The World At Large

by ToixStory

Episode 2: For Whom The Bell Tolls - Part 2

I stared down at the smaller pony before me, the pony I had known for months now, the pony I trusted utterly. The pony now holding me hostage. Starshine just smiled at me, trying to reach out to me reassuringly, but I backed away. I didn’t get far, however, when the janitor appeared behind me.

“So why haven’t we knocked this one out yet?” he asked in a gruff voice.

“Just calm down, Clean Sweep,” Starshine said. “Minty here is a friend. An ally. She’s not going to mess with this, so there’s no need to hurt her. Isn’t that right, Minty?”

The calm tone that Starshine kept belied the words coming out of her mouth. I knew the way she was talking, like she was some sort of leader. Or, at least, in control. Of what, I didn’t know.

Clean Sweep snorted. “She’s here because of Amethyst, remember? She took the job all on her own. Now tell me, Starshine, what kind of pony is she if she’s working for Amethyst?”

“She doesn’t know as much as we do,” Starshine told him. “She’s the one who took down Pullmare, remember? Killed her, which is more than any of the gangs ever did.”

“Or just threw her from power to let her own friend in.”

“Hey, Marshmallow’s a good mare!”

“Hey, Marshmallow is working with Amethyst.”

I stepped between the two of them in the small office. “Okay, what’s the deal with Amethyst?” I asked.

They both looked at me and said in unison: “Be quiet.”

I shut up while Clean Sweep bent down and gathered Red Rover in his hooves. The beige janitor slung the policestallion over his back and shook his head. “Look, Starshine, I’ll let you have your special little friend, but we are going to have a long talk about this when we get back to the Shed. Until then, keep her shut up, and make sure she doesn’t get away.”

He walked past Starshine and out the door of the offices. Starshine looked to me, opened her mouth, then closed it again and hurried after him. I sighed and followed. We stalked across the airship dockyard, clinging close to the shadows of stacked containers and putting a bit of distance between us and the office with Red’s car out front.

“Where is she?” Starshine hissed.

“She’ll be here,” Clean Sweep shot back. “She always is.”

I moved closer to Starshine while we waited in the shadow between two stacks of containers. “Who are we waiting on?”

“Scout,” she said.

Before I could say more, the squeal of tires echoed out across the quiet dockyard. Then, what followed was something that I had heard very rarely before. The roar of an engine. My heart beat faster and, for a moment, I had the crazy idea that Sterling was coming to rescue me in his convertible. Then, the car emerged into view.

It was midnight black, and much smaller than the convertible. More compact, with the engine block making up most of the car. It had harder, sharper lines and low-slung headlights that illuminated the ground in front of the car only.

Clean Sweep rolled his eyes. “She always likes to show off.”

The car slid to a stop in front of us, the engine rumbling and idling in the night. The car looked like a wild beast on the prowl, or a racer at the starting gate, shifting in his horseshoes. The passenger side faced us, and the door clicked open from the inside.

Clean sweep got over and shoved Red into the back of the coupe with a grunt, then motioned to me.

“Get in,” he ordered.

I gulped, and didn’t want to do anything to make him angry. I walked to the car and climbed over the folded-down passenger seat and into the back. I cringed and had to sit next to the unconscious Red, but smiled when I saw the driver.

The name Scout should have given it away for me, but I had forgotten. The ivory mare with a small frock of maroon on her head had been a member of the Royales, a gang of Neighponese ponies in downtown Fillydelphia that Starshine, Ivory, and I had gotten involved in after a big attack by local cartel groups. I hadn’t seen her in what seemed like months.

She watched me out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing. Starshine in the middle between Scout and Clean Sweep, and the car took off. The larger, petroleum-driven engine was much faster than anything steam could make, and we were soon zipping around the outskirts of Fillydelphia.

We zoomed on up through the foothills past West Fillydelphia, toward the mountains that rose behind the city. There were only two parts of the city there: the Burb on one side, the Heights on the other. While the Burb splashed against the mountains in a tide of wealth and prosperity, the heights sat farther west, on the plateaus near where the mountains became plains.

