Chapter 2: The Blood-stained Gun

Nails and the other ponies had set up camp in a forest about three hours walk from Canterlot. The sun had begun to set so they decided that they could finish the trek on the next day. As soon as they finished camp setup, Nails started dishing out jobs.

"Pinkie Pie, you can help me cook. Rarity can go with Twilight to forage. Fluttershy, your freaky animal skills just may give us a chance at some honey so I want you to try that. Rainbow Dash, I know that you still can't fly so I'm going to ask you to gather up twigs and bring them back ok?"

"You got it." was the common reply.

Rainbow Dash left the camp slowly. Not only was she grounded for a few months, but soon the one colt she ever loved would have to die for her country. Once she was certain that nopony could hear her she began to cry quietly.

"Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow's ears perked up. She hadn't heard that voice in a year. She turned to see Gilda standing a few feet behind her.

"Gilda? What are you doing here?"

"Listen, I'm really sorry about why I was in such a bad mood last time I visited. Something really bad had happened recently before then and I guess I was looking for an outlet."

"Really?"

"Ya, I'm really sorry about everything. Will you forgive me?"

"Of course Gilda."

A little while later, Nails and Pinkie Pie were putting the pot near the fire pit. Nails began to keep looking off towards where Rainbow Dash had gone.

"She should have been back by now." he said to himself, "Pinkie, can you manage on you own for a little while? I'm going to see what's taking Rainbow Dash so long."

"Okie-Dokie-Lokey!"

Nails left Pinkie Pie to deal with getting setup while he went in the direction Rainbow Dash had left in. It didn't take long before he heard her voice. Then he heard a different voice. One he had never heard before but it fit on a body he had seen. He couldn't place it. He reached the top of a hill where he saw Rainbow Dash. That wasn't what he focused on however; she was talking to a griffon. The griffon. Fire filled Nails's eyes.

"So I heard from someone that you have a coltfriend. What's he like?"

"Well he's-"

A gunshot echoed throughout the forest. The next thing Rainbow Dash knew Gilda was on the ground clutching her shoulder in pain. Rainbow Dash quickly looked towards a hill where she saw Nails sprinting towards her. When he got close he didn't slow down, instead he used his momentum to deliver a kick to Gilda.

"What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked as Nails kicked Gilda again.

The question was ignored.

"Why the hell are you here?" yelled Nails as he kicked her again. "Why did you come here you stupid griffon?"

"I came here to make up with Rainbow Dash!" was all Gilda could manage before she got kicked again.

At this point the others had made it to the clearing where the violence was occurring.

"To hell you did! I know that I never forget a face. But in your case you wish you could forget mine!"

Gilda's eyes widened in horror, "No! No! Not you! Please don't hurt me!" was all Gilda managed before she broke into tears.

"Too late! Your clan should have thought about the hell they caused me! And now, my goal is to send them all to hell!" said Nails as he pulled back the hammer on his gun, pointing it at Gilda's temple.

"Any last words griffon?"

"Nails!" Rainbow Dash had been yelling his name for the entire duration of this without results. This time however, Nails seemed to take notice and quickly turned his head to face Rainbow Dash. The look in his eyes was one of pure hatred, she was scared to interfere but she knew she had to.

"Look at me!" Rainbow Dash almost cried as Nails stared into her faces. His gaze went into her eyes and he felt sudden realization fall on him. His claw trembled and the gun fell out onto the ground. He fell onto his haunches and began to look at the ground.

"Get out of here." was all he said as he looked at the ground. "You! Griffon! Are you deaf? Get the hell out of here now!" Gilda didn't need to be told again. She immediately began flying back to Hoofington. Her hopes of reforming her friendship with Rainbow Dash shattered. She cried as she flew back to the only home she had.

Back on the ground, Nails was also crying. Rainbow Dash couldn't understand what had gotten him upset and immediately hugged him. He hugged her back and cried into her shoulders.

"I'm exactly what ponies think of me. I'm a monster."

"No you're not Nails!" said Rainbow Dash comforting him. "You are not a monster! You just lived in a different setting! You haven't adjusted yet!"

Nails sniveled before speaking to the rest of the group. "It's time I told you everything. After seeing that you all need to hear my story."

The ponies sat around a fire. Nails had told them to get a fire started before he started because the story would take him a while. When they had all settled down he began.

