Episode 2 – Double Black & White
“The Disharmony family will remain in the history of Zir’lan as the first true royal family since the Founding, which ultimately had all of its members except one fall as martyrs in the Blitz attack on 7th of October, 100 A.F (After Founding), the national birthday and the 100-year celebration, respectively. The last remaining member, Noir Disharmony, originally thought to be deceased, was later found to have fled to the border town of Coltstone. Suspicion regarding her hiding led to the former princess of Zir’lan being wanted by Sector 0, the last remaining resistance outpost, but there are reports of her actually being in Sector 0, despite the fact others claim to have seen her in Coltstone around the same time. The princess’ intentions are as unclear as her role in the Blitz, however the regent has denied any investigation attempts and refuses to comment on the matter. Noir Disharmony still being alive does not overshadow the fact that the Blitz and the overall war of fear with the Wolmetahls is an event that will go down in the books as the biggest tragedy Equis has ever seen, and a reminder to all of ponykind that outer space, the presumed origin of the Wolmetahls, can hide fatal secrets. The Wolmetahl invasion will most likely lead to the end of a once full of potential and very young kingdom, Zir’lan, but it also definitely poses a huge threat to all of Equis. Is this the End of ponykind?”
- Zir’lanian News Office, issue 115, page 1, paragraph 1, Biggest threat yet
Sector 0 was not large, even though its huge amber walls and chrome gates gave you the impression it was. It had the population of the entire Capital, compressed into a city barely bigger than Coltstone. Strongly fortified, it was the only place that had not been breached by Wolmetahls and the only safe city left in the kingdom.
Yet its small size meant, if you were to walk around the marble streets on a nice day, most of the ponies in town would see you at least once.
The white-furred pony knew this. She tried keeping the walks outside limited, and got used to a lot of the population yelling and throwing things at her, some even going further, but getting instantly arrested.
The pony looked exactly like Noir Disharmony, besides wearing an eye-patch and having a funny voice, and entire Sector 0 took it for granted that she was the actual princess of Zir’lan.
Nopony ever asked themselves how it was possible, that Noir was in two places at once, but the answer would’ve been very simple. The pony in Sector 0 looked just like the princess, but definitely wasn’t her, and yet... Yet she sat on her throne in the new royal palace, with banners on the walls picturing a different logo from the actual Zir’lanian one, one with a Wolmetahl eye flanked by swords.
Guarding her were two Wolmetahls, standing still, as if they were ordered that way.
The pony had a blank stare, patting her hoof onto the crystal the throne was made from and thinking.
A stallion dressed in a red and gold uniform with the same logo on his arm and a tail made of two long, curved blades, approached the pony on the throne, bowed and said:
“Your highness, we have... Bad news, but also good ones...”
“And now you’re going to ask me which are the ones I want to hear first”, the pony said, with an even and a bit thick voice.
“The experiment was successful, Noir has proven her power once again. The Wolmetahl is dead. However, QB failed to capture her,” the stallion continued.
“I’m not surprised,” the pony whispered. “What happened?”
“The regent got his tail in our business again. One of his sectorials, Aendel Scroll, got to Noir first. QB had no choice but to run away.”
“I’ll deal with the regent. As for Noir, she will come to us.”
“You think she will actually try and find the scientist?” The stallion asked.
“I’m sure about it. Now, go, you have work to do.”
The stallion in the uniform wanted to leave, but the pony quickly added:
“And... Demoon, I trust you will handle the revolution well, yes?”
Razorwing Demoon turned around and said, on a lower tone and with an imperceptible smile:
“It will be done, my queen.”
**
As far as the authorities from Sector 0 were concerned, the events that took place in Coltstone were unclear. Exactly how the captured Wolmetahl managed to escape its containment was a mystery. Why it went straight for Noir after escaping was also an unexplained thing.
As far as Aendel was concerned, however, the events couldn’t have been clearer, even though when he said his theory out loud it sounded less plausible than a mare having a square muzzle.
QB was obviously working for somepony, and even though it sounded nuts, Aendel was certain he had let out the Wolmetahl and even maybe sent it to kill Noir. How could he prove it though? And who shot Noir, was it also the commissar’s doing?
