Chapter 64
Laughter filled the room as Scamp and Spark sat on either side of Liz as she flipped through one of the albums, recounting stories for each picture.
Mallogory however sat by herself, huffing loudly as they kept laughing and pointing at her.
“You really have always been a messy eater!” Scamp exclaimed as she saw a pic of a younger Mallogory covered in food.
“Yep yep,” was the only response she got from her wife, but she didn’t care as they moved to the next picture.
One of the tied up men let out a groan as he began to shift around.
“Finally!” Mallogory all but cheered as she jumped up, “one of our guests is awake, so drop the albums you three!”
Scamp became serious as she stood up and walked right up to the four tied up men, eye locked onto the one who’d woken up.
“Morning,” she said gruffly as she stared down at him. “I have a question for you.”
The man, looking very confused, wiggled around to face her, “what question?”
“Is this going to be a good time? Or a bad time?” She asked as she raised her mechanical claws, “because my daughter is missing and you gentlemen are apparently after her. And let me tell you, I’ve killed for less. So choose very wisely, buck-o.”
The man looked between her and the others, trying to figure out the best course of action.
“I… can’t tell you anything,” he said carefully, flinching as Scamp narrowed her eye at him. “I really can’t! I’m under contract!”
“Who cares?” She said as she stood on her hindlegs, stretching her legs out. “You work for a man named Rig Fanden?”
He didn’t respond to this, just stared at her with a scared expression.
“That’s a question I already know the answer to,” she came down before him, flicking out a claw as she raised an eyebrow at him. “Are we really going to have a bad time here?”
“Listen, I can not answer your questions, or I’ll die!” he begged, fighting against his restraints.
“I mean, you’re going to die if you don’t answer my questions, so,” she shrugged as she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him up to her face, “last attempt at being nice; why are you after Shayla Beltosh?”
Still he did not speak so she reached up and grabbed his throat, slowly digging her claws into his neck, “alright, I’ll ask one of the others then.”
His eyes began to bulge as he realized she wasn’t bluffing, causing him to panic.
“Okay!” he coughed out, causing her to let go of him. The man collapsed to the ground, coughing and gagging as he tried to get air through his damaged airway.
“Why are you after Shayla Beltosh?!” Scamp yelled, standing above him with such intensity that he tried to scoot away from her.
“Because she broke the bosses con-” he was cut off as a shadow flew across the floor and entered him, causing his eyes to go wide. “No no no no no no no NO!”
Before anyone could process what was happening, the man's head exploded, spraying gore everywhere, and completely coating Scamp’s chest and face.
“... what the fuck just happened?” Scamp asked in complete confusion as she stood covered in the remains of the man's head.
“What happened is he broke Rig Fanden’s contract,” another man said, this one being the much larger man who had appeared to be the leader.
Scamp turned her gaze to him as he pushed himself up with a grunt.
“None of these idiots can even talk about him to people outside the organization, let alone tell his business,” he said as he looked at the stumps where his hands used to be.
“But can you talk about all this?” she asked, stepping up to him.
“Yeah, I can,” he growled, meeting her gaze, “I’m his brother after all.”
“Well then,” Scamp replied as she glanced back at her companions and parents in law, “guess that makes you pretty important, huh?”
“You could say that,” he grunted.
“Are you going to cooperate? Or are we going to have to get to know each other first?” she cracked her neck to put emphasis on that last part.
“Will you let me and my guys go?” he asked.
“If you answer all my questions, I will,” she promised as she squared up with him. “Now, why are you after Shayla Beltosh?”
He let out a deep sigh as he turned his body to fully face her, “she made a contract with Rig, and was sent to that tournament up on that floating island to win the favor for him. Well she fucked up and failed, which set him off. Then she made things worse by somehow cutting the contract she and another woman had with Rig. He did not notice till this morning, so he’s scrambling to find them.”
“Explain this contract business,” she demanded, glancing at the dead man.
“Rig has a Thorn that allows him to make contracts with others, and it pretty much insures they do what he wants, since it does that if they break it,” he answered as he nodded his head at the body. “Only he can break a contract, or at least he thought so.”
