I think it was fairly obvious that Casper = Flintlock, but scratch that, let's go on. I shall try end this story in the next five chapters. Be ready...

Hieronimus sighed. Clink that he and Sigurd currently resided was more than uncomfortable. Then again, Camp Lincoln never actually liked its traitors.

Traitors. This word echoed in Remington's head and didn't want to fall silent. Plural. He accidentally got Sigurd into this and now this was going to haunt him for days and days.

Unless they'll kill them fast. The problem is, they won't. Ponyville is likely armed and ready to welcome Camp Lincoln's forces just fine, turning an easy plunder into mass slaughter. So many men will die today, only because some moron decided to disregard his warnings.

Hier's thoughts shifted back to Casper. Why did he betray him and Sigurd? Did he do so on his own? Was forced to? Does it really matter right now?

Hieronimus Remington cocked it up so hard it's not even remotely funny. He failed to save Fluttershy, Sigurd and, last but not least, himself.

On the other hand, it was finally time to pay for his own mistakes in life. All lives he had taken now will return to him as a killing blow. Too bad he'll take Sigurd with him, the only person he could trust right now. His adoptive father was an utter bastard, his seemingly best friend betrayed him, his second best friend was jailed with him and the one pony he decided to trust may die in span of next two days.

Wonderful.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight was euphoric, seeing that majestic alicorn descending from the skies as an ultimate defender against demonic threat of mankind. This time, she decided to fly to Ponyville on her own which was an unusual thing to see. The entire population of Ponyville was watching, interested. The small carriage pulled by her guards was flying in some distance from her own and landed on Ponyville's main square. It seemed to be a cage of some sorts, but it was covered with black material, so its insides were still unknown to all observers.

"Welcome, my little ponies." She responded to her student, smiling slightly. "I received your letter, Twilight, and I decided to appear here as fast as possible."

"We appreciate your concern, Princess." Lavender unicorn bowed. "There's been terrible things happening here."

"Of what sorts?"

"Well, the first and most serious is Fluttershy's case. She still thinks that human she had encountered was innocent. Ridiculous, don't you think, Princess?" Twilight giggled nervously.

"Where is she now?"

"I asked her to stay in library for a while and she, rather surprisingly for me, decided to stay and not cause any problems." Celestia nodded slowly. She was more than aware that humans aren't even remotely able to use magic, but perhaps she could use it as a part of the propaganda, allowing her to portray them in even worse light than before.

Currently, she sent both Flintlock and Copper to go back to Camp Lincoln so they can check on humans' preparations to attack Ponyville. According to Flintlock, after jailing the man he used as a scapegoat, humans' leader began an all-out attack that will give him either death or glory.

Pitiful fools.

How are they going to rival her power? She, on her own, would be more than enough to...

Celestia shook her head. No, no, you'd been going through this. Never make a first strike, regardless of your opponent. Only counters and retaliates. Never, ever. You want to keep your mask of the benevolent leader on. You are the benevolent leader after all. Of course, of course...

On the other hand, you've just closed your younger sister in Canterlot's library for unspecified amount of time. Before that, you banished her to the Moon. Are you sure you're doing what should you do? Is it this war dragging for too long?

No... No, certainly not. Flintlock said that humans need to be purged. Why would he lie to her? She was his "Beloved Mistress" after all. He had his reasons and those were pretty solid reasons...

"Princess?" Twilight's voice woke her up. Celestia looked around nervously. "You seem... off."

"Oh, please forgive me, I was lost in thought." She responded almost automatically, smiling with some difficulty. She needed to forget about her moment of weakness.

The moment she thought humans can be redeemed.

Sweetie Belle felt better.

It was already one week since that terrible incident with Mosin Nagant. The torture she was put through was more than excruciating, but slowly, day after day, it started wearing out.

Partially.

While her body was healing back, her mind and soul were not. She was having bad dreams, nightmares even: The same pony with a skull instead of normal head, calling her name. Each vision had the nightmarish stallion calling her louder and louder. There was also that awful stench coming from him. He smelt like... death.

Little filly knew something's ending. The world started losing its colors, the voices of her friends became obnoxious, everything lost its meaning. Currently, only her sister meant anything. Rarity... Why didn't Sweetie Belle tell her the truth? She wasn't certain why. Perhaps she didn't want to scare her with something that maybe isn't harmless. And now, apparently, everything was alright...

Except it wasn't.

She trotted down to Carousel Boutique, expecting to see Rarity here. Much to her surprise, her older sister wasn't in her place of work. Strange, she was here always. Sweetie Belle knew this, as she was coming in fairly often, usually interrupting her work. Where could she be?