The place had been abandoned for years, until the cartel ponies had set up shop there. We had stopped them, and I never thought I would come back. Then, Scout turned on an old, rocky road toward the Heights, and my heart started to beat faster.

“Why doesn’t she need a blindfold for this?” I heard Clean Sweep hiss at Starshine.

“She’s been here before,” Starshine replied. “It wouldn’t do anything.”

“She’s been to the Heights?”

“We all have.”

The all-black car crunched over unstable roads, through the central area of the abandoned houses and businesses of the Heights. Thirty years ago, fifty thousand ponies used to live in the Heights, now it’s a ghost town. Not even the bums came here, and the stories circulated about the ghost part being more than just a saying.

We crossed out of the downtown area and toward the industrialized fringe areas of the suburb, where much of Fillydelphia’s factories had once been. Many warehouses lined the road, but only one of them didn’t have rusted carriages or trash in front of it.

Scout jerked the wheel and the car slid into the parking lot of the warehouse. It was a fat, tall building with a massive corrugated gate on the outside, and a smaller, normal door to the side. The rumble of the car’s engine echoed across the empty waste of the warehouse district.

I thought we might be alone for a moment, but then the door to the side opened and a pony appeared. He waved at us and Scout shut off the car. She climbed out her side, and Clean Sweep got out his. I was pulled out against my will before Clean dragged Rover’s unconscious body out.

A cold wind blew gently and the weeds in the yard danced. I shivered and saddled up next to Starshine. “Did you really need to put your headquarters in such a creepy place?” I asked.

“What, scared of a little wind?” Starshine asked. “And besides, it keeps prying eyes away, which is what we really need.”

“Sure . . .”

She tugged my hoof. “Now come on, you need to meet our boss.”

I allowed myself to be led across the ruined courtyard to the front entrance. The stallion that had let them in had disappeared, and the interior was pitch black. I tried blinking my eyes, but even with the eyesight of a pegasus, I couldn’t see for anything.

Then, the lights were flipped on and I was almost blinded. I held my hooves over my face and cried out until the pain in my eyes had faded enough for me to look.

When I did, there wasn’t much to look at. A slate gray floor that had been cleared of all debris save for a few massive generators at the back and a few offices further beyond. A catwalk hung over our heads, but that wasn’t wholly unusual. In all, there wasn’t anything abnormal, save for a steel desk and two chairs in the middle of it all.

In one of the chairs was a stallion whose coat was a few shades lighter than the concrete and a cropped, jet-black mane. He waved me over and, after a second, I nodded and walked to the table.

After seeing Scout again, I shouldn’t have been surprised at who was waiting for me. Maybe I was surprised that he had become the leader of the little group, but then again that shouldn’t have been either. Anyway, all I knew was that it was Shuya waiting for me at the table.

I remembered our last time in this part of town, when he had helped me take down the cartel. The short Neighponese pony had saved my life from them before, and had united his gang after the fight to be at peace with the other gangs in the city. That, it seemed, had changed.

“Minty,” he said, “it’s nice to see you again. You look well.”

I nodded to him and sat in the steel chair. It felt cold under my flank and I shuffled my wings under my collared shirt. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Shuya . . . not like this.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And may I ask why not? Is this so different than what we did before, last time we were here?”

“Last time you weren’t knocking out police officers and threatening workers. A bit of a difference there.” I sighed and looked behind me. “And you’ve got Starshine in on it too, I see. If her then . . . Joya too, I assume? Those ‘costumes’ of hers? And did Sterling make you that engine for the car?”

“Whoa, whoa, one question at a time,” Shuya said, holding up his hooves. “We can get to our purpose soon, but for now just know that Starshine came to me asking if she could join. Joya doesn’t know what we’re doing, no, and Starshine simply copied your coltfriend’s engine designs and Scout managed to make a working replica. She tells me it isn’t up to the real thing, but it works.”

I smiled a little at that. No matter how nice the car, I knew the engine wouldn’t compare to what Sterling could do. The colt was a mad genius in front of a work bench, and there was no way they had anypony like him.

“Well good to see Sterling’s honest, at least,” I said. “But why the heck are you doing all this underhoofed stuff, Shuya? This isn’t like you.”

