//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 Raiders of the Lost Foals // Story: Blood in the sand // by Bronycommander //------------------------------// Chapter 15: Raiders of the Lost Foals The ride was mostly quiet, William told his young friends how he had survived, they were happy to hear this. The Axis soldier and Green Knight wondered what they could do now, the tide of the war was turning, but Quince was still out there, looking for them, and wouldn’t stop until he had found them, being a great threat for all of them. As the kids chatted with William, Escher noticed something. “Uh, Fletcher, can I ask you something?” “Shoot.” You can you actually understand us? I mean, when we first met you, you spoke German but how could you understand the British troops? Not much of us speak much English.” With a light confused expression, Fray said,” Oh, that? Well, I used a translation spell to communicate with both up you, simple.” “I see. But how you can then understand us, Dinky?” The private asked her. “I never understood it, but apparently the magic of Equestria allows ponies to passively understand some languages.” Only now, William noticed that she had a British accent in her voice, for the Germans, it sounded like she spoke their language but with a British accent, same was for Matteo’s language. “We also wondered how this is supposed to work.” The young girl commented, the men noticed now that she had an American accent in her voice. “Yeah, I actually never cared much about it, due only being at home and in the town where our school is most of the time.” Her brother added, also having an American accent. “Okay. By the way, Fletcher, since we took Upton into custody, we strangely got no longer reports about destroyed camps, allied nor Axis.” William explained, surprising the unicorn. “That’s strange, Quince is known to never stop until he has done his work…” Fray mumbled, wondering why this was the case. “Maybe the heat got him dehydrated, or somebody killed him, getting killed himself in the process.” Hans suspected. “It sounds plausible but I can’t imagine this.” “This reminds me, shortly before you and Karl arrived at the factory, we got reports that some vehicles got stolen from one of our vehicle depots.” Konrad changed the subject. “That doesn’t suit Quince at all, I suspect it was an allied commando.” Fray replied, what advantage had it for Quince to steal military vehicles? It wasn’t his style and in his condition, it was unlikely he could drive one. “Maybe, I don’t think we will ever know.” Escher replied, “I think you did us all a favor in taking care of Vahlen, as you know, many couldn’t stand him, costing us a lot of good men.” “Yeah, I agree with that. He reminded me of Solomon a bit, he cost us also a lot of good ponies, can’t say how glad and relieved I was when he died.” The stallion told with a shaken voice as the memories flashed before his eyes. “I hear ya, say, it is true what happened to Metzburk?” Escher was curious. “Yes it is true, I took care of him too.” “Good. That brings us some rest from the SS troops, without him and the Scorpion, they have no longer reason to stay in North Africa. I’m sure Rommel won’t miss them.” The private was relieved to hear this. “I can imagine that. I don’t want to know what would happen if the Scorpion and Metzburk would be still alive.” Fray shuddered at the thought. “Which reminds me, who is your commanding officer after Linus’ death?” Konrad shrugged. “There is none, I’m temporary in command until a replacement is selected, which will take some time. What was your rank in the military?” “Commander. If I remember correctly, it’s equivalent in your army and the British army is Lieutenant colonel, right?” “Yes it is.” “If you don’t mind me asking, William, how did you earn your rank as captain?” Fletcher asked. “There isn’t much to tell, my service as diplomat for my country was the reason for it. Reminds me, due your experience, shouldn’t you all be promoted to Lance Corporal at least?” William asked the Axis soldiers, knowing that Lance Corporal was the next highest rank after private, being called, “Gefreiter”, (Exempted). “Should be, especially after getting the Iron Cross, but the paperwork is generally slow these days. Wouldn’t surprise me if this takes until next year.” Konrad said with disappointment. “In my opinion, you have earned it!” Blau Streifen tried to cheer him up, smiling. “Thank you.” It pleased him to hear this from the young colt. “I wonder what will happen now, as Vahlen’s dead and the tide of the war turning…” Hans mumbled. “We do our duty, getting to the next base, keeping our young friends safe until Fletcher took care of Quince, doing our best to survive this war.” Konrad replied, knowing it wouldn’t be easy but they had to try. Hans smiled. “You’re right, Linus had it wanted so. I wonder how the Führer will react to Vahlen’s death.” “It’s a good question, but that isn’t our concern. Still, given what Vahlen had planned, I’d say he would be relieved that the general is dead, yet enraged when he hears