Inside…
After a few moments, the alarm bell ceased its ear-piercing ring. Vinyl and I ran upstairs to find the source of all of the commotion and rioting. We came to find out that the ponies that had been held here had all busted out of their cells and holding rooms and were fighting off all of the guards! In every direction we could see a tortured, battered pony tackle, punch, kick, and stomp on a guard pony. Needless to say, I was both relieved to see that the prisoners had all decided to fight back, but also confused.
“What the hell...just how did--”
“Sick!” the DJ unicorn cried out as she spectated the chaotic mob of combat, “beat her flank! Take him down! In the face! Whoo!”
Surprising, but still. Just who caused such an outbreak among the captives to occur?
That’s when I saw him.
“Hah! I knew it’d work!” a brown earth pony stallion with a familiar Trottingham accent appeared. He walked casually through the ruckus as if it didn’t even concern him. “Twas only a matter of time.”
Vinyl stepped forward. “Doctor? What the heck are you doing here?!”
“Ah, at last!” he noticed who had called his name, and trotted over to greet us, “A somewhat familiar face among the chaos. Ms. Scratch, is it? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, me and my new escape partner just barely managed to scrape by--” she stopped mid-sentence. “Duck!” She was interrupted by the body of a guard pony that had been flung in our direction. We all hunched over to avoid the body, and she continued her explanation. “Gah. Anyway, we’re cool. But I never would’ve pegged you’d be the type to organize a prison break.”
“Hm. When you’ve been around as long as I have...you tend to learn these sorts of things,” he replied in a solemn tone.
Normally, I would’ve flipped my lid. But the Doctor had....secrets. Such as the fact that he was a reincarnation--oops. Anyway. I was sure he had seen his fair share of prisons by now. “Well...thanks for your help, I suppose? But we’re looking on how to escape the place? Where exactly are we?”
“By my calculations...the Badlands. A lonesome land of unending heat and suffering brought about by the ancient fears of our dear former princess of the sun. Rumors said that Celestia came here every time she wanted to vent her hatred in an isolated location to avoid harming anypony. Alas, what was once a beautiful land of fields is now a wasteland...”
Wait, what?! Was there more to Celestia than she let on? What am I saying? Of course there was! She constantly hid things away from others to make herself seem stronger than she actually was. I definitely needed to find out what was going on with her now.
But that was beside the point. Our main priority was getting the absolute buck out of here. Not to mention the torture methods at which I had been dealt...I would need serious medical attention to deal with my skin being ripped up in certain areas.
“Sounds dope,” Vinyl replied to the Doc, “But we need to get movin’. Any idea on how to escape this place?”
Sadly, the Doctor’s goals did not align with ours. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be standing here, would I?” he replied as he trotted on past us, “Terribly sorry to say this, but while we have the same objective, our methods are not the same. But maybe things will be easier what with the massive brawl that has broken out, yes? Until next time. DJ. Detective.”
With no further words, the Doctor was on his way. He disappeared down the very same flight of stairs that we had taken to come up here just moments ago.
The white unicorn lifted her shades, and shot me a confused look. “...the heck was that about?”
I tilted my head down. The fighting raged on, and I was about done with this place. “It’s out of our hooves now. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Let’s get a move on, and find out the cause of that explosion outside. The roof is our best bet, I said as I brought out my weapon, and flicked the lever, “We get there, we can figure just where we are, and how to get back home too. It’s also where Svengallop probably retreated to. You ready?”
She flicked her shades down, and readied her shoulder, mounted bass launcher. “Heh-hey! Now we’re talkin’! Let’s kick some flank!”
And that’s just what we did.
The both of us rushed through the asylum. Through halls, up staircases, and around piles and piles of melee that occurred around us. The ponies that had been held captive here had had enough, and began to fight back. I applauded them. They deserved their freedom from these disgusting interlopers who dared to try and encroach upon the lives of others.
Though, let me be the first to say, the journey through this hellish place was not an easy one.
“Eat this!” Vinyl shouted as she readied, then fired the launcher at a pair of guard ponies that ran after us. A shell casing was ejected as soon as she shot it, and the projectile was a purple projection of musical notes that sent the pair flying, and into a nearby wall. “Yeah!”
I grabbed one, twisted their hoof, and slammed them into the wooden floor. Then I found another, and delivered an uppercut to their chin that was hard enough to send them flying straight up, and into the ceiling where their head got stuck. A hostile magic spell came towards me, so I flicked the lever on my air blaster, and fired it. The spell was redirected due to the force of the blast, and stuck the pony that fired it which caused a massive explosion at the end of the hallway.
BLAM!
“AHHHH!”
“GET BACK! GET BACK!”
“Hmph,” I snorted gruffly, and kept going. I suppose that I had the look of a broken, disfigured beast of a creature or something. Every guard pony that I walked past either shivered, or passed out when they looked at my face. Good. I absolutely raved over the fact that I caused them all such suffering that they had carelessly dealt to others. Maybe now, they would finally understand the ramifications of their actions, and would cease work with someone like Svengallop.
“Ayo! Get down!” Vinyl shouted from behind as she tackled me.
SHING!
We had just narrowly avoided a saw blade that was shot across the room via a trap that I had set off.
As a result, Vinyl’s shades dropped off, and I could see her eyes had a bit of wrinkling as well as some bloodshot to them. “You alright?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” I replied swiftly, “Thank you. How about you? Get enough sleep?”
