“What the heck’s going on here?” Shining Armor stepped forward. Even though I had gone crazy, I could still properly understand everypony, thankfully.
Cadance spoke up next. She had a special-looking kind of sword held aloft via “We came as soon as we saw the explosion. Svengallop will now be taken into custody by order of the Empire Princess for Twilight Sparkle.”
But Svengallop wasn’t prepared to go down so easily. Somehow, he just barely managed to pick himself up off the ground, and backed away. “Oh no you don’t! Everypony! Take them out!” the coward cried out as he hid behind the rest of his standing gang members. To my surprise, they were more than willing to fight for him!
“Heh...they don’t look so tough,” one of them said.
“Just an old hag and his wife,” another commented.
“Can’t do anything without their little sister, can they? This’ll be easy,” said another. They all had their weapons raised, ready to fight back.
Then I heard Shining shout. “Zweihoofer!”
CLANG!
“AHHHH!”
I heard the sound of a heavy attack land, followed by a scream that trailed off into the sky. I gazed at what caused the pony to fly away. And it turns out, Shining Armor had used his magic to teleport over, and decked one of them in the face with a hammer?! A two-sided, steel one with a carbon-infused handle for extra grip. The head was massive, and it looked like you needed to be really strong to be able to hold it. Amazing. I felt utter joy as I watched the look of horror on the other mercenary’s faces.
“You’re weak,” the unicorn stallion berated the foolish pony, and turned to the rest of them. “Don’t forget who you’re dealing with. Who wants some?”
After a few moments of silence, the ponies charged at him all at once. In an amazing display of skill, Shining Armor used both his defensive magic and hammer at the same time. Each time, somepony tried to attack him, he’d put up a barrier, then smack them away with a violent crash of his weapon.
Cadance handled the stragglers. She used her sword and slashed at the air which created pink waves of energy that bound those who tried to run away. “Crusaders! Flurry! Cozy! Get back and get the refugee ponies to safety! We’ll handle the rest, and find Svengallop!” she commanded them.
The four of them had still been fighting also. Well, the Crusaders fought while Flurry Heart used her magic to keep them safe and healed. But as soon as she heard her mother, the young alicorn relented. “Gah...fine. C’mon girls, let’s go. They can handle this.”
“Are ya’ll sure?” Applebloom asked aloud, “They’re aren’t slowin’ up are they?”
“No way! Are you seeing this?” Scootlaoo called out as she pointed to another pony that had been thrown into the sky due to another of Shining’s hammer strikes. “They got this! C’mon, everyone!”
“Tactical retreat to help the prisoners? I’m in,” Sweetie Belle stepped back, “Let’s go, guys!”
“Vinyl, and the Doc?!” Flurry called out.
“They’ve probably already ran back with the others,” Applebloom said, “Now let’s git goin’! Cozy! Pick up Pale, and let’s ride outta here!”
After that, they all retreated.
I looked down at Pale’s body, and felt even more rage build up within me. I didn’t want to retreat just yet. I wanted to go and give that disgusting mistake of a pony Svengallop a piece of my own mind. I wanted to leave...but…
“Go on, kiddo,” said a voice from behind me.
“Eh?” I turned around.
There she was. The legendary Vinyl Scratch with her trademark should-mounted bass cannon. “I got him. I know you wanna prevent Svengallop’s escape. So go after him. Do what you need to do. But keep your emotions in check, alright?”
I shut my eyes, and took a deep breath. She was right. I had to relax. I couldn’t rush in and beat him down right away. As much as I hated him right about now, Svengallop did deserve total humiliation in front of an entire crowd--Princess Twilight included.
So I knew what I had to do, and I appreciated the aged DJ’s words. “Alright...thank you, Vinyl. I’ll make sure he’s dealt with properly.” I replied with confidence, but I knew that deep down in my heart, I wanted Svengallop to suffer for what he did to Pale. I couldn’t deny it any longer. I valued that stallion like a father. He was more caring towards me than my actual, biological parents ever were. Because of that, I wanted any and all who hurt him to experience the same torture, but on a much greater scale.