All those questions were going off like fireworks in the emissary’s head, as he was trying to piece together what had happened, sitting at the table in Noir’s abandoned house. Storm Cloud sat at the other end, even more confused. He wasn’t there when the discussions between QB and Aendel took place, as he had to train resistance volunteers during that time. The two stallions weren’t talking yet; they didn’t trust each other enough.
Noir was sleeping like a log in another room, still knocked out from the tranquilizer the commissar had shot her with.
The silence from before that had encompassed the morning was now interrupted by shouting and exclamations, as the townsfolk gathered around the slain Wolmetahl and were arguing as to who had killed it and how it had died.
Storm tapped his hoof onto the table, coughed and finally broke the silence, although talking quietly:
“You saw the red flash too, right?”
Aendel looked at him raising an eyebrow and said:
“Yes, I did.”
“You know what that means, right?” Storm said even quieter.
“That Noir is dangerous? Yeah.”
Storm frowned.
“That’s not what I meant,” the pegasus argued. “She really has the power to kill Wolmetahls. It just proves she’s our only hope, doesn’t it?”
“It doesn’t prove anything,” Aendel said sharply. “All it does is tell us that Noir is a weapon. An unstable one.”
“Unstable my flank! She killed that Wolmetahl because she wanted to, it wasn’t some coincidence or an accident,” the pegasus whispered.
”How would you know?” Aendel said, looking out the window through the blinds.
“What other explanation do you have? The Wolmetahl just rolled over and died because Noir made a cute face or what?”
“I’m not saying she doesn’t have a hidden power, but the keyword here is “hidden”.”
“The gossip from Sector 0 really got to your head, didn’t it?” Storm said, tapping his hoof harder.
“What? No, actually I never believed their lies. It’s just a series of events that really make you question her integrity.”
“Like what?”
“Her teleporting between Sector 0 and here?”
Storm threw his hooves in the air and said:
“You can’t prove that!”
“But it’s the only explanation. She’s using illegal magic to do business in the Capital without us noticing. What kind of business... I’ll find out.”
“Stop it,” Storm overlapped him. “What you’re doing is painting an image of Noir that just makes things worse. There’s already enough suspicion pointed at her. Did you actually see Noir in Sector 0?”
“I did, and not just once. She was hiding her... Special... Eye.”
“Have you considered that maybe the pony in Sector 0 is not Noir?”
Aendel started laughing lightly. Storm threw him an unfriendly look and laid on his back.
“Oh really? Well, I never knew there were two white-furred princesses with black and purple manes and different eyes, my bad,” the emissary said, still laughing.
“Maybe it’s a pony that looks just like the princess but isn’t actually her!” Storm insisted.
“That sounds oddly specific,” Aendel suddenly said, becoming serious.
“What, you’re suspecting me as well now? Why are you even still here?”
“I have to conduct an investigation as to who attacked Noir,” Aendel mumbled.
“And? Who’s your suspect?”
“QB, but this is the commissar we’re talking about, so I won’t make any drastic moves regarding him yet. He disappeared. I announced him to other cities nearby, but for some reason the regent denies my orders, he acts as if a traitor on the loose is no matter of concern.”
“QB? The commissar? What did he tell you at the fortress?”
“Not much, but he definitely wanted Noir arrested, and he said he would do it.”
“Well, there you go, you have your shooter.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Also why would the regent deny you the investigation?”
“I have no clue. It’s all foggy when it comes to the regent... And whoever might be behind him.”
“Behind him? Are you talking about Noir again?” Storm said sighing.
“Yes, but just hear me out! Maybe... Just maybe, Noir is behind this all. She teleports to Sector 0 frequently and don’t say it’s not true because there’s enough proof, she acts like she’s still princess... And maybe she really is, and she might be giving the regent orders and using him as a puppet.”
“That’s oddly specific,” Storm said smiling.
Aendel remained still for a second.
“Fair enough,” he said, “I don’t need your trust and you don’t need mine. Right now, Noir has two options. Either I arrest her or...”
“Or?”
“I feel like arresting Noir isn’t really a rational choice right now, just because QB wanted me to do so and he seems corrupt. I don’t know what the other option is, honestly.”
Storm looked down for a moment and then said:
“How about you keep your promise?”
