Chapter IV: Dawn

"There is a new sun rising over the horizon. Will it bring us a new shine or our newest blight though?

Rakz trotted out of the PRP HQ in his usual grey cloak, save for the addition that it was now covered in his (and probably others) blood around the tears and holes that covered it. Somepony should think that if you saw somepony walk around with that on, then you must be quite the lowlife. Carrying yourself from job to job, home to home. However, this was not the case. For many saw this attire as that much more of a reason to fear him. If you looked like that, you must have survived quite the ordeal hadn't you? Most agreed with this by the way they looked on Rakz with fear and awe, quivering when he passed by them.

It didn't help much that he was already an icon of terror among those in Manehattan.

He was closely followed by two large ponies while another two led him to where Olive had "assigned" him to go. The knowledge of how to reach this destination was common and a well-known fact by Rakz; but Olive wasn't willing to lose Death's Envoy so quickly. Which was abundantly clear by the fact that all four ponies had their firearms drawn out, the two in the back leaving them poised on Rakz's body. The two in the front compensated for not being capable of efficiently locking their eyes on this pony by looking back at him every fifteen seconds or so.

Rakz found this all amusing but ridiculous at the same time as these goons escorted him to wherever Olive deems him to go.

The location they were headed to was quite a ways away though. Meaning that the silence that would be dealt with among this group would be quite lengthy in time. Which was fine for Rakz, but the part of him that seemed to have adapted a likeness to the creature he had named so ingeniously 'Bones', had decided to make an appearance.

"So, do you four fatheads really think it necessary to be guarding me? I mean, I am Death's Envoy afterall. Which I'm sure you find an unfortunate coincidence for you since you must "guard" me." Rakz said with a smile, his teeth showing slightly due to the light that penetrated through the holes in his hood.

"Don't think about twitching, you'll regret it." one of the ponies behind him said in a deep, throaty voice.

When the thugs words reached Rakz's ears, he drooped his head and shook it before bringing it back up to respond in a sarcastic tone. "Oh no, I'm just shaking in my hooves! Please don't hurt me or I might cry!"

Rakz could almost hear the thug that had talked earlier twitch and bring back his hoof to strike him, preparing for the blundering imbecile's attack. He shifted his body to the left as the thug brought down a hoof where Rakz had just been, missing him narrowly. The thug's hoof never touched the decrepit pavement however. Instead, it stopped suddenly in mid-air as two dark hooves wrapped the thugs hoof, stirring a look of surprise on the pony's face as he began moving forward involuntarily. The pony soon found himself meeting the ground with his face, breaking his two front teeth on impact. His ride wasn't over yet, though. Instead of stopping there, he was swung up where the two hooves that were holding his hoof wrapped around his neck. Cutting off all air to his head.

This was all done in but a second, shaking the three other ponies as they realized what had happened to their comrade. They managed to turn around to Rakz as he brought up the thugs automatic rifle, bearing it on the other ponies as he backed away from them all. Leaving the thug to bear any rounds that came Rakz's way.

All three of the ponies brought their firearms up to aim at Rakz but didn't pull the trigger, afraid that they would hurt their friend. This brought an even larger grin among the darker pony using their friend as a meaty shield.

"Alright, as you can see. Your guarding duty is shit... I mean, just look at this! I already have one of you by the throat (literally) and am ready to spray the rest of you across the road. So, let's negotiate, shall we?" Rakz said with a cheery voice.

The three other ponies looked at each other for a brief second than returned their gazes to Rakz, one of them speaking up for the group.

"Shit, okay, okay. Don't do nothing, bro. We'll put our guns down, j-just don't do nothin crazy, aight?"

Rakz's jaw dropped open slightly when he heard this, not expecting the ponies to have acted like this. He expected them to have acted more like the blunder heads they looked like and start shooting immediately. It seems that they contained a small portion of intelligence though, which was good... at least Rakz thought so.

"Okay, I like this deal. Now just step away from your guns; lower your chest to the ground and put your hooves flat down. Do that and the pony doesn't get hurt, alright?" Rakz asked with a mischievous smile.

The ponies did so, taking four or more steps away from the firearms and doing as he wished. As they did so, a purple glow surrounded the firearms, levitating them over to Rakz. From there, he discharged the rounds in all of them (after some struggling with one of them), released the magazines from all of them and then disassembled the firearms. After he was done, he took them and threw them as far west as he could manage with his magic. Sending them over a building and out of sight.

"Good, now we can just have a friendly walk over to our little spot. No guns, no worries. Am I right, buddies?" Rakz asked as he dangled his own gun in magic, letting it fall to the ground where he kicked it away with a hoof. "There, now we're all disarmed and friendly."

The three other ponies looked at each other briefly before charging forward with angry glares and sneers. Their very first movements were read by Rakz however before they set down their hooves for his blood. He reacted quickly by tightening his hold on the purple looking pony he held and pointing his horn at the pony's throat. It would be uncomfortable but he could easily bleed this pony with this magical instrument. Of course, he could use his blades but he didn't want the three other ponies to see them for the sake of humour and atmosphere.

"Don't do it, else you'll find your friend very pale and bloody soon enough. And I'd put twenty bits on it that you wouldn't want that on your hooves." Rakz warned them with his hood back, showing the crazed look in his eyes.

The three ponies stopped a foot away from him, looking on angrily at the unicorn. Their expression of rage slowly changed to one of terror though as their eyes locked on Rakz's.

"That's right, just cool it and we'll all be walking away real nice like." Rakz said in a soothing voice as he concentrated on their eyes. Enacting some deep, hidden control he wasn't fully aware of on the ponies.
After a brief moment of staring from the other ponies, they began to take steps back until they were told to stop by Rakz. When they stopped, Rakz slowly lowered the pony he held to the ground. Hopefully ensuring that he had no thoughts to harm his pony as long as they complied.

See, you relax and I do too. Thus, your buddy here survives... isn't that what you want?" Rakz asked, hoping that the answer would be a yes.

The ponies took a while to answer after looking at each other repeatedly but they soon began to nod their heads in agreement. It seemed to Rakz that he had managed to wrangle all of the control from these goons. Giving him the element to escape and never be seen again by these foul ponies. It was a delightful prospect for the unicorn, especially since these goons would receive more shit than they have ever gotten in their lives from Olive.

He didn't run away though, in fact, he began to walk towards the goons while saying that he meant no harm. If he just left, the entire PRP branch in Manehattan would be left for the Royals to handle without a leader. Not that Rakz cared about the PRP in general, he just cared about all of those innocents who would suffer from the ensuing onslaught. Thus, he was forced to continue on this mission with these goons.

"Well, I guess I'll be on my way then. You can trust that I'll go to the rendezvous or whatever you call it, after all, I can't have innocent blood on my hooves, now can I?" Rakz said with a saddened demeanor as he flipped his hood back over his face.

The goons reacted to what Rakz had said with dumbfounded expressions, seeming to not understand what he was talking about. To Rakz, this meant that Olive did not keep very many of her personal soldiers in the need-to-know loop. Of course she doesn't, I certainly wouldn't if my plans were to become the great and powerful leader of everything by the dirtiest tricks in the books. If she did, then I definitely wouldn't expect these idiots to follow such an order when they knew about the deaths that would follow if I didn't.

A/N: So, this is a first go for sneak peeks to help show those who read my stories a chance to see how far my work is on its way for the next update. I will NOT be doing it for ever chapter I do but maybe every other one I do. Just comment below if you would like to see this more often.

Also, sorry for the delays, mates. I'm having some issues myself and it is slowing me down. Hope you stay, though!