Disappear

by ShimmeringStallion

Thunderstruck

Thunderstruck

Vanish looked at Twilight, before closing his eyes and focusing on the second horn, using it to produce the wings of Rainbow Dash, as he turned to shout at Gather while his coat changed color. “Don’t tell me how to do my job!” Remaining close to the barrier, Vanish darted straight up, keeping himself as close as he could to it. Shining Armor used his magic to reinforce the barrier, as the Wonderbolts flew through a hole Princess Celestia used her own magic to produce, up and after the dual-horned artificial alicorn. Watching the ponies fly off, they were surprised to hear and see Gather knock on the barrier. “Hey ingrates, eyes over here. You want me, right? Well, here’s your chance.” Gather smirked at the princess, and the ponies with her. “I dare you.”

Princess Celestia didn’t appreciate the tone Gather was taking with her. Without hesitation, she opened a hole in the barrier with her magic, pointing for some of the guards to grab the cerulean-maned stallion. He stood on his hind legs as he raised his front hooves in surrender, and smiled. “Hmph.” They had all paid attention to Gather, and forgot about Vanish in the process. As Gather was being placed back on all fours and turned around, detained by multiple guards with spears, he watched his ‘contract stallion’ commit to his work as the other ponies watched what was transpiring above them once more. The smokescreen above the barrier was almost spherical, but Twilight had a sickening feeling about what was transpiring in the thick black cloud above them.

All too quickly, the members of The Wonderbolts, one by one, fell from the trap they had made. Vanish wasn’t focusing on his ability to cloak as the ponies figured he would. Instead, he was using his speed, combined with the smoke they had produced, to clear air ‘pockets’ of visibility, and attack Wonderbolts that went after him. Rapid Fire and Fleetfoot rolled down the side of the barrier before going into a freefall, wingless and graceless in their plummet. Rarity grabbed Fleetfoot while Twilight grabbed Rapid Fire, as several other members of the fabled Equestrian daredevil team fell from the smoke cloud, causing it to grow smaller and smaller in size until it was gone, leaving only two ponies airborne: Spitfire and Vanish.

Several unicorn guards had grabbed the other members of the Wonderbolts that had fallen from the sky before they could reach the ground and become severely injured. Twilight knew what had gone wrong: They had misunderstood Vanish’s strategy completely, basing their plan off of only one possible outcome of what he would do. Gather laughed out loud at the sight of the disgraced and injured daredevils on the ground. “HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha! W-What a bunch of worthless hacks, wouldn’t you say?” Celestia scowled at the stallion's words, pointing her hoof to him as she made her proclamation. “Silence, you ignoran-” Gather showed absolute disrespect to the Princess of the Sun, waving her comments away with his hoof. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, ‘Princess’. You know, I wonder why you’re only arresting me, when your little blue mare, here, is the one whose wings are being used to take out your team of aerial ‘Specialists’.”

The reality of that statement hit Rainbow Dash like a ton of bricks. It wasn’t her fault, but it sure felt like it, even with Applejack coming to her defense. “Don’t blame Rainbow just ‘cause Van’s usin’ YOUR magic to use her wings!” Gather chuckled at Applejack’s accusation. “Hmph, whatever. Just so you know? I paid good money for Vanish to do his job, and he does it very, very well. Of course, I’m in here, so if he can’t see me outside the barrier, he’ll move on to Plan B.”

“U-Umm… W-What’s P-Plan B?” Fluttershy was terrified at the sight of so many wingless Pegasi, ponies who Rainbow Dash aspired to be like. She wanted to help, and nopony else would talk to Gather in order to try getting information out of him. Gather turned his head, and stared at Fluttershy with his ice-blue, cold eyes, chuckling a little before turning his stare of contempt into a serious, menacing glare. “Oh, it’s much like Plan A, except a lot… more… painful.”

