Daring paced up and down the line of chairs in the waiting room, her pace as rapid as her own pounding heartbeat, wincing with every step that sent fresh pain up her wounded shoulder. Twilight, Velvet, Night, and Flash all sat in chairs on either side, eyes unfocused as they considered their own thoughts: all of them were holding hooves, and Twilight was resting her head on Flash’s shoulder. Prowl was standing at the hospital window, looking down at the city below them, but Daring could see the stony mask that she had placed over her face in her reflection. No one spoke. No one met her eyes as she passed. The tortuous silence was broken only by the ticking of the clock on the wall.
Finally, mercifully, a doctor approached from the hallway. Velvet instantly sat up and pounced on the unicorn. “Well? Well?!” she cried.
The doctor raised a hoof. “First of all, Officer Bumblebee is completely fine; nothing vital was cut and while he lost a lot of blood, he should be on his hooves in a few days,” he reassured them. Prowl sighed audibly. “Secondly, Spike is all right: the buckshot didn’t penetrate his scales all the way, but he still suffered internal injuries and a serious concussion. We’re currently repairing the damage and will need to keep him in the hospital for a couple of days for observation, but he should be okay.”
“And Rainbow?” Daring asked.
The doctor sighed, his face falling a bit. “She’s alive, but she lost a lot of blood and will need to be in bed for quite a while,” he explained. “And...I’m truly sorry. We were too late to save her wing.”
Daring felt her heart sink into her stomach and she had to sit down, all thought and sound falling away except for one thing.
I was too slow.
She shook herself out of her reverie just enough to realize that the doctor was offering to let them see the patients and the others were agreeing. They trotted back up the hallway and the doctor pointed them into a couple rooms.
Bumblebee was sitting on one mattress, his torso stitched up and wrapped up in bandages. He smiled when he saw Prowl, who trotted quickly over to him and pressed her forehead against his with a relieved smile. Spike was on the opposite bed, adorned in a foal’s scrubs and a golden metal band over his head, bandages over the wounds on his scales. Twilight immediately pounced on him and hugged him tight, planting kisses all over his face.
“Twi, getoff, I’m fine,” Spike grumbled, trying to wriggle out of her grasp. “And my head hurts.”
But Daring made her way over to the third bed, where Rainbow Dash lay. The little pegasus was lying faceup on the bed, staring at her left side. Her body was still wrapped in bandages, but the two pegasi could both imagine the ragged tear, the tiny little stump beneath the wrappings, all that remained of her left wing.
“You okay?” Daring asked, sitting down beside her. Internally, she cringed. Stupid, stupid question: of course she wasn’t okay. Her dreams were over.
Rainbow looked up at her, eyes dull and unshining. “Is there any chance that…?” she started to ask, clearly afraid of the answer.
“They lost the wing, Rainbow,” Daring replied, unable to meet the younger mare’s gaze.
“What about a prosthetic?” Rainbow asked, her voice rising to an almost hysterical pitch. “There’s still some left, right?! I could make a payment plan—!”
“Rainbow, that’s gonna be expensive,” Daring explained quietly. “Really expensive. I can try to help, but with you on a weather pony’s budget…”
“But...but...but…” Rainbow protested, her voice devolving into whimpers.
Daring looked around in an attempt to look at anything but the tears forming in Rainbow’s eyes and saw Velvet and Night Light looking over at them. The two unicorns put their heads together and began whispering together: Night was frowning, but Velvet made an emphatic plea. They considered together in silence, then Night turned to the observing doctor.
“How much would a prosthetic cost?” he asked.
The doctor thought for a moment. “For a complete wing replacement? Upwards of three thousand bits. And she’ll need weeks, possibly months of physical therapy for her to get used to it.”
Velvet and Night Light both looked at each other and smiled. “We might be able to help with that,” Velvet nodded.
“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked, instantly perking up. A weight raised slightly off of Daring's shoulders.
“You helped save our lives,” Velvet smiled. “It’s the least we can do to help you get back on your feathers: turns out being a popular author and being related to the Princesses can help with the bills at times.”
“Thank you!” Rainbow cried, a joyous smile breaking through the tears. “Thank you so much! I’ll pay you back however I can!”
