Hoofington

Kickback walked the concrete caverns of Hoofington, the town was just like any other, ponies going about their daily businesses and social lives, never paying attention to they hooded colt they passed by. The scarlet stallion had heard rumours of this town, most of which spoke of crime rates, at that thought, Kickback kept an eye out. With no leads and no contacts, he was alone for the moment in his search, he began to try and remember somepony, anypony that might be in this town that could help whether willingly or not but to no avail.

It was well into the night by this point, the scarlet stallion watched and waited with intent as he stalked the rooftops and streets.

“Damnit Grimlock, where the Tartarus are you?” he said to himself in frustration as he sat upon the edge of a tall business building. He looked over the town, gazing at it’s beauty at night, he smirked at the sight.

“Hello again” came a familiar voice from behind him, Kickback turned, tendrils swarming only to see that there was nothing there. He turned back and looked down.

“Here” it spoke again, he immediately shot up only to be frightened by a unsymmetrical up side down face looking at him. It grinned with a happy look.

“Discord…” the viral pony greeted with distaste.

“Hello, Kickback, how are you this evening?”

“If you’re here, then you should know”

“Good point, good point” Discord said as he snapped his talons and appeared behind the hooded stallion. Kickback stood up and turned around with a irritated look.

“What do you want, Eris?”

“I resent that and can’t an old friend drop in and say hi?”

“The two actually have to be friends for that…” Kickback replied in a cold tone.

“Oh well now you just went ahead and broke my heart” Discord said dramatically.

“Alright you crime against nature, what do you want with me?”

“Crime against nature? You’re one to talk”

“Answer me”

“Fine, you’re no fun, I just came to tell you that young Twilight Sparkle and her friends are planning something for you”

“What?”

“Oh yes, you’re gonna get so stoned, bro” Discord said, imitating someone Kickback could care less about.

“What do you m-…the elements…they’re gonna imprison me, aren’t they?”

“At least that’s what I picked up”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because… I actually find you rather interesting, you remind me a lot of myself when I was your age”

“So what? So you were a virus riddled, mutated, murdering, consuming, shapeshifting freak of a pony were you?”

“Not…quite…look, I’m just trying to help a brother out, I know what’s it’s like in that situation and I’m just giving you the heads up, is that so wrong?”

“I-…I don’t know…do they know where I am?”

“They think you’re still in Manehatten”

“Oh, they’ll find me eventually” Kickback replied as he hung his head. Discord hovered over to his side and wrapped a paw around his shoulders.

“Hey, hey, think of it like this, you had a good run, you saved Ponyville, killed a couple of bad ponies and then you were trapped in stone, good story to tell the grandfoals”

“Grimlock killed my sister, you know”

“I know and I’m rooting for you when you find him”

“Thanks, Discord”

“Not a problem” he said before teleporting in front of the scarlet stallion, he then let out a yawn”

“Tired, mate?”

“Yeah, Celestia has me doing all kinds of errands around Equestria lately”

“Tell me, is it hard to use your powers for good? I mean, you are indeed the very definition of chaos”

“Ahhhh but you already know the answer to that” Discord said with a smirk, much to Kickback’s confusion, then it hit him, which caused him to smirk back. The two remained silent for a moment, just smiling at each other before Discord suddenly and wordlessly vanished from the hooded stallion’s vision in a burst of light. Kickback chuckled slightly before turning his gaze back to the town with a calm smirk. Discord had a point, he did know what it was like going against your element, he had powers that were made for killing but he had in fact done good with them on occasions. He defeated Chrysalis and inturn vanquished the changeling threat even though she did speak of another queen taking her place, he did still save Ponyville and all of Equestria from her tyranny. At that thought, Kickback felt more at ease as he continued to watch over the town of Hoofington.

Ponyville

“What? NO!” Rainbow Dash shouted at her purple friend after she explained briefly what she wanted to do.

“I agree, Twi, you don’t do that to your friends” AJ added.

“I must say, Darling, that this is rather-…” Rarity started but trailed off.

