//------------------------------//
// Precious Belongings 
// Story: Disappear 
// by ShimmeringStallion 
//------------------------------//


Precious Belongings





The stallion tossed his fedora behind him, where it landed on a hat stand near the entrance to the room. He walked towards Twilight, almost looking right through her. “Well now, I have given my introduction, I suppose it’s only right for you to do the same, unicorn. You are at least capable of understanding proper manners, I presume?” The others stepped up from behind Twilight, who seemed startled by Vanish’s sudden change of tone, particularly towards her. She stood up from her defensive stance and began speaking, keeping her eyes fixated on the stallion. “… Very well. My name is Twilight Sparkle.” She pointed to each friend accordingly. “This is Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and-…” He interrupted her. “I know that one, her name is Fluttershy, correct?”

Twilight nodded sternly but slowly, keeping her guard up while she did so. “So, Vanish, how did you know of us before we introduced ourselves?” The pony smirked as he walked past Twilight, to the paralyzed, shivering Pegasus pony with the yellow coat that was crouched behind Applejack. “I was given some information from my employer pertaining to some P.O.I.’s.” Pinkie Pie placed her hoof under her chin in thought. “’P.O.I.’s? Do you mean ‘pies’, maybe?” Vanish turned towards the source of the voice of the rather confused pony in the room as he clarified himself. “An abbreviation, for ‘pony of interest’… or in this case, ‘Pegasi of Interest’ would be more appropriate, perhaps.” He turned back to the shivering Fluttershy, and motioned for her to move with a tilt of his head. She dashed past him, over to her other friends.

“I know of only two of you, the second being that rather ignorant mare with the rainbow mane.” Rainbow Dash, still in the hallway, wanted to run in and clobber the pony that was insulting her, but she didn’t want Derpy to get hurt any more than she already was. She waited next to the door, watching as the visitor used his hoof to open the left saddlebag of his double-saddlebag and used his mouth to pull out a brown paper bag with a ‘Sugarcube Corner’ logo embedded on it, placing it on a bedside table. “With regards to Derpy, I brought this for her. I must thank you, my dear, for the knowledge of what flavor of muffin she likes. She will certainly enjoy them, once she regains her strength and consciousness.”

Rarity spoke up. “If I may ask, why do you have two horns? Were you born that way, or… is one fake?” Vanish looked up, giving a stern stallion’s stare towards the curious unicorn. “… My name, as you know, is Vanish. This dark blue horn, I’ve had since my birth.” The stallion pointed his hoof to the turquoise horn on his head. “This other one, I was given by my employer for purposes that are not of your concern.” Twilight stepped forward. “Your ‘Employer’? You mean… some sort of ‘boss’?” The pony didn’t even fix his gaze from Rarity. “I suppose ‘client’ would be a more suitable word for it… Yes, ‘client’.” He smirked as he looked at Twilight. “Not that I expect you to follow my logic, ignorant foal.”

Applejack had enough of Vanish's attitude. “Now just hold yer horses, pal. I’m not gonna just sit here while you talk to a friend o’ mine like that!” The stallion stopped smiling, quickly looking at the orange Earth pony as he walked towards her. “Oh, really? You’d come to the defense of a lying brat such as her?” He looked down his nose at Applejack with a disgusted scowl. “I guess it’s true what they say about insects: They always travel in packs with each other. And here I thought at least you had some redeemable qualities.” Fluttershy stepped forward, upon her friends being verbally attacked in such a rude manner. “Do you have some sort of problem with Twilight?”

Vanish frowned in Twilight’s direction. “I simply cannot tolerate liars... and her actions at the library were detestable at best.” Twilight shook her head. “I didn’t lie about anything, Vanish.” The stallion bowed down and slid one of his front hooves behind him, ready to charge at her. “I asked you about 'The Elements of Harmony'. You refused to give me that book! You claimed it was not in stock, but I know it was!” Twilight stepped forward, closing her eyes and raising her hoof in defense of her statement. “I was afraid you would harm my friends if you knew that we represented the Spirits of the Elements of Harmony… I admit that I was afraid to give you the book. Aside from that…” Twilight glared at Vanish. “I never said it was not in stock. Spike said that, not me.”

Vanish’s eyes widened in fury. “B-But… You… ARGH!” He stomped his hoof in anger. She was right. She never actually lied to him, but rather, had been interrupted before she could say anything. Breathing in and out heavily, not wanting to allow fury to take control of him, he calmed himself down progressively. “… I-I suppose I have been hasty in my judgment… Please forgive me, I only have myself to blame for not making sure I got the answer directly from you.” He bowed down fully, lowering his body so his foreleg extended out, and his head pointed towards the floor, as of submissively bowing to royalty itself, which took Twilight and the other mares in the room by surprise as he continued speaking. “… Anything I say can only be categorized as an excuse. I must plead for your forgiveness, my dear.”

