Stasis

Chapter 7: The Gift that Gave

By: Stillmatic


"Why have you come here?" the Princess demanded.

"You."

"There is nothing for you here in Equestria, leave at once!" Her confidence was faltering.

"Killed."

"I- I will not stand for this, you are not welcome here!" It was crumbling now.

"Me."

She stopped, and stuttered out a few words, "But if I ki-killed you… How are you sti-still here?" The fear was shown through her voice, betraying her. This thing had come back from the dead, to hunt her down. If it could come back once, maybe it would do it again, and again, until it finally killed her.

"Princess, what's happening?" Twilight voice was shaking, not sure what to make of the scene in front of her. "Who is this- this thing?"

The bi-pedal twitched at that. Thing. They called him thing. That was something he didn't appreciate in the least. He had a name, one he knew they would remember for times to come. He could feel it; fate was with him, dancing around this room, deciding what was going to happen.

"You have a lot of nerve," Rick gave extra feeling to 'a lot', despite his voice staying monotone. "I saved you from death, and you kill me? Is that how things work on this fuckin' planet?" Rick had come to terms with the fact this was definitely not Earth, it couldn't be. It may look similar, but the continents were different, there were no cities with huge skyscrapers, and there certainly weren't any other humans. It wasn't a pleasant sight when he discovered this.

"I- I didn't know what else to do! You killed a living thing and then nearly killed Nightmare Moon! For all I knew, you would have come after me next!"

He stopped and looked down, contemplating what he would have done if she didn't stab him. Something didn't seem to process, it was like it was being blocked out. He needed time; time to think about what happened in only a day. Time to consider what he had to do next. But first, he had to take care of something.

"I forgive you. Now leave."

Luna twitched at that, she wasn't expecting him to have a sudden change of heart. Maybe he wasn't a brutish creature after all, just misunderstood. She started stuttering, not sure if she should apologize for inflicting death on the creature. She could understand why it would be mad at her, but she wouldn't let it in on that. "Excuse me? This is my castle! You leave, back to where you came from!"

He approached her, getting closer as her horn grew brighter. He looked down, towering over the Princess and the other pony.

"It's mine now. Leave, or I'll force you out. And don't come back."

"Force us out? Do you know who we are? I am a living goddess, and this is the Element of Magic. You couldn't get us out if you're life depended on it! And it might just!"

"You leave me no choice then."

Twilight Sparkle couldn't understand what was happening, was there something she missed? She watched as the creature turned its back and walked towards the large object. He put his arm in and pulled out what appeared to be a large, red tool. She couldn't imagine what it was for, but it looked like it could devastate a pony in one hit. He held it at his side, letting it drag. She shuddered, if Luna was telling the truth about what this thing was able to do earlier to Nightmare Moon and her subordinate, then the Princess was about to get them into a lot of trouble.

"Princess, we can't fight him! We have to retreat and get help later! If it's as bad as you say it is, it'll do the same thing to us that it did to Nightmare Moon! We must leave!"

The Princess fidgeted, coming to terms with what Twilight had said. She'd been right; they couldn't possibly hope to win, even with magic on their side. This creature was crafty, and who knew what it had at its disposal. She could only imagine it ripping her down the middle, just like the Nightmare. She shuddered, and nodded to Twilight. She hated this feeling, the feeling of having to swallow your pride and abandon your ideals. It felt horrible.

"Fine, we will leave. But we will be back, and with reinforcements. This is your last chance to return from whence you came, creature! Heed our warning!"

"Right, the door is that way." He said, pointing to an arch in the wall. That caught Luna by surprise again, and she scoffed.

'How dare it do such rude things! To a Princess no less!'

The two ponies walked out of the room, going down the stairs to the exit. Their pride shattered, they exited the castle with their tails between their legs. As they got into the forest, Luna looked back to see that a blue shield was suddenly coming up the castle, consuming it. Nothing seemed to happen on the outside, but she felt like a powerful force had control of the castle now. She shuddered; she had fled and left it to an unknown creature with less than good intentions. She had to find her Sister and alert her to this. They would all go, Celestia, the Elements of Harmony, the Royal Guard, and herself. They would stop this corrupt creature from tainting their home, even if it meant killing it again.


Rick let down his guard as the two small horses left his new safe house. His new safe house. He liked the sound of that. He moved to the shuttle and pulled out a large white box. It had multiple gears and other circuitry popping out from different spots. He was surprised it worked so well, despite him only spending seven hours making it. It truly was a marvel of modern technology; who knew stasis could be contained without the need of a chamber's shields? It certainly would become useful soon.