that his loyal SS troops are dead.” “Yeah, I don’t want to be the massager.” Willi commented on this. It’s a bit strange for me. Vahlen was a ruthless advocate of nerve agents in the last war, I had expected that his project would have to do with gas, due its name.” Matteo couldn’t understand it. “I thought so too when first heard of it, I wondered how Vahlen expected to transport and supply this thing, I mean, it would be nearly impossible to transport due it’s size, not able to be deployed in urban areas and extremely vulnerable to aerial bombardment and artillery fire. The desert would be the only place where you could deploy the Ratte. From a practical view.” Escher theorized. “Not to forget the costs and time to produce it, the one we destroyed must have taken a year to construct at least, maybe even longer.” Fletcher added. “We are here.” Duffy pronounced as the truck reached the outskirts of town. The townsfolk seemed to be busy, doing its daily tasks, apparently not paying attention to the military truck, the ponies and soldiers as they got out, which surprised the group quite a bit. “We search for means of communication, if anyone should get lost, the truck will be our assembly point in about…” Konrad looked on his watch. “15 minutes.” “Sounds good to me.” William liked it. They walked through the town, noticing there were no other soldiers of any side, suspecting that neither side had a presence in the area. The crowds got close, the men struggled to stay together and keeping up with Fletcher and the children, eventually losing them out of their sight in the crowds. Upon noticing that the others had lost them, they waited at a small alley. “I hope they don’t got lost in the town.” Dinky said with concern, looking for her friends. “If we don’t see them, we just wait at the truck as Konrad had suggested.” Fray reminded her. “F-fletcher, we got c-company.” Katja said scared, pointing to a group of armed men in white clothes, armed with swords started slowly to surround them, looking not very pleased. The children went behind the Knight, scared. “F-Fletcher....W-what do they want from us?” Dinky asked trembling. The Green Knight transformed his bow into a spear, which fascinated the children. “Stay back.” He ordered calm yet lightly threatening. They charged but him, but he had no trouble taking one guy out after another. Even the recruits in Celestia's army were better than those guys. “Children, get out of here!” he yelled, defeating another one. He hadn't to tell them this twice. The 3 friends used the chaos to escape, making their way to the other side of the alley, getting intercepting by 3 bandits. “Got you, you little brat!” One of them said as he grabbed the colt who struggled in his arms “Let me go!” Blau Streifen yelled angry, as his sister and Dinky struggled too. “FLETCHER!” the filly yelled at the top of her lungs before she got knocked out with her friends. Her cry alerted him after he defeated the last one. “Damn it!” He cursed as he came to a marketplace, calling out for her and the siblings. Suddenly, the marketplace parted to give way for a black-robed man with an over-sized scimitar. Giving a small laugh, he began displaying his skill with his weapon to intimidate the Knight. The stallion had an expression that said, “I don't have time for this”, lighted up his horn and blasted the swordsman off his feet without moving, the onlookers cheered Fletcher's' action. Despite this, he wasted no time to look for the children, eventually meeting Konrad and William as he ran through the town. “We heard a scream, is everything alright?” The captain asked worried. “Some of the locals kidnapped the Dinky and the siblings! We have to find them!” Fray exclaimed, shocking the men, their mouths wide open, pupils small. Cutting ran up to them, looking very concerned. “Sir! You need to see this!” They wasted no time to follow him, being led to a small hill, overlooking the road at the outskirts of town. “We have no time, they are about to bring them into a truck!” Peter warned. “Truck? What Truck?” Fletcher asked confused until they saw an Opel Blitz, escorted by an armed motorcycle and an armed Kübelwagen coming to a stop, a crowd gathered around it, being held back by armed locals. They loaded the tied up and still knocked out children on the truck, the Arab crowd tried to save them but one bandit fired a warning shot into the air to scare them off. “Well, now we know who raided our vehicle depot.” Konrad commented, not able to get how up the locals could have done his. 2 men, one being tall, the other one having an average build chatted next to the truck, William recognized them. “Hey, I know those 2 guys, they were the soldiers helping Upton! I think their names are Rafford and Chiswick.” “Then he must be behind this!” Duffy suspected as the tall man made a gesture, taking the backseat of a normal Kübelwagen, while the other took the driver seat of the armed one. The normal Kübelwagen took the lead as the convoy moved out. “Not on my watch. Try to intercept them at the next town. I'm