“Keep to the left.” Daring Do pointed a hoof at the highway ahead. She leaned forward, blocking the right road from Twilight Velvet’s peripheral vision. Velvet's hoof jarred as she downshifted, the jeep's transmission buzzing as she slid back into second gear. Tires skidded in the dirt before biting down again, wrenching the occupants as the jeep veered left of a fork. The flame fougasse behind her clanged and hummed, and its flammable mixture sloshed in sync with each turn of the steering wheel.
A light drizzle set the stage, and Velvet had a front row seat. As much as Velvet tried to keep her gaze centered down the middle of the road, her eyes kept wandering to the edges where the bodies were, their moldering forms marked with fading stains of red. The walls of the buildings flanking the road were dappled with bullet holes and burn marks. A couple were nothing more than mounds of rubble. Velvet swallowed a lump in her throat. When she signed up to be a science journalist, she didn’t think it came with the side hustle of being a war correspondent.
“You know, uh… When Haribon said this part of Durio City was deserted, he wasn’t kidding.” Daring forced a smile as she put a hoof to her chin. “Still, I wonder why the insurgents or mercs would just…abandon their territory to the crows?
Velvet gave no reply. Daring watched her for a few moments before slumping backwards.
“Uh…you thought of a name for this baby yet?” Daring patted the side of the jeep with her hoof. “Hm, how about ‘Allan?’” She looked back and flapped her wings a couple of times to lift herself up to get a better view behind the seats. “Think I should’ve stuffed your rainbow eucalyptus branches into the toolbox instead of just letting them sit under Allan’s back seats?”
Daring only got a huff. Velvet stayed hunched over the steering wheel.
“I see how it is…” Daring looked away and rested her head on a hoof.
Velvet glued her eyes to the road and eased off the gas pedal, brows furrowing closer together. Her lip quivered, and she blinked a couple of times. The matte gray cloud cover over their heads hadn't abated since yesterday, and neither had the one inside Velvet’s own.
There was an intersection up ahead, still quite some distance away. Velvet scoped the three roads ahead. Left led to a forest—that was a no-go.
If she kept straight, they’d be heading down through more of the same: a deserted highway that eventually disappeared behind a wrecked building.
The last road made Velvet lean forward. Her ears perked up. That radio tower near the road…did one of its beacons flash?
A splash of green blinked at the top. Velvet trained her gaze on the structure. It’d be a long shot, working with an obsolete, rusting pile of scraps, and Haribon did say last night that all comms towers were out…but anything for Night Light. Surely, he’d be able to say something to calm her troubled mind…or his. Besides, what did Haribon know about electronics? He wasn’t an engineer or anything—just a politician, and those folk were completely, honestly, totally 100% trustworthy.
But first, an alibi. Daring wouldn’t stop for a conversation that she wouldn’t be able to see the end of, but maybe she would stop for something shorter…
“I’m gonna go take a piss,” declared Velvet, not even turning to look at Daring.
At the corner of her Velvet’s vision, Daring raised an eyebrow. “I told you to go before leaving Waling-Waling’s place.”
“You’re not my fucking keeper, Daring.” Velvet’s ears twitched as she fidgeted in her seat, a tinge of venom in her voice.
“All right, all right. I guess there’s no rush.” Daring rolled her eyes, then straightened herself in her seat. “Volt’s goons don’t have any way of knowing where the Spectrum is after all.”
The jeep sputtered to a crawl before finally stopping next to a concrete wall riddled with bullet holes. “I’ll keep watch.” Daring whipped a pistol out. “This is usually the part when somepony tries to get the jump on us.”
After Velvet exited the jeep and her hooves touched gravel, she turned to the wall. One half had been blown clean off, the blackened, exposed rebar blocking part of Velvet’s view of the radio tower. It wasn’t far—just a short gallop down a dirt path flanked by a few shrubs. The light at the top of the tower sent a glimmer in Velvet’s once dulled eyes. Daring blew a tuft of her mane, still scoping the other side of the road.
Legs tingling, Velvet trotted behind the wall, then focused at the base of the tower at the end of the dirt path. She didn’t need to go now—in both senses of the word—but two days since she’d last talked to her fiance had turned to…what, four? Five? At the very least, she wanted to hear his voice again.
A cool wind rustled the shrubs alongside the dirt path and sprinkled drops of drizzle on Velvet’s fur, making it stand on end. She sucked in a breath. Daring wouldn’t be looking away forever. Time to make her move.
The howling wind and rustling reeds drowned out Velvet’s gallop. She looked back; Daring hadn’t swiveled her head to her direction. So far so good…for now. Everything around Velvet—the other buildings, the chain-link fence, and its open gate—blurred and faded into the wayside. All that mattered was the tower and the open door that hopefully led to the control room.
Upon stepping on the cracked, moldy concrete floor, Velvet’s hoof slipped from under her. After getting her bearings and slowing to a trot, Velvet approached a console. She sweeped a dusty piece of tarp off with her hoof, her snorts and coughs overpowering the dripping of rainwater just beside her. “AetherLab Model 600—this crap’s older than Inkwell…” she muttered to herself while flicking a few buttons and tapping a microphone on the console.