“I can’t tell you why,” he said.

“Then who can?” I asked.

“Perhaps I could, if you would allow it,” said a voice.

I whirled around in my chair, only to come face to face with a white mask and a stallion in a black cloak. He tilted his head and I could almost feel the smile come out from under it.

“Did you miss me, Minty?” he asked.

My heart beat hard in my chest, where I could feel the scar his knife had given me start to burn. No, not here, not now! Not him! The assassin that had almost killed Starshine and I, who had killed Pyrrhus, stood in front of me.

“You!” I shouted.

He stepped back out of my reach before I could swing my hooves at him. I growled and tried to lunge at him, but Shuya reached across the table and held me back.

“You bastard!” I yelled. “What are you doing here? What are you doing to these ponies?”

I could hear a sour laugh come from behind the mask. “Doing to them? Whatever do you mean? I am merely accepting an invitation. This is no way for you to treat a guest, Minty.”

“You tried to kill me!”

“I did no such thing.” He shook his head. “If I had tried to kill you, I would have succeeded. I merely meant to wound you, nothing more. Now that I am released from my previous contract, I am no longer required to harm you in any way.”

“So, what, you expect me to forget about the scar you gave me?”

“No, I expect you to learn from the scar I gave you, as we all learn about the pains that ail us. You were hurt, but I can only hope you have learned and grown stronger from your pain.”

I growled. “Strong enough to take you on for a rematch.”

“Is that so?” Faster than I could react, he sprang forward and was pressing a knife against the nape of my neck. The silver blade was sharpened to a fine point, and I could feel it scrape hard against my skin. I did my best not to whimper.

“Enough!” Shuya shouted. He stood from his chair and walked around the table toward the two of us. “I asked our friend to come here, Minty,” he said to me. He turned to the masked assassin. “And I asked you to be on your best behavior around her. We don’t need more enemies, especially in her.”

The assassin was quiet for a moment, but then removed his knife and sheathed it beneath his cloak. “Acknowledged.”

I rubbed the area on my neck where he had held the blade. The precision with which he’d pressed on the blade had left me feeling sore, but the skin hadn’t been broken. I tried to discern what was behind the mask he wore, but as usual he showed little emotion beyond a passing concern for what Shuya was saying.

“So Shuya,” I said, “can you remind me again why you hired an assassin to play on your team? One that’s known for killing his last employer?”

Shuya shook his head. “I didn’t hire him, just asked him to come. I asked because I believe our causes are much alike, and we could both benefit from a mutual partnership.”

“And what cause is that?” I asked.

“The only one that matters,” the assassin said. He hopped up on top of the bale and waved a hoof through the air like he was making a speech to a massive crowd.

“Revolution! For too long, the ponies of this city have sat idly by and watched while their government creeps in through their lives, enveloping them and squeezing them tighter and tighter. While the ponies in their sky-high towers grow fat and rich, the have-nots grow ignorant and complacent.”

“They’ve started to grow used to the corporations and the banks controlling them,” Shuya continued. “The Burb thrives with unrestricted business that sows among the poor and reaps for the rich. We are an organization that seeks to end that. The gang wars are over, and the revolution has begun.”

I looked between the two of them. Shuya, with his honest face, beamed at me. His eyes shone in the harsh light from overhead fluorescents, and I could see sweat gathered on his forehead. The assassin, of course, kept his emotions behind his mask, but he leaned close toward me and made me feel like he meant every single word.

“You say you want a revolution?” I asked.

Shuya nodded. “That’s the idea.”

“Well, you know, I guess we all want to change the world.” I shrugged. “But is this the best way to go about it? To start a revolution instead of, you know, maybe trying to talk to Marshmallow? She’s my friend, and I’m sure she’d listen.”

“We’ve tried,” Shuya said.

“And?”

“All queries to speak with her have been refused. Trying to make an appointment at the office itself is met with rebuke by one of her secretaries. The time for inaction is over.”

My father had had similar opinions, back in the day. When a small-time thief had robbed the town store on a hot summer’s day, my father had gathered several stallions from the outlying farms of Derbyshire and gone to the police, trying to get them to track down the criminal after the case had slowed.

