bigger idiot? The idiot? Or the one who got beaten by him?”

Spectre chuckled sarcastically and turned to go back into the room they were hanging out in, holding her middle finger up towards Vinyl.

Vinyl shook her head, “Yeah, she can be a bit of a bitch sometimes.”

Cura nodded, “I guess… I’m curious how he managed to sneak up on the crusaders and not Riff.”

Vinyl smirked, “He is impossible to sneak up on. He hears your thoughts before you can actually get the drop on him. He was the best at the game ‘Red Light Green Light’ as a kid. He always knew when they were going to say red light way before they said it. Of course, we didn’t know he could read minds back then, and he didn’t understand it either. Of course he did manage to get through most of school by cheating on every test that he took. He thought he was just pulling the answers out of his own head. They eventually tested him and found out he was cheating by reading minds. So he was failed and he dropped out of school to join his sister’s band.”

Cura sighed and walked over to the Crusaders, “I swear, this journey is only getting more insane as we go…”

War Heart and Sweetie Belle were heading towards the hotel, walking through the lobby and towards the elevator. The elevator door opened and two men with black robes and hoods stood in the elevator. The men froze at the sight of War Heart.

War Heart looked down at them, “You stay put…”, he said as he and Sweetie stepped into the elevator and closed the doors.

The two men stood frozen and wide-eyed on the way up, no idea of what their fate will be when the reach the top.

The doors opened to Cura examining the Crusaders who were sitting against the counter, unconscious.

War Heart pushed the hooded men forward then made them kneel in the middle of the floor.

Sweetie walked over to the other Crusaders.

War Heart looked down at the two men with his arms crossed, “Now… You are going to tell me who you are… And why you were here.”

The two men looked at each other and then removed their hoods to reveal their faces. Their mouths were stitched closed and their skin was pale. They were completely bald and their ears were pointed. Their eyes were yellow and had a certain predatory look to them.

“Hmm…”, War Heart grabbed one of the men and dragged him over to Riff, “Were you sent here to kill us?”, he asked the man.

“Yes.”, Riff muttered.

War Heart nodded slowly, “I guess this gives me a chance to use my new powers…”, he said to himself as he looked at the Dead Magic within the robed man. He put a hand on his shoulder. The Dead Magic started flowing out of the robed man and into War Heart.

The man grew wide-eyed as his body decayed in front of him. His vision faded to black as the last of the Dead Magic that was keeping him alive was consumed.

War Heart smirked and released the man’s shoulder. He looked around to see Cura, Vinyl, and Riff all staring at him oddly, “What?”, he asked aloud and rhetorically. He turned to the one that was still kneeling in the middle of the floor. He walked over to the man and took hold of his shoulder, draining the Dead Magic from him like he did with the other one. The man shrivelled up in a desiccated heap on the floor. He could hear whispers that seemed not to come from inside the room, but from everywhere in the city. He looked towards the window.

“What are you doing…?”, Cura asked.

“I have an idea to get all of the ones with Dead Magic in the city…”, he replied.

“And how are you going to do-”, she watched as War Heart jumped out the broken window before she could finish her sentence, “… that.”, she concluded in an annoyed tone.

War Heart glided down to the street, not making as much of a scene this time. He closed his eyes and heard the whispers again. He repeated in his head over and over again, ‘Show yourselves, come to me.’, he thought over and over again.

The whispers went silent as people started walking out of buildings all over the place and begin to surround War Heart. They all looked confused when they realised that the whisper that was strong enough o reach all of them was not from the Blood Master, but they could not resist his call.

War Heart looked around at all the people around him, there were dozens of people from almost every area of Las Pegasus. People in suits, vacation clothes and casual clothes. He saw that they were all holding some of the Dead Magic. He closed his eyes and held out his arms from his sides. His veins glowed green as he clapped his hands together. Everyone around him fell to the ground in agony, a mark burning on their necks as if they were set ablaze. He watched as they all writhed in the street, puking up blood and whatever they had in their stomachs. They all began to fade from life completely dropping dead as they puked up too much blood. The Dead Magic poured out of them and floated toward War Heart. He took a deep breath as he took in the massive amount of power, now able to enjoy the feeling even more then before.

