Chapter 19:Shadowy Fury Pink Cotton Candy
"Are you excited? Cause I'm excited! I've never been so excited! Well, maybe except for the time Twilight came into town and I went Huaaaaaaaaah! Oh and this time when Celestia came to Ponyville but was replaced with Nightmare Moon... Honestly what could top that!?" Pinkie blabbered.
"Pinkamena Diane Pie!" Shadow scolder her, "This is serious! We are only a few miles from a Freezer recruitment center!"
"Oh I know! I'm just excited to get my Element back!"
"And you will, but remember not to mention that once we are in, now... do you have the disguise kits?" Shadow asked.
"Right herey werey!" Pinkie pulled a couple boxes out of her pack and handed one to Shadow. "I'm ready for this you know... Many people doubt me because of how I act... they think I can't take things seriously but trust me... I know the difference. I make light of things to brighten everyponies day! After all, if you can face a problem with a smile, why face it with a frown?"
"I know, but we need to look angry. Angry enough to volunteer to go to war." Shadow reminded her. "Now, let's cover up your cutiemark okay?" Shadow grabbed some pink water-proof makeup and smeared it over until the three balloons disappeared. "Now, what was your cover name again?"
"It was Cotton Candace right?" Pinkie err Cotton asked.
"Yes, and it is of utmost importance you remember that. While I put a fake cutiemark on you need to brush out your mane with the hair dye brush." Shadow began drawing the picture of a cotton candy to replace "Cotton's" now missing cutiemark.
"Oaky Dokey Loki!" She hummed as she brushed her mane into a straight dull brown. Shadow got back up. "Alright, time for me to disguise your cutiemark, Fury Swipes teehee." Pink... Cotton giggled.
"Yeah..." She took out her brush and changed her mane to a fiery red. It was a far cry from her usual white so it would disguise her quite well. She thought it was all that was necessary but Auto had been insistent about how she needed to change her mane's style. That's when she got an idea. Quickly she brushed her mane in a way she had always wanted to try but couldn't because she had to look presentable.
"Alrighty Aphrodite! Your cutiemark is now a different sword!" Pinkie looked up and saw Fury's mane. "Bwahahahaha! A Mohawk! That's priceless! You have to see yourself! Look there's a frozen pond over there go take a look!"
Fury trotted over to the pond and saw herself... She did look funny. Actually the red mane was quite flattering, as it went really well with her white coat... Then she really noticed something. She just looked funny. She looked over at Cotton. "Cotton?"
Cotton answered in a scraggly voice, "Yeh?"
"I can still tell who we are. The disguises will fail." A thought brushed up against her mind. A terrible idea. A wonderfully terrible idea. It would work. "I know what we must do." Every Freezer they had passed had been battered and bruised. How'd they expect to fit in unharmed? She drew her blade.
"F-F-Fury? Sh... Fury what are you doing?" Cotton asked, her voice edging into fear.
"Every Freezer we've seen had been covered in injuries, we must look the same." At the end of her sentence she bashed the hilt into her left eye. Then she smashed her cheek. She sliced her forehoof and winced. She looked back into the water and the eyes that stared back into hers seemed foreign. "Cotton... Either our back story needs a change... or you need to do this yourself."
***
"Halt!" A guard yelled at a nameless fortress as Fury Swipes and Cotton Candy approached. "State your business!"
"Cotton Candace, daughter of the former CEO of the Cotton industry in Equestria. This is my bodyguard, Fury Swipes. Where I go, she goes. We are here to take up arms against the Princess Celestia who's unjust taxes caused my father to be banished for smuggling!" Cotton called out in her prepared Manehatten accent. "It took a lot of effort to get across the border! I hope this is a recruitment center?"
The guard grinned, "That it is little Filly, but have you even seen battle?"
"I have not, but I know armies require more than that. I am an excellent cook who will give our troops the food to have the energy to fight but, Fury here has successfully slain a patrol of six Equestrian armed forces soldiers single hoofedly. As I said, it took a lot of effort to get across the border." Cotton grinned back.
