//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: How could you? (Raw Version) // Story: Out of Sight... // by Star-Killer89 //------------------------------// Written by Star-Killer89 HOOFINGTON BORDERS - 1 MILE AWAY FROM TRIXIE’S CART THE NIGHT OF THE PONYNAPPING - JUNE 04 - 3:57 A.M. “Thirty-scheven mugsh of schider on the –hic- wall, thirty-scheven mugsh of schideeer. You take one down, passh it around, thirty-schix mugs of schider on the –hic- wall. Thirtyschix mugs of schider on the wall, Thirty-hic-schix mugs of schideeer…” “I can’t believe she actually managed to sing that annoying song till now without missing a single stupid mug. And I can’t believe you actually convinced me to come along with the two of you, Colgate.” rumbled an angry Carrot Top. “Oh come on Carrot, why did you say that?” replied Colgate in a half-offended tone. “Why? You even ask me? First of all, at that Carnival, we’ve spent more time waiting in line than actually going on the rides. Then, you forced me to come along with you in this ridiculous ‘All Girls Night’, which, of course, resulted in wandering from pub to pub, watching Berry get drunk.” Carrot started to list, as she was now pointing her hoof accusingly towards Berry “Then, at that pub, the ‘One for the Road’, those 2 colts that where, what, like 16 years old? hit on me for the whole hour we spent there.” “Then, your marefriend here tried to puke over my hooves, and now we can’t remember the road to our hotel and we’re lost!” “Sh-She’s not my marefriend!” replied Colgate, who were glad it was too dark to let her friend notice she was blushing “Besides, you can’t pretend for two young mares like us to wander around in a foreign town this late at night. What if somepony tried to attack us? You, at least, attended that self-defence course.” “Twenty-nine mugsh of schider on the waaaaall…” kept singing a rather drunk Berry Punch. “How I wish her sister was here with us.” sighed Carrot Top “She would have never allowed her to turn this way…or, at least, she would have remembered the directions to the hotel.” she added, while all the three of them were still wandering around in the woods, trying to find the main path that would have lead them back to Hoofington. “We couldn’t help it.” replied Colgate “You know that tomorrow is a working day, and Cheerilee could not possibly spent an entire night outside town with us.” “Great, now we will never be able to go back to Ponyville!” the earth pony resumed to complain “They will find our skinny, dead bodies in the bushes around this Celestia’s forgotten town. My skeleton will be rolled into a ball for the hunger pangs…while your body will be probably clung to the one of your marefriend, while sharing one last, passionate kiss.” she added, with an over-exaggerated romantic tone. “S-Stop that! I already told you, she’s not my marefriend!” shouted Colgate in reply. “Berry and Colgate, sitting in a tree: K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” started to hum her friend in turn, with a big smirk printed on her face. “Twenty-three kisshes to Colgate on the wall, Twenty-three kissheeees…” Berry changed her song. “E-Enough already!” said a frustrated Colgate, stomping her hoof on the ground “I swear on Celestia, if you’re going to say one more time Berry and I are engage-“ she started to threaten, but could not finish her phrase. In the distance, a scream of pain echoed through-out the air, with a dazzling sphere of light that erupted behind a scrub of trees before them, while the earth beneath their hooves shook for a couple of seconds. Carrot and Colgate immediately directed their attention towards the source of the light, while Berry, on the other hoof, didn’t seem to notice anything at all. “-uuuuurp!” she finished belching “Uh?…Wash…wash that me?” “What was that?” asked a frightened Carrot Top. “Who cares? Didn’t you heard that scream? Somepony is in danger!” replied Colgate, and started to head towards the brush. “Are you crazy Colgate? Come back here. It might be dangerous” shouted Carrot, but her friend was already beyond her sight. “That mare will make us all killed!” she grumped, as she set off in pursuit of the unicorn. “Hey girlsh, wait for me!” screamed Berry behind them “Schoot! I can’t remember where I - hic - wash….. ehr ….oh, yeshh! Ninety-two kisshes to Colgate on the wall, ninety-two kisshes to Colgaaate. You take one down, passh it around…” she resumed to sing, and started to totter behind her friends. --- OUTSIDE HOOFINGTON - WAREHOUSE 2 HOURS EARLY - 1:56 A.M. Uma was able to regain consciousness from Twilight’s attack pretty quickly, and started to chase the lavender unicorn. ‘How could I possibly be so careless? Me, the best assassin of the Red Hoof. The one who spent all his life training in the art of combat and killing, tricked by a little mare!’ he thought, anger rising from the inside, while he was heading towards the exit. He finally managed to spot the two unicorns “Time to end our duel!” he whispered, and made a final rush towards them. Suddenly, a glare of light erupted from Twilight’s horn, and an instant later both mares disappeared, just a few hooves away from Uma. ‘Blast, they teleported!’ he thought and, immediately after, he heard a familiar voice in the distance. Beyond the exit, Storm had also just recovered, and was now tottering towards Uma, with his right hoof pressed on the muzzle. “BUCK! BUCKBUCKBUCKBUCKBUCKBUCK! Dath bucking horsh broge my noshe!” he was loudly swearing, while blood was copiously leaking from his nostrils “And where de buck were you jusd a few bobends ago, Uma?” “I’m sorry, I-“ the assassin just stopped for a moment, weighed down by the bitterness that realization brought with it “That lavender unicorn managed to knock me out.” Storm was just shocked by the revelation “WHAD? Dhat bare was able do defead you?” “Weren’d you dhe besd assassin around?” he added, while pointing his left hoof toward him “And yed a liddle bare banaged do defead you?” Uma was not paying attention to the words of Storm, as his look was staring at the butterfly knife that was still tied to the hoof Storm was pointing at him. “Whose blood is that on the knife? Is that from one of those two mares?” “WHAD?” Storm was get off hoof by that sudden question “Yesh, is from dadh odher unigorn, bud don’d try to-“ “With that, I can track them down and bring them back here!” Uma immediately responded, while he was still able to not loose his temper towards his partner. “You gan? Dhen jusd do it! Drack dhem down and GHILL DHEM!” Storm shouted in response. “Our orders are to retrieve the money.” calmly replied Uma “If I kill them, then-“ “I DON’D BUCKING GARE!” shouted Storm, his pupils like needlepoints, while the anger was making him heavily panting and drooling from the sides of his mouth “You are subbosed do follow my orders, and I jusd ordered you to ghill dhem, gapisce?” Uma could clearly see that his partner had lost his mind. Still, Storm was right, as their boss ordered him to follow his instructions. “As you wish, sir.” Uma replied, with a little contempt in the last word. He levitated the knife in front of him, closed his eyes while focusing his attention on the blood stained on the blade and started to murmur a couple of spells. After a couple of minutes he shout his eyes open. “Found them!” he whispered, and a moment later he was already gone. --- HOOFINGTON - ½ MILE AWAY FROM TRIXIE’S CART 2:05 A.M. Trixie finally had the chance to catch a breath of relief, as the two mares were finally able to put several miles of distance between them and her ponynappers, and were now heading to the Hoofington police station. Suddenly, a noise of something cracking echoed throughout the surroundings. ‘Maybe it was just a bird.’ she tried to persuade herself, but the fear it might have been their aggressors was still present inside of her, so she started to check the surrounding area. “Hmmm?” Her attention was caught by a feeble light beneath the woods, just a few hooves in front of Twilight. Keeping her eyes skinned, she managed to recognise what was the source of that light. Her heart immediately skipped a beat. “LOOK OUT!” She shouted, and immediately dashed towards Twilight, who was just caught by surprise by Trixie’s sudden scream. Twilight was pushed to her left and sent on the ground. It was at that moment that Uma came out from his hiding, and struck. He rose his psionic blade and reached Trixie’s body, with a lunge from bottom to top that managed to pierce through her chest. “TRIXIEEEEEE!” Twilight shouted. Time for the cyan unicorn seemed to slow down, as she slowly lowered her look on the psionic blade. Her eyes were full of pain and terror, as she coughed out a huge amount of blood, and collapsed on her knees, while a blood-red pool was already starting to form beneath her hooves. Uma removed the blade from her chest. A large spray of blood immediately erupted from the wound and he stared the last moments of the unicorn’s life. Trixie couldn’t properly breath, as blood was slowly starting to fill her lungs, while Twilight was frozen on the spot, too shocked to even blink. “Any last words to your friend?” Uma asked her. Trixie took all the strength