The touch of the Weeping Alicorn was always cold.
The Doctor had faced them time and again, each time suffering heavy losses he never found easy recovering.
He had been glad he’d rendered them unable to venture to the present day last time they’d crossed, trapped in their own timeline they’d dread his return as much as he would dread theirs.
Yet here they were. Clutching him by the forelegs as he was dragged forward, his back-legs trailing along the ground.
A thick mist enveloped the ground beneath him. Their legs invisible behind their trailing stone gowns, the Weeping Alicorns glided along the ground.
They stopped, as sudden as stone having set in place, as the Doctor steadily looked up.
He was brought before a great circular stone slab, large and smooth enough to serve as a table which was exactly what it was being used for. His limp forelegs were pushed forward by a cold pedestal moving up behind him and serving as a seat. The Alicorns grip loosened and he fell upon it. Groggily, he looked around.
He swiftly wished he hadn’t.
His wife and daughter were at the table and the Weeping Alicorns stood beside them as they did for him. Strangely though, their expressions were different.
The ones beside Derpy had expressions drooping in melancholy, moist dark lines running from their eyes down their cheeks.
The ones beside Dinky were open-mouthed and wide-eyed visages of fear and terror, something they reserved only for the Doctor.
Strangely, they seemed to match the mood of those they guarded.
Derpy was weeping at the table, her head bowed, her hooves rubbing over themselves in a silent prayer.
Dinky was shaking on her own seat, glancing to her parents fearfully. She was clutching her sides, either from the icy cold in the area or from the chill the Weeping Alicorns seemed to carry with them wherever they went.
The chill of doom, of oblivion.
And the knowledge that they could deliver it upon anypony at anytime.
“Derpy? Dinky?” The Doctor checked on them.
None of them reacted to him. Derpy continued weeping and Dinky continued shivering.
As confused as he was anxious, he looked up at his own pair of stone wardens.
Pure rage was set upon their stone features. Bared fangs and biting cold eyes, their wish to harm their quarry was prevalent on their faces.
But he felt none.
Looking forward, mind lost in uncertainty, he saw the figure appearing before him, sitting opposite him at the table where before there was only mist.
“Hello Doctor” he smiled.
Cascadius.
It was then the Doctors expression matched the Alicorns beside him as his most hated foe leaned over the table in a relaxed fashion.
Of course, why wouldn’t he be smiling?
This was exactly what he wanted.
Him, the Doctor, the two ponies most important to him and no way to escape.
Looking up at the Alicorns beside Cascadius, his two hearts almost jumped out of his chest.
They had removed their own faces, holding them in one forehoof like masks, broken off their forms like the top of an egg.
Their true faces leered at the Doctor, utterly demonic smiles and small, black, evil little eyes set in a pale, fleshy formless pulp.
Smiling, twitching, monstrous.
Cascadius looked over as if only just noticing them.
“Friends of yours, I assume?” he said “Nice of them to bring us all together” He reached under the table and brought out a large, rather bulky revolver.
Dinky gave a terrified squeak and Derpy closed her eyes with a whimper as pointed it at the Doctor’s head.
The time-turner felt something cold running down his cheek.
Then Cascadius smiled. That smile had become synonymous with all of the evils of ponykind.
“No...” he murmured “Tell you what, while we’re alone...let’s play a little game”
He pulled out the barrel of the gun. There was a chorus of clinking and clattering as the bullets rolled out onto the table in front of him.
He picked out three, fitted them into the barrel and brushed the rest away. Shaking the revolver, the barrel clicked into place as his eyes gleamed.
“Three bullets” he hissed with enthusiasm “Let’s see who misses out, eh?”
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Derpy wailed, trying to reach out for her daughter and husband. The Weeping Alicorn’s hooves tightened around her shoulder with a rocky, crumbling sound. On and on the grey pegasus flailed, crying out.
“Dinky! Doctor! No! Please! Don’t hurt them! Please don’t hurt my family!”
“Oh I won’t” Cascadius said calmly, raising the revolver in his hooves “I won’t need to. Watch closely. Everypony has a go and the only murderer here is our own sorry luck”
He held the gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger.
There was a click.
He lowered the revolver, placed it on the table and gave it a push.
It landed under Dinky.
“Your turn, little one”
With a shaking hoof, Dinky picked up the gun, hearing it rattle on the table and stared at it as if it were an alien object.
Opposite her, Derpy sobbed, struggling to free herself.
“Dinky! Dinky, please don’t do it!”
“Dinky...” the Doctor murmured, the chill the Alicorn hooves sent through him locking him in place, his breath producing an icy vapour adding to the mist “Don’t...”
Dinky stared at her parents, her wide amber eyes moist with tears, struggling to keep control.
“Please don’t look” she pleaded before crying out in pain as the Weeping Alicorns beside her tightened their grip.
“No, no, no, that won’t do at all” Cascadius chuckled “You know the rules, Doctor, around the Weeping Alicorns...” His eyes glinted with menace “Don’t take your eyes off them...And whatever you do...don’t blink”
Their eyes forced open, Doctor Whooves and Derpy Doo stared, eyes streaming, as Dinky held the revolver to the side of her face and tightened her hoof on the trigger.
‘Click’
Dinky’s eyes had flickered a moment as the sound of an empty shot pierced the grim silence.
“Ah...How fortunate” Cascadius said in an intrigued tone “Pass it on to daddy, there’s a good girl”
Dinky stared at him, trembling like a rigid autumn leaf. Then she stared at the gun and then at her parents.
Then at Cascadius again, a glint of determination in her wide amber eyes.