“It-…it does kind of mean” Fluttershy commented.

“Girls, I know but I talked to Princess Celestia and-…”

“YOU WHAT?!” Dash exclaimed.

“You told the princess about him? Twilight, why would you do that?” Applejack said, still sitting close to her pegasus friend.

“Rainbow Dash, Applejack, please see reason, don’t go and take all of it out on Twilight” Rarity consulted, the two athletes looked at her with agitated looks before they faltered.

“Sorry, Twilight, It’s just you know what she’d say and-…” Dash began before her eyes started welling up once more.

“I didn’t know what to do…” Twilight said, little over a whisper but just enough for her friends to hear.

“…I mean…what I was I supposed to do? You all saw him, right?”

“YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO NOT TELL CELESTIA, FOR ONE!” shouted Applejack, now she was getting angry.

“What did you tell her?” Rarity asked.

“I told her about Kickback’s story”

“That’s it? You didn’t include the part where he saved Rarity from that dragon or when he took care of Chrysalis?” Dash inquired angrily.

“I-I’m sorry but I tried to reason with her, she just kept ordering me to use the elements…” Twilight explained through a shallow voice, her eyes became foggy.

“Hey, don’t forget that he was my friend too!”

“Nopony’s forgetting that Twilight” Fluttershy suddenly spoke up.

“But how do we know the elements will even work on him?” at that question everypony turned to their timid companion with a quizzical look.

“Fluttershy does indeed have a point” Rarity commented

“He is quite different from anything we’ve faced before and-”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘faced before’?! WHO SAID THAT WE’RE EVEN GOING TO DO ANYTHING!?” Dash questioned, furious at the unicorn’s meaning.

“Rainbow! That’s enough!” suddenly the orange mare beside her spoke up, the cyan pegasus looked into the eyes of her earth bound friend with a look of confused sadness.

“W-what?”

“Dash, ya gotta realise who you’re speaking to, we’re your friends” AJ spoke in a comforting tone.

“I-I know but-…”

“I know it’s hard, just remember that he was mah friend too and-…”

“No, A-AJ…see the thing is…I didn’t just think of him as a friend” Dash spoke with a quivering tone as clear liquid emitted from her eyes. At that, everypony turned to the two as Applejack stared into the magenta eyes of the cyan mare. Dash stared back, sobbing before looking back down to the floor, in shame and depression. Applejack continued to stare at her friend, of whom refused to make eye contact, the orange farmer’s thoughts were mashed and jumbled, incoherent thinking was all that went on in her head. Suddenly she regained herself and came to the conclusion: Dash felt the same way. At that thought, Applejack felt uneasy, she just stayed motionless, staring down at the feathered pony in her hooves. A wave of sympathy ran over her and she gently tightened her grip on Rainbow Dash, a slight feeling of jealousy could also be felt but now was not the time, this blue filly needed comforting and Applejack was willing.

“What do you mean, sugarcube?” AJ asked, for what reason, she didn’t know, maybe she wanted confirmation.

“I-I think…I think I…I-”

“It’s okay, Dash…I understand and I’m sorry, I just thought you were defending him cause he was a-”

“And I KNOW you feel the same, AJ” Dash said, now looking back at her orange friend with the same look.

“W-what?”

“I saw you…in the orchard…I saw YOU put your hat on him and I saw you kiss him” Dash spoke with an raging yet saddened beyond measured tone. Applejack felt guilt, after all Rainbow was in fact right. She had been keeping a soft eye on the stallion for a good while but to find out that her closest also did, she feared what might this bring.