“You already have,” Night Light reassured her, clapping her on the shoulder.
Rainbow settled back onto her sheets with a relieved sigh. “So,” she said to Daring. “When can we get back to work?”
“What?” Daring said, her eyebrows raising. “Kid, you can’t be serious.”
“Would you let losing your wing stop you?” Rainbow asked in complete seriousness.
Daring had to concede that the kid had a point, so she quickly switched the subject. “You still disobeyed me,” she replied, frowning severely. “I told you to go back inside and you didn’t.”
“Because you needed help with him,” Rainbow replied, folding her forelegs across her chest. “Admit it, I saved your life. You’re lucky you only lost an ear...and that they could just stitch it back on.”
Daring scratched idly at the magically reconstructed ear, which had been itching nonstop since the stitches came out, while she thought of an answer. None came up.
“Look, as soon as I get out of here, I’m going to go back to doing what I can to help this city, to fight the bad guys and make sure the good guys can sleep peacefully,” Rainbow stated plainly. “And you can’t stop me, so you might as well let me help.”
Daring scowled. “You’re getting to be a real pain in my ass, kid,” she grumbled.
“Yeah, but I’m the pain in your ass that saved your life twice now,” Rainbow pointed out, sticking her tongue out with a grin.
“That doesn’t mean I owe you: I saved your skin on both occasions,” Daring pointed out. After a pause, she sighed. “You do have a point, though, Rainbow. And…” She smiled thinly. “You’ve got guts. I’m proud of you.”
Rainbow’s face lit up and she flung her forelegs around Daring’s neck with a squeal of delight. Daring stiffened for a bit, then briefly smiled and patted Rainbow on the back, allowing the embrace to last a few minutes. She felt warm tears trickling onto her shoulder.
“Okay, that’s enough,” she finally said, wriggling out of the embrace with a small stab of reluctance. “Get some rest, kid.”
Daring turned away and started to exit. Velvet and Night Light were tiredly nuzzling on a chair next to Spike, who was currently sticking his tongue out in disgust at the sight of Flash and Twilight cuddling and kissing on another chair. Prowl was sitting next to Bumblebee, who was playfully pouting as Prowl, a weary smile on her face, discussed getting him back to work.
A sudden weight pressed down on Daring’s back, and she exited with a long sigh. She wandered out of the hospital and hailed a passing streetcar. She slumped down in the back of the trolley, lighting a cigarette and sucking on it halfheartedly, not tasting the mint and smoke.
When the trolley finally reached the city center, she got off and trotted down Honeybee Bakery, head low, the pain of her wounds and damaged muscles having now faded to a low ache. She reached 221 and inserted her key into the lock, the purple wards around the home flashing briefly as she entered.
The exhaustion that was sweeping over her was so great that she wasn’t even hungry, despite not having eaten anything in hours. She dragged herself upstairs and collapsed onto the bed, pulling the sheets over herself. It was no substitute for his arms around her, but it would have to do for tonight.
The police launch pulled into the docks with a low rumbling of engines. Blinking blearily, Phillip looked up from the back as the towers and streets and smells of his hometown stretched before him. With a weary groan, he pulled himself up from his seat. Cold Case stood up as well, tapping the ashes from her pipe and gently shaking the other two unicorns awake.
“You should go home,” Phillip advised Cold as he stepped onto the docks, rolling his bandaged shoulder.
“We still have a lot of evidence to categorize and reports to summarize,” Cold said, attempting to hide a wince as she followed him onto the dock. She touched her chest for a moment, massaging the faded scars beneath the trenchcoat.
“Cold, it’s not going anywhere,” Phillip pointed out. “And with Whitestone and most of her crew cactus, I think we can move her down on the priority list. Besides, it’s almost bloody noon and we’ve been going since last night. We’re all buggered: call it a day and leave it for tomorrow.”
Cold frowned in thought for a few moments, staring at the boxes of evidence in the back of the boat, then shook her head. “I have to keep busy,” she said quietly, licking her lips.
Phillip noticed her reach a hoof into a pocket, a pocket that he knew contained a purple coin with a ten embossed on it. Glancing up to ensure that the other officers were otherwise occupied with loading the boxes into a waiting truck, he trotted over and patted her on the shoulder.