When our two-bit cops had refused, my father had rounded up his cadre of stallions and gone on the hunt themselves. They trudged through the backwoods around Derbyshire, sloshing through mud and rivers until they finally found him, taking a nap among the reeds that lined a riverbank a couple miles upstream from our town.

He hadn’t spoken a word of it to me, I had only found out from my mother years later. But that thief had never gone back to the local courthouse. No, my dad came home with a smirk on his face and a little blood on his hoof, confident that justice had been served. Somehow I hadn’t ever thought of it as a valid idea, but here I was with an entire organization holding up the same values.

“So what do you want me to do about it?” I asked. “What, do you expect to hoist me by my own petard and march through downtown Fillydelphia? Or are you just going to scare off more factory workers who have as little control over the company as you or I?”

“There’s more to this than what you know,” the assassin said.

“Then tell me.”

“Minty, this is far bigger than you. When you’re ready we can—”

Starshine stepped into the little ring that the assassin and Shuya had formed around me. She stood so much shorter than the rest of us, but with a simple look she seemed to tower over us like a colossus. She took her place by my side and looked at her two compatriots.

“Tell her.”

Shuya shook his head. “Starshine, we can’t take that chance. You know that.”

“Tell. Her.”

The assassin audibly sighed behind his mask, and I could almost see him rolling his eyes. “We tell her, and we give up our one trump card, and put her life in danger. You want her to know, tell her yourself.”

My ears perked up. Had I heard that right? The assassin . . . had shown remorse at the idea that I might be killed. Somehow, in the midst of all the insanity that had consumed my life, that was the funniest thing I had heard in a long while.

I opened my mouth and, Celestia help me, I started to laugh. Not the little filly snickers when talking about a boy, but the big, belly laughs that fill taverns and bars all over Equestria. I was bent over and wheezing, laughing myself crazy while Starshine and Shuya just stared at me. The assassin, somehow, seemed bemused, almost as if he knew what I was laughing about.

My scar started to hurt.

Starshine stared at me like a family pet had suddenly started to talk. She shook her head and took me by the hoof, and led me a little ways from the two other ponies. She sneered at them.

“Forget those two,” she told me. “But I do need to tell you about this. It is e-ssential you know, Minty. You’ll be on our side afterward, I know it.”

“And if I’m not?” I asked.

She smirked. “Then you’ll be our hostage for the next week, and you get to share a cell with Red Rover. I’d be careful about that. I hear he snores.”

“How would you know—”

Starshine grabbed me and hauled me across the bare factory floor to a smattering of offices at the far end of the building. Neither Shuya nor the assassin made any move to stop her, and only stood and watched us.

We trotted through a veritable maze of high-class offices and secretory rooms that wound around the exterior of the building. Her grip tightened around me when we came to a door that led into a flight of metal stairs. They snaked up the side of the factory and deposited us on a flat roof that overlooked the entire district.

Wind blew in from the west, and rushed over staccato rooftops and streets quiet as a graveyard. The air had a stale smell to it, like dying rust that paled in the sun. The wind blew around Starshine’s closely-cropped mane, and sent my own burnt orange hair flinging around my face. I spat out hairs from my mouth, and looked at her.

“Why are we up here?”

She waited a minute before answering. Before she started to talk, she hung her head over the edge of the roof and looked down. “I wanted to give you a glimpse of what we’re fighting for.”

I looked around. “We’re fighting for the Heights?”

“We’re fighting for what the Heights represent,” Starshine said. “Their destruction, and their remains, are a wound on Fillydelphia that refuses to scab over. When we lost this place, we didn’t just love individuals. Every one of the ponies who died here was part of Fillydelphia, and we are less for their loss. We haven’t recovered from then, and only continue to lose more of ourselves.”

“Do you mean Pullmare?” I asked.

Starshine glared at me. “I’m talking about ponies like Rainbow Remedy. This town is so much worse for his loss, and it’s a wound that hasn’t been filled. You didn’t know him like we did, Minty. You haven’t been here long enough to understand any of what we’re talking about.”

“You mean the revolution?”