going after that truck.” Fletcher sounded calm but lightly angered. “How?” William asked. "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go.” Retrieving some form of bundle from out of his cloak, Fletcher unraveled it and slung it over his back, adjusting it with a set of belts and straps. It was a saddle, black boiled sap-leather with metal inlays. Two thin steel panels atop it folded out and set to its sides like an open book, both with large slots at the ends. William had never seen anything quite like it. Fletcher gazed down at the bottom of the cliffs and spoke, “How many seconds would you say it took to hit the bottom?” William glanced down, no fan of heights at the best of times and gave a rough estimation. “Uh...eight or nine?” “Right.” Fletcher seemed ready to leap off like some great pouncing cat. “Um...Mr. Fray,” William piped up, pale in the face “This...doesn't look safe.” Fletcher gave him a deadpan look. “Have you ever seen a pony try to fly, Captain?” he asked, “It's not meant to look safe!” And with a mighty bound, he was gone. Hurtling down to earth, his horn lit up. One.... The steel panels whirred into life. They began extending, out of the slots producing new panels, each at a slight angle. Two... With a series of clicks and scrapes, the panels had produced what would appear from an observer to be a great crescent atop his back. Three... The crescent twisted, its two points tilting up and down. Four... It twisted hard, as if flapping, as Fletcher's fall turned slightly more forward, the ground rushing closer and closer. Five! Now! The assembly was complete. Fletcher swooped upwards in a complete vertical U-turn as the mechanical wings worked their magic. In theory, impractical. In practice, hazardous. But by no means useless when handled correctly. The wings required magic to keep them active. Spells could not be cast while airborne and however high or fast they could take the wearer depended on their magical prowess. To Fletcher Fray, it would serve. As he shot high into the air, the crowd cheered wildly, stunned and amazed at the spectacle. William put a hand on his brow and shook his head, grinning. “Bugger me, the oddness never ends!” he exclaimed, “Alright then, chaps, you heard him. Cut them off at the crossroad. Let's get cracking!” Fletcher quickly caught up with the convoy, the gunner of the armed car opened fire, the bullets missed but he ceased when his bullets got dangerously close to the bandits guarding the children. Fletcher landed on the roof, grim-faced. “I'm going to have to ask you to pull over.” “Wha...That's cheating!” The bandit on the passenger seat yelled. “Say the guys using an armed convoy to kidnap three children.” The passenger and driver glanced at him, then at each other before the passenger drew a pistol and fired but the knight blocked it with a shield spell. “Wow...Real mature.” He threw the passenger into the sandy road, then tackled the driver. They grappled with each while also trying to control the vehicle. The driver hit the brakes, the truck decelerated quickly, causing the armed car to rear end the truck, causing Dinky who had woken by the fight almost to slid out but Blau Streifen bite her tail to prevent her from falling out as he and his sister were now awake too. Fletcher in return hit the accelerator, pushing Dinky back and causing it to knock a bandit out of the back, through the windshield of the armed Kübelwagen. During the fight, Fray gasped as the truck was about to hit a building under construction. Working together to maintain control, the truck destroyed several scaffolds of a building under construction, causing several Arab workers to fall and jump to the road. One of the workers fell into the front of the truck, although he hurled himself from it quickly. Faced with a comic situation, Fletcher and the driver laughed before Fray punched him out the driver's door. Now in control of the truck by himself, Fletcher rammed the leading Kübelwagen. “Perhaps you didn't hear me! I said pull the buck over!” The car was forced off the road but the driver quickly recovered, pulling ahead of the truck. “Behind you!” Dinky yelled in the back as the armed car tried to pull along the right side the truck, so it’s gunner could open fire, but Fletcher saw the car in his mirror and knocked it off course. The motorcycle at the tail of the convoy tried to pass the truck on the left but Fletcher saw it in the mirror too. Letting out a devilishly evil grin, the stallion nudged the bike into a pool. The driver and passenger scrambled out and cursed after the truck. “Watch out, the armed car!” Katja warned as the armed Kübelwagen had caught up and tried to pull alongside again so the gunner could shoot the Eternal Knight. With the same devilishly evil grin, Fletcher shunted the car off the road again. This time, however, the car went flying over a large cliff, Chiswick screamed in terror, the Gunner, not secured in the vehicle, fell out of the car as it went over the edge. “Get out there and kill him!” One bandit in the back ordered, and 4 