"The fort here has a few openings, but to prove yourself you must have that little punk fight me. If I win, you both die. If I die, you both get hunted down and killed. If you disarm or render me unconscious then you both will gain entrance." He frowned as he drew his jagged blade.
Fury drew her blade and slowly they circled each other. She had a bad feeling about this. He lunged forward and Fury swiped her slender blade into his sword hoof and his blade clattered to the ground. "Oh, you think your good then Missy? Well let's see you handle this!" He drew two hidden daggers and leapt at her. Fury had fought this in training a thousand times, some inexperienced dualist pulling two blades to try to out maneuver her quick rapier. She simply deflected one, caught the his other hoof with hers and head-butted him in the snout. He went back reeling from the blow. Blood spurting from his now broken muzzle.
"Why you little ****! You broke my sleeting nose!" He charged her with blood streaming down his face. She simply drew her own parrying dagger and spread his defenses and bashed his forehead with the hits of her blades. Thud, thud, thud. And he fell to the ground his blades skittering away. His hoof went into a small pouch and he pulled out a hand crossbow, "Take this you foal!" As he pulled the trigger Fury threw her dagger into the weapon and it fired too far to left.
Fury heard a squeak to her left but refused to drop her gaze from this tenacious opponent. She leapt up and using her momentum cracked her hilt against his head. He was knocked out cold. Finally Fury turned around to see where the bolt had landed and was put into a terror when she saw Pinkie on the ground. "Pi... COTTON!" She dashed over to her side and saw tears streaming down cottons face as she held her left shoulder.
"I... I'm fine... It didn't hit anything important..." The pain caused Cotton to vomit.
"We need to get that bolt out now." Fury said calmly. "Look at me, not the bolt." Slowly Fury moved her hoof toward the wound. "Just keep looking at me no matter what." She grabbed the bolt in her teeth and Cotton winced in pain. "There is just no way around it, it has to come out. Look into my eyes." Fury grabbed a stick. "Bite into this." Cotton nodded as she stared into Fury's eyes. She bit into the stick. "Like a sticky bandage." Fury quickly yanked the bolt out. Luckily it wasn't barbed. Cotton bite the stick in half and went strangely pale and limp, but still awake and alive.
"Ugh... Behimdu!" Cotton weakly yelled.
Fury knew what this meant immediately and spun about blade in hoof. She was looking directly at three Freezers holding full size crossbows. Her blade clattered to the icy floor. "Welcome to the Freezers, Fury Swipes and Cotton Candace." One said smoothly.
***
"Welcome to Fort Cold Breeze. You two are the only new initiates we've had in over a month. You, Cadet Fury Swipes, will be taking the wall shifts at night until you've earned a bit more respect. You, Cotton Candace, you will be preparing the meals of breakfast and desert, as well as rations. Cadet, you will report to Captain Corad and you Cotton will report to head Chef Gruel. Know that even though it seems we don't do much more than train, we serve an incredibly important function. That will be all. Report to your stations tomorrow after you have rested." The Captain of the Fort, known as Captain McGore briefed them. He smiled at them as they left.
They walked together, Cotton leaning on Fury's side to avoid putting pressure on her wound, in silence. As they opened the door to the barracks a bucket of water dumped onto Fury's head.
"Bwahahahahaha! Oh wow! I can't believe we got you with that one!" A pony watching from a bunk laughed at them. Cotton started weakly giggling as well. Slowly the entire room was laughing including Fury. None harder than the pony in the bunk. "Oh, that was a good one! I'm called Swifty! I'm the Head Vault Guard! I spend most my time down there but I'm sure we can hang more later!"
The door slammed open. "SILENCE! YOU NEED TO SLEEP SO YOU'LL HAVE ENERGY FOR LAPS TOMMOROW! In fact, I think you just earned a few more!" A Pony in armor with authority yelled at them.
They all went quite after that, and stayed that way for the rest of the night. When morning came Cotton was among the last to wake up where as Fury was the very first. Cotton looked at Fury and spoke in a pained tone, "My shoulder really hurts..."