Sweetie Belle's eyes closed for a moment, but she opened them again rapidly. She had seen... scary things. She didn't want to close eyes, not anymore. There were... terrible things out there. In the land, where sun never rises and moon never appears, in the land where there's only despair and darkness.

She felt her time is running out. She needed to do something... To let Rarity know what happened.

Sweetie Belle stumbled. She was alone, leaving this world slowly and without any delay. She really needed to find something to write on. She managed to roll out the fabric and put some on the desk.

Now, what should she write? The first thing that came to her mind was an apology. Of course. Since she didn't tell her, Rarity never got to know what happened.

Twilight was teaching all unicorns in Ponyville how to summon a pen or pencil in case something needs to be reported. She said that this small skill may come in handy when a need arise. Sweetie Belle couldn't suspect it'll be today.

Her eyes started closing again. No, she cannot close them now. She needs to focus, to write something. She needs... to write something. At least some laconic words.

Each letter was a misery for her soul and mind. After writing down "I'm", she stumbled once more and fell on the ground, shaking like in fever. Little filly, however, somehow managed to get up one more time. One last time so she can finish the sentence.

She kept on writing. Lifting the pencil with magic with all the might she had remaining, she managed to write down "sorry, big" before stumbling one more time and falling for good. She, however, still hadn't finished her job. She needed to end the sentence at least. At least...

"sis".

"Do you have any cigarettes?" Hieronimus asked the guard. The man armed with old rifle remembering the times of second world war nodded and took a pack from his jeans's pocket.

"Here you go. Take all of them, dude, since they're likely the last ones in your life." He responded, throwing the cigarettes to the cell. "As for myself, I don't even really smoke, I found those once when I was salvaging through some ruins nearby."

"Thanks." Remington smiled slightly and lighted one of them. "Want some?" He asked Sigurd.

"No, maybe later... Maybe later."

"Your will." Hier hid the pack in his trousers' pocket. "You may have no second chance to light a smoke though."

"I know... But... Somehow, I don't feel like..."

"Like it's a right thing to do? There's nothing other we can do really." Remington puffed a cloud of smoke. "Sorry for dragging you into this."

"Not your fault. I mean, I just was there... Though I wanted to help... I think."

"Listen to me, Sigurd. If they'll let you atone, choose to do so instead of dying stupidly. I don't want to have you on my conscience too, it would be a little too much to bear."

"What do you mean?" Hieronimus Remington chuckled quietly.

"I used to be a bastard, a bastard as bad as your father." He responded, puffing another cloud of smoke. "I had my reasons to be as such, but then I realized that I'm just a psychopathic cretin, one of the many."

"Wha...? What do you...?"

"You'd never got to known about Hieronimus Remington's true story. How about I shed some light on it, eh?" Another puff of smoke. "You'll see why I hate mankind so fuckin' much. Why do I hate myself."

"...Okay, gimme one." Sigurd lighted the cigarette and almost instantly coughed. He wasn't used to tobacco.

"So, where should I start...?" Hieronimus pretended he's thinking deeply about said problem. "As you probably know, I'm not from here. I'm hailing from Phillydelphia area which was my home for quite a long time. My name back then used to be different from my current one, but I don't want to remind it to myself. Too many bad memories. Anyway, I used to hate ponykind too. Or no, maybe not hate. "Hate" is a strong word. I disliked them for what they did to us, true, but never was really concerned with them. Me and my family were content enough with our current life. It wasn't easy, true, but we were hanging on. It was a small village near Phillydelphia where everyone helped each other. A strange thing, you know? People helping each other are extremely rare nowadays. Not that they were more common back in days of our glory. A little bit like Arcadia, the land of peace and happiness. My mother died on some disease when I was ten, so me and my father had to feed my younger brother and sister. We were still doing pretty fine though. Everything was fine and dandy up until Fillydelphia Massacre. Some time before it, rebels came to our village and convinced us that we should overthrow ponies and retake what's ours. We believed it's possible. Imagine that... Humans who don't have any heavy weaponry with them, no access to magic of any sort and our severely handicapped. We still believed that it's possible to fight and win. We were naive, Sigurd, so naive it's not even funny. We came with them. What were we expecting, I do not know. Glory? Treasures? Freedom? We've already had two of those and yet we decided that we don't have enough. We are a very greedy race, Sigurd. Look at us, what was the first thing we did after establishing civilization? We started taking everything from the world. The more, the better. Eh, but I'm going offtopic." Another puff of smoke. "So, we decided to test our luck against them. Guess how it went." Long silence.