“Eh? Oh,” she levitated her shades back onto her face with her magic, “Don’t worry about it. When ya stare at bright dance floor lights for so long, and spend all night thinking up new material for your next music tracks, it drains on ya.” She lifted me up with her hoof, and grinned at me, “But don’t worry, bud. I may be a bit older than you. But it doesn’t mean I still can’t drop a sick beat--or beatdown.”
Such is the life of an artist whose work had to be churned out on a regular basis. I couldn’t exactly relate since I knew I would always catch my prey--er, perp. Plus, I had a whole slew of crewmates to watch my back, and I wasn’t exactly doing my job to impress a crowd. Vinyl didn’t exactly have that luxury since she had to worry about everything her fans wanted, as well as herself. Admittedly, I was never an avid follower of her music when I was younger. But now that a couple of decades had passed, who knew that I’d end up fighting alongside the very same DJ unicorn that was famous as far as back then? It was a bit crazy to think about.
I nodded, and remained on higher alert to watch out for any other possible traps that could’ve been placed. “That’s good. So long as you’re still capable. Then we have nothing to fear.”
“Aw, lighten up, bud! No need to be so stiff. Even though we’re in a state of extreme peril, it helps to be chill, right?” she asked ever so casually. It almost made me laugh.
“Heh.”
At last, we made our way upstairs, and onto the roof of the building. I pushed a door open that led to the top, and took a look around. Not only was it extremely warm, but the landscape was barren and cracked. Maybe the Doctor was right with his little legend. After all, it certainly felt like a goddess had scorched this land.
“Hm…” Vinyl took a look around in all directions. “Can’t really see anypony yet. Can you?”
I shook my head. “Nope. But...wait…” My ear flicked. I could hear...voices? All coming from down below. But not inside the building. No. They sounded like they were coming from...outside? “This way. I can hear something.” I ran over to the western edge of the roof, and the voices became clearer. More of Svengallop’s mercenary gang were down below as they fought with the ponies who did their best to escape.
But wait...I heard other voices too. Familiar ones. I looked down…
I could see Applebloom throwing out random colored bottles that either burned, froze, or dazed guard ponies.
I could see Scootaloo perform kick-flips and tricks with her skateboard as she made use of it as a weapon to piledrive it into their faces.
And Sweetie Belle used her singing voice to put some of her enemies to sleep before she blasted them away with magic.
Why in the buck were the Crusaders here?! And not only that...wait...no! Cozy?! She was ushering all of the asylum prisoners out of the gate so they could retreat to safety. But did they really all come here for me?
“Vinyl. Come look at this,” I called out, but got no response. “Vinyl? Ms. Scratch?” I turned around, but she wasn’t there. I sensed someone else entirely, and got ready to block whatever it was.
Svengallop met me with his hooves forcing against my own. I had to admit, the trash heap of a stallion was stronger than he looked. We were locked in a bit of struggle for a moment. “Surprised to see you’re still walking. I thought my little crew would’ve gotten to you by now.”
“Grrr…” I grit my teeth, “Where’s Vinyl?!”
“That old hag?! Hah! Threw her over the side of the building. Now it’s your turn. And look, the kid you fought so desperately to save is here. Why not go join her?” he said with a demonic smirk.
I wanted to desperately challenge him, but that’s when I noticed Vinyl had levitated herself back onto the roof. It was a bit of a struggle, but she managed. She had her launcher aimed directly at the back of Svengallop’s head.
I saw this opportunity, and took it. “Alright then…” I removed myself from the struggle, and jumped off the building. It...wasn’t the smartest move, since it was a longer drop than I had initially thought.
“OOF!”
From above, I could just barely make out Vinyl’s threat just before she fired her weapon. “Eat this, dirtbag…”
ZAP-BAM!
“Wh--ARGH!” Svengallop was launched off the building, and hit the ground below, just moments after I did.
As the Crusaders fought Svengallop’s gang members, I did my best to get the other ponies to safety. But that’s when I heard a familiar voice, and a body drop. Then the sound of another that thudded nearby also.
When I looked up to see who it was, I was horrified.
“P-Pale?!” I stopped what I was doing, and flew over. The gray earth pony had parts of his skin ripped apart from what looked like dark magic, several scrapes across his body, and...was that blood? All over? I trembled, and hung my head. The shadow cast by my mane shielded my eyes from view.
From behind, I heard Flurry Heart’s voice. “This way, mom and dad! He’s got his entire setup of gangster ponies out here!” She, Cadance, and Shining Armor arrived on the scene just moments later. Flurry also pointed out where Svengallop had landed. “Right there!”
“Argh...dammit...gotta find a way to get outta here,” I heard him mumble.
But everypony around me stopped moving when I began to laugh.
“Hehehe….Hahahahaha...AHAHAHA!” I rose my head up, and glared at the white earth pony. All of the guards, the Crusaders, Flurry Heart and her parents, even Vinyl Scratch ran to the edge of the roof to see what was wrong with me.
My mental state. It was...in ruin. I couldn’t bear the sight of seeing the pony who cared about me hurt in such a way. He was barely even breathing, and I would not allow Svengallop to get away with treating him like this. He was going to pay with everything he had. But I couldn’t stop laughing...it was like...the old me had come out to play. And I loved it.
“OH, GOLLY! IS THIS SOME KIND OF TWISTED JOKE?! AHAHAHAHA!”