Vinyl levitated Pale onto her back, and shot me a smile as I took off.
I flew into the air, and saw Svengallop escape out of the rear side of the building. Now was my chance. Before he could run any further away from the badlands, I stopped that earth pony dead in his tracks when I landed in front of him.
“Gah!” he shrieked like a whiny, scared colt as he skidded to a stop.
My face was half-dark with my eyes twitching crazily. “You...I didn’t think it was possible to find somepony more mean and despicable than me. But ohohoho, golly! Guess it’s happened!” I cried out with a crazed tone. Don’t get me wrong, I was still plenty upset with him, but at the moment, this was mostly a show that I put on just to make sure that I scared him as much as possible. I put my hooves together, and tilted my head to mimic a creepy doll. “We can’t have you outdoing my insanity, now can we?!”
The foolish stallion tried to back away. “Y-you...you’re crazy! This is exactly why they locked you up! That stupid detective lashed out the same way! He doesn’t deserve that job! How can we trust somepony mentally unstable to be impartial and treat criminals within the law if he flies off the handle like he did! You’re no better!” he screamed in a panic. “And if you kill me...well guess what, it’ll make you look worse! Is that what you want?! Go ahead! Kill me! I’m right here!”
Oh I knew darn well just what he was getting at. Luckily for me, I had no intention of ending his pathetic excuse of a life. That would simply take too much effort.
“Heh...why would I do that? If you’re alive, then you won’t get to suffer,” I leaned in close to his face with the most intimidating glare that I could muster with my teeth on full display like I was ready to feast upon his face, “I want you to feel everything that you’ve been doing to all of the ponies in that building. All of your misdeeds, and foolish actions. All of it! You are going to live the rest of your life in eternal torment!”
After my rant, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he passed out. I suppose he simply couldn’t handle my scare tactic. But I suppose it worked. Now there was no chance of Svengallop running away from me. At last, he would repent for his actions.
What ensued was...a lot, actually. I showed Svengallop to the Empire Prince and Princess. They took him off my hooves, and thanked me for the risk I took. After that, Shining Armor used a nigh-impenetrable magic spell to erect a dome over the empty building. Everyone had escaped, and Sven’s accomplice guards had been fought off and taken care of. Prince Armor put the spell over the building so that Twilight could decide what to do with it next.
Flurry and the Crusaders were all as excited as I was. They more or less helped complete a major ‘friendship’ mission if you could call it that. All the way home, the three of them were all bouncing words of praise off of each other. On the other hoof, Flurry stayed close to me, and talked with me as we walked back to Dodge Junction.
“Everything alright?”
I nodded with a nervous smile on my face. “Yeah...I just...I just wanna make sure that Pale’s okay.”
Flurry scoffed. “Pssh. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that guy is gonna go down so easily. I mean, he’s not as strong as my dad, but don’t sell him short okay?”
“Hm…” Part of me wanted to bite back and say that Pale could totally take on Shining. Oh dear, guess I was starting to think of him as a parent. I almost stepped into a ‘my dad can beat your dad’ sort of argument. Heh. But I shied away from that, and simply accepted Flurry Heart’s words. “Yeah...you’re right. Thank you. Still, I need to go see him at the hospital once we’re done reporting the situation.”
Luckily for us, it seems that Princess Cadance was already on point with her planning. Apparently, she had notified her sister-in-law beforehoof. That way, the purple alicorn was able to meet up with us when we arrived at Ponyville Hospital.
Though, for whatever reason, she chose to stay in a normally-proportioned pony form, rather than the slender look similar to Celestia. She had some bags under her eyes, and I couldn’t tell if they were from aging or lack of sleep entirely.
We checked in some of the ponies that Svengallop had captured to the hospital. After which, both Cadance and Shining Armor explained the situation to their fellow nation leader.
The Crusaders, Flurry, and I all sat in the hospital lobby chairs as we awaited whatever scolding or praise that would befall us. I had only just now noticed that they were all covered in scrapes and minor damage from the melee that ensued. Thankfully it was nothing fatal, though.
