//------------------------------// // Ch10: Gang Crash // Story: Equestria: The Afterlife // by Timzocker201 //------------------------------// POV: Rainbow Dash I was so excited, a full afternoon with Markus! I made sure everything was perfect. Heck, I even kempt my mane for once! I looked at the clock. It was 2:55pm already. I dashed through the front door and headed for Ponyville. In flight I was thinking about what we could do. “We could go fly—no wait, he doesn’t have wings… but we could watch the wonder… no, again, no wings… euh… ah well, Markus sure has a plan! He always does.” I drew close to the Library and landed before the front door. I wanted to knock when I suddenly heard shouting and screaming coming from inside. Suddenly, the door burst open and I saw Shining Armor make a run for the station. I looked inside and saw Twilight arguing with Markus before she steamed off upstairs. Markus was now alone in the room. He walked around and scratched the back of his head. I just stood there and waited. Well, actually I didn’t even know what I should have done. Markus was still moving around, when he noticed me. “Oh, hi Rainbow.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “Is it 3pm already? Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?” He smiled at me. Oh that smile… A-Anyways, I looked at him in confusion over what just happened. “Ehm, well, it does seem like you are busy, so maybe we should—“ He cut me off. “Oh no, it’s okay. I promised you to spend the afternoon with you and that’s what I’m going to do. The distraction it may provide is actually quite welcome.” He grabbed a bag of bits from a table and left the library. He smiled down at me as we went outside. “So, what do you have in mind for our date?” I looked down at the ground, feeling slightly embarrassed. I shifted uncomfortably in my stance, searching for something to say. “I… I-I didn’t say date... I said… PLATE, yeah, let’s grab something to eat!” Markus closed his eyes and chuckled slightly, he then looked down at me with a knowing smile. “Of course you did… Rainbow Blush.” My head jerked up and my eyes shot open. I flew up to one of the windows and saw that my face was glowing in a bright red. Suddenly though, I heard a growl next to me. “Though, it does seem like a good idea, considering I spent my lunchtime with that Blockhead Shining Armor.” Markus said, while looking down at his still growling stomach. “Ok, let’s go to Sugarcube Corner! Come on!” I dashed ahead and Markus followed close behind. I stormed through the front door and stopped in front of the counter. “Hey Dashie!” Pinkie said, as I hovered before her. Markus came in behind me and closed in on the counter as well. “Oh, you brought Markus! Hi Markus!” “Hey Pinkie. I’d like two chocolate cupcakes please.” Markus said. “Sure thing! What do you want Dashie?” Pinkie asked me, as I was still looking at the countertop. “Euh… I think I’ll take two vanilla cupcakes with chocolate chips.” “Okiedokie, take a seat, I’ll be right there!” Pinkie hopped off into the kitchen area and we sat down on one of the nearby tables. Markus rested his arms on the table and looked around absentmindedly. “So, what was that with Shining Armor earlier? I saw him run out of the library when I got there.” As I asked that, Markus suddenly looked at me with hint of worry. “Oh, I’m sorry you had to see this. It’s just… Shining Armor and I had a little debate and as I showed him his own incompetence, things kinda got out of hand. Can’t really say that I’m sorry for his black eye, though.” “You don’t really like Shining Armor, huh?” I said with a chuckle. “No, but I suppose we should talk about more pleasant things. After all I’ve promised you a fun afternoon and I’m willing to fulfill this promise to the best of my ability.” Markus said, giving me a warm smile. I felt my face warm up and quickly looked out the window. I just wanted to start a conversation again, when Pinkie came with our cupcakes. She placed them on the table and gave me a weird smile. As she passed me, I heard her say: “Go get him, Dashie!”, before she returned to the counter. Markus was already munching away on his Cupcakes, either not noticing or ignoring what Pinkie just had said. We started talking about some stuff, like what his old world was like, or what he likes to do most. Ok, mostly I was just asking him questions and he was answering them, seeing as he knew most things about me already. Now that I think about it it’s actually kinda creepy sometimes. Just as I was about to ask another question, I noticed that Markus was looking out of the window with a serious face. I followed his gaze and saw Derpy, our Mailmare, being cornered by four Stallions, one Unicorn, one Pegasus and two Earthponies. The Pegasus was hovering above her, while the Earthponies were placed to her sides. The Unicorn was standing right in front of her and seemed like he was saying something. I stood up and wanted to help her, but Markus held me back. “What the buck?!” I screamed at Markus. “Why are you stopping me?! We need to help her!” Markus just sat there, his