Purpose
Part 2
The next morning, Sapphire awoke with a yawn, sitting up and looking about herself. Snowbreeze looked as if she was still sleeping though and decided to leave her be as she walked to the door to the room they were in only to find it wouldn't open.
"What the hell?" Sapphire remarked aloud in a confused tone as she stared at the door for a brief moment before she attempted to open the door once more. The Alicorn felt her chest grow cold in fear as she rushed over to Snowbreeze and shook the mare to wake her friend.
"Snowbreeze! The door won't open!" Sapphire exclaimed in a panicked tone yet Snowbreeze didn't respond. The mare was breathing just fine but for some strange reason wouldn't wake.
"Snowbreeze! Wake up! What's wrong with you?!" Sapphire explained as she continued to shake her friend in an attempt to wake her though her efforts seemed to be in vain.
Suddenly the door that would not budge suddenly opened and two armed earth ponies and the king walked into the room. Sapphire looked back to see the king whom was smiling as if nothing was wrong. "Your highness! Snowbreeze won't wake up!" Sapphire exclaimed, hoping this would prompt the king to react and call for medical ponies yet he did not.
Sapphire looked at the king's lack of response to her dire situation in moderate confusion for a moment before she spoke once more. "Didn't you hear me?! Snowbreeze won't wake up! We need to get medical ponies in here immediately!" She claimed as she approached the king and his guard.
"That won't be necessary." The king replied calmly.
These words struck the unicorn with even more confusion. "Wha-what do you mean? Can't you see her?! She won't wake up!" The Alicorn exclaimed in confusion and fear for her friend's life.
"I'd be shocked if she did. Otherwise, i'd have to have the ponies who made me this sleeping gas beheaded." The king remarked with a soft chuckle. "Looks like they were right in saying it wouldn't affect you, your Alicorn blood making you heavily resistant to gas I'd wager." he added.
It was then, at that moment, the horrifying truth dawned on the Alicorn as her face went from confused to looking as if she was ready to beat the horsefeathers out of the stallion that stood before her now. The Alicorn then flared her wings wide as she lowered her head and pointed her horn at the king in a threatening manner which caused the guards to take a defensive stance though they both clearly looked less than confident they could take on the legendary Alicorn. "Y-your highness, perhaps we should move you to a safer location." One of the guards stuttered out.
"There's no need for that soldier, she wouldn't dare harm me knowing I'm the only one who can give her the antidote to her friend's condition." The king replied with a sneer.
"Give me the antidote now or I'll…use my Alicorn magic against you!" Sapphire bluffed which caused the guards to exchange panicked glances. The king however remained unphased and even chuckled in response to this. This chuckle caused the Alicorn's expression to flare as she glared at him with hostile intent.
"A substantial bluff but a bluff and nothing more. Your great grandfather informed me you had come here for Earth Pony magic training which means one thing. YOU. CAN'T. USE. ALICORN MAGIC. " The king remarked, putting strong emphasis on his final words.
Sapphire's pissed off expression became one of confusion. "How could you possibly know that?! The only ones who know why I would need training at all would be-"
"The Dark Horn, yes." The king replied with a smirk.
"You're one of them?!" Sapphire exclaimed in shock as her expression resumed its previous hostile glare towards the corrupt royal stallion.
This statement however earned a short laugh from the king before he spoke. "Heavens, no! But I do associate with them quite frequently. You see, in exchange for allowing me to maintain control of my kingdom they requested that if I were to encounter you, that I imprison you and turn you over to them." he remarked as he walked past his guards and up close to Sapphire's face before he leaned in close so that he was at eye-level.
"I, however, know a useful pony when I see them and you, Sapphire, are very useful to me indeed." The king said in a low tone his sneer becoming wider if possible before he turned his back to the Alicorn and walked back to the safety behind his guards.
"If you think you can get me to harm a single innocent pony-" Sapphire began to say only for the king's laugh to cut her off once again.
"Heaven's no! I'm not a tyrant, Sapphire." The king replied with a saddened look before his smirk resumed on his facial features.
Sapphire scoffed at this remark. "From where I'm standing, that couldn't be farther from the truth." The Alicorn remarked bitterly much to the annoyance of the king whose expression looked offended at this remark.
"Oh come now, do you honestly expect me to believe you'd do anything for me out of the goodness of your heart? No, I needed leverage!" The king exclaimed defensively.
"Ya know what's so ironic about that statement?" Sapphire asked, still glaring at the king.
"What?" The king inquired curiously.
"Until now, if it didn't involve hurting innocent ponies, I would have done anything for you since you were my king." Sapphire remarked, doing the very best to restrain every fiber of her being from throttling this stallion out of fear for her friend's life.
"Were? Sapphire, I am your king." The king replied with a soft chuckle.
"Not anymore…" The Alicorn seethed, which earned yet another offended look from the king for a brief moment before he resumed smirking.
"Whether you respect my crown is irrelevant at this point given that your friend's life hangs in the balance." The king replied, sneering once more.
This corrupt stallion was right and Sapphire knew this. The mare sighed in defeat and ceased her hostile stance. "What do you want me to do?" She asked calmly though anypony could tell a hostile understone carried through her words.
The royal stallion smiled triumphantly as he once again approached the mare. "Grunt work, I'm afraid. You see, a group of ponies have begun to revolt against me. The group was small at first and hardly worth my gaze but then they began vandalizing my monuments and disrupting supply carriages coming to the castle. For them to be able to do this means they must have grown substantially in number." The king began as he paced back and forth before continuing.
"If left unchecked, the stability of my rule could eventually be threatened and that is where you come in my dear Alicorn." he finished before stopping in front of the mare once more and looking at her.
"If you're asking me to take them out then you're asking the wrong pony since if you know as much about me as you claim then you must be aware that I am barely able to use unicorn magic without causing unpredictable results." Sapphire replied much to her own shame.
"The method doesn't matter, blow up their little rebellion headquarters for all I care, I just want this revolt to end!" The king replied in a less than regal tone allowing his anger to show briefly.
"And what's to stop me from joining them?" Sapphire asked, allowing a slight smirk to appear on her facial features.
"I would think that would be obvious." The king replied and with a single hoof motion one of the guards lowered their weapon towards the unconscious pegasus.
Sapphire couldn't hide the fear for her friend's life as she looked over at the guard's weapon barely inches away from making a killing blow only to stop short of her neck. "Fine, I'll do it! Just don't hurt her!" The Alicorn exclaimed in a fearful tone.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement, Sapphire." The king replied with a soft chuckle as he turned away from the Alicorn and began to walk towards the door. "Do this for me and you'll find your friend awake shortly after you return to me with news of the rebellion's destruction and do try not to take too long, the sleeping gas's effects become permanent after two weeks' time." The king remarked before leaving the room followed by the two guards though the door was left open this time.
"Wait, where do I even begin looking?! This city is huge!" Sapphire exclaimed yet she got no response to this question.
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Sapphire soared over the royal capital attempting to discern any scenes of the rebellion group though she had no idea how she was going to handle them. If this king was as corrupt as she thought he was, these ponies were trying to fight a civil war against a tyrant. A tyrant Sapphire would have more than happily joined the fight against after the events of this morning if not for her friend's life hanging in the balance.
"Ugh! It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack!" The Alicorn exclaimed aloud in aggravation after an hour's worth of flying around the city and landing on a building's roof to rest her wings for a few moments.
Hey you! Stop in the name of his royal majesty!
Sapphire's ears perked up at the sound of a guard pony shouting these words and looked for the source. It could have very well just been a random thief with no connection to the rebellion but at this point, the Alicorn was turning up nothing by flying around and she was getting desperate.
Sapphire's eyes scanned the immediate area looking for signs of a thief darting away from policy ponies and caught sight of just that but it looked like the pony in question had cornered herself in an alley with no way out. Based on what Sapphire could make out, this mystery mare had a dark green fur color with a short flat tail and short mane. Her mane was so short in fact, she almost looked bald to the Alicorn.