“Not just that, but yeah. The revolution.”

I bit my lip and watched her. She chucked her head back and let her neon pink mane ride down over the nape of her neck. I noticed she was shaggier than I had ever seen her. She looked like a mare who had been thrown out with the bathwater and forgotten about. Despite it, her eyes gleamed and looked around with a bright intelligence.

“So what’s the big secret?” I asked at last.

“Ponies have been disappearing,” she said simply. “We don’t know how, and we don’t know why, but ponies around the city have been going to work and not coming back. We’ve been trying to scare off as many workers as we can to protect them, but it only works for so long.”

I hesitated. “And you think Amethyst is behind this?”

“How could she not be?” Starshine snorted. “A majority of the disappearances are near her factories or shipyards, and the rest are close enough to assume it was her.”

“But Marshmallow—”

“Is being played for a fool, Minty.”

I took a step back, and tried to shake my head. I tried to tell myself that she was wrong, that there was nothing bad about the kind mare I had met in Marshmallow’s office, but I couldn’t. My heart of hearts, beating like the rapping of a war drum, knew it to be true.

I felt cold and clammy. Wet. The air seemed to congeal in my mouth and drift into my senses like a dull cloud.

“So will you help us?” Starshine asked.

I looked at her, then began to nod slowly. “Yeah, I’ll do it. Not for some revolution, mind, but for Marshmallow. She has enough problems as it is, and now she has a pony playing her for sinister means.”

Starshine raised an eyebrow. “What makes you so sure she’s innocent?”

I surged forward and pressed myself against her. I glared down into her eyes, our faces meeting, and growled. “Marshmallow is one of the best ponies I know,” I said. “She has no part in this. Got it? I won’t even tell her about Amethyst until all this is over.”

“Okay, okay. Just don’t be so quick to trust her.”

“Like I trusted you?”

A pause. “Yeah.”

I walked to the opposite edge of the roof and looked. I could see where the Heights ended below me and the real Filllydelphia began. Even at its weariest, the city was still filled with light and sound, an alien construct compared to what was here. It glowed like a million suns in the night, and it was hard to not call it pretty.

“So what do you need me to do?” I asked.

Not that I was doing it for the assassin, though. But somehow, I thought doing something would land me a bit closer to the truth than I would ever get out of anypony around here. Besides, Marshmallow either didn’t know what she was doing, or too far in over her head to stop it. If for nothing else, I had to stop whatever was going on with Amethyst.

It wasn’t that I didn’t expect that Marshmallow might be okay with whatever Amethyst was doing, but that she was as low on the list of suspects as Princess Celestia. The mare I knew and was friends with wouldn’t do anything that would warrant Starshine fighting her. The assassin, though, I wasn’t so sure about.

“What you’d have to do is simple, really,” Starshine said. “Wouldn’t take much effort at all.”

I stared at her. “So what is it?”

“Well . . . you know Scout?”

“Yeah?”

“Tonight she’s supposed to have another job. Just a simple run. Down to Amethyst Corp and back up here. Be back in an hour. Problem is, she doesn’t feel that right going alone.”

I sighed and rubbed my head. “So you want to go with her, is that it?”

“More or less.” Starshine flashed me a smile. “C’mon, Minty, it won’t be so bad. We’re only sending her to the headquarters to retrieve information to prove that what Amethyst is doing is bad. You’ll be sure of it, and we’ll have what we need. It’s a win-win, right?”

“Will that . . . that assassin be along for the ride?” I asked.

Starshine shook her head. “He’s here for a different reason. I know how you feel about him, Minty . . . but he isn’t as bad as you think.”

I slid down my shirt to show her the scar on my chest. It was still a dull red and the fur around it hadn’t grown back yet. I could hear her gasp a little, but she stood firm.

“He’s done some bad things before, yes, but not ever out of choice. He’s on our side now, isn’t that enough?”

I snorted. “Sure. Just don’t keep him near me. I’ve already been burned enough—sometimes literally—in the past. I don’t need more of this.”

“Sure thing.” Starshine sighed and loped to my side of the roof. She gently rubbed her head against the concrete that was cool from the night air. “Do you ever wish you hadn’t come here, Minty?” she asked. “That you hadn’t met . . . all of us?”

