//------------------------------//
// 249 - Go Away 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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In the darkened hallway, Nefertari sped. When she moved so quickly, it was not so easily equated to walking or running. She simply moved. She could feel the hallway sail past her with a rush of wind against her fur. It wasn't a wind borne of the hallway itself, but she moved faster than the air could get out of the way. If she was not careful, it could cause problems.

The hallway was not straight. It bent, turned, sometimes sharply. It was not constructed as she would expect most to be. She did not trust it. The fact that it had begun with a secret entrance was a start. There.

She ceased moving. She was just at the end of the hallway, hugging against the wall as she peered with glinting eyes into the gloom. Before her was a proper room, round with a pointed bubble in the center. Through the gloom, she could see three vibrant streaks of strange angular runes that ran from three equidistant points of the round room towards the center. They were primary colors; red, green, and blue.

She could feel something in them, on top of the fact that they somehow shone despite the darkness, clearly visible and unnatural.

"Breathtaking, isn't it?"

She had not heard anyone approach, and yet she felt the female presence just beside her. They had arrived with all the speed that Nefertari normally had a monopoly on. Nefer spun to face the new presence, only to be forced to jump away as a sharp object was thrust at her.

"It won't hurt," promised the she-cat before her, smiling in that predatory way that only felines properly mastered. To her, Nefertari was a caught mouse.

"I care little for your comforts," Nefertari splayed her fingers, displaying her claws and falling to a ready stance.

"Don't be like that," the cat purred, each syllable soft and vibrating as she took a step forward. "We could become such friends, mmm, I feel certain." In her right hand was a length of metal, the tip narrow. A shiv? Perhaps a dagger of some sort?

Nefertari considered bolting, but the feline had already proven she could do the same, and she was in the way of such an attempt. No, there would be no fleeing, not yet. "Friends do not come bearing their teeth." Nefertari pulled back her lips, letting her own be displayed. "Put that away."

"This thing?" She laughed, a hint of madness in the cackle as she tossed it aside, letting it clatter and slide into the large room. "I didn't need that, still don't. It would have been so much less painful though." She was forward. She didn't move.

Her claws dug into Nefertari's side but Nefertari was already moving with and around it as her own claws lashed into the feline's shoulder, drawing fresh blood as her own was spilled.

The cat's laughter only grew louder. "This was worth waking up for," she joyfully stated as she bounced back a few steps on light paws. "Come, my new partner. We will dance. We may sing, perhaps. Mmmm, who will sing first? Your voice sounds like it would make the sweetest tones."





Silver's ear's turned slowly, listening for disturbances in the alley. "Tell me truthfully. I will not hurt you either way."

The boy cat scowled at him doubtfully. "You're just saying that to get me to talk, sir. I wasn't born yesterday."

Silver smiled at that. Not yesterday, but soon enough to count, from his view. "I swear it, as a prince of Equestria. I will not hurt you, but I will prevent you from hurting me. That's not unreasonable, I hope?"

"You ponies are strange..." He tilted his head at Silver one way and the other before shaking his head. "Let me go."

"You'll run."

"I might."

A matter of trust? Silver huffed softly. "Please don't. My promise is still good." He released the pressure of his magic, ebbing it until it would be more like a thick morasse instead of a firm grip. "Who are you?"

"Names have power," he said as if quoting something told to him before. "I know yours, Prince Watch."

Silver patted him with a soft depression of magic. "You are extremely bold." The kitten seemed less panicked. "Feeling better?"

"You're a pony," he said as if it explained everything. "You won't hurt me."

"Well, those two statements are true." He glanced towards the door that held his wife. "What's in there? I assume you have a clue."

"Trouble." His little claws sprang out. "We should go, or it'll find us."

"Can't. My wife is in there. I'd be a terrible husband to leave her behind."

"The she-demon." His little snout wrinkled. "Demons handle demons. We're not demons, we should go, now."





Nefertari turned one paw upwards. "Spirits..." Spectral forms emerged around her, Anubites that had lived long before. With her blood freed, they came quickly and easily. "Destroy." A simple command, directed with a single extended finger, the claw even with the feline.

With a silent communal scream, they surged forward, weapons and claws ready to strike. The cat met the silent wave with gay laughter. She ducked under a swinging broadsword and came up with her claw along the midsection of a spectre, banishing it in a puff of lost dreams. "Come, come come come!" she urged them even as a stout spiritual cudgel crashed into her midsection from behind, knocking her forward.

She rolled with the impact, still laughing. "What a coward you obey, not finishing her own dance." She met the claws of the ghosts with her own, hands grasping despite one set being partially-immaterial. "I will accept your dance then..." Her voice grew more serious, the laughter ending as she yanked forward the male ghost so abruptly he tore in half, fading away into the dust he had been.

