//------------------------------// // Chase // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// “I don’t think it’s safe to be down here anymore,” Malthus said as he, his gang, Jarvis, and a number of other security ponies working under Lord Copper stood gathered in a secret part of the sewers close to the Copper Section administration building. “Judging by those explosions we felt I doubt it’s safe to be anywhere right now. Especially for us,” Jarvis said as he exasperatedly rubbed at his forehead. “So something happened to that moron boss of yours? There must have been something that kept him from the bombs. Or he screwed up on deactivating them,” Malthus snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s dead, yeah,” Jarvis nodded. “Obviously things didn’t go as planned and now… I can’t even imagine the devastation.” “Lucky this place didn’t cave-in or get destroyed...” Malthus said. He was right about that, Jarvis thought as he looked around. When the explosions happened, this hideout was rocked heavily and all of them were tossed around. Pipes broke apart and cracks formed in the ceiling while the ponies caught their bearings. Jarvis immediately knew what had happened and ever since he had been internally debating exactly what they should do. His hope was they could just get out of here and nopony would ever know what they had done. But he didn’t want to be seen with Malthus and his gang. And if Lord Copper was still alive but Jarvis ditched him… that could cause even more problems. A lone radio sat in this sewer-hideout with them. Lord Copper was originally going to use it to communicate with them when things were over and done with. Now he was expecting to hear some very bad news from it if Lord Copper ever did contact them over it. “I’d say we’re even luckier that this thing didn’t explode when all those quakes started,” one of Malthus’s gang members said as he pointed at a box on the floor. Jarvis looked down at it too. An extra bomb. After all the bombs they made with the three crates worth of TNT and all the trams they had wired, they had this one left over. Jarvis was wary being around it, for obvious reasons, but he figured there might be some use in keeping it as well. Maybe if Lord Copper got brought down for this he could hoof this bomb over to the authorities as evidence? Maybe get himself off without prison time of his own. Unlikely, but he’d hold out hope. “Either way I think we should just leave,” Malthus said. “Being underground is going to be a death sentence here soon. Forget about everything else, I just want to survive.” Jarvis had to admit he had a point. If all those bombs went off then not just the mines but a lot of the Copper Section above them was going to collapse at some point too. That went double for these sewers they were in. “Yeah… yeah, alright. We should get out of here, maybe hide in the administration building instead, or try and get out of Copper Section. In fact, Lord Copper has something just for that purpose. If things went bad for him he might try using it now.” “Using what?” Malthus raised an eyebrow at Jarvis. Jarvis was about to answer when the radio buzzed on. Rainbow Dash and Heartless stared at each other—one with their face a twisted grimace of fear and confusion, the other one with a happy smile. “How?” Rainbow Dash broke the silence again. “Y-You should be-” “Dead? At the bottom of a whirlpool?” Heartless shrugged. “I told you it wouldn’t stop me for long. Nothing will.” She took a step forward and Rainbow took a step back. “I had to walk so far to find you again but now here you are in front of me. It’s wonderful.” “W-What’s going on?” Lord Copper asked, looking back and forth between the pink and blue ponies. “Shut up,” Rainbow Dash said to him. She didn’t know what to do now. Fighting Heartless was out of the question for a multitude of reasons, but now she couldn’t just run either. She still needed to make sure Lord Copper didn’t get away. And yet meanwhile the city was still falling apart around them all. Lord Copper’s guards had also all recovered and were starting to form up again so that was another issue. “You know, no matter how far away you were your life was like a shining beacon of light that I could always follow. Even now surrounded by so many others you still outshine them all,” Heartless said. “Yeah. I know. You’ve told me that kind of stuff before,” Rainbow bit her lip. Heartless took another confident step forward. “You can’t run this time, Rainbow Dash. I don’t think there’s anywhere for you to go.” “T-This pony is an outsider too, isn’t she?” Lord Copper said. “The two of you are-” “I said shut up, I’m trying to think!” Rainbow Dash barked back at him. “Oreville is falling apart! My Oreville! A-And it’s because of you not letting me go! I won’t stand for you continuing to treat me like this. T-Things aren’t over for me, they’re over for you!” He looked over at his security force. “W-Well?! Are you going to help your Lord or just stand there?” Rainbow Dash shot an angry glare at them. “Go ahead! Try it again!” Lord Copper sneered at her. “I haven’t lost. Nopony important truly yet knows what’s happened. As long as you don’t get out of here...” “Oh for the love of-” Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. “You should know when to give up! I’m not letting you get away with this!” “643,117.” All eyes turned to the smiling figure of Heartless. Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion at the pink pony who had just been nonchalantly standing there. Heartless smiled wider. “That’s how many lights there are in this place. Bright lights, dim lights, young lights, old lights, warm lights, cool lights.” Her eyes drifted to the ponies still stampeding through the streets just a few feet away from her. “Lights right next to me. And lights far away.” She then looked dead straight at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash. I’m not letting you get away this time. You can either come to me and let me feel and take the overwhelming, powerful, entrancing warmth of your life. Or… I can take the life one by one from the 643,117 other lights in here instead.” Rainbow Dash stared in open-mouthed horror at her. Even Lord Copper and his guards caught onto what she was saying, and whether they believed she could or would do anything like that, they too were clearly disturbed by the pink pony. Heartless lifted her right hoof and stretched it towards the crowd of ponies at her side, running by her without any awareness of what she was, and then slowly brought it around to point and beckon at Rainbow Dash. “It’s you or them, Rainbow Dash. Come to me.” While Rainbow Dash’s mind was a mess of horrified thoughts and bad ideas that she was trying to think of for dealing with Heartless, Lord Copper was being much more proactive. Seeing how distracted Rainbow Dash was, he steadily inched away from her until he could make a break from it. The Lord of Copper Section turned and ran through the crowds in the opposite direction of where they were going. He pushed his way through them and started running down the street back to his building. “H-Hey!” Rainbow Dash did a double-take as he went. “Out of my way! Make way for your Lord, you specks!” Copper shouted as he fought through the crowd. His guards then looked at each other and nodded, running after him. “Stop!” Rainbow flapped her wings and got ready to take off after him- “Oh Rainbow Dash~ I’m waiting~” Heartless’s singing voice came from behind her. Rainbow Dash looked back to see Heartless motioning towards the ponies running by her. “No! Don’t!” “You know what will make me stop,” Heartless giggled and started walking towards Rainbow Dash again, her light white mane, speckled with pink like glitter, framed her smiling face. The big red heart outlined in black on her flanks bounced with each step. “Why couldn’t you just stay in that whirlpool?” Rainbow gulped. Heartless shrugged. “As long as you’re alive I’ll come after you. Your life calls out to me, and nothing is the same anymore. Ever since that first day we met and I felt how warm and powerful your life is, how greater it is than every other creature’s, I’ve needed you. I can’t even tell what it is that compels me—I’ve always been like this—but I know that now I truly desire something in a way I never have before. It was just instinct and boringly taking the life of other creatures around me just because it was nature and I enjoyed it before you. Now I have a passion. And all the other lives in the world can’t fulfill that.” Rainbow Dash paused at Heartless’s words, a dangerous idea forming in her head. It was a dumb, reckless, idea that had the potential to backfire horrifically. So it was a really Rainbow Dash idea. She just had to play off what she knew about Heartless’s simple and single-minded nature. So Rainbow Dash licked her lips, stopped herself from wavering, threw back her mane, and plastered her most confident and self-assured grin on her face. “Heh, sorry Heartless but that’s not going to work on me. You’re not getting me today.” Heartless tilted her head as the smile momentarily left her face, blinking a few times in confusion. “Why?” “Think about it,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “You said it yourself how many ponies are in here. How long would it take you to actually chase them all done and get them? How many months? Meanwhile I’ll have flown so far away you’d never catch up to me again. So come on, we both know you’re not going to do that.” Rainbow smirked even more condescendingly at the pony. “So what’s it gonna be? Me or them?” Inside her head she was hoping that Heartless would be so focused on the bait—so focused on Rainbow Dash—that she wouldn’t stop and think. Please, please, please, please. Rainbow Dash thought and tried not to sweat. Heartless actually frowned a bit and brought a hoof up to her forehead as if she was having a migraine. “But that’s… you can’t...” “You think I’d care about it if you killed these ponies? While you’re doing that I’ll be halfway around the world.” Rainbow tried to appear as casual and apathetic about it as possible so Heartless wouldn’t