At long last, she stepped towards us. We all couldn’t help but look at each other, then up at her.
“...Okay, first off. Crusaders. Excellent job out there. Your sisters and Rainbow Dash might be a bit concerned, but you all did very well. In fact, according to what my brother and Cadance said,” she pointed a hoof behind herself, “it sounded like you all embodied what your sisters used to be like when they were younger. Except more...rough. If that’s the right word.”
“Aw shucks, Twilight, it’s just what we wanna do as Crusaders. Right ya’ll?” Applebloom looked at both of her friends.
“For sure! I can’t wait to see the look on Dash’s face when she realizes that I helped catch an evil gang!” Scootaloo agreed with a flutter of her wings.
Sweetie Belle leaned back in her seat, and chuckled. “Hehe. It was nothing, really. I’m just glad we could do our part as a team. I’m just glad my new sleep-song spell actually worked!”
Twilight giggled, and looked at Flurry Heart next. “And you, Flurry. You did a swell job at planning the operation. As usual it would appear my brother’s sense of strategy rubbed off on you.”
Flurry scoffed, and waved her hoof. “Aw, thanks Aunt-Twi. But it wasn’t all me. You should also thank Cozy for supporting my decisions. Without her, I don’t think I would’ve gotten that far with my plans.” She turned to me and smiled. Then she put a hoof against her chest, “But now I can at least remind dad of this incident anytime he’s worried about me going out.”
Once again, the purple alicorn couldn’t help but laugh. She even snorted a bit as well. “Hehehe! Ahem--right. Now...Cozy Glow,” she faced me next.
I swallowed the lump of anxiety in my throat. “...Y-yes?”
“You did a stellar job in support of your friends and helped protect the ponies that needed to escape. Not to mention, you went all the way out there just to save the one pony who risked his life to set you free. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve more than earned my trust,” she said with earnest confidence in me.
What? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did Princess Twilight actually say she trusted me? This had to be a dream...but it wasn’t. This was real, and I had no idea how to feel. “I...t-thank you so much.” I nearly started to cry, but there was no time for that. I had something--or somepony--more important on my mind. “And how’s Pale doing? Can I go see him?”
“Oh? Yes, you can, actually. Nurse Redheart said he would need time to recover.”
Okay, good. Now what else...oh right! “What about Svengallop?”
“He will be taken into custody, and we’ll figure out his sentencing.”
That’s all I needed to hear. I got up from my seat, and hugged Twilight. “Thank you...for listening to me.”
She paused, and put a hoof around me after a moment or two. “Aw, don’t worry about it, Cozy. I know you had a troubled past, and you’re doing your best to atone for your actions now. Continue doing what you do best, okay?”
I let go, and nodded. “Yes, Princess. I promise.” And with that, I left the room, and flew into the hallway of the hospital. Twilight had told me where Pale was resting, so I followed her directions. After a turn or two, I finally came upon his room. I slowly opened it up, and found the gray earth pony lying there. He was barely awake, and he groaned ever so slightly from the pain he had endured. Bandaging and stitches all across his neck and back...ouch.
“...K-kid…?” he sat up a little to get a better look at me. “Ow...ah...are you okay?”
I flew to his bedside. “Yes...of course I am. But what about you?”
He coughed a few times. “I’ll be fine...whatever happened to that bastard Svengallop?”
“Oh...Twilight has him in a dungeon as we speak,” I answered with a smile.
But sadly, Pale was not happy with that answer. I could see it in his yellow eyes before he shut them, and lied back down. “Good. You should go get some rest too, Cozy.”
My wings flapped nervously. I knew exactly what was on his mind, and yet I decided not to press the issue. Instead, I pat him on the head, and flew out of the room. “Yes, dad. I will,” I said jokingly, which got a bit of a smile out of him as I left.
As Cozy left the room, all I could think of was one thing, and one thing alone.
“By tomorrow, Svengallop will not be breathing.”