“Where is Shayla now?”
“If I knew that we wouldn’t have been here, now would we?” he said with a bit of snark to his voice. They held each other's gaze as Scamp’s eye narrowed slowly. “Look,” he continued, “my task was to just wait here in case she came here before going to the Social District.”
“So you do know where she is going,” Scamp stated, causing him to sigh.
“She came to Rig a few days ago to ask for a way to get into the Social District, so that’s where we’re assuming she’ll go. Some other guys checked her friend's apartment this morning, but they weren’t there. So if you just gotta know, she’s going to the Social District, we just don’t know how she’ll get in.”
Scamp rubbed her chin, thinking about what he’d said, “how many others are out there looking for her?”
“How many of us? Or how many people in general?” he asked, a smirk on his face.
“Let’s start with how many of you,” she said sternly.
“Yeah, I reckon at least five teams, all the same size as the one I had here,” he said coolly, smiling at her.
“And the others?”
“Oh now that’s the fun part,” he laughed, adjusting himself as he got onto his knees, “I know for a fact the Cakehurst are looking for her and her friends. Don’t know why though. And then there’s the bounty hunters they’ve hired, so that’s already a pretty big group.” He grunted as he rotated his body to face her again, “there’s also a new group, some out of towners. I don’t know much about them, but Rig has been keeping tabs on them.”
“Great, our daughter’s made some friends, it seems,” Mallogory commented from behind Scamp.
“Last question; where is this Rig Fanden?”
He just laughed, “and that’s the only thing I can’t do. I’m under contract, and the only thing I’m not allowed to do is tell people where our base is. Of course, it’s hard to miss if you know where to look, but I can’t even give that.”
“But you have a work around to that, don’t you?” she asked as she saw a twinkle in his eyes.
“If you agree right now that you’ll let us go, I’ll tell you,” he said with a sly grin.
“Tell me,” she said simply as she gave a single nod.
“Some guys are going to come by later today to check up on us. If you play your cards right, they’ll take you right to Rig,” he said with a confident smile.
“Good to know, now sit down,” she said as she shoved him backwards.
“I do believe you promised to let us go,” he pressed, causing her to shrug.
“Yeah, I will. I just didn’t say when,” she said with a wink.
This caused him to frown, “you and my brother are alike in that regard…”
“Why are we apparently tracking down this Rig Fanden?” Mallogory asked as Scamp walked back over to them.
“Simple,” she said as she plopped down on the couch. “Anyone who goes after our daughter gets fucked, one way or another.”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Everyone is staring at me…” Vanilla mumbled as we all walked down the street, with myself and Domitor standing on the outsides of the group, with Floria and Vanilla between us. “They know who I am…”
“Nah, they’re looking at you because you look like a street rat,” Floria laughed, walking like she owned the place. “Aren’t I amazing at making disguises?”
Vanilla just squeezed Creampuff tighter to herself as she kept right next to Floria, looking extremely nervous.
Floria took notice of this and rolled her eyes, “seriously, it’s okay, Vanilla. No one knows it's you.”
This brought a smile to her face as she relaxed slightly.
We continued down the street, following Vanilla’s directions as we went. Our destination was supposedly a club that offered all kinds of special services, and apparently one of those services would allow us to enter Denmor without having to go through a checkpoint.
Only one problem; money.
Vanilla did not carry that much on her, due to her sister's gay rules, and none of us had any money either. But Floria said she had it covered, whatever that means.
So this all hinged on whatever Floria had in mind. Great.
“When we get there,” Vanilla started, talking quietly, “do not act rude, and do not get aggressive with anyone. This is not your typical club. It is a High Roller’s Club, for only the elites of our society. You need a password to enter.”
“I’m assuming you know this password?” I asked quietly.
“Of course,” she confirmed, smiling proudly. “Ut bene sit nobis.”
“The fuck does that mean?”
“It means; May we prosper,” she answered, causing Floria to groan.
“I can’t say that shit, it's too fancy,” she said as she tried to say the phrase, but failed each time. “Yeah, the words don’t want to form.”
