The Noponies pt IX: Reich Mir Die Hand

                                                  Reich Mir Die Hand

With the knowledge that Zekora would serve as our priest, and let us use her hut as a safe haven for us to get married in, I followed my beloved Pinkamena as she lead me through the remainder of the Everfree forest safely, we could see the light from the other end unlike last time. “Gee Pinkie, I’m really excited about the idea of our marriage, but do you really think your parents will give us their consent? I’ve never met them before.”

“Oh Hanzy, don’t you worry your pretty little head, I’ve always been a daddy’s girl, so I know he will give us his consent. And if not, I’m sure I can….persuade them. Pinkie said as she giggled evilly, while in Hoofenstein, we had not tortured a single pony, and I thought for sure that the prospect of using her talents excited her. With that in mind, we walked for what seemed like hours until we finally came out on the other side of the forest, and looking around, all I saw was a barren, rocky landscape with a house and barn that looked old-fashioned even compared to Applejacks farm.

“So….this is where you grew up? A desolate field full of rocks?” I asked, confused. Pinkie nodded and sighed “Y-yeah, I never really had much of a pleasurable Fillyhood, Mom and Dad would make me work every day collecting rocks for the family business, I hated it and wished for oh so long that I could find an escape from here, but one day I just kinda….snapped from all the pressure I suppose, and I killed my big brother, Gaia Terra.” She pointed a hoof over to a lone tree that stood behind the house, it looking like quite an odd sight amongst the rocks “Right back there is where I ended him, I think they buried him there as well.  I can’t say for sure, because after that, things just weren’t the same around here, and when I grew up, my parents got me a job at the Bakery in town, and shipped me off. They were really proud of him because he was about to leave to be a geologist”

She took a deep breath and then slowly let it out as she prepared herself, and I hugged her gently “Don’t worry Pinkie, that’s all in the past, and once they tell us we can get married, we won’t have to ever come back to this terrible place, ok? She forced a smile and nodded as we started walking across the field to the house.

I guess that her father saw us walking up to the house, because before we got there, he stepped outside. He was slightly above average in height, and wore an Amish hat that seemed to fit him perfectly, because everything from his personality to his appearance seemed to match. “P-Pinkie? Is that you?” He asked in bewilderment, thinking he would never see his daughter after he had worked so hard to get rid of her the last time.

Pinkie nodded shyly and stepped forward to meet him “Yes dad, I’m sorry for coming back, but I promise it’s just because I have to ask you a question, then I’ll be on my way and you won’t have to worry about me again, ok?”
He nodded nervously “Well? What is it that you came all this way to ask me?”
Pinkie was too nervous to ask, so I stepped forward “Ermm, Mr. Pinkies Dad. The reason we came all this way is so that we could ask if you would…..give me permission to marry your daughter? I’m a very well-off stallion, and I promise I’d take good care of her.”

He looked a little confused that we had come all this way just for that, but he was thinking up a plan in mind, and after a few seconds he put on a fake smile and nodded “Alright, If what you say is true, then I give you permission. But might I ask where you’re getting married at?” I was convinced that he had no intentions, so I told him that we were getting married in a hut in the Everfree Forest, and after that, he waved us off, so I took Pinkie with me and re-assured her that everything was going to be ok now, we just had to get back to Zekora’s house, then we would be off to Hoofenstein again.

“Come on love, that wasn’t so hard, was it? And here I was worried that he would say no!” I said with a laugh and she giggled a little and nodded “Heh, yeah Hanzy…..but I was wondering…. Once we get married, would you like to…well…stop our little hobby that we used to do in the basement? I don’t feel like hurting anypony anymore, I just want to live a happy, peaceful life with you in Hoofenstein.”

I looked a little shocked, but I smiled and gave her a little kiss “If that’s what you want sweety, then of course. I vow to give up killing as well once we get married.” And with that, we happily strolled back to Zekora’s hut with no trouble, and once we got inside, she was wearing an odd purple robe that covered most of her body; I assumed that it was a traditional robe from wherever it is that zebras come from. “I’m happy to see you too again, in your mission, did you win?”

Pinkie and I nodded together and gave each other a big hug, and with that, Zekora gave a big smile as she fetched her priest book from her old country and opened it up “Phillies and Colts, we are here today to join Hanz von Stickhooves and Pinkamena Diane Pie in a bond as tight as bolts.” And with that, she took a few herbs and dropped them into a boiling cauldron that she has in the middle of her hut, then continued “This undertaking is one to not be taken lightly, instead, the two must promise to love each other mightily.” She then stirred the pot a little to make sure they boiled in well. Pinkie and I stood close together, our tails interlocking as we listened to Zekora.