men climbed along the sides of the truck. But the Eternal Knight saw them in his rear-view mirrors. “Hnnm!” The pony ran through the trees, which knocked off the two men on each side. But the last remaining man managed to climb towards the cab, drawing his pistol, scoring a hit on Fletcher's left shoulder. He grunted in pain for a second before kicking the passenger door to get the bandit off the side. The knight had success as the door fell off, the man with her. Now finally in control, Fletcher caught up to the normal Kübelwagen in front of him, knocked it off the road and into the dirt. The town was insight but the adrenaline subsided, causing him to held his wound in pain with his left hoof, but he could feel that the nanomites were already working on it. “Idiot! Idiot!” Rafford yelled at the driver before the hired man managed to get the car going again. In the town, Konrad and William had set up two MG nests, consisted of a Vickers MG and a MG 42, to take out any pursuer as the truck entered the town. Fletcher drove the truck into a garage which the soldiers disguised as a fruit market stall, hiding the truck. In the moment the Kübelwagen entered the town, he was perforated by bullets, crashing into a wall, the horn went off. The Axis and Allied soldiers then moved slowly towards the crashed car, checking for any survivors. Rafford's face was covered in blood, a bullet planted squarely between his eyes. The other passengers hadn't fared any better. “I guess we won’t get out anything of him.” Konrad commented before taking a look at Fletcher’s injury, bandaging it. “Stray shot, you were lucky.” “Yeah. The nanomites should have taken care of it in an hour.” After William had cut the ropes, glad that the kids were unharmed, Dinky noticed Fletcher’s wings. “Do you want to be an Alicorn?” That question confused the green pony. “What makes you think of that?” In response, the female unicorn pointed to his wings. “Oh, that…That...is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it? No, Dinky it’s nothing like that, a friend of mine designed them for me back then so I could keep up with Wolf and Midnight when they were flying.” He explained as he took them off and put them back into his saddlebag. “Still, they look cool!” Blau Streifen was fascinated by them. “And look good on you.” His sister added. Fray chuckled. “I’m pleased to hear that.” The Italian looked at the sun, seeing it was setting. “Already evening? Time passes fast. I suggest we rest the night here and tomorrow, we move on.” “Sounds good to me.” William replied as their young friends started to yawn. The town was deserted, probably because the residents fled in fear of Allied or Axis troops, the men got their sleeping bags out, making a campfire for the night, everyone was fast asleep. In the middle of the night, Willi awoke by a strange noise he couldn’t figure out, seeing the others were still sleeping. He grabbed his MP40 to check it out, switching his flashlight on. “Hello?” He asked as he looked around for a few minutes, finding nothing suspicious, just the howl of the wind was sounding. I just imagined things. “Report unnecessary.” He spoke to himself, turning around. “Are you really sure about that?” A raspy voice asked from behind before he felt something hard hitting his head and everything became black. He came to with an aching head. Ugh, my head…where am I?” He looked around noticing he was restrained in a cave. “About time you woke up.” The same raspy voice greeted his ears, seeing something he couldn’t have imagined even in his worst nightmares. A pony, having a pallid skin, its legs were at odd angles, the flank where it Cutie Mark should be was skinned and burned, exposing muscle and a mask covered the forehead, making only the forehead and the eyes visible, which glowed a terrifying green color. It also had a horn on its head, being a unicorn like Fletcher. The young man had seen a lot of combat like the others, being experienced and able to stay calm in battle, but pony’s appearance terrified him to the bone. “Let's play a game...Which body-part do you need the lease...I just love the human body, so many things can be snicked off and broken and they still survive.” The pony sounded very cheerfully “...please...” Willi whimpered, more scared than he was ever before in his life, trembling at what it would do to him. The stallion raised an eyebrow. “...Please is not a body-part.” “I never...I never hurt anyone...” Willi whispered in fear. “Pretty rubbish soldier then...” “What...whatever you need to know...” Willi managed to ask, hoping he would be spared. “I don't need to know anything. I do my research. You come from El Alamein, a climactic battleground in the war for Africa. One of you fights for a brutal fascist dictatorship, the other fights for an ineffectual elitist plutocracy...only I get confused which is which. In any case, humans are killing humans, what else is new? That's pretty much all they do, buck each other, kill each other and die, not always necessarily in that order. Boooooooring! One good bit