Chapter 34
The changes in scenery were welcome ones, no longer were Kelso and company in the sweltering heat of the tropical jungles of Sainte-Hélène, but instead now found themselves in a place where the climate was much more pleasant.
It was late at night, the stars shone brightly, the full moon cast enough light to see clearly, and in the distance, they heard the faint noise of hooves stamping against the ground. Kelso turned to look to find that Twilight Sparkle and Heinrich Büschsenmacher were galloping along the dirt path through the forest that they found themselves in. Heinrich was as silent as the midnight wind; Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof trotted along behind him panting heavily, and struggled to keep up.
'Heinrich...! Heinrich, I need to stop...' Twilight said between laboured breaths.
'We cannot stop, we have too far to go before we are safe, and our foe follows us on silent wings', Heinrich said, looking back towards her, and slowing himself to allow her to catch up.
'Heinrich... I can't... I...' Twilight said, unable to finish her sentence before being interrupted by her own hacking cough. Heinrich frowned, stopping in his tracks and going back over to her. He pushed his head under her belly, kneeling down and picking her up on his back and continuing on down the road.
'Rest, meine liebe, I shall continue on for the both of us', Heinrich said, and continued on down the road.
Kelso and company took to a brisk pace to keep up with the two of them, Dizzy, could not help but be saddened by the event. 'He really loves her', Dizzy said with a sigh. 'He really loves her and she treats him like rubbish'.
Kelso nodded her head in agreement, there were few people in the world, pony or schäferhund who were as kind as Heinrich Büschenmacher, he was too good for Twilight Sparkle; he was too good for anyone.
‘Heinrich? How can you keep going like this? Aren’t you tired?’ Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow at the schäferhund.
‘Heh, this? This is nothing, when I was a soldier in the Legion Adler, forced marches like these were commonplace, I can keep going for some time’, Heinrich said with a smile.
Kelso had to admit, she was most certainly impressed with Heinrich’s vigour, he would have walked to the ends of the world for the unicorn he now carried on his back, and now, Twilight had to know it. Twilight smiled warmly at him, offering the first genuine smile that the passive observers had seen from her since her fall to the influence of the Tome of Alhazred. Twilight leaned forward, planting a kiss on Heinrich’s cheek before she closed her eyes, and quickly drifted off to sleep as she rode on the schäferhund’s back as they marched to the east.
Heinrich smiled back as Twilight drifted off to sleep, but his smile quickly turned to worry as he turned his head towards the sky.
Kelso looked up, and discovered the faint silhouette of a winged pony for just a second before it disappeared, the view blocked by the branches of the trees.
‘Rest Well, Twilight Sparkle’, Heinrich said softly. ‘When morning comes, you will need your strength’.
...
Morning came in an instant, as it always did in the world of memory, flashing between points cutting out all need to wait.
Twilight Sparkle was awake, and trotting behind Heinrich with a tired look on her face. Unicorns weren’t built for endurance.
‘We are close Twilight! Fifty kilometres to go, and we will be across the border and into Bundesrepublik Schäferhund!’ Heinrich called out to her enthusiastically. Twilight did not respond, clearly too tired to make one, she merely nodded her head in agreement.
Kelso frowned at the statement. From what she remembered, at this point of history, Bundesrepublik Schäferhund was not a member of La Police Internationale, making it a safe haven for fleeing criminals while they moved elsewhere around the world, usually to the Capran Empire, or the Peking Republic. Policing during this period had to be a nightmare here on the continent, one step over a boarder, and criminals were home free. La Police Internationale could not ask a government to locate and detain a wanted criminal. Instead, they had to wait for them to commit a crime in the land they escaped to and serve the time in that country... and then be free to go afterwards, all the while waiting for the statute of limitations to run out at home.
Kelso looked up, there was a glint of light that shone off something metal and bounced into her eyes. There was a pegasus flying high above, and he turned and dived down upon them.
Heinrich was quick to notice and turned on his heels and hit the manual adjusts on his submachine guns turning them towards the sky and biting down hard on the control yoke of his storm harness.
Pierre La Roche jaunted to the left, increasing speed and smacking hard into Heinrich’s flank, knocking him unconscious.
Twilight soon became aware of the cheval and drew her revolver, taking it in her telekinesis and pointing it at the inspector. La Roche leapt at her, knocking her to the ground as he struggled to disarm the revolver in her telekinetic grip.
Twilight’s saddlebags split open, and the Tome of Alhazred went flying. Twilight could only watch helplessly as the book flew away from her, landing with a loud splash in the river. ‘No...’ she cried out weakly.
Kelso and company were overjoyed that such a negative influence on Twilight Sparkle’s life was finally gone. She had bigger problems unfortunately.