"You're under arrest for the theft of royal goods! Come quietly and you might only spend life in the dungeons." The royal guard pony said as he approached the mare.
Sapphire lept to another rooftop to more properly observe the event unsure of how to rescue the thief while at the same time not attacking guards who may report back to the king and endanger Snowbreeze's life. As the guard approached however, the Alicorn was going to be in a shock as she witnessed the mare raise her front hooves up and stomp them into the ground creating a shockwave of force that caused the guard ponies to stumble about trying to keep their balance.
The mare then dove forward and in one fluid motion tripped one of the guard ponies with one fell sweep of her hind hooves followed by using her front hooves to prop the stallion up preventing him from falling only to launch him skyward nearly ten feet.
In the next moment, the mare rushed the other guard pony sliding her whole body under his using all four legs to trip each of the stallions and in the next moment use her left hind hoof to firmly thrust into the stallion's chest knocking the wind out of him and causing his to cough and gasp for air before in the same moment used her two front hooves to shove him onto his back.
The mare then jumped to all fours and as if she knew exactly when the stallion who was falling to the ground would be at this exact moment in time, reared her hind legs and bucked the falling stallion mid-air slamming him into the alley's dead end wall with a loud thud and turned to face in his direction to make sure he was incapacitated. .
Sapphire gasped in realization. "Is this the earth pony master I was supposed to come here and find?!" The Alicorn asked aloud in both shock and awe of the more's superior combat prowess.
As Sapphire was pondering this question the stallion who had the wind knocked out of him had recovered and picked up his weapon charging at the seemingly unaware mare. Before Sapphire could shout her word of warning to the mare however, the mare rose her right hind hoof at precisely the right moment without looking behind herself successfully hitting the non-bladed part of the spear, used her other three legs to launch her body in a one hundred and eighty degree angle and in one fell motion struck the stallion with all three hooves across the head in what could only be described as a mid-air cartwheel motion before landing on all fours as the stallion's body flew to the left and hit the wall motionless.
With both guards knocked out cold, Sapphire knew this was the time to seize her chance to confront the mare. The Alicorn left from the rooftop and landed behind the mare only to barely dodge a hoof to the face. "Whoa! Hold on a sec! I'm not your enemy!" Sapphire exclaimed in a panicked tone.
At first the mare merely glanced at her but performed a doubletack then a soft gasp before she turned around to face Sapphire. "Can it be?" The mare asked aloud in a gruff raspy tone her expression filled with disbelief and awe at what her eyes beheld her. "The Legendary Alicorn?!" She finished as she stared at Sapphire seemingly stunned in awe.
"I don't know about legendary but yes, I am an Alicorn." Sapphire replied modestly.
The mare rushed up the Sapphire and took her right hoof into both of her hooves as she stared into the Alicorn's eyes. "The scrolls foretold the day that the Legendary Alicorn would return and free us from the tyranny of King Stollhoof!" The mare exclaimed much to Sapphire's confusion.
"Wait, scrolls? You mean like a prophecy?" Sapphire asked in a mildly confused tone.
"Yes, exactly! The prophecy of the Alicorn who would free us has been passed down for generations!" The mare exclaimed as she shook Sapphire's hoof excitedly.
Whoa, pull the carriage to a halt for a second! What do you mean generations?! Is the king like the great grandson of this tyrannical king or something?" Sapphire asked even more confused. She knew the king was corrupt but how long has this stallion been around?
"No, King Stollhoof has been the earth pony kingdom's ruler for the last three hundred years! No pony knows how he's lived so long. Some ponies think he's using zebra magic or magical potions from a Zebra to maintain his youth. We also believe he might have been the one who started the three hundred year war to begin with but no pony alive can confirm or deny that." The mare explained as she let go of Sapphire's hoof, walked away a few feet, and turned back to face her once more.
"Well, that explains his connections to the Dark Horn…" Sapphire mused aloud only for the mare to rush up to her once more.
"Please, you must use your Alicorn magic to help us take the fight to his doorstep!" The mare exclaimed excitedly.
"Wait, you're part of the rebellion?" Sapphire asked incredulously. She couldn't believe her luck, not only had she found a member of the rebellion but they were also an extremely skilled earth pony, possibly even a master.
"Sorta, I mean, yes but not exactly." The mare replied in a less than confident tone.
"Gonna have to be a little more clear." Sapphire remarked with a confused expression.
"Our faction was a part of the rebellion but our leader isn't exactly on great terms with the resistance leaders speaking as we're what they call, an extremist group." The mare explained and sighed. "They just don't understand! Hiding in the shadows isn't going to free us from the king's grasp! Only action will! Which is why we need your Alicorn magic! You're the break we've been waiting for!" The mare exclaimed once again, taking Sapphire's right hoof into hers and shaking it excitedly.
Sapphire sighed in response to this with a saddened expression. She found an extremist faction who weren't even on speaking terms with the ponies in charge of the whole rebellion and this excited mare was expecting her to be their savior. An Alicorn who can't even use earth pony magic. "I hate to tell you this but, I can't use Alicorn magic." Sapphire stated in a depressed tone much to the mare's confusion.
"What do you mean?" The mare asked, looking crestfallen.
"I came to this city to learn how to control my earth pony magic. I don't even know how to use unicorn or Pegasus magic yet let alone Alicorn magic. In fact, the only time I can use Alicorn magic is at random when I'm in extreme danger and I don't even know how to control it when it does happen! It's like my body moves on its own and then the power just leaves me like it was never there to begin with." Sapphire explained and sighed once more. "I'm not your savior… I'm just an untrained Alicorn who can barely fly."
The mare's crestfallen expression became one of anger as her ears flattened and scowled at the Alicorn. "Great, the legendary Alicorn is nothing more than a filly in need of potty training! Should have known better than to place stock in a bunch of dusty old scrolls!" The mare exclaimed in anger before kicking some dust up.
The remark caused Sapphire to blush in anger. "H-Hey! I'm not helpless, you know! I'm just untrained!" She shot back.
"May as well be! We need Alicorn magic if we want to even have a hope of dethroning that tyrant." The mare replied and sighed.
"I was told by one of the elements of harmony that if I master my earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn magic, that I can unlock the power to control my Alicorn magic. Speaking of which, I saw how you handled those guards. Can you train me to use my earth pony magic?" Sapphire asked much to the shock of the mare who gawked at her for a moment.
"Why should I? You said it yourself, you have to master all three magics in order to use your Alicorn magic. Earth Pony magic won't be enough." The mare replied before she turned away from the Alicorn.
"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure you know this, but Alicorns can wield each form of magic in much more powerful ways than a normal earth pony, unicorn, or Pegasus." Sapphire said with a smirk. She of course didn't know this for sure but according to Snowbreeze, she used each form of magic in much greater power when her Alicorn magic was active and if this earth pony was a master she needed her to train her.
The mare eyed Sapphire as if determining whether or not she was lying and eventually smiled. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't but we can't stay here. Even if you're barely an Alicorn right now, you're still another pony and we need all the help we can get. That is why you sought me out right? To join the resistance?" The mare asked curiously.
Sapphire's brain took a second to realize what she was being asked but once it had she replied with "Y-yes! Of course!" She lied. Well, it was a half-lie really. If this resistance group had the power to help her save Snowbreeze and get the antidote from that corrupt king, she would gladly join them but if they were unable to do anything to help her, she would reluctantly continue in her efforts to "disband" this rebellion to save her friend though she had her doubts he would fulfill his end of the bargain to begin with.
If Sapphire was honest with herself, the very thought of doing anything for Stollhoof made her sick to her stomach and she would like nothing more than to buck that stallion in the balls ten times over for what she did to Snowbreeze but like it or not she was stuck in this situation and she needed to find a way out of it.
It was as she followed the mare out of the alley and into the busy streets of Maretropolis it occurred to her, she didn't know this mare's name. "H-hey, um, what's your name?" Sapphire asked aloud as she followed the mare through the crowds of ponies busy with their shopping and other mundane tasks.