I took a moment to answer. “Sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

“Sometimes, yeah.” I flicked my tail. “Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I had stayed safe at home. No scars, no death, no sweats late at night or bad thoughts . . .” I gulped and tried to pass over it. “But I mean, at the same time I’m glad to be here. I really feel like I’ve done something with my life, for once.”

I reached over with my wing and wrapped Starshine in a tight hug. It caught her by surprise, and she sort of squeaked when I squeezed her. She didn’t protest, though. She felt soft under my wings, and I smiled.

“I’m still glad for the friends I’ve got. You don’t have to wonder about that.”

Above us, clouds moved around the moon came out from behind them. Its light spilled down on the quiet city and the metropolis beyond.

* * *

We came down from the roof a few minutes later. The assassin and Shuya were talking to each other in hushed tones near the edge of the factory. They looked at us when we got down on the concrete. The mask the assassin wore never changed expression, but I could swear it was frowning at me.

Not just at me or past me, but through me. Like an arrow or a bullet that had shot me, but somehow more personal. We walked over and met them near the interrogation table I had sat at with Shuya.

“So what’s the word?” Shuya asked.

“She’s in,” Starshine said.

The assassin kept his mask locked on me. “She has no qualms about joining Miss Scout on her mission?”

I smirked a little. “I’ll be fine, trust me. I’ve had a lot worse. If she wants me, then I’ll go.”

“So quick to answer, I see.” The assassin made a sort of clicking sound with his tongue. “Hasty decisions made in the heat of the moment rarely turn out to be wise, Miss Flower,” he told me. “I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I haven’t known since I got here,” I said. “I’ve managed.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Shuya stepped between us. “Alright, alright, you’re both pretty,” he said. “Before you two either start stabbing or grinding on each other, Scout is waiting outside. Minty, head out there and tell her you want to go with her. It won’t be a problem, and you’ll be back soon. Once you are, we can talk more.”

“Sure, just trying to send me away,” I said, but had already started to trot away.

To tell the truth, I would have taken a dozen dangerous jobs to get away from that assassin. He just seemed like he wanted to know he was the most important pony in the room, and that he could kill me if he wished. I mean, he’d said it, but he just kind of radiated it.

I guess having him on our side was a good move, but I wasn’t sure I was happy about it. I wouldn’t have wanted Pullmare on my side, after all.

I made it over to the door I had come in, and let myself outside. The rush of cool air was welcomed, especially without the wind that had been on the roof. The only sound around for miles was the rumble of the engine in Scout’s car.

Scout herself leaned against the hood, and she looked up when I walked outside. She ran a hoof through her mane and nodded to me.

“They convince you to go?” she asked.

I nodded. “Well enough. You ready?”

“Would I start my car for any other reason?”

She swung herself off the hood, and opened the driver’s side door. She slid inside and waited for me to trot around to the other side and get it. The vibration of the engine really got to me when I was sitting in the front seat, a lot more than the back. It was kind of nice, really.

Scout pulled away from her parking space, but not out onto the road. Instead, she parked at the other side of the building. She stopped and sat, idling, and looked at the door.

“We waiting for somepony?” I asked.

“Just a couple of Shuya’s stallions,” she said. “They’re going to do the heavy lifting on the job. I’m just the driver.”

As if on cue, the door banged open and a couple of hulking stallions came out. They were both dressed all in black, with only their eyes showing through their masks. Scout got out and let them climb into the back over her seat.

Once they were settled in, she revved up the engine and drove off onto the road proper.

I sat back in my seat and let gravity take over. The two stallions weren’t quick to talk, and I had never heard more than a couple sentences at a time from Scout, so I didn’t figure it would be a very loud ride. I was right, of course, but that was okay. The night sky was still beautiful from the road, and I was glad to be in a car.

It was pretty great to be out of the creepy, haunted town. Supposedly haunted, but to me supposedly is more than enough. The place gave me the creeps, more than anywhere else in Fillydelphia. There wasn’t something right about it, even if I couldn’t really put down what it was.