He laid the box in the middle of the room he was in, setting it down with great care. He flicked a switch, giving life to the box. It wasn't very loud, only making a small humming noise. Suddenly, a blue spherical field of stasis spread from the center of the box. When it hit him, he felt himself slow immensely for what felt like minutes. It had only been half a second.

As the stasis passed, he looked out a nearby window. It was perfect and practical at the same time. A shield to protect him, his shuttle, and his new home, was covering the castle. He set the stasis generator to only allow him through, albeit slowly as possible. He didn't like the fact he was now stuck on what was definitely an alien planet, but as long as he was stuck here, he would definitely make the best of it. Now, here was the most important thing on his list of objectives: Find meat, and food. His stomach started grumbling; those damn vegetarian MRE's were nowhere close to enough to satisfy his hunger.

"Aden, you bastard, this isn't funny!" He held his fist into the air in the angriest way possible. He sighed, this was getting him nowhere and now he was slowly starting to lose energy. He grabbed his wrench, the two tusks, and the horn. The horn was his biggest prize, and he knew it was something of a good luck charm for him. He just felt it; he couldn't explain how comforting it was to be near it. He dropped the wrench and the tusks, and made his way inside the shuttle. He went over to a workbench and pulled from a drawer a small drill. The bit was quite small in itself and wouldn't do any real damage to the horn.

He carefully used a clamp to hold it firmly in place. He began drilling a tiny hole into the wider end of the horn. Within seconds, he was done and inspecting it with his hands. He tapped the metal guard on his neck, and the visor lifted itself up. He reached into his suit and pulled out his dogtags. He held them to the light and they gleamed for a moment before he undid the chain. He stuck one end of the chain into the hole he created. He attached the horn to the dogtags, and held them in front of his face. He smiled, and put it around his neck. He felt different with it, like it was making him tougher, quicker, and luckier. The luck, that was the biggest thing he felt, and he knew it would come in handy.

"Now, time to find some food…"


Rick had been going at it for what seemed like hours. The forest he was in, sounded like it was teeming with life, yet things would fall silent in his wake. And this would make it especially hard for him to find a nice little animal to smash apart with his wrench and cook. 'Oh, that's just sick of me.' He chuckled.

But despite his humor, he was slowly starting to lose his vigor, and was panting from merely moving from place to place. He wasn't able to chase any animals he encountered with his suit, but he didn't dare go anywhere without it. Even if he could simply be reconstructed, he wouldn't want to feel the pain of dying, or the fog that stasis left you in. So, he was slower at the sake of being comfortable, what was wrong with that? His stomach groaned, making evident what was in fact wrong with that. In turn, he groaned into the air.

"Damn't, I can't function without meat, and I can't get meat without killing something, and I can't kill something without being able to chase it."

He considered using his boosters or servos to assist him in chasing down a stag or rabbit, but those would only run him into trees or get him tangled in vines. It wasn't worth the trouble, and it would only cost him a few more precious seconds before he could resume the chase, if the creature hadn't gotten away by then that is.

"Okay, this is bullshit. Time to try something else."

He went back to his new castle and went into the shuttle. He went over to the duffle bag that was kept in a locker, unlocked it. Opening the door, he pulled out the bag and laid it on the bench. He rummaged through for something, and made a soft "Damn." when he pulled out the Panther. It still looked amazing as ever, and now, he'd give it some blood. He looked for a box of .45's he brought with him, just in case. He dumped the bullets into a compartment in the belt of his suits, and holstered the revolver between it and his waist, turning on the safety.

He looked over to an ornate vase across the room and stared it down, his eyes squinting. He spread his legs in a cowboy stance, and held his arms at the sides of his belt. His fingers twiddled and moved eagerly, ready to spring.

"You feeling lucky, bitch? You walked into the wrong saloon…"

Then, like lightning, his arms bolted upwards, Panther in hand. He fired instantly and a loud bang resonated against the walls. The bullet flew to its mark and landed with precision on the vase, rupturing it as the bullet penetrated past it and into the wall. All in all, the foe stood no longer, and the cowboy was left with a powerful new tool at his disposal.

"Magnificent."


