The balcony was a massive thing. It was probably large enough to play host to another, albeit smaller, party. The moon was high in the sky, shining its light down on the city of Canterlot. It was a beautiful full moon.
The city itself had changed a lot over the last few years. The Canterlot I had grown up in was bright, full of beautiful buildings, and overall, happy. A little uptight, perhaps, but you couldn’t deny that the city was one of wealth and opportunity for all.
Everything was different now. The city center was mostly the same, but everywhere not within a few kilometers of the palace was suffering. One out of five buildings were boarded up. Crime ran rampant- powered and non-powered crime alike. Graffiti was painted on buildings and litter piled up in the gutters.
It was a shadow of what it once was. The princesses were doing everything they could to revive the once-great city they had called home, but it was an impossible task- they didn’t even know the cause of the decline. Nopony did.
Except us. We knew that the cause of the decline was the villain activity in the city. The regular ponies knew something, too. They didn’t know of the existence of the villains, but they could feel something was wrong, and that feeling was what caused ponies by the hundreds to move out of the city. With less ponies to work and live there, the local economy suffered and rougher breed of pony moved in, taking advantage of the low property rates. Non-powered crime ran rampant.
How could the princesses fix the problem? They didn’t even know of the existence of powers. It was up to the heroes to fix the problem, and that wasn’t very likely.
Villains were tough. Anyone who had powers that weren’t all that good would never risk a life of crime. That would involve tangling with the heroes on a regular basis. Only the strongest ponies attempted a life of crime. That left the mid- to low-tier powered ponies to become heroes.
Nopony liked to talk about it, but the war the heroes fought was one they were losing.
Frostbite walked up to the balcony railing and leaned on it, looking out at the city. “It is nice city,” he said, “but stories make it seem... grander.”
I nodded, looking down. “Yeah.”
A lot of people think diamond dogs are stupid, but that’s not the case. They simply don’t have the best grasp of pony languages. Frostbite took one look at me, remembering the beautiful past of the city I grew up in, and decided not to comment on the city’s ragged state any more.
He changed the subject. “This what you wanted to show me?” he asked.
I shook my head, pushing thoughts of the city’s decline to the back of my head. Those thoughts could wait until another time. “This way!” I said, pulling on his arm again.
I dragged him to the wall beside the door that lead back into the party, where a tangle of vines climbed up the wall. “Go on, climb up!” I prompted him, poking his back with my horn.
He grabbed onto the vines with a paw and pulled himself up a bit. He stopped climbing to look down at me.
“What about you?” he asked, glancing at my hooves. “Pony feet not good for climbing.”
He was right, of course, but I had a few tricks up my sleeves. I concentrated for a moment, and the chain around my hips unclipped itself and floated into the air. Frostbite stared at it, then at my horn, which lacked a magical aura.
“You have powers?” he asked me. I nodded. He smiled.
“Miss Cutlass is full of surprises.”
I sent the chain to the vines, wrapped it around a cluster, and wrapped the other end around my hoof. I climbed that way, detaching the end from the vines as I moved up, using it in place of fingers.
My power may not have been useful in a fight, but they weren’t completely useless. I have powerful, non-magical telekinesis. The downside? It only works on chains.
A bit specific, sure, but we don’t really have a choice what we get stuck with. Everypony that had powers was born with the potential for powers, which only manifest in certain situations. The power you get is related to whatever it was that happened to you to cause them to manifest. In my case, I got stuck in a chain while working on a weapon for a hero. It was designed to attach the bludgeoning part of a mace with the handle- with a little bonus. The mace could be fired with the speed of a cannonball and pulled back towards the handle again- but during testing, I had gotten caught in the chain as it retracted. It had nearly suffocated me, until my power manifested and snapped the chain.
I made it up to the roof of the mansion, where Frostbite was already sitting, staring out into the distance. I sat down beside him and looked out where he was staring.
The view from here was wonderful. The mansion was situated in a higher part of the city than most, and you could see for kilometers in the distance. The Whitetail Woods, Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest were all visible.
“It is beautiful...” Frostbite said, under his breath.
I smiled. I reacted the same way the first time I snuck up here and discovered the beautiful scenery.
“A lot of ponies think the world’s going to Tartarus. When the state of the city gets me down, I like to sneak up here and take in the sights. It reminds me of what we have to fight for.”
I shivered in the cold night air, and Frostbite draped his heavy cape over me like a blanket. I leaned into him for warmth, but he didn’t seem to mind. If he did, he didn’t say anything.