Nothing. Velvet pounded her hoof on the console and seethed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
There was a fuse box a few feet away to the left. Velvet leaped towards it and yanked it open. After she skimmed through the fuses with her eyes, magenta magic—infused with brilliant blue, crackling arcs—streamed from her horn and into the fuses on the box. As each aetheric wisp slithered into each fuse, they sent a familiar buzz to Velvet’s brain—all of them except…
“There!” She zeroed in on a fuse at the lower right: the one that failed her aetheric current check. Shouldn’t take too long to replace…
Her magic twisted out the offending fuse, followed by another fuse labeled “BATHROOM” in marker. “No, I don’t actually have to go…” Velvet muttered. “....but you do, pal.” After switching out the broken fuse with the working one, Velvet narrowed her eyes at the main switch and puffed out a breath. It would be good to hear his voice again…
…hopefully.
Cerise magic tugged the switch from right to left. Something hummed, and a red light flashed in the console.
Something snapped. Velvet jumped. A second snap—magenta arcs flew from wires coursing out of the fuse box and into the console. The light on the console continued to flash. Velvet staggered back as more magenta arcs sputtered out—this time, from the console itself. Crap! No no no no no—”
The crescendo was brief.
The console exploded. The room shook. Velvet shielded her eyes and folded her ears. Trembling breaths she didn’t realize she was holding escaped her mouth.
When she could finally open her eyes again, thick white smoke swirled around the room. Apart from a few white sparks sputtering from the dying console, Velvet couldn’t even see her hoof in front of her face. Her chest heaved, and she gasped for breaths under the all-too-familiar suffocating odor of burning electronics. “That…I thought this was what I needed to do!” Velvet cried out.
Where did she mess up? Maybe the fuses in the carton were bad? Maybe she didn’t plant that fuse in properly? Or maybe Haribon was right all along, and the tower was beyond saving? Velvet croaked and rubbed her neck.
A scratchy voice pierced through the smoke before Velvet could answer her own questions. “Vel? Vel, you in here?! I didn’t see where you went. What is—”
Daring’s silhouette landed on the floor. After fanning the fumes away with her wings, Daring darted her head across the room: first at the fuse box, then the smoking console, and finally, the guilty party.
“Oh, Celestia, what did you just do?!”
Several breathy, wordless stutters dotted Velvet’s speech. “I tried to let him know… I’m sorry, Daring! I had to try… I-I-I didn’t think—”
“Yeah.” Daring clicked her teeth. She trudged over to Velvet and jabbed a hoof in her chest. “You didn’t.”
The sound of crunching gravel seeped in from outside. Hoofsteps…
“What was that?!” a stallion’s voice called out.
“Na’ay nagbuto didto!” replied a mare’s voice.
“Tell the others to come out and regroup on me!”
“Party crashers,” Daring snarled. She pushed Velvet’s head down behind the smoking console and joined her, training her pistol on the entrance.
Just outside the door, two silhouettes danced at the far corner of Velvet’s vision. She cowered behind Daring as the golden guardian angel crept to the side. Squinting through the smoke, her rosy eyes narrowed at the door. Daring’s muscles coiled like a steel spring, ready to leap into action to rain death down on their foes.
Velvet took in a shaky breath. She blew their cover. All they could do now was go down fighting.
A rumbling, otherworldly hum beamed from above. Daring and Velvet looked up. A swirling disk of a blackish void—large enough to fit a foreleg through—gobbled the light around itself. Both ponies stepped back. Of all times, why did the rematch have to begin now?
Daring and Velvet traced the path of something falling out of the portal and rolling to their hooves. They only had time to blink.
The object hissed. Dark violet mist flushed out the top of the grenade. Both ponies flinched, hacking and coughing. “H-h-hold your breath!” Daring gasped out.
Velvet gagged. Her chest felt cold, and her eyelids grew heavy. Her knees gave out from under her. Daring’s warning had come too late.
Velvet’s eyes fluttered. Impulses from her brain stopping just short of reaching her muscles. As the gas swirled into her nostrils, it flicked switches off in her mind.
It beckoned…no, commanded her to sleep.
A gunshot echoed through the room. Further away, Daring narrowed her eyes down the sights of her pistol and gritted her teeth. She pulled the trigger once more, a bright yellow glare and a boom once again surging through the room.
But she couldn’t hold on forever. Her front hooves trembled, and the grip on her gun slackened.
The pistol fell with a clatter. Daring’s head hit with a painful thwack.
Now everything, not just Velvet’s peripheral vision, was blurry. Two ponies in combat fatigues and gas masks strolled inside, submachine guns hanging from straps on their chests. As Daring crawled towards her fallen pistol, the first masked merc kicked the gun away…then kicked Daring in the head. The mercenary’s blue goggles were no surprise to Velvet: the memory of her first encounter with Nightshade was cauterized into her brain. Plus, nopony else in the crew probably knew that black magic bull.
The second pony, though… feeble alarm bells rang in Velvet’s brain. She hadn’t seen her for…what, four years? Four days? Even time itself congealed into a sludgy mass. Still, if the brick-red braid-and-bun combo wasn’t enough to clue Velvet in, the glare the orange earth pony gave to Daring…then her…sent a cold shock down Velvet’s spine.
Terra Alessandra Volt faced Nightshade and nudged her head to the direction of the door. After Nightshade gave her superior a nod, Volt bent down, scooped Daring over her back, and carried her out the door. As Velvet’s eyes rolled up to her head, Nightshade craned her neck down and gave Velvet her own take of Volt’s cold gaze.
