//------------------------------// // The Trap is Sprung // Story: Broken Fences // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Open up! Open up! Somepony needs to help me! My filly is in danger!" "Oh Star Dancer, you're right about your filly being in danger, but it's not the filly you think it is!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The voice behind her interrupts Star Dancer's passionate banging on the locked double doors which separated the civilian staff quarters from the rest of the castle. Turning around, she gasps in horror at what she sees: a pony cloaked and with stockings completely covering their hooves, red eyes fiercely glowing under the hood and flanked by two guards. Moon Dancer could also see being lead around by a rope a filly with mane and coat colors similar to but slightly faded from Moon Dancer's, as well as a blue coffee mug cutie mark and a suppressor ring on her horn. The second filly, the "mistake" Star Dancer had tried to keep knowledge from for so long, was now hostage of the evil Star Dancer immediately could guess as Agent Snake. "Your cleaning colt does good work, Star Dancer. Seize her!" Agent Snake exclaims, pointing a forehoof toward the stunned unicorn mare and prompting the two flanking unicorn guards to spring into action. Star Dancer is so stunned and confused by the turn of events that she barely puts up any resistance as the two guards pin her and put a magic suppressor ring over her horn. She is then forced to prostrate before Snake, her looking up with venom in her eyes. "You have a good explanation for why you stopped payments and started hobnobbing with that favorite of Celestia?" Snake spits out in an interrogative tone. "You filthy, no-good, rotten-to-the-core...!" Star Dancer begins to rave at the top of her voice, before abruptly being cut off by one of the guards smashing a hoof into the back of her head. Snake smirked at Star Dancer's dizzy expression as she struggled to get back onto her hooves. He had something particularly devious in mind for her, meant to ensure Moon Dancer's spiral into isolation and make an example of any others that potentially wanted to switch sides. "Take her to the chamber. She has debts that need repaying." Snake orders the guards, who promptly begin hauling her away. Snake follows behind them with the captive filly in tow, confident that all was going according to plan... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEANWHILE... "Stratocumulus, you're certain of this, that Moon Dancer is missing and Star Dancer is in mortal danger?" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor asks at an emergency meeting called with him and several Lieutenants in attendance. "Absolutely, sir. The young stallion Zodiac has misled Moon Dancer into running away and Star Dancer into a trap. The Agents of Chaos are behind this, I'm sure of it!" Stratocumulus exclaims. "Then we'll need to act fast if we want to stop innocent ponies from getting hurt." Shining Armor affirms with a stamp of a forehoof. He then begins giving out orders at a rapid clip: "Lieutenant Vesper, take your bat pony squad and find Moon Dancer before she has a chance to escape Canterlot! Lieutenant Aldebaran, you and your squad inform the guards at the city gates to be on the lookout for Moon Dancer, then join Vesper in sweeping the city. Lieutenant Stratocumulus, come with me, we'll deal with the renegade Zodiac ourselves! Everypony dismissed!" The good stallions of the Royal Guard were moving into action, but it was already too late to stop the evil plan now in motion... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Into the mountain of Canterlot the captive mother and her filly were lead by Agent Snake's party, the only light in the old mineshafts from enchanted crystals and torches mounted into the walls. The destination was a small cavern dominated by a machine and its control panel, a torture chamber of sorts that made Star Dancer and her filly gasp in horror upon seeing it for the first time. "Strap her to the table." Snake orders the two guards hauling Star Dancer, who at this point is disoriented and battered from the number of hits she's taken en route. She is strapped to the table without resistance while Snake works the rope of the filly into a sort-of noose, herding her up onto a low platform over which the loose end of the rope could be slung over a projection of the rockface, such that anypony that pulled on the loose end of the rope would tighten the noose and strangle the filly as a result. Snake positioned himself to do exactly this, but kept the rope in a position where the noose was not tight. He didn't want to kill the filly right away, just use the threat to force compliance. He also takes a moment to relish the fear and panic on the face of both filly and mother, completely helpless before him. "Operator, we are ready. And do not be slow now!" Snake shouts in the direction of an annex to the cavern. A few seconds later, a cream-coated unicorn stallion emerges into the main chamber, his reluctant walk prodded on by a dark-coated pegasus stallion using the dull end of a Royal Guard lance. Star Dancer gasps with a shocked expression at the sight of this stallion, and