//------------------------------// // Chapter 7-The Manehattan Fault: Part 3: Practical Application Part 2 // Story: In Twilights Shadow // by MinuetteColgate //------------------------------// To the ponies working in the Fang Bazaar, they had the utmost confidence in themselves. Almost all of them knew what was happening, and either relished in it, or just stayed indifferent to the other half of their job. They were so confident, that they felt they had little to fear from even the princesses. So to all those ponies, they were rather confused and shook up when the elevator came dinging up from the kitchen, and a delirious Coldbar came out, shaking and shouting for all of them to get ready for a fight. When they saw the elevator return to the depths, they knew he wasn’t wrong, but were far from afraid. After all, what reason had they, probably the strongest low key criminal group in Manhattan, have to really fear. However, when the elevator returned a second time, all they could see were two crimson eyes of such piercing rage, and they, for the first time, truly felt fear. The elevator crumbled through the bleak and gloomy shaft, continuously crashing and scraping across the rocks that made up the outer walls. My eyes were closed in some bid to help calm myself down. The monstrosity I had just witnessed, it…. I had never seen such things. Never thought I’d have to outside a screen. The spikes pressing around our barrel a less than helpful constant reminder of what we had done. “T-Theos?” came the inquiring mind of my host. Opening my eyes and taking a deep breath I replied. “Yes?” “What’s going to happen now?” she asked somewhat worried. “Either we find that scumbag Coldbar and hope that the rest of the employment are not involved, or we’re probably fighting our way out. I sure hope its just the former.” I replied, trying to be as honest as possible. Anything to abate the fear coming over us of a big fight after what we just witnessed. Last night we got caught up in the excitement of what we could do to really take a look at the peril we were putting ourselves in, but now, we were shook up, and realized full well, we may have to fight through a large group. Finally light seem to come through the shaft, and I hoped with all my heart that what I feared would not come to pass. However, as the elevator slowed, and as my eyes looked out over the kitchen area, I could see many ponies, holding various weapons, looking straight towards the elevator. I couldn’t help but feel an intense anger, which I was sure was showing in my eyes, by the way some of the ponies visibly flinched. As the elevator came to open, my anger was immense. I ripped the spike whip off of our barrel, causing it to bleed along the cuts, much to neither me nor my hosts dismay. As the blood pooled at our hooves, we slowly walked forward among the crowd of ponies, glaring with such intensity, it seemed, that they refused to make a move. I could feel the pool of blood follow along at our hooves, and the whip scratch along the tiled floor. “Theos?” “Yes Twilight?” “Make them pay.” With such word said, my glare changed to a smirk, as I felt that same joy one gets at being highly over levelled compared to the creatures surrounding you in a game. The change in attitude was enough to shake most of the ponies free from their frightened trance, as I heard the distinct voice of Coldbar order an attack, causing the ponies to start to charge us. 2 came at us from the front with kitchen knives, swinging erratically, as if they had not been properly trained. I just did a quick step back, and took a swing left with the whip, smashing the one on the right into the one on the left, and for them both to tumble over a counter. I felt a sudden breeze from behind, giving me all the warning needed to duck from the long knife that just barely missed our cranium, proceeding to activate the speed spell in cannon mode, bucking him into the wall behind us, causing a web of cracks to appear inside it, as he slipped down. Looking up, I saw three more ponies coming in fast, faster than I would be able to bring the whip up to. It was in this moment I remembered a connection I felt at our hooves. I sent forth the blood that had pooled, forming a sort of brick like structure that shot out of the blood and smacked them all unconscious. I felt a sudden smell, one I recognized quite well, come from my far right. On complete instinct, I deformed our body and reformed from the shadow of a counter to our right, just as a bang went off, the impact hole being clearly visible from our location, and clearly showing that our heart would have an unwanted addition if we didn’t miraculously dodge somehow. “Theos, what was that?!” said an understandably panicked Twilight. “A firearm, more typically referred to as a gun. A weapon that uses gunpowder in order to accelerate a small projectile at a high velocity.” I replied. “They seem to only have pistols, and there are…” I paused to sniff “…around 5 of them” “How are you remaining so calm right now?!” was all she could say, but I could tell that the curiosity of those weapons was pulling at her mind. To be honest, I have no idea, I certainly am not one to remain calm under pressure, however, I didn’t feel any pressure at all. I might not of accepted this as reality yet. No… its not that I haven’t accepted that I could die but… “…I don’t feel like they are of any threat to me at all. Its almost like I’m a level 50 fighting a swarm of level 1s. They have the same feeling of threat.” It seemed that my body instinctually knew what was dangerous, and these lot were not it. This conversation had taken a matter of seconds and they had seemed to decide enough time had passed that thy started to unload the clips into and around my cover. Again, while I did feel a little twinge of fear of the pain I might feel if one hit me, I didn’t actually feel like I was threatened, even with bullets whizzing around my head. Since most of the remaining ponies had moved over to the side with the guns in order to stay out of the crossfire, I had decided now would be as good as time as any to make my move. I willed the pool of blood into an ovular shape, and stood behind it. As the bullets impacted the shield, the blood actively arrested all momentum in the shield. I started to walk forward, behind the shield, walking slowly in order to maintain the concentration to keep this waterfall of blood up. Plus, it made me look more epic. Their faces started to grow more frantic as I got closer, the bullets becoming more erratic and quick paced, I stopped a few feet away in order to make sure that the shield still protected me fully. It was quickly after that that I hard the satisfying noise of a few clicks, that signaled they were out of ammo. I felt a smirk form on my mouth as I blasted the shield away, the blood and shrapnel knocking down many a pony. In the end only one pony was left, and in a clichéd twist of fate, it was- “COLDBAR!” I shouted, fury as blazing as the solar sun. “Eeep!” he said, in a most unadorable fashion, and started backing into the door to the foyer. I, however, beat him to it, in that I punched him through the door, causing him to land rear end in the sky in the main foyer, where it had suddenly grown quiet. I walked through calmly, and put my head right next to Coldbar's, and whispered quietly into his ear. “If I ever catch wind of any of you doing this ever again…expect even less mercy than I’m giving now. We clear?” After getting a pained affirmation from him, I started to walk away. After I walked a good few metres, I started to feel nauseous, and my vision started to swim. I saw Noble Fall quickly making his way to me, some form of shotgun on his back, and the last thought I thought before blacking out was “Well, this is bloody embarrassing…” Hundreds upon hundreds of ponies slumbered, in such a way as though they were giving reverence to something. Said thing seemed to be a stone throne. A sudden inhale of air could be heard as the pony sitting on the throne woke up for the first time in generations. Two purple eyes could be seen staring into the ether, and two white fangs, glittering in the dark. A voice, melodic, and pleasing to the ear came from the pony, and whispered of vague intents. “So…they’ve finally returned…”