"The first thing you need to know about me is that my family is not native to Equestria. Just like a few other species live here there are a few pony groups that live in the griffon lands. It's different there though. The griffons care only for bettering themselves and therefore they would constantly raid pony villages for food and supplies. During one such raid a few griffons took a young mare as a slave. They raped her and used her as a whore while they did unspeakable things to her. Soon after that she became pregnant. She had been married before they had taken her so she didn't know if the child was from her husband or her captors. When she finally did have the child it was obvious that it had been from the captors. They continued to use her until finally, she died. That mare was my grandmother. The child she had was my father. When the griffons found the child they instantly took him into slavery. They would make him do anything to humiliate him. One day he had taken enough and he killed one such griffon. Griffons prize war over their own kind so when the chief saw this he was delighted. So much so that he instantly adopted my father as his own. The griffons in the tribe hated this and began to plan a revolt. Words of the revolt reached the chief's ears, but he was an older griffon that had no chance to outrun the younger revolters. Back then guns were rare so usually only the chief would have one. He gave the gun to my father and told him to run and not stop until he was safe. My father took the advice and ran. That night while he slept, the griffons slit the chief's throat and searched everywhere for my father. When they couldn't find him they began searching for him everywhere. By the time they found him he had settled into a pony village and married my mother. At this time she was pregnant with me. The two fled while the griffons pursued. They made it to a harbor when the griffons caught up with them. My father took out the gun the chief had given him and tried to hold off the griffons while my mother boarded a boat for the zebra country. My father was overrun by the time the boat left and they killed him. They did not pursue my mother because they already had their revenge. While she was on the boat there was a big storm that blew the ship off course. The ill-supplied ship began to make its way to Equestria. When it finally landed the ship had expended its last food and water supplies a week before. My mother was the only survivor of the wreck and soon afterwards she gave birth to me. She died shortly after I was born and I would have died two. Then Princess Luna found me. We had been lucky enough that the place where the ship crashed was a very secluded spot in Equestria, secluded enough for Luna to spend her exiles there. Late one night she flew me to Canterlot and gave me to her sister. The two agreed that since I was part griffon I would have war instincts. They immediately placed me into military training as soon as I could think on my own."

"That is a really sad story." said Rainbow Dash, "When you told me the griffons had something to do with you being an orphan I never thought that it was this bad."

"It gets worse." was all Nails could say as he looked down at the ground. "Fast-forward about twenty years. I'm in Special Forces and my team has just gotten word that the last team besides us has gone down. In a desperate attempt at survival we disband our team and swear to secrecy about the state of life of our teammates. Shortly after I had graduated from Special Forces training, Princess Luna gave me a book. I am saddened by what had just happened. Ponies I had worked with and the only ones I could have called friends had come to an agreement that we needed to go on our own. I was in a very vulnerable state. I took out the book and read it. Something I had never done before that day. As soon as I realized what it was, I couldn't stop reading it. It was the story of my life written by my mother in case she had died, I could know what happened. As I read it, I grew angrier and angrier. I began to hate griffons, I did hate griffons. I wanted revenge. Then, while I was reading, I came across a name. Not a ponies name, it was the name of a village. The village my father was from. The village whose people had killed him. I realized that this was my chance, as Special Forces I had access to maps of the entire world. I got out the map for the griffon lands and looked for the village. It was still there. That night, I abandoned all of my orders, all of my fellow soldiers who had trusted me to stay smart, all of my principles. And I set out on a journey that would become the most selfish thing I have ever done."

"What happened Nails?" said Fluttershy who probably didn't even want to hear about it.

Nails was silent for a moment. "I murdered them. All of them. The men, the women, even the children. I didn't show any mercy that day. I killed them all. I even found the one who had killed my father. He was the chief and had kept the gun as a prize. When I found him I tied him up and made him watch as I killed his family. When I was done killing his family I turned to him and started to walk towards him. The whole time, he begged for mercy, he begged forgiveness. I didn't listen. I took him outside and I burned him alive. Making sure that he was dead I cut his head off when the flames died. I took the gun that belonged to my father and searched the village. In his house I found several crates of ammunition. I took those and distributed them across Forshan. Only I know where each is located and how much is left in each. When I had found everything that I wanted, I burned down the village. I thought I killed them all, I thought they were finished. But as I watched the village burn, I saw a shape flying away from me. One of them had survived. It was that one you were just talking to Rainbow Dash. That's why I tried to kill her. My mind went back to that night and I lost all control. I'm sorry for what I've done today. But there isn't any fixing it."

The six ponies looked at him in shock. They had known he hated griffons but not to the point of killing them. They thought his story was over but then he continued.

"I left that village without putting out a single flame. As I walked back to Forshan I saw a griffon high above flying towards the village I had just left. I figured that he had been away and had seen the smoke so he was returning. I decided that this would have been a perfect chance to try out the gun I had taken. I took aim at his head and fired. I missed and hit him in the wing. The griffon didn't have enough strength in his other wing to keep flying but he did have enough to land. I abandoned the gun when I realized that he was going to land really close to me. I took out my knife and waited on him like a wolf waits for a sheep to be alone. As soon as he landed I pounced on him. He was a little disoriented but as soon as he saw me he talked. He said he knew who I was. This griffon was Delta. I told him to prove it and he said we were cousins. I hit him in the mouth and knocked out a few of his teeth and asked him to tell me a reason why I shouldn't have killed him right then. He said because he liked my father. He was about ten years older than me so he had known my father while he had lived there. After that event he and his uncle moved to the griffon capital. When he got older he got a job as a government runner and had been sent to see what had caused the smoke. I told him everything that had happened. He was taken aback of course, who wouldn't be? But then he noticed the gun that was a few feet away. He told me that he recognized it as the gun that the old chief had given my father. I hadn't known that at the time and I at once realized that I needed to learn how to shoot it in memory of my father. He told me that he would teach me how to shoot it and that he would say that it was a gang of criminals that had done the damage. He took the report back to the capital and then left for Forshan where I had left too. That's about it." said Nails as he got up from the ground. "We need to get some sleep; we have a big day tomorrow."