Rule # 8:
A villain always make a show of each job, that’s how you show your enemies that you’re sure to be victorious
Crystal Palace:
The last days have been pretty boring with the Crystal Guards since they really missed Flurry. With the time they ended up getting used to the presence of a noisy little Princess who always tried to disobey her parents going out without permission, or well, trying to avoid they see her real school reports. Because of Flurry the Crystal Guards had become the bests in Equestria, all thanks to a rebellious and hyperactive preteen.
“See this bruise? She made me this her last night in Palace. Good times, good times.”
“I tried to convince General Armor to not to do it, that the little brat made our lives interesting. Now what? Spend countless hours doing nothing like the other Guards?”
“What? Do you prefer to be a babysitter?”
“Is better than nothing”
They all laughed nostalgically sharing his feelings. Oh Princess Flurry, what will they do without her?
But suddenly they all muttered when they heard an strange sound coming from the upper floor, for most of the Royal Guards it was nothing, but to them an out-of-place noise meant that something odd was going on. They ran upstairs to an empty salon that Princess Cadence and General Armor used to storage unused objects like an extra set of dinner service, silvery and a few decadent ornaments. The door was usually locked, but this time it was completely open, and inside there was somepony they didn’t expect:
A tall girl with a black spandex suit, red boots, a large ruby-colored scarf and a white mask with creepy yellow eyes; surrounded by lots of tiny dolls dressed exactly like her. The girl was busy choosing what to take from that room, when she noticed the soldiers’ presence.
“Ah, quelle belle surprise, I didn’t expected to see you until a few minutes later” she said making an elegant lady-like bow. “Je sois Le Puppè but you can call me Dolly. Who is the officer in charge?”
The pony in question raised a hoof so the snake-like scarf gently deposited the business card on his hoof.
“As you can see I am a professional villainess. What I’m doing here? Well, a Castle is the perfect place to practice mon profession: there are so many valuable things to steal, do some large-scale vandalism and of course to beat down some soldiers. Have you seen some of those around here?”
Enough, the Crystal Soldiers ran towards Dolly, who commanded her dolls to counterattack. The strange androids walked to the guards and jumped embracing their armors. Immediately the dolls generated some kind of electric current that didn’t harm the guards but magnetized their armors, and before they could ask what the hell was going on they ended up stuck to each other. Dolly made another exaggerated bow and her scarf wrapped around the group and threw them against a wall.
“That’s a good start, do you have more?”
The soldiers didn’t answered, they were unconscious so Dolly turned her attention to her dollies. Half took all the silvery and jumped out the windows and the other half created a hole in the roof so Dolly could jump through it.
On the upper floor Cadence and Shining were having tea together. Since Flurry went to live with her aunt for a while they felt a little lonely at first, but also took it as an opportunity to spend some time as a couple and revive the spark.
“I missed this moments together. Is not that I don’t enjoy our time as a family but…”
“I know, I missed this too” smiled Cadence to her husband. “So what, are you in the mood for a picnic with happy ending for tomorrow?”
Shining kissed his wife passionately, when suddenly a portion of the floor before them (in a perfect circle shape) fell to the down floor, followed by a pony dressed in black jumping from the hole and bowing to them.
“Oh excuse moi, I didn’t wanted to interrupt you I swear” she said offering them her business card. “Now if you excuse me, I’ll go this way…”
The villainess calmly walked to the door, when in the crystal walls she saw the reflection of the marriage preparing their horns to send her a magic attack. Dolly eluded it with an elegant jump and turned to her attackers. Another magic beam was sent, but this time it was blocked by the scarf that unfortunately began to burn meaning that the Nano-machines made short-circuit. Bad sign, she knew she had to replace it after the confrontation with Celestia.
“Oh, I really liked that scarf. Dollies!”
Three of the dollies jumped through the hole and exploded creating a smoke-screen that would helped her to escape but Cadence used her wings as a fan revealing where the villainess was, allowing Shining to shot a magic beam that sent her to a wall. The crystal shattered in hundreds of tiny pieces but thanks to her suit didn’t harm Dolly.
“I see you’re in need of some medical attention” said Cadence walking towards Dolly. “Surrender now and I’ll get you the best doctors before sending you to jail”
“Tell us who you are and what do you want” added Shining.
Dolly got up and shrugged.
“Mercì for the offer but I don’t need a doctor. I’m stronger that I look ma chère Princesse. And qui suis-je? As my card says, I’m Le Puppè professional villainess”
“And what the hell do you want?” Insisted Shining Armor.
“That” answered Dolly aiming a hoof to the Throne.
Before the Crystal Monarchs could react, Dolly made another of her lady-like bows and charged to Cadence. She and Shining were about to respond the attack when a powerful explosion in a side-room called their attention for half of a second, enough for giving Dolly the chance to kick them both out of the room. They rolled on the ground until they bumped into something soft that softened their crash. They turned, it were their unconscious soldiers down because of the dollies’ paralyzing gas explosion.
But the two Monarchs stood still willing to fight.
“Go on, defeat us, the ponies of Empire would never surrender to you”
“We’ll protect our people to the very end” said Shining taking a sword from a fallen partner, and after protecting himself with a magic force-field and tried to stab Dolly.