“No...” she said “I won’t...I will not kill my mummy and daddy”
No sooner had Dinky finished speaking, she cried out in agony as the grip of the Weeping Alicorns tightened around her shoulders, edging towards the sides of her neck. Derpy and the Doctor did the same and even Cascadius gave a grunt of pain, the Alicorns by his side giving a hiss like knives across china plates.
He coughed and chuckled.
“Perhaps I haven’t been clear, little one” he said “You can either keep the gun and all of us will die...Or you can pass it on and only three of us will die”
“Dinky, please...” the Doctor whined “Just pass it to me...I’ll be alright, I promise”
Whimpering, Dinky passed the gun, rattling on the stone table under her shaking hoof, to her father.
He’d always hated guns.
He threw one last hateful look at the smirking Cascadius who was leaning forward in his seat with anticipation.
Closing his eyes and bowing his head, his hoof placed the gun’s barrel to his temple and began pressing down on the trigger.
“Dinky...Derpy...I love you”
‘Click’
“Damn it!” he cursed, throwing down the gun and looking to his companion.
Derpy stared blankly, her wall-eyed expression impossible to determine what she was looking at. Sweat and tears were pouring down her face and she’d begun shaking slightly in a somewhat fitful fashion.
“Derpy...” the time-traveller reached out in vain with one hoof, desperate to stop her crying one last time “Stay with me...please...”
“We don’t have all day, Doctor...”
“Shut up” he snarled, the gun feeling heavier and heavier in his hoof as he placed it down on the table and breathed deep.
Then Derpy turned, frenzied terror in her features as she shrieked out loud in desperation.
“Please, just give me the gun, Doctor!”
He stared at her.
She wanted to pull the trigger.
Did she expect to live?
Or did she just want to give her husband or her daughter a better chance of survival, even if it meant her end?
As if the alternative had entered his mind, the Alicorn’s hooves tightened again, threatened to crunch the shoulder blades beneath.
Dinky’s pained squeak finally forced him to push the gun to his right, landing before Derpy Doo.
“Derpy...I’m sorry...”
With more calmness and control than he often saw from her, Derpy picked up the gun and held it to her head.
“Mama loves you, Dinky” she murmured as her daughter watched with streaming eyes “Mama loves you both”
And she pulled the trigger.
There was a piercing shriek that blotted out any sound of the shot.
Dinky and her father both jolted back, struggling not to keep their eyes shut for long.
The little filly began sobbing.
Derpy Doo slumped over the table, the gun fallen out of her limp hooves, her eyes wide open.
The room was silent. All Cascadius did was observe, intrigued.
One of the Alicorns beside him laughed, its cackle like the rapid flittering of bat’s wings.
The Doctor’s lip trembled.
“Derpy...no...”
There came a gasp.
Derpy jerked, still slumped over the table and took several deep breaths, clutching her temples.
It had been an empty.
Derpy had never been all too good in tense situations.
“D-D-Doctor...” she stammered, breathlessly “D-Dinky...”
“For crying out loud, don’t shriek like that” Cascadius snapped with irritation, snatching up the gun and putting it to his head as if it were a trivial chore “You don’t know whether or not it fired. Though with you, it could have just gone in one ear and out th-”
‘Bang!’
He was cut off suddenly as he jerked, the derisive smirk twisting into a shocked grimace as the left side of his head burst open, showering viscera upon the Weeping Alicorn to his side.
Dinky screamed, witnessing the effects first-hoof.
The mercenary leader swayed, the dismayed look fixed upon his features.
His hoof upon the table as his eyes slowly fell upon the gun.
Slowly, his mouth curled upwards as he mumbled.
“Heh...”
And with that, he keeled over on the stone slab and lay still.
The Doctor felt the clutch of the Weeping Alicorns open. Twin hearts hammering at his chest, he clambered over to retrieve Derpy and Dinky. His treasured companion flew into his forehooves, sobbing. A gentle hug from him eased her significantly.
His daughter, meanwhile, stared at the body of Cascadius, blood pooling from his open skull.
A hoof on her shoulder caused her to spin round, shuddering.
‘No foal should ever have to see that’
“Dinky...It’s okay...We’re all here...”
Dinky slowly reached out for her father’s hoof, hope dawning in her weeping, amber eyes.
Then the lights went out.
“Where are you lot going?!” an unearthly voice bellowed “The game’s not over yet!”
The lights emerged, straight in front of the Doctor’s face.
Cascadius stared back at him, the cocky, confident smirk replaced by a demented leer he’d never seen on the stallion before.
The wounds of his self-applied headshot were very much visible but they’d decayed.
No...The flesh hadn’t rotted. It had hardened.
Half his face was stone.
Like the Alicorns.
The Doctor was being held up by the forelegs, his head bowed, as the Weeping Alicorns once more held him prisoner.
Derpy and Dinky were in much the same way.
Cascadius paced around them leisurely, giving the revolver a spin around his hoof.
“I’d say the next shot could be a lucky one...Question is...Who gets it?”
He placed it down between the three of them.
“How about we spin it? Hm?” he smiled as Pinkie Pie would when suggesting something awkward yet fun all the same “Or can you decide for yourselves”
There was silence.
The Doo family glanced at each other, then the gun, all with the same terrified look.
Then a glow of piercing bronze light enveloped it completely, levitating it upwards.
The Doctor looked at his daughter, her horn shining the same colour.
He watched, helplessly, as the gun pressed itself against her forehead, her perfect amber eyes possessed of a dead-looking air of bleak acceptance.
“Dinky...” Derpy whimpered “My muffin...please...no...”
As the Doctor’s open mouth refused to move, the demon that had once been Cascadius loomed up beside him, observing with colourless white eyes and chuckling.
“Times up, Doctor”
Dinky gave a little sniff as the trigger began to slowly inch backwards.
“I’m sorry...”
‘Bang!’