“How’s it feel?”
This wasn’t like the movies.
Twilight Velvet’s return to the waking world was a painfully sluggish crawl. She couldn’t speak. She could barely think. Her limbs hung limp. All she could move were her eyelids and neck, and even then, it was barely more than a twitch.
The only switches that seemed to be flicked back on were her senses. She could feel herself being carried over somepony’s back. Dirty, chipped tiles slid across her vision, while a deluge of echoing yells battered her frail ears. Velvet’s eyeballs ached and protested when she strained to turn them upwards to the sources of the sound.
Dirty tiles were soon joined by dirty walls…and rancid odors.
Behind several bars, a filthy, ragged earth pony gasped for breath. Blood trickled from his scalp, the wound concealed only by the matted, twisted locks of his mane. two insurgents, armed with thick bamboo shafts, surrounded him and mumbled among themselves, while a mercenary—at least, if the green camouflage was anything to go by—tightened the bonds behind the prisoner’s back.
The mercenary stood, gave the insurgents a single nod, then leaned on the wall nearby, wiping his bloodied hoof on his fatigues as he watched the insurgents raise their weapons. Velvet’s captor took a left, and the prisoner disappeared behind a corner. A scream ricocheted off the walls and pierced Velvet’s eardrums. A dizzying, nauseating pit lodged itself in Velvet’s chest.
“No word from Phalanx Two yet?” said a mare’s voice. It traveled down the back of the pony carrying Velvet and vibrated into Velvet’s chest.
“Not just them. Phalanx One and the insurgents under them have been radio silent since last night,” another mare’s voice replied. This one seemed a few feet farther.
“You don’t think anything happened to them, do you?”
“Axehead’s from Volt’s best. One fedora-wearing earth pony doesn’t stand a chance against her, let alone the other Phalanx teams plus the insurgents.”
“Mmh, we all said the same about Daring Do. And it wasn’t a fedora; it was a…forget it. Just help me get this disruptor on the gray one, will ya?”
Velvet’s eyelids fluttered. She let out a single moan, and everything around her started to blur again. Thoughts coalesced into an incoherent sludge. Whatever knockout gas was left in her bloodstream wasn’t going to let her wrest control away so easily. The last thing she saw was a pony-shaped blob reaching her hooves out to touch her horn. One thought sparked in Velvet’s mind before she re-entered the darkness.
Some thrill ride this is turning out to be.
Blinding flashes, ear-piercing buzzes, and the sensation of a hundred knives stabbing her muscles heralded Twilight Velvet’s second, more sudden return. Her scream bounced around the walls and terminated in a hoarse croak.
The pain and buzzing left as suddenly as they came. Faint blue electric arcs twisted over her fur before disappearing into the aether. Still, a lingering tinnitus caused her to wince, and though she could move again, small coils of rope strapped her forelegs to a wooden chair, as did a larger rope wrapped around her barrel. It dug into her jacket—and her bare fur—with every heaving breath.
Out—she needed out.
Velvet grunted and gritted her teeth, but her horn felt numb. The nerves at her forehead would tingle, but on her horn itself? Nothing came out—not even a spark. Velvet whimpered. It was one thing to try on a Type 4 Cornual Aetheric Disruptor by herself in an expo, but to say that this time was different would be putting things mildly.
A cool, circular…thing then pushed Velvet’s head upward. She traced the cold metal touching her chin to the orange hoof wielding it and finally…to the icy blue eyes of its wielder. Velvet trembled, and her eyes stung from the tears welling up inside them.
“You’re lucky.” Volt’s hoof twitched too close for comfort at a switch on her stun baton. One of the three mercenaries behind Volt—a blue unicorn mare wearing a boonie hat—gave Velvet a frown before walking away toward the cell bars. “This isn’t some terrible fiction where you two go on an adventure, beat the baddies and go home heroes,” snarled Volt. “You two should’ve been dead by now.” She spat on Velvet’s face.
Somepony stirred at Velvet’s left. About half a yard away, Daring Do coughed, blood splattering on the floor. The light shining through a small window to Daring’s left illuminated the fresh red stain. “W-with the crew you're running?” Daring narrowed her eyes at Volt. “What did you expect?”
Volt neither moved her head nor shifted her facial expression. She simply eyed Daring. “That’s not quite what I meant.” With a nod from Volt, the insurgent beside Daring stepped forward with a grin.
A wet thwack, then a scream coming from her left, bounced around the walls of the cell and rattled Velvet’s ears. Blood trickled from the bamboo stick held in the insurgent’s hoof. Daring, like Velvet, hung her head and gasped for breath. Unlike Velvet, though, Daring still found it within herself to glare at the insurgent with an acidic frown.
A slap from Volt’s hoof twisted Velvet’s face away from Daring and back to the mercenary in front of her. As stinging pain spread across Velvet’s cheek, Volt once again locked eyes on her prey. “Don’t waste energy worrying about your friend. You better start worrying about yourself. Since you have a bigger mouth than Miss Piss Fur over there, let’s make it useful, shall we?” she said as her stun baton pressed on the underside of Velvet’s jaw. “Where is the Spectrum of Lightning?”