she still had, tears flowing on her cheeks, while the world around her started to black out. She turned her head towards Twilight and managed to whisper “I-I’m..soo-…-rryyyy!” Uma then gave her the final blow, swinging the psionic blade at the height of her head, dealing a hack towards her eyes, from right to left, leading her to turn on her side and collapse on the ground. He took a few steps back, and swung the blade in mid air, cleaning it from the blood of the cyan unicorn. Some drops of blood reached Twilight’s face, and that seemed to snap her out, as her brain finally elaborated what just happened. “No…….noo……nonononononoNOOOOOOO!” she started to say panic-stricken, while crawling towards Trixie’s body. After what seemed an eternity for her, she reached the body of the show-mare, and turned her face up “Trixie…. please… answer me!” she started to cry, while strongly shaking her from her shoulder “PLEASE… ANSWER ME!” but the other mare never responded. “Such a pity” suddenly said Uma, while approaching Twilight “If she just decided to care for herself, maybe now she would still be alive.” “You…You killed her.” whispered Twilight, her voice breaking with grief as she was still staring on the motionless body of Trixie. “Yes, but if that may console you, I was actually trying to hit you.” Uma continued, while he started to walk towards Twilight’s back “No matter what Loneshark said, my priority was to keep her alive until she would have told us where she hid the money. Sadly, she decided to save your life.” “You killed her!” Twilight repeated. Uma reached Twilight’s back, and created the other twin psionic blade around his left hoof “It seems like you are too shocked to say anything else. Well, don’t worry…” he then added, while he crossed the blades in front of the mare’s throat “…you are going to reach her soon.” And then, he closed his forelegs. --- *FSSSSZZ-CRACK-FSSSSSSSZZZZZ* “What?” Uma was totally caught by surprise. His blades managed to cut the unicorn’s throat for a quarter of inch, but he couldn’t go any further, as it seemed something was blocking the blades. He tried to apply more force, but the result was the same. Something was preventing him to behead that unicorn. He decided to take a closer look at her, and noticed that all around her body there was a thin yet hard aura, completely covering her and emitting a feeble cream-colored light "An Absolute Magic Field? That’s impossible!” “You killed her!” said once again Twilight, but this time, there was not fear nor sadness in her tone, but just a growing, irrepressible anger. Suddenly, the glare she was emitting increased of intensity, as her body started to shift: her lavander coat turned into an intense cream color, her irises changed from a strong purple into a deep blood-red, but what was most incredible was her mane, that started to burn, with the flames replacing what once were her mane and tail. The sudden transformation caught Uma unready, as Twilight turned her attention on the stallion. “HOW COULD YOU?” she shouted, as a blast that originated from her barrier aimed towards the stallion. Uma managed to shield his body behind the psionic blades, and kept the balance on his hind legs, but the energy of the shot was too powerful, as he was tossed a couple of hooves away, leaving a marked rut on the ground. The shot didn’t leave a scratch on him, and he immediately tried to evaluate the situation. Suddenly, he noticed that deep cracks had started to form on his magical weapons, that shattered into pieces just a few moments after. Panic and anger started to worm into the emotionless assassin ‘Impossible! My psionic blades are made of pure magical energy. They cannot be broken so easily!’ He immediately focused his magic into his horn and tried once more to pierce the violet unicorn with a series of magical bolts, but unlike the first time, Twilight didn’t try to protect herself. On the contrary, she started to slowly advance towards her opponent, while his shots just seemed to evaporate in mid-air, just a few inches from her body. Fear was beginning to get the upper hoof on Uma “What the hay is going on here?” he shouted, fear completely replaced by anger. He performed the twin psionic blades once again, and dashed at high speed towards Twilight. Before the blow could hit the mare, she suddenly disappeared before his eyes. ‘She teleported?’ was the first thought of the stallion, but then he noticed some traces of orange and yellow flames moving around him. ‘No. This cannot be! She’s moving at an even higher speed than me!’ he concluded, just before Twilight reappeared in front of his eyes and angrily smacked him on his left cheek. A magical discharge erupted from the tip oh her hoof, drastically increasing the strength of the hit, and smacked Uma with his face on the ground a few hooves away, making him bounce with a loud thump. “Get up!” Twilight ordered the stallion, while using a spell to levitate him in mid air a few inches from the ground. As he noticed that the magic barrier surrounding his opponent was now less intense, Uma tried to take advantage of the situation, and swung his right hoof towards Twilight. Unfortunately for him, he was too far away to deal a good slash and he only managed to wound his opponent on her left cheek. “Tch!” hissed Twilight, more pissed than hurt, and she dealt an uppercut to Uma’s stomach. Uma started to gasp for air, as the hit was powerful enough to leave the print of Twilight’s hoof on his chest. Dispelling the levitation spell, Twilight made a 180° degrees turn and before Uma’s body could hit the ground again, she kicked him with her hind legs, hurling her opponent several hooves away and letting him crush with his back against the trunk of a tree. “Gaaaah!” Uma screamed in pain, as he could feel a pair of ribs cracking, while a small amount of blood erupted from his mouth. Twilight started again to slowly approach Uma, her hooves leaving hoofprints of burning behind her on the ground, while the tears that was still profusely flowing through her eyes were evaporating almost immediately. “You’re going to suffer!” Uma was laying prone on the ground with his left eye shut, but managed to quickly get on his hooves again ‘Shoot, if I don’t do something, she’s really going to kill me.’ he thought, after he spat a blood clot in the ground. He then stood on his hind legs again, and summoned all the magical power he could, joining his hooves together. Magic started to flow from his whole body into his forelegs, and after a couple of seconds, around them appeared another weapon, something that was impossible to be even called a sword. Its length was the same as that of a common claymore sword, but the depth was more like the one of a surf board. “This is it!” Uma heavily panted “This is the showdown. Show me what you got!” In reality, performing the spell left him almost without strength. This was his last weapon, the strongest and most efficient one, but in order to use it, he needed several seconds to regain his stamina to even swing it. Twilight didn’t seem to react to the provocation and just stood still, staring at the new weapon Uma had just created with a curios look in her eyes. Uma started to feel his strength returning, and tried to induce his opponent to attack him “Come on, what’s the matter? Weren’t you going to ‘make me suffer’? Didn’t you want to avenge the death of your friend?” This time those words breached into Twilight’s mind, as she lightly flexed her head on her right side and started to grind her teeth. ‘That’s it, rush towards me! As soon as you’ll get closer, even your magic barrier and your high speed won’t-…. Wait, what is she doing?’ Contrary to what Uma hoped, Twilight wasn’t rushing towards him with her head down. On the contrary, she held a strong grip on the ground with her forelegs, and started to concentrate her magical power on the tip of her horn, creating a sphere of energy. Unlike what happened during their first fight, though, flames and bolts also started to erupt around it. ‘Oh no, you won’t! I won’t let you!’ thought Uma, and started to rush himself towards Twilight. Uma tried to reach her before she could shoot, but the massive weight of the sword drastically slowed him down, and he wasn’t even halfway from his opponent, when Twilight finally released her shot. The sphere of energy quickly filled the gap between the two, and Uma had just enough time to stuck the blade in the ground and shield himself behind it before impact. As the blow hit the blade, a cone of mixed flames, lightning and magical energy erupted behind it, and started to push Uma back. It took all his strength in trying to absorb the shot, but it was just too powerful. “Ghhh…..Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah! D-DAMN YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!” was the last words Uma shouted, before the cone of energy completely enveloped him, dragging him several miles away in the dark of the night, burning down everything it could find on its way. The battle was over. Twilight had won. After a few seconds, she turned to her normal appearance, and collapsed on the ground. TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 6