With a startled cry, Doctor Whooves jerked awake, his coat heavy and clingy with a sheen of night-sweat.
Brushing the dishevelled mane out of his face, he looked up to see the prone, sickly form of Dinky still in the hospital bed and her mother resting her head next to her, both asleep.
The heart-rate monitor continued beeping quietly, a small conducting crystal glowing and fading in sequence.
The Doctor took an extended outtake of breath.
“Doctor Whooves?”
He spun round, clear shock and horror in his face.
It mellowed as he took in the visitor.
Standing in the hospital doorway was a lilac unicorn mare with a long wavy indigo mane with bright turquoise streaks.
Starlight Glimmer.
Her expression was concerned, as it often was in truth.
“Doctor Whooves?” she asked again.
“Yeah...sorry...” he stumbled groggily to his hooves “Not a great time”
“It doesn’t seem to be” she replied “And I’m sorry to intrude like this but the Princess needs you specifically to help with something”
The Doctor gave his sleeping family a look then glanced back to Starlight slightly peeved.
“You do realise that when I say ‘Not a great time’...”
“I know, I know, I’m very sorry and I’m sure she is as well but it’s absolutely essential. You and I are the only ponies with the skills capable of obtaining vital knowledge on the oncoming enemy and its leader, confidentially speaking” she checked the corridor behind her a moment.
“Which Princess is this? Celestia or Luna?”
“Neither. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza has been concerned about this matter for some time. Now that is has escalated, she’s conducting an investigation into the history of the Mercenary Paymaster, Cascadius. She claims to know how to find out where he came from and why he’s doing this”
“Look, Starlight. I know better than most. Cascadius cannot be reasoned with”
“Everypony can be understood, Doctor” Starlight implored “And if we can understand somepony, we can get them to understand themselves and the consequences of their actions...” she sighed, looking at her forehooves.
“I know that better than anypony”
“I should think you do” The Doctor replied. Privately, the time-traveller had always been strangely cold towards Starlight Glimmer. To be sure, he was under no delusions that Starlight had seen the error of her ways but he was slow to forgive her.
He’d seen others do what she had done with far worse consequences. Consequences they rarely understood.
He took one more look at her family.
“If it’s that important, fine. I’ll come help as soon as I can find out what’s wrong with my daughter. But I can’t be gone for long. It’s never been good for Derpy, now of all times”
“I understand. Our research should only take the better part of an afternoon. I can summon portals. It’ll save time”
“Where exactly does Cadence plan to conduct this research” the Doctor asked as the unicorn turned to leave.
She gave a knowing smile.
“Where most research is conducted...the library”
*
Shadowplay found the study in darkness again. A single lamp illuminated the face and forehoof of his paymaster writing down figures on a sheet of paper.
“Sir, that’s really not good for your eyes”
Cascadius sighed, put down the pencil and turned on a main light.
“I appreciate the concern, Shadow, but I need to concentrate”
Shadow peered over, his batpony eyes seeing well in the darkness but the workings on the sheet baffling him.
“Plans, sir?” he asked “Profiles? Maps? Blueprints?”
Cascadius looked up.
“No, Sudoku” He leaned back in his chair “How goes the work?”
“Balisong’s endeavour goes well, sir, proceeding to Stage 2”
“Splendid. Did she enjoy herself?”
Shadowplay shrugged.
“Certainly seemed to. She’s happy to have new ‘playmates’, it seems”
“Doubtless. The ones she kept from the Crossfort are...quite exhausted. I must remember to have somepony make an end of it” Cascadius got to his hooves in a leisurely manner “Anything else?”
“Well, sir...The town seems to be willing to take the fight to Bali and her crew. They received the footage and the town mayor seems intent on going on a search-and-rescue operation, armed and ready for battle”
The paymaster chuckled, shaking his head.
“Full of surprises, aren’t they. This is all becoming very exciting, don’t you think, Shadow?”
“As you say, Mr Cascadius. Also...the Gorging Ones want a word”
Cascadius’s mood darkened as he groaned.
“Again? Between them and Glanders Gate, I haven’t had a moment’s piece of mind”
“If you don’t mind me saying, sir, they seem...concerned. I believe they’ve run into a problem”
The paymaster raised one eyebrow.
“I see...Then I must look into this. Come along”
They paced down the corridors of the headquarters, passing Royal Flush along the way, shuffling along with his head bowed.
Cascadius jumped at him and gave a loud ‘Rah!’ causing him to nearly topple over with fright, his hooves shaking.
The paymaster hooted with laughter and even the normally dour Shadowplay managed a chuckle.
“I feel better already” Cascadius said “Do you play Sudoku, Shadow?”
“I can’t say I do, sir. I’ve heard of it but the exact details are lost on me”
“Well...” Cascadius withdrew a couple of folded pieces of Sudoku he’d filled out “You have a nine-by-nine grid, divided into nine three-by-three sub-grids. Each digit needs to be filled with a number from one to nine. Seems easy enough, you think. But you see, you can’t have the same number twice in one grid, nor can you have the same number twice in any row or column, so no two of the same numbers can cross over each other in any direct way. The more numbers you fill out, the less you have available but as long as you’re careful, you’ll know where each one can and should be placed and you won’t need to backtrack”
“Sounds rather challenging, sir” Shadowplay said.
“It’s meant to be. I make time to play a round of Sudoku every day. Do you know why?” he gave a wry smile “Wars are won with strategy and strategy is knowing which trick to make at any place and time and trying as much as possible not the use the same trick more than once. Equestria is vast and if we are to challenge it, we must have both a force and a plan at each and every point of interest. No threat must be ignored, no opportunity must be wasted. Sudoku helps a pony know where to place their numbers, how to predict and plan ahead in any span of influence. An essential skill for strategists”
“Perhaps, sir...” Shadowplay said, brow raised with awe “I should take up this hobby”
“I would heartily recommend it”
They didn’t find the Gorging Ones deep in the sanctum as they’d expected.