Rick made his way through the forest, making the least amount of noise. He was wearing the clothes he had on earlier, deciding that his ability to outrun whatever may lurk in the forest was more important that fighting it head on, which was a rare occurrence. Nonetheless, the felt something was looking for him, watching him at every turn. He needed his speed, and that armor wouldn't cut it. Maybe he would develop something for that later…

He continued through the forest and found a clearing. He retrieved a MRE of various vegetables and laid them on a stump that was coincidentally in the middle of the clearing. He moved back, examining his work, and pushed a carrot lightly to the side. His vision of a trap accomplished, he ran over to the nearest tree and climbed. It wasn't very hard, but he had some trouble with some ants crawling on his hands. Reaching a branch midway up the tree, he pulled himself up to it and laid down. He reached to his belt and pulled out the Panther. He kept it steady as he waited in the tree.

Within a few minutes, a large stag walked into the clearing. This woke up Rick, who was starting to lose his wakefulness. He observed the stag intently, his mouth nearly watering from him not eating any animal in quite a while. It made its way to the stump, sniffing the vegetables. It seemed interested, until it suddenly fell over, blood running from a hole in its side. By some bad luck for it, and the reverse for Rick, the bullet, being fired from around 100 feet away, managed to directly hit the heart.

Rick slid down the side of the tree and ran to the dying stag. It limped its head toward him as he approached, making barely audible sounds of gurgling. He slowed, and holstered the Panther. He drew something from his belt; it was white, curved, and menacing. He held up the tusk and moved to the neck of the stag, lifting it up as its eyes stared into his. He felt no remorse, but didn't like that he was about to finish this creature in a most painful and unpleasant way.

He had no knife to slit its throat, but he had to make do. He gripped the tusk hard and dug it deep into the side of the stag's neck. Fear was prevalent in the stag's eyes, as Rick made a large gash as best as he could in the animal's neck. He repeated this until he had nearly torn off the front of the stag's neck. It had soon passed, leaving a large pool of blood nearby. Covered in blood, Rick wiped his brow and look at his prize. That head would look like in his castle.

Rick began to hoist the stag on his shoulder, which was quite heavy. He was struggling back to the castle when he heard what seemed like a woman's cry. His head popped up. 'Another human! Where is she?' He looked in all directions and heard yelling coming from behind nearby bushes and trees. He dropped the stag and ran as fast as he could to the source. Upon arrival, he was somewhat disappointed and shocked.

It seemed like quite an odd situation. There was a large creature attacking another one of those small horses that seem to populate the area. The creature was almost lion-like, used four legs and had a very demonic set of wings with it, accompanied by large scorpion tail that seemed to have a mind of its own. The venom it carried would most likely kill you, if the giant hole it would create in you didn't first.

Opposite of it was one of those horses, wobbling around in a daze. It was a bluish color, with a lighter mane. It was wearing a tattered cape of some kind, and what looked like a wizard's hat adorned its head. On its backend, was a fairy-princess-magician wand looking tattoo. Maybe this thing was a magician by profession? It seemed to not be in very good condition, possibly due to the large hole in its chest area. It was losing blood fast, and was teetering on its legs. He felt some kind of guilt as he saw it struggle.

He knew how that felt. Struggling to survive, that was half his life right there. When he wasn't being shot at, he was most likely in a dangerous area filled with dozens of things waiting to kill him. It was a feeling he knew all too well, and it saddened him to see another creature in the same situation. But if he knew anything about these horses, it was that they don't take kindly to being saved, he had learned that the hard way.

Still, he felt a sort of comradery with it, and it was nagging him to intervene. He tried ignoring it, but looked again to the scene. The horse tried backing up, despite its injury, as the larger creature was beginning to close in for the kill. He felt even more guilt as he saw this; he knew he would regret it later if he hadn't done something. He decided then, he would fight off this monster, and then use his bio-medical foam to heal the horse. It would definitely take some work, but he felt that it was needed, no required of him to assist.

He removed the bright wrench from his back, wishing he had kept his armor on. 'Damn, that would have made this so much easier.' He moved out from the bushes and into the area where the monster was moving in for a kill. The creature didn't instantly notice him, but when it felt that something had crushed its tail, it knew something was definitely here to fight. It turned to find Rick holding the large, bright red pipe wrench in his right hand. It roared loudly, enough to alert anyone in the forest.

Rick knew that this was not going to be easy, and he may have crippled on of its modes of attack, but it still could rip him apart. The creature leaped at him, in full glory. Its pounce however, was cut short when it received a blow to the nose. It recoiled, taking full knowledge that this thing it was attacking was no mere piece of meat, but a foe. It liked the challenge, but still rubbed at its sensitive nose.

