//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Disturbing Revelations and Premonitions // Story: Love, Friendship, and Gangsters // by scifipony //------------------------------// - 14 - We had no time to be pissed. We galloped across the Hooflyn Bridge and made it to Penn Station in time to have the doors snap closed on our tails. We walked on the boardwalk as the sun rose. The surf crashed against the beach. I flew in with a coffee for Pig Pen as Citron, then Gelding noticed us approach. The cool breeze pulled at her hood and my feathers as she asked, "I suppose you learned about the job just last night?" "At 3:21 AM, precisely," I spat. "We were in a hotel room in Hooflyn having—" Pig Pen added. I swatted his ear with a wing. TMI. "Hey!" "Hay is for breakfast, earth pony." "We?" He looked from Gelding, to me, then back to Gelding. "I meant to say I was on vacation." I sighed. "We weren't getting any sleep, anyway." My first time before the better next times would have to wait. Pig Pen grinned at me. I wanted to melt into him, but swatted him anyway. "Yeah." He rubbed his ear, checking for cuts. Gelding said, "Something stupid happened," and explained she'd requested us and Citron a week ago. A gang messenger had actually scared Citron's father last night delivering the assignment. He didn't, hadn't known his son had a higher paying side gig. She also explained she'd been promoted to bodyguard and this assignment was her first moneymaker since the reorg. We found the pony of mystery, delivered by rowboat before dawn: an indigo unicorn dressed like Gelding in a dirty-brown cloak that hid his appearance. I saw all this from the air, going up to look for unwanted eyes or feathers aloft. I wondered if this was another setup, but Gelding seemed more upset about the snafus than suspicious. I saw nopony, and Gelding led us through the park to a residential area. I walked with Pig Pen, resting my wings, as we approached Cheesequake Park, which looked like a forest, dark with the morning sun shining on it. He took out his gum and popped it in my mouth, the act alone ramping up my nerves. He whispered, "I spoke with Gelding about Citron—" I popped the gum in his mouth with a kiss. "He's cool, and smart." I grinned. "He helped me plan our evening last night." His eyes widened. He waved a hoof as we switched. "She says she selected us purely on our performance, so I'm okay with it. Guess what? Gelding is Citron's age, or younger." Switch. "A high schooler!? I—" Pig Pen bit off the gum for me just before Gelding looked back. She saw our lips parting and gave us an eye roll. She sent me aloft, then to scout the trail deep within the trees. I spotted early morning joggers and a yellow pegasus short-cutting over the park; nothing alarming. Gelding's age, though, worried me. Gave me a premonition. In the middle of the park, the mystery pony sat and spoke up when he had only whispered previously, "We can stop here." He let his unicorn horn headband fall to the leaf-strewn path. Gelding cried, "Safe, you horse's flank!" "For the record, the name's neither an adjective nor a noun." A play on "Gelding is a verb," which I'd heard her say to the detective. Very hard to forget that line. I asked, "You know dis horse's flank, Grimoire?" "More like threatened to break his handsome face if I saw him again," she growled. Citron's horn lit. "Gangsta move. What game ya playing, creep?" "Not playing. Carne Asada wants new bodyguards. Grimsy though you three colts were the best candidates to promote alongside her." Her was supposed to be a revelation. A game? "What!?" She sounded like a filly. "I didn't. I would have, but... You're putting words in my mouth." "The boss agreed. I'm here to train you." I spat. "I don't like this one bit." He bobbed his hoof, counting. "Pay's excellent. You trade-off shifts. One week on—" "Less freedom. Irregular schedules work for me, except for last night," and this goon was responsible for that! I grabbed Pig Pen by the withers, fluttering beside him, to lead him away. "What Carne Asada wants, she gets. And Grimsy, don't get pregnant. Her rules—" Daylily's face flashed in my mind. I sharped my wings and dove at his face. I bounced off blue-green magic, before being placed gently on my hooves. I heard "Thank you," through my gum. Pig Pen stood next