“Just act like you’re too important to say that shit and have your lovely assistant do it,” I offered, causing Floria to smirk.
“Great idea!”
“Wonderful,” Vanilla muttered, shaking her head as we continued our march down the street.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“This is a bad idea, I’m just saying,” Nightstreak commented as he peered out the window of the destroyed building, watching the building across the street. “You two being here with me makes this so much more dangerous.”
“Say’s the guy who got spotted by that mare,” Louie remarked as he lounged on a makeshift chair, arms behind his head. “Besides, this is a great idea.”
“You were against it earlier,” Nightstreak replied as he looked over his shoulder.
“Yep, but now that I’m on board, I’m backing this mission fully. We’ve got this!” Louie exclaimed, thrusting a fist into the air above himself. “Besides, we’ve got Nova with us, so this’ll go off without a hitch.”
“Hmm,” Nova shifted in her seat, checking over her PDA. “Let’s just focus on the mission at hand, shall we boys?”
“Can do, Nova,” Louie saluted as he resumed his lounging.
Nightstreak sighed as he went back to looking out the window. While their current mission was pretty simple, it was actually one of the most important.
On the day Champion made his move, killing the Princesses and who knows how many other people, there were a few ponies who had seen one of his vile acts. Yet they all disappeared the moment they tried to tell anyone in power.
Of course, they all knew these ponies were likely dead. But this witness they were currently trying to pursue had seen something especially heinous. This person had tried to tell the media, but they were shunned away, and somehow they’ve avoided being taken by the Inquisitors or Champion’s Apostles; the mock name the Bronies had given his demon powered little buddies.
It was extremely lucky Champion himself wasn’t out here looking for them, otherwise they’d have died long before now. Thankfully, Champion himself was too busy playing King, running around the world trying to enforce his will the ‘correct way’. Which went against what they knew of him, but he must be keeping up appearances, as he could easily take over any country he wanted with his Ego. So for him to be playing the diplomacy game was… strange.
Movement across the street got Nightstreak’s attention. As he looked closer he saw a mare step out of one of the destroyed buildings, looking around nervously.
“Is this them?” he asked, causing Nova to rush over with her PDA.
She held it up, comparing a grainy picture to the mare currently walking down the street carefully.
“It is highly probable,” she said as she gave a nod of her head. “Let’s confront her.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Nightstreak exclaimed as he rushed outside and ran towards the mare, scaring her instantly.
“Whoa whoa whoa! I’m on your side!” he yelled as she started to run away.
Nova teleported near her, holding up a hoof, “do not be alarmed. Are you Ms. Sprinkle Toppings?”
The mare stopped, eyes wide as she took in the regal Alicorn before her.
“Princess Nova?!” she yelped, bowing immediately.
“Shhh, no need for that,” Nightstreak hissed, looking around for any onlookers.
The mare slowly stood up, staring up at Nova, “Um.. yes, that is my name. Why?”
“We want to take you somewhere safe so we can hear your story,” Nova said, holding a hoof out. “It is okay now, you are safe.”
Sprinkle Toppings let out a sigh of relief as she reached out and took Nova’s hoof. “Thank you, Princess! Your brother… he…” she looked pained as Louie and Nightstreak moved towards them so they could be teleported. “... He killed a bunch of people and then he… took advantage of… that poor mare.”
This caused Nova’s eye to twitch, as this was news to her. The killings, yes, she knew of those. But this other statement…
“Which mare?” Nova asked as a dark look befell her face.
“I don’t know her name, but it’s the mare that is his Queen now…” she muttered, looking at the ground. “He used some kind of-”
“We need to go, now,” Louie said firmly, catching movement down the street.
Nova gave a nod as everyone grabbed hold of her. Her horn sparked a few times, causing her eyes to go wide.
“Oh no,” she said as Louie’s ears perked up.
“Inquisitors!” he roared as he raised his foot and kicked Nova away, just as a bolt of magic flashed through the area she’d just been standing.
He dodged a few more bolts that flew at him from multiple angles, while the others collected themselves and began to do the same.
This was exactly what they’d hoped to avoid.