Rick was getting tired; he really needed some energy to be able to fight this thing off. He knew full well that every second that went by that he didn't kill it; he had a better chance of passing out to let it feast on his body. He would not let that happen, so he knew that he had to finish this quick. But before he could contemplate a plan, the creature caught him off guard with another pounce. It successfully landed on Rick, planting itself on him, crushing him. He needed to think quickly.

'Shit, shit shit! What do I do? What can I do?' He looked around and saw that his left arm was still free. He moved it to his belt, searching. He grabbed at a bloody tusk and began ramming it into the legs and paws of the creature. It howled horribly, obviously underestimating the foe it chose. It removed itself from Rick, and taking an excellent opportunity to assist himself, Rick jabbed the tusk as deep as possible into the front-right paw of the creature. It cried again, echoing all over the forest.

Getting back on his feet, Rick picked up his wrench again, ready to take another swing if needed.

"I'll show you what happens to people who fuck with me, you overly stuffed piece of fucking fluffed shit!"

He raised his wrench above him and ran towards the creature, who returned the gesture with a sprint of its own.


Trixie had been watching the whole thing unfold in front of her, as she lay dying on the dirty ground of the forest. 'How did I end up like this?' But she knew the answer, despite her not wanting to admit it. It had been only half a year ago when that wretched pony in that hick town of Ponyville had humiliated her, The Great and Powerful Trixie, and forced her to flee with nothing. Her wagon and home had been destroyed by that Ursa those two damn foals led to town. She couldn't blame them entirely however, they only loved and respected her, and who was to blame them of that?

Her life had been a downward spiral since, with news of the feats she boasted about had actually been nothing but false tales. It spread like wildfire all over the county and surrounding area, letting other towns know of her lies and blunders. This had effectively killed her career, which in turn killed her only way of making money that she knew, which in turn killed her only way of surviving. She was forced to put on meager shows at any place she could, and even that wasn't enough to keep her fed. Her life had been essentially in ruin for over half a year.

'But that's the past, this is now.' She questioned her motivation to come to the Everfree Forest. It was severely uncommon for anypony to want to come here, and yet, she did. She didn't know why, she just felt as though she had to be here. Little did she know, her "intuition" was about to get her killed by a Manticore. She was barely able to stand at this point, and fell to the floor. Her vision was beginning to blur as the poison started to work. Then from the corner of her eye, she saw something move in the bushes. 'Oh no! Not more!'

But something quite odd came out, something different. It walked on two legs, and wore something close to clothing. It was quite odd, and had a strap across its waist, holding various items. It saw something can shaped and glowing green, then a large, bloody tusk, and some other odd metallic tool she didn't recognize. But then her eyes widened as she was able to make out something hooked on a chain to its neck. Accompanied by a few flat pieces of metal, was unicorn horn! How did this creature acquire a horn and from whom? It seemed to hold it like it was a prize, and it made her shiver. This thing obviously didn't realize what a big deal horns were to unicorns.

But as she watched it, she noticed that it didn't seem to be coming to kill her, but possibly save her. She was overjoyed at the thought, despite how she knew how impossible it was. But her faith in it was renewed when she saw it smash a large red object it held into the tail of the Manticore. It was caught off guard and roared loudly at the other creature. Then, her heart sunk as she saw the Manticore coiling its legs, preparing to attack. Not many creatures could stop a pounce by a Manticore, let alone live from one.

But once again, this other creature proved its prowess, as it swung the object with amazing force right as the Manticore was reaching halfway to it. It was a hit to the nose, and she knew from what she's heard that Manticores had extremely sensitive noses, which sent it to roar and rub at its nose with a paw.

She noticed that a lot of the vigor from her bi-pedal savior was gone, replaced with heavy breathing and sluggish movements. This worried her, and soon her worry skyrocketed as the Manticore used that to its advantage. Catching the creature off guard, it tackled it down, hold it in place. She closed her eyes, 'That's it! It's over…'

But to her surprise, instead of hearing the creature scream its life away, it was the Manticore who was screaming. The creature seemed to be using the tusk it held as a make-shift knife, stabbing at the legs and paws of the Manticore, to the point it was forced to get up. It would suffer though, as the creature left a mark of revenge into its paw, one that was long, white, red, and sharp. It roared so loud, she felt her ears hurting, but it soon subsided.

She looked again to see the creature getting back to its hooves, taking another stand. This time, it picked its red metal object off the ground, and held it firmly. Then, to her surprise, it spoke.

"I'll show you what happens to people who fuck with me, you overly stuffed piece of fucking fluffed shit!"