to Gelding, and Citron between her and Safe. Blackened chain rattled ominously. Like a cloud in an updraft, Gelding shot between our herd and pulled a punch a hoof length from Safe's nose. He sniffed the muddy thing with disdain. Citron dragged her back between us as Safe said, "She goes by many names—" "Gelding?" I offered. "Old news." "How about Princess Grim?" Gelding turned to face us with narrowed eyes. "Fanboi on me and—" Pig Pen whirled around, bouncing on his hooves. "Wait whaaat!? Of course. Gotta be. It explains everything!" Of course it did. Her ability to fight. Her offer to teach me to evade her. Her strength despite being a unicorn. But it went further. What Carne Asada wants... My subconscious shocked my heart into a stuttering rhythm and repeated words I had been half listening to: ”You've been paid for a live fire training.” Gelding stiffened and yelled, "Hot potato!" It meant she'd seen an attack and I hadn't. I followed her nose and saw the shadow of wings flicker below the canopy. As Gelding snatched up Safe in her magic and galloped down the path, I saw a gauntlet of death. I shot up toward the branches. The park service had culled trees and pruned branches for airiness, barely enough for careful flight and perfect for ambushing. Pig Pen crashed through the brush paralleling me. Though dappled light and crooked branches confused my sight, I couldn't miss wood that was long, straight, pointed, and angled down. Following the angle, I saw Gelding galloping on the path. I yelled, "Incoming 10-3 o'clock." Out of breath, I added, "Javelin!" The pegasus threw as I dive-bombed her, wings sharp. Peg Pen reared as he threw his chain. Thwack! Safe howled, splinters turning his nose into a hedgehog. "A javelin? What the horse apples, C.A.!" I cut leaves and green shoots as the yellow pegasus glided out of reach with her quiver. It turned into a game of tag, with two pegasi, the other a camouflaging green. Citron set saplings afire around a pond, chasing at least two unicorns, one of which Pig Pen lamed. When I sighted Yellow land on a tree, I used the gum to point her out to Pig Pen. He threw, but his chain wrapped around the perch and only the end struck the pegasus. Though dazed, she nevertheless planted and pointed her javelin like a pike. Committed to my dive, she'd skewer me. The Way of the Nirik kicked in, causing me to strike a further out branch with my fore hooves with a sharp tock-tock. I accept the momentum change, tumbled up, struck another branch with my hindquarters, but flung out my wings and slid sideways through the air, downward. I sliced her back between the wing joints, shooting sideways through the chained perch. Her wings went limp. I heard dropped javelins clank and clunk down through the trees. Remorse struck me as I saw blood on my feathers. I'd cut a crippling blow. My remorse didn't last long, because the next moment, the other pegasus proved this wasn't a training exercise but an invitation to murder. Green threw before I could inhale to shout. Intuition or shadows caused Gelding to jump and shove Safe, who galloped beside her. The javelin cut her flank but shot through Safe's haunch as they exited the forest. They went tumbling. She dragged the bucking, screaming stallion under a picnic bench as I shot into the trees after Green. A hesitation and Gelding would have died. Green had aimed for her. Murder. I knew Daylily's Salernitano history. At her mother's sweet sixteen, her aunt fell suddenly ill. She coughed blood until she died. Poison. That sparked an internecine war within the Family, because Daylily's mother was suddenly Princessa, the last living daughter of the Doña, the queen. She had worked to be legit in a grocery distribution business and was considered weak. It turned out the Doña's husband had an illegitimate daughter that had wormed high up in the Family, and despite not being matrilineal blood, she had ingratiated herself with the dowager grandmother and gotten her to pull strings. Daylily's family emigrated. I understood. Gelding wasn't being trained to become a bodyguard. She might not even know her ancestral heritage, or perhaps she had been hoof-picked. I had clearly witnessed an assassination attempt. Gelding was Carne Asada's crown princess and had no clue she'd been coronated. Or marked for death.