Months had passed and Kickback’s kill-free streak had come to an end on a fateful day in the late days of May. Kickback learned more of the town and it’s inhabitants, some new arrivals and some townsfolk left. The newbies consisted of a white pegasus colt by the name of Saber Spark, a grey unicorn with a beige and red mane by the name of Mic, a grey pegasus with a two toned green mane and somewhat unsurely shaped eyes by the name of Forest Rain and a few more. He was eventually introduced to Zecora, she was not the first zebra he had laid eyes on, so it wasn’t much of a shock. What was one had yet to come, the scarlet stallion had learned of Pinkie’s so called “Pinkie sense”, this left Kickback a tad uneasy, if she could predict when something could fall or an alligator in the tub or the “Doosy” which according to her was an event you’d never think would happen, if she could do that, was there a way to see through Kickback’s disguise. A body movement that would give her a hint, would she tell her friends that something’s wrong with him, what if she could detect viral tissue. Kickback was left extremely wary of this thought but didn’t let it show. Lyra and Kickback out all his friends, hung out the least, not that they didn’t see each other, she always seemed to be in the background somewhere, as with quite a few others such as that mail mare that he had met, Bon-Bon, Lyra’s roommate and others like Carrot top and Colgate. Vinyl Scratch seemed to want to be with the stallion more often but due to frequent gigs, there wasn’t a lot of time. Sleep became easy for the stallion, no nightmares, he would either not dream or dream with the princess of the night.

Kickback had enjoyed the three month long kill-free streak but of course all things must come to an end. Kickback was invited a picnic that the six had planned, he accepted the invitation and joined them on that warm Autumn day. They began to chat idly to one another while munching on the food spread across the blanket they sat on. Unfortunately this was also the day where everypony found out that apparently hydras have no problem with leaving their own swampy domain and hunting for whatever it can outside of it’s habitat.

“So, Kickback…ya, I dunno…Been interested in a mare lately?” Applejack asked with a smirk, the stallion paused and looked around to see the curious faces of Rarity and Rainbow Dash, the other three were other wise occupied, Pinkie was eating, Twi was reading and Fluttershy had been distracted when a Red Jay crossed her vision and she went following it.

“Uhhh, not really” he answered, causing a few looks to falter.

“Hey Kickback, I’ve wanted to know just how strong you are, let’s hoof wrestle” Rainbow challenged, Kickback looked at her and smirked. He silently trotted over to a nearby stump and waited for her, Dash flew over instantaneously and glared at the stallion in determination, he placed his elbow down on the dead tree, Rainbow locked his hoof with her own “three, two, one…” she said, as soon as she ended, Kickback felt her muscles tensing, trying to push his hoof to the side. She succeeded slightly, his foreleg had moved a tad since she began, she did not expect what would happen next though. Kickback began to toy with her, he would push down to his winning side then let go and let her feel safe again, he would drop his effort but quickly push her foreleg so her hoof was just millimetres away from the surface and pull back so they were in the beginning stance. Kickback then had enough, he threw his hoof to her winning side, it was just about to hit the stump, that caught Dash off-guard, he then swung his hoof to his winning side with more force than he wanted, Rainbow had left the ground as he brought her hoof down, she flipped on it’s axis and was left laying on her back on the ground. Kickback stood up and looked down at her with a smile before outstretching a hoof to her. She smirked respectively at him as she grasped around his red limb and pulled herself up.

“So?” he asked cockily.

“So you’re pretty strong, big woop” she said, her pride lessening. The two trotted back to the others, Kickback found Applejack staring at him in disbelief but soon her expression turned to a respective smile. Suddenly a loud scream could be heard, Fluttershy was seen bolting to them then past them, she rambled something as she sprinted, a warning maybe? He thought. Just then a roar emitted, several in synchronisation, the ground quaked and the equines present looked to where Fluttershy had come from. Over the horizon, a head stood out, then another and another, three reptilian heads could be seen, attached to three long necks. All six ponies now knew what their yellow friend was on about, a hydra. They stood there, quivering as they slowly stepped back, Rarity, Twilight and Rarity seemed to be in much greater fear of the beast than the  pegasus and two earth ponies that stood in front, it drew closer.

“C’mon! Let‘s go!” Twilight yelled, Rainbow and AJ looked back at their scared friends, they began to run away from the creature, leaving it with their male friend, Applejack caught wind of that fact, they had been galloping for a moment so they were a few metres away from Kickback himself.

“Kickback, what are ya doin’?!!” she called out. Kickback acknowledged her voice and turned his head to see her, she was left confused as he let out a smirk, a confident and calm smirk, like the one she always saw him pull. Kickback felt something, something building in him, he had never fought a creature such as this, he wanted something new but he couldn’t while his friends were there.

“Go! I’ll distract it!” he called out to the orange mare who had pure worry in her eyes.

“Are ya’ll insane!!??” she yelled.