The ponies looked at Gather swiftly as he ended his response with enough venom in its tone to make them nauseous, before everyone looked back up at Spitfire just as quickly. They could hear Vanish talking to her, as the collective silence was just enough to hear a distant pin drop through, let alone a distant voice. “Nothing personal, but my client has been taken into custody, and as a member of the Wonderbolts, I am being paid to acquire your wings. Your friends would be proud to see you remaining in the sky in your final moments, but I cannot give them that honor, my dear.” Spitfire's hovering faltered briefly from the sound of the statement the stallion had made. Vanish charged at the orange Pegasus pony, who narrowly dodged the maneuver. Vanish used the horn to bring out the wings of Soarin' before speaking. “I’m truly sorry. You never deserved this.”

Using the ability to produce lightning clouds, the ponies below could see Vanish moving around Spitfire at an incredibly fast rate; far faster than anypony they had ever seen before, and unquestionably faster than they had ever seen Soarin’ fly. Rainbow Dash and Soarin’ began to feel weak, and the other members of the Wonderbolts could be heard groaning in inexplicable pain along with the two wingless Pegasus ponies, prompting Twilight to try getting an answer from her friend. “Rainbow, what’s wrong?” Twilight was concerned for the cerulean mare, but noticed the guards around who had been ‘clipped’ of their wings, had also begun to look severely drained as well. “… W-What IS this!?” A clap of thunder could be heard above, prompting the ponies to once more divert their attention to the thick spherical lightning cloud. It was completely black, but flashing with lightning as it illuminated the silhouettes within: Spitfire’s, which appeared to move erratically, and Vanish’s, which moved fluidly. They could hear a mare's screams of pain from within the cloud, as Soarin’ hunched over in tears from the sound of the screams.

The lightning flashes, accompanied by thunderclaps, became all the more frequent, until the ponies saw a stream of lightning clouds shoot back down the side of the barrier from the ‘dark cloud ball’ above them, heading to the area outside of the barrier directly in front of them. Leading the cloud stream, the ponies saw Spitfire in Vanish’s clutches, wings clamped and being driven head-first as the stallion made a beeline straight for the ground. Soarin' cried out in fear for his long-time friend. “… S… SPITFIIIIRE!!!” He was desperate to do anything to help his friend escape the terrifying position she had been trapped in, even using any remaining strength he could to try charging through the barrier, to no avail. The moment before impact, Twilight could swear that she heard Vanish speak, seeing his mouth move as she heard him. She didn't know whether it was her imagination or not, but the words sounded clear to her:

“Forgive me”

Pulling up at the last second, Vanish released Spitfire from his hold, causing her to collide with the ground before anypony could slow her descent, with an almost immeasurable amount of force. The ground burst and shook from the impact, causing several of the other ponies to drop to their knees, meeting their jaws as they remained stunned by the sight they had just witnessed, and the accompanying sounds of the poor mare's impact with the ground. Spitfire was concealed by a thick cloud of airborne dirt, which dissipated slowly. Upon seeing her, they were awestruck at the sheer extent of the damage Vanish had done to their friend.

Her goggles were broken, with pieces of them embedded in her forehead and eyelids, staining her shining yellow and orange coat and mane. The pure scale of the degree of damage could not be measured by sight alone, though it clearly extended past her severely broken wings and body. Her suit was in tatters, her eyes were closed, and her mouth was open, though they could not hear or see her breathe from their position inside the barrier. She looked like she had been in a fight with several other ponies; a cruel, hopeless, one-sided fight. As Twilight struggled to contemplate the events that had just transpired, Vanish landed near Spitfire, looking straight at Princess Celestia, who looked like she bore witness to a great cataclysm. Rarity fainted at Vanish’s approach to the unconscious orange mare, as Pinkie Pie tried to wake her friend back up.

Princess Celestia had seen enough, but struggled to speak. “A-Alright, you proved your point, let her go.” Vanish looked at Gather for his answer. The captive stallion’s smile grew wide and menacing, as he clasped both his hooves together, rubbing them slowly against one another. Celestia saw this, and raised her hoof as a means of enforcement. “By order of Canterlot, do not harm her further! This is your last warni-!” Gather stepped forward, grinding his front hoof into the dirt to emphasize his statement. “Crush her.” Celestia looked at Gather, who was clearly enjoying this.