The other ghosts were already upon her. A spectral rapier lanced into a leg as claws raked across her body from multiple angles at once, tearing into her fur and flesh and letting her life's blood drip to the ground.

Nefertari scowled, watching the feline battle her summoned force. There was no room for her to join in, and she wasn't sure she wanted to, and the fact galled her. A fight she would not rise to? Not that day. It was time to leave. The spirits gave her just enough of a chance, and she ceased to be there.

"We'll dance later," came the she-cat's call before Nefertari was too far away.

She darted through the tunnels in such a hurry that she pressed too hard against the wind itself. She heard it scream its outrage at her offense, and the shock of it rippled through her. The air was not a force to be ignored, capable of great harm when one tempted it sorely enough. She collapsed from the pain of it, grunting in pain. Before her, she could see the light of the outside world.

The ground lifted away from her. She was being pulled towards freedom by faint whisps of silver. She smiled, teeth displayed. Her husband had her. She felt safe. She felt ridiculous for feeling it. She was the warrior, not he.

With irritation, she fought to hold onto consciousness.

Silver drew Nefertari from the darkness, where he had felt her suddenly enter his field of magic. "Are you..." He trailed off when she came into view, battered and blooded.

The kitten hissed like an over-boiling pot and took off at a run. Even with the magic clinging to him, he burst through it and was gone in a flash of rapidly-scampering feet.

Silver spared the briefest glance at the retreating kitten before he drew Nefertari closer. "What happened?"

"We leave," she ordered with no room for argument even in her weakened tone.

Silver lifted her up in his magic and placed her across his back before the two vanished in a silver shimmer of magical transport.

Eyes glared out from the darkness. "So rude," spoke a female voice, a gentle purr following it. "I'll be waiting..." The door slowly rotated shut, keeping its secrets from the outside world.





Silver appeared in their room, but the words he had planned died before escaping his snout. "The bloody hell?" came out instead. Their room was ransacked. Every drawer was pulled free. The closets were open. Their clothes were in disorganized piles. They had been gone through. At a glance, he didn't see anything missing, but it was all gone through. Silver shivered with the revulsion that came from knowing someone had been casually violating his space.

He shook his head, trying to banish the thoughts for the moment. "Nefer, still with me?"

Nefer's claws dug into his back and sides as she pushed herself up. "Whoever did this will pay a thousand times." Strength fled her arms and she fell against Silver. "Later..."

His ears fell. The idea of Nefertari being so hurt bothered him. "We should not stay here. Do they have a hospital?"

Nefertari nipped at Silver's right ear. "Near the port. Ask for Sand-runners' Reprieve."

Silver grabbed a few of his belongings with quick snatches of his magic, though the grabbing was slower than normal. He had left a good portion of magic behind in their rapid departure, and he felt the fatigue for it. It didn't even hold a candle to the pain he imagined his wife was in, and he angrily shoved aside even the concept of complaining of his own trivial discomforts.

He had more magic to perform.

With a wave of silver magic, they were gone and appeared at the dockside. The scent of seawater reached them and the noise of hardworking ponies, felines, and all other manner of species greeted them. Silver turned to the nearest figure, a minotaur with a clipboard, and asked, "Which way to, uh, Sand... Reprieve?" He had forgotten the name, silently kicking himself for doing so.

The minotaur hiked a thumb without even looking up at them. Silver followed the line to a small building that had what looked like some sort of animal sleeping on a dune. 

"Ah, thank you." Silver bowed his head and got to trotting as evenly as he could manage, wanting to keep Nefertari safe. He didn't feel her moving around on him. Had she fallen asleep? He hoped that was the case. Better that than the alternatives.

The noise of the docks faded just slightly as they approached the building, and passed through the wooden gates in an otherwise stone wall made the noise fall off dramatically. It was a quiet place. A restful place, or so he hoped. "Excuse me?" he called out with a timid smile, still trotting towards the entrance. "I need help."

A furry snout poked free of the front door, a set of double swinging doors. "A pony! A..." Her eyes went to the form draped over his back. "No time for words, enter." She stepped aside and held the door open. "Quickly."

Silver flinched at her dramatic change of tone, but it was welcome, in the end. He rushed in past her into the cooled interior. He could see others sitting in chairs or on pillows, perhaps waiting their turn. He had just cut in front of them, but it was an emergency. He hoped they understood.

The nurse, or doctor, walked up beside him, looking at Nefertari. She was a jackal as well, but hardly looked it at first. Where Nefertari was a warrior, this one was round and kind, though looked quite worried at the moment. "What happened to her? No. Nevermind. She will tell me if she wishes to. It is my duty to make sure she can do that. This way, this way." She walked in front of Silver, tail swaying with each step and her nurse's cap jostling with her hurry. "I have never assisted a proper shaman before. This is a great and humbling opportunity."

Silver perked his ears at her as he followed.