Twilight looked at her friends, who seemed equally confused by the stallion’s sudden change of disposition. He seemed to be taking his honest mistake in an extremely harsh and serious manner. “Look, it's… it’s fine! You’re forgiven, really! We’ve all been there, we’ve all made rash decisions, i-it’s really no big deal.” The pony looked up from the floor, still bowing. “But it is! Such careless mistakes can only lead to hurting others… and that’s why I’m here.”

Twilight had forgotten about Derpy until Vanish mentioned ‘hurting others’. Rarity spoke up. “If you know anything about what happened, you could tell the doctors; they could really use the information to help Derpy get her wings back.” Vanish stood up, scratching his underbelly nervously and averting his stare. “I'm afraid that the doctors are powerless to help her… not until I’ve done what I’ve been tasked with.” Fluttershy nervously approached the stallion. “U-Umm… D-Do you know… where her wings are?” Vanish looked to the floor and frowned as he spoke. “… As you know, one horn was given to me by my ‘client'. It is for this purpose, that I have been tasked with the obtainment of the Wings of the Pegasi, including yours, Fluttershy.”

Applejack was tired of the stream of dodgy responses that she and her friends were getting. “Show us the wings, Vanish: Now!” Vanish stared at Applejack, and stepped backwards to get some room from the other ponies. “… I suppose I need the practice.” With the second horn on his head glowing, a brief flash of light appeared from his back, and his coat turned from a dark, dark blue to the gray of Derpy's coat. “Derpy’s wings… are here!” Suddenly, the wings brandished from the stallion's back, fully extended, as if the dual-horned unicorn was preparing to take flight. If what the stallion said was to be taken at face value, these truly were Derpy’s wings that he had brandished in front of the mares.

Rainbow had seen enough. She dashed into the room and launched herself at the stallion. Vanish quickly closed the wings to order to prevent damaging them, before being tackled to the floor, hitting his head on something on his way down to the floor. Twilight shouted in surprise. “Rainbow! Stop!” The blue mare didn’t listen. “GIVE THOSE BACK! NOW! I MEAN IT, YOU CREEP!” Vanish wasn’t listening, as something else had caught his attention, despite having a Pegasus pony charge into him at full force and knock him on his back. When he fell, he hit a clipboard one of the doctors left, which catapulted a pencil through the air. He flipped Rainbow Dash around so he was on top of her, then pushed himself off of her, seemingly going after the pencil, much to everypony’s surprise.

Using the wings, he swatted the pencil out of the air before it could reach the door, quickly tumbling to the floor afterwards; clearly, he wasn’t used to the new wings he had ‘acquired’. Applejack spoke up. “What the hay was that all about!?” Vanish stood up, and appeared to be examining something: his hat, which sat on a stand by the doorway. The pencil was aimed for it, and he seemed dead set on making sure it wouldn’t reach it; it was apparent that the piece of apparel was something important to him. His look of worry quickly turned to anger, as he redirected his attention to the rainbow-maned Pegasus pony in the room, speaking in a low tone in order to not wake Derpy prematurely.

“… You… Do you have any idea how much ignorance you just displayed? Don’t you feel the least bit of remorse for your actions?” Rainbow felt surprised, but she didn’t back down. She wouldn’t stand aside as long as Vanish was flaunting Derpy’s wings on his body. “Listen, chump: I don’t care if you’re sorry. I don’t care if you’ve got some sort of goal. I especially don’t care about your dumb hat! Give those wings back, right now, or else you’re gonna have to deal with some real trouble: ME!” Rainbow was clearly about to strike again, but Twilight raised her hoof in front of her. “Rainbow, stop! You don’t understand!”

“No, Twilight, YOU’RE the one who doesn’t understand! He has Derpy’s wings! We can get them back right now if we…” She now saw what Twilight meant: ‘if they’ what? They had no idea how Vanish got the wings, just that he had acquired them with magic. The only pony who knew how to get the wings back was the same pony who Rainbow just verbally and physically assaulted, and was the same pony that was now looking at her like she was a wanted mare. He walked towards her, with a look in his eyes that caused her to retreat solely by reflex. She stepped back until she noticed her tail had been pinned against the wall behind her, and then looked ahead to see him standing slightly above her, eyes burning with fury.

“Here are some facts that even a rude, ignorant, worthless excuse of a mare such as yourself could comprehend, my dear: With these wings, I’ll be heading to Cloudsdale; the home of the Pegasi, you included. I’ll take the wings of all of the Pegasi there, as my client has requested. Once completed, I’ll be waiting for my client, because I was specifically told that I must do so. I was entrusted this task as well as one more. A promise to myself: to ensure that no Pegasus pony is hurt while I remove their wings with the magic bestowed upon me by my client.” Vanish turned his scowl into a sinister grin. “But my dear, I promise you… I’ll enjoy every moment, when the time comes for me to take your wings from you. Promise or not, I’ll make you suffer for the ignorance you displayed here, on this day… suffer greatly.”