"Horribly wrong, I guess?" Sigurd said after a while.

"Bingo. You know, the name "Phillydelphia Massacre" gives the picture, doesn't it?" Hieronimus chuckled. "Guess where I've been during that time? Away, running like a pansy, afraid of death and willing to leave my family and my friends to die in the sand. Kinda sad when you think about it."

"But... Why?"

"Because I was scared shitless. That's the only reason, Sigurd." Slight smile on Hier's face vanished. "I abandoned them because I was afraid I'm going to die. Simple as that. Nobody wants to die, or am I mistaken?" Sigurd didn't respond. "So, I watched from afar. At first it seemed we're going to win against all odds. Then... Ark of the Covenant decided that enough is enough. I could only watch as, one after another, my father and everyone who could carry a weapon, died slow, painful, gory and agonizing death via facemelting. Ghosts of the Ark couldn't get me from that distance, but I could still see all the details. First your face twists into image of horror. You're too terrified to even run away. You just stand there and scream until your voice can't take it anymore. Then, Ghosts are going to have their field day with you. First, your eyes start boiling. Then, after they turn into white goo, your cheeks turn snow white and bloody red, in that order. Of course, they're also collapse further into insides of your melting skull. Your jaw gets exposed as your mouth and its surroundings dissolve into nothingness. You still keep screaming, but your voice's getting weaker and weaker, to the point of being awfully pathetic. And finally, after you know your body can't take it anymore, you fall on the ground and never get up. You won't even get a normal death. It's not even a murder, Sigurd. It's a humiliation beyond any belief." Hieronimus sighed. "It wasn't the end though. The worst would come in no time." Puff of smoke. "After rebels got thrashed by Ark of the Covenant and Celestia's forces, ponykind invaded our camps near Phillydelphia. In those there were people incapable of fighting. Women, children, old people, disabled. Utterly defenseless against Ark's deviations. I could see it on ponies' faces that only some of them were out for our blood. The others... The others seemed reluctant to attack women and children. How chivalrous of them, no?" Hier chuckled quietly. "Sadly... Ark seemed to command them. The first I've seen in him is that he hates our kind. Hates it even more than I do now. He was outright repulsed. He looked at us in contempt, in some kind of unstoppable rage that was tamed only by the delightful fact he's going to watch our agony. He chose two kids: My brother, back then only nine years old and his friend, one year later. He then said "Entertain us. Fight." They were confused, Sigurd. Nobody ever told them to fight, they never had heard about such a thing. We were living peacefully up until then... So, they were forced to fight each other... The friend of my brother asked "Why and how?" In response, Ark called another two kids to step in. Then, he, without any warning, impaled the first one with his horn and burned the face of the second one to ashes while saying "That's how and that's why". The whole camp fell silent. Both men and ponies were stuck in terror for a couple of minutes before Ark said "We don't have all day, children". He didn't even give them any weapons. They were forced to kill each other with bare hands. Ten year-olds, Sigurd." Puff of smoke. "So... They did. They were like scared animals, afraid of that strange unicorn pony whom eyes seemed like they could kill on sight... And... After a long-hour battle, when my brother punched the living hell of his recent friend until he stopped moving... Everything because he was afraid. He killed his best friends, abandoned all of his ideals just so he can live. I'd do the same on his place. Guess how Ark rewarded him?" Long silence.

"He killed him?" Sigurd guessed.

"Even better: He allowed him to kill everyone else in the camp." Another puff of smoke. "Should he decline killing someone, Ark made a short work of the victim, turning his or her face into ashes and dust. Now guess, how many people could be in this camp...?" Another moment of silence. Sigurd didn't have the courage to guess this one. "Exactly two hundred and fifty seven. Two hundred and fifty seven women, children and old men that were destined to die because some batshit insane fucker decided so." The thing that was so amazing – or terryfing – in Hieronimus' monologue is that his tone and voice didn't even slightly change. "He stabbed two hundred and fifty seven women, children and old men, up to and including his own family... My family. Then, he stabbed himself when everyone but everyone was dead. He didn't want anyone to suffer a death from Ark's hooves and horn. I'd had enough back then. I had no choice but to get the hell out of there and find some new place to live... While trying to forget. Back then, when I was younger and even more of a cretin I am now, I thought that ponies are responsible for this. I despised them back then. I wanted them to die... I was a little like your father, Sigurd." Puff of smoke, yet another one. "I was wandering for an entire year, trying to do my best and survive. That's when I arrived to The Everfree Forest. Do you remember? It was about... four years ago?"