figure out she was bluffing. The pink mare groaned and held her head in her hooves. “Nggg...” “Geez, Heartless, you sounded like you were so miserable after not seeing me for so long, can you really go even longer without seeing me again?” Rainbow taunted. “And seriously—what if one day while I’m out adventuring I bite off more than I can chew? What if I die and you lose me forever?” Heartless looked up at her in sheer horror. That felt good. To scare her for a change. Rainbow Dash grinned. “Well, Heartless?” “That isn’t fair!” Heartless slammed a hoof on the ground and pouted. She was acting like a child throwing a tantrum as she stomped her hooves a few more times. “This isn’t fair, Rainbow Dash!” “Tough break,” Rainbow snorted in derision. “I’ve got stuff to do and I don’t feel like entertaining a crazy monster like you.” Heartless stopped stomping her hooves and stared at the ground. “Fine.” She said as she raised her head and smiled again like normal at Rainbow Dash. “Well, then of course I’m choosing you. So ready or not, here I come!” And she took off running towards Rainbow Dash. “Oh crud,” Rainbow’s face fell and she flapped her wings to take to the air. She started flying over the crowd of ponies on the trail of Lord Copper, staying low so maybe Heartless wouldn’t get the idea to fly too, and so she could get to her target faster. “Where are you going, Rainbow Dash?~” Rainbow ignored the voice for now, knowing she would have to deal with Heartless sooner or later but not letting the pony get to her. Meanwhile Lord Copper was frantically yelling into his radio while running after turning it on and contacting the one that was set up for Jarvis and Malthus. “Jarvis! Malthus! Are you there?! Answer me right now!” The buzzing voice of Jarvis came back through; “Boss? Is that-” “Shut up and let me speak!” Lord Copper instantly cut him off. “I don’t care what your situation is like, I need you to get to my secret escape tunnel and help me! That stupid pegasus is after me! We’ll leave through my tunnel and regroup, I can fix all of this, things will be fine, but she’s still chasing after me for now. If she catches up to me I’ll need you to take care of her!” “Y-Yes sir...” “I don’t need any hesitation! Just get to the tunnel and get to the exit! I won’t have the time to wait up for you, just follow on your own! Is that clear?!” “Crystal, sir. We’re on our way.” “Good, bring everypony with you. This pegasus is dangerous,” Lord Copper said and switched off his radio. Just in time to get tackled to the ground by that very pegasus. “Argh!” Lord Copper yelled as Rainbow Dash landed on top of him and knocked him to the street, almost getting him trampled by the horde of Oreville ponies. “Why you little-” Rainbow Dash put a hoof on the top of his head and pressed down to keep him pinned. “There’s no way I’m letting you get away so you can lie and get off the hook for this! You’re not going to ruin Oreville anymore! Barnaby would’ve wanted that, even after everything that’s happened, there might still be a chance for this city as long as you’re not in power.” “I-I’m the only chance Oreville has!” Lord Copper yelled. Right as he said that another stalactite fell from the ceiling and obliterated an apartment block on the street next to them. Rainbow Dash flatly stared down at him. “You were saying?” “Grr!” Lord Copper growled and tried to wriggle out from under her. “Seriously, just give up and let me take you to Lord Silver and Lord Gold. It’s over for you. And now I’ve got a way, way worse thing to somehow deal with too. You heard her back there. Honestly she’s probably the reason the whole section went into lockdown, I bet she did something really bad that Lord Silver found out about and then...” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Anyways, enough talk! I’ve got you again and-” This time it was Rainbow Dash who was tackled to the ground, by one of Lord Copper’s guards. She grunted in annoyance as the guard struggled to hold down her wings while they rolled around the cracked pavement in the street. At the same time most of the other guards were coming at her too. She managed to shoot out her powerful wings and throw his hooves off of her before headbutting him and kneeing him in the stomach to get him off her. Rainbow took a breath of air and stood up just to find herself surrounded again by Copper’s guards. “Excellent work! Keep her at bay!” Lord Copper said as he scrambled to his hooves and took off running again. “Just for long enough for me to get to my secret escape tunnel!” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the moron yelling about his “secret” escape tunnel before focusing her attention back on the guards. “You guys really want to do this again? Don’t you even care about what he’s done to your city?” “What’s an outsider’s opinion on Oreville worth?” A guard sporting a black eye said to her while glowering. “After what’s happened we’re done for if Lord Copper is brought to justice,” another said. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and let out a disgusted huff. “So selfishness is just the name of the game for you ponies, is it? Guess I should’ve figured that anypony who sided with him in the first place would be thinking that way.” She cracked her hooves and got ready to fight. “Excuse me, you’re in my way,” Heartless said to one of the guards on the outside of the circle and lightly touched his cheek. “Hrk!” His body seized up and his eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed dead onto the street in an instant. The other guards screamed in fright and backed away from her as Rainbow Dash paled. The two sides about to fight each other now practically formed a united front facing against Heartless. “W-What did she just do to Carmichael?!” One guard shouted. “He’s dead!” Another yelled, looking at the fallen guard’s face. Heartless just smiled. “And the rest of you will be too if you don’t get out of my way.” “Ahh!” One of the guards who had spoken to Rainbow Dash earlier ran away, melting into the crowd of ponies trying to get out of Copper Section. “Run!” Another decided that was the right idea and the rest followed him. So much for a united front. “Are you going to try and fly away like back at that place over the whirlpool?” Heartless asked Rainbow Dash. “There doesn’t seem to be an easy way for you to escape from me here. Even if you do try, I’ll catch you at this point.” Rainbow Dash backed away, her hoof nudged a rock that had fallen from the roof of the cavern. “I’m not the type to give up.” She kicked up the rock and smacked it with her wing straight at Heartless’s head. Most any other pony would’ve been knocked out, fallen down, their skull cracked and blood pouring down their face. Heartless took the blow like she took a weak punch or a tennis ball thrown at her. It was like she didn’t even feel the rock at all as her head slightly snapped back while the rock bounced off her onto the street. There was only the slightest discoloration on her forehead that quickly changed back to her normal pink as her body healed instantly. Heartless kept on smiling. “I like that about you.” “You don’t give up either...” Rainbow muttered. For every step Heartless took forward Rainbow Dash took one back. But she couldn’t just mirror the pony for long, time just wasn’t on her side. “I think I could’ve just grabbed you from behind when I made it here but the moment I really saw you I was just overwhelmed with joy. I had to say hello,” Heartless said. “Thanks for the courtesy.” “That’s all though. You’re so strong I get the feeling that even if I did wrap you up in a big hug you’d still fight so much longer than any other pony even as I drained every little ounce of life and warmth from you,” Heartless smiled. “Maybe you’d even get away. So what’s the problem with saying hi before that happens?” “I can’t even begin to tell you how messed up you are,” Rainbow Dash shook her head. A resounding crack shot through the mountain cavern—Heartless ignored it but Rainbow Dash briefly glanced up to see the tip of a great stalactite about to break off and fall to the street. Rainbow Dash bit her tongue and deftly started backing away and to the side. Heartless of course started to mimic her without a second thought. “You wouldn’t be the first to try,” Heartless giggled. “I still don’t really get any of it, and I stop paying attention when anypony starts lecturing me, or just kill them.” “That’s exactly what I mean. I wish I could lock you somewhere you’d never get out of so you could never hurt anypony again.” “Hurt, hurt, hurt. Ponies are just warm lights and I take those warm lights for myself, I don’t understand what you mean by hurting or what’s so wrong when they stop shining. It makes me feel good, how can it be bad?” Heartless said. “You know, everything you say makes me so mad I just want to fly at you and start pummeling you in the face, stupid as that would be.” Rainbow Dash said. “But unfortunately for you, I’ve got something else to do. I’ll see you later.” “What do you mean?” Rainbow didn’t answer as another crack thundered through the cavern and the end of the stalactite broke off, falling directly towards the two of them. Rainbow Dash jumped backwards and Heartless noticed the approaching shadow on the ground. “Hm?” She said right as the massive chunk of rock landed on her with enough force to obliterate most of the pavement on the street and shatter the rock itself, sending bits and pieces everywhere and even knocking over a few other nearby ponies. Rainbow coughed and stood up, looking at the devastated street and pile of rocks that was formerly a stalactite right where Heartless had been standing. And as much as she hated to think—she knew this wouldn’t keep Heartless down for long. Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue and turned around to fly off on the trail of Lord Copper. Secret escape tunnel? He had to have the entrance to it hidden somewhere back in his building. As she left, the pile of rocks started moving and a pink hoof knocked some of the rubble away to free itself… Lord Copper reached his administrative building only to see what a poor state it was in now. The front facade of the building was split in two and the glass doors had shattered completely, rubble sat everywhere while cracks spread from the bottom of the building to the top. To his dismay it looked like the entire top floor had even collapsed in on itself. But that didn’t matter now, as long as he was alive it was okay. This could all be fixed. He ran inside the lobby—the front desk was completely buried under another pile of rubble as part of the second floor had also seemingly collapsed on top of it. He paid it no mind and ran down a lopsided corridor, the lights were flickering in it and cracks ran across the walls and ceilings. As he passed a dark doorway he heard a pony’s voice call out from it: “H-Hey, help! Somepony help me!” “Shut up! Help yourself!” Lord Copper yelled and ran right by. Lord Copper knew exactly where he was going at least, drilling this escape route into his mind dozens of times just in case he ever actually needed it. He hated the fact that he did but it was sure paying dividends right now. A secret, fortified tunnel beneath his building that led to old abandoned mines and further tunnels that would take him south of the main Copper Section mountain and outside. It was a grave danger to use them right now, who knows if they were damaged or the tunnels still intact at all after the explosions and quakes, but if he could just lose that infernal pegasus and get to Gold Section it was okay. A problem though was that while he knew the route through the old mining tunnels in his head he had never actually gone all the way through them. That may cause issues in the future if something unexpected came up but Lord Copper wasn’t going to dwell on it for now. He reached the back of his building and the purposefully out of the way door to the basement. The door had been damaged by all the movement so he had to strain to yank it open but he was eventually able to pass through. A quick, and fairly unsafe, trot down the stairs brought him to a basement that was on the books used as storage for old records. And sure enough there were loads of filing cabinets down here, many of which had fallen over and spilled their contents onto the ground, making it a pain for Lord Copper to travel over them. “Stupid things!” He shouted, his voice echoing up out of the basement. At the back of the basement though were three doors placed along an indent in the wall. Two were unlocked and led to dusty supply closets. One was locked and no janitor, guard, or any other worker in this building had the key to it. Only Lord Copper did as he pulled the key from one of his pockets and opened up the door with a grin on his face. He flipped the light switch on on the other side and was rewarded with a steel-beam reinforced tunnel and staircase waiting for him. He was so exuberant and rushing that he didn’t even close the door behind him when he ran down the stairs. Reaching the bottom he emerged into the rocky interior of a mine that had been abandoned more than a century ago. Totally forgotten about, partially thanks to him expunging most of the records on it. Dust was everywhere and cracks and broken off pieces of rock that probably weren’t there before today decorated the mine, but none of the tunnels leading out of it had caved in. The lights going down the tunnel still worked as well thanks to them being part of a far newer electrical system he had set up when he refurbished this place for his own uses. They were connected to that first switch he had flipped when he opened the door. Lord Copper sighed in relief. “Finally things are looking up.” This part of the mine was rather large and the reason for it was plain to see when one looked at the side of it opposite the tunnels: dozens of old minecarts lay on several rows of tracks that ended here. This place used to either be some sort of depot or station for minecarts to be stored in. Lots of them still had rusty shovels, buckets, and pickaxes lying inside them. They were an older style but still basically the same as any modern minecart, with a lever at the front that when pulled either right or left could slightly steer it or when pulled towards the minecart activated the brakes. Each cart on the tracks also had wooden blocks placed in front of their wheels to keep them from sliding down the tracks on their own. “Time to get out of here,” Lord Copper said and looked at the four tunnels and tracks that left the depot. “Second to the left… that’s it.” He ran over to the first minecart on the second line and removed the wooden blocks, the wheels creaked quite a bit but a slight push from Lord Copper and a full turn later and they were good to go. With a happy grin he hopped right in and started riding it down the tracks to freedom. As soon as his cart reached the tunnel the tracks dipped slightly and he sped up. He’d be out of here in no time. Rainbow Dash flew like a rocket into Lord Copper’s building and hovered in the middle of his lobby. The place was wrecked and she seriously had no idea where he might’ve gone in here. If it was