Fury sighed, "Wounds often do that Milady. If we are to be tolerated here, I fear you may have to deal with many more." Fury turned to find a soldier looking at her. "What do you want?"
"I thought I'd show you the way to training, seeing as it's your first day is all." He shrugged. Your friend Cotton will have an easy time finding the kitchen, but finding the guard station can be tricky."
"Thanks. I will attend to you later, mistress." Fury bowed then followed the Freezer out of the room. Cotton was alone in the barracks so decided rather than risk being late she'd try to find the kitchen! She wandered about until she found a staircase. She immediately pulled out her black jump suit and night vision goggles.
"Ooo night visiony..." Then jumped up to the roof and hid in the shadows. She creeped along the ceiling using sticky footpads, Silent Sticky Foot Pads! Until she reached the base of the stairs. She saw a pony patrolling in front of a heavy metal door... It was Swifty! A few other ponies were with him... This must be where her Element is stored! She counted the guards... about six or seven... She slunk back up the stairs and stowed away her gear. She had to find the kitchen quick so her absence wouldn't be noticed! She started wandering around trying to find the kitchen, when she smelled what she thought was food! Her stomach growled... I'm so hungry... She wandered about until she saw the double doors leading into them. She had first day jitters but she was excited that she had already found the Vault! Sha... err... Fury will be so proud! She walked into the kitchen... it was... filthy! Several pots and pans were sitting about the kitchen with crusted gruel moldering away on them... "Eww..." Cotton couldn't help but say aloud.
A heavily masculine female voice, obviously from Scoatsland responded with a gruff, "Ah so ye foind da perty don'tchya? Wheel ya say, Oi've been 'ere meself fer months! Feeding an army boy yerself taint easy! Oi 'aven't 'ad toime ta clean et meself! An then ye came along! Guess wut yell be doin'!"
Cotton tried to think of a clever response but then realized that may not be the best idea... "I'm here to do all that you wish of me, no job is too small or too big for Cotton to handle." She indicated her wound, "But your door guard did shoot me, so don't expect the big jobs to be done to quickly and I may need help lifting some things."
The voice was soon given a face as a warty old green mare with a four leaf clover sticking out of a pot as a cutiemark exited a back room. She laughed, "Alrighty then Missy! Dishes untell there done, an' when yur done wit that, we'll see. Maybe I ken make somin a little tastier for them soldiers, 'eh?"
"I'm on it, Chef!"
"Names Clover dear. Clover Gruel."
"I'm on it, Chef Clover Dear Clover Gruel!" They both laughed as Cotton stared at the work she had ahead. It was a nightmare...
***
Fury sat at attention as her designated personal trainer explained the complexities of standing on a wall at night. He just went on and on, "... and should you ever get too tired and you feel like you're going to fall asleep, wave your hoof over the fire, if it hurts for a second, you'll wake up! If it doesn't, well, then report immediately to your shift Captain as you may have developed Hypothermia..." and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... "I think that's about it really... Well, now that that's done, it's time for the best part of the day! Combat training! Now be warned Master Nicked Blade will try to break you early, he'll just keep throwing ponies at you until you lose so it's best to lose early."
"Thanks for the advice, but I will give it my all no matter how difficult." Fury affirmed.
"Alright but I warned you." He shrugged as he lead her towards a circular tent structure in the keeps central plaza. "Alright I'll let the Master know we have a new recruit. He'll be excited!" Her trainer bolted off giggling. Fury had a bad feeling about this.
"Fury Swipes!!!" A voice yelled from within the tent. She trotted in quickly. A pony in a black tunic with metal studs stared at her, assessing her physical qualities. Analyzing her strengths and weaknesses. "You are new blood, and as new blood you are yet untested. We will temper you. As a blade. In the process of forging an unrefined lump of metal is first put under extreme heat, to make it malleable. That was the door guard. Then once it has been removed, it is beaten into the shape of a sword. That is where I come in. Enter the center ring. Now." She complied and entered a ring in the center of the tent. "Leave your weapons outside. And take instead this. It is enchanted so as to not kill, injure yes, but not kill." He handed her a blade similar to hers. She looked around, new blade in hoof. A single Freezer entered the ring, a similar blade in his hoof. "May the games, begin."