“You can say no,” he whispered. “It doesn’t control you: you control it. Go home and get some rest.”
Cold was silent for a few moments longer, rubbing the coin in her pocket in silent contemplation, then looked up at him and nodded. Phillip smiled briefly at her, then helped load the boxes of evidence into the truck.
“You need a ride home?” Cold asked as she climbed into the cab.
Phillip was about to reply when movement caught his attention and he turned. The next moment, a golden torpedo crashed into him lips first, knocking him flat on his back with a surprised grunt.
“I think I’m good,” he replied, his voice muffled through Daring’s hungry kisses.
Cold stared for a beat, then grunted and closed the door. The truck started up and pulled away as Phillip embraced his partner and kissed her back.
“I deduce that you missed me,” he smiled up at her.
“A lot,” Daring said, nuzzling him for a long moment before letting him up. “What happened?” she asked, her face creasing in concern as she noticed the bandages.
“Could ask you the same thing,” Phillip frowned, his eyes going to the faint scar along Daring’s left earlobe where it had been restitched.
“You first,” Daring offered.
Phillip related his story aboard the Talon, with Daring letting out a low breath when he told her of Zugzwang’s appearance. “That’s why he wanted the Kyaltratek; to find the Talon,” she deduced. “You think he was behind the theft all along?”
“If he was, he sure as hell picked a roundabout way to do it,” Phillip frowned. “Now, what happened here?”
Daring narrated the adventure of the pirates’ final attack and her defeat of Roaring. Phillip frowned as she told how she’d lost her ear and when she explained how Rainbow had lost her wing, Phillip hissed in shock.
“Bloody hell,” he breathed. “You two were both damn lucky.”
“Don’t I know it,” Daring nodded. “You bring the other two swords back?”
“Just one; Zugzwang took his with him. Why?”
“When the Princesses got a letter about what happened last night, they decided not to take chances: they sent a Royal Guard envoy over this morning in a car to take the swords back to Canterlot for safekeeping,” Daring said, then added with a smile, “And they said they’d be more than happy to have a word with Adamantium Prosthetics about getting Rainbow set up with a new wing.”
“That’s aces,” Phillip nodded, lowering his head. “Right...we’d best get home.”
“Hang on,” Daring said, her face falling. “There’s something we gotta do first.”
Phillip looked up and realized that they were standing in front of a cemetery that stood on a hill overlooking the Maresippi. The gate was guarded by two marble statues: Kriga on the left, his sword and shield lowered in a gesture of relaxed vigilance, and Fantisera on the right, her blindfolded gaze turned and one belled wrist raised to welcome the guests.
A small group of griffons was gathered around a fresh gravestone. At their head was Bottgilia, who had his arm draped across a younger blue griffon’s shoulders, both of their heads bowed. A griffon priestess with small bells around her paws and talons and thin cloth over her eyes was standing next to the grave, shaking the bells on her limbs.
As Daring and Phillip quietly entered, the Fantisera priestess began to sing in strange, ethereal music, wordless calls that rose and fell in a soulful melody that seemingly could not come from any mortal throat.
“What’s she doing?” Phillip whispered.
“It’s called a kulning, a herding call,” Daring explained quietly. “See, griffons believe that Fantisera’s duty is to guide dead souls through the Dreaming Sea: that’s what the blindfold’s for, she has to stay asleep, and the bells are so the souls following her don’t get lost in the sea. This kulning song is supposed to call the wandering soul back to the grave, and call Fantisera so she can find the soul and start guiding them to the other side.”
They stood and listened as the priestess continued her song, which slowly died away into a sad, but dignified farewell. She patted the gravestone, then stepped back.
“Farewell, Mavri,” Bottgilia declared, raising a flask from his side. “Who showed us we didn’t have to be afraid.”
At that moment, he looked over and spotted Phillip and Daring standing at the periphery. Every other griffon looked up at them as well.
There was silence for a few moments, then Phillip announced, “It’s over. Whitestone and Roaring are dead.”
There was no cheering. There were no smiles. The griffons merely nodded silently and slowly began to disperse. Bottgilia patted them both on the shoulder as he passed: Gallus nodded, but couldn’t quite make eye contact.