She didn’t bothered to elude the attack and pushed the Prince away, maybe she used a little too much strength but he fell on his fellow guards so it was okay.
“I think there’s a misunderstanding your Highnesses, I’m not interested in overthrown you. I just want the throne”
Cadence wasn’t on the mood for this.
“And that doesn’t mean overthrown us?”
“No, that means I like the chair and I want it as a souvenir”
Shining and Cadence exchanged a confused look.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, why would I like to overthrown you?”
They stood there without understanding this girl, when a soldier came from behind Dolly and tried to stab her. Unfortunately for him Dolly turned and punched his jaw as one of the dollies embraced a leg and electrocuted the poor guy.
“How did you saw me?”
“All my dollies are eyes and ears for me”
And speaking of that, her dollies warned her of a combined attack from both Cadence and Shining; and considering her suit haven’t fully recovered from the confrontation with Celestia, Dolly knew it would mean the end for her. So she took the unconscious soldier and threw to them, forcing the Monarchs to stop the attack so they wouldn’t harm an innocent.
“This is getting tedious” finally sighed Dolly. “If you excuse moi, I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon in my new chair”
Before Shining and Cadence could say something, the dolls used the simplest of their tools: led light, and since the Castle was made of crystal, it reflected all over blinding everypony for a few instants.
Everypony except for Dolly who walked to the Throne Room and with her enhanced strength, she took the throne with her hooves and walked away just like that.
When everypony else recovered the vision, first thing Shining and Cadence did was to help the fallen soldiers. They were fine, apparently the villainess limited to incapacitate them.
“What the hell just happened?” Asked the pink alicorn once she made sure everything was okay.
“All of this just for the throne? What’s wrong with that pony?”
Cadence frowned.
“When auntie Celestia told me about the new villains I didn’t quite believe it… but now… I still can’t believe what just happened”
Then a soldier came to report.
“Your Majesties, something strange happened. When we were checking on our partners we realized the Crystal Heart was missing”
“WHAT?” Shouted Cadence. “But is not snowing or anything!”
“Precisely, we began to look and found it in a shelf in the library. Do you know what it means?”
“It’s a message” mumbled Shining Armor. “She just told us that she could take it if she wanted”
That was too much, when Spike returned from the university, they asked him to send a message to the other Princesses, and in less than an hour Princess Celestia arrived along with the especial unit leaded by Flash Sentry.
“Flash, is so good to see you” smiled Shining shacking hooves with his old friend.
“Hi buddy, I would like we met in another circumstances compadre. What did those two did this time?” Asked Flash with a frown.
“Those two?”
“Dolly and Mister Z”
Shining raised an eyebrow and gave Flash Dolly’s business card.
“We don’t know Z yet. Our fight was with Dolly only”
Flash exchanged a look with his team.
“Something wrong, Commander Sentry?” Asked Celestia joining the conversation.
“Yes, those two supposed to be inseparable, I don’t get why suddenly one of them decide to attack son her own”
It was Shining Armor who got the answer.
“As far as I understand, until now they’ve been attacking in Canterlot only; and when we finally answer to their provocations they start targeting Ponyville and here. Don’t you see it? They’re forcing us to split forces!”
Celestia frowned.
“Great, not only they do all this to call for our attention, but also they know how we work. We must think in how to set a decent trap for them”
They all agreed, yeah a trap. Now the question was, what kind of trap?
They were so concentrated on their discussion that didn’t noticed that one of the soldiers was missing (the same who tried to stab Dolly on the back). He was in the basement, constantly looking back to make sure nopony was listening. He took a dark crystal from his armor and made it glow with his magic.
“Tirek, Tirek… this is Sombra”
The crystal turned red and the voice of the powerful centaur was heard through it.
“I told you this line is only for emergencies”
“Is not exactly an emergency. You see, a new villain showed up, and she made quite a performance only to steal a stupid throne”
“Did she actually overthrown Armor and Candeza?”
“No, she just wanted the throne, the fancy chair of you prefer; but she did fight them and won”
“That doesn’t sound like an emergency”
“That’s what I thought at first, but then Celestia showed up and told Armor and Candeza that there are actually two of them and constantly claim that they act like they act only to make a ‘daily act of evil’. Sounds familiar?”
From the other side of the crystal, Sombra heard Tirek gulping.
“So you think they’re trying to attract Grogar?”
“Maybe, maybe not; but if things continue like this they’ll certainly will”
“Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! Those morons are about to ruin everything. But let’s not panic. First contact with Chrysalis and I’ll meet you at the mountains tonight. I’ll also try to speak with Discord, maybe we don’t get along that well but maybe he’ll help us this time”
“Considering we’re talking about Grogar I’m sure we’ll all agree we must destroy those two idiots before it’s too late”
They deactivated the communication and inside his hideout, Tirek trembled in fear. He wouldn’t be able to face Grogar’s return; no one would. Please, he couldn’t return, he just couldn’t.
“For all that’s sacred, I won’t let those to attract the fucking ram. Please, don’t let them call him!”