“Hanz von Stickyhooves, hold out your right hoof, over the cauldron please. This next part involves a little squeeze” I was a little confused, but held out my hoof for her, she then took a ceremonial knife and held it to the area right above my hoof “Now Hanz, do you take this Mare: Pinkamena Diane Pie to be your eternal soulmate, to love her with no ending date?” I bit my lower lip nervously, but then looked over at my lovely partner, I knew there was no other way, and with that, I nodded. She then made a gentle yet deep cut into me so that I bled into the cauldron, then rubbed a strange leaf on the cut and it immediately stopped bleeding.

And with that, she asked Pinkie to do the same, and she smiled and eagerly held out her hoof as if this was something she had done before alone quite a lot, Zekora then put the blade to her leg in the same spot “Now Pinkamena, do you take this stallion: Hanz Von Stickyhooves to be your soulmate forever more? To love him weather here, or buried under the floor?” She nodded and held her other arm around me as Zekora cut into her and she bled into the cauldron as well, her blood seeming to be much darker than mine was…I don’t really know why.

After patching Pinkie up as well, she then stirred the pot slowly, making sure everything was mixed perfectly, then she opened up her cupboard and prepared a bowl, pouring a small amount of the mixture into the bowl and handing it to Pinkie and I “Now at last you must drink the potion. With it, your love will forever be in motion.” I looked over at Pinkie who was not surprisingly more than willing to drink another pony’s blood….. But knowing that it was the blood of my lover, I slowly took a mouthful of it, then let her do the same. We stared into each other’s eyes lovingly before swallowing it together. “And with that, two become one. You two are bound together both with life now, and when you are with none.

This was the happiest day of my life, and I felt like me and Pinkie were the only two ponies in the world (well, except for Zekora, but she’s a zebra.) And once we embraced each other, everything else seemed to disappear…..or at least, until we heard the sound of a glass bottle breaking on the roof of the hut, followed by an immense building heat and the sound of a fire spreading. “W-what’s going on?!” I said, slightly panicked. But Zekora offered to check it out, so she opened the door to her hut, and we could all see that the angry mob that had run us out of town before had found us again….and this time, I knew that they had us cornered. I did not know how to cast that teleport spell without the book, which I failed to bring due to it being large and heavy.

“What is the meaning of this? We are in the middle of fulfilling a wish!” Zekora yelled to the crowd, but they were calling out for blood….our blood! And it looked like since Zekora was with us, they were going to use that as reason to kill her too, because seconds after her asking them, a large pony in the crowd hit her hard in the face with his hoof, knocking her back into the building. I rushed to pick her up, and she was bleeding from her nose badly, he must have broken it!

“Pinkie! Do you still have your knife?” I asked her since she seemed to always have one on her, but not this time it would appear “I’m sorry Hanzy…I threw it away when I promised to stop killing….” She backed up away from the door and I knew that we were all going to die in here today, then the pegasus who had managed to escape from our basement stepped forward holding a large dagger and the look of rage in his eyes, I backed up and dropped Zekora who was seemingly unconscious now. He stepped over her and backed me into a corner before he stabbed the large knife into my belly, making blood gush outward onto the floor and onto his hoofs, and I screamed the loudest I had ever screamed before, falling to my knees and trying to hold my hoofs over the wound but to no avail, and I felt the light of my life fading away into darkness, my eyelids getting heavy and then…..I fell over…. motionless and still. “Justice always prevails over evil, you piece of garbage unicorn.” He said as he walked away, and I managed to open my eyes weakly while still being paralyzed, in the act of dying a slow death.

“Hanzy! No…No No No!” Pinkie cried out as I fell over motionless and for all purposes dead, but as I opened my eyes slowly, her father stepped into the hut and pinned her down by her throat to the floor with one powerful hoof, holding a pitchfork in his mouth and aiming it for her chest before thrusting it down so powerfully that Pinkie was pinned to the floor by the sheer power of it, she shrieked in horror and shock for the feeling of having her ribs broken, two of the blades going straight through her heart and making her cough up blood “That’s for taking my one and only son away from me, you worthless beast! He was 20 times better than you could ever dream to be!”….at least she died a quick death….I was still laying there, my skin growing paler by the second and I could feel myself becoming cold….

As he walked out, I saw a purple Unicorn step in front of Zekora’s unconscious body…from what I could tell, she was Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight stood over Zekora who was bloody, beaten, and broken. Not able to even know what was awaiting her, and with that, Twilight leaned down with a small blade and slit Zekoras throat to finish her off “I always wanted to dissect and do some experiments on a zebra, you should feel honored, even if your barbaric people won’t ever benefit from our research. Once Zekora was dead, Twilight dragged her body out of the building by her tail, presumably to her house to get right to work.

That was the last thing I witnessed before I finally bled out and died, it was the most visceral, frightening, painful, and powerless feeling I’ve ever felt in my long, long life…..

But believe me when I say this to you, my young colts and mares, this was not the end. No, this was merely the beginning of a journey that only a select few will ever experience, weather in this life…or the next.