“Uh…w-well…I left it in my other jacket…”
Without needing a command, Daring’s head was introduced to the floor with gusto. Velvet’s chest froze. Her lip quivered, and she hung her head. Glimmer-less irises, blurred from the tears welling up on her eyes, turned to her mentor. Daring was looking at her through blood and tears.
“Don’t look to her!” Volt growled, slapping Velvet again. “Eyes on me!”
Daring coughed, mouthing a few words of encouragement. “Easy, Vel. Keep your trap shut. I got this.”
Velvet blew off a defeated breath; even if she wanted to spill the beans, Rapids’ death had long since strapped a muzzle over her big mouth.
“Hm, wrong question, I guess.” Volt lowered her baton and flicked the switch. Crackling yellow arcs swarmed around the coils. Although none made contact with Velvet’s skin, her ears folded back and her fur stood on end. While Velvet gritted her teeth and nearly closed her eyes, Volt’s stare had not changed. “Let’s start with something easier. Where’s Indra’s Bow?”
“I pawned it off to pay for salt licks.”
Click.
Volt’s hoof barely moved an inch. The room flashed and strobed. Stinging pain and an assault of buzzes returned to Velvet’s world. Velvet’s shriek bounced around the walls, rattling her own ears.
When Volt flicked her baton off, Velvet shivered. Tears dripped from her face, forming a puddle on the floor.
Volt jabbed her baton upwards. She leaned closer to Velvet and narrowed her eyes. “Listen, Sweetheart, I wouldn’t have kept you alive this long if you didn’t know where the Bow was. Let’s try this again.”
Velvet’s mouth opened…but instead of words, there were only wavering breaths. At the corner of her vision, Daring narrowed her eyes at Velvet and shook her head, tightening Velvet’s muzzle. Not that Velvet needed any help. What could she say anyway? Witty comebacks, false leads, a simple “screw you”—nothing of that sort could form in her mind, much less make its way from her brain and out her mouth.
Volt growled, then leaned back on the chair. “You think I’m just doing this because it turns me on? You think I didn’t try the easy way?” She fished for something in the chest pockets of her green fatigues. Velvet’s eyes narrowed at Volt’s hoof, then widened.
“Ngrh…hey!” Velvet grunted and squirmed as Volt held onto two wrinkled, brown books. “That’s mine!”
Volt didn’t even acknowledge the protest. Her icy blue eyes cut through each line in Velvet’s journal—and into Velvet’s palpitating heart. Her hooves tingled when Volt turned the pages. The mercs now knew where she worked, where she lived…and whom she loved. Even if Night Light welcomed her back, she would spend the rest of her days looking over her shoulder.
Her life as she knew it was over.
Volt interrupted the silence by clicking her teeth. “And Slam Fire once said I have trust issues,” she mumbled to herself before snapping the journal shut in her hooves, then locking eyes with Daring. “What’s Uncle Ad going to say when he finds out you led another young pony to her death—this time, searching for an artifact he explicitly told you not to hunt down?”
Daring’s ears folded backward. “I wouldn’t be hunting it down if you and your goons weren’t planning to use it to raze entire cities. Pretty sure he’d understand.”
For a few short moments, Daring glanced at Velvet. The weight in Velvet’s chest seemed to lighten, if only slightly.
“As for Vel—” Daring bit her lip and tried to lean forward to Volt, even though the ropes held her back “—she asked to come.”
Volt rested her head on her hooves and nodded. “Don’t they all? I’m sure you didn’t manipulate her in any way. Still doesn’t change the fact that you said ‘yes’—especially after Abyssinia.”
Daring’s ears stood up. She snarled. Her binds creaked with every jerk. “You…you shut up about Abyssinia or—”
Another thwack. Daring’s words dissolved into an agonized scream. It almost drowned out Volt’s sigh as she pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows at the journals on her hooves. “If either of your diaries could give me more info than just ‘Oo-Ya-Ngoh…’ wherever that is," continued Volt, "I wouldn’t have bothered with this shit. I would’ve just…you know. But here we are…”
The boonie hat mercenary turned to face Velvet once Volt trailed off. The sneer that had replaced her earlier frown caused a stabbing pain to radiate into Velvet’s chest. Volt glanced up at her before returning to her prey.
“Well, let’s just say there’s a long line of ponies who want to avenge Fuze, Ivory, Miles, and all the rest.”
“Don’t listen to her, alright?” Daring’s whisper was rewarded by another strike from the insurgent’s bamboo stick. A speck of blood splashed onto Velvet’s jacket. Meanwhile, Volt clicked her teeth, then chucked the journal over Velvet’s head. Velvet traced the path to a pile of equipment at the far side of the room. The journal burrowed itself beside Velvet’s saddlebags. So close…yet so far.
“Let’s get back on track, though.” Volt flicked her baton on again and leaned forward; its sparking, crackling tip drifted ever closer to Velvet’s thigh. A bead of sweat dripped from the tip of her snout onto the grimy floor.
The stinging pain tore through her body. The whole world pulsed white and yellow. Velvet recoiled backward, her scream rattling her own eardrums.
