He couldn't remember how he ended up here, but he didn't care. A rolling green field presented itself around him, seemingly stretching on infinitely. A gentle breeze swaying the tall grass and brushing against his coat, letting a cool sensation course through his body. He had never felt as happy as he had at that moment. It wasn't even the calming surroundings that gave him his feeling of utter content, it was the presence of his family that was causing his heart to swell.

One, his beautiful wife which laid on the grass next to him, the mare that he cherished more than the sun and moon themselves. The other, his pride and joy. A little unicorn filly that was running about, giggling to herself as she frolicked in the endless sea of green. The couple lied together on the grass, smiles stuck to their faces as they watched their daughter enjoying herself. As if on cue, they both turned their respective gazes to one another. He leaned into her face and planted a light peck on her cheek.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" He whispered into her ear. His voice sounded different than usual. Younger, perhaps? He paid the thought little mind, as he was too enthralled with the sight of his beloved in front of him. She blushed, and returned the kiss, moving closer to hold her stallion against her hooves.

"I think so. But I never get tired of hearing it." She nuzzled the stallion. He wanted to get lost in the moment, but he had to keep glancing away to make sure his little filly didn't wander away from him.

"Now Daffodil, don't go running off. I wouldn't want to lose you now." Again, his thoughts were scrambled by the sound of his own voice. It was definitely off, somehow. He was, however, quickly pulled away from this thought by his wife pulling him closer. They were close enough now to feel each other's hearts beating.

"Honey?" His wife raised her head to look into his eyes.

"Yes, my sweet?" He grinned ear to ear at his betrothed.

"Please wake up." The beautiful face of his wife quickly began to fade away, followed by the rest of the vast landscape, until only he remained, seemingly standing on a vacuum of nothingness.

His heart dropped in his chest. Then, a loud shattering sound.

---

SMASH!

Stranger's eyes shot open. He knew that sound well enough. It was his window breaking. By the sound of it? First floor kitchen, south facing window. 'Why do they always go for the intact window?' Somepony was trying to break in again. He groaned loudly, giving no indication of care to whether or not the intruder knew he was awake. This had all become old hat to him.

Bleary eyed, he grabbed his cloak from off of his coat rack. To his surprise, it was dry. He didn't expect it to have dried so quickly. Maybe it was the cool night air? He stood up, his bones making various cracking noises as he rose. Age certainly hadn't been good to him. Not physically, at least. He stopped himself before putting on the cloak. 'Right. Belt goes first. Don't know how I could forget that.'

He wrapped the belt around himself with his teeth, making sure it was nice and tight. Stranger glanced over to his night stand as he wrapped the cloak around himself. Even in the dark of the night, a tiny switchblade could be made out by the moonlight reflecting off its blade. He grabbed it and tucked it underneath his cloak, and into his belt. It wouldn't do him any good for the intruder to know he was armed; that would take away his element of surprise.

Clearly being in no hurry, he took a quick swig of brandy of him flask. The cool burning sensation was the only real soothing feeling he got in life, so he liked to savour it. Slowly, he sauntered towards the stairs, the floorboards creaking as he went. The sounds from the floor below had stopped. Whoever was here, now knew he was coming for them.

Stranger slowly began his descent from the stairs. His face all the while projecting a tired expression. He was tired, though. Being woken up in the middle of the night will do that to a pony. It wasn't just physical exhaustion that was the source of his solemn face. No, it was because taking care of bandits in his home was never a welcome sight, but it was hardly worth batting an eye at anymore.

Stranger walked into what could arguably be called a kitchen. It had a refrigerator though, so it was more a kitchen than most homes in Equestria nowadays. It also sported a stove with a working gas pipe, thanks to his own handiwork. Wood cabinets had the finish stripped off, and the wood had been starting grow mold on them, but at least he had cabinets. To be fair, he probably had a kitchen to rival most pubs or restaurants around.

There he was. A bright blue pegasus stallion, adorned with scars in various places across his body. He was rummaging through Stranger's cupboards, grabbing at cans of food and muttering to himself through heavy breaths. It was then that Stranger noticed the stallion looked oddly familiar.

"Sunny." He spoke flatly.

The stallion whipped around, a panicked expression on his face. Stranger casually walked over to the shaking stallion, completely ignoring the large knife the stallion had clenched in his teeth. Stranger looked him in the eyes, a look of disdain for the pitiful robber.

"I thought we had an agreement, Sunny? I let you live, and you don't come bother me again. Now you've gone and broke your promise. I'm sorry Sunny, but you only get one freebie in life. After that, you have to make your own luck. I'm afraid your luck has run out."

The pegasus reared up on his hind legs, preparing to bring the knife clenched in his teeth down upon Stranger with a mighty swipe. Stranger had gone through this scene too many times before, and was just too tired to humour the petty bandit. His hoof reached beneath his cloak, pulling the switchblade from its holster on his belt.

Sunny brought the knife down towards Stranger, who was counting in his head while he held the knife in his teeth. '3...2...' Stranger side-stepped the oncoming knife, and positioned his head below Sunny's stomach. With a swift motion, he brought the knife up into the pegasus' stomach, ripping open the flesh as he tore upwards.

Sunny did not scream as he bled out. Stranger was relieved at that. Having anypony screaming into his ear as their lungs filled with blood was never a pleasant experience, especially not so early in the morning. The blood flowed freely down the knife, with some of it dribbling into Stranger's mouth. It wasn't a new taste to him, this happened quite often, though he preferred to avoid it when he could.