"Huh... Now that you mention it..."

"I was that thin wreck of a man with eyes running back and forth." Hier smiled slighly. "Your father decided to take care of me. He taught me one important thing back then. How to kill viciously and without any remorse? He thought he'll make a perfect cold-blooded killer of me: I survived Phillydelphia, so I had to hate ponies with burning passion, right? Indeed, I did. I was so blind I helped him make a poison he could later use against them. I knew this and that about poison substances, I lived in a place where scorpions were fairly common sight. Alongside Camp Lincoln's so called scientists, we invented something we decided to call... Mosin Nagant." Long moment of silence. "It was the time I asked about this inscription in Latin on my arm. It says "Hope is the mother of fools". Yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I still think... However, I could never suspect that Mosin Nagant will become so... powerful. I've been once wandering through the woods when I saw her." Puff of smoke. "A pony. Dead pony, to be precise. The poison did its job and her corpse was so twisted... So full of agony and suffering... It reminded me about things I saw in Phillydelphia. That's when I realized that I do not hate the ponykind. The only thing I hated was one single pony, known also as The Ark of The Covenant. From that day forward, I was on my way to become a man you know today. End." Hieronimus threw away the cigarette.

"Hier... I mean..."

"No worries. You'll say you didn't know about my plans and everything will be fine and dandy."

"I'm not leaving you here, bro. You maybe were a dickhead, but it's already done."

"How honorable of you. This'll get you killed, but suit yourself." Hier chuckled.

"Charming relationship you've got here." Casper said from outside the cell, smiling slightly. Kimberly was alongside him.

"You, you motherf-" Sigurd almost jumped to man with glasses' throat, but Casper managed to evade the attack.

"Calm your horses, Sigurd. I'm not here to mock you. I'm here to help you. Me and Kim, actually."

"W-what?" Hieronimus was surprised.

"I know what you're thinking. Dude, I was forced to do so. Your father's completely off his rocker."

"Tell me something I don't know." Remington snarked in response. "Still... Do you really expect me to believe you?"

"I know it kinda shook the very core of our friendship, Hier. I'm sorry for that. But..." Suddenly, in Casper's hand a key to their cell appeared. "I have my ways of getting you out of here."

"So... You want to see me executed before your subjects." Adeon sighed at Celestia's remark. "Fine. It's not like I'm having any other alternative, right?"

"Indeed, Child of Adam." Alicorn responded, smiling slightly. "I doubt you'll forgive me. I... I must say, I am kinda lost in the thick of things. Neverthless, it is my duty as a ruler of Equestria to make sure my subjects will be safe and sound."

"You're expecting me to forgive you? I won't give you that satisfaction, Your Majesty. I'm too much of a prideful bastard to give you that." He responded with slight mockery in his voice. "I hope that we won't meet again."

"I am more than certain that, indeed, we won't." She nodded her head and walked out of the room. Adeon then heard her voice announcing his appearance. If not the fact he was bound to die, the fact he's called "an abomination that does not deserve to be here" would make him go laughing his ass off. But since he had to meet executioner any minute now... He really couldn't find his energy and laugh at the situation.

His eyes shrank when the daylight almost blinded him after taking out the material his cage was covered with. He could see ponies around the square looking at him with curiosity, but also with fear in their eyes. Of course they were afraid to be near him, Celestia told them many various things about his existence. The existence of humans in general.

"It pains me terribly, but you must know that humans will attempt to attack Ponyville anytime soon." Celestia said firmly. "It is in our best interest to defend this place and fend off the intruders. The process of fortification shall begin with execution of this human." Voices in the crowd seemed rather surprised. Of course, they would not expect Celestia going utilitarian. Alicorn turned to Adeon. "Do you have your last request?" She asked him. Her fake grief was performed almost perfectly.

"...Just get this over with. There's no point in your kind seeing such a low-key show." He responded, sighing.

"As you wish." The executioner pony put Adeon's head where it should be and readied the guillotine. The machine seemed to remember times of French Revolution as it was rusty and in barely better state than Adeon himself.

"Well, there goes my life..." He thought, ready to feel blade's chill on his neck before falling into pits of oblivion.

That's when he heard a shout, coming from the crowd. Everypony turned their heads to see who was shouting. It seemed to be a pegasus with pink mane and yellow coat, her eyes blazing with something that could be either rage or determination.

"...Excuse me?" Even Celestia herself seemed surprised.

"I said, NO! I protest! I stand against this bestiality! NO!"

...Adeon never felt so perplexed before.

Phew, there you go. As you can see, we're going faster and faster. Read, enjoy and review.