Chapter 3: The Beginning of the End

The way the tents were arranged was Twilight and Rarity were in one. Applejack, who was used to camping with her family, had brought a slightly larger tent so she, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shared it. The last tent was Nails's and he was sharing with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash couldn't get any sleep that night. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Nails's eyes. That fire and hatred that had burned in them. How she was scared to do anything just by looking into the eyes.

"Nails? Are you awake?"

She got a reply almost immediately. "I was, but I'm a really light sleeper."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that you did those things?"

"The same reason that I tried to keep the prophecy from you. I thought I was protecting you; things just keep coming up that prevent me from doing so successfully. There are several more things that I don't want to tell you, and I won't tell you unless it comes up."

Rainbow Dash looked at the ceiling of the tent. Nails was being serious right now and wanted to keep some aspects of his life private. Rainbow Dash respected this and decided to change the subject.

"Why did you bring those cigars?"

Nails was caught off guard by this question. She must have seen them somehow. "Because I made them myself, the day I made them I told myself that I would only use them should the day that the prophecy foretold came. Now that it has, I'm taking them to Forshan so that after I am their prisoner, I can use them."

"What's so special about them?"

"The fact that I made them myself makes them special."

Rainbow Dash turned back over and tried to go back to sleep but the images of the eyes kept coming back to her.

"Is something wrong Rainbow Dash?"

"I keep seeing your eyes, from when you had Gilda at gunpoint. I've never seen so much hatred and anger before."

"I'm sorry for that. When it happened... I couldn't control myself."

"I'm just really scared about how strong Iron Foot is. The rage you showed tonight just proves how strong you are and for you to admit that he is stronger makes him so much scarier."

"You won't have to worry about him. As soon as we make the decision, he will be vulnerable. No doubt that Whiskey will charge to his doorstep with the entire Forshan army behind him to kill that bastard."

"How can you be so sure? Won't that mean that you would have to tell him about the prophecy?"

"Yes and no, I could tell him and save a lot of trouble, or I could tell him to go in as back up should I fail. No doubt he already knows that Iron Foot is back and will be taking steps to find him. He will hand over information to me once we arrive and I will take over the mission. I could then set up a period of time which, if I don't return by then, he would storm the place he was hiding and kill him."

"What if he fails?"

"He won't. Iron Foot has always had the protection of the prophecy guarding him and as soon as that's gone he will be easy to kill."

"That means that you still have a chance! You can still fight him and kill him!"

"You're missing something Rainbow; I had that exact same protection. I would be at a disadvantage since he would know the territory we were fighting in."

"Oh." Rainbow Dash said as tears began to form in her eyes. She didn't want Nails to see so she turned around and tried to hide it. He had obviously noticed as she felt his arm reach around her to comfort her.

"Rainbow Dash, I know you're sad. But to be honest, these aren't even your feelings. The way you feel about me is caused by the prophecy. As soon as its hold is broken you will feel differently about me."

"What if I don't want to feel differently?"

"You won't have a choice. I'm sorry Rainbow, fate is a cruel bitch and there is nothing we can do to stop it."

Rainbow Dash began to sob quietly. She didn't want any of the others to hear her. She felt Nails tighten his hold on her and she began to smile through the tears. She knew that even if it was fake, he cared about her. She fell asleep with Nails's arm still around her.

The next morning Rainbow Dash awoke to still find Nails's arm around her. She tried to get up as gently as possible to avoid disturbing him when she heard him speak.

"It's ok Rainbow, I've been awake for about an hour now."

"Why didn't you move?"

"I didn't want to leave you." he said as he got up and walked out of the tent.

Rainbow Dash got up and realized that along with Applejack, they were the first ones up. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were next. Rainbow Dash figured this much. Both of them had morning chores that forced them to get up early. She was forced to get up before any of them which was why she took so many naps during the day. They had begun dismantling the tents when Twilight and Rarity finally woke up. Nails got to work on breakfast with the eggs that Fluttershy had brought. The group ate them before finally cleaning up the rest of the camp and beginning the three hour trek to Canterlot.

It was about noon when they finally reached Canterlot and they quickly made their way to the castle. As they made their way up the stairs, Twilight couldn't help but notice that at the sight of Nails the two guards began to step away from the door.

"What did you do to them?" asked Twilight.

