//------------------------------// // And Ends with Death // Story: Filly Games // by Waxworks //------------------------------// Smarty Pants couldn’t see anything so she lay there for a while, unmoving. She listened to the hoofsteps walk about the room, going back and forth. She heard a quill moving on parchment for a moment, then the hoofsteps moved elsewhere. Smarty Pants reached up to remove the sticker on her face, but the hoofsteps came back and she flopped back down, waiting to hear what would happen. The pony muttered something to herself and slammed something onto the table, then wandered away again. Smarty waited a moment, and the mare, (who she assumed must be Flugel) began rummaging through things on another shelf somewhere. Smarty Pants took that opportunity to sit up and tore the sticker off her eyes.. Now that she was free of everypony else, she could actually have a good long look at the room she had been dumped into. It wasn’t a particularly large room. There were shelves lining the walls and a large door at one end. There was a table near the shelf Smarty Pants had been tossed onto, and on it was a large… thing. It looked like a bust of somepony, but it wasn’t recognizable as anypony she knew. It was misshapen and looked to be stylized somehow so as to be an “artsy” kind of bust. Just the kind of thing Smarty Pants hated. The pony in the room with her was looking at the shelves on the far side of the room. She was muttering to herself in her strange accent. Likely complaining about her job. She picked something off the shelf that looked like a unicorn horn, made of the same brown material as the rest of the bust on the table, and turned around. Smarty Pants dropped limp to the shelf, and waited. She came back to the table, and there was the squeak of metal on stone, and then a light *clack*, of something small being put down. There wasn’t any sound for a few seconds, then the mare began humming a tune. Smarty Pants risked lifting her stuffed head off the shelf, and looked down. The mare was singing to herself as she was working. She picked the objects up off the table and was examining them using her magic. Smarty Pants didn’t know what she was looking for, but she was busy, and that was enough. Smarty Pants stood up and moved along her shelf. The mare wasn’t quite facing her, but she would rather try to drop to the ground behind her rather than anywhere she could see. She also needed something she could use for a weapon if she was going to get out of here and to Clever Plot’s office. The mare hadn’t turned around to look, and her ears were facing forward, so Smarty Pants scurried faster along the shelf, looking for something good to use against the guardian of the room. She found nothing on her own shelf, so she stuck her head out and looked down along the lower one. There was only one more shelf between her and the floor. There were more above, but she would need the stepladder across the room to access them. Or magic. She couldn’t really get either one. Without anything helpful nearby, she swung off her shelf and dropped to the lower one. She looked around and finally found something good she could use: a knife. It was just a small pocket knife, but it would be enough. She had the element of surprise, and as long as the blade was sharp, it would cut through flesh given enough force. She picked it up and with some difficulty unfolded it. There was a *snap* as the blade locked into place, and she jumped behind some ugly pnome statuette with crusted blood on the tip of his ugly, pointed hat. The mare’s chair scooted back and she walked over to the corner. She stopped in front of the shelves and looked over them, leaning left and right. “Vat iz noize?” She looked over the shelves in sequence, items sliding left and right as she investigated with far more zeal than Smarty Pants was comfortable with. She even leaned down and began shoving things left and right until she came to the spot where the knife had sat. She stopped and took a breath, and Smarty Pants’ woolen blood went cold. Smarty Pants leaped out of her hiding spot behind the pnome and jumped at the mare, knife extended and aimed at her eyes. Unfortunately for her, she was pulling back slower than Smarty Pants was leaping, and the knife sank into one of her eyes. Blood spilled out of her eye and spread over the handle, staining Smarty Pants’ soft hooves. She whipped the knife out sideways, extending the cut, then landed underneath her victim. She scurried behind her and began climbing her back leg. The mare screamed in pain and put a hoof to her eye. She extended a shield around herself as police officers are trained to do on reflex, but Smarty Pants was too small, and fit neatly inside it, unaffected. Smarty Pants took her knife and drew it along the back of the mare’s leg, and held on when it buckled and she fell to the floor. She gave her no time to recover, and crawled along her torso and up to her neck. The mare was in pain, confused, and barely lifted a hoof to try to stop her when Smarty Pants reached her neck and sliced along it, spilling her blood and turning her screams of pain into uncomfortable gurgling. She choked on blood as Smarty Pants watched, and when her shield dropped, Smarty Pants went to hide next to the door out of the room. Somepony would be coming soon. Smarty Pants tried to control her breathing, her woolen chest rising and falling, then realized she didn’t need to breathe. She thought