"Emerald, Emerald Harmony." Emerald replied as they took a sharp right turn into a slightly tight gap between two buildings. In fact, the gap was so thin that Sapphire nearly got stuck twice as she shifted her way through it though Emerald didn't seem to have much trouble doing so.
"That's way too much of a muzzlefull to say over and over. I'm gonna call you Emmy!" Sapphire exclaimed in a tone much like a certain pink mare with a fluffy mane would.
This caused the mare to halt in place for a moment much to Sapphire's confusion and mild concern she may have offended the mare. "That's what my mother used to call me. Most ponies who know me avoid using that nickname." Emerald remarked aloud in a slightly saddened voice.
"Why?" Sapphire asked curiously.
Without warning Emerald turned around and stomped a hoof down causing a mild shockwave to surge through the ground causing Sapphire to wobble slightly. "Because I'd break their jaws!" The dark green mare exclaimed threateningly, causing Sapphire to take a step back with a slightly fearful look.
"Okay…mental note made, I won't call you that anymore." Sapphire replied with a weak smile. Sapphire suspected this mare had a tragic past involving her mother which is why that nickname was such a sore spot for her. Of course now that Sapphire thought about it, was she really a full grown mare? She had a cutiemark of course, a Green Gemstone surrounded by blue stars but her impulsive behavior and her tone of voice just now sounding and looked far more youthful than she let on or wanted to at the very least.
"Best remember that. We're almost to the hideout so I'm gonna have to blindfold you." Emerald replied as she reached over to one of the cloth bins and took out what looked like a scarf.
"Wait, how can I follow you if I can't see where you're walking? Are you going to hold my hood the whole way?" Sapphire asked incredulously. She understood why this pony was trying to hide the exact location of their hideout but she wasn't a unicorn who could guide her with magic.
Emerald smirked as she walked up to the Alicorn and wrapped the blindfold around her eyes. "Heh, guess that is a small problem isn't it? Maybe if you were such a flathoofed pony you'd be able to tell where I was going. Oh and if you take off the blindfold before we get to the hideout, I will personally introduce your face to the ground and trust me, the relationship will be intimate!" Emerald replied ending her statement on a threatening note making it clear that Sapphire would have to somehow follow her without taking off the blindfold.
The sounds of Emerald trotting away could be heard now by Sapphire who was unsure of how to progress. "I could try to listen to her hoofsteps." Sapphire thought to herself as she tried talking several timid steps forward only to comically walk face first into a wall. "Ow-wie!" The mare exclaimed as she rubbed her sore mouth and nose barely remembering to not take off the blindfold.
"Hey! You better hurry or I'm leaving you behind!" Emerald called out from what sounded like a fair distance from her position.
"I'm trying! It's really hard to follow you when I can't see where I'm going!" Sapphire called back in frustration.
"Then I suggest you really try to feel out the situation or you'll get left behind. I'm going to keep going now, best keep up!" Emerald called out back to the Alicorn and this time, the mare picked up on the subtle hint she was trying to give her. Emerald was testing her to see if she had what it took to learn how to use her earth pony magic or so she hoped.
How she was going to "feel this out" however still was a mystery to the Alicorn. "Okay Sapphire, concentrate on your hooves touching the ground, there has to be some way for you to be able to feel things out and somehow see your way forward!" The mare said aloud to herself softly before she took several more timid steps forward making sure to avoid the wall she had walked into earlier.
So far it seemed to be working though the Alicorn really didn't feel much different than normal nor be able to somehow be able to see through her blindfold. That is until she tripped over something hard and fell face forward into the ground with a thud seemingly to the amusement of Emerald who could be heard from a fair distance away laughing loudly.
Sapphire's chin stung from the impact with the hard ground, her front legs and hooves hurt from tripping over the mysterious object and she was really starting to get annoyed and wondering if this wasn't an elaborate prank by the dark green pony. "Is this a joke to you?!" Sapphire exclaimed aloud angrily as she stood to all fours and glared through her blindfold in the direction of Emerald's voice.
"No, a joke would have a punchline. You're just a walking comedy act!" Emerald replied, laughing some more before she continued. "If you can't feel your way to me, then there's no way in tartarus you can master earth pony magic!" Emerald called back.
"So you're training me right now?" Sapphire asked aloud curiously.
"If by training, you mean trying to teach you how to do something even an earth pony foal can do by age three, then yes, I am training you." Emerald replied and giggled loudly.
"She's mocking me…" Sapphire thought to herself irritably and sighed aloud. "But she's also trying to help me even if she's being a leadhoof about it." The Alicorn finished thinking and growled mildly under her breath. "Ya know, you could give me a better idea of how to, feel my way to you, than those vague hints you've been giving me." Sapphire replied though she got no response from this. At first she thought the pony had really left her behind until she felt a hoof on her front right leg.
"Luna save me, you're hopeless!" Emerald remarked aloud clearly standing next to the Alicorn now. "Plant your hooves flat on the ground, clear your mind of all thoughts, and feel the textures of the dirt under your hooves." Emerald instructed.
Sapphire did as she was told though she wasn't sure how this was going to help her "feel her way" as Emerald put it. "Is something supposed to happen?" Sapphire asked aloud after a few moments feeling no change nor any kind of magical thing happening to her.
"What was that? I can't hear you from all the way over here!" Emerald's voice called out clearly distant once more much to Sapphire's annoyance as the Alicorn scowled.
"Guess that's all the hooves-on help she's going to give me…" Sapphire remarked aloud to herself and sighed. "Okay, clear my mind of all thoughts…feel the textures of the dirt through my hooves…" Sapphire said softly aloud to herself.
At first nothing happened and then suddenly like magic she felt it. Though it was very faint, she felt a vibration tickle the bottoms of her hooves. What's more, she could almost tell exactly which direction the vibration came from. "Hey! It's working! I felt something!" Sapphire called out.
At first there was no response but then she heard the dark green mare's voice from much farther away. "Whaaaat?! I can't hear you! I don't know what you're doing but if you don't start catching up, i'm really going to leave you behind!"
"Oh come the buck on! Can't she cut me even a little slack here?! I've just caught on to what she was trying to teach me and now she expects me to gallop up to her as if I've mastered this already!" Sapphire remarked aloud to herself irritably.
Sapphire didn't know if this pony would really leave her behind or not but like it or not, she would have to start moving forward. "Okay, just keep my mind clear of thoughts and feel the textures of the dirt under my hooves, no problem, right?" Sapphire remarked aloud to herself in a less than confident tone.
The Alicorn took a few timid steps forward and once again felt vibrations reach her hooves but it was different this time, almost as if the vibration traveled away from her hooves and came back to it but when it returned it felt distinctly different from a moment ago. "Wait, is this how I'm supposed to find my way? How in the buck am I supposed to understand what these vibrations mean?!" Sapphire thought to herself irritably as she took a few more steps forward only to once again walk smack dab into a wall.
"Trial and error it is then…" Sapphire remarked aloud in an annoyed tone as she rubbed her sore snout. The Alicorn cautiously stepped back and took a few steps to the left and resumed walking forward however this time stopped abruptly when she felt a familiar vibration reach her hooves. Curiously she reached her right hoof forward and sure enough, the wall she walked into earlier was barely inches from her.
"Holy buck, you're catching on faster than I thought you would!" Emerald's voice came from behind her which caused the Alicorn to comically seize up and leap three feet into the air before landing back on the ground hyperventilating for a few moments before she regained her composure. "Celestia's teats! You scared the buck out of me!" Sapphire exclaimed agitatedly though she still didn't remove her blindfold.
This earned a laugh from emerald for a few moments before she spoke. "Yeah… I know how to mask the vibrations from my hoofsteps." she remarked aloud with a smirk though Sapphire couldn't see this.
"Wait, if you can do that then you were-" Sapphire began to say.
"Intentionally not masking them so you could follow me, yes. Sharp as a tack, ain't ya?" Emerald said, cutting off the Alicorn with a giggle.