Anyway, we were driving in a big copy of my coltfriend’s car toward the Amethyst Corporation. I thought they had meant like a factory or something, but no, they had meant the big building downtown. The lights from skyscrapers and apartment buildings colored the inside of the car orange as we drove. It was kind of pretty at night, even if it blotted all the stuff that made night great like stars and the moon.

I wondered if Luna ever got mad at the big cities and all the ponies that couldn't see her stars and moon. Maybe that was what had made her go all Nightmare Moon, but she had been back since then so I didn’t think so.

Scout parked behind the Amethyst building, on a narrower road from the front and way more secluded. We were in the shadow of a gnarled tree growing from a planter in the middle of the sidewalk. It somehow still had its leaves, and gave us a nice little hiding spot.

Scout asked me if I minded getting out for the two brutes in the back, but she didn’t really care if I minded. It was nice of her to ask, at least. I got out under the spreading limbs of that tree and let the two hulking stallions out. They said nothing like always, and instead ran toward the building.

I got back in and looked at Scout. She had a little gold pocketwatch on a chain, and she had it tied around the wheel. She watched it, and watched the building.

“So what are we doing here, exactly?” I asked.

She shushed me and shook her head.

I grumbled a bit, but what could I do? This whole night was like a rush that wouldn’t come down, just escalate. My life had pretty much been like that since I had gotten to Fillydelphia. If I had a time to rest, it was soft and quiet, but as soon as things picked up they didn’t stop until the problem was solved.

Three days of problems and a week of rest.

Not that I complained, anyway. I’d rather have something quick and get all the nasty business over with so I could write a column about it afterward. Still, when I looked at Scout, I wondered just why the hell I was there.

An alarm started to go off inside the building, and Scout’s head shot up. She started the car and stared at the door the two stallions had disappeared inside. We waited and waited, with our breaths held while the siren droned on and on.

Finally, the door banged open and one of the stallions came running out. His mask was off and one of his shoulders had been torn with a deep cut across it. I could see blood trickle out of it as he ran, splashing around like a damn sprinkler.

Another stallion appeared in the doorway, but he wasn’t one of Shuya’s stallions. I could only see his outline, but he was smaller and more clean-cut than our allies.

He raised his hoof, and a small explosion came out from it. The bullet slammed into the running stallion’s head, and exited out the front. A little bit of mist with other little bits and brains came out of the hole and the stallion toppled to the ground.

I didn’t even know his name, and he was dead. Fuck.

Scout started spilling curses out of her mouth when she saw the stallion go down. She fought with the gear shift to get the car out of there. I thought she must have been scared if it was taking so long. There was another bang, and the window behind me exploded. I crouched down beneath the door and grit my teeth.

One more gunshot followed before Scout rammed the stick into gear and sped away. The engine roared and we sped down a wide avenue leading out of downtown toward West Fillydelphia. I was shaking and fought to keep still in my seat.

I looked over at Scout and saw that she was shaking too. Sweat was building on her forehead and she had a hoof planted firmly against her side. My heart caught in my throat and I didn’t want to look down, but I made myself. Sure enough, blood was seeping out of her side.

Shit, what was it with people I didn’t know? Were they supposed to die because they weren’t important or something?

“You’re shot!” I yelled.

“No fucking shit!” she yelled back. “Don’t you think I already know that?”

She was right of course. Dammit.

“We need to get you to a hospital or something!” I said. “You can’t keep going like this!”

“Just watch me,” she grunted.

“You’ll die!”

“I’m dead if we go to a hospital. If I can just make it back to the base . . . I’ll be fine.”

I shook my head. She was bleeding too much, and the car was starting to weave all over the road. But she wouldn’t speak to me again, no matter how much I pleaded. So, I got an idea.

I popped open the glove compartment in front of me and fished around inside. I smiled and, sure enough, there was a shiny revolver inside. I brought it up in my hooves and pressed it against her head.

“Pull over. Now.”

She laughed. “What, I’ve been shot so you’re going to shoot me?”

“You’re too hurt,” I said. “You’re not thinking straight. Pull over to the side of the road or we both go down.” I ground the barrel against her skull. “Now!”

