//------------------------------// // Fourth Lesson- Extreme Prejudice // Story: The Magnificent Six // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Fourth Lesson- Extreme Prejudice "You did what to the Ponygans?!?" Firefly asked in shock. "Your Excellency, how could you?" Firefly was standing before the margrave's throne, angrily protesting this move against a group that included one of her friends. "The current situation in Fort Dash has put a social strain on the population, and rumors are already spreading that the alicornites are the guilty party." The margrave sighed. "The populace might rise in anger and commit an act of violence against those they believe are taking their children. Therefore, we have placed them under our protection, until we can be sure of their safety." "But your Excellency, these ponies are loyal citizens of Fort Rainbow Dash!" the pink Pegasus protested. "Surely the rest of the herd would not strike their own down like that!" "When emotions are running high, ponies can often do things they later regret," Princess Cadence announced, trotting into the room. "It is best if your friend and the others remain safe until the situation can be calmed." "But... but..." Firefly began, but then let out a sigh. "Yes, your highness." Her head drooping, the element of loyalty candidate slowly flapped her way out of the room. "I can't believe Cadence is backing her up!" Firefly grumbled to herself. While she had utter faith and loyalty in both the Princess and the margrave, both the taking of her friend, and the fact Twilight had been missing for nearly a week had begun to put a strain on that faith and trust. The other girls were so wrapped up in their plan to 'trap' the villains that they didn't seem to notice anything else was troubling, and Cadence continuing to insistence that Twilight was fine wasn't an encouraging sign, either. With a resigned sigh, Firefly decided to go help the others with their plan, in the hopes it would get Medley free faster. "Might as well be of some use to somebody," she thought as she flew to the other side of the Crystal Castle. ... That night, Lucky's mansion was decorated with lights and streamers, and the sound of loud music blared across the mansion's back garden. The boss was throwing a big shindig for all of his best employees and associates, and shady creatures from all over the stickleway were in attendance. Among the partygoers was a unicorn filly in a glittery black silk dress and a silver tiara in her mane. These lavish parties were so boring, Wish Shine decided. Filled with goblins, grundles, and every other sort of unsavory creature, there were so few ponies to talk to. That was the problem of so few ponies lowering themselves to go into crime; she counted only about a dozen or so in Lucky's service- not to mention only a few dozen in the criminal underground. Most criminal positions were filled by trolls and other monsters- a description befitting the assembled scum here. As she wandered through the crowd, several mob thugs bowed politely to her, while a few others slapped Wish on the flank, causing her to wince in disgust. It was when she was passing the servers table, that she overheard Lucky talking to a Zebra thug. "That's quite a fine unicorn dish you have got yourself there, Luck." The zebra chuckled. "I heard your guards talk that there's been a lotta loud whinnying comin' from your room every night!" Wish scowled at that, blushing, before Lucky replied, "She's a very special dame, Lefty. She's got more spunk than the others. I'm really lucky to have found her." Wish stood there, stunned. Had that pathetic creep... just complimented her? Maybe he had a little more class than she gave him credit for... even if he was still a creep. "But I hope you have things set with the apple cross goblin, my man," Lefty told the colt. "We can't pass up this opportunity with the midnight castle slavers!" Wish's ears perked up again. "Don't worry, we're meeting tomorrow at the Whispering Whirligig," Lucky replied. "We'll get everything settled then." The unicorn filly trotted away from the two, going over what she had heard over in her head. As Wish trotted past the swimming pool, she heard two donkey molls talking. "Can you believe that bozo Lucky?" one of them snorted. "He is such a poser!" "Yeah, his suit is sooo tacky!" the other one sneered. "Does he shop in the garbage can?" "Why those little... As the two giggled at their insults, Wish Shine's horn began to glow. The two molls were levitated upward and sent flying into the pool. "Eeek! My new dress!" one shrieked. "My hairdo!" the other wailed. As the two swam their way out of the pool, the unicorn trotted away with a smile on her face. After the party was over, the two had returned to their room. Wish was sitting on the bed, looking over at Lucky, who was pouring himself a glass of hard cider. "Lucky, who are the Midnight Castle slavers?" she asked in a disinterested tone, sharpening her hoof with a file. "Ah, you heard that during the party, didn't ya?" the colt replied. "They a nasty, bunch, babe... ones who just recently got involved in the Stickleway black market." He set the cider bottle down. "Which reminds me, I gotta get their file outta the cabinet." "Well, that can wait until tomorrow," Wish giggled. "You shouldn't bother with anymore work tonight!" "When you're right, babe, you're right!" He smiled, trotting over and nuzzling her. Downing the contents of the hard cider glass, sat down and kissed her playfully. "Tonight, I'd much rather just forget about all this crazyness, and have a little fun..." ---- In the middle of the night, Wish Shine silently climbed out of bed, trying to move as quietly as possible. Kissing Lucky on the forehead, she trotted downstairs and into the living room. Over behind the couch, stood a large black filing cabinet. "All the records of his past 'business' transactions are in here," Wish thought to herself. "Let's see what we can find!" Wish held up a key on a chain that she had levitated off of a sleeping Lucky's neck. Levitating it into the lock, she turned it, opening the middle drawer. Wish began looking through the files. "Let's see... blark smuggling ring...Screean Gambling racket... ah! Here we are! Midnight castle slavers!" Wish looked over the file, her eyes suddenly going wide. "Circle of slavers, who disguise themselves as various religious organizations... who lure in ponies to trap them for sale as slaves to the dark lord Tirek!" Looking