"So you weren't going to leave me behind?" Sapphire asked aloud in hopes she would stay close by this time when the dark green pony didn't respond. Sapphire sighed aloud. "Don't tell me she already-" only to be cut off by Emerald's distant voice once again.
"Better hurry up or I really will leave you behind this time!" Emerald called out from a fair distance away from the Alicorn.
At this point, Sapphire couldn't tell if she was serious or not but she wasn't going to take any chances. Using what she had learned thus far, she took several steps back, several steps to the left, and began to walk forward paying close attention to the vibrations reaching her hooves. "So far so good…" Sapphire remarked aloud and soon she noticed a familiar vibration reach her hooves, it wasn't the same one that she recognized as a wall but rather the first vibration she felt earlier.
"This must be Emerald's hoofsteps. Well at least she's telling me where she is…kinda. But how in Luna's name am I supposed to know which direction it's coming from?" Sapphire asked aloud to herself. Just then several more vibrations met her hooves as she continued to walk forward. "Are the vibrations… getting stronger?" Sapphire thought to herself curiously. Perhaps this was how she could tell where Emerald was? "Maybe this works kinda like how bats echolocate with their screeches?" Sapphire mused aloud as she continued to move towards the increasingly stronger vibrations.
Suddenly out of nowhere the mare's face collided with something furry along with something soft and warm.
The buck are you doing?!
A male voice cried out suddenly which caused Sapphire to take several steps back. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Sapphire exclaimed.
"Daddy, why did that mare shove her face into your butt?" A young voice asked at which point Sapphire's face flushed crimson.
"I don't know Jr but if this mare is looking for a good time, she's sniffing the wrong set of family jewels, I'm a married stallion! And what's with the blindfold? Some kind of fetish?" The older male voice remarked aloud.
This set of information made the mare's blush deepen three times more to the point that if you looked at her face right now, you'd mistake it for an apple. "No, no, I'm not looking for any of that! I'm just training myself to walk around blindfolded, honest!" Sapphire explained in a panicked tone still not removing the blindfold unsure if Emerald was still watching her or not the distant hysterical laughing coming from a fair distance away answered her question however much to the Alicorn's embarrassment and frustration.
"Well train yourself somewhere else!" The older male voice exclaimed irritably before Sapphire heard two sets of hoofsteps walk away along with feeling the familiar vibrations coming from them with her hooves.
"Wrong set of vibrations to follow by the way!" The dark green mare jeered from afar.
"I figured that out, thanks!" Sapphire called back followed by a low growl of frustration. "Swear to Luna, if this is Rarity's idea of a joke, sending me this mare or most likely filly to train me, I'm not laughing!" Sapphire thought to herself with a huff.
The Alicorn once again cleared her mind and concentrated on the vibrations reaching her hooves, making sure to ignore the ones she recognized as the stallion's and his colt's. She soon felt another set of vibrations, turned about face, and began to follow them hoping they were the correct ones.
For sometime it seemed as if Sapphire was getting the hang of this, she had learned to recognize the vibrations of walls and what she hoped were Emerald's hoofsteps were getting stronger by the minute now. Suddenly the Alicorn felt her nose collide with a hoof.
"That's far enough, it seems you've at least got the basics down but you're a far cry from being able to read vibrations as accurately as I can." Emerald's voice remarked followed by her removing the blindfold.
"Duh! I've just learned how to do this less than an hour ago!" Sapphire retorted with a glare.
"Ehh, don't sell yourself short. You caught on way faster than I thought you would. Non-earth ponies usually take weeks to figure out how to even feel the vibrations in the first place. Must be that Alicorn thing you got going, gave ya an edge." Emerald remarked with a smirk.
"Maybe…" Sapphire mused aloud. Though after how long it took her to learn how to fly, she wasn't so sure. "So, is this the hideout?" She asked after a few moments.
"Yep, stay out here for a moment while I tell them I found us a new recruit, some stranger walking in will set them off in panic mode." Emerald replied, opened the door and walked inside the seemingly unremarkable house she stood in front of. The house didn't really look much different from any other home in Maretropolis. It made sense she supposed, if they picked some place that stood out, it could expose them much more easily than a random average home.
After some time, Emerald emerged from the house and motioned for Sapphire to follow her inside. The inside of the house was not what the Alicorn expected it to look. She figured it was full of complex wooden dartboards full of targets and locations, tables covered in books on the history of the royal castle, and maybe one or two magical artifacts but instead the interior looked like your average pony home with nothing notable save for a few books scattered about the room in random places, none of which had titles that struck Sapphire as "strategic" or helpful to their cause.
It was then that a pony approached her, though he looked older than a foal, he didn't look like an adult. "Welcome to our hideout! I'm mudmane!" The colt replied followed by a filly who did look much younger than the colt to walk into view. His mane was dark brown and his fur was a light brown color.
"I'm um, chanceybell…" The filly replied as she hid one eye behind her dark blue mane, looking away slightly from Sapphire as yet another colt approached from the shadows. Her fur seemed to be of a magenta color.
"You don't need to know my name." The colt remarked in a youthful yet gruff tone as he eyed Sapphire with suspicion. This young colt has a snow white mane and tail that reminded her of Snowbreeze except his fur color was jet black.
"Don't be like that Onyx!" Mudmane exclaimed with a wide smile as he petted the colt on the head to which Onyx batted his hoof away with an annoyed look.
"I told you to stop doing that! I'm not a baby colt anymore!" Onyx exclaimed in a voice that sounded much more natural.
Sapphire expected more faces to show up but after a few moments when no pony else showed their face, the Alicorn felt the urge to ask the obvious. "Is this it?" She asked with more than obvious disappointment in her voice.
Mudmane stepped forward and reached out to shake Sapphire's hoof to which she decided to be courteous and reached out to shake the colt's hoof. "Sadly yeah. I'm acting as temp leader until the other resistance leaders assign us a new one." He said in an upbeat tone that clearly didn't reflect the other ponies' moods.
"What happened to your previous leader?" Sapphire asked curiously only to get her answer yet in a non-verbal way as everypony in the room including Mudmane frowned.
"K-I-A sadly…" Mudmane replied after a few tense moments of silence.
"I don't believe that!" Emerald suddenly erupted causing Sapphire to look at her in alarm.
"Oh come on Emerald! We both saw it happen! No pony could have survived that level of magical power!" Mudmane shot back.
"Wait, it wasn't an earth pony from the castle who killed-erm, made him go missing?" Sapphire began to say only for a death glare from the dark green pony to make her rethink how to ask the question.
"Nah, it was a unicorn in some black robe, never saw their face but they ambushed us a few weeks ago during one of our sabotage missions." Mudmane explained.
"The Dark Horn…" Sapphire said aloud in confirmation much to the shock of everypony in the room.
"Wait, you know the group that ambushed us?!" Emerald exclaimed in surprise.
"It's the only group I know that has unicorns in black robes. They've been after me since I was an infant and I've confronted them more than once over the last few years." Sapphire replied, which seemed to have garnered the rapt attention of everypony in the room now.
"Okay, you have got to tell us more! We know nothing of this group and the only thing we know about this is how powerful the one unicorn was! And you say you've locked horns with them more than once and lived?!" Onyx exclaimed in an excited tone.
"I guess I could." Sapphire remarked aloud hesitantly which caused everypony in the room to sit down and look intently at the Alicorn. Even Emerald looked like she was on the edge of her seat for more. "Well, it all started literally the day after I was born…" Sapphire began and recounted every encounter and event she had with the Dark Horn and after nearly an hour she had finished.
"Whoa…they had the magical power to destroy an entire city?!" Onyx exclaimed awestruck.
"W-We are so in over our heads everypony!" Chanceybell exclaimed looking as if she was about to have a panic attack.
"Oh great, you set Bell off, filly's gonna be having a panic attack for the rest of the day at this rate." Emerald remarked with an eye rolling gesture.
"Well you all asked. I didn't know Chanceybell had a stress problem. If I had, I would have censored bits of my story abit more." Sapphire replied defensively.
"Ehh, don't worry about it, a wolf howling would set this filly off." Mudmane remarked dismissively with a hoof motion.