about it, and stopped entirely. She smiled a wicked smile, and pressed her back against the wall, utterly silent. Sure enough, not long after Smarty Pants had slit the mare’s throat, she heard hoofsteps approaching the door. It opened and another mare looked inside the room. She already had her shield up, which meant she had heard the screams of pain. Smarty Pants couldn’t kill her, but she could at least sneak past her. The mare’s horn was lit and she was looking left and right. She didn’t seem fazed by the dead body on the floor, and was instead searching for the perpetrator, an utter professional. There was a flurry of activity past her, with ponies still rushing about. Smarty Pants could hear their hooves clattering along the floor. The mare walked in further, and Smarty Pants shifted closer to the doorjamb and peeked out from behind it. No sooner had she looked than she pulled her head back in and pressed up against the wall. There was a pony flanking her, hidden around the corner with her horn at the ready. Smarty Pants would be seen if she went out now. She might be a doll, but magical constructs weren’t uncommon, and she’d be blasted just as quickly as a pony might be. Smarty Pants waited, letting the mare enter all the way in. She spun around, surveying the room. Smarty Pants hid behind a minotaur skull, letting her make the sweep. She motioned out the door to her partner, who came inside the room, maintaining a presence just inside the door. “You think it’s teleportation?” “It’s gotta be. Got inside the room, killed Flugel, and then left. Is anything missing?” “Haven’t checked yet. Room looks secure. Nopony inside. Not sure where they’d hide.” “Pretty sure Flugel’s dead, so make a sweep for errant spells.” “Keep watch for me.” Smarty Pants took that as her cue to leave. She held tight to the knife and slipped out of the room pressed up against the wall. She barely missed the mare’s shield bubble, but she got out, and trotted swiftly down the hall. It wasn’t difficult traversing the hallways now that she knew them. Being as small as she was she could just hide behind the objects again. Nopony was looking for anything as small as her, which made it easy to get from place to place. Most of the offices were open as well, as everypony was trying to find the pony that had infiltrated the station. “Block all the exits! Get Show Stopper to set up a barrier around the station! I don’t want anypony teleporting in or out!” somepony shouted. Smarty Pants didn’t need to worry about that, as she would just be walking out of here when it was done. She hadn’t even been able to teleport when she was still a unicorn. That kind of power was rare. Right now, she didn’t need it. She would slip out a window or a vent when everypony had calmed down, but at the moment she had a mission: A date with a certain stallion who had left her bleeding on the ground a day ago. The stallion who was responsible for making her into a frumpy earth pony doll instead of a slim and attractive unicorn mare! Smarty Pants tightened her grip on her knife and hid behind the water cooler just outside Clever Plot’s office. She couldn’t see everything going on inside, but the door was open and she could tell that Night Light was gone. He had probably been escorted out of the building the moment they had figured out somepony dangerous was still inside the building. Smarty Pants knew Clever Plot well enough after all their years of chasing each other to recognize he wasn’t stupid. He would have figured out he was the target and Flugel was just a casualty in the way. He probably wasn’t even in his office, favoring the safety in numbers. But Smarty Pants could wait. She could wait a long time. When an opportunity presented itself, Smarty Pants dashed across the hall and into Clever Plot’s office. As she suspected, it was empty, but that would be fine. That’s all she needed. She didn’t need to eat, didn’t need to breathe, and didn’t have any pressing business. All she had was revenge to keep her going, and for now that was more than enough. She couldn’t cast the spell to get herself out of this stupid body, so if she was going to suffer, so would Clever Plot. She slipped behind the bookshelves, dragging the knife with her, and waited. She waited while the commotion outside the office continued and officers ran back and forth, hustling and bustling about the station. She felt a spell being cast, but couldn’t tell what it was. Nopony came to search the office for anything, so she assumed her current form didn’t warrant investigation. Maybe they thought she was a rat or something, or her body didn’t register on the spell at all. She wasn’t exactly alive, just mobile. Either way, she thanked her lucky stars it didn’t work on her, and continued waiting. Clever Plot eventually came back, but there was another pony with him, and so she stayed hidden, waiting while they did whatever work they had to do. She heard them leave together, and then the office remained empty for some time. If she had to guess, she would have said that they went home for the night to rest. But still she waited, patiently expecting him to return. She was rewarded after some amount of hours when Clever Plot’s office door opened and the lights came on. He sat down at his desk, and she knew this was her moment. If night had passed, that meant it was morning, he was probably still groggy, and he thought the station was safe after they had cleared it last night. He was