Once everygriffon was gone, Phillip and Daring approached the headstone. It was a small, simple memorial, with only this carved onto the granite slab: “Mavri. Fourth of the Moon of Hunters, 1903—Twenty-Ninth of the Moon of Sun, 1950.”
Phillip sighed and slowly patted the stone. Daring pulled out her flask, raised it to the grave, and took a long swig before handing it to Phillip.
“Goodbye, Mavri,” Phillip whispered and drank to a brave griffon’s memory.
“You sure you can’t stay?” Twilight asked that evening, lifting up some of her parents' luggage from the train platform and carrying it into the waiting carriage.
“Sorry, Twilight, but our vacation time is up,” Night Light said, ruffling his daughter’s mane. “Time to get back to Canterlot.”
“And I’ve still got to finish up my deadline,” Velvet added, hugging Spike goodbye and planting a kiss atop his head. She trotted over to Flash, who extended a hoof to shake. Instead, she pulled him into a tight embrace, eliciting a surprised squeak.
“Thank you for taking care of my girl,” Velvet said, kissing him on the cheek.
“Heh...uh, just doing my duty,” Flash nodded, awkwardly hugging her back. “Wow, you know, I was expecting a lecture right about now.”
“Oh, don’t worry: I trust Twilight to make her own decisions, and I think you’ve more than proven yourself,” Velvet smiled at him. “Besides,” she added with a grin. “I’m pretty sure that you’ll be hearing plenty of that from Twilight’s brother, who just so happens to have an entire army at his beck and call.”
Flash went pale and gulped audibly, his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull.
“Mom, don’t scare him!” Twilight chided.
“Hold up!”
Daring alighted on the platform, panting slightly and mopping her brow. She turned just in time to shoot a grin at Phillip as he vaulted over an iron fence and did a dive roll over a trolley of luggage, skidding to a halt next to her.
“I win again, old stallion,” Daring smirked, booping Phillip.
“You really shouldn’t be exerting yourself like this yet,” Phillip muttered, flattening his ears against his head.
“You’re just mad ‘cause I still beat you,” Daring grinned, spreading her wings wide and promptly failing to hide a wince.
Phillip rolled his eyes and turned to Velvet and Night Light. “Wanted to see you off,” he said, extending a hoof. “Was ripper to meet you both.”
“You, too,” Night Light said, shaking his hoof. “I’m glad to see that my daughter is in good hooves here.”
“Call us next time you have a case that involves strange magic!” Velvet grinned as she pumped Daring’s hoof vigorously.
“There is one other thing,” Phillip said. He leaned in close to Velvet and whispered into her ear. Her eyes widened in surprise, then she grinned and nodded. Phillip reached into his vest and pulled out a book featuring a step pyramid against a red-tinted full moon, with a stallion in a fedora staring up at the top.
Daring quirked an eyebrow as Velvet took the book in her hooves. “What are you doing with my copy of Curse of the Scarlet Queen?”
Phillip just smiled at her as Velvet pulled out a pen and scribbled something into the inside cover. Night Light also added something with the pen, then handed it back to Daring. Eyebrow still raised, she read their inscription and her eyes widened.
“Dear Do Dare: when you get that book finished, get in touch. I might know a publisher and an experienced author who can give you a few pointers! Love, Vel.”
“And I might know an editor.” —N.L.”
Daring’s eyes went from Velvet’s dedication to the earlier note from Nightingale Star. The same swirl at the end of the f’s. The same tall, narrow loops on the h’s. And Velvet’s and Nightingale’s “Love” were both mirror images of each other.
Her jaw gaping open, Daring looked up at Velvet. Velvet winked at her, then raised a hoof to her lips. Daring nodded and hugged the book to her chest.
The train whistle blew to signal final boarding. With a few final goodbyes and waves, Velvet and Night Light climbed onto the train, which soon began to trundle up the rails with increasing speed and hissing clouds of steam and smoke. Twilight and Spike stood on the platform and waved until the train was out of sight, then nodded good night to Phillip and Daring and walked off, Twilight with her hoof wrapped around a blushing Flash’s foreleg.
“How did you know?” Daring asked Phillip as they turned and headed for home.