It was at this point that an important question popped into the Alicorn's head. "How old are all of you?" She asked curiously.
Mudmane chuckled at this inquiry and smiled. "That obvious huh? I'm sixteen, Onyx here is eight, Chaneybell is twelve, and-" Mudmane began to explain only to get cut off by Emerald. "I'm seventeen!" Emerald said quickly which earned a chuckle from Mudmane.
"Yeah, as of yesterday." Mudmane interjected much to the chagrin of the dark green filly who glared at him.
"Okay, I have to ask and I mean no offense by this but what pony in their right minds would recruit a bunch of foals to fight a war against a tyrant king?" Sapphire asked incredulously.
An awkward silence ensued for a time until Mudmane spoke up. "Me, Onyx, and Chanceybell are orphans and our leader was Emerald's-"
"Master. He's my master. He taught me everything I know." Emerald interjected quickly, cutting the colt off.
"Wait, master? As in earth pony master?" Sapphire asked in astonishment.
"Yeah…" Emerald replied trailing off with a soft sigh.
"His name wasn't by chance Firmhooves was it?" Sapphire asked which once again earned surprised looks from the fillies and colts in the room.
"You know him?!" Emerald asked, looking shocked.
"No…I was told by Liberty Belle, another earth pony master, to seek him out in this city." Sapphire replied and sighed heavily.
"Yeah well, he's dea-erm missing." Onyx began to say only for yet another death glare from Emerald to make him adjust his statement very quickly.
That was it, Sapphire felt truly lost now. The one chance she had at mastering her earth pony magic and being one step closer to being able to control her Alicorn magic was gone, taken out by the Dark Horn. "Curse that Dark Horn! They're always one step ahead of me! They knew I had to come here for an earth pony master so they killed him!" Sapphire nearly screamed in fury much to the shock of the fillies and colts in the room before she fell to the ground with her face buried in her front hooves and began sobbing loudly.
Even Emerald who initially wanted to make the mare correct herself couldn't bring herself to say anything as she looked upon Sapphire now, a clearly broken mare.
"Why would you need an earth pony master? Aren't you the legendary Alicorn?" Onyx asked, looking confused at the moment.
"Apparently, she's untrained. She told me she still needs to master her Earth pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn magic before she can even begin to tap into her Alicorn magic, well in a controlled state anyways." Emerald explained as Sapphire continued to sob loudly.
"An Alicorn needs training?" Onyx asked incredulously, looking dumbfounded by the prospect of something like the Legendary Alicorn needing training in anything.
"What do you mean by in a controlled state?" Mudmane asked curiously.
"I dunno, she mentioned something about her Alicorn magic activating in some kind of Alicorn state when her life is in danger as a sort of defensive mechanism or something. She wasn't exactly clear on that." Emerald replied as the Alicorn continued to sob aloud.
"Hey I know! Lets throw her in front of a boulder and then while this Alicorn state thingy is active, we sick her on the king!" Onyx suggested only to get a glare from Emerald and Mudmane.
"Not only is that a cruel idea, Onyx, it may not even work. Emerald said it herself, apparently Sapphire doesn't have any control over herself when she's in that state, she could level Maretropolis for all we know and do more harm than good!" Mudmane replied with a disapproving stare.
Emerald looked over at Sapphire who was still sobbing and rolled her eyes. "Okay, enough waterworks! You're the legendary Alicorn!" Emerald exclaimed in an annoyed tone.
Sapphire barely looked up at the dark green filly, tears still streaming from her eyes as she spoke. "Without training, How can I even call myself an Alicorn?! I'm barely able to fly and I can't use magic without hurting somepony!" Sapphire exclaimed between sobs.
"She's kinda got a point there, Emerald." Onyx chimed in much to the agitation of the dark green filly who glared at Onyx before looking back at Sapphire.
"Um, why don't you train her?" Chanceybell said in a soft voice barely audible over Sapphire's sobs.
"Me?! Why me?!" Emerald exclaimed, looking as if the question had put her on the backhoof.
"That's not a half-bad idea Bell! You've been training us haven't you?" Mudmane chimed in.
"And out of all of us, you're the only one who's been trained the most by Firmhooves before he…erm went missing." Onyx added.
"But why me?! I mean sure, I am the most skilled out of all of us but I'm not even fully trained! Master's are supposed to train earth ponies, not students!" Emerald countered defensively.
Sapphire had managed to overhear this conversation taking place through her sobs and looked up at the teenage filly in a new light. While this filly wasn't a master, she could teach what she knew. After all, she taught her how to sense vibrations in the earth not very long ago.
Emerald noticed Sapphire's expression as she looked at her now, saw the desperation in her eyes, slammed both hooves on her mane, clenched her eyes shut, and ruffled it up fiercely as she growled aloud in frustration. "Okay, fine! I'll train her! Yesh, twist my hooves, why don't you?" Emerald replied aloud in a less than enthusiastic tone as she looked at Sapphire.
Upon hearing this, Sapphire's expression lit up as she rushed over to Emerald and hugged her. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll be the best student you ever had!" Sapphire exclaimed as she hugged the filly so hard her face seemed to be turning blue with a panicked expression.
"Airways…blocked…can't…breathe!" Emerald choked out comically which prompted Sapphire to let go of the filly and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment as Emerald coughed and gasped for lifegiving air.
"S-Sorry, I just got really excited." Sapphire replied with a sniffle as she wiped the tears from her eyes with one hoof.
"Yesh, you've got the raw strength of an earth pony, that's for sure." Emerald remarked aloud with a slight cough as she tapped her chest with a hoof.
"Geeze, isn't she supposed to be an adult mare? She's acting like a foal right now…" Onyx remarked with a scowl.
"I'm uh, well, only eighteen and only by a few months really." Sapphire admitted sheepishly.
"Could have fooled me." Onyx retorted, still scowling.
"Knock it off pintsized, she's still older than you, so she deserves your respect." Mudmane remarked with a disapproving stare.
"Say your sorry!" Chanceybell chimed in, giving the colt a nudge with her right front hoof.
"Yeah, yeah! I was getting to that!" Onyx retorted irritably before he looked back at Sapphire. "S-Sorry…" He added softly.
"It's okay, I admit, I can act like a filly at times despite my age. It's one of my many quirks." Sapphire admitted with a sheepish grin as she rubbed the back of her head once more.
"Then you'll fit right in." Mudmane remarked with a smirk as he walked over and gave the mare a heavy smack to the rump causing Sapphire to seize up slightly and blush.
"Pervert." Chanceybell remarked softly as she glared at Mudmane who attempted to look innocent.
"Oh yeah, I should warn you. Mudmane is a leacherious colt, don't let him fool you, he'll try to feel up your teats and more if you let him." Emerald remarked to which Mudmane gave the filly an offended look.
"H-Hey! If you're talking about that one time, I was tossing in my sleep! I didn't even know my hoof was touching your teats until you rammed a hoof across my snout!" Mudmane exclaimed defensively earning a blush from Emerald.
"Uh-huh, sure you didn't and the erection you had didn't mean a dang thing, then?" Emerald retorted back.
"How would you know unless you were staring at it?!" Mudmane shot back.
Sapphire watched this back and forth spat between the teen ponies for a few moments more before she felt like she needed to behave like the adult in the room and spoke up. "Okay, enough! Both of you! Yesh, I'd tell you two to go buck in the back but I'm afraid you'd traumatize the younger ones." Sapphire remarked with an eyeroll which earned a glare from both teen ponies who seemed to grow in size before they shouted back in her face. "I'm not attracted to him!" "I'm not attracted to her!" at the top of their lungs somehow causing a torrent of wind to blow the mare's mane back due to the sheer force of their combined shouts before seemingly shrinking back to their normal sizes and glaring at her, both sporting crimson blushes as an awkward silence ensued for a time.
"Anyways… maybe you should start training her?" Mudmane suggested, which prompted Emerald to gawk at him for a short time before huffing.
"I'll start training her tomorrow, we need to go over our plan of attack on the supply route coming in tonight." Emerald replied dodging the topic for now.
"Wait, how do you know there's a supply carriage coming in tonight?" Sapphire asked curiously.
"You saw me running from those guard ponies right? I broke into one of the guideposts and checked their ledger. I would have taken it with me too if I hadn't been busted." Emerald replied with a slight scowl.
Mudmane's expression became stern as he spoke. "Emerald, how many times do I have to tell you?! We're to take no action until the resistance provides us with a new leader!"
"We don't need a new leader because our current one will be coming back any day now!" Emerald shot back.
Mudmane slammed a hoof on his face and sighed heavily. "Emerald, we've been over this, Firmhooves is dead! He's not coming back!" The colt exclaimed much to the outrage of the teen filly who glared back at him, tears threatening to form in her eyes.
"You don't know horseapples Mudmane! My master would never be done in by a spikehead!" Emerald nearly shrieked at the colt.
"Ohhh! You're so far up in denial that you've reached the ocean!" Mudmane retorted.
"You know what, Mudmane?!" Emerald shouted.
"What?!" Mudmane shouted back.
BUCK YOU!
NO, BUCK YOU!
The two teen ponies then marched up to each other and literally butted heads, their foreheads rubbing against each other as they growled at one another.
"What ya gonna do? Use some of your earth pony techniques on me?!" Mudmane exclaimed.
"As if I'd waste using any advanced techniques on your lame flank! I don't need any of that to take you down!" Emerald shot back the tension in the room nearing its peak as the two younger foals had backed up and looked on in fear of what may transpire now.
Sapphire watched this spectacle play out up until now but she knew, if she didn't intervene now, somepony was gonna end up hurt. Without thinking Sapphire raised her front hooves up and slammed them into the floor causing a shockwave to surge forth and causing the teen ponies to lose their balance and fall to the floor as she shouted at the top of her lungs "ENOUGH!" which seemed to have an eerie echo about it that would make a certain moon ruling Alicorn proud.
Everypony in the room gawked at Sapphire now who realized what she had just done and stared down at her hooves in shock.
"The buck? I never taught you how to do the shockwave stomp!" Emerald exclaimed in shock as she gawked at the Alicorn.
"I thought you were untrained?" Mudmane asked gawking in the same fashion that Emerald was.
This question prompted Sapphire to look up at the two. "I am…" Sapphire replied in a stunned tone seemingly in shock of being able to do something like that without even trying.
"Then how in the flying buck did you perform a move that took me a full year to master without prior training?!" Emerald exclaimed dumbfounded at this seemingly untrained Alicorn performing such an advanced move.
"I…I don't know." Sapphire replied honestly. Sapphire was just dumbfounded as the teen ponies at this point, how could she do something that took Emerald a full year to master without any training?
"You think she watched you do it and her body learned how to do it on its own, like some Alicorn magic thing?" Mudmane asked curiously.
"I only did it once, she would have had to know how to properly tense and relax the bottom of her hooves at the right moments along with some really precise muscle control." Emerald explained as she stood up to all fours as did Mudmane.
"Can you do it again?" Mudmane asked curiously which caused the Alicorn to snap out of her stupor and stare at Mudmane.
"I-I don't know." Sapphire replied honestly.
"I mean, if you did it once, you can do it again for sure, right?" Mudmane encouraged her.
"I-I can try!" Sapphire replied confidently.
"Okay then, let's see it." Emerald replied and promptly sat on her rump to avoid being knocked off balance again as did Mudmane.
A few moments passed before the dark green filly spoke once more. "Ya gonna do it or not?!"
"Of course! I-I'm just mentally preparing myself is all!" Sapphire boasted however the truth was that she wasn't sure she could reproduce the same results if any at all. Regardless she raised her front legs up and stomped them back to the floor with all her might however instead of creating a shockwave, the mare created two hoofsized holes in the floor and fell forward comically slamming her underside and chin into the floor as she lost her balance.
"Wonderful… She just put two holes in our floor!" Emerald remarked aloud in annoyance as she stood up and walked over to Sapphire.
"So it was a fluke?" Mudmane asked curiously.
"I don't know, she learned how to sense vibrations in the ground way faster than I did when I gave her a crash course in basic earth pony training earlier." Emerald remarked aloud as she helped the mare yank her legs out of the holes she had made and to all fours. "Course she's not great at it but the fact she learned how to do it at all in such a short time shocked the buck out of me." Emerald added as Sapphire looked at her in confusion.
"Wait, you said earth pony foals learn to do that stuff by age three!" Sapphire remarked looking slightly outraged at the obvious lie the filly had told her.
"I might have stretched the truth a little." Emerald replied with a smirk.
"A little? I can't even do that and Firmhooves spent all last month trying to teach me!" Onyx popped off from the other side of the room.
"Okay, I stretched the truth by alot, but I was just trying to give you a push to try harder!" Emerald conceded defensively as Sapphire glared at her.
"If I know Emerald as well as I think I do, she didn't expect you to figure out how to do it at all. Emerald may not act like it but she can be a prankster." Mudmane remarked with a knowing look at the filly who looked away with a facial expression one may recognize from a certain farm pony when she told a lie.
"I got that impression myself through her bouts of laughter when she had me blindfolded since you guys want to keep your hideout location a secret." Sapphire remarked with an annoyed look.
"Um, Firmhooves never blindfolded new recruits." Chanceybell remarked much to the chagrin of Sapphire who now glared at Emerald who couldn't contain herself any longer and laughed.
"Hey, don't look at me like that, I mean sure, I pranked you but hey, you learned a real earth pony skill out of it! You really do get blindfolded for vibration sense training, it's to make you rely on your other senses, specifically your hooves to sense the vibrations in the ground." Emerald replied with a sheepish grin.
"Luckily, she isn't lying about that." Mudmane chimed in. "I can sense vibrations too but I can't mask my own like Emerald can." He added.
"I would be shocked if you could Mudmane, you're too flathoofed." Emerald replied to this statement.
"Flathoofed?" Sapphire inquired with a mildly confused expression.
"She means I can't flex the bottoms of my hooves as well as she can yet." Mudmane replied with a mildly annoyed look at the teen filly who beamed with ego at her better skills. "Masking your own vibrations is pretty advanced stuff, you don't usually learn how to do that until your three fourths through your earth pony training." he added shortly after.
It became apparent to Sapphire, that her sudden ability to perform an advanced earth pony technique without any prior training managed to make the two completely forget what they were fighting about, a fact that Sapphire was all too thankful to acknowledge. She wasn't sure what she could do to stop these two from hurting one another much less stopping a nearly fully trained earth pony.
Acknowledging this however did remind her that she had found a pony to train her, even though it was a filly nearly two years younger than her… who was prone to pranks… who may or may not actually teach her something by accident when she was really- okay she needed to stop focusing on the negative and focus on the positive, she found somepony to train her and that's all that mattered.
"So, what do you plan to teach me tomorrow?" Sapphire asked, suddenly causing the teen filly to stare at her confused for a moment before she recalled that she agreed to train her.
"Oh..oh…um… I mean, we'll have to start with the basics before we can get to the advanced stuff. You best be ready for it though, just because its rookie level training doesn't mean it's not tough as nails hard!" Emerald replied ending on a confident note.
"She can start training you today if you like, since we aren't doing anything tonight." Mudmane said with a smile towards Sapphire before his gaze shifted to Emerald mid-sentence in a more stern tone putting emphasis on his final words.
This caused Emerald's expression to become agitated once more as she looked at Mudmane. "We don't need to wait for my master to return to take on important missions!" Emerald exclaimed heatedly.
"How many times do I have to say it, Emerald, Firmhooves is-"
"I'm all for it!" Sapphire suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere without thinking in a desperate attempt to defuse the agreement before it escalated once more.
"Ha, majority rules, Mudmane!" Emerald exclaimed cockily to the teen colt who glared at her before looking at Sapphire.
"Are you sure about this? Do you even know what goes into disrupting a shipping carriage in the first place?" Mudmane asked Sapphire with a pensive look as if to analyze the Alicorn to see if she was up to the task.
"Y-Yeah! I mean, how hard can it be? Knock out some guards, take the food, give it to the poor and all that." Sapphire replied in a less than confident tone.
"Hahaha…no." Onyx chimed in sounding as if he found the statement funny before taking a very serious and flat tone on his final word.
Mudmane looked at Onyx with a mildly annoyed look before he looked at Sapphire at which point his expression melted into a state of worry. "This kind of mission isn't as simple as knocking ponies out, Sapphire, there can be no witnesses." Mudmane said solemnly ending his stately on a dark note.
"If anypony saw our faces and lived to tell the king, we'd have been raided, imprisoned, and killed over a year ago." Emerald chimed in with the same solemn tone.
"Mudmane looked over at Emerald she said this then looked back to Sapphire. "You have to be willing to kill. Are you willing to take a life, Sapphire?" Mudmane said calmly yet his facial expression was anything but looking very tense and serious.
To say the Alicorn was taken back by this revelation was the understatement of the century as the mare looked at Mudmane whose expression did not change as he continued to stare at her, waiting for a response.
Sapphire had never killed anypony before, at least not while she was in control of herself. She knew she had killed ponies while she was in her Alicorn state but she would always tell herself that that pony wasn't her, as weak as that excuse was, it helped her cope with the lives she had taken in her Alicorn state. Yet now, she had no weak excuses to fall on, save for something triggering her Alicorn state again, she had nothing to stop her from feeling the responsibility of a pony that took a life with her own two hooves.
"I'll ask once more, Sapphire. Are you willing to take a life?" Mudmane asked solemnly once again his tense and serious expression unchanged as he looked at her.
"I…" Sapphire began but trailed off before speaking once more. "I don't know…" She replied honestly.
Mudmane then looked to Emerald. "She's not ready for this, Emerald. I'm making the call as temporary leader, the mission is off." He said matter of factly.
"Horseapples it is, if we don't hit this supply carriage tonight, ponies are going to die!" Emerald exclaimed much to the shock of everypony in the room.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Mudmane asked, looking more worried now than ever. "What aren't you telling us?" Mudmane added looking more serious than ever now.
Emerald sighed heavily before she spoke. "I didn't want to panic anypony so I kept this to myself, but the supply carriage coming in tonight is carrying a refined shipment of poison joke." Moments after the teen filly said this, an uneasy air filled the room.
Sapphire didn't know what the big deal was but she could tell by looking at everypony in the room, even the younger ones had looks of concern and fear upon their facial expressions, creating a foreboding atmosphere in the room. Chanceybell looked as if she was on the verge of another panic attack while Onyx looked so scared that he looked as if he had literally just urinated on the floor where he stood.
"Okay, I have to ask, what's so bad about refined poison joke?" Sapphire asked, which caused everypony to look at her with differing expressions of shock, confusion, and concern.
"It's a key component used in the Sleeping Death potion." Mudmane explained.
"Basically, you go to sleep but you never wake up." Emerald added looking just as serious as Mudmane did at the moment.
"So that's what the king used on Snowbreeze back in the castle!" Sapphire exclaimed without thinking in revelation which caused everypony in the room to gawk at her.
"Wait, what do you mean by that? Have you already met the king?!" Mudmane inquired aggressively as his expression suddenly became one of mistrust towards the Alicorn.
"I knew it! She's an assassin the king sent to take us all out while we sleep!" Onyx popped off as he glared at the Alicorn. "No wonder she could do all that stuff and could sense vibrations so easily! She's been faking it the whole time!" He added as the foal took a combat stance while Chaneybell backed into a corner and really did begin to have a panic attack.
"N-No! I wasn't faking it!" Sapphire exclaimed defensively in a panicked tone taking note of Emerald and Mudmane also taking a combat stance.
"Then out with it! Why did you mention the king and being inside his castle?! Answer me!" Mudmane exclaimed threateningly.
Sapphire knew, in this moment, she had a choice to make. A choice that could potentially result in the death of her closest friend if she chose incorrectly. Sapphire's mind raced, should she tell them or make a run for it? Fighting was out of the question as Sapphire knew she was no match for Emerald even if she wasn't fully trained, based on what she saw earlier, her combat prowess outshined her's ten to one.
"Time's ticking Sapphire! If that's even your real name! Answer us now or I'm going to make sure you don't wake up tomorrow!" Emerald threatened with a deathly glare.
Suddenly, the door to their home was blown off its hinges sailing over Sapphire's head and directly at Emerald who in one swift motion leapt into the air and struck the flailing door with all four hooves shattering it into splinters in a flurry of precise hoofstrikes.
"She's called the royal guard on us!" Onyx exclaimed as guards poured into the room followed by a hooded figure as Sapphire turned to face them.
"My…My…My… Not only do we find the location of the radicalist headquarters but the Alicorn is with them too. This must be my lucky day!" The pony in the dark robe remarked with a chuckle.
Sapphire's eyes widened in shock as she spoke. "That voice… I know you!" Sapphire exclaimed as she narrowed her eyes at the robbed pony.
"Haha, it's been a few years, hasn't it? Since we've met face to face at least. The name's Bloodmane by the way, not that it will matter soon." The pony remarked aloud as he lowered his hood revealing a dark blue horn, scarlet red mane, and dark blue face.
"I trusted you, Sapphire!" Emerald shot out as the pony spoke only to gasp as he lowered his hood. "You!" Emerald exclaimed in shock and outrage as she got a clear look at the pony's face.
"Have we met?" Bloodmane asked nonchalantly as he looked over at the dark green filly who was seething with rage though Sapphire couldn't see this since she hadn't looked behind herself since the The Dark Horn unicorn and the guards had entered.
"You foalnapped my father! Where is he?!" Emerald shouted as she took several threatening steps forward.
"Your father?" Bloodmane asked as if he genuinely had no idea what she was talking about until he seemed to recall. "Oh! Now I remember, you must have been that earth pony master's apprentice and you were also his daughter? Haha, now it makes sense!" Bloodmane said with a smirk as he looked at her. "I wondered why he protected you so fiercely despite leaving himself open to several blows a stallion of his skill level could have easily dodged." He added with a chuckle.
"He would have done that for anypony, not just me! Not like you'd understand that! Now where is he?!" Emerald shot back vehemently
"Where?" Bloodmane asked aloud as if the answer was obvious. "Lying in a ditch somewhere? I don't know, it depends on if somepony moved the body or not." He replied, chuckling once more.
"You lie! You foalnapped him! Now where is he?!" Emerald exclaimed tears swelling in her eyes as she shrieked these words.
"My dear filly who will soon be joining him… I killed him." Bloodmane said darkly ending his statement on a sneer.
"I'll kill you!" Emerald shrieked at the top of her lungs as she leapt off the ground and lunged at the unicorn.
"Emerald, no!" Mudmane exclaimed as the teen filly stuck out her left hind hoof with the intent to bury it in this unicorn's skull.
"Emerald, yes!" Emerald shrieked back as she continued to sail at the unicorn only to be halted mid-air by the unicorn's magic who sneered evilly.
"Emerald, No." Bloodmane said in a mocking tone before he sent the teen filly flying across the room, into the wall, and through it, skidding across the ground for a short time before lying motionless.
"Emerald, No!" Sapphire screamed in horror as she turned to look at the teen filly.
"Aww, what's wrong Alicorn? Did I just kill the one chance you had to find an earth pony master?" Bloodmane remarked in a feigned sympathetic tone which caused Sapphire to glare back at him though her eyes were now blank and filled with white magical aura as her horn glowed.
"Are you sure you want to lose control now? After all, these other ponies might get caught in the crossfire… like this one!" Bloodmane remarked using his magic to levitate Chanceybell and yank her over to him and leave her floating in front of him as a quine shield.
"Noooo! Let me go!" Chanceybell shrieked in horror.
Hearing the panicked filly's cries managed to bring Sapphire back from the brink of entering her Alicorn state as the white glow slowly vanished from her eyes, her irises slowly reappearing within each one, and her horn stopped glowing. "Let her go! She's innocent!" Sapphire exclaimed with a glare at Bloodmane who sneered at her.
"All the more reason to use her as a bargaining chip to keep your Alicorn magic and that colt over there at bay." Bloodmane replied as he continued to sneer.
"You want me, that's it? Right?!" Sapphire reasoned as Bloodmane stared back at her, the sneer never leaving his facial features.
"Normally you would be right but as it just so happens, I found this little squad of guards heading to eliminate a radical faction of resistance ponies. Not wanting to miss a good time, I accompanied them. The fact that you are here with them is a happy accident, though one I am currently unprepared to deal with."
"It's no accident at all." Sapphire said simply which earned a curious look from the unicorn. "Stollhoof told me to infiltrate the resistance group in exchange for something." Sapphire explained though she seemed to be oddly smiling now.
"So you really were sent to assassinate us!" Mudmane exclaimed glaring over at Sapphire now who looked back at him and subtly winked hoping he would catch on. Though she was technically telling the truth, her motives changed once she realized that the king planned to have these ponies taken out regardless if she found them first or not. She would find a way to save Snowbreeze but not like the king intended, no, she would save her friend and make that corrupt king pay!
Fortunately for Sapphire, Mudmane seemed to catch on as his expression softened if only for a moment before he resumed glaring at Bloodmane.
"So the king intentionally withheld the fact that he had the Alicorn in his possession but then why are you out here? Is it possible that like me, at the present time, he holds some sort of leverage over you?" Bloodmane remarked curiously until his eyes widened in a form of realization. "Oh-ho-ho! I don't see your Pegasus friend with you. So he's holding her hostage and forcing you to do grunt work in exchange for her freedom is he?" Bloodmane surmised much to Sapphire's internal panic.
"Horseapples! He figured it out!" Sapphire thought to herself in a panicked tone though she never let her panic reach her facial features as she continued to glare at him.
"Your silence betrays you, Alicorn. Now I know that your friend is being held in the castle, I no longer need this filly as a shield." Bloodmane remarked aloud with a smirk and much to Sapphire's horror, sent the filly flying through the air through the hole in the wall and towards the sky.
Without thinking, Sapphire took to the skies through the same hole at breakneck speed barely catching the flailing filly mid-air just in time before she collided with a building and looked down at Bloodmane.
"Meet me at the royal castle, Alicorn. If you aren't there by tomorrow morning, your Pegasus friend dies." Bloodmane shouted so that Sapphire could hear him and then turned to the guards. "I have removed the biggest threat to you, these untrained earth ponies should be easy for you to take care of on your own, I have matters to attend to." he added looking at the guards before he vanished in a flash of magic.
Mudmane instantly sprang to action, tackling one of the guards before he could raise his weapon while Onyx leapt into the air and cleanly connected with another guard's helmet knocking him back and to the ground. "Don't underestimate us just because we're not fully trained!" Onyx boasted confidently.
As Onyx shouted these words, Mudmane had swiftly struck the guard he tackled to the ground several times by stomping into his chest with all his strength followed by locking his hind legs around the guard's neck and with a sickening "snap!" the guard pony laid motionless.
Almost in the same moment, Onyx had leapt up once more and ejected his hind hooves in front of him as he sailed towards the temporarily incapacitated guard he struck earlier landing squarely on his adam's apple with all his strength causing the guard to grasp his throat and choke violently for a few moments before his front hooves fell limply to his sides.
Sapphire landed and gently set Chanceybell down before facing the guard ponies. "Don't worry about them, they can handle these guards, go check on Emerald." Chanceybell instructed.
Though Sapphire hesitated, she did as she was told and rushed to Emerald's side. "Please be breathing!" Sapphire said softly as she rolled the limp filly over and put an ear to her chest. A few tense moments passed but then she felt her head raise slightly and lower followed by a hollow but clear exhale from the unconscious filly. "Oh thank Luna! You're one tough cookie, you know that?" Sapphire remarked with a relieved smile.
With her immediate concern taken care of for the moment, Sapphire turned her attention to the guards who seemed to be getting the upper hoof on the two colts as Mudmane had just barely dodged a spear to the chest only to get shoved to the ground.
The Alicorn sprang into action rushing forward and without thinking raised her front legs up and slammed them down creating a shockwave which knocked the guards off balance. Mudmane seized this opportunity as did Onyx and the two colts swiftly dispatched the remaining guards a few moments later.
—---------------------------------------------
Emerald's eyes fluttered open wearily followed by a cry of pain as Sapphire and Mudmane rushed over to her. "B-Buck! My body feels like it got hit by a stampeding buffalo!" Emerald exclaimed with a wince as she struggled to sit up.
"Don't sit up too quickly Emerald and yeah, that's an accurate comparison to being flung through the wall of the house." Mudmane remarked with a smirk.
"Anything broken?" Sapphire inquired curiously which caused the filly to stare at her in mild shock before she looked at Mudmane.
"Okay, what the buck happened while I was out? I thought Sapphire had betrayed us?" Emerald remarked followed by another wince as she sat upright and looked at the two.
"Well at first she did, well more accurately she was supposed to infiltrate the resistance, find the main headquarters and as she put it, forcely disband it by any means necessary." Mudmane began to explain.
"Ugh… so what changed?" Emerald asked as she rubbed her chest with a pained expression.
"I was being blackmailed into the whole thing and only went along with it because my friend Snowbreeze was being held hostage." Sapphire added. "When I found out the king sent that taskforce to eliminate you guys, I figured out he had somepony follow me." Sapphire continued and stopped a few moments to let this information sink in before she continued.
"The king used her to find us but didn't count on the Dark Horn joining the assassination squad and finding Sapphire here." Mudmane chimed in, finishing the explanation.
"Once you've recovered, we need to move locations as soon as possible." Onyx chimed in as he approached from behind the two.
Emerald glanced out through the hole in the wall and went wide-eyed. "B-Buck! We gotta move!" Emerald exclaimed as she rolled over to all fours only for her front legs to buckle and drop to her knees.
"Whoa, you're in no state to go anywhere right now!" Sapphire remarked as she attempted to force the filly back down to the bed only for her to force herself upright and bat the mare's hooves away.
"You underestimate me! Besides, my master would never approve of me lying down over something as trivial as being thrown through the wall of a house!" Emerald retorted and took a few steps forward only to nearly fall to her front knees once more.
"Your father you mean?" Sapphire remarked softly which caused Emerald to snap her gaze in the mare's direction.
"Yeah…" Emerald replied softly though her voice sounded saddened.
"I beg to differ, Emerald. I doubt your father would lecture you after a near death experience like that." Mudmane remarked as he walked up next to her.
"L-Listen! The supply carriage is going to hit its first checkpoint in roughly an hour! We have to intercept it before it gets there!" Emerald explained and winced as she took more steps forward wearily.
Sapphire put a hoof on the filly's shoulder gently as she spoke. "You need to rest! Leave it to me and Mudmane!" She stated confidently.
Emerald flashed a skeptical look in Sapphire's direction. "You're joking right? Me and my father's skills are what carry this faction!" Emerald boasted only to fall to her front knees once more.
"If you go out there, you're going to get seriously hurt or worse! You're in no condition to fight, Emerald." Sapphire reasoned.
"She's right, Emmy, let us handle it." Mudmane chimed in which earned a glare from the teen filly.
"You're bucking lucky I'm feeling so weak right now or I'd throttle you for calling me that Mudmane!" Emerald snapped as she limped over to the bed and sat down.
"The fact you aren't throttling me is all the proof I need that you aren't up for this and need rest." Mudmane replied with a smirk.
"Just tell us the location and we'll take carry of the rest." Sapphire said as she placed a comforting hoof on the teen filly's shoulder who sighed heavily.
"Fine…" The dark green filly conceded and began to explain to the two where the supply carriage was going to be in the next thirty minutes…