Three of them were waiting instead at the cavern entrance. Owing to their equally hideous appearances, Cascadius had taken to identifying them by their coat colours.
Bloatula was a dull pink.
Corpulon was a mottled grey.
And Distendrius was a sickly pale-green.
All three of them in their thrones but their feeders absent, a tell-tale sign that all was not well.
“Your Sanctified Graces” Cascadius said, saluting “You summoned me?”
“We did, Mr Cascadius” Bloatula began “We report a great blasphemy to our most sacred brotherhood”
“Our pilgrims far in the tunnel systems are being found dead” Corpulon explained, his voice a pompous, reedy baritone “Slaughtered in droves. And now a shrine below Appaloosa has been desecrated, all its worshippers murdered most foully”
“Interesting...” Cascadius brushed a forehoof under his chin “Any witnesses?”
“Not from the shrine attack but a hoof-full survived the tunnel ambushes and we have more than enough reason to believe the perpetrators are the same” Distendrius said, possessed of a hoarse, gravelly voice “It was not the Bearers of Harmony”
“It couldn’t have been. We have them occupied” The paymaster nodded “So who is it they speak of?”
“Three do they number” Bloatula answered “In long dark coats and sheer black eyeglass. Armoured...and armed, blades moving like the wind”
“Three, you say?” Cascadius sounded more than intrigued “Describe them. Do they differ?”
“They do” Corpulon continued “A batpony leads them, winged blasphemies one and all” he spat phlegm over his shoulder “Dark of coat and eyes pale as milk. A mighty blade in hoof, carving through flesh and bone like wax”
“A unicorn from the Farmanic Forests. Green coated and golden-maned” Bloatula added “Eyes glowing an eerie blue. A bow forged from enchanted wood that melds into a spear at a whim”
“And a mare among them, a pegasus” Distendrius croaked “Navy-blue and white. Cervine trinkets round her neck and tribal feather bands in her mane, two short swords in both hooves, snarling like a mad beast all the while”
For a moment, Cascadius stared blankly at the three.
Then he smiled, wider and wider, and began chuckling.
“Sir?” Shadowplay asked, concerned.
“One thousand and fifty years...” Cascadius’s laughter was growing and louder “One thousand and fifty ploughing years....and they’re still on the hunt! Just for little old me!”
The paymaster doubled up, roaring wildly with laughter, slamming his forehoof down on the group as tears appeared in his eyes.
Shadowplay glanced awkwardly at the mirthless Gorging Ones.
“He’s...not normally like this” he assured them.
“We are aware” Bloatula responded, deadpan.
The paymaster continued falling about laughing for some few minutes before gathering himself, taking several deep breaths and straightening up.
“Okay...okay...whoo...I’m okay now...”
“You find this amusing?!” Corpulon snarled.
“Enormously so” Cascadius replied “The three transgressors you’ve described are...old acquaintances of mine. We worked together once long ago. Then we had a bit of a falling-out”
“Why then did you not warn us of this, you who claims to prepare for anything!” Bloatula squawked.
“Because these three were believed long dead. They are veterans of the Equestrian Civil War over a thousand years ago. No normal pony survives that long. We can therefore assume these are not, or at least no longer, normal ponies”
“Then what is to be done?” Distendrius wheezed.
“I must ask that you exercise patience. Victory demands it” Cascadius gave them a smile “But rest assured, this atrocity will not go unpunished and the more patience we exercise the more thorough justice shall be done. I am, as you may have been informed, a pony who always tries to turn a loss into an opportunity and with careful re-planning, we shall not only bring down these three undying hunters...but also the Princess who leads them”
*
Fluttershy quivered, sweat beading on her brow and intermixing with her terrified tears as the rifle cocked in the cloth-swathed mare’s magical grasp.
“I’d like answers please. Quick as you like but I’d hate to lose patience with you”
The young pegasus gave a nervous whimper.
“No, don’t give me that look. It doesn’t work. Not on me” She tilted her head “Now then...Where are the others?”
“Wh-what?” Fluttershy asked.
“You heard me. Where are the others?”
“I...I...I don’t know...”
Fluttershy would never be one to betray her friends, even when faced with death. But even if that were not the case, she could not tell anypony what she did not know.
Her captor, it seemed, was disappointed with the answer.
“I’m going to give you a moment to correct yourself, dear”
“No, really! I don’t know!” she wailed “We all went out to different places! The communicators stopped working!”
“I wasn’t talking about the Elements” The mare kicked her hard on the shoulder, causing Fluttershy to yelp in pain, clutching at the forming bruise. She kept the rifle steady.
“I’m talking about your other friends. The little super secret club they’ve got going when you lot are away. The one you thought we wouldn’t know about” She pressed a forehoof against her captive’s cheek, pressing her head against the wall “You must think we’re pretty dumb, don’t you”
“I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Fluttershy gave a short cry as she was kicked viciously in the face, her head slamming against the brickwork behind her. The rifle moved beneath her chin and tilted her head upwards. With a bleeding nose and lips and blackened, weeping eyes, she stared fearfully into the cold eyes of the swaddled gunner.
“Alright, here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to count to five and either you’re going to tell me or I’m going to blow your brains out all over the wall. But either way, I’ll know if you’re lying. Five...”
“Please, don’t...You don’t have to do this!”
“I’m afraid you’re wrong there. Four...”
“I told you I don’t know!”
“And I’m about to start believing you. Three...”
“Please...” Fluttershy cried, eyes shut tight in prayer “It’s almost my pet rabbit’s birthday...”