She realized then, that this pony she had ‘apprehended’ was clearly more of a threat than she had anticipated, perhaps even more than the artificial alicorn outside the barrier, simply for his 'control' over the pony outside the barrier. Princess Celestia lowered her stance in order to shout into the turquoise stallion’s ear. “GATHER! In the name of Equestria, call him off! You’ve made your poi-AGH!” Gather turned around quickly, striking the side of Celestia’s face with his hoof, causing everypony around them to gasp as several guards brandished their weapons in defense of the regal alicorn, while other guards piled on top of the stallion who had attacked the Princess of Canterlot and Ruler of Equestria.

Their weight did little to stop his laughter, or his series of mocking statements. “How does it feel to have your precious title be revealed for the sham that it is? Your authority over me is as empty as the backs of your Pegasi Guards! You are worthless! You can’t even protect yourself, let alone your guards, and make no mistake about your royal subjects: They’ll get what’s coming to them!” Gather chuckled, staring icy daggers into Princess Celestia’s eyes as he struggled to breathe due to the force of the guards on top of him. He pivoted his head on the ground and shouted at Vanish, before the guards jumped off of the captive stallion in order to surround the princess, helping her up with the assistance of several ponies. “As your client, you must do as I say! Now pick her up. Use your magic to pick her up.”

Vanish’s eyes were fierce as he used the magic of his horn to levitate the prone body of the Captain of the Wonderbolts. Gather stood up, limping towards the barrier’s border. “Now use my magic to take her wings, and grind her into the barrier. Let these ignorant worms know not to mess with my power. That’s an order, Vanish!” Twilight had heard enough. “Vanish, don’t do this! Please!” The princess's faithful student had tears in her eyes as she ran to the edge of the barrier. She didn’t want to believe that this was the stallion she had spoken to for the past couple of days. She desperately hoped that she wasn’t just being toyed with at the Library, at the Boutique, and even on the train, when it came to his proclamations of a 'code of honor'. Attacking an unconscious mare was hardly a claim of honor, yet Gather shouted angrily in response to the mare's intrustion. “DO IT, VANISH! CRUSH HER AGAINST THE BARRIER AT ONCE, AS YOU CLAIM WHAT I PAID FOR: HER WINGS!!!”

Vanish activated Gather’s horn, and readied his stance, lowering Spitfire with his magic, to his level. Even if Princess Celestia could order everypony in Canterlot to help, she didn’t have the time to do it. The smoke gray-maned stallion ran into the mare and propped himself on her with his forelegs, before seemingly stabbing her in the back with Gather’s horn, but not moving her from her position in the air. In that instant, the smile on the face of his client had been erased; the look of sadistic glee deteriorating into one of somber disappointment in the process, before Gather spoke. “… Hmph… Fine. I get what I want, either way.” Vanish jumped off of Spitfire, slowly lowering her now-wingless body next to the barrier with his own magic. He looked at Twilight, with soft, sad eyes. Turning his attention to Rainbow Dash, the look of sorrow was replaced with a stare of regret, as he desperately tried to get through to them with his expression: "I'm not a monster."

But as they saw Vanish begin to soar upwards by the barrier, sporting the freshly obtained wings of Spitfire, fully brandished and healed in comparison to how they looked on the mare moments ago as his own coat began to resemble that of the Captain of the Wonderbolts, their worst possible fears were realized: He wasn’t done with his orders. Gather laughed to himself, wistfully. “Oh, how could I forget the time?” The ponies kept their eyes on Vanish, except for Rainbow Dash, who charged at Gather, kicking him fiercely and knocking him over. “What's he doing? You better answer me or else!”

Gather looked at Rainbow Dash blankly. “You’re no one important without your wings. Buzz off.” Gather turned his head, catching the sight of Spitfire being brought into the safety of the barrier by some unicorn guards, as well as being followed closely by Soarin’. What appeared as a painful sight for the ponies within the confines of the barrier, brought a smile to the face of turquoise stallion, who simply taunted the others. “You’re all destined to wind up like her, all because I’m in here.”

Gather looked up, as Vanish approached the top of the barrier. “To get into this barrier by any means necessary: That is Plan B.”