There was a loud shrill noise that pierced the passive observer’s ears, and they all dropped to their knees. They threw their hooves over their ears to try and block out the noise and could only watch helplessly as Pierre La Roche had bit down on the revolver with his teeth, and fought to turn the weapon back on Twilight.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of red light and the world began to fade away once more.
...
Kelso opened her eyes... or at least, she thought they were open, she blinked a couple of times, but the world was dark. Panic began to set in, she was blind! Kelso stuck one of her forelegs out in front of her, and was relieved to discover that she was in fact not blind. She was able to see her hoof as she waved it around in front of her.
Kelso sighed in relief as she rose to her hooves and turned to discover the other members of her party were lying in a similar daze. ‘Everyone okay?’ Kelso asked as she helped Viola to her hooves.
‘Yeah... Yeah I think so’, Sparky said with a frown. ‘The hell was that? Where’s Twilight? Where’s La Roche?’
‘I... I don’t know’, Kelso said with a frown, glancing around for any sign of what happened. Unfortunately for her, there was none. Not only was there no sign of La Roche and Twilight; there wasn’t any sign of anything. The world was a blank black landscape devoid of all colours and shapes that made up the real world.
‘I’m not going to lie... I’ve never been more scared in my entire life’, Dizzy said with a frown as she leaned forward and wrapped her forelegs around Sparky.
Kelso couldn’t help but agree.
That was when they heard it, there was a low humming sound in the distance, someone... or something was humming a tune! Then, that’s when the singing started.
‘Nobody can tell ya; there's only one song worth singin'. They may try and sell ya, 'cause it hangs them up to see someone like you!’
‘What is that?’ Hopely asked as she and the rest of the passive observers looked frantically around for the source of the singing. That’s when they saw it, off in the distance, a soft white glow.
‘But you've gotta make your own kind of music! Sing your own special song! Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along!’
The glow began to move closer, and Kelso and company were able to get a better look at it. As it turned out, ‘it’, was a pegasus mare, with a straw yellow mane poofed up similar to that of Pinkie Pie’s. Her eyes were a brilliant purple, and that was when they realised, that they knew who this was.
‘You're gonna be knowing the loneliest kind of lonely. It may be rough goin', just to do your things the hardest thing to do. But you've gotta make your own kind of music! Sing your own special song; make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along!’ Surprise sang as she touched down on the ground before them, ceasing her singing and looking up at them and smiling brightly. ‘Hi!’
Kelso looked at the mare in amazement, she was awestruck, and she had no idea what to even say at this point.
‘Cat got your tongue? DS Kelso?’ Surprise asked with a cheeky grin.
‘I don’t understand...’ Kelso said with a frown.
‘We’ve got time! I’ll answer a few questions, if I can’, Surprise said with a smile.
‘What’s going on?’ Viola asked, thinking of the first thing to pop into her head.
‘Oh, the memory you were just watching was a baaaaaad one!’ Surprise said in an incredibly cheerful manner, far too cheerful. ‘The one you call the Unknowable Mare? The one who is showing you all this? She wasn’t ready for it, and I used that as my in! You see, I’m like her... well, sort of, kind of... well not really...’
‘Who are you?’ Kelso asked.
‘I’m Surprise! Silly!’ Surprise said with a grin. ‘I’m an angel!’
‘What?’ Dizzy asked, her head poking up at the mention of angels.
‘I know right? Who’d have thought? I mean, me? An angel? The universe has a really fucked up sense of humour! I mean, I killed people for a living!’ Surprise said with a grin. ‘LOTS of people!’
Kelso glanced to Sparky, and then to Viola, and then to Sparky once more before looking back at Surprise. ‘That doesn’t exactly make us feel better’, she said with a frown.
‘Yeah’, Surprise said with a shrug. ‘I’d imagine not, if it helps though, I feel bad about most of them! Except for Firefly, she was a bitch!’
‘Riveting...’ Viola said with a frown. ‘Did you mean to tell us something?’
‘Oh! Yeah! I almost forgot, here we are almost out of time and I’m wasting it, silly me!’ Surprise said with a giggle. ‘The eyes! They’re the windows to the soul!’
‘What?’ Kelso asked, a deadpan expression falling on her face. Was that supposed to help them?
‘Yeah! Believe it or not, that phrase is actually the most important thing in... someone’s life, I actually don’t know who, I was just told to tell you that!’ Surprise said before spreading her wings and floating into the air.
‘Told by whom?’ Dizzy asked, looking up at Surprise as she flew back from them. ‘By God?’
‘No silly! God isn’t real! God is just something you all made up so that you’d feel better about yourselves!’ Surprise said. ‘Bye!’
Soon enough, the black landscape began to wash away, turning white, and Surprise began to sing once more.