“I’m grief-stricken, truly” the rifle-bearer said sarcastically “Two...”
“I don’t know!” the pegasus screamed, shaking wildly.
“I’ll believe you in a sec. One...”
Fluttershy, the fear gripping her overpowered by despair, stared down the rifle’s barrel.
Death would come for her out of that barrel, shattering her mind and leaving her a corpse in a blocked-off alley.
She wondered how long it would take before they found her or even if they would. She didn’t want to think about what this mare would do with her body.
She closed her teary, green eyes and whispered.
‘Goodbye girls...Thank you for being my friends’
“What they hay’s going on here?!”
It was Lafayette’s voice.
Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open to see him standing on the alleyway stairs, blade in hoof.
At the same moment, he saw her.
“Lady Fluttershy!”
The mare with the rifle didn’t turn but her eyes screwed in frustration.
“Bad move, mate” she snarled as the hovering rifle spun to face the Captain and fired.
He gave a cry of pain, clutching his shoulder.
This time, the mare did turn, confusion in her gaze.
She’d been aiming for his head. She’d heard his voice and went precisely for its source.
She never missed.
“Put it...down!”
Fluttershy had grabbed the rifle and managed to tilt it. She was wrestling with the thing with gritted teeth and clear fury in her eyes.
One of them was still half-closed from the blow. The Stare was not currently in use.
But this was something new.
She drew a small bolter with her free forehoof and pointed it at the Bearer of Kindness.
Before the trigger even tightened, she found the young cream-coloured pegasus grabbing hold of the bolter with both hooves, snarling like a wolf.
“I...said...” The bolter’s frame was crunching in her grasp “Put it...Down...NOW!”
The barrel of the bolter caved in on itself, flattening between the previously timid little pegasus’s forehooves.
The mercenary’s eyes widened with shock.
“Bucking Hay! Get off!”
Her free forehoof struck the Bearer three times in the shoulder, finally managing to pry loose her grasp. She deposited the ruined firearm beneath her clothing. No leads could be left behind.
Then, whirling the cloak around herself, she leapt upon an overhanging canopy and, with surprising dexterity, flung herself over onto the rooftops.
Fluttershy barely paused taking in the sight before rushing over to the injured Lafayette.
“Is it deep?” she asked “How quickly do you need a bandage?”
“I think I’m okay” The Captain nursed his shoulder before taking to wing, flying high into the rooftops.
“Careful!” Fluttershy called up “She might still have her bigger gun”
“She’s gone” Lafayette wasn’t in the air for long. Flying back down, he clutched at his shoulder again, wincing “You need to get back to your flat. The whole city’s gone nuts”
“What about the other girls? I can’t reach them. The communicators aren’t working”
“Yeah, I heard about that. One the mercenaries has some anti-crystal magic or something. Stopping the Bearers from contacting Canterlot or each other and our own resources aren’t up to the task” He placed a hoof on her shoulder, wincing as he did so “I must advise you head back to the flat for the remainder of this attack”
“No...”
Her tone was a great deal firmer and slightly louder than usual. Blinking away tears, she stood up and spoke.
“I’m not leaving everypony while they’re in danger. If Rainbow or Twilight or Pinkie or any other of the girls comes back wounded or...worse...” she appeared to choke on something before continuing “I’d never forgive myself. I’m staying outside, helping wherever I can until this is over”
“My lady, I am heartened by your bravery but-”
“I am staying in the fight” Fluttershy’s meek disposition appeared to have ebbed away, replaced by a stern, serious and outwardly intimidating expression, boring into Lafayette’s eyes.
‘What the hay is happening?! Why do my legs feel so shaky?!’ Lafayette thought as he frantically struggled to stay on his own four hooves as Fluttershy spoke again.
“I am going to help find the girls, I’m to help protect the city and then, and only then, I will head back to the flat. This discussion is over...” Her sternness subsided as her face grew meek, mild-mannered and irresistibly sweet once more.
“I mean...if that’s okay with you...”
*
“GOOD MORNING, MAGGOTS!”
Spitfire’s bellow rang across the hills below Cloudsdale as the Wonderbolts assembled. Turning on her fetlocks, she paced in front of them.
Their full strength was assembled. Twelve of the best aces each commanding four trainees. A total of sixty fliers, ready to take to the air.
“Now! I assume you’re all aware of what took place last night! Some sickoes attacked seven of our friends in Ponyville and kidnapped three of them! Now I don’t know what they think they’re dealing with and frankly, I don’t much care. But there’s only one thing they’re getting for their trouble. Bucked. From behind. Without pause. Over and over and over. Think you knuckleheads can handle that?”
“Yes, ma’am!” They said in unison, saluting and spreading wings.
“That’s what I like to hear! We start by scouring the Everfree! Yeah, you heard that right!” She held up a cannon-guard, standard pegasus weaponry, strapped to the foreleg and built to fire hails of metal bolts at the foe. Spitfire had hers decorated with brass inlays in the shape of flames.
“You’ve all been issued one of these babies which should take down anything smaller than a pony and six of you have artillery strapped to your backs. You also each have an SOS flare packed into the back of your cannon-guards. Now I assume you all know that SOS stands for ‘Somepony Save My Fat, Gormless Flanks ‘Cause I’m A Disgraceful Bucking Pansy!’ so I don’t wanna’ see anypony pulling it unless absolutely necessary and I do mean absolutely! Ya’ got that?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Right. Surprise and Rapidfire, you take your fliers downriver to the gorge. Misty, High Winds, you take them round the ridge. Me, Soarin and Fleetfoot will head for the ruins. Rendezvous in o’ two-hundred and if we can’t find anything, one of us heads to Canterlot to let ‘em know at HQ. Form up and move out!”