eyes still on the scene. “Agreed, but if you were to bash in there right now, you would only make things worse.” He nodded towards them. “Look closely at what they are doing. If they were >>just<< some random thugs, they would probably all be standing right in front of her and babbling each at the same time. Those guys are more organized. They have three blocking her escape and only one who is talking. Simply driving them away would probably only mean that they would give Derpy hell later on. No matter if you like it or not, but we will have to wait out the storm first, before we can act.” I slumped back into my chair and waited impatiently. Then, as soon as the Stallions started to back off of her, I dashed out and flew to her. Markus hesitated a bit, but eventually followed right behind. As I reached her, Derpy was still sitting against the wall, her eyes narrowed down in shock. I landed next to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She jerked up from this and looked at me with one of her eyes. “Oh, hi Rainbow Dash.” She said, a weak smile forming on her lips. “Hey, Derpy. What did these Stallions want from you?! Did they hurt you?” Derpy shook her head and looked to the ground. “Then, what did they want from you? Did they steal something?” She shook her head again. Meanwhile, Markus finally reached us and knelt down beside her. “Hey there Derpy. Are you okay?” He said in a soothing voice. Derpy shook her head again. “Will you tell me, what those Stallions wanted from you?” He asked. Derpy shook her head again. “Are they threatening you?” Derpy nodded. “What?! Why are they threatening you, what do they have against y—“ Markus shut my muzzle with his hand and glared at me. It was now that I noticed that Derpy was cowering from my outburst. “S-Sorry, Derpy…” I said in a hushed voice. “Listen Derpy, We want to help you, but we can’t if you don’t tell us what’s wrong.” Markus said. Derpy meanwhile was hanging her head. She started sobbing slightly as she answered. “They told me not to tell the Guards.” Markus and I looked at each other for a moment, before he spoke up again. “Well, we’re not Guards, so you’re holding true on that end. Also I promise you that if you tell us, you won’t have to worry about that anymore.” Derpy looked at her hooves with one eye, as she made circles with them. “They’ve kidnapped Dinky.” She finally said and began to sob. Markus and I shared a short, determined glance. “You know… being a Mailmare doesn’t pay very much, but Dinky needed so many things for her new schoolyear and the rent was raised and… and… I couldn’t afford all that, so I… I wanted to take a loan, but the Bank turned me down. Then I heard of some Group that handed out loans, no matter of your standing. I met up with them and we agreed on a sum. But when I wanted to pay them back, they… they…” Derpy started crying and Markus carefully pulled her in to a soothing hug. “They’ve raised the interest, haven’t they? And when you came to pay them you didn’t have enough, so they took Dinky as a pledge. I can’t say that this scheme is unfamiliar to me. This also happened in my world. I promise you, you will get Dinky back, but you have to go to the guard. They will help you.” Markus said. Derpy shook her head yet again. “I’ve tried that already, but they immediately found out and threatened to hurt Dinky if I do that again.” Markus broke the hug. He looked around us, eyeing every Mare and Stallion that passed by. Suddenly, his eyes locked on an alley on the other side of the street. I tried to see what was there, but couldn’t immediately tell. Markus shot up and ran into that alley. Derpy and I looked after him for a while, before we followed. As we came into that alley, the first thing we heard was some sort of struggling noise. We rounded a corner and saw Markus pinning down a Unicorn Stallion that looked like he was part of the same group as we saw earlier. “So, you were spying her, huh? Then I guess you are part of those Loan sharks that are threatening Derpy?” Markus interrogated, but the Stallion didn’t say anything. Instead He lit up his horn and tried to use magic, but Markus was faster. In an instant, the Stallion had Markus holding his knife under his chin. “Hah, you think you can get anythin’ outta me that way? You need to try better.” The Stallion said, a smug adorning his face. “You are quite right.” Markus simply said, as he moved his knife over to the Stallion’s horn. The Stallion’s eyes narrowed down, as Markus knife touched down on his horn. “No! You can’t! You WON’T!” the Stallion screamed at Markus, in a desperate attempt to wiggle himself free. But Markus knows his grips. He firmly held the Stallion with one hand and the rest of his body, while the other hand was holding the knife. “Oh, can’t I?” Markus said, a somewhat sadistical smile forming on his face. He actually managed to creep me out with this. He then slowly began to cut into the stallion’s horn. He didn’t cut far though, as almost instantly the Stallion began screaming: “OKAY, OKAY, I’ll tell you! But please, leave my Horn, pleeeease!” He whined, and