Fury dove onto the sand floor and quickly jabbed up into her opponents chest before he could even react. He fell to the ground moaning and was dragged out by to other Freezers who then, took his place. Two were more difficult than one. Especially seeing as how she caught the first off guard with her aggressive attack. She needed to be more defensive this time. She waited for one of them to make a mistake. It was inevitable. One went high, the other low, she merely side-stepped to the right and rapped her blade upon the hoof of the one on the right. Who immediately collapsed in pain. Now facing only one she was able to push him back until she came upon a blade that fell from one of her opponents. Now, wielding two blades she easily disarmed and took out her opponent. They too, were dragged away, this time, by three. They entered the ring to replace their fellows. They circled around and despite her best efforts managed to surround her. This was going to end quickly, either for them, or her. She feinted a lapse of concentration and the opponent behind her jumped on it as did the one to her left. she deflected ones blade high and the others blade into the other. One opponent down, she kicked the surprised Freezer in the leg and tapped his head with her blade. It was at this point she felt an incredibly sharp pain in her back. She felt a blade there. She spun around and brought her blade down across the face of her attacker, who fell onto the ground. She stood there in agony as the others were dragged away.
"Impressive..." She thought she heard the master mumble. "Most fall from a single touch."
Four Freezers entered the arena and this time she would not be so easily flanked. At this point, the blades were scattered about the floor and Fury remembered James's and Anti's knife throwing competition... She threw her blade straight and true and down went a target. The other flew less true and was deflected. But provided her the time to scoop up two more swords. She charged the most isolated one and beat at his defenses before kicking sand up into his eyes and spinning around to face the now too close two Freezers. They swung simultaneously and her right arm blocked, but her left hoof slipped and was disarmed. As she felt the blade touch her face she fell to the ground, but as she did, she took out one more target with a sneak attack before losing her grip on reality.
***
Cotton was exhausted by the time she was allowed to return to her bunk. She looked over towards Fury's and saw her staring at the ceiling. Cotton got a spurt of energy at seeing her friend and whispered, "Hey, you found anything?"
Fury slowly moved her head to look at Cotton, "I learned that I need to work on my left hoof grip. What about you?"
"I found the vault where the Element is stored."
Fury yawned, "That's great... I'm sorry Cotton, but I'm really tired, I need to sleep now."
"I understand completely. I need to catch some Z's myself." She yawned and they both fell asleep.
***
Their routine continued thusly for several days until Fury got promoted to a vault guard, in the exact words of the Master, "Only the best of our fighters are allowed to guard the Vault. It is a shame to lose you in training, but there is nothing I can teach you, in fact, if you started a fencing school, I'd enroll!" News flooded in from all over the lands of Evandra, some good, most bad. Word was that Cantorlot itself had fallen! They also heard rumors that a new power had joined the Freezer army and had led to the razing of entire towns... They also heard the one of the forts had a break in, and something valuable had been stolen, but they knew not what. In response to one vault falling, the guards on theirs doubled in size.
Cotton sat down at the lunch table, the Chef had taken over today's lunch in place of Cotton doing Dinner the next three nights. "Soooo... Fury..." She whispered to her friend who sat at the small two pony table with her, Did you get the shift change you wanted?"
"Yes, I am on the day shift, the very smallest. Only about six guards excluding me. They shouldn't be a problem, they are all fools. Actually that was the argument that got me the job... do you have our escape ready?"
"Yes, I made sure that the repairs to the drainage system under the oven won't be done for another few days so there still is that hole to the cave system, and as long as we go left, left, right, left, right, right, forward, forward, forward, left, right, forward, left, we'll get out before the next vault shift even wakes up. So, when do we do it?"
"Tonight is the only night we can Candy..."