They were off into the air swiftly and gracefully, beautifully rehearsed. Venturing over the teeming forest of the Everfree, the flying force split into three. Spitfire’s contingent, accompanied by Soarin and Fleetfoot, scoured the area heading for the ivy-strewn ruins deep in the forest. Largely forgotten by Ponyville and only ventured on occasion by the Bearers and a few others, it seemed a likely place as any for neer-do-wells to hide away.
The clouds grew heavy over the place as they often did, put most ponies off before they even saw the ruins themselves.
Yet into it, the Wonderbolts flew.
“Captain” Fleetfoot said, hovering close, adjusting her goggles to heat sensor as she pointed forward “Pegasi and griffins in the clouds nearby. Looks like they’re readying an ambush”
“Well that’s bad news...for them” Spitfire grinned “Pull everypony close, we’ll knock ‘em outta’ the sky with a group dive bomb. Does it look like they’ve seen us?”
Fleetfoot tilted a dial on the side of her goggles, zooming in slightly.
“They seem to be huddled around some...wait a minute, that’s a...” Her mutterings grew to a frantic shriek “Scatter! Scatter!”
“BUCKING SCATTER!” Spitfire yelled as the Wonderbolts dispersed. From where Fleetfoot had pointed out, the clouds spat out a trio of streamlined metal silos shooting straight towards them.
They shattered in mid-air, releasing a different kind of cloud. It was a pale khaki and gave a hiss as it dispersed, threatening to envelop the nearby fliers like some monstrous spectre.
“Masks!” Spitfire screamed “Everypony put on your damn masks!”
As the smoke spread about them, the fliers began coughing and spluttering, frantically strapping breathing masks around their muzzles. Nonetheless, their training paid off. Once one had got their mask on, they helped others with their own.
She saw Soarin faltering below, struggling with his mask. Rolling her eyes, but nonetheless concerned, she hovered down and adjusted it around his face. Through the glass of his goggles, he caught sight of his enamoured blush.
Which then paled significantly.
“Captain! Watch out!”
A bolt of gold, blinking through the fog, slammed into Spitfire with near bone-breaking force.
Breath knocked out of her, the Wonderbolt leader, grabbed hold of the object.
It was a pegasus. One that had grabbed her by the chest and was pushing her downwards, rocketing towards the ground.
Finding control of her forelegs, nearly limb in the force that gripped them, she wrestled free, hurtling wildly through the air and finally collecting herself.
She found herself staring at a turquoise mare with a shock of spiky golden mane swept over her head, armoured in heavy flak and bandoliers, eying her murderously, thunder cracking her eyes as they bore into her.
“Hey there, Captain!” she sneered “Remember me?!”
“L-L-Lightning Dust?” Spitfire stuttered with shock in spite of herself as he gritted her teeth “You’re behind this?”
The disgraced trainee shrugged nonchalantly as had been her habit.
“Can’t take all the credit...but yeah”
The fiery captain billowed steam out her flaring nostrils.
“You...Back-Stabbing Nag!” She flew at her, snarling. The first punch caught Lightning across the cheek, drawing a blood from her lip and nose, but the second strike found Spitfire’s hoof caught by a baton her opponent had drawn.
Clouting her viciously, Lightning pressed a button on the baton’s shaft. It crackled with electricity, illuminating her face with a venomous glare.
“Me a back-stabber? Let me refresh your memory, Captain...” she spat “I had a dream, a dream I had worked for ever since I was a foal. You...and that self-righteous plot, Rainbow Dash, took that from me. You have about two minutes to regret it! Starting now!”
Beside them, one of the trainees fell to earth with an almighty crash, a great tattooed griffon matriarch clutching her by the shoulders. With a screech, she drew her head back and plunged her beak into the trainee’s upper foreleg.
The mare screamed in agony as, like some horror film, the griffin dug deep, tearing and burrowing into flesh.
At the sight of a mare under her care being so horribly mutilated, Spitfire roared, shot past the disgraced trainee and landed a punch into the griffon’s side. The avian horror had removed her beak from pony flesh and edged aside but the blow still caught her across the chest. Reeling, she shot the Wonderbolt Captain with a frenzied glare, trailing a sleek tongue across the sides of her beak.
“More...” she snarled, shuddering with pleasure as blood dripped from her beak and soaked the feathers and fur around her throat, her sleek red tongue lapping greedily “MORE!”
*
As the blazing light dissipated at last, the glamorous blue unicorn mare on stage took a bow. Smiling brightly, she addressed the audience.
“Thank you, thank you all...Now, this may sound so utterly phony but...what the hay” she chuckled and brushed a tear from her eye “Today, one can safely say without any doubt...that you have been...the warmest, most appreciative audience the Great and Powerful Trixie has ever played to. It has been an absolute joy and Trixie thanks you all. Goodnight”
There was a small round of applause as the four earth ponies in the audience, sat in a group before the stage upon a rustic, patterned picnic cloth registered their awe, some mildly, others wildly.
“Whoo! Yeah! Best show ever! Whoo!” a tomboyish, bluish-grey filly roared, forehooves waving in the air.
“Limestone, child, please temper thyself” A bespectacled mother said sternly “I am certain thou may show thine great praise less rambunctiously”
“Yes ma” Limestone sighed begrudgingly.
“And how didst thou find the performance, young Marble?” A weathered but respectable ochre stallion nudged a meek-looking, wide-eyed, long-maned, grey mare in prompt “Didst thou find the fete pleasurable?”
The young mare paused, looked up at Trixie and mumbled.
“Mm-hmm”
“Trixie is happy to have made your day that much more impressive” She hopped off the makeshift stage as her horn glowed purple.
