Disappear

by ShimmeringStallion

Opportunist

Opportunist

Twilight was powerful enough by herself, but the combined magic of the unicorns was being perfectly utilized, both together and separately, in ways she could only dream about. It was an incredible system: Rarity showed Vanish that the coins could be stacked next to each other, eliminating the need of counting them one by one, or even in clusters. Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and Princess Cadance were stacking the bits in massive towers, starting with five pillars of ten, merging them into a pillar of fifty, then into ten towers of fifty bits each, merging them into a five-hundred bit tower. Using that single tower as reference, Vanish, Rarity, and the three princesses, had been able to cycle through bag after bag of bits. The massive wall of the room they were in, allowed for a monstrous number of bits to be towered against it at once.

Shining Armor was up, and Twilight gave him the perfect job for his powers: He could place a barrier around the bits that they had counted, bundling them up into a ball for Twilight to then place back into a burlap sack and tie back up. Each sack held ten-thousand bits, as Gather watched the ponies place the bags on the opposite side of the room they were working in. As humorous as it was, they were admittedly efficient, but seeing them use their magic in such a ludicrous manner was making him all the more hungry to move on with his plan.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy were stopping Gather from interfering, not that he needed to. Pinkie Pie had gotten her hooves on some glow sticks, and was ‘directing’ the unicorns as they proceeded to count the piles of bits into towers, forming a massive wall of ‘bit towers’, bundling the wall of bits into a ball of bits, and placing it into a bag, before moving it to the opposite side of the room. Despite her actions not really helping in a practical sense, the humor of it kept them from losing their focus due to stress, though they got mad at her when she tried using a whistle to keep their spirits high.

After almost an hour of counting, they had finally bagged the last of the bits, amazed that not only had the bags been so neatly organized, but even more amazed at how fast they had counted them. Rarity quickly double-checked the bags, to ensure that they had counted a proper number. “98, 99… 100! One hundred bags of ten-thousand bits per bag, gives us a total of one million bits, exactly!”

The ponies sighed with relief at the success of what they had accomplished. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were tired, since they had never done such monotonous work in all their lives, but it had been well over a thousand years since they had last worked together on anything, as sisters. Regardless of what it was for, Princess Luna was overjoyed to be able to accomplish something with her sister, though Princess Celestia was mostly just tired. Twilight was also filled with joy at being able to spend time working on something with not only her mentor, but even with her big brother as well as her favorite foal-sitter. She saw the two of them embrace each other, love clearly radiating from them as they joined their horns together and nuzzled affectionately, much like they did on their wedding night.

Despite their actions, Gather had other ideas. Using the cheerful scene as a distraction from the eyes of the other ponies that had been tasked with watching him, the turquoise stallion crept behind the Wedding Hall door and used his magic to produce the wings of Rainbow Dash. Flapping the wings in order to elevate himself silently, he stood atop the massive door and looked at the ponies below, all of whom had forgotten about him. Seeing Princess Celestia and Luna exhausted, he took his chance. Dive-bombing them, the Princess of the Sun looked up, seeing the desperation in Gather’s eyes.

There was no time to think: Celestia jumped at Luna, causing both of them to fall to the ground with their backs on the floor. Snarling at how he couldn’t do what he wanted given their position, Gather decided to go for the next best thing, and raced to the ponies who had been swept up the folds of love. Racing past Twilight, Gather grinned as the purple unicorn screamed to her brother, “WATCH OUT!” Cadance didn’t have time to react, but Shining Armor attempted to move his wife out of the way before Gather reached them. Unfortunately, the artificial alicorn was much too quick in reaching them, and used his front hooves to keep their heads close, and their horns closer. “Agh! What the-!”

Causing his wings to dissipate, Gather connected his horn to the horns of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. They could be heard screaming in pain, as Gather boisterously laughed at the sounds of pain echoing off the walls of the reception hall. Shining Armor and Cadance were forced by the cackling unicorn to bump their heads together, causing them to rub their heads in pain with their hooves, before realizing what had truly happened: Gather had stolen their unicorn horns. Just as swiftly, the ice blue-eyed stallion quickly produced the wings of Rainbow Dash once more, and made another move, trying to attack Twilight Sparkle. Still stunned at the sight of her brother and his wife without their horns, she found herself unable to react as Gather grabbed her head between his hooves, preparing to use his magic to acquire her horn for himself.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash ran into Twilight, causing Gather to miss the unicorn completely and hitting the wingless Pegasus pony's head with his own, as both mares fell under him. Scowling, he quickly flew up in order to make another dive, but Vanish had seen more than enough. “AS MY CLIENT, I ORDER YOU TO STOP!” Gather laughed at Vanish’s statement, mocking him with his own words as he turned around and hovered in front of the dark, dark blue stallion. “Aww, we’ve been through so much, and you still don’t call me by my name? I’m hurt Vanish, really I am.” Laughing to himself, the false alicorn landed on the floor of the reception hall, gleefully trotting over to Vanish. “I was just havin’ a little fun, 'merc'. It’s not like this breaks our contract!” Gather pointed to the bags of bits. “You got your money, now do your job, and end this… Like a good little colt.”

Gather touched his horn, once again causing it to cast its magical aura around his hoof, and raising it to Vanish’s head. For a moment, Vanish leaned back, as if to avoid accepting the magic he had used before, but reluctantly leaned forward and accepted the horn’s power, knowing that his client had fulfilled their obligation. Without reason to break the contract, and without any points of argument, Vanish turned to the ponies in the room, as he lifted the fedora off of the floor where he had placed it, as well as his saddlebag, moving it closer to the massive sacks of burlap.

He didn't need to shout for them to hear him, given how silent the reception hall was as he pointed to the other ponies in the reception hall. “It’s time to end things with you all. Once I am finished here, I can leave all of this behind me.” Rainbow Dash walked up to the stallion, eyes brimming with pain and anger. “Vanish, when we first met, you told me I wasn't reliable, remember? Well, at least I'm not somepony like you: A good-for-nothing sell-out!” Vanish turned around to meet the bright cerulean-coated pony, glaring at her. “I won’t lie: I have no use for the money that my client has promised me for my contractual obligations.” Brandishing the wings of Spitfire and having his coat turn from its familiar dark blue to a brilliant gold in the process, Vanish began to hover in the air.

They could hear him whisper to himself as he stared at his hooves. “… Spitfire…” He cast a gaze to the roof of the Wedding Hall, backing towards the massive windows at the end of the atrium. Everypony who had been in the room with the bags quickly followed him to the Wedding Hall as Gather closed the doors manually, preparing for somepony to make an attempt at leaving. The dual-horned stallion shot a vicious glare to the ponies, as he spoke. “My goals are those of my clients. I have never made things personal before, and I swear to you all, I won’t start now.” Vanish made precise, yet erratic dashes above the ponies, leaving lightning clouds behind him before stopping at the door and continuing to speak. “I can’t start now!”

Vanish dashed from the door, straight through the clouds, cutting a line right through the zigzag pattern he had made with the clouds in the air only seconds ago. He turned from the window, looking in the direction of the ponies in the room, clearly meaning solely to intimidate them before committing to his work as he exclaimed to them all, “You never had a chance to stop this!”