though...Three little children, running around looking for their mummies...Won't that be a hunt to remember. You failed but...I'm a better hunter than you.” The soldier’s eyes widened as he stared in shock at him. “How about your little finger? Humans don't use those for much, do they?” Willi couldn’t bring out a response. “No? Good! Let's start with that!” The stallion turned around to prepare things with his magic, Willi couldn’t only think of torture instruments. “You've been wondering why you're here, haven't you. Where I came from, who I am, why I'm doing this to you...So guess...If you guess right, I'll tell you. By the gods of your world and mine, I swear it. You win the game if you can figure out who I am and why I'm torturing you...And I win the game if you beg me to cut off your finger!” The pony exclaimed as it turned around. “...If you win...you'll let me go?” Willi asked, close to breakdown. “Heh...If you think this has a happy ending...You haven't been paying attention...” It became too much for the German, he broke down. “...please...” The pony used his magic to lower one of Willi’s eyelids, and drew a knife, holding it under the soldier's eye. “You say please again and you'll wish you hadn't.You first...Where did I come from? The foals told you what it's like back home, didn't they? Where's my home?” “Equestria...” It was obvious to the man, given the stallion’s appearance. “Too vague.” The stallion replied disappointed. “...Canterlot?” Willi guessed as Fletcher had never told him more about it. The pony giggled “...terrible guess!” He slowly slicing the soldier's finger open, Willi screamed at the top of his lungs in pain, tears leaved his eyes, begging for it to stop. “Now...where?” It demanded after the German had stopped to scream. “A-A-Appaloosa?” The private managed to say through the pain. “Oh for...Do I Look Like A Bucking Apple To You?!” The stallion shouted irritated as he slightly peeled the soldier’s finger. “P-P-PONYVILLE?!” Willi shouted in pain, being the only location he could think of. His torturer stopped and eyes him curious. “Ponyville? How did you know that?” “I didn't, I...It was just a guess!” “Very good, Private. And who am I?” “Doctor Whooves...Dinky's father...” Willi knew it was wrong what he had just said, it just slipped out as he fought the pain. “Er...no...He's at home keeping his googly-eyed little wife company while she blubs and cries into her muffins.” The torturer replied. “No, you're...you're the Prowler...You're Quince…” The Prowler slowly walked away and sat down. “You swore to tell me th-“ Impatiently, Quince replied, “You're right...So why am I doing this to you?” “Dinky, Blau Streifen and Katja went missing...Fletcher has been sent to get them back...That's why you're torturing me... …He has survived his last encounter with you…” It felt so wrong to submit but all Willi wanted was to live. Quince stared at him for what seemed like hours before saying slowly, “I see...That's very good to know...You win...” He eyed his knife, hovering it before his face, then suddenly stood up, brightly and cheerfully, which scared Willi even more than he already was. “But of course, you forgot to ask me one very important question. You forgot to ask...if I'm a liar.” He used his magic to slowly pull the flesh of the finger away from the bone, peeling it completely as Willi screamed. “I'm afraid I am…” He twisted it and squeezed it like a child's toy, clearly enjoying every moment. “Every word I've ever told you is a lie.” The soldier writhed and twisted, searching for any way to cut himself free. “This isn't happening to you for any reason. Well, one reason.” The Prowler turned to him. I enjoy it.” “PLEASE CUT IT OFF CUT IT OFF CUT IT OFF CUT IT OFF PLEASE!” Willi screamed in pain, his screams echoing through the cave. Quince stopped, turned, looking him in the eyes. “I win...” Fletcher, the children and soldiers awoke in the morning, rubbing their eyes. “Good morning, children.” The Green Knight smiled at them. “Morning, Fletcher.” They replied. “Hey, has anyone seen Willi?” Konrad asked as he looked around, not seeing him anywhere. “No, I guess he took a look around.” Hans suspected as they breakfasted. Regard of what they suspected he wasn’t with them, they all started to look around, calling out for him, not finding him anywhere. “That’s strange…He wouldn’t leave us like that…” Konrad mumbled, wondering where his friend had been gone. “I think we have to worry about that later.” Duffy commented, pointing to something in the distance. Using binoculars, William saw a group of heavy armored Egyptian Mercenaries ran towards them, being 1000 meters away from them. “Those guys just won’t quit! Take defensive positions!” The soldiers went into good cover positions, Fletcher brought the kids behind a stone wall for cover. “Keep your heads down.” They nodded, slightly trembling. The defenders opened fire as the mercenaries came into range, mowing a few down, before getting forced into cover, noticing that those guys were far better trained that the others from