never going to be more vulnerable. Smarty Pants peeked out from behind the shelves. Her body was squished, but her head came out and looked around the end at Clever Plot. His back was facing her and the shelf. Despite the attack from behind with the letter-opener, he hadn’t moved anything. If the murder from last night did anything, it had made the station believe the perpetrator was able to teleport. She would bet bits on the station still being warded against teleportation, but that suited her just fine. She watched him for a moment as he filled out paperwork. He was intent on it, and groaned as he leaned on one hoof, staring at a page and tapping the quill against the parchment. He was frustrated, bored, tired, and thoroughly exposed. There was no better time to attack! Smarty Pants skittered out from behind the shelf, ran to the other side where Clever Plot’s back was facing, and started to climb the shelf once again. It was harder this time, because the knife was much heavier than the letter-opener. She bumped the knife against the shelves once while climbing. She froze, looking over at Clever Plot, afraid he had heard her, but he gave no indication he had. He kept tapping at the page in front of him, scratching out some words now and again. She made it to the top and weaved her way through the knick-knacks closer to Clever Plot’s back. She bumped a vase filled with wilting flowers with the knife when she got closer, and watched with dismay as it tottered back and forth. She almost reached out to steady it, but Clever Plot’s ears twitched and he started turning around. Smarty Pants looked frantically for a place to hide, then looked at the tottering vase, then down at Clever Plot. She made her decision, grabbed the knife in both hooves, and leaped off the shelf! “Wha-?” Clever Plot’s eyes widened as the vase and Smarty Pants came down toward him. His horn lit reflexively and a shield came up, but he only caught the vase. It bounced off the shield, while Smarty Pants had already made it inside the radius of his protection spell. Smarty Pants fell past her target of his neck and slashed into his torso instead. The knife bit deep, but it bounced off a rib and Smarty Pants felt the knife jerk as she fell to the floor. She picked herself up and ducked under the desk, not giving him any time to recover and retaliate. She swung the knife at his hooves, hoping to stop him from walking or running away. She mostly caught hoof, but a bit of shin was cut, enough to make him limp. Clever Plot held a hoof to his side and cried out in pain as he tried to follow Smarty Pants’ movements. Her ducking under the desk had lost him, and he stood up to move away when she slashed his hoof.  He stumbled and fell backward, only to feel something crawling on top of him. Smarty Pants had been unwilling to let him get away and get her outside the shield he had erected, so she’d stayed close, completely uncaring about her own safety. She slashed his thigh on the way up, opening the same artery that had killed her, then stabbed the knife into his gut. “You’ve hit an artery, Clever Plot! Now who’s dying?” she crowed. A blast of magic threw her across the room, causing her to lose her grip on the knife. It remained stuck in Clever Plot’s gut. Clever Plot left the knife in. He didn’t want to pull it out and bleed more, he was doubled over in pain, blood pouring out of his wounds to splash on the floor. “I know that voice! Smart Shot?” Smarty Pants pulled herself to standing and picked up a piece of glass from the shattered vase. “Hey there, Clever.” “What in Equestria did you do to yourself?” “I was dying. I had no choice, because you wouldn’t stop fucking chasing me!” She dashed at him and swung the shard of glass. It bounced off the shield, and he easily blasted her away again. “Your crimes are your own fault, Smart. My job is to stop ponies like you.” “Your job is also to not let ponies die! Should have let me fix myself instead of blasting me to death.” Clever Plot shook his head and looked around for anything to bind his wounds. He grabbed his coat from its place on the hook by the door and pulled it over to himself, shredding it to pieces. “You’re crazy, Smart. You performed a crime, and you have to accept that consequences happen. You tried to hold somepony hostage, for Celestia’s sake!” Clever Plot magically opened the door to his office and shouted, “Help! Officer down!” “Damn you, Clever. Too much of a coward to fight alone?” Smarty Pants picked up another piece of glass and charged at Clever Plot. Clever Plot was sweating profusely and his magic was weakened, but the shield still held. Smarty Pants bounced off it again, and the sound of shouting outside the room could be heard. “You’re too weak now, Smart Shot. That body’s doing you no favors, and you can’t take on the rest of the station.” His breathing was wet and labored. She had likely punctured a lung with the first hit. “Rrrrrah! It’s Smarty Pants, now! Smart, and wearing pants! And I can, and I will! You can’t even stand!” Smarty Pants picked up the glass a third time and charged at Clever Plot. She threw herself against the shield again, smacking the fragment of glass against it. Clever Plot didn’t blast her away this time, so she swung again, the shield crackling under her assault. She smiled, her knitted mouth turning up in a wicked grin. Clever Plot’s eyes widened as he saw his shield crackle under her assault and tried to muster another shot, just