Aendel frowned and tilted his head forwards.
“What do you mean?”
“Get Noir to the Capital. It’s what she asked you to do.”
“But I didn’t promise her that.”
“Doesn’t matter. You gave her hope. Don’t take that away from her just because of a theory. After all, you’re just doing what the regent says; not conducting an investigation. You wouldn’t go around arresting ponies without one now, would you?”
Aendel smiled with half a mouth.
“I suppose I could keep an eye on her business once we get there... Overall, excepting the obvious threat of entering the lock-down zone there really is no better course of action,” the emissary said and became silent. Storm entered a blank stare phase, sighing. He felt the need to check on Noir...
“I’m coming with you,” he said.
“Suit yourself. Keep in mind though, we might all just die. The lock-down zone isn’t the lock-down zone for no reason, and the few volunteers Coltstone can provide won’t make for a solid escort.”
**
Noir didn’t open her eyes right away. She felt like a brick, her limbs heavy and her neck barely mobile, hungry and in pain.
Her thoughts were a scramble, her feelings mixed.
For the first time ever, the princess asked herself about something. Something... About her past... Her real past. First, the red dot, a mark of her disharmonious side... Or something else? Why was her parent’s death the event that triggered it? What was it that gave her that much power?
She knew it now. Her disharmony was three times more powerful than her parent’s magic combined. She couldn’t have gotten that red dot from them... It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t inherited, nor was it something Noir had chosen to have.
So what was it?!
She couldn’t stop thinking about that pony... Snow... It was as if they were linked by some invisible force. She saw her, the night of the Blitz, only for a couple seconds, before she fell to the ground exhausted.
In the back of her mind, there was a wall of thick fog. But there was something beyond that... Pieces of something alien, unrecognizable.
At the edge of town, she had used her disharmonious side again. This time it had been different. It no longer had simply happened, instead the princess had switched sides almost at will.
Was she really becoming a weapon? Was she... Designed as one?
Noir shivered. Why did she use that word...
Which side was her real self?
That last question she asked herself felt like a rock on her heart. Her chest felt heavy... But then she realized, her chest literally felt heavy. The princess slowly opened her eyes, just to see a pair of blue-tinted glasses inches away from her face.
“Hey there!” The figure said, smiling.
Noir blinked a couple times, just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. A small, blue pony with red strands was lying on her chest. Noir was shocked at first, but then she chuckled. A familiar voice behind them shouted:
“Noobsie! Get off of her, she’s not your pillow!”
The blue pony meowed and rolled off of Noir, before lying next to another, gray batpony with dark-blue hair and wings, named Tess. They were both staring at the princess, as she got up heavily and saw Storm standing next to the door. He smiled and said:
“Good afternoon, princess. You slept quite some time.”
“What... What happened?” Noir asked. “I... I got shot... The commissar shot me... Oh god, where are we?!”
“It’s fine, Noir, you’re safe. We got to you in time. So you saw him, and you’re certain it was the commissar?” Storm asked her.
“Yeah... I guess? I don’t really know, it’s just that I couldn’t really see straight, from all the flashing... Ugh, forget it.”
“What flashing?” Storm said, frowning.
Noir felt sick again. She approached Storm and said, looking in his eyes:
“What is happening to me?”
The pegasus looked back at her, not sure what to say.
“I don’t know, Noir, but I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he reassured her.
“Am I interrupting something?” Aendel spoke from behind them.
Storm turned around and Noir jumped.
“Emissary! I guess you’re here to conduct an investigation,” the princess told the sectorial.
“Call me Sir Scroll, princess, and no, I’m not here for that. You asked me to get you to the Capital, we’ll leave at dusk.”
The princess let out a sigh of relief. She never wanted an investigation to begin with.
“Dusk? Why?” Storm asked.
“It’s best for us not to be seen,” Aendel replied, looking at Noir.
“What about the Wolmetahls? They come out at night!”
“We just need to get out of Coltstone, then we’ll sleep and continue going at dawn. Pack your bags, princess.”
Noir nodded and exited the house to get some air. She sat on a wooden bench in the small backyard, thoughts still clinging on to her, and watched the shadows of the clouds move across the golden fields. She could see, further away, the small wall. Trackhead was going to return soon.