“A little!! Now go, I’ll be fine!! This’ll buy ya time!!” he called out, trying to convince the mare to leave, he wasn’t going to just buy time or distract it, no… Kickback wanted to kill it. The arrogant stubbornness of his words were enough, Applejack looked at him with a look that said “Ah better see ya again” before running to catch up with the others. Kickback turned to the monster.

“C’mon!! I’m Right Here!! Come Get Me!!” he taunted, the beast’s far left head lunged at him, he barrel rolled out of the way and smile maliciously. He then did something he didn’t do in a while, he shape-changed. His right front leg had violently morphed into his signature blade, he stood up and waited for it’s next attack. The beast’s middle head struck, Kickback jumped, his left hoof becoming a long tendril that snagged itself on the monster’s snout, he was catapulted down on the beast’s head and violently plunged down on it’s face with his blade, it let out a cry followed by a pained hissing. It shut it’s eyes tight but that didn’t matter, Kickback’s right hoof had changed into his highly used claw. He plunged the deadly limb into the hydra’s right eye on it’s middle head, it roared in pain.

Applejack and her friends stopped when they heard the faint roar and turned around to see nothing but trees, AJ had the most worried look out of all of them.

“I hope he’s alright” Rarity said threw a worried voice. The five mares had eventually found Fluttershy, hiding behind a tree. Kickback began to chuckled as he continued battling the monster, he had heard very little about hydras so, his next move was a stupid one. Kickback’s left foreleg had turned initially into swinging rope as it latched on the hydra’s face once more, Kickback leapt off it’s head, the long tendril extending as he dropped, he swung on it as his right leg morphed back into his blade, he smiled devilishly, he slashed it at the creature’s third neck as he swung on his own appendage. The creature staggered a bit, blood poured from the wound, it ran back in the direction it had come from originally. It stopped completely at a spot, it’s middle head had slid clean off the rest of it’s neck. It landed with a thud  and there, limp and motionless, Kickback thought that removing a hydra’s head was permanent, mush to his surprise it wasn’t. The severed neck began to crackle as bone was rearranged, skin and muscle grew then separated, Kickback leapt off the creature, he landed with a loud thud and turned to look at then monster. He was stunned at what it was doing, the neck grew then split into two, the two grew and soon two new heads were formed. Kickback left in terror, regret and astonishment, the monster initially regenerated, two new heads for the price of one, he felt stupid as to what he had done, he had picked a fight, one that was unnecessary with a creature that could not be permanently decapitated nonetheless it was fascinating.

Kickback then had enough with the monster, he thought that if the head wasn’t an option, maybe the heart was. He sprinted away from it and it followed when he felt that they were far enough away from pony life, he made his move. He turned back and jumped at the creature, he unleashed his hammer-fists and pounded hoof first into the monster. It roared in surprise as it’s mass slowly fell backwards, it’s balance lost completely, it’s plummeted into the earth, the bigger they are the harder they fall. Kickback regained his composure before the beast did and began to punch, pound after pound of his fists left the hydra in pain. He used his claws to pierce the flesh, striking downwards into the reptile’s skin. An idea hit him then, he morphed his right hoof into a two fingered, one thumb limb, he plunged it into the hydra’s skin, it broke through it’s flesh. Kickback smiled at his action, the hydra had no clue what was about to happen, he did. Kickback removed his leg from the hydra and jumped off it’s chest, he took a quick glance at it, trying to get back up and walked off not paying any attention to it fore it wasn’t going to be around for very long.

Kickback had projected the BLACKLIGHT virus into the beast, the particular was not to infect but destroy from the inside. The hydra’s faces contorted in confusion then pain, it looked down at it’s chest and immediately shock hit it, the piece of his bio-mass that Kickback left behind solidified into a ball and quickly extended hundreds of spikes that pierced it’s organs and even it’s outer flesh. The hydra died as the augmented bio-bomb made the effect wanted, it’s heart was closest to it, it fell on it’s side and laid there, limp and dead. Kickback smirked as he counted down from eight to zero, as soon as he finished he heard a loud thud from behind him. He walked until he was back in town, he saw his six friend conversing, most likely about him. Applejack around as she felt like she was being watched, she saw the familiar red stallion and rushed over to him, her friends were left confused until they saw what was happening. Kickback looked at the concerned yet joyous face of the running orange mare and smiled. She wrapped him in her forelegs as he just stood there, he raised a single hoof and lightly hugged back, the other five trotted up to the two, Kickback smiled at them, AJ then realised exactly what she was doing when Rarity and Rainbow Dash giggled, she let go of him and stood awkwardly between the two parties. The day had been overall not too bad for the scarlet stallion, he explained falsely that he simply lured the hydra away and escaped with his life, Fluttershy seemed slightly impressed at his story as it was her that ran away, screaming from the monster, Applejack seemed to be only relieved that the stallion hadn’t died and Dash was indeed impressed as she slugged him in the arm as a sign of respect.

“Hey Twilight…can I borrow a couple of books on monsters? I wanna know what I’m dealing with in case something else happens” Next Chapter: Warming Up Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 59 Minutes