A small chest backstage sprouted a collection of tiny little legs, scuttled over to the various props and devices and began swallowing them. Objects as large as fire poles and track saws disappeared into its supernatural gullet. The Pies watched amazed as the chest then spat out another chest half its size, then that chest did the same, then again, and again, until the last chest was barely the size of a satchel, wearing a brightly coloured belt across buckles at its sides.
Then the second chest opened its lid wide as its predecessor stood sideways and jumped straight into it. Then that chest did the same to its successor and again and again until the satchel-sized chest, having consumed the lot, scuttled over to Trixie who slung it elegantly over her shoulder.
“Well done, Lug” she chuckled.
The Doctor wasn’t the only one in Equestria who kept big things in small containers.
“And with that, ladies and gentlecolts, the Great and Powerful Trixie bids you all a fond farewell. I must make my way hence to Ponyville. Give Starlight, Maud and Pinkie my best. They certainly enjoyed the rehearsals”
“We shalt do so, Miss Trixie, with certainty. Thank thee most graciously for your stay and pray return soon” Igneous Rock Pie bowed, removing his hat as he and his family waved the travelling performer and oft visitor farewell.
The Hushed Whisper was a shady place but not inhospitable. Trixie was no stranger to the bar yet she knew its owner and its regular patrons about as well as any newcomer would. It didn’t pay to pry in such company. While not hostile by nature, the fellows one met at the Hushed Whisper were cagey at best. This had suited Trixie during her time in hiding after the Ursa Minor incident but now, after proving herself a friend and ally to so many in the humble town of Ponyville, she felt out of place.
Nonetheless, it was a good a place as any for a respite.
Moon Tea, busy trimming a bonsai tree, gave her moderately friendly nod.
“Trixie” he said “Haven’t seen you in a while”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie has otherwise been preoccupied, Moon Tea, but the place brings back memories” How fond those memories were went unsaid “Trixie will have a chai if you please. Trixie got your note, you said somepony had mentioned Trixie by name”
“Not quite as often as you have, but yes” Moon Tea busied himself with the chai, his eyes shifting to the table in the corner.
Trixie tilted her head.
“Don’t” The tender was mumbling out the corner of his mouth. Something was making him edgy.
The blue unicorn looked out the corner of her eye, keeping her face pointing at the menu inconspicuously.
There was a purple-coated, dreadlocked-maned unicorn mare in a flak jacket at the corner table with her forelegs propped up over the table. She possessed a boomerang-shaped glaive that she’d placed upright upon a beer mat and was spinning it idly.
Even in the Hushed Whisper, a mare like her looked more ominous than most.
Trixie’s blood ran cold. Before Starlight and Maud had left for Canterlot, called over by Princess Cadence herself, they’d mentioned a kidnapping in Ponyville, perpetrated by a mare of such description. Three good and friendly ponies taken off the roads and horribly tortured, the footage sent to Lemon Zest, Dr Stable Horse and Ruby Pinch, all of whom forced to watch till the end just to see if their loved ones were still alive.
“Is that her? The kidnapper?” she whispered.
“Yeah. Somepony I hesitate to call welcome. Balisong. She’s a mare with a head count, that one. Word is she’s into the snuff business”
Trixie stared, aghast.
“Truly?”
“Yeah. She asked to see you. Didn’t specify reasons” He motioned under the bar table where Trixie knew he kept a selection of weapons.
“If she causes trouble, let me know. But if you want to get into a fight, take it outside. In any case...be wary”
Taking her tea and saucer in her magical grasp, Trixie paced slowly over to the mare at the table.
If she knew she was approaching, she gave no sign. She was sipping at a glass of beer, swirling it around in her own magical hold, as if contemplating.
She looked up, one eyebrow raised, as Trixie sat down.
“Are you Balisong?”
The dubious mare pursed her lips innocently.
“Depends” Her Horsetralian accent was heavy.
“On what?”
“On whether my name makes getting to know me...unpleasant”
“It does. You would be Cherry Berry, Caramel and Berry Punch’s kidnapper, would you not?”
“Yeah” Balisong hadn’t even paused. She looked disinterested.
Trixie knew the look of somepony who held the cards. Staying at the Hushed Whisper guaranteed only temporary safety and seclusion. She wanted to be found out, by Trixie specifically.
Somehow, this was all part of a grander scheme.
“So would these be the three you’re looking for?” she produced a photo from out her jacket and set it on the table.
Cherry Berry, Caramel and Berry Punch sat tied to chairs facing the camera, bleeding from more than several wounds and crying.
Trixie felt her neck muscles tense with indignation.
“Let them go”
“Well, what have you got to bargain with?”
“Bargain?” Trixie gritted her teeth “Trixie refuses to bargain with pony lives! You let them go this instant and Trixie might not hex your flanks off!”
There was a pause.
Then Balisong leaned forward, grinned in that obscene manner and spoke.
“Listen...Trixie, was it? Would it be surprising to you to know that I’m not scared of you?”
“Not so much surprising as disappointing. It means Trixie isn’t doing her job for if you do not fear the Great and Powerful Trixie, Miss Balisong, it can only be because you do not know her” Trixie leaned forward too, nose barely an inch from Balisong’s “Nor do you know those you are keeping prisoner and how precious they are to their friends and family”
At this, Balisong leaned back and, for a moment, looked to consider.
Then she produced a file from under the table, opened it and read aloud, glancing at the blue unicorn every few sentences.
“Beatrix Cassandranovich Lulamoon. Travelling performer and self-training mage. Father, ‘Honest’ Cludo Lulamoon, con-artist, currently serving time in Fillydelphia Penitentiary for multiple counts of fraud. Mother, Parcheesi Counter, private tutor with obsessive perfectionist disorders. Stepfather, Barrow Dean, missing after being charged with...oh...”