“I saw Velvet’s signature when we signed into the Palace,” Phillip explained. “It was a match for Nightingale’s. That, and the fact that she’s an author that Twilight knew, and the fact that Velvet was rich from her writings but we’ve never heard her name, made it pretty obvious.”
Daring rolled her eyes. “Okay, yes, you’re the master and I’m still the student,” she said, then kissed Phillip on the cheek. “But thanks.”
Phillip just nodded and smiled. Daring looked down at the signed book before her as excitement bubbled up inside her chest like bubbles in a shaken can of soda. It rushed up her shaking limbs and into her throat, exiting her with a long, loud, delighted squeal as she hugged the book tight to her chest.
She abruptly froze when she realized what she’d done and looked over to Phillip, who was now smirking at her. She cleared her throat and shrugged her shoulders, turning away to hide her intense blush. They continued on home just as the distant clocktower of City Hall started to ring out nine PM.
Bright Sparks glanced down at her watch, noting the time as nine o’clock. They had been preparing for hours, but something was still digging at the back of her mind. She stared out the window of the hideout into the darkness, looking for any sign of intruders, anything that seemed out of place.
Magic circle around the house...check. Doors and windows locked...check. Wards triple-checked for any weaknesses...check. She shrugged her shoulders, adjusting for the weight of the BAR that she had slung over her torso. What am I forgetting?
“Am I the only one who isn’t really okay with this?” Dusty Tail muttered to her left.
Bright Sparks glanced at her partner’s drawn face and frowned. “I’m...sure that Scarlet knows what she’s doing,” she stated, trying to ignore the stabbing pain of the cursed brand.
Dusty just grunted. “If it’s gonna help us get all the thieving bastards in this city in our corral, so much the better. All this stuff about gods and stuff is a bit over my head, though.”
Sparks nodded. “I’m gonna go check on Endeavor,” she said, trotting off.
She carried herself up the stairs, carrying the weight of the weapon over her back, and into the room that she’d set aside for herself and her son. A changing table stood in one corner, with some diapers and powder neatly stacked atop it. Jars of Smilin' Day baby food were stacked next to the table, along with a few baby toys that she'd managed to snatch.
Endeavor was asleep in the little crib, wrapped up in bright blue blankets. He sucked on one drool-coated hoof, eyes closed in peaceful slumber. Bright smiled and gently reached down to stroke the strands of curly blue hair atop his mane.
“What did I do to deserve you?” she asked the little foal with a wan smile.
As she stroked the baby’s warm, soft cheek, she caught sight of the burned mark in her flesh, a crude shape of a ring of keys. The mark of the Family, mercenary thieves, spies, treasure hunters...and killers.
Spark’s entire hoof went numb and cold as a lead weight settled in her stomach. She slowly sat down on her haunches, staring at the brand as faces blurred before her eyes in a slideshow of death and murder. The scent of blood and cordite rankled in her nostrils. For a moment, the face of a nineteen-year-old drug dealer interposed itself over Endeavor’s face and she gasped, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest.
The next thing she knew, somepony was rapping at the door. She bolted up from the sea of memories, one hoof instinctively going for the trigger of her machine gun.
“Scarlet’s getting ready to start,” Sledgehammer stated. “She wants you downstairs to help.”
“Okay,” Sparks nodded, standing up. Endeavor rolled over in his sleep and let out a little whine: Sparks lingered long enough to make sure that he went safely back to sleep, then exited the room. “Keep your eyes open for anything,” she commanded her second as she descended the stairs.
“You think that Gerwhin’s gonna show up?” Sledge asked with a grunt, hefting the BAR that he carried around his own shoulders.
“There’s a chance,” Sparks nodded grimly, passing through the living room. The other members of her team—her brothers and sisters—were gathered around the room, weapons close at hoof. Red and Black were both fidgeting on the couch, while Dusty was doing another round of the perimeter. A couple of the new guys were double-checking their weapons. Sparks tried not to think about Gear Shift: his absence was like a dark pit in the middle of the room.
Taking a breath, Sparks descended downstairs into the basement. Even before she rounded the landing, she could feel the power emanating from beneath, crackling around her horn like lightning buzzing around a lightning rod. Swallowing down her fear, she descended.
