Disappear

by ShimmeringStallion

The Brawl in the Wedding Hall

The Brawl in the Wedding Hall

Vanish allowed his eyes to scan the ponies in the room as he hovered in front of the massive central window. There were four ponies in the room that had wings, but he couldn't help but hesitate at the idea of attacking those who had helped him, or at least, from attacking all but one. One he said he would take the wings of on several occasions. Dashing towards the ponies that had gathered together, he landed in the middle of their makeshift circle, causing them to forcibly disband before turning his attention to the sole pony he had put off obtaining the wings of, the most.

He didn't even need to explain things as he often took pride in doing. He simply addressed her by name: “… Fluttershy.” Amazingly, the timid mare seemed to be the least scared of all the ponies in the room. Hearing the stallion call her name, after being told that she would have her wings removed, and after seeing ponies who had their own wings removed several times, made her realize something, yet Rainbow Dash would not let risk the stallion harming her friend as she shouted to get the attention of the gray-maned pony. “You leave her alone, Vanish! She's done NOTHING to deserve her wings being taken!” Vanish turned his attention to the wingless Pegasus pony that had approached him from behind, but his calm demeanor faltered momentarily, being caught off-guard by the sudden feeling of Fluttershy placing a gentle hoof of assurance on his back. “It’s alright. Go ahead. Take my wings.”

Her friends ran over to her. Pinkie Pie screamed at her friend; “Are you crazy?” Rarity shook her head at the thought of agreeing with Pinkie Pie, and at the notion of Fluttershy’s decision as she explained her idea. “Pinkie Pie is right. Leave him to us and escape with the princesses.” Applejack put herself between Fluttershy and Vanish, scraping her hoof along the floor. “We ain’t lettin’ him take yer wings, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash ran around the stallion and shook her friend, hoping it would bring some sense into her. “Look, don’t do this! We can take Gather, AND Vanish!” Twilight Sparkle stood firm between the stallion and the pink-maned mare, scowling at the unmoving mercenary. “Fluttershy, you’re our friend. We won’t let you get hurt!”

Fluttershy gently pushed past them as she closed her eyes, focusing deeply on what to say. “Girls, you don’t understand. If you all try to stop him, then you’ll just end up getting hurt. He won’t hurt me if I don’t struggle as he removes my wings.” Fluttershy turned around, opening her eyes, showing the concern that was clearly reflected in their cyan glow. “I like my wings, but… I don’t need them! They help, of course, but I’ll still be able to see all of you, as well as my friends in my home, and around the forest. That's more important to me than some silly wings.” Fluttershy was serious, and her friends knew it, though they desperately tried thinking of a counterargument, to no avail, as the mare spoke up so the dark blue pony could hear her. “Vanish, if there’s any way you can do this without making it hurt, then I'll give you a chance.” She turned back around to the stallion. “As long as you promise me that you won’t harm my friends.”

Vanish stood on his hind legs as he crossed his forelegs, deep in thought, but keeping his eyes on the six mares in front of him. “This is not an easy request to give, nor is it one I can easily accept, my dear. If provoked, am I to believe that you are asking me to do nothing in response?” Fluttershy shook her head. “They won’t do anything to you. I promise.” Vanish walked up to Fluttershy, activating his second horn in the process. “They are not you, Fluttershy. Is this just an effect of your spirit resonating with the Element of Kindness? Or-” Fluttershy cut him off, keeping her tone as soothing as ever. “It’s trust, Vanish.” Vanish stepped back, seeing Fluttershy sit down with her back to him, ready to accept her fate as she moved her tail out of his way. “I trust them not to hurt you, and I trust you to do what you promised.” Fluttershy brandished her wings, truly accepting that which she believed to be inevitable, in her mind. “Remove my wings, please.”

Vanish was struck with compassion for the yellow Pegasus pony, but he knew that he had a job to do. “… You have my sincere gratitude, Fluttershy.” Vanish lowered his horn to Fluttershy’s back as she closed her wings back up. The feeling of the horn on her back caused Fluttershy to produce an involuntary whimper as Vanish focused briefly on the power of Gather's unicorn horn, before the deed was finally done; the fastest, most painless acquisition of the wings of a Pegasus pony he had ever accomplished. Even though he knew he shouldn't care, he couldn't help but want to make sure she was okay. “Are you alright, my dear?”