After Volt pulled the business end of her baton out of Velvet’s thigh, fresh yellow sparks—much brighter than before—snaked across Velvet’s fur. One illuminated a darkened patch of skin, the singed hairs giving off a nose-wrinkling odor. The spark burrowed into the burned flesh before dissipating into the aether. Stabbing, stinging pain shot up her leg, but Velvet could only let out a scratchy whimper. Sweat, now mixed with blood, once again dripped onto a rusty brown puddle on the floor.
Velvet looked left. Despite the blood staining her mane, Daring was still groaning and glaring at the insurgent beside her. Where was her brilliant plan to get the two of them out?
Volt faced Velvet and opened her mouth, but a mercenary with a rather frazzled mane trotted into the cell and tapped Volt on the shoulder. After gesturing to the three guards at the entrance of the cell, Volt got up from her chair and talked to Frazzled Mane. The tinnitus drowned out most of their conversation—something about missing guards in the east district—but the echoing screams of other captives somehow powered through into her ears.
“Hunong! Palihug hunong!” a stallion’s voice choked out, before giving way to blubbering.
“Wala mi nagbuhat nga sayop!” a mare’s voice snarled. The now-familiar whack of a bamboo stick cut off her next words.
Each cry pounded on Velvet’s brain like a broken drum. Some of them were probably survivors from yesterday’s flame tank ambush. Or maybe they’d been held here for Celestia-knows-how-long. In either case, the guards beside Volt didn’t even twitch their ears. One even leaned on the bars, straightening the thermal goggles on her helmet before levitating a file across her hoof.
Velvet shook her head. She and Daring threw themselves into the fire, but all those displaced and dead civilians—they didn’t sign up for this. She lifted her head to face her captors.
“W-why are you doing this?! What did these ponies and mousedeer and…and whatever do to you or the insurgents bankrolling you? They don’t even know where the Spectrum is! Was it to…to protect your investment?!” Velvet paused for a moment, panting several times. “Nopony should have to die for a bunch of bits!”
All eyes turned to Velvet. Volt spun around. She raised one eyebrow. Her hooves shuffled on the tiles before she trudged toward Velvet. As Velvet trembled in her seat, flinging a drop of sweat and blood a few inches off the rusty puddle.
“Twi?” Daring whispered.
Velvet slowly pivoted her still-trembling head to Daring’s direction.
“Twilight Velvet, what are you doing?! I told you to shut up!”
Velvet gagged. Volt jabbed a hoof into her neck.
The chair creaked. Velvet’s world toppled backwards.
Dull pain surged from the back of her skull as she kept her teeth gritted. When Velvet opened her eyes, she found herself staring at the ceiling. Blood trickled from Velvet’s nose and down the side of her face, sending a shudder through her skin.
“Don’t patronize me!” Volt growled, looming over Velvet’s downed form as her hoof pushed against Velvet’s windpipe. “Since when did you care about who gets hurt here?! Since when did you care about Cutter? Or Ivory? Or Birdshot? Hell, how am I supposed to tell Fuze’s colts that their father isn’t coming back?!”
Velvet’s only reply was a gagging sound.
Volt spat, her hoof suddenly doubling its pressure. The smile she displayed was not kind. “Who am I kidding? You probably don’t even remember anypony named Fuze.” The hoof on Velvet’s neck trembled before it finally released, allowing Velvet to gulp sweet oxygen. The fire in Volt’s eyes only seemed to blaze brighter. “‘Nopony has to die for a bunch of bits?’ At least I don’t kill for fun like you and your friend!”
Faces flashed before Velvet's eyes—the merc on the train, screaming in agony as electricity surged through her body, the frozen scream of a stallion that had been turned to stone by her makeshift fulgurite grenade, the gurgling and choking of Grigory’s earth pony mate after she’d dropped onto him and crushed his spinal cord.
Then a conversation from long ago echoed in her ears like a taunt.
“That was amazing! Just…holy crap!”
“Dude, quit smiling like that. You look like you're going to cut somepony up with a chainsaw.”
“Ooh, I can't wait to do that! You've done it before?”
“You're not right in the head.”
“Never was!”
Velvet's vision swam with tears. Bile rushed up her throat, and before she could even try to suppress it, she turned and vomited onto the concrete floor, tears blending with a testament to her own self-disgust.
Volt snorted. “Finally. We agree on something.”
“I...I'm s-sorry!” Velvet gagged out.
“Yeah, you're sorry now that you've got a gun to your head!”
Blinding pain. Velvet cried out, confused by her own voice until she realized she had been hit. Volt’s other hoof cocked back, ready for a follow-up.
“And as for your bleeding heart, what–” Volt scoffed. “Did you even know any Fillyppine ponies before you got a hold of Daring’s journal?”
Velvet’s lip quivered as she shook her head. Stinging pain surged from her cheekbone. Volt huffed and unleashed her second punch, this time to her gut. Spit and blood splattered on the floor beside Velvet’s mouth. “Don’t you dare give me this…this moralistic bullshit about descending from your Canterlot ivory tower to extend a hoof to some peasants in a banana republic you can’t even point to on a map! At least I don’t claim the moral high ground just to delude myself into thinking this ‘vacation’ was a good idea!”
“Hey!” Daring’s shout cut through the air, drawing Volt’s attention. “Leave her out of whatever game you’re playing! Vel, not a word, got it?—”
Volt nodded once, and the whacks from the bamboo stick once again echoed through the cell. As Volt continued to watch Daring suffer through the same song and dance, Velvet tried to speak, only to gag on a mixture of blood and saliva. She cleared her throat and tried again. “R-rapids…”
Volt jerked her head back. “What?”