All of the furniture and boxes of ammunition, supplies, and weapons had been shoved to one side, allowing access to the floor. The entire floor had been scrawled over with chalk and salt lines, woven into complex webs of patterns that made Sparks dizzy just to look at. Four lines reached out of the central complex to form into four circles: each one contained a number of strange runes that appeared to have been made from salt mixed with blood, and in the center of each was a gem. In the center of the entire construction was a jade necklace.
Sparks looked up at The Treachery of Images in the corner. A lamp had been cast on the painting to reveal the hidden sketches etched into the canvas: though the details eluded her, Sparks understood that it involved taking power from various totems and concentrating them all into a single object.
In this case, focusing the latent power that had long laid dormant in the four Innsbeak statues—which were now scattered around the city, their positions carefully chosen by the mad artist’s designs—and concentrating them through four gems, one taken from each statue, into the jade fox lucky necklace that had been stolen from Silvertongue’s museum so many moons ago.
Sparks stared at the innocuous-looking jewelry sitting in the center of the configuration, her mind traveling to Shifting Tone. The mare had risked everything for the cause when she stole that necklace. It had cost her the lives of her coworkers. It had cost her two years of her freedom, serving probation: she was lucky it hadn't involved prison. It had nearly cost her her life.
And it took Daring and Phillip to save her. Not you. Them. Her.
“Sparks? What’s on your mind?” Scarlet asked.
Sparks shook her head. “Sorry, Scarlet. My mind wandered off.” She made a brief show of checking to ensure that the back door in the corner of the room was locked tight. “What do you need?”
“I need you,” the stallion in the mask stated plainly.
Sparks turned towards the stranger. Scarlet had brought him in earlier, introducing him as her master. The figure wore a ski mask and a long cloak and pants that covered his entire body, including his cutie marks. What little coat that Sparks could see was black in color, but what struck her the most was his eyes: were they green? Were they red? Either way, they were piercing, the eyes of a pony who was used to having others follow their commands.
“I require additional power for this,” he stated. “Do you know how to channel energy into another’s spell?”
“Yes,” Sparks nodded.
“Good. Begin now. Scarlet, we are ready.”
Sparks lit up her horn, shuddering as she felt her energy being leached from her appendage, swirling and twisting as the stranger shaped it into his spell. The chalk lines and runes began to glow with dark red energy, the glow spreading slowly across the construction.
Scarlet and the stranger began to walk around the circle: the stranger’s eyes were impassive, while Scarlet’s face was a mask of concentration, barely hiding the fire in her eyes.
“Nyaglath, ger’uh angfah...the True Masters, sleeping beneath all flesh...hear our prayer,” Scarlet hissed out in a throaty whisper. “Your servants are here, awaiting your command. Grant them your gifts so that they may complete your will.”
They paused at the first gemstone, a circular ruby. “Gol’fmyog, Daybreaker, hear us,” Scarlet said, kneeling. “Grant your servant your power and strength: light a fire in his soul for you.”
The ruby began to glow with a fiery yellow aura, the blood markings around it taking on the same color. The smell invaded Sparks’ nostrils and she had to repress a groan as her stomach writhed like a snake.
Scarlet then proceeded to the next one, a topaz diamond. “Gol’shuyog, Nightmare Moon, hear us,” she breathed. “Hide your servant in your shadows and guide him with your stars.”
The diamond shone with a dark purple aura, and once more, the blood around it began to glow with the same color. Sparks’ stomach made another protest at the odor and she had to swallow it down.
“Thalafn, Discord, hear us. Teach your servant your cunning, let his tongue be gilded by your silver.” The square emerald and the blood around it shone with a strange orange-yellow aura.
“Rayng’fay, Tirek, hear us. Fill your servant with your rage, and let his hooves guide the unworthy to you.” Finally, the harshly-cut amber began to burn with a blood-red light. The smell of burning blood and salt became sickening and Sparks had to take slow breaths to keep her lunch down.
The varying colors ran along the ritual circles, snaking along the spiderweb lines of chalk. The entire thing seemed to vibrate with a strange, unearthly tone that vibrated in Sparks’ bones, making her feel like a living tuning fork.