Markus stopped his cutting. He then told us that apparently they were holding Dinky in an abandoned Warehouse on the edge of Town. As he finished telling us what he knew, he demanded to be set free, but Markus simply brought the hilt of his knife down on the Stallion’s temple, knocking him out. We brought him to the local guard, who instantly took him in. However, as we told them what we knew, they simply said that they had to wait for reinforcements first in order to do something. Markus tried to argue with them, but they were stubborn. Long story short: a few minutes later we were hiding in a bush, close to the aforementioned Warehouse. Markus watched their guards patrol around it and made a plan. “So, there are two guards on patrol outside. We will need to take both of them out first, before we can go any further. When we’ve dealt with that, you will fly to the roof and try to look inside. Try to tell me exactly where their guards are positioned, how many there are and, most importantly, if you can see Dinky. Got it?” I nodded in response. “All right, wait for my signal.” We waited for both guards to come back around to our side of the warehouse, before we lunged from our hiding spot and knocked both of them out. I then made a Dash to the roof and spied through the top windows. There were six guards, two on both, the front and the rear door and two beside a small cage. Inside there was a blonde filly which seemed to be crying. Dinky! I flew back down to Markus and told him what I saw. “Okay, we will go in from both sides at once. Go to the front door, count to ten and then smash it open as hard as you can. If what you’ve told me is correct, the door alone should be enough to knock one of them out. Take the other one by surprise before those two at the cage can react. As for them: we will have to take them down in melee, but I suppose that shouldn’t be a problem.” I nodded quickly and flew to the front door. I counted to ten… and then: I burst through the door, hearing it smash into the guard, as I take down the other. I see Markus doing the same on the other side. The Guards at the cage split up, taking each of us into one-on-one combat. I flew up to the ceiling, hovering in the air for a moment, before I dashed down upon the gangster, knocking him out. As I looked up from the Stallion under me, I saw Markus already fiddling with the lock to the cage. Dinky had stopped crying as she saw this and was now alight with hope. The cagedoor opened and she immediately jumped up to Markus, giving him a hug. Just in that moment, a guard stormed into the warehouse. “In the name of Celestia, drop your weapons!” He shouted. Markus stood up and sheathed his knife. The guard wanted to approach him, but was pulled back by a purple wing. “Let me take a look!” Twilight suddenly stood in the doorframe with a baffled look on her face, as she eyed the gangsters that were lying on the ground. “Sweet Celestia, it looks like a storm came through he—MARKUS! Rainbow!” She exclaimed, as she saw us standing in the middle of the room. She ran towards us, stopping only inches away from Markus. “WHAT WERE YOU TWO THINKING?!” Twilight started to scream. “You went on a rescue mission?! ALONE?!” “Relax Twilight, it’s not the first time that we’ve done something like this.” I said, trying to calm her down. But apparently, I only made things worse… “Not the first time?! You two could have been hurt! You could have been KILLED!” She screamed again, with a slight sniffle as she said the last word. “But we didn’t. And the mission was a resounding success, I might say.” Markus smiled at her. “But how did you find out about this anyways?” Twilight wanted to say something, but a voice from outside beat her to it. “Twilight? Is it safe? Can I come in?” Derpy said, as she held her head through the door. “MOMMY!” Dinky instantly exclaimed. She jumped off of Markus and ran towards the entrance into the arms of her mother, giving her a loving embrace. Meanwhile, Markus, Twilight and I stood there and watched the scene. The smile on Markus’s face soon disappeared however. “Well, not a full success, sadly. We couldn’t get the Ringleader.” Upon that, Twilight grinned wide at him, his face showing a good bunch of surprise. “You know, we encountered a Stallion on our way here that appeared to be running away from something. Derpy identified him as the Stallion she spoke to and we took him in.” Breathing a sigh of relief, Markus looked back at the reunified pair. After a few short moments he said: “Well, I think we’re done here. Let’s go home.” They both brought me home before they went back to the Library. On the way there, Markus suddenly spoke up. “Sorry that the afternoon might have not been as fun as you wanted to Rainbow Dash.” He smiled apologetically at me. I however looked at him in confusion. “Are you kidding?! This. Was. AWESOME! We should do things like these more often!” As I said that, Twilight gave me a short glare. “Ehehe, ok, maybe not…” We reached my home and I gave Markus a quick hug, before flying up to my house. This day was one of the BEST in my life!