an escape tunnel then probably down somewhere but she didn’t know where the entry to the basement or whatever in this place was. “Tch. Come on, come on,” she flew around the lobby a bit, looking for hoofprints or any other clues. “Stupid things!” Rainbow Dash’s ears shot up as she heard his voice echo from deeper in the building. She grinned and flew down the hallway she was sure his shout came from. “H-Help!” Rainbow Dash halted in midair and backed up a few spaces, sure she heard another pony calling from help from a dark room along the hall. “Yo, somepony in there? Are you in trouble?” She floated into the room and reached along the wall looking for a light switch. When she finally managed to turn it on and illuminate the room she saw a destroyed office and a stallion lying underneath a fallen bookcase. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash flew down to him and started lifting the bookcase off of the unfortunate pony. “You’re gonna be alright!” “T-Thank you,” the stallion said. “I-I thought nopony was going to come for me...” “Nothing to worry about anymore, dude, just get to one of the emergency exits as fast as you can. You can still move, right?” She asked as she managed to lift the bookcase just enough for him to wriggle out from under it. The stallion nodded and pulled himself free. “Y-Yes, I just didn’t have the strength to get the bookcase off me on my own...” Rainbow Dash grunted and let the bookcase fall back down. “Whew… careful outside too okay?” She started to leave the room before pausing. “Oh! And if you see any creepy smiling pink mares, take my advice and go the other direction.” “Um… I will. Thank you,” the stallion smiled. Rainbow Dash grinned and saluted to him before zooming on out and following Lord Copper once more. She was pretty sure she could hear a noise like hooves clanging on metal, or something metal being moved, and she followed that far into the building until she reached a half open door. She had to drop down and squeeze past it but then got right back to flying down into the basement. Luckily now things were a lot easier for her, as she could spy a trail of pushed aside filing cabinets on the floor and an open door with a slight light emitting from it at the back of the large room. “Heh,” Rainbow Dash flew to the door and glided right down the small tunnel until she came out at the bottom, looking around at the mine and all the tunnels leading off to who knows where. She didn’t see her target just yet though. “Which one?” Rainbow Dash walked towards the tunnels and closed her eyes, turning her head to the side and focusing her ears on them. The small sound of a rolling minecart came back to her. Rainbow Dash looked at the second tunnel from the left and nodded. She didn’t need any minecart, flying would be faster. With a powerful flap of her wings she shot into the tunnel with enough force to kick up a storm of dust behind her. A few short minutes later and the exhausted group of Jarvis, Malthus, and the rest had all arrived at the minecart depot too after sprinting over here. “Well he definitely didn’t wait for us...” Malthus panted. He then glared at Jarvis. “And what did you bring that thing for anyways?” Jarvis moved the bomb on his back to make it a little more comfortable. “It could be useful and I’m not letting this thing out of my sight.” Malthus shook his head. “Whatever. Which tunnel?” Jarvis bit his lip. “Well?” Malthus asked. “I don’t know which one,” Jarvis answered. “Oh you cannot be serious right now!” “He never gave me any other details on this escape route of his, okay?!” Jarvis yelled back. “Forget it, let’s just choose one and go, everypony else can cover the other tunnels.” “Fine!” Malthus angrily said and walked over to the far-right track of carts. “You and me in this first minecart then.” Jarvis nodded and then looked at his subordinates and the few members of Malthus’s gang left. “The rest of you follow right behind us, make sure at least one of you covers each tunnel.” “Yes, sir!” His subordinates saluted. Jarvis and Malthus both got in their minecart together, with Jarvis carefully placing the bomb down and Malthus grabbing an old shovel just in case he needed it. Malthus knocked the wooden blocks away with the shovel and soon enough the two of them were on their way as well. The leftover guards then got into gear, preparing to separate into pairs and follow. Malthus’s gang ponies on the other hoof weren’t quite as enthusiastic. “Geez… we really doing this too after everything?” One of them said, all three of them closer by the stairs leading back up to the basement. A guard overheard him and glared over at the goons. “Yes, now—hey, who’s that behind you?” The thug who had spoken started to looked over his shoulder before a hoof touched the back of his head. Without even a gasp he fell dead to the ground. The other thugs backed away and the guards looked at the pink pony who had just appeared in shock. Heartless smiled back at all of them. “More ponies getting in the way of me and Rainbow Dash? Seems everywhere I go it’s like that.”