She had never heard such rude language before! But it seemed quite appealing, and it managed to get the point across that this creature was definitely intelligent, yet angry. For some odd reason however, her surprise was short lived, as if she knew it could talk in the first place.

The creature lifted the object above its head, keeping it there. It then ran at the Manticore, and the Manticore followed suit, it also running at the creature. Her vision blurred as she just barely saw them connect hits on each other. The two-legged creature was cut across the chest deeply, while the Manticore had its head nearly split open from the force of the swing, allowing blood to flow free. Both yelled at the top of their lungs.

She felt the creature's pain; it was slowly dying along with her. She never had anypony do that for her, nopony would ever fight off a Manticore for her to survive. She started to tear. It seemed to really care about her, and for that, she was grateful. She felt that she needed to assist it in any way possible, right now. She knew what she had to do, despite that it might just kill her.

She converted her remaining magic into energy and shot it into the body of the creature. Both of the fighters looked at her, surprised that she was still able to do anything. She could tell the creature felt revitalized, as it soon caught the Manticore that was growling at her off guard. It speed seemed to increase immensely, as if it were defying time and physics. It jumped all around the Manticore, smashing it to pieces with the red object it held. The Manticore couldn't fight back; it was being hit too hard, too fast. It soon spewed blood from different broken areas of its skin and fur, and it looked like it was slowly dying.

The creature continued its barrage, moving from one spot to another before the Manticore could react. It was effectively crushing the Manticore into submission and death. The Manticore was curling up now, sensing death. It was giving off weak roars as it fell to its side. She looked at, and it seemed so pathetic now, while before it was so large and furious. Maybe the other creature was right, maybe this thing was a 'overly stuffed piece of fucking fluffed shit.'

She could see herself starting to slowly black out, from her wound, the poison and the energy drain. She knew she might not survive, but she was at least glad that she was able to help out whatever it was that helped her. She passed out with a smile on her face.


Rick stood huffing, looking down at the once proud creature he had killed. It was huge at first, now it was only random bits and pieces from his constant smashing of it. He looked around, and grabbed his prize, the venomous tail. He tied it around his waist over his belt, which took some effort. He then looked to his right, and noticed that the small, blue horse was still there, lying on the ground in a small pool of blood.

He rushed over as fast as he could and inspected its wounds. It was hurt badly; and it seemed to have quite a large hold in its underbelly. He could see from the areas of skin on it, that it was also poisoned, where the skin puffed in odd colors. It was unconscious though, not dead. He had to do this quick though; it could be minutes before this thing could die in his hands. He grabbed the needle and bio-foam canteen from his belt and inserted the needle into it. As he pulled the stopper back, the glowing foam filled the empty space.

He put down the canteen and started to fill the hole inside the horse's underbelly, slowly. It took maybe a minute and another refill before he was able to fill in the hole and cover the wound on the outside. He looked at the foam as it hardened and changed color to match the horse. It seemed to working well enough, and if he could survive two stabs to the chest because of this foam, then this thing could definitely pull through.

He watched as it slowly regained consciousness, opened its eyes, and fell back into a deep slumber. He chuckled; at least it would live. He grabbed his items from around him, picking up the wrench, the canteen and needle, and removed the tusk from the creature's paw. He then felt something, and smacked his own face at what he realized. He had his gun on him the whole time! He could have finished this so easily if he had just remembered to use it. He felt like smacking himself again, until he saw the small horse stir.

"Damn, well I can't just leave you here. I'm way too nice."

He went over to the small horse and hoisted it onto his shoulders. It wasn't very heavy at all, and was almost enjoyable to feel it puff its lungs on him. It was almost cute. As he left, he noticed the stag he downed earlier, and walked over to it. He hadn't felt hungry anymore, due to this horse's ability to give him its energy. He thought he'd pay it back for that, and give it some of his MRE's. He grabbed the back hooves of the stag as he dragged it with the small horse in tote to his castle. He looked back and saw the remains of that other creature from earlier. He would come back to pick up some of that meat.


Sorry for the long wait, but I couldn't decide on the beginning on the chapter and how it would turn out. Originally, I planned on Luna and Twilight fighting Rick, which would put a damper on a future idea. Then I got the idea that he forgives them, but uses a stasis-based technology to wipe the past few hours from their memories. Once again, that wouldn't work, but created an interesting idea that I'll use later. It's referenced in him considering the prospect of a new suit. Anyway, I hope that this chapter is enjoyed, as I enjoyed writing it. Also, I didn't get a chance to thoroughly proofread this chapter, so try to ignore all the mistakes and stuff. As always, keep it trilla.