Fluttershy stood up and walked over to her friends, smiling timidly. “I-It'll take some getting used to, but I have friends to help me out if I ever run into any problems. Th-Thank you for making it painless.” Vanish bowed in response, unable to tip his hat, which lay in the previous room along with his saddlebags. It was at this point, he realized that he wasn’t relying on anything but the power that Gather had given to him, in order for him to acquire Pegasus pony wings. There was no trickery in how he did his job, when he was doing it his way.

Brandishing them, his coat slowly changed its color from that of Spitfire, to the same color as the coat of Fluttershy. He looked at the wings, noticing that they were slightly larger than those of Rainbow Dash, which he found to be rather peculiar of a detail. Also, they were much gentler in how they felt. Perhaps not using them often for racing or diving through clouds, gave them a feeling of 'softness' that one who often fluttered, rather than flew, would grow to have.

He spoke up, realizing he didn't have much time to waste, though still entranced by the strange texture of the wings. “Next-UGH!” The stallion turned his attention from the wings, caught entirely off guard by Princess Cadance’s husband, Shining Armor. Vanish had been charged into, but the force was weak; for a unicorn, charging into a threat head-first often meant the possibility of causing damage to their horn. As a result, despite Shining Armor not having his horn due to the actions of Gather, he ducked away from a full collision solely by reflex. Vanish saw this weakness, but didn’t want to use his magic to take Fluttershy’s wings away, at least not yet. He hovered above Shining Armor, knowing that the stallion couldn’t reach him. Looking forward, he noticed Princess Cadance galloping towards the two stallions, seemingly ready to help her husband.

It was a sight Vanish admired; the look of devotion. Despite that, he couldn't give them the chance to best him here. Hovering in the air, he baited the princess to attack him, taking notice of Luna and Celestia slowly circling the room as Gather sat in the corner, enjoying the drama and the action, all the same; he knew what Vanish was planning, but also knew that he had no way of failing, as long as Cadance didn’t change what both stallions thought her plan of attack was.

Sure enough, Shining Armor launched his wife high into the air by using his back as Princess Cadance soared above where Vanish thought she would go. She opened her wings and glided over him, before stomping on his head with her hind legs. Twilight recognized the attack; Gather had done the same one to her, up in the Cloudosseum, and it had almost knocked her out when Gather had done it. Vanish was in a freefall, and Shining Armor prepared to charge into him.

Vanish focused his attention to the Captain of the Royal Guard, waiting until he was close before shouting to the hornless unicorn. “… Nice try, stallion!” Using Fluttershy’s wings, he broke out of the freefall and glided just over Shining Armor before bucking his rear hooves, kicking the noble stallion in the side of the head, rather than the back of the head. This left Shining Armor dazed, but far from unconscious, since Shining Armor was quick enough to turn his head in an attempt to see his target.

Regaining his balance, Shining Armor charged at Vanish once more, only to see Vanish causing Gather's horn to glow. Seeing the mercenary remove his wings and revert his coat to its natural colors, the blue-maned stallion seized his chance and rammed full-force into Vanish, who used his front hooves to try blocking Shining Armor before both stallions promptly bounced off of each other. Shining Armor righted himself and closed his eyes, shaking his head, feeling like he just charged into a wall. “W-What!? What just happened?” He realized that something felt very, very wrong all of a sudden, and upon opening his eyes, he was greeted with a terrible sight, causing him to shout in the midst of his shock. “HUH!?” Shining Armor never saw it coming; Vanish had used Shining Armor’s own magic, the very same magic that Gather had obtained moments before, to place him in a barrier, causing the stallion to be stopped in his tracks.

Princess Cadance saw her husband trapped, shouting to him worriedly. “No! Shining Armor!” The mare ran straight at Vanish, set on avenging her husband who had been bound by his own magic, but Vanish couldn't let her win. “Sorry, princess, but this is just business for me.” Vanish jumped over the barrier and landed on the opposite side, buck-kicking the spherical barrier that Shining Armor was in and causing it to be launched directly at Cadance. Caught completely off guard, the force of the barrier as well as that of her husband inside it, crashing into her head as she stumbled backward from the impact before trying to balance herself, tripping and falling forward in her dazed and pained condition. From the force of the collision, her husband’s barrier had become weakened, but still kept him confined as he could do little but roll around in it, still dizzy from the impact with his wife. Vanish ran towards the princess, pouncing on her in the process.