We stayed like that for a few minutes. After a while, though, I felt his body tense.
“Do you see that?” he asked me, pointing out into the mansion’s courtyard.
I looked down towards where he was pointing, straining my eyes. It was too dark for me to make anything out.
“See what?”
“Ponies sneaking around!”
I saw them. Three ponies, each walking across the mansion’s lawn and towards the building itself. I couldn’t make out specific details, but I could tell that one was at least fifty percent larger than the other two. None wore costumes.
“Shit, this could be bad,” I hissed, standing up quickly. “We have to tell somepony about this!”
Frostbite nodded and leaped up. Without warning, he scooped me up and held me under his arm.
“What are you do- aaahhh!”
I screamed as he jumped down from the roof, landing gracefully on the balcony. He put me down.
I wobbled forward, my legs shaking from the shock of my sudden flight through the air. Frostbite rushed on ahead and back into the party.
I regained my senses and followed him, looking around the party for anypony I knew. I noticed a hero I recognized- Hydra, a mare wearing an orange, scaled bodysuit that made her resemble her namesake monster.
I went over to her and tapped her on the back to get her attention. She turned and glared at me. Ever since I told her I was unable to enchant her outfit to give it self-repair qualities, she had disliked me. I didn’t like her much, either, but I knew she was a responsible mare. She was a veteran hero. She’d hear me out.
“There are three ponies sneaking up to the mansion. They’re not wearing costumes,” I told her, summarizing what Frostbite and I had seen.
All trace of hostility disappeared from her face. “Thank you,” she said. “Go somewhere safe. We’ll see what’s going on.”
She ran off towards the stairs with the ponies she had been speaking with, and I decided to take her advice. I made my way towards the front hallway, intent on leaving the party.
I heard Hydra speak up from the top of the stairs, her voice raised.
“Everypony! There are three possible hostiles making their way towards the party. We don’t know who they are, so be prepared for anything! If they are non-powered, this is simply a masquerade party. If they are villains, be ready to fight!”
I made it to the front hallway.
“It’s possible they are normal thieves, taking advantage of the party to sneak in and rob the place. If they are, let them. It’s not worth the risk to attempt to st-”
I didn’t catch the rest of her announcement. The front door of the mansion detonated, exploding inwards and sending me flying down the hallway. I skidded across the floor and slammed into the adjacent wall.
My everything hurt, and I just sat there, not bothering to try to get up. I felt blood pool up underneath me, and in my confusion I wondered who it belonged to. Had I landed on someone? It took me a second to realize it was mine.
Three ponies walked through the dust cloud that hung in the air where the door once was. On the edge of my vision, I could see heroes running towards us from the party area.
“Good job with the grand entrance,” said one of the new ponies with a grin. She was a mare, and she was shiny. Very, very shiny. I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating from the pain, but her entire body was silver, including her eyes, which held no pupils, and she shined in the light.
The brown stallion beside her grinned and brushed his long, green mane out of his eyes, exposing a unicorn horn. “I’ve been practicing.”
Behind them stood the largest pony I had ever seen. He was easily twice the size of each of the others. he had an orange coat, no mane or tail, and green eyes. I watched as thousands of orange spikes grew out of every inch of his body.
The three moved into the ballroom, ignoring me.
I struggled to stand. When my legs proved unable to get me up, I used my power on the chain around my hips to get me into a standing position. I leaned against the wall for support.
I examined myself, looking over the damage I had sustained with an eerie calm. I think I was in shock, or maybe I just had brain damage from the blast and subsequent crash into the wall.
My right foreleg was broken in two places, bone jutting out of the skin. The rest of me was just one giant bruise. I didn’t have high hopes for the future of my leg.
I struggled to move towards the ballroom with only three legs. I knew it would be wiser to escape, but my brother was in there. He could handle himself, I knew, but I needed to make sure. If I had escaped and later heard he had died, I don’t know if I could carry on.
It would be my third loved one to die in a fight with villains.
The ballroom was destroyed, the battle still raging. The walls were full of destroyed portions- some areas burned, others frozen, and some merely hit very hard. Tables had been overturned and used as makeshift barriers. Ponies in costume littered the floor like discarded trash, some dead and still, some writhing in pain. I recognized some. I had liked some.
Rockwall’s body lay on the ground, still and silent. In life, she had been a beautiful hero, one who did everything she could to help others. I had always admired her grace. She was lying crumpled on the floor now, her back bent at an unnatural angle as blood poured out of her mouth. There was nothing beautiful about her now.