the convoy. Thanks to his Shadow Strike ability, Fletcher managed to take about 5 hostiles out, before another charged at him, throwing him to the ground. Fray struggled with him, managing to draw his Luger, firing through the Egyptian’s heart at pointblank range, throwing the body of him as blood splattered from the wound. Dinky and the siblings watched in horror, the battle raged on with neither side gaining ground, the Egyptian Mercenaries were putting up a good fight. As a few bullets flew past their cover, the 3 friends decided to look for a better location, crawling on the ground towards an alley to avoid getting hit, then stood up as they got far away from the danger. Dinky came to a halt with a screen, causing her friends to crash into her. “Why did you-“ Blau cut himself off as he saw several of the local mercenaries standing in front of them, weapons trained on them. Behind the armed men, Upton stepped out, smirking arrogantly. “Well, well...Fancy meeting you here.” In the moment he had said this, 3 of the armed men stepped forward to grab them, they all tried to resist, Blau Streifen tried to bite his captor, his sister kicked and punched, while Dinky tried both in combination with using magic, everything was in vain as they got knocked out. “Ugh…not again…” Blau Streifen mumbled as he regained consciousness, holding his head in pain, finding himself, his sister and Dinky in what seemed to be a cave. “Sis, Dinky, wake up!” He gently shook them, causing them to regained consciousness too. “That…hurt…” Katja mumbled as her head ached, the young filly got up to take a look around, as they strangely weren’t restrained at all. Dinky froze in fear upon peeking out of the cave. “G-guys…” She whimpered. The siblings were about to ask what’s wrong, also freezing in fear upon peeking out. Outside were Upton and his hired men, but that wasn’t scary to them, it was his interlocutor. A pony with a pallid skin, its legs were at odd angles, a skinned and burned flank where it Cutie Mark should exposing muscle and a mask covered the muzzle, making only the forehead and the eyes visible, which glowed in green ,giving it a terrifying appearance, the same pony they had seen in their nightmares. “I brought you the children as you wished. A pretty young thing like Katja is worth a lot of money in the right market.” Upton said to the stallion with satisfaction. While Katja was young, she still understood what Upton meant, terrified to hear this. “About time. I see my warning not to fail me again after I broke you out was clear enough.” The pony had a raspy voice, making difficult to understand. “I promised you I wouldn’t fail you again, I have done my part, now, do your part.” Upton replied, apparently a bit scared, trembling slightly. “What part?” The pony asked in a taunting voice. “You promised you'd give me whatever I wanted.” The Brit reminded him with a demanding voice. “No, Sir Upton. I promised I'd give you whatever you deserved.” The pony replied cold, causing Upton to take a step back in fear. “Pay attention next time. Oh...silly me...” The pony grabbed him by the throat, he struggled in vain, his mercenaries pointing their weapons at the pony, before knives landed in their heads in a flash, falling twitching to the ground. “There ain't gonna' be a next time.” the pony said as a crack could be heard, Upton’s body became limp and fell to the ground. It terrified the kids completely, startling to tremble, their hearts racing. The pony slowly turned into their direction, causing them to step back as it slowly walked towards them until they were trapped against the wall. “P-please…don’t hurt us….” Dinky whimpered, not able to control her fear, cowering. Blau and Katja held each other, whimpering. “So you are the children Fletcher wants to get home.” The stallion said, his raspy voice cold, unemotional, the young friends wondered if this was Quince. The stallion turned to Dinky. “I'm curious...If I took out of your mother's googly little eyes...would the other one stay the same or would it even out? What do you think? Maybe I'd do her a favour.” He said with a sadistic voice before looking at the siblings. “I heard, you’re from Sunny Town. The incident in Sunny Town, eh? I heard about that. You poor children must have been mortified. And so young. How lucky of you to escape with your lives. I suppose it takes a lot to top something like that. I sometimes find survivors, frail things that escaped or endured the most shocking of horrors...And with them, I usually like to take my time. Trust me, young ones, by the time I'm done, you're going to be wishing the two of you were nothing but blackened bones in that fireplace.” It confused them, wondering what he meant with incident. “Not that it matters.” The pony commented as it’s horn lit up, casting some kind of gas. It caused them to cough and they collapsed as their bodies started to cramp, also gasping for air, everything faded slowly black. Their visions were blurry, the last thing they heard was the raspy voice. “Good…Very good…” Then they blacked out.