Scarlet and her master began to chant together, blasphemous sounds that no pony throat should be able to make. The jade fox necklace started to shake and spasm as the glowing lines of energy rushed into it, slithering into the stone. The voices, the humming, and the smell all reached up and up into a crescendo, then there was a loud crash of thunder and lightning that sent everypony reeling back with cries of shock and pain.
Slowly, vision and hearing returned. Bright Sparks looked up, rubbing her eyes to see that the salt and blood circle had been burned away, leaving scorch marks seared into the concrete floor. The four gems were still where they had been, smoke rising from their cracked surfaces. The jade fox necklace was still lying in the center of the room, faintly glowing a sickly green color.
Scarlet Letter slowly approached the necklace, tentatively reaching out a hoof towards her prize. She cautiously touched it, then slowly picked it up upon deciding that there was no danger. The necklace seemed to glow brighter at her touch. Her face replete with awe, Scarlet lifted the necklace up and raised it over her head as she knelt, presenting it to her master.
“My lord,” she breathed.
The masked stallion cocked his head for a moment, then started to reach out to take the necklace.
And then the back door opened. Everypony whirled around to see a tan unicorn with black eyes, a grin stretched across his haggard face, emerging through the door, backlit by a red glow from the strange void behind him. Hanging from a cord around his neck was a dark blue key, and there was a single circle of black and red runes on his naked chest.
That was all she saw before a golden sphere of light struck her in the chest and sent her crashing back into the wall. The wind was knocked out of her and she lay on the ground, gulping for air and fumbling for her weapon.
The necklace and the four gem were yanked from Scarlet’s hooves and into Zugzwang’s grasp. “Danke,” he chirped and started to back out the door.
“No!” Scarlet screamed, trying to grab the necklace back in her magic. A pair of Modello 1935s appeared in her hooves and she opened fire, the barking of the pistols mixing with the gong-like ringing of her shots bouncing off of Zugzwang’s shield.
Black tendrils shot out of the air and ensnared Zugzwang, yanking him back into the room. His struggling form was pulled before the masked stallion: Sparks observed that a curved black horn had blossomed from beneath his ski mask, glowing with a dark red aura as he glared at the intruder.
“You have threatened me for the last time, Zugzwang,” the master snarled as Sparks climbed back to her hooves: the sound of pounding hoofsteps from above made her grin. They were coming to finally kill this fuck, who writhed and struggled, choking and gasping. “Execute this worthless—”
“RELEASE US, FALLEN ONE!”
Sparks froze. That gurgling, bubbling voice, which sounded like something that did not have vocal cords attempting to mimic equine speech, roared out of Zugzwang’s throat—not his mouth, his throat—and suddenly, she found herself completely petrified, as though her muscles had turned to stone. Scarlet and the unicorn were both frozen as well, but the sound of hoofsteps still grew louder by the moment.
Zugzwang dropped from the frozen unicorn’s grasp, coughing and massaging his throat: with a slow sizzling sound, half of the runes on his chest faded away into smoke that smelled of ink. Seizing the jade necklace, he dashed back to the door before anypony could move again, slamming it shut behind him just as Sledgehammer burst in, gun already raised.
“Non! Non!” Scarlet wailed, racing to the door and opening it, only to find that behind was merely the staircase leading back to the surface. Her mouth agape with horror, she turned back to her glaring master.
“Master, forgive me,” Scarlet pleaded, kneeling. “I didn’t...I didn’t know he—”
“The statues,” the unicorn snapped. “Does he know where they are?”
“Only one, my lord,” Scarlet breathed quickly. “The statue of Nightmare Moon in City Hall. The others I placed myself, but he could easily figure out where they are.”
The red eyes snapped around to focus on the others. “Move out! Find the statues before he has a chance to take them back! Destroy them if you have to!”
There was a moment of hesitation, then at a nod from Scarlet, Sledgehammer led the others back upstairs. Snatching up teleportation crystals, the team poured out into the night, jumping into waiting motorboats that roared up the river.
Scarlet bustled over to a phone and started to dial in a number, aware of the vicious glare burning into the back of her skull with every moment. She’d failed her master.
And his mercy was limited.