Trackhead was another mystery to Noir. He was sentient, the only ponybot in the entire kingdom that was sentient. Why and how, she never got to ask, but judging by his initial reaction at questions of the sort, he probably didn’t want to discuss about it.
Noir kept surveying the landscape, as if she was trying to see past the hills and the wall... All the way to the giant ravine that represented the border of Zir’lan. They all felt like they were trapped in a cage with a monster inside... The Wolmetahls had only fallen in Zir’lan.
Why? Why Zir’lan?
Past the ravine, their mysterious neighbor: the Lotus Kingdom, a surreal land that Noir had never seen. Her parents promised they would take her there one day, to meet Queen Efflorence. Of course, that never happened. The ravine was off limits since the Wolmetahls came, the bridges had been blown up to prevent the monsters from escaping Zir’lan. The only way in and out of the kingdom was through a mountain pass guarded by the Great Northern Gate.
They were alone.
Suddenly, Noir felt something pawing her tail. She turned around and saw the blue pegasus from before, named Noobsie. The small pony sat on the bench next to the princess and said:
“I don’t believe what the others say about you. I think you’re noble, and that you could never do what they think you did.”
Noir smiled.
“Oh really? Thank you!” She said, looking at the little fella. “So, where are you from?”
“I’m from here! I live up there, in that cloud, with Tess,” Noobsie replied and pointed a hoof at a slightly lower cloud.
“Woah, you live in a cloud? That’s so cool!” Noir shouted, looking up. “So how come you met Storm?”
“I... I saw the red flash, then Storm and the other guy carrying you over to that old house. I was curious... Sorry for lying on top of you, I just wanted to keep you warm.”
“Ah no worries!”
“So... I wanted to ask you... Is it true, that you can kill Wolmetahls? Don’t answer it if you don’t feel like it...” Noobsie said lightly.
Noir remained silent. She couldn’t; it was true, but the princess didn’t want to say it out loud.
Noobsie looked down.
“I’m sorry, shouldn’t have asked,” she said.
“Oh no, it’s fine, it’s just that I’m not sure myself what I can and can’t do,” the princess replied.
The pegasus shifted closer to the princess and, after a bit of hesitation, hugged her. Noir hugged back, petting the blue pony’s mane. Noobsie started whimpering and said:
“I just asked because... Now with the war... Our house got destroyed by those monsters and... Daddy...”
“Shh, it’s okay.” Noir whispered. “I’ll make it all okay.”
“I want you to kill them all,” the pony said, tears still running down her cheeks.
Noir looked towards the horizon for a few moments and said:
“Don’t worry, I will.”
**
“Alright stallions, this is an important mission. This is where you use your training. The princess needs a worthy escort, one that can and will defend her flanks no matter what, so my question is, are you up for the task or are we going to have to rely on them snobby sectorials to get the job done?”
Storm was proud of his speech. The squad of around twenty earth pony volunteers started cheering, all anxious for their first real mission, patting each other’s backs and holding their railguns upwards, the sun going down behind them and painting the land in gold.
Deep down Storm knew, however, if something was to go south, their escort will probably not make much of a difference.
**
The mysterious white-furred pony in Sector 0 entered the regent’s office, high up in the royal palace, slapping a folder on his majesty’s desk and tilting her head.
The regent was a middle-aged stallion coming from a family of farmers, going by the name Zanarius Domini, his real name being Rick. He quickly got up from his chair, heavily due to his fur coat and golden chains, and saluted the princess in a clumsy way:
“Your majesty! I... I wasn’t expecting you... Today... Something wrong?!”
“Rick, open the file,” white-fur said with her calm and rough voice, blowing her black and purple mane out of her eyes.
The stallion tried opening it, but hooves weren’t exactly helpful in that situation, and the plastic horn he had attached to his forehead didn’t exactly possess any magical capabilities. White-fur sighed and flipped open the file with her blue-tinted magic and slapped it in the regent’s face.
“See that?” She asked. “That’s a photo of me in the central square, and next to that is a photo of Noir made around the same time, in Coltstone. Why are those two photos and a nice little article documenting them in the newspapers?"