the filly says something like "Dad!" before a yank on the noose silences her again. The unicorn stallion averts his gaze as if ashamed from those two as he is prodded toward what looks like a control panel for the machine dominating the room. "Now then, you've been told what to do, Agent. Do not keep me waiting!" Snake states as the unicorn stallion is stopped in front of the panel, the spear on the pegasus guard flipped around to the sharp tip. The pegasus moves the tip of the spear such that it is near the neck of the unicorn, ready to strike at Snake's orders. The unicorn stallion looks over at the shackled and silently pleading Star Dancer, than at the filly in the noose, then down at the control panel with its big red button. Sweat is dripping from his muzzle, not entirely the result of the heat in the confined cavern space. Agent Snake lets out a growl and pulls down on the rope, beginning to choke the filly in the noose. Over her gagging sounds, Snake shouts: "I'm not going to say again! Press the button or the filly dies!" The unicorn stallion now shows panic. He again looks over at Star Dancer desperately shaking "no", then at the choking filly, then at the pegasus ready to skewer his neck with the spear, then down at the panel. Visibly trembling and with sweat pouring down his face, he finally slams a forehoof down on the button. Somewhere, there is a sound of a buzzsaw revving up. Snake lets slack the rope again, causing the filly to gasp and cough for air. The spinning blade, seen in the dim light attached to an arm of the machine, turns at a specific cutting angle and approaches Star Dancer, now shouting and struggling against her restraints as the blade edges closer and closer to the base of her horn... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ELSEWHERE... Zodiac was waiting. After Star Dancer had left her apartment looking for her filly, he had broken in and staked out a hiding spot. He had every intention of leaving Moon Dancer high and dry at the train station, and instead seek quick glory with the weapon Agent Snake had given him. A crossbow, loaded with two syringes full of what he had to guess was some kind of poison or knockout compound. Inevitably somepony, possibly somepony important, would come by the apartment looking for Star Dancer. And he would shoot them. And it would be glorious, or so he thought. The sound of voices breaks Zodiac out of his reveries and sends him scurrying to his hiding spot, just out of view of the apartment's main room. He quickly recognizes one of the voices - Shining Armor himself - and immediately his expression curls into an evil grin. Leaning against a wall to help keep balance, he picks up the loaded crossbow with his forehooves and waits out of sight as the voices come closer. "Hold up, Lieutenant. Somepony's broken into Star Dancer's apartment." Shining Armor was saying, his position close to the broken door into the apartment. "They bucked in the door, it looks like." Lieutenant Stratocumulus observes with a grim look down at the broken door knob and splinters of wood on the floor. "We'll have to assume an ambush. I'm going in with shields up, stay close." Shining Armor replies, his horn glowing with magenta-colored magic to encase him with a similarly-colored shield bubble. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is silence for a moment, then Zodiac hears the crunch of hooves over the broken wood of the door. He risks a peek around the corner to see both Shining Armor and Lieutenant Stratocumulus entering into the apartment, taking a quick look around near the doorway. "Some items seem to be disturbed, but beyond the door nothing else appears damaged." Stratocumulus comments. "We can work out the property damage later, for right now we need to find Star Dancer. She may have left already, but if she's still here she's going to need medical help most likely." Shining Armor replies. "You're right, she's already left, and you're too late to do anything about it!" Zodiac exclaims in reply, awkwardly swinging around out of his hiding spot and opening his wings to maintain his balance. He stops with the crossbow pointed at Lieutenant Stratocumulus, hoof on the trigger and a cocky grin on his face. "Zodiac. Shame on you, young stallion! After everything Star Dancer did for you, you repay her by helping send her and her filly to some terrible fate?" Shining Armor scolds after Zodiac reveals himself. "Shut up, Mr. Wishy-Washy! You have no right to lecture me on anything! I don't take orders from you, period." Zodiac shouts back. "As a citizen of Equestria, Zodiac, you are bound to..." Shining tries in a formal tone, only to get cut off by an increasingly giddy Zodiac. "I am not a citizen of Equestria, and my name is not Zodiac! My name is Agent 46, and tonight I'm going to kill a pony in the name of the Agents of Chaos! Glory to the chaotic one!" Zodiac shouts, at the end slamming his hoof down on the trigger as the mania takes him over completely. There is a great hissing noise, and the recoil of the syringes being launched knocks Zodiac off balance. The crossbow was aimed at Stratocumulus, but because of being knocked off balance Zodiac didn't see whether the shot rang true or not...