Cura went back to examining the Crusaders after War Heart jumped out the window. It was about a minute before the man started writhing on the floor as if in agony. Cura watched as he futilely tried to crawl away from the pain.

“Kill me…”, Riff stated while looking at the man that was on the floor.

Cura shook her head, “I can’t… I’m a doctor, I took an oath to do no harm…”

Sweetie walked over to the man and put her hand on the back of his neck. The man froze as she put her hand on him. Sweetie quickly twisted her hand, a small crack could be heard as she broke his neck. She stood up and turned to Cura who cringed at the noise of the man’s neck breaking.

War Heart entered the room through the window. He took a deep breath, “It’s done… All the Dead Magic in this city is gone…”, he looked down at the robed man on the floor, seeing some remaining Dead Magic in him and draining it by merely standing near him.

Cura looked at War Heart, “Did you do this…?”, she pointed to the robed man.

War Heart looked down at him and then back to Cura who seemed a bit upset, “Yes.”, he stated plainly.

“Do you know what his dying thoughts were?”

“No.”

“He asked for us to kill him… Whatever pain he went through, whatever pain YOU put him through was bad enough to wish for death…”

War Heart looked down at the man face down on the floor. Some part of War Heart wanted to feel sorry for him, another part thought that it had to be done in order to get rid of all the Dead Magic. He looked to Cura, he felt confused, “I…”, he was at a loss for words. He fully realised he just used his powers to murder dozens of people in the last while. He didn’t really think about it, he just saw the Dead Magic and killed whoever had it. He realised he was becoming exactly what his hallucination said he was: A Monster. War Heart sat down on the floor, he breathed heavily and had a panicked expression on his face.

Cura’s disappointed expression changed to one of concern as he almost collapsed to the floor, “Are you okay?”, she believed he was having a panic attack.

“I’m becoming a monster… Just like he said… I am a monster…”, War Heart frantically told himself.

“You aren’t a monster, War Heart. Now you need to calm down.”, she gently grabbed him by the head and looked him in the eye, “Are you listening? You need to calm down War Heart. Take slow, deep breaths.”

War Heart started to breathe a bit slower, starting to calm down.

“Good…”, Cura smiled and walked away from him to go check on the Crusaders.

War Heart kept taking deep breaths, he saw a card slide beside him, it had the letter ‘T’ on it. He closed his eyes, not wanting to face DeadBeast.

“You’re such a wuss… Don’t even have the guts to face me? You take out that many people and you go all melodramatic like some little bitch… You felt that power from killing them… You can feel it more if you keep doing what you just did. There is nothing but upsides when you be who you really are…”

“Shut up…”

“Why don’t you make me!?”

“Just go away!”

Cura turned to War Heart, “War Heart, don’t interact with it. It doesn’t exist, it’s all in your head.”

DeadBeast chuckled and crouched in front of War Heart, “If I wasn’t real… could I do this?”, he slapped his hand across War Heart’s face.

War Heart was wide-eyed at what just happened, “He… He slapped me, Cura…”

Cura looked towards War Heart again with a confused look on her face, “What?”

“He slapped me…”

“That’s impossible…”, she hook her head in disbelief.

DeadBeast chuckled, “Well, I’m gonna go now. Seeya, Monster Man…”, DeadBeast jumped out the window and disappeared.

Riff spoke up, “Dude… He didn’t slap you…”

War Heart looked at Riff with a confused expression, “What do you mean?”

“You slapped yourself, man.”, Riff nodded at War Heart.

Cura rubbed her chin in thought, “Maybe your hallucination is getting more… ‘Real’ with each traumatizing experience… Did something happen?”

War Heart thought for a moment, “I died again…”

Cura sighed, “I can’t turn around without you dying, can I?”, she asked in a joking rhetorical fashion.

War Heart nodded, “I don’t know… Maybe I should get the Crusaders to take you guys back to Ponyville… I can take care of myself on the way to Fillydelphia.”

Cura nodded, “We do seem to be taking on a lot of people… I’m going to have to stay with you though. I have a feeling you’ll need me with your little hallucination problems…”

“All right… I guess we’ll head out in the morning…”