Instead of answering a huge grin formed on Nails's face as he walked into the castle. The group was unimpeded by guards as they made their way to the throne room. When they finally reached a guard finally stopped them.

"Halt! Who goes there?" said the guard on the left.

"New blood?" said Nails as he looked towards the other guard.

The other guard simply nodded and Nails turned his attention back to the one that had spoken. "Listen here; her highness Celestia may pay your bills, but so help me if you don't let me through, you can expect your next bill to say HOSPITAL at the top. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The guard was taken back and turned to his partner for advice. His partner was violently shaking his head as if to say "Don't mess with this guy."

The guard took the advice and let Nails through. As soon as they were inside Princess Celestia looked up.

"Can everyone please leave us to talk." every single guard began to walk out of the room keeping a wide gap between them and Nails.

"Once again, what did you do?" asked Twilight.

"I'm glad that all of you are here." said Princess Celestia as she walked towards them. "I have some very grave news. A few days ago we were taking Iron Foot to Snake Fang Cliff for his execution. Through the help of an unknown unicorn he was able to escape and we believe that he is hiding in Forshan. Princess Luna left to alert Whiskey to the present situation so that he may provide any assistance."

Everypony except for Nails reacted to the knowledge and the group began to talk amongst themselves until Nails spoke.

"I already knew." said Nails who was obviously un-phased by the news.

"How is this Nails?" asked Celestia who seemed just as confused as the others, save for Rainbow Dash but nopony had realized this.

"Because that son of a bitch tried to kill me the other day, right before your messenger reached me."

"Well in that case you must have already realized why you're here."

Nails pulled out his gun and showed it to Celestia before putting it back in his holster.

"Where do you want to go?" asked Celestia, "Tell me where to send you in Forshan and I will transport you there."

"Send us to Sandstone." said Nails.

"Very well then, any particular location?"

"Right onto Whiskey's doorstep." was Nails reply.

"Very well then, good luck Nails." said Celestia as she prepared the spell for casting.

A magical aura surrounded the group as Celestia teleported them. Nails felt the strange sensation and he wasn't prepared for it. He had never travelled magically in his life and he realized in that few seconds of teleporting that he hated it. As soon as the spell stopped he was on the ground.

"What the hell was that?" he asked as they appeared.

"Oops, I guess I should have warned you." said Twilight blushing.

"I am never doing that again." said Nails. "We are walking everywhere!"

"Well you may have to do a lot of walking." said Whiskey as he walked up to his house. "Under normal circumstances I would ask what you were doing here, but these times are far from normal."

"Good to see ya Whiskey." said Nails as he got up.

"I see you brought the elements along with you. Do you believe that they could help you?"

"There wasn't any fighting it." said Nails as he tried to get reacquainted with walking.

"First time teleporting?" Nails simply nodded his head. "Follow me." said Whiskey as he walked into the house.

The group walked through the house while Whiskey talked. "We are aware of the current situation involving Iron Foot and we took immediate action. We have already captured someone that we know is an affiliate with him. However we can't get him to say anything."

"Perfect, I haven't done an interrogation in a while." said Nails as he walked next to Whiskey.

Whiskey grinned, "I thought you might like that." he motioned his head towards the other six, "Have they ever seen you interrogate someone?"

"The closest they ever saw was we ran into a griffon on our way to Canterlot. It was that one that I told you about."

"So they will be new to seeing how convincing you can be." Whiskey chuckled as they walked further into the house.

"Where is he being kept?" Nails asked.

"I'm taking you there now. My house is an old military base. As leader of this country they thought that it would be a good idea to put me here where I can be easily protected. Naturally it had an interrogation room built in."

"Of course." said Nails as they descended down a flight of stairs. The stairs opened up into a large room that was divided by a shorter wall. In between the two sections was a large glass window that could be seen through to reveal a pegasus pony in a room sitting down with a table in front of him. The section that they had just walked into had a table of its own. This one was filled with knives of all kinds and a few blunt objects. Upon seeing this Fluttershy began to speak up.

"I uh, I think I'll go wait outside." she said as she slinked back up the stairs.

"I'll go with her." said Rarity, "I think she may get into some kind of trouble if I don't."

Rarity left the room and went back up the stairs.

Nails chuckled, "They will still probably be able to hear the screams."

"Are you going to hurt him?" asked Twilight.

"Twilight let me put it this way. I'm not leaving that room until he's either crying or dying."