In the center of the room was where most of the action was happening. Heroes were falling in droves. In the center of it all, the three intruders were wreaking havoc.
The silver mare was floating in the air, forelegs outstretched. A tornado of metal shards whirled around her, carving up the flesh of anypony who ventured too near.
The brown stallion was jumping around, landing with massive crash each time. His jumps formed small craters when he took off and landed. He occasionally landed on a hero, pulverizing them into unrecognizable blood and gore.
The large one was now a pony-shaped mass of spikes. With every swing of his head and legs, heroes were sent flying through the air, full of holes.
I searched for Goldy in the chaos, and found him engaging with the brown intruder, the deft movements of his rapier deflecting his enemy’s blows. He wasn’t fast enough, however, and the brown stallion landed a powerful punch to my brother’s chest.
He shattered like glass, and the brown stallion stood there, confused, for just a moment.
It was a moment too long. While the stallion stood over the shattered remains of my brother’s duplicate, the real Dupe lunged at him from behind, his rapier stabbing through the enemy’s back and all the way through.
The brown stallion hardly even flinched when my brother released every chambered round into him. He grabbed the rapier blade where it protruded out of his chest and shattered it.
A buck backwards sent my brother flying through the balcony doors.
I hobbled forwards, ignoring the pain in my broken leg. The only thing on my mind was the thought of getting my brother out of this battle and to a hospitaI. I went straight through the battling crowd of heroes and villains, and was fortunate enough to come out the other end unscathed. Well, as unscathed as I was before I went in, at least.
I stumbled and fell through the double-doors leading to the balcony, finding myself in the cool night air once more. The sounds of the battle behind me were muffled and faint. I could almost pretend that the screaming was coming from a television somewhere.
I found my brother lying on his back, bleeding. Panicking, I put my ear to his chest and listened. His heart was still beating. He was still breathing.
I tried to lift him with my magic, but it was no use. I was too tired. With the fear for my brother’s safety diminished, the realization of what was happening seeped into my mind.
“Oh my Celestia...” I repeated to myself, over and over. “What the buck is happening?”
I leaned forward and tried to slide my brother onto my back. It was difficult with my broken leg, but I managed to get him settled. Shaky, tired, and hurting, I began the slow trot towards the end of the balcony, planning to loop my chain around him and lower him down to the ground with my power.
A being crashed through the wall, skidding to a stop in front of me along with a pile of debris. I covered my face with my ruined leg.
Pauldron shakily stood up from the pile. His armour was in relatively decent shape considering the heavy hitters he had been fighting, but I could tell by the way he moved that he wasn’t doing as well as his armour was. Still, he was handling things better than I was.
He noticed me and rushed towards me. “Cutlass, are you alright?” he asked. I started to nod, but decided now wasn’t the time for pride. I shook my head.
He noticed my mangled leg. “By Celestia, that’s bad!”
I nodded in agreement.
“You’ll never make it out of here like that. Let me carry you to safety,” he offered, ever the gentlecolt.
I shook my head again, but managed to speak a few words.
“No... my brother needs help...” I stammered out.
“Your brother knew what he was getting in to. He knew the risks. Please, Cutlass, let me help you.”
My chain flew up to his neck and tightened around it. I hadn’t expected it to do any harm, but to both our surprise it began crushing the metal underneath it. “Don’t you dare speak about my brother like that!” I shouted at him, emotion overwhelming my common sense. “He’s not expendable!”
Pauldron gurgled something in reply.
I loosened the chain.
“Al- alright,” he gasped. “I’ll take him.”
I moved next to him and transferred Goldy onto his back.
“Be careful,” he warned. “Get out of here.”
Then he left, jumping down off the balcony and galloping towards the city.
I heard somepony stomping their hooves behind me. I turned to look, my chain floating into the air, a makeshift yet completely ineffective weapon.
“Bravo,” congratulated Virtue, her voice low. “You truly are remarkable.”
“Why didn’t you help?!” I shouted at her.
She smirked. “That would be counterproductive.”
There was a flash of green light that blinded me for a moment. When I could see again, she was standing on her hind legs beside me.
“I’m sorry, Cutlass,” she said, her voice menacing. “I can’t let you leave this party.”
Her forelegs wrapped around my throat and I struggled for breath. “If it’s any consolation, I really do admire you,” she whispered into my ear and she held my throat. “You’re a good pony.”
Blackness encroached on my vision as she strangled me. With my face angled towards the chaos in the ballroom, the last thing I saw before I blacked out was Frostbite being torn apart by the silver mare’s shards of metal.
Why did this have to happen?