"Alright, see you in a fews Zeus." And Cotton finished her gruel and trotted back to work.
"See ya then Cott..." Fury sighed... If this was to all go to plan accordingly they needed to take out the guards quietly and quickly... Six guards... Could they do it? No sense worrying about it, it's gonna happen soon anyway... She thought to herself. She looked around the crowded mess hall at all the laughing Ponies... She didn't notice it at first but even she was having difficulty not laughing at some of the dumb joke... Which was strange... Especially for her... Being around soldiers typically reminder her of her brother... Why was she so ready to laugh?
***
"It's been a little to quite over there, don't you think?" Fury pointed out to her fellow vault guards, usually you could hear the snores from the nearby barracks where the night guard slept but today Cotton had stuffed blankets under all the doors to stop noise. "Why don't one of you come with me to check it out?"
"I'm kinda bored... I'll go." A Freezer hopped up and followed Fury into the dark hallway.
They passed a door and the Freezer noticed one of the blankets. Fury quickly quipped, "You go on ahead I'll clear this... But keep an ear out, this may be a prank but it may be an attack..." She drew her sword. "Go on... I got this." He turned to look at the next door. He heard a soft squelching noise and saw a peculiar sight... A red metal stick poked out from his nose... He tried to breathe, but couldn't draw breathe. He tried to scream but no sound came out. He closed his eyes to blink... and they never opened again.
Fury walked back towards the entrance of the hallway. "Hey, can we get one more? A doors jammed and we need somepony to keep watch while we force it open."
"Fine..." A slightly agitated Freezer got up and trotted into the trap. He trotted in and saw the figure on the ground. "Come on man, get up we have to open that door." It was strange... He wasn't moving... Unfortunately he never did find out why his friend wasn't moving.
Fury wiped her blade on one of their cloaks and sheathed it before trotting back in. "It was just a prank, those two are clearing it now." She looked for the blade they had pre set for one of the Freezers to carry. "Dude... what's with your sword?"
The Freezer sighed and laughed a bit. "Somepony thought it'd be funny to swap out my sword for a wooden one, unfortunately the armory shut down before I realized."
Fury laughed, "Well is it at least sharp?"
"Nope, blunt as your jokes I'm afraid." He laughed.
"Oh ha ha," Fury shot back, "Well, we can't have you running around with a blunt blade, come on I'll show you how to get an extra fine point." She drew two daggers. "I'll sharpen one side while you sharpen the other." She walked over to where he sat next to his friend. "The trick is to lunge with both blades at the same time." She whispered as she quickly thrusted the blades in their throats. The other two would have raised alarm if Cotton hadn't dropped from the ceiling at that moment with two daggers of her own and ended them as well. Fury quickly grabbed the two keys and opened the vault. She galloped in and searched through stacks of paper and gold. "WHERE IS IT!?" Fury panicked.
"We can drop the accents now," Pinkie giggled. "I feel something..." Pinkie bounced over towards a chest. It was locked. "Bring me that guards axe." Shadow slipped outside and hoofed it to Pinkie. "Thanks..." Pinkie hacked the lock off and opened the chest. There, in a sea of packing peanuts laid the Element of Laughter. "We have it... Let's go!"
They stealthily ran through the keep towards the kitchen and there, as was planned, was their exit. The both slid through the drain that Pinkie had uncovered early during her dinner shift and fell into the caves, they ran going left, left, right, left, right, right, forward, forward, forward, left, right, forward, left and saw the skies through the cave entrance. Shadow looked at Pinkie, "Are you ready? We will have to run far to get to the boat Celestia sent."
"You know I am." Pinkie nodded. "I'm just glad to have this back!" She giggled. "They'll assume we chose to run south, it's a good thing the river is to the east hmm?" They galloped the rest of the night until the saw a black ship with around forty Cantorlot soldiers aboard sitting upon a silver slash across the land.
Fury and Pinkie turned to each other. "We made it!" They said simultaneously. They ran aboard the ship and sailed for Equestria.