Rick spent a few moments processing what white-fur had just said and then looked at the photos, stupefied.
“Noir is quite pretty... Of course, not as pretty as you, your majesty! Even though you... Look kind of the same...” He said, starting to sweat.
“Rick, stop being an idiot and tell me why you let the media do this.”
“Well we can just shoot the guy who wrote the article, right?” Rick said, but then slapped himself. “I’m sorry your majesty,” he continued, “I was careless.”
“You’re lucky it won’t matter anymore, very soon,” white-fur said sharply.
“How’s the revolution going?” Rick asked.
“Don’t you ever let your sectorials get in my way again, and maybe it will be going smoothly,” she replied, sighed and exited the office, flanked by two stallions in red and gold uniforms.
“Our deal still stands right? I remain king, yeah?” Rick continued, but never got an answer.
**
The night arrived with a moist, chilly breeze and more fog. Noir, Aendel, Storm, Trackhead and the escort were getting ready to leave. The princess was staring at the stars, lying on her back in the grass and passively listening to the quiet chatter and rustling that was going on around her. Aendel was establishing a route with the escort commander, having spread a few maps on a table in the backyard. Noir caught fragments from their talk:
“This right here... The shortest route... If we take the main road... Safe from Wolmetahls... Yeah, we’ll sleep... Ranch...”
Trackhead had just found out what happened while he was gone and was just strolling around aimlessly.
Noir heard hoofsteps close to her. Storm laid himself next to her, not saying anything, looking at the stars too.
“Beautiful, right?” Storm said lightly.
“Yeah,” Noir answered. “Is the sky always like that?”
“Full of stars? Yeah, pretty sure.”
“No, I mean was that always there?”
Noir pointed her hoof straight upwards, at a thick band-like zone across the sky that was darker than the rest of it and had no stars, with a narrow red strand through the middle of it that glowed, seemingly moving slowly.
“Oh, you mean the Rift? Yeah... Are you telling me you never noticed it until now?” Storm said, chuckling.
“I don’t know... I guess I thought it used to be narrower.”
“Ha ha, well... Yeah, actually you might be right. It does look like it widened itself a bit.”
“We still don’t know what it is, right?”
“Nah, the Science League is still trying to find out. It’s there for a hundred years though. They say it’s some sort of crack in space-time something. Heh, they sometimes just explain things that are confusing with even more confusing terms. Still, it’s beautiful.”
Noir remained silent, looking at that huge slit across the sky, as if a molten blade had slashed through the fabric of space. She thought she had remembered something... Something from her other past. No, what the hay was she thinking, there’s no other past.
“Hey uh... Noir... I wanted to tell you something...” Storm said with a little tremor in his voice, turning his eyes towards the princess, whose sharp features were outlined by the moonlight.
“What is it?” Noir asked.
“I uhh, I was wondering if...”
“Everyone up! Time to move!” Aendel’s powerful voice sounded through the air.
**
The escort’s lights were blurred by the fog from a distance. They walked positioned in a rhombus around Noir, Storm, Trackhead and Aendel, scouting the road ahead with their flashlights and keeping railguns at the ready.
“So, after half a mile there’s a ranch. We’ll spend the night there and continue going at dawn,” Aendel said, checking a map.
It was silence, except the sound of hooves on the asphalt. The escort commander kept throwing looks towards Noir, as if something about her was bothering him. Storm noticed and asked:
“Is there a problem, commander?”
The stallion looked at him, seemingly not knowing what the pegasus meant.
“What?” He asked.
“I asked if there’s a problem.”
“Oh no sir. It’s just that there’s something wrong with her eye.”
“There’s nothing wrong with her eye, I assure you,” Storm said sharply.
The commander didn’t say anything anymore. Noir whispered to Storm:
“Is my... Dot glowing?”
“Eh, sort of, Noir. Don’t worry about it though.”
The princess didn’t feel comfortable. Aendel put away his map and started looking around carefully, and the light-gray pegasus had discretely borrowed a railgun from one of the escort members to make him feel safer. The escort commander made a sign and went ahead, to scout the road before them.
“Why didn’t we choose a closer place to spend the night? We’re already far enough from the city that we might just run into a Wolmetahl,” one of the soldiers said quietly.