Steeling herself, Velvet groaned and creased her eyebrows. “I…I cared for her…helped her to find peace in the end…”
Volt’s eyes widened.
Then she shook her head.
The quietest chuckle caused Velvet’s ears to fold back and her heart to sink. Volt loomed over her, a hoof lodging against her throat again. She leaned down—enough that Velvet could see the scars on her face.
“River Rapids loved working with me and my mares,” Volt cooed. “I gave her a home when her birth family first abandoned her. I didn’t make her join. Some of my mares would disagree, but I wouldn’t have even stopped her from leaving. You?”
Volt snorted. She leaned in even further, the fire in her eyes nailing Velvet to the floor, and sweetly whispered words that chained Velvet’s soul to Tartarus.
“You got her killed.”
With that, Volt pushed off and stood again, turning away in disgust. No further blows were struck, but Velvet would’ve preferred them now over this new pain she felt. Stabbing pain radiated from her chest to her ear tips and all the way down into her hooves. Her thrashing legs went limp. She hiccuped, whimpered, and sniffed, tears stinging her eyes. Even after Volt ordered the goggle-wearing merc to prop Velvet’s chair back upright, Velvet’s limbs hung from the sides, her neck drooping forwards in a slump.
“You don’t have a stake in this fight,” Volt said as she began to circle Velvet. “You never needed to be here. As far as I know, you’re just tagging along with Daring because adrenaline gets you wet. Rapids and you are cut from the same cloth. You could’ve joined her, you know…been part of our family—and instead you chose to destroy it.”
A single huff from the side cut Volt off. “Hell of a…a recruitment campaign…you’re pulling off now, eh?” Daring butted in.
Volt gave off a near-imperceptible hum before continuing “Not recruitment. Just giving your little protege some much needed hindsight.”
She planted a hoof at the bottom of Velvet’s chin and pivoted it upwards. Velvet sniffed. There was nothing to resist against Volt’s icy gaze.
“And hindsight is always twenty-twenty. You should’ve run back to your fiancé when you had the chance. You want to see him again, don’t you? Then give me what I want.”
Daring coughed, then scoffed. How was there still life in her eyes despite the blood seeping from her scalp? “Wh-wh-why would she?” She paused, gasping for a breath. “You just said you…you would’ve shot us in the head i-i-if you got…the intel you needed.”
Volt shrugged. “You’re right. I’m not going to let my mares pass up the opportunity for revenge. So let’s change the terms and conditions a bit.” She moved her head forward until her forehead touched Velvet’s, eliciting a whimper. “It’s too late for you, but not for him.”
Velvet’s ears perked up.
“Tell me where Indra’s Bow is, or even Haribon… and I won’t go after your ‘Nachtlicht.’ He won’t have to pay for your selfishness and idiocy.” Volt’s hoof slipped out from under Velvet’s chin, leaving her to hang her head once again.
Her internal storm ravaged through her mind and silenced the shouting from the ponies around. Daring yelled something about not listening to Volt—that it was just another lie. Volt fired back, but everything else from that point didn’t register. Velvet slammed her eyes shut, and tears dropped to the floor. The world around Velvet faded into a congealed mass of muffled sounds and dark blobs.
Volt was right.
How could she have been so foalish? Velvet had it good back home. She could’ve been writing about Braytheon’s prototype drones. She could’ve been modifying Evy for the 60th Annual Ghastly Gorge Enduro. She could’ve been spending a candlelight dinner with Night Light, teasing him about choosing Canterlot University’s front lawn as a wedding venue.
And she threw all that away for a smoldering wreck, a trail of bodies, and an undignified end in a filthy third-world prison.
The least she could do was keep her fiancé from suffering a similar fate.
“ALRIGHT, I’LL TALK!” A tearing sensation ripped through Velvet’s voicebox. “IlltalkIlltalkIlltalkIlltalkIlltalk-alk-alk-alk… Just leave him alone!”
A deathly silence filled the room, broken only by Velvet’s panting breath. All eyes once again stared at her. A pegasus mercenary wearing a cap and a scarf stepped forward, his machine gun coming up. “Like hell you will!” Teeth gnashing, the merc sighted down his barrel, the cold and gray muzzle only inches from Velvet’s face. Quickly following suit, the merc’s comrades brought their weapons up as well, turning one gun barrel into three.
Velvet darted a quick glance Daring’s way, finding that she had earned the glares of more than just the three mercs.
Volt stepped forward, her silhouette shielding Velvet from Daring’s acrid gaze, and brought up an assuaging hoof. “Gentlemen, I know you’re all eager, but let our guest of honor say her piece.”
Velvet slammed her eyes shut. Through the darkness and Volt’s towering figure, Daring’s glare continued to pierce into her core. There were no more calls to shut up—no point anymore. “I…I’m not lying, okay?” Velvet opened her eyes, continuing to stare at the rusty dried puddle on the floor. “Some abandoned pawnshop one block away from the Sineighese arch. You’ll find a cellar there…”
Volt clicked her teeth. “We should just kill her now,” she muttered under her breath. “Save us future headaches.”
Velvet sighed. That was it.