She looked up at Trixie, her expression appearing to show genuine sympathy.
“You poor thing...”
She went back to the list and her eyes gleamed “Ooh, this one’s interesting. Sister, name classified, committed to Glanders Gate Asylum for unknown reasons. Escaped three months after, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Well...you’ve had a very eventful foalhood, haven’t you? How have you made it this long?”
Trixie’s open mouth quivered, memories of her dark and largely unhappy foalhood flooding back to her.
An old father on the run.
A mother she could never impress.
A new father who did things to her she still struggled to understand.
And a sister who didn’t see pony lives as anything more than toys.
She struggled to speak.
“I...”
“Whoa, wait a bit. Here’s the rest” Balisong turned the pages in the file “Ah now. Berry Punch. Currently living in Ponyville with marefriend Colgate Minuette and one daughter Ruby Pinch, father or donor unknown. Parents unnamed but...wow...mother was sentenced to life in prison after killing her husband for beating their two daughters. Along with her sister, Cheerilee, was later adopted by Persephone, mother of Roseluck and stepmother of Daisy and Lily, into a family of Ponyville horticulturalists”
She shook her head and turned the page
“Caramel. Currently living in Ponyville with uncle, Dr Stable Horse. Parents, Salt Lake and Sweet Milk, both with a history of multiple intoxication offences. Granted custody of their son to Salt Lake’s step-brother, Stable Horse, after he was involved in an...incident with some of their drinking-friends”
Again, she turned the page.
“Cherry Berry. Currently living in Ponyville with marefriend, Shoeshine and her younger sister, Bloo. Parents, Logan Berry and Nectarine, prominent trade executives in Canterlot. Cousin, Lemon Zest, graduate of Canterlot Preparatory College. Proscribed for anti-depressants after she dropped out of said college in her second year for reasons unspecified. Though there’s a photo of her here entering and leaving Peachy Days Surgery in Detrot...” she looked up with faux-suspicion “Wasn’t that once a very special clinic?”
“No! Cherry would never...Where the hay did you find this?!” Trixie exclaimed “Is any of this even true?!”
The mercenary gave a chuckle.
“Might be. Might not be. You’re not gonna’ hear it from me but my point is well made. We have been keeping watch since your little town first caught our eye and our watch is unwavering. We have many eyes to see you go about your daily lives, many ears to hear what you speak of and many hooves to silence those who say the wrong thing. Let me clarify. If a monster attacks Ponyville, we know. If a Bearer ventures out of Equestria, we know. If Gummy the Alligator sits on the windowsill of Sugarcube Corner and licks his eyeballs...” She flashed her teeth as she grinned, the light from the piercing on her lip giving the impression of sharp, glinting fangs.
“We know”
There was a long pause.
Uncertainty, a feeling previously unknown to Trixie, flooded through her being like some foul disease.
She spoke.
“What do you want?”
“Well, it’s not so much what I want as my...co-workers. Basically, what you have here, Trixie me old mate, is a simple barter. I have something you want and you...well...you will have something we want”
The blue unicorn drew back and scowled.
“I’m not your errand-filly. And I don’t work with criminals”
Balisong’s gaze seemed to darken but her grin grew wider than ever.
“Well that’s a damn shame” she murmured before pulling out a transceiver, leaning back and making a call.
“Shadow, love. Bad news, didn’t get the help we needed” she paused “No, we don’t need them anymore. Uh...start with Berry Punch. She tried to bite me the other day. I know, normally I love a biter but y’know”
“Wait!” Trixie exclaimed. Balisong leaned further back, ignoring her.
“Yeah, get Gringore. She knows how to handle a chainsaw. As we planned. Send the back-end to Colgate, middle-part to Cheerilee and the head to dear little Ruby. Maybe she can still get a kiss goodnight out of it”
“Stop!”
Balisong smirked.
“Hold on a tick” She turned to the terrified Trixie with an arrogant grin.
“Yee-ees?” she said slowly, mockingly, with a faux-sweet expression.
Trixie took a deep breath and spoke quieter than she had in a long time, humbled through fear of her friends lives, privately vowing this mare would pay if Trixie ever regained the high-ground.
“Trixie will do it. Whatever you need, Trixie will get it”
Balisong pursed her lips and turned back to her transceiver.
“Change of plans, darl. Help’s arrived...Yeah, don’t kill ‘em yet. Got something special in mind for Berry...The last lot?” She held up a hoof in pause “Oh yeah, do you what you like. They got boring after the last one bit off her own tongue. Okay, leave it with me. Love ya”
She switched off the device at last and turned back to her unwilling accomplice.
“Glad to have you on the team, Miss Lulamoon. Your dad would be proud”
Every muscle in Trixie’s body was tense with rage but she held firm. For her friend’s sake.
“This is not something Trixie asks often but...why Trixie?”
Balisong chuckled.
“You’re a specialist. And you’re familiar with the item we so desire”
She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with a diagram scrawled on it and lay it out before her.
Trixie’s bright blue eyes widened with horror as the picture on the paper brought forth a wave of unpleasant memories.
“The...The Alicorn Amulet!”
Balisong gave a derisive guffaw.
“Really?” she sneered “That’s the name you gave the scudding thing? An Alicorn didn’t make it, never even bloody used it! It’s not even, technically speaking, an amulet! Why the buck d’you call it that? Does anypony in that scudding town have a shred of bucking imagination?”
“Wh-”
“You know what, never mind. Being a bit pedantic. But the main thing is; You get that thing and the poor old three stooges who’re presently entertaining me go free. That’s my fee” She leaned back in her chair and fixed Trixie with a wry smile.
“Now buck off and find me that scudding Amulet. There’s a good girl”