Suddenly, the commander, who was going a dozen meters ahead, froze. He lied down slowly and shut off his light, signaling the rest of the party to do the same.
“Everyone, lights out! Don’t make a sound!” Aendel whispered.
Everypony turned off their flashlights and lied down silently.
“What’s going on? Oh god, is it a Wolmetahl?!” Another soldier asked, burying his head in his hooves.
“Shhh!” Aendel threw him.
From the fields to the left, light thumps became audible, and in the darkness of the night, Noir could only see the reflections of the moonlight on the metal and the outlines of silently flailing tentacles.
“Should we engage?!” A soldier asked Storm.
“No, don’t, let it pass,” the pegasus whispered.
The Wolmetahl reached the road, its heavy legs stepping with a pneumatic noise on the asphalt, cracking it. The monster stopped in the middle of the road, at around a hundred meters away from the escort commander, and turned around facing the ponies. A loud puff announced its spotlights turning on.
“Oh no,” Storm said, more to himself, even though the rest of the party got the message as well.
The Wolmetahl started scouting with the lights down the road and the moment the rays reached the escort commander, the stallion stood up and yelled from the top of his lungs in the direction of the convoy:
“Everypony scatter! Get off the road!”
The next thing everypony witnessed was a loud thunder accompanied by a flash and a shockwave, and the road section on which the commander was went up in a cloud of fire and smoke. After firing, the Wolmetahl started searching for more targets with its spotlights while moving forward down the road, the white rays sweeping across the fields on either side.
The soldiers got up quickly and scattered, running on the fields and pointing railguns at the monster, their adrenaline going from zero to a hundred the moment they started firing. Projectiles started hitting the Wolmetahl, most ricocheting with a spark off its wolfram plating. Aendel fired his horn and ran towards the low elevation gaps in the fields, together with Noir and Trackhead. Storm was flying above the Wolmetahl, shooting down at it.
The escort backed away slowly while firing, standing on their hind-hooves, as the Wolmetahl approached them, its own guns charging and growling loudly.
“Keep firing! Target the spotlights and the eyes!” One of them shouted.
The shots however missed the eyes by a lot, and only a few of the spotlights were hit and disabled.
Noir made up her mind. No, she thought, she couldn’t just sit and watch. She had to do something, or else all those poor ponies that didn’t know what they were signing up for were going to die.
She was a weapon, after all.
The princess got out of the hiding spot in the side of the hill and wanted to run towards the Wolmetahl, but suddenly Aendel grabbed her.
“Noir! Calm down, you can’t do anything about it!” The emissary shouted, holding the princess in place.
“But I can! They’re going to die, let me go!” Noir shouted, kicking her legs in the air.
“Hey! Let her go!” Storm shouted, having landed next to them.
“Storm, get back, or I swear I’ll kill you!” Aendel spouted at him.
The pegasus wasn’t sure what to do. He saw the explosions from the Wolmetahl’s guns and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he kicked Aendel off of the princess. Noir galloped towards the battle, not looking back. Aendel got up and quickly took Storm’s railgun that was lying on the ground, grasping it with his magic and pointing it at the pegasus.
“What the hay is wrong with you?!” The emissary shouted. “She’s going to die!”
“Woah, Aendel, put that down. You don’t want to do this, come on,” The pegasus said lightly, raising his hooves.
Aendel let out an angry shout and threw the weapon away, then ran for Noir.
The princess shouted from behind the Wolmetahl, trying to get its attention. The monster suddenly stopped, and turned around slowly, growling as it pointed its spotlights at Noir. Its mouth opened and its tentacles arched over him in a terrifying manner, the razors and laser guns aiming at the one pony in the middle of the road.
Noir didn’t hear Aendel’s desperate shouting regarding the second Wolmetahl that approached from the back. The princess closed her eyes; her scrambled mind and memories suddenly ordered themselves, and a flashback crossed her mind for a second;
“Snowy, are you sure this is going to work? You know, it’s illegal, what we’re doing... If The Company catches us... I wouldn’t want to lose you...”