Unfortunately, Sunny didn't really give him much of a choice. The stomach was the only exposed area he had to work with in the heat of the moment. Sure, he could have simply played the dodging game with the stallion until he presented an opportunity to ram the knife into his sides, effectively keeping the blood from trickling into his mouth, but he was tired, and just wanted to get the whole business over with quickly. He would have time to worry about life threatening diseases later.

After the blood stopped, Stranger grabbed the body and tossed it out the window. Getting rid of the bodies was never an issue, as Blindside would always show up sometime during the day and haul it away for him. He never understood how a stallion incapable of sight could always found his way through town, up the hill to Stranger's home, and drag away a fresh corpse, but he never questioned him. Having someone do the work for him was thanks enough to not go meddling in somepony else's business.

The blood that soaked into his floorboards was another issue. The stench was horrible, but then again the air in his home never was what you would call clean, so it hardly changed much. Besides, he had gotten used to it over the years. It didn't do much for having guests over, however. Not that it mattered terribly, his guests were usually of the unintended variety.

Stranger stepped around the blood, so as not to track it all over his home, and he made his way to the sink. It wasn't really a sink, but rather what he chose to refer to it as. In reality, it was just a barrel of water he had embedded into the counter top. He grabbed a bucket next to 'the sink' and filled it with water from the barrel. First, he took a sip from the bucket, cleansing his mouth from the metallic taste of blood. Second, he dipped his hooves into the water, washing any blood off his coat that had managed to drip onto him. Lastly, he swished his switchblade around in the water, restoring the blade to its shiny, steel glory.

Satisfied that everything was thoroughly cleansed, he dumped the now murky red water out the window. A different window from the body of course, he didn't care to have Blindside yelling at him again because he doesn't like the bodies getting, as he put it, 'damaged'.

Slinking back upstairs to his bed, Stranger loosened the belt, letting it dropped to the floor around his back hooves. Next he threw off his cloak. He would have time to put them in their proper place in the morning. For now though, he wanted to get back to dreaming.

---

Light. Stranger never liked the light. It meant another day of running around, doing things to 'survive'. He preferred his dreams, and the light was always there to ruin them. Not much he could do about the sun, though, so he slowly brought his eyes open, adjusting his vision to the real world once again. He took a deep breath. The stench of blood still hung pungently in the air.

He rose from his bed, which in the broad daylight, revealed the bed to be just a mattress laid on the floor, with several stains in a variety of colours littered without. It once repulsed him to have to sleep on something so vile, but a mattress was something one rarely came across, so he counted himself lucky for it.

Today was like any other day; full of 'chores'. Things anypony and indeed everypony had to do before the day was done to ensure they survived another day. Judging from the height of the sun in the sky though, he had woken up earlier than usual. That meant he had a bit of time to stop by The Gully.

---

Stranger stepped inside the local pub, wrapped up in his cloak despite the immense heat, taking in the sweet smell. He plopped his flank down onto one of the stools, and banged his hoof on the counter to get the bartender's attention. It seemed to work, as a pale yellow unicorn with a curly black mane and tail turned his gaze to him.

"Howdy, Stranger? A little early in the morning fer a drink, don't ya think?" The bartender raised an eyebrow at Stranger.

"You worry about you, Frosty, and I'll worry about me. Now how about a glass of cider?" He knew Frosty meant well, but he tired of having the same conversation every time he stepped inside the establishment.

"Depends if'n ya got the bits." Frosty held out an outstretched hoof.

"Oh, and keeping this place bandit free isn't payment enough? I see how it is." Begrudgingly, Stranger pulled out three bits from a small pouch attached to his belt and flung them at the stallion, sending them clattering to the floor. Frosty bent over to grab them, giving Stranger a good view of the mug of brown liquid cutie mark the bartender had.

"You ever gonna tell me how you got your mark? It's got to be an interesting tale to hear how a little foal learned his special talent was bartending." Stranger let out a light chuckle. The pair certainly enjoyed ribbing each other; the laughter made the days less bleak.

"Ehh, I'll bore ya when yer drunk." Frosty floated the mug over to Stranger, who chugged the whole thing in one swift go. Frosty chuckled to himself.

"Hard night, I take it?"

"Yup."

"Another one for the kill count, then?"

"Sunny."

"Damn, what a shame. Kid never was right in the head, though. Can't really blame ya."

"Cider." Stranger flung another 3 bits at Frosty, who this time, managed to catch them all with his magic. Floating another mug to his customer, Frosty continued.

"Yeah, things just ain't what they used ta be. Now if only we lived back during the days of the Elements of-" Frosty was cut short by an empty mug smacking against the counter.

"Stop. Now. I'm not in any mood to hear any of your ridiculous theories today. I've told you once, and I'll tell you again, there is not such things as 'Elements of Harmony'." Stranger felt a knot growing in his stomach. He hated listening to this.

"You always say that, but the book-" Frosty found himself interrupted again, this time by Stranger knocking over the stool as he stood up.

"That book is nothing but some pony's ramblings that they wrote down while they were going insane from heat stroke or some shit, and you know it! Quit with all this divine being nonsense. It's all a bunch of fairy tale bullshit." Stranger was quickly trotting his way towards the door, before he could heard any more of Frosty's idiotic theories.

"Wait, what about this?" The bartender's voice was heavy with desperation. Regrettably, Stranger turned around, intent on hearing his friend out.

"What if the Elements were actually ponies themselves? And they once worked alongside Celestia to maintain peace not only here in Weltwater Valley, but in all of Equestria!" Stranger had to look at the absurd grin on his friend's face for a few moments before it occurred to him.

"You're insane. But you make good cider, so I'll be back." With that, Stranger trotted out into the clear day again.

'Well, time to get down to work.' Next Chapter: Chapter Two Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes