Upheaval: Reckoning

by Visiden Visidane


The Greatest of Us All

Upheaval: Reckoning

Chapter 23: The Greatest of Us All

“I don’t understand, mistress. If you want me to kill Pinkie Pie, I have a toxin ready to melt whatever passes for her brain. Has she offended you so much that she must suffer first?”

Sable stood firm while Black Rose mulled over her question. Though she took fierce pride in her loyalty to the greatest pony Equestria has ever produced, she had never shied away from asking questions.

“I don’t want Pinkie Pie dead,” Black Rose replied. “I want her tested as the Element of Joy. If she breaks, then you may end her suffering. Her element will be better off with a stronger bearer. However, I do have faith in her ability to grow. The Elements would not choose so frivolously.”

Sable continued to stare. Black Rose watched the myriad images that surrounded her as if things were simply business as usual. By now, she should be enjoying herself immensely. Things were going her way, and there were enough little surprises to keep her alert. Seven hundred years ago, she would be smiling widely, and humming some nameless tune to herself. “Are you alright, mistress?” Sable asked.”You look…sad.”

A small smile curved Black Rose’s lips. “I didn't think you would be concerned over my happiness, Sable."

“You might be distracted. The stakes are too high, and we have too many enemies.”

The smile widened. “My moods will not be a problem.”

“I’ll be going then,” Sable said. She saluted out of habit, once more having to remind herself that she was no longer a legionnaire.

“There’s the Sable I know,” Black Rose replied. “Be off then.”

With a snort, Sable shoved aside the recollection. A group of True Earth Ponies, including one of those that Pinkie Pie had encountered in Fangbreaker Fortress, was making its way towards Canterlot. Pinkie Pie's channeler tablet was guiding them unerringly towards her. Out in these woods, still a few miles from Canterlot, she could deal with them.

“These True Earth Ponies have done their part by setting Pinkie Pie on the right path to power. I don’t need them burdening her with their useless dogma. Sable, I’m letting you take care of all matters related to Pinkie, including these unneeded ponies.”

This was the part Sable liked about her current assignment. No vague “tests of adversity” here, just a straightforward ambush for the Blackmoon Blades' skills to shine. The late afternoon sun filtered through the canopy, providing her with just enough light to spot her prey. She adjusted her breather mask, and readied herself.

Fighting alongside Frenzy Heart along with seven hundred years of dormancy had done nothing to change Sable's opinion on the True Earth Ponies. They were bizarre, hostile, and single-mindedly stupid. As far as she was concerned, they were just one more cult that hindered Equestria by driving a wedge among its various ponies. There were twelve of them this time. Two channelers, easily recognizable by their masks, led the group. The rest were warriors: five armed with large, mouth-held blades, and the remaining five armed with crossbows. She studied them carefully. They carried crossbows preferred by the Western Legion: heavy, slow, and capable of bringing down an ursan. No pegasus could wield these monsters, and stay aloft.

Once more, Sable found her thoughts straying.

“The mistress is merely adjusting to a campaign wherein she does not have her beloved’s approval,” Lion Court said as he walked with Sable through the obsidian hallway.

“I don’t like it,” Sable replied. “She looks weak by sulking like that. We are contending with the Eternal Herd. We can’t have Black Rose be weak, even for a second.”

Lion Court shook his head, his impressive locks gently swaying. “If our mistress showed not even a hint of regret, I would have abandoned her cause in a heartbeat.”

“And I would have made sure it was last heartbeat you ever had,” Sable growled. “Black Rose is the greatest of us all because she can, and will, sacrifice everything necessary for the good of Equestria. All this…regret stains that fact.”

Lion Court smiled. “On the contrary, her regret proves all the more that what she has given up is truly important. Don’t you understand? She could have stayed the loyal High Commander, and our prince would have willfully ignored the deaths needed to make her immortal. She gave up that ‘happy’ career to push on with her plans. Isn't that the mark of her ruthlessness that you adore so much, my dear Sable?”

Sable shook her head. “I still don’t like it.”

“And we’re back where we started. Did I just converse with a water wheel?”

Sable snorted. She had to focus. After that frustrating talk with Lion, these foals were a boon as targets. As she had hoped, the channelers were so busy tracking Pinkie Pie that they didn't notice the tripwire ahead of them. The first channeler’s front legs snagged the trap. Before he could even shout a warning, a volley darts flew from the vegetation. Three of them found homes in his neck, pumping his bloodstream with a vicious nerve toxin so quickly that he was no longer breathing by the time his partner checked up on him.

The others aimed their weapons towards where the darts had fired. That was Sable’s cue. She pressed a button on her right foreleg device, causing a three-inch long needle to extend just past her hoof, then swooped in from behind the group. She grabbed a crossbow-carrying pony just a little apart from the rest of his fellows, and lifted him past the canopy. A couple of bolts whizzed dangerously close. the rest were widely off-mark. Her victim wasted no time screaming his lungs out, his crossbow dropping while he flailed.

“Stop struggling, fodder!” Sable muttered. She plunged the needle into the pony’s gut, dove back into the canopy, then dropped him in the middle of his fellows.

The impact snapped one of his hind legs, but the pain of a bone breaking went ignored with his guts were already churning violently. “Help me!” he cried out weakly. With an agonized moan, he dragged himself towards his fellows. His abdomen was already swelling with building gas when the others looked him over. Cries of alarm followed, but it was too late. His midsection burst in horrid explosion of blood and gore, releasing a cloud of toxic yellow haze in the middle of the group. The rest of the earth ponies stumbled out of the cloud, their eyes and noses burning from the poison. Sable swooped into them, her foreleg devices now sporting a pair of envenomed short blades.

The true earth ponies struggled to focus their attacks on the blur that flew past them to no avail. Sable’s first pass sliced open three of them, including the surviving channeler. Before she regained some altitude, she dropped a canister, releasing another toxic cloud. She circled around them, and flew back in, slashing and stabbing with precision. They tried to surround her on her second pass. Instead of flying by, however, she landed in their midst, and lashed out. She kicked out with her hind legs, the curved, poisoned blades near her back hooves cutting open the chests of those who approached her from behind. The edges of her wings had slender, curving, feather-shaped blades attached to them. Though useless in flight, she brought them to bear whenever she landed. Her tail whipped about and another device, a barbed stinger, buried itself in another pony’s neck.

Their lungs and eyes on fire, and their bodies full of poison, Sable’s targets fell, twitching, and bleeding out. She landed a few feet from the killing zone, and surveyed her work. Despite seven hundred years of dormancy, her ambush was a success. She had to admire Black Rose’s ability to essentially rebuild her body.

“W-what’s going on here?”

Sable froze. This was not part of her plan. She recognized the high-pitched squeal of a voice, having studied its source as part of her assignment. Despite the impossibility of it, Pinkie Pie was here. Her last sighting was all the way back in Canterlot, wandering its streets, and consulting her channeler tablet. She didn't have the instant transport which the Thorns possessed. She wasn't even a pegasus. How could she be here right now?

Pinkie Pie is a natural channeler, but that is an oversimplification of what she can do. I am assigning her to you, Sable, but I want you to stay sharp. Don't let her silliness lull you into a false sense of safety.

Black Rose was right yet again. Of course Black Rose was right. The greatest pony in the world was always right.

Despite her surprise, Sable turned around confidently. It didn't matter now. She was going to make contact with Pinkie Pie anyway, so this sudden meeting only made things more convenient. Being surrounded by a slowly fading haze of poisonous gas, and the still twitching bodies of her victims was an added bonus. With a press of a button, she retracted the blades on her front hooves, and slowly approached Pinkie Pie.

“Y-y-you killed them!” Pinkie Pie gasped. It was a reaction Sable was used to on the very rare instances she was sighted. Her breather mask was designed not just to protect her from her toxic fumes, but also to intimidate her foes with an alien visage. The rest of her gear was blackened metal, all designed to heighten that appearance in addition to their function as weapons.

“I did,” Sable replied. The breather mask partly distorted her voice, making it sound hollow, and un-ponylike. Pinkie Pie took a few steps back. “My name is Sablesteel, one of the Thorns.” As she moved away from the poison clouds, she removed the breather mask, and inhaled sharply, closing her eyes for a moment as she did so. A lone green eye glared at Pinkie Pie. Sable leaned just a little closer. “Look at these, and think of those precious to you, Pinkie Pie. I’m going to do worse things to them.” She flew through the canopy before she could see any reaction.


For some time, Pinkie continued to stare at the canopy. The stone was leading her somewhere, but it suddenly veered towards a different course, as if it had picked up a different signal. She wasn't sure how she knew that, but she followed anyway. The next thing she knew, she was staring at this scene of carnage.

Bodies were scattered everywhere while ominous clouds of colored smoke lingered in the air. Nearby trees were smeared with blood, and bits of gore. A few of the corpses were still twitching. At the center of it all was…something. It looked like it had the body of a pony, but its outstretched wings were trimmed with black spine-like things. Its legs were also tipped with black material, and its tail had some kind of stinger which hung low beneath its hind legs. It looked like a pony crossed with a giant wasp. It walked over, and took off its face…helmet as it turned out. The strange creature was a pony. The next thing Pinkie knew, it was gone.

“Wait a moment! What did she just say?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. She looked around in a futile attempt to find the pony-wasp thing, but it was gone. She looked towards Canterlot, then towards Ponyville. What was she going to do? Where was that thing headed towards? Which ponies precious to her did she mean?


“I think you’re crazy bringing the ophidites into this, Stride,” Sablesteel said. “This is a pony matter that should be resolved internally.”

“Rainbow Dash is my assignment,” Longstride answered.”Do you have a paralytic for the job or not?”

“Of course I have a paralytic! I perfected my paralytics when I was still in diapers!" Sablesteel stretched a front hoof out. "Just give me the arrows, and I’ll have them ready.”

Longstride offered his quiver, which Sablesteel snatched.

“So what are her chances on surviving your test by your estimate?” Sablesteel asked.

Longstride snorted. “Zero. She’s going to die. Possibly on the first day.”

Sablesteel's eyes narrowed. “That’s harsh, even for you. The Element of Loyalty must have chosen her for a reason.”

“The Element of Loyalty chose randomly. She dropped out of her flight school due to discipline issues. Discipline is but loyalty to one’s self. She doesn't even have that.”

“Our mistress asked you to test her," Sablesteel said. "Not kill her."

“I am testing her.”

“With something guaranteed to kill her. That’s not testing, Stride, that’s murder.”

“The mistress asked for a test fit for the Element of Loyalty. I gave one. Whether she can pass it is not my concern. I repeat, Sablesteel, Rainbow Dash is my assignment.”

“Fine! Whatever! Just come by me later to get these arrows!” Sablesteel slammed her door afterwards.

Longstride held the paralytic-treated arrows, and nocked one of them. His targets were barely more than spots over the horizon, one trailed by rainbow colors, and the other by red. “Begin interception,” he told the indoctrinated pegasi still lounging beneath his perch. As his target neared, he saw legs, frantically beating wings, and a sky blue coat. He made out the cutie mark; a bolt of rainbow-colored lightning emerging from a cloud. It may as well be a bulls-eye. He aimed for that spot, and fired.

The bow's runes glowed brightly as its magic activated, granting his shot a range that no ordinary weapon could. The arrow was gone in a blink. and it wasn't long until he got his result. “This is Longstride,” he said to his communicating device. Rainbow Dash plummeted. “Long range shot successful.” He watched as Hassyth’s pegasi flew out.

Scarlet Rabbit quickly reacted to the sudden attack, and dove. Longstride nocked his second arrow, and adjusted his aim.


Scarlet grinned from ear to ear as he followed Rainbow to very edges of Canterlot. She was heading for a good spot. He was already itching to get his weights off, and race seriously. Her rainbow-colored tail fluttered about just a few feet away. He hoped that it was the same sight he would see during their actual race.

Rainbow veered sharply to one side, as if something had slammed into her. “Rainbow!” he called out as he dove after her. She didn't respond. For a moment, he was afraid that Rainbow was dead already. He caught her with his forelegs, and breathed a quick sigh of relief when he felt her inhale. Her open eyes darted wildly, her mouth seemed frozen in the middle of crying out. Her wings were still outstretched, and resisted stiffly when he gave them a little push. “Rainbow!” There was still no response. Though she was breathing, the rest of her was rigid. He looked at her flank, and spotted an arrow buried where the lightning bolt met the cloud.

‘Sniper.’

The thought barely registered in Scarlet’s mind when something struck his flank as well. Shock and pain coursed through his body. Rainbow fell from his grasp as both of them started to plummet. This was impossible, they were a long way from the ground, and he didn't see any spot where a sniper could hide in. Where had to the shot come from?

Armed with a magical bow with line-of-sight range.