She cried out in weak protest, “Nngh! N-No…” Her pleas of mercy fell on deaf ears, as Vanish used Gather’s horn to take her wings from her by force. She grunted from the rather minor surge of pain, for the impact with the barrier had made her far too weak to struggle much against the stallion that bore down on her, who was now trying to talk her into stopping her movements completely. “Hold on.” Vanish, having acquired Princess Cadance’s wings, swiftly brandished them, as his coat changed its color once more. He jumped into the air, and stomped on the shield that he placed around Shining Armor, shattering it in the process. “You. Take her to the others. Now!”

The sound of two hooves clopping together in appreciation could be heard from the corner of the room. “Ah, well done, Vanish, well done! You’ve gotten better with my magic, I see. Spectacular!” Gather was sitting down, applauding Vanish for his efforts against the ponies so far, knowing that Vanish didn’t want to hurt anyone, let alone as many as he had wound up hurting with his actions. “I love a good spectator sport, and it is made all the more entertaining with a live performance. Simply glorious! HA HA HA HA HA!!!” Gather clopped his hooves together, even louder, before bringing about a sinister change to his tone of voice. “Of course, now you just need to finish the job.”

Vanish turned his attention to his client, quickly glancing at the princesses in the process. “Don’t tell m-UGH!” Shining Armor had waited for his opportunity, and it arose quicker than he could have hoped. For taking the wings and horn of his wife, there was no forgiveness within him. As Captain of the Royal Guard, he had a method for detaining ‘difficult’ ponies, though it was seldom executed in Canterlot, considering the types of ponies around hardly being 'difficult' in their demeanor. Standing on Vanish’s hind legs, as well as his wings, much like Vanish had done to Princess Luna earlier, Shining Armor shouted to the Princesses of the Night and Day, “Princess Luna! Princess Celestia! Attack him, now!”

They didn’t have to run in to attack Vanish. Much like when the Queen of the Changelings challenged Princess Celestia, a duel with pure magical essence could be used in order to disable Vanish’s magical capabilities. Luna and Celestia had positioned themselves near one another and fired their beams of magic at Vanish. The pained stallion was not helpless, however, as he tried to do the same. However, he had something to even the odds: He had two horns, compared to the single horn on each princess’ head. “I won’t… LOSE… AGH!!!”

Shining Armor leapt up, keeping his front hooves on Vanish’s wings, before slamming on the mercenary’s hind legs, causing a wave of pain to surge through Vanish’s body, out through his mouth as he lost his focus for a moment. Opening his eyes, he saw the beams of magic of the princesses almost reach him, and put his strength into releasing as much magic as he could, though his own unicorn horns. His own horn challenged the powers of Princess Luna, while Gather’s horn was used to challenge Princess Celestia. It seemed fairly one-sided, given how he had lost several seconds of time he could have used to focus the magic into beams, thanks to Shining Armor.

However, Vanish had an idea. Feeling Shining Armor rising up again in order to stomp on his legs, Vanish waited briefly, before quickly retracting his hind legs. Right before Shining Armor could land in order to protect himself, Vanish buck-kicked the Captain of the Royal Guard off of him, causing the white-coated stallion to soar over his sister and slam into the wall of the Wedding Hall. “NO! SHINING ARMOR!” Princess Cadance was weak, but had woken up due to the sounds of the fight going on, seeing her husband soar over her and Twilight Sparkle, naturally wingless and completely helpless as the mares had been trying to help her instead of watching the fight going on. As the ponies ran over to Shining Armor, Vanish growled in frustration. “Grr… Time to do this… the hard way!” As he focused his power entirely on Princess Celestia, the magic that had been used to produce the wings on his back ceased to remain in effect, causing the wings to disappear and his coat to change back. The sudden surge of power was too great for the princess to prepare for, and she paid the price with her horn sustaining heavy damage, becoming impossible for her to stand up from the pain as her crown was cast aside from the force of impact.

“NO!!!” Princess Luna lost her focus before her beam of magic could reach Vanish, allowing the stallion to collapse from exhaustion without sustaining physical damage. Luna ran to her sister, making sure she was conscious before redirecting her attention to the stallion. “You… I WILL SHOW YOU NO MERCY!!!” Princess Luna focused her beam of magic even harder. Vanish focused his magic once more, this time from his own horn, but he had used his magic for far longer than any unicorn should ever use consistent magic. He knew the Princess of the Night would win, unless he changed his strategy.