She smirked, but did as she was told anyway. It was a good thing, too. Her eyes were fluttering closed by the time she ran the car up on the sidewalk and came to a halting stop.

I watched as she slumped over, head against the wheel. I cursed and grabbed her by the shoulders. I kicked the door open behind me and dragged her out, doing my best to not let her body hit against the pavement too hard.

We were beneath a streetlamp, the light letting me see just how bad the wound was. The bullet had buried itself deep in her before exiting out the other side. A thick stream of blood ran out both sides and stained my hooves red when I tried to keep pressure on it.

The hospital was far from us, and I didn’t even know how to get there. Scout was fading in and out of consciousness, mumbling beneath her breath and staring up at me.

“Not you!” I yelled. “Not you, not you, not you! Nobody’s dying on me again, not ever!”

Tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped onto her fur. I pressed myself as hard as I could against her, and tried to close the wound. I wished for a horn so badly right then, more than I ever had in my life. I was a useless pegasus, and I couldn’t do one damn thing.

I looked at the road ahead of me, but it was bare. The road leading into West Fillydelphia was as empty as a graveyard. I was alone on that damn street, all alone. That’s what was the worst, that I was only useless on my own.

“Somepony help!” I yelled out, even as I knew its futility. “Somepony help! Please! My friend’s shot, and I need a doctor!”

Silence.

But then . . . a voice.

“Minty?”

My heart stopped. I whirled around, as much as I could with my hooves on Scout’s side. The voice I had never expected to hear again belonged to a unicorn standing behind me. A unicorn with fur as red as the blood that stained my hooves and a mane every color of the rainbow.

“You said you needed a doctor?”

Author's Note:

I have a plot twist now. Ho ho ho

Comments

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

troll.me/images/pissed-off-asian/it-begins.jpg

[RoboRed]

O_O No way...

[Silverness]

WOW WHAT A TWIST!

[djthomp]

The disappearances are certainly concerning, but I just can't help but expect that this revolution is going to to get ponies killed.

Yeah, knew it.

My heart stopped. I whirled around, as much as I could with my hooves on Scout’s side. The voice I had never expected to hear again belonged to a unicorn standing behind me. A unicorn with fur as red as the blood that stained my hooves and a mane every color of the rainbow.
“You said you needed a doctor?”

Yes, yes! For some reason I was waiting him to show up all chapter long, but I didn't actually expect to be right. Now here's hoping he isn't a hallucination.

[dancing mop]

Whoa, holyshitRainbowRemedy'sback!!!

I knew nopony could die in explosions, I knew it!!

Or, yeah, it could just be a hallucination. Ehhh, probably not. It would just be too awesome if he was back. Oooh, maybe he's the leader of the revolution! That would explain why Starshine mentioned him on the rooftop specifically.

[Luminous Lead]

I KNEW IT. I FREAKING KNEW IT! YES!

He was way too important just to go like that.

Wait... he could have been helping in all the intervening time. Why, when he's been missing so long, is he back right now...?

[Balmas]

WHAT.

Excuse me, but I just need to...

a;sodfa;lkshg;kdsjhf

YES!

[Themaskedferret]

The name Scout should have given it away for me, but I had forgotten. The ivory mare with a small frock of maroon on her head had been a member of the Royales, a gang of Neighponese ponies in downtown Fillydelphia that Starshine, Ivory, and I had gotten involved in after a big attack by local cartel groups.

In Freeze Frame you said Scot was part of Red Rover's gang "The Basterds"

Is the change simply to indicate Minty didn't care to remember or unintentional?

[thisisnotabrony]

Thirty years ago, fifty thousand ponies used to live in the Heights, now it’s a ghost town./quote]
i instantly thought of this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRYmVb33VU0
applejack is pleased
by the way, great story!

[ilubatar nuctemeron]

My heart stopped. I whirled around, as much as I could with my hooves on Scout’s side. The voice I had never expected to hear again belonged to a unicorn standing behind me. A unicorn with fur as red as the blood that stained my hooves and a mane every color of the rainbow.

Jajajaja I love/hate you!!!! jajaja
>:C
:)