over the file, Wish noted Lucky had turned down business with them because he thought slavery was too 'hot' of a racket to get into. There was a meeting tomorrow, though, with a goblin representative to try to convince the colt otherwise. Slipping the file back into the drawer, Wish quietly trotted back up the steps into the bedroom and slipped quietly back into bed. Levitating the key back around his neck as he shifted position, Wish decided she just had to make sure she was there for that meeting tomorrow! Though why was she doing it again? Lucky was against taking up slavery, maybe she was trying to help him free the slaves? It didn't matter. Snuggling back up to Lucky, she decided that after this was all over, she would have to see if she could get him to gradually break off his criminal activities and start going after some more honest pursuits. ... "Okay, here's what we're gonna do..." Glory was currently telling the other ponies the plan she had come up with, eager to put it into motion. Normally, Twilight would have come up with the plan to set everything right. But in her absence, Glory was trying to provide the others with their plan. "We're going to need a pony to pose as a foal, and wander around through the area near the stickleway," Glory told them. "Once the foalnappers take the bait and go for the pony, Posey and will swoop in and hit the foalnapper with flutter sleep pollen, then Firefly will intimidate the culprit, and squeeze any information out of them on where the foals are!" "Sounds like a decent enough plan!" Firefly said approvingly. "But who're we gonna get ta be the bait?" "Ohhh, I know pick me! Pick me!" Surprise giggled, bouncing around. "We're gonna need a pony whose totally childlike," Applejack added. "One whose innocence could fool our target with ease!" "Piiiiiiccck ME!" Surprise yelled, hopping up and down angrily. "Hey girls, why don't we use Surprise?" Posey suggested, being the only pony who noticed the excited ball of energy hopping in the background. "Hey, good idea Posey!" Glory smiled. "There's no pony in our group more childish than her!" "That's what I was just SAYING!" The angry Pegasus screamed, before collapsing to the floor. "We'll set the trap for tomorrow evenin'!" Applejack smiled, looking at the other girls. "They'll never know what hit em!" As the others talked amongst themselves, Glory noticed Firefly flapping out of the castle and decided to follow her. The Pegasus headed over towards the interment district, where Glory found her on a balcony staring down at the Ponygan encampment in the courtyard below. "Seems a bit harsh, doesn't it?" Glory noted as they looked down at the dozens of families clustered in their tents. "There's little more than a thousand of them left in all of Ponyland, and yet everybody's afraid of them!" "It's not fair!" Firefly snorted, looking down at Medley who was sitting off by herself amongst the tents. "Even if some alicornites are responsible, how can everybody blame them for the actions of a couple?" "That's how fear works, Firefly." Thunderbolt came trotting up to them, flexing his wings from under his armor. "Fear of the unknown, fear of what you don’t understand." "It's really not fair, but that often how ponies minds work." Fireball came up beside Glory, shaking his mane. "That's why the margrave asked us to help guard these ponies, here!" "Oh, hello you two!" Glory grinned at the sight of the two colts. "I didn't know the two of you were helping guard the Celestia and Luna worshipers!" "We consider it an honor to be permitted to guard our fellow ponies!" Thunderbolt announced proudly. "This unjust rage and suspicion towards the ponygans is an outrage beyond belief!" "Yeah, no pony has the right to judge another because of what they believe!" Fireball agreed. "Well, we're glad you two are helping to watch over em'!" Firefly told them with a smile. "My friend Medley couldn't be in better hooves!" It was then that the four of them looked down at the encampment and saw a blue colored Pegasus colt trot up to the weeping Medley, and put a blanket around her shoulders. The guard then sat down beside the weeping filly, and tried to comfort her. "Who is-?" Firefly asked, puzzled. "That's Ice Crystal, another trainee from Misty Mountain," Thunderbolt told her. "The princess asked him to come in and help with the situation." "Well, at least there'll be someone to help look after your friend, Firefly." Glory told her encouragingly. "Yeah, I guess you're right." the pink Pegasus snorted, looking back down at the assembled ponygans below them. ... "The Ponygans are a relic, a leftover from another time!" Tornado thought to himself as he trotted down the road. "Why can't can the others not see that!" Deciding to try and clear his head, the librarian colt had decided to go to the Fort Rainbow Dash library and try and do some reading to get his mind off of everything going on around him. Trotting up to the entrance, he noticed two statues of the fictional character Daring Doo on either side of the door, guarding the way in. "It is Fort Rainbow Dash," Tornado sighed aloud. "Why am I not surprised?" Trotting inside, the unicorn colt found himself looking at towering shelves filled with books and scrolls of every shape, size and age, but much to his dismay, he noted most of them were either military treatises or adventure stories. "Again, it's fort Rainbow Dash!" he sighed to himself. "Why am I not surprised?" As the stallion trotted into the fantasy section, a pink filly levitating a large stack of scrolls in front of her trotted up the same narrow aisle he was walking through. He noticed she wasn’t paying attention where she was going... and was heading straight for him. "Hey! Look out!" the colt yelled in a panic. But it was too late. CRASH! The two unicorns collided, sending scrolls flying everywhere. "Oh no! I spent an hour collecting those to read!" a familiar unicorn voice wailed, as the scrolls tumbled to the floor . "Why can't you watch where you're going you big doofus!" "Me I-" Tornado then got a good look at the filly, and his eyes went wide. "T-Twilight?" Tornado asked. "What the heck are you doing here? Everybody's been looking for you!" "Oh, Tornado... hi..." she replied nervously, scratching the back of her mane with her hoof and blushing. "I've kind of been laying low here for the past week, reading and researching up on Ponygans and slavers." She looked up at Tornado sheepishly. “So, what's new with you?"