‘Longstride,’ Scarlet thought. He berated himself furiously for not keeping a better eye out. If he considered something as ridiculous as line-of-sight range, there were plenty of places for that shot to come from. But why was Longstride going after him and Rainbow? He tried desperately to flap his wings to no avail. ‘Shot in the flank again…’ A group of pegasi flew towards him from the edges of his periphery. ‘The Captain’s going to kill me…’


“Second long range shot successful,” Longstride said to his communicating device. In truth, Scarlet Rabbit was already expendable, The only reason he was still alive was because pretenses of working with Hassyth had to be kept. By the end of this mission, an arrow might still find a home in his skull.

It wasn't long until Rainbow Dash and Scarlet Rabbit were under ophidite custody. ‘Too easy,’ Longstride thought. It was disgrace that the Element of Loyalty would pick so poor a candidate as its bearer. He could have aimed for Rainbow Dash’s heart, and the elements would be a bearer short. The pegasi patrols were nowhere near the incident. Longstride wasn't surprised. That was likely the nudge that Black Rose promised. The patrols could be distracted by some other incident. They could very well be her agents already.

Longstride flew out of his perch. Hashymissa, and her ponies were down there already securing their two captives. He had no inclination to help them get back to Ophidus.

“I like your plan, Longstride, it’s bold and interesting,” Black Rose said.

“Thank you, mistress,” Longstride replied.

“But it’s also dangerous. I don’t want to lose Rainbow Dash to the ophidites. If they break her, put her out of her misery.”

“Understood.”

“And, Longstride…”

“Yes, mistress?”

“Try to have a little faith in Rainbow Dash.”

Faith in Rainbow Dash…Longstride it. It seemed as if he was the only thorn who did. He didn't have faith in any of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, least of all Rainbow Dash. Better to kill them all now, and hope for better replacements. Preferably ponies who weren't stupid enough to end up where Rainbow Dash was at the moment.

But Black Rose believed in the strength of these fillies. She did possess vision that far surpassed even his eyes. While he could spot a target dancing on the edges of the horizon, she saw events before they even happened. There had to be something about Rainbow Dash then. But Black Rose had always been something of a gambler. This belief may be the gamble where the odds finally catch up. The best Longstride could do to aid her was to expose this weakness early. He glanced at his paralyzed mark.

'If Black Rose really does see something in you, Rainbow Dash, then you ought to survive this minor test of mine."

Longstride flew off. Outwardly, it appeared as if his job of helping the Hassyth’s group was over, and he was returning to his post. In truth, he was going to go to another hiding spot. He didn't trust Hashymissa, or her pony-shaped snakes, not to eat the two on the return trip. If Rainbow Dash was going to die, it would be because she failed miserably, not because some ophidite suddenly thought she was better off being dinner.


“Oh, Longstride, why did you have to shoot her there? It’s going to ruin her cutie mark.”

Black Rose sighed, and set aside the magical image. Of all her thorns, it was Longstride she was most worried about. Lion was always the gentlecolt, and Sable knew how to work with delicate substances. Stride believed in his aim, and little else. His rough handling was certainly going to be a challenge for Rainbow.

There was also work to be done. Information about Rainbow's capture had to be filtered carefully to gain the required reactions. Including the ophidites meant that this could get out of hoof very quickly.

As for Fluttershy…well, that was a problem she was still mulling over. Poking a wrath dragon was less dangerous than trying to tap into “the Stare”, and testing Fluttershy.

With a wave of her hoof, Black Rose dismissed all the magical images, and lay her head down. She mumbled the words for a short sleep spell. It had come to the point that she basically had to knock herself unconscious. Even with these breaks, urgency tugged at her mind. Her agents might discover something that needed her attention. A situation might change or an opportunity might arrive. She couldn't afford to spend hours just lying on her bed with her eyes open.

Magically induced sleep, however, was a poor substitute for the sort of rest she craved. It had been a day since she last slept, but she could barely recall the last time she was at ease. When she first emerged from her dormancy, she had been confident that she could weather this problem without any trouble. Now, as her plans slowly reached their crucial moments, it was only getting worse.

To complicate matters, her thorns were starting to notice. She wasn't worried about betrayal. Even Blue Moon’s was accounted for before it even happened. Morale, would certainly suffer if her troops saw her faltering. Unless…

Black Rose’s thoughts slipped towards a familiar, gray alicorn. The sleep spell was starting to take hold, and she wanted her next wakeful thoughts to be pleasant. If it was only possible to smother her worries with memories of those nights…an idea suddenly came to mind. Before she drifted off, she was already smiling with approval. It was dangerous, and certainly a mite reckless, but it just might work.