to buy some time. His face twisted in pain as he tried to fire, but could not gather enough strength. In doing so, he pulled too much power from his shield, and Smarty Pants broke through, the magic shattering, then dissipating into aether. Smarty Pants laughed and raced up Clever Plot’s body. She kicked the knife that was still stuck in his gut as she passed it. Clever Plot groaned and raised his hooves weakly to try and stop her. Smarty Pants didn’t have to worry about blood, or energy, or any of that. She was still running on full energy and no pain, despite having been blasted and shocked by the shield multiple times. Her hooves had been frayed on the shards of glass, and some stuffing was sticking out of her from a torn stitch, but she ran at full speed up to Clever Plot’s neck, stared gleefully into his eyes as he flailed weakly, and stabbed the glass into his throat. Clever Plot gurgled and weakly grasped at the glass. Smarty Pants wiggled it, trying to slice along his throat, but couldn’t move the jagged chunk any further. She grunted, but stopped when she heard shouting coming from outside the room. The rest of the station was coming, and if they found her she would be ripped to pieces. That might kill her, but she didn’t want to be caught. She had to leave! Smarty Pants left Clever Plot gurgling on the floor and looked around the room for somewhere to go. There was the door, but that was where all the other officers would be coming from and they would surely see her. The window wasn’t an option, as it was reinforced with bars. She wouldn’t be able to break the glass, and even if she could, she would rip herself to pieces crawling out of it. There was, however, a vent on the ceiling, to pass air throughout the building. Smarty Pants climbed the shelves once more, grabbed the grating on the vent, and yanked with all her fluffy might. The grate squealed in protest for a moment before it popped off, and she dropped it onto Clever Plot’s corpse beneath her. He twitched, and it clattered to the ground next to him as the crowd of officers filed into the room, horns lit. Smarty Pants dove into the vent and padded along silently, her soft hooves not making a sound. The chatter from behind her didn’t stop, however. They were yelling about how dead Clever Plot was, which pleased her greatly, but they found the grating she had dropped, and deduced where she had gone. Behind her, the vent was shaken as unicorn magic yanked the vent out of the ceiling. Smarty Pants yelped as her path shook, but she kept her hoofing and galloped down the vent. She didn’t know where she would end up, but it had to lead outside somewhere. Vents didn’t ventilate the building into itself. That would defeat the purpose. More of the vent behind her buckled and was torn out of the ceiling. She was well ahead of it, but if they were smart, they would eventually get ahead. Sure enough, Smarty Pants saw the vent begin to buckle just ahead of her. She ran through it, down the bend and leaped forward as the vent was torn down, drywall and insulation raining down with it. She wasn’t sure if they had seen her or not, but that was too close for her comfort. There was a junction in the vents ahead, and the officers had the same thought she did. Before she even got to it, it started to rip out of the ceiling. It shook, and squealed, and Smarty Pants stopped, expecting it to tear. “Celestia dammit, Book! Put your horn into it!” somepony yelled. Smarty Pants went for it! If the pony yanking at this part of the vent was too weak, she wasn’t going to look him in mouth. She stumbled a little bit as she ran, but stopped at the junction. She was pleased to find that she could still sense moving air somewhat, and felt a breeze coming from the right, so she dashed down that way. The vent was never ripped from the ceiling as she crossed it, and Smarty Pants thanked Nightmare Moon for her luck and chuckled to herself as she hit the grating. She could see outside into the snow-covered city, with the sun shining down at a steep angle. It was probably just before noon, meaning there would be a lot of ponies out and about, but she couldn’t wait here all day. She needed to get away. Smarty Pants kicked the grate until it fell out of the wall, and flopped out into the snow. She burrowed into the fresh powder and dug her way away from the station. She could hear ponies swarming back and forth, the station in a tizzy as they looked for her. They probably hadn’t had a very good look, and their scanning spells were useless since she wasn’t alive. She chuckled and made her way back to the household she had been living in, and waited. Later that day, Twilight came home from school, happy enough, but still rather subdued. She walked up to the front door and opened it, then slowly made her way upstairs. She opened up her bags to pull out her books for homework, and was surprised to see Smarty Pants, limp, covered in snow and a little bit of red stuff, but home! “Smarty Pants! Welcome home!” Twilight hugged her friend tight. “But you’re a mess. Come on, I know how to clean and fix you up. I read it in a book!” Twilight was smart, and with a little guidance, she’d be an incredible unicorn. Maybe even powerful enough to make Smarty Pants a new body. Smarty Pants smiled, and let herself get washed. This kid was going to be a prodigy one day, and if any unicorn could learn how to help her, it was this kid. She had nothing but time, after all. The End.