Cap and Scarf stepped forward. “Wait, didn’t the Phalanx teams want a go at her?”
“No no no no…” Volt muttered. “It’s not worth it.”
“They’re part of your best, you know?” Cap and Scarf’s voice softened. “And you promised Axehead…”
For several seconds, the cell fell silent, aside from the echoing cries of pain from outside. Volt sighed. “Fine, let’s talk it over.” She jabbed her baton under Velvet’s chin, once again pivoting it upward. Her all-too-familiar gaze caused Velvet to let out a shaky whimper. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”
Volt turned around and let Velvet hang her head. Each hoofstep was quieter than the last, the muted conversation between Volt and her cronies dwindling until it melded into the distant screaming in the background. Their glaring eyes gone, that only left Velvet with a more painful glare still coming from her left.
“It was so simple. Why didn’t you listen?” A ragged breath escaped Daring’s mouth. “I was trying to get them off your tail…”
The cords around Daring’s hooves tightened as she seethed. Her bloodshot eyes seemed to pierce into Velvet’s own, all the way to her core.
“If anything happens to Haribon…that’s on you.”
Daring turned away.
Velvet’s ears folded back. The growing weight in her chest dropped her gaze back down at the floor. Weak coughs escaped her traumatized throat. No one was pointing a gun to her head anymore, but nopony wanted to talk either. Daring wasn’t in a listening mood; there was no Night Light to vent to; and Haribon—he didn’t deserve to be thrown under the bus like that. It was just her now—her and her big, fat, stupid mouth.
Twilight Velvet’s eyes gravitated from the blood puddle to the shadow of the window bars. Through a hole in the thick cloud cover, a thin ray of sunlight bounced off the floor and briefly dazzled her eyes. “At least I’ll die saving Night Light…” mouthed Velvet.
She sighed.
“Who am I kidding; I saved him by ratting out my two allies. He wouldn’t want to talk to me after that…”
The window flashed white.
Velvet blinked. An afterimage lingered as a sharp boom, followed by crackling, pierced through the prison. Everypony jerked their heads to the window. A guard trotted to the window and braced his forelegs on the wall to get a better look while squinting to the outside world. He called over Volt and she peered out the window too. What was…?
“That’s not coming from the X-Ray,” the guard beside Volt muttered, “or it would've changed course and hit a jeep or something. That means…”
Volt dropped her front hooves back on the floor and faced Velvet and Daring. The corners of her lips turned upwards ever so slightly. With her head out of the way, Velvet could finally see the gray cloud cover of the outside world—and the pulsating trail of rainbow lightning cutting through the sky.
“Looks like Haribon didn’t need you…and now that Indra’s Bow is pointing to the location of the Spectrum, neither do we.” She trailed off before turning around and whispering something to the boonie hat merc from earlier. Velvet’s heart began to race. How could Haribon activate the Bow and just…give up on her and Daring?
The rest of the mercenaries parted, and Volt began to make her way to the corridor. “We’ll deal with the missing Phalanx teams later,” she said to Frazzled Mane before lifting a radio up to mouth level. “Everypony not on guard duty, prepare to move out!”
“Wait!” Velvet jerked upwards. The chair creaked under her weight. “Wh-what about the deal with Night Light? You didn’t change your mind on that, r-right?!”
Volt, Frazzled Mane, and the insurgent disappeared behind a corner. Velvet and Daring were all alone with the three guards. Velvet darted her head left to right. The guards were turning to face her. The corners of Cap and Scarf’s lips turned upward.
“Oh shit!” With every tug, the cords around Velvet’s hooves tightened. “Shit shit shit shit shit! Guys, you don’t have to do this!” Velvet’s voice cracked as she faced the guards. “Please! Please! Please don’t do this! Please don’t…”
“Shut up,” groaned Boonie Hat.
Velvet wanted to comply, but she couldn’t. Her voice dropped into a whisper. “No. No no no no no no…”
Her throat seized as the barrels of three guns drew level with her once again.. “What?” The thermal goggle merc raised an eyebrow. “No quip about us overcompensating for something?”
Boonie Hat glanced at Thermal Goggles with narrowed eyebrows. “You too—shut up.” She then returned to Velvet and Daring. “Now, as for the both of you, you’re welcome to close your eyes…Or don’t; doesn’t matter to me.”
The last thing Velvet saw before complying was the hooves of all three mercenaries curling onto the triggers of their weapons. She hung her head and inhaled.
Night Light…I’m sorry.
A thunderous boom bounced on the walls. Somepony yelled.
Then the floor dropped from underneath everypony’s hooves.
“Shit! What’s that?!” Boonie Hat shouted as Velvet snapped her eyes open and puffed out her held breath. Shifting dust drifted from above her and onto the floor—wait, that hairline crack on the floor wasn’t there earlier…
The clapping of distant, outside gunfire and the slightest hint of static caused Velvet to glance out the window before directing her view back to the mercs. While Cap and Scarf fiddled with his walkie-talkie as it crackled to life, the others pointed their weapons out at the cell door and windows. “Mantle-Four, this is Charlie Oscar-One!” The stallion’s voice on the radio barely powered through the gunshots in the background. “Where the hell are you guys?!”
“We’re in the holding cell with the operational targets, why? What’s going on?” Eyebrows furrowing, Cap and Scarf leaned closer to the walkie-talkie.
More gunfire. A flash, then thunder, poured out of the window. In the background, a mare’s scream was cut short by a short burst of static. “Hold your position! Do not go outside! We’ve got contact with the X–”
Blinding white, followed by a boom, flooded the room. Velvet’s ears folded to the sides of her head. As she watched the mercenaries struggle to stand, the crack on the floor widened…and snaked to the wall and ceiling.
“Oh crap…”
The floor jerked downwards again. More dust drifted downward. Concrete chunks crumbled from the ceiling and landed in front of Velvet, exposing the inner rebar. Her chair—and the floor it stood on—began to lean backward.
“Oh crap!”
The whole cell collapsed.
Velvet slammed her eyelids shut, but dust still made its way into her corneas. The cacophony of twisting metal, shattering tiles, and fragmenting concrete pounded her eardrums. She flexed her neck downward, but that did fuck all to stop the rubble from battering her jacket and fur.
“Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap– agh!”
Her body slammed onto dirt. Her nose wrinkled from the dust that had been kicked up. Biting cold rain dampened her fur and made it stand on end. The sound of cracking wood coming from behind caused Velvet’s folded ears to twitch, and she tugged on her restraints.
The ropes were loose. Velvet gasped. A quick look behind her showed the splintered, fractured remains of her chair. The hell are you doing?! You’re free! Get out of there! Velvet’s mind screamed.
But she didn’t get up. Though her legs were free, burning, searing soreness kept them pinned on the ground—that, and her jaw dropped at the scene in front of her.
Storm clouds and smoke columns set the backdrop. Tracers zipped up the sky toward a bright pony-like shape surrounded by snaking electric arcs of many colors—no question on who that was. The Lightning Mare launched her bolts every which way. A couple of parked fuel trucks in the distance lit up in a fireball. Next to go were a team of insurgents firing at the Lightning Mare behind some sandbags. The lightning swallowed them while their colleagues galloped around in all directions. Some fired at the X-Ray—that worked so well before—and others focused on dodging bolts of lightning slamming the ground mere inches from their hooves.
She pivoted her head to the right. Cap and Scarf lay still, his namesake headwear gone and his mane stained the same shade of red as a nearby chunk of concrete. A few feet away, Boonie Hat barely had time to groan before she looked down at her hind legs: her panicked gasps soon gave way to screams.
Blinding arcs of many colors swept over her hips. In their place, blue fur solidified into gnarled masses of grayish-brown rock. “H-help me! Help me!” Boonie Hat glared at the closest pony.
Velvet felt her stomach twist into knots.
Boonie Hat’s next scream was cut short when the arcs reached her chest. She hacked and coughed, then her face contorted in primal anguish.
That was the last thing Velvet saw before she averted her eyes, gritted her teeth, and curled into a ball.
Too soon…this was way too soon.
Something smacked her in the back. “Sightsee later!” Daring snapped as she flew past Velvet, scooped Cap and Scarf’s machine gun from the ground, and pointed to a row of parked cars a few yards away. “Found our jeep; it’s this way!”
Daring galloped two steps, bracing the two saddlebags on her back using both her wings.
But Velvet still didn’t get up.
It didn’t take long for Daring to turn around. One wing fluttered, and Daring’s jaw hung open before she growled. “Let’s hustle, Vel!” Daring tossed Velvet’s saddlebag toward her. It crumpled on the dirt in front of Velvet and kicked up a cloud of dust.
Several shots rang out from behind. Velvet yelped and jumped. Bullets zipped past her and slammed into a nearby palm tree. “Operational targets are escaping, west gate!” shouted a distant stallion’s voice.
Daring fired a burst from the machine gun, downing the distant enemy, then snapped to Velvet. “Don’t make me drag you on a leash like a foal!”
That finally got Velvet’s ass into gear.
Grime clung to the fur of her sweaty hooves. At the back of the jeep, Daring lay on the trunk, the bipod of her machine gun extended as she fired. The smell of gunpowder lingered in the air as Velvet slinked up the driver’s seat, turned the key, and then buried her face in her hooves.
This wasn’t like the desert. Sure, it was still life and death, but she was just…going through the motions. That, and she had so many questions…like “why did the Lightning Mare decide to attack now?”
The rumbling of thunder above, not to mention a bullet perforating the windshield frame, snapped Velvet back to the real world. Answers would have to wait. She shoved the stick in reverse and slammed on the gas. The jeep lurched backwards before Velvet steered it to the side and toward the gate. Daring stood up. The bark of her machine gun clapped down five mercs ahead. The metallic odor of gunpowder caused Velvet’s nose to wrinkle.
A lightning bolt crashed a couple feet beside the jeep. The vehicle shook. Daring braced one hoof on the top of the passenger seat before hunkering downwards. From the rear view mirror, her eyes met Velvet’s.
“What?”
Velvet opened her mouth to speak, but her words melted into a sigh. Daring shook her head before rolling upright once again. Her machine gun clipped the wings of a pegasus at the guard post.
Even after the jeep plowed through the chain link gate, Velvet’s sore forelegs gripped tightly on the steering wheel. Keeping her eyes straight at the road ahead, she fought the urge to bury her face in her hooves again.
This wasn’t fun anymore. It hadn’t been for a long time.