Hoofington

Twas the middle of the night when the hooded figure stood watch over the town. His jacket blowing in the breeze, the dark colours forming moving shadows in the night, the only thing visible were two stripes of pure white, streaking down the stallion’s mane and tail. Kickback stared down at the streets of Hoofington with a blank look. He had searched all over town for his sister’s murderer yet to no avail and with no leads or contacts, he was on his own. A thought rushed in his head, an idea of just leaving and returning home, forgetting about Grimlock just to see his friends again. It was tempting but Kickback knew better, in this case two is not better than one, he was going to find this colt, exact his revenge and make sure he wouldn’t hurt another creature again, all in time for dinner. Of course time was also an issue, the longer he remained away, the more impacting his absence would be, he had no idea how they were taking his leave, were they upset? Or were they relived? To be rid of a monster is to be rid of a burden and Kickback had slain some of the most feared monsters in Equestria, he climbed the ladder and made it to the top. The hooded stallion’s thoughts were cut off by a noise, a voice, a shriek, a scream. The echo emitted from an alleyway to Kickback’s right, immediately he sent out a hunting pulse and discovered the form of a stallion attacking the one of a mare’s. Kickback made a quick decision and jumped form his vantage point.

The struggle became quite clear as the scarlet colt stepped further into the chasm. Panting, grunting and screaming emitted form the two. Kickback looked ahead to see a jet black colt trying to pry away a light green mare of her belongings. Kickback trotted up to the mugger and with a light voice he spoke.

“Hey” at that, the criminal froze and slowly turned his head to see a dark red colt in a hood and jacket, looking at him with a blank stare.

“Buck off!” he said, turns out he was a unicorn, he levitated a knife and pointed it at the scarlet stallion, the mare remained quiet as he breathing went into a state of panic. Kickback began to chuckle, making the black colt nervous.

“W-what’s so funny?”

“Nothing…now, let her go before things get-” before Kickback could finish, the unicorn and quickly stabbed him in the shoulder. Kickback looked down at it, noticing the magical grip had been released, the unicorn froze in confusion and fear, staring at the hooded stallion before him. A silence fell over the three, each staring at the knife, without warning the weapon began to retract out of Kickback’s body, he smirked at the sign. His skin easily pushed the blade out of his shoulder and was soon completely healed, no scars of any kind, no blood, nothing. The knife fell to the floor with a clank, the two ponies looked down at it before staring back up at the red colt in shock, he smiled maliciously.  

“What in Tartarus-” just as he finished, Kickback swung a hoof at him, breaking nearly all his teeth in the process. The unicorn was propelled to a nearby wall, he landed on it’s vertical surface with a crash before slamming to the ground behind several garbage bags. The mare just looked between the wall and the stallion, he turned to her, he noticed that she took a frightened step back as she stared at him, wide eyed.

“Y’alright?” Kickback asked the green mare behind him, his hood concealed his face, much to help mask himself from the…pegasus.

“Y-yes, t-thankyou, thankyou so much”

“No problem, dealt with scum like him before…can you get home from here?”

“Mhm”

“Alright then” just as he finished he turned away and took a step forward but was cut off by the mare addressing him.

“Wait…who are you?” the mare asked as she walked closer up to her saviour, he let out a chuckle as he faced away from her.

“It doesn’t matter…be seeing ya” and with that, the earth pony leapt into the night sky with a gush off wind emitted by the force of his legs catapulting him upwards, he vanished in the surrounding darkness as the mare looked up in shock and confusion.

Ponyville

“You did what?” Rarity asked in surprise.

“I-It’s true… we-” Applejack was cut off.

“No, YOU, you did it’ Dash corrected with tone that just screamed jealousy. Before anypony could say anything else, laughter rang through the room, a familiar laugh that would normally chill them to the very bone. It radiated for a while as everypony looked around frantically, much to their surprise, Fluttershy was calm, in fact she seemed happy with that smile that crossed her muzzle. The laughter became more coherent, soon sounding like it was emitting from a certain point. Eventually a figure of tall proportion and limbs of various animals teleported into the room in a flash of light, cackling like a mad-mare.

“Ohhohoho This is priceless !” The draconequus said as he wiped his larger eye clear of a single tear with a talon.

“Discord, what do you want?” Twilight inquired.

“Oh well, I just got back from Hoofington to talk to our mutual friend and-”

“Kickback’s in Hoofington!?” everypony exclaimed in surprise. Next Chapter: One Shall Stand Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 8 Minutes