Noir opened her eyes. The dot shined bright, and the second the monster lunged at her, a red flash illuminated the fields and a loud thunder shattered the Wolmetahl’s spotlights, as the lightning cut through it. In that moment, Noir saw the other one in a reflection, but it was too late for her and Aendel, who could not reach the road in time. The princess gasped as the Wolmetahl jumped straight for her, and for a split-second thought she had died and an angel had taken her soul in the skies; then she realized, Storm had grabbed her. The pegasus landed the princess safely, shouting:
“What were you thinking? Ah, thank the gods!”
Although it was very bad timing, they hugged.
“I’m sorry,” Noir said, then thanked him, a tear falling down her cheek.
The Wolmetahl landed head-on into the first one’s corpse, the two monsters clashing with a horrifying sound of torn metal and broken glass. The confused, mutilated beast backed away, shaking the pieces of the other one off its head and ripping the steel beams that had impaled it with its mouth. It then checked to see if its partner was dead, which it was, and proceeded to search around for the princess, limping.
“It’s not over yet...” Storm said. “It won’t quit.”
The torn and broken machine was indeed not quitting. It was enraged, swinging its tentacles wildly.
“Storm, I... I don’t think I can... Do it again... I’m just... So tired...” Noir said, then lied down, coughing. Her head was spinning, her mind once more a warzone.
Storm backed away as the now even more scary-looking Wolmetahl found them. It growled loudly and barely made its way towards them, pieces of it occasionally falling off.
“Uhh... Noir! Get up, we have to run!” Storm shouted and proceeded to grab the princess. He was exhausted as well, however, and no matter how hard he tried to fly with her in his arms, he couldn’t.
Suddenly, an unknown pegasus in armor dropped himself on the beast’s back, a shiny sword bolted to his front leg plate and a railgun bolted to his other leg. The Wolmetahl growled and swung its tentacles over itself, but the pegasus avoided them and shot the railgun into an exposed part of its head, slicing the cables and throwing a small device into the hole. He then jumped off and the Wolmetahl’s head connector area exploded, severing the head from the rest of its body, then crashing to the ground.
Aendel saw the whole thing and had a sneaking suspicion who the pegasus was; and his suspicion was confirmed. The pegasus took his helmet off and they all recognized the commissar, QB, as he punched a hole with his sword in one of the Wolmetahl’s oil tanks and painted an additional line to the three he had on the back of his front hoof.
Aendel approached him.
“You can see now, emissary, that what I’ve been telling you back at the fortress is the truth,” QB said, grinning. He then saw Noir and Storm and his grin faded.
“I am impressed. One would think that if you tried to kill Noir, you wouldn’t save her right after,” Aendel said. “You’re under arrest.”
“Not so fast, Aendel. In whose name are you arresting me?”
“What? In the regent’s name, of course.”
“Oh really? That’s funny. I thought the regent told you to not conduct an investigation. Do you have proof that I attacked Noir?”
“I have her testimony.”
“Oh trust me, the regent couldn’t care less about the testimony of a young troubled psychopath. Sorry, ol’ Aendel, not happening. I would thank me if I were you, your sweet killing machine got her flank saved for the second time by nopony but me. Now if you excuse me, I have business to attend.”
And so, Aendel could not stop him. QB flew away, just like that.
“You won’t get away next time,” Aendel mumbled. He then reunited with Noir and Storm and they all looked around, stupefied due to all that had happened. From all over the fields, out of twenty members of the escort, only seven returned.
They reached the ranch at midnight, injured, exhausted and demoralized. The ranch owners offered them food and a place to rest, as they were going to continue on their way to the Capital.
The whole time they were there, they didn’t speak, they just buried and mourned their friends and stared at the ceiling.
Noir was scared of the escort lashing at her because of the death of their friends. She lied next to Storm and didn’t say a word the entire night... Still, she thought about the flashback she had.
And more came to her slowly:
"Snowy, did you read what it says here?"
“I did, hun, but trust me, it’s going to be alright.”
“It says it can cause memory loss.”
“Ah, I bet once we get... we’ll recognize each other...”
“The Company was charged with crimes they did not commit...”
“...? You mean that planet that popped out of nowhere? Yes, I heard about it...”
“Millions died trying to pass through the...”
“The pony world was never meant to be part of our universe.”
Then, Noir fell asleep.