Flutterblade

by Dropped C


Chapter 6

Curiosity couldn’t avoid a feeling of unease while they walked through the empty village. Sometimes, she could hear the click of a window closing after an indiscreet gaze or even feel somepony’s prying eyes fixed on her.

I wish I could be as calm as them, Curiosity thought, focused on the lively argument that Rainbow Smash and Flutterblade were having. I wish I had her confidence, walking and talking as if the guard’s danger was not real. I wonder if she is really that confident about her skills… Or if she is just crazy.

The party had decided to walk on some of the narrowest streets of Lotusville, looking for a little perpendicular exit to the pagoda that would allow them to avoid attracting unwanted attention ahead of time. Even though, Curiosity felt as if she was naked in plain sight, maybe because she was actually naked and because she was pretty sure the villagers were watching them.

“Uhm… That might not be the best strategy…” Flutterblade said, looking shyly at Rainbow Smash. She couldn’t avoid feeling uneasy before Smash and felt her tongue tangle trying to argue with her. She knew Rainbow hated her, and thus, she feared that an out-of-line word would break their tenuous alliance.

“Come on! You have no bucking idea! That’s what Captain Sword Assault did on the battle of Spirit Hill!” Rainbow Smash replied, stomping her front hooves firmly, facing Flutterblade.

“Ya know Sword Assault lost that battle, don’t ya?” said Applesake, trying to hold her laughter.

“Yes! But it was a great plan!” Rainbow Smash was determined to stand her ground.

“Uhm… I think ‘charging and kicking anypony between us and Bluewater’ is not much of a plan…” Flutterblade said timidly. “I mean… If you actually want to do it…”

“Darlings, I think that plan will not be possible,” Curiosity said, pointing towards Bluewater’s pagoda. At a distance, and still hidden in the narrow streets of Lotusville, the Princess could see ten guards posted before the entrance to the traitor’s abode. Ten earth ponies, burly, big, muscle-bound as nopony she had ever seen before, and armed to the teeth stood in the way between them and victory.

“Meh, no problem,” said Rainbow Smash flexing her biceps. “We are stronger. Let’s go, beat them up, enter the pagoda, beat Bluewater’s little fox up, and then kick Bluewater’s flank!”

Curiosity repressed the urge to raise Neighpon’s IQ average by strangling Smash. Inhaling slowly and putting on a weapons-grade smile to hide her thoughts, she continued: “Darling, in the time it would take us to do that, if it were even possible, Bluewater would have time to flee five times, so no. We have to be subtle.”

“Oh, I see. And what does her majesty suggest?” Rainbow Smash replied in a sarcastic tone. Curiosity raised her head indignantly and started trotting towards the guards.

“Princess!” said Flutterblade, following her.

“Trust me, darling. I know what I am doing,” Curiosity said, throwing Flutterblade a more sincere smile. The swordsmare stopped in her tracks.

Meanwhile, two of the guards were having a heated argument.

“You’re a traitor and a rat, Meatwall!” one of them said, pointing at his colleague.

“Saying that it’s hot today is not treason, Brute Strength!” replied the other guard, facing the first one.

“Of course it is!” Brute Strength frowned. “A good soldier must feel comfortable protecting his lord in every circumstance!”

“I only said it’s hot today! I was trying to make some small talk!” said Meatwall.

“Shut up, traitor! I’m sure you would sell us at the slightest chance!” Brute Strength looked ready to keep arguing, but the sound of somepony clearing her throat interrupted him. The ten guards, focused so far on the argument, turned to find the source of the sound: a smiling Princess Curiosity.

“It’s Princess Curiosity!” Meatwall screamed. “Seize her!”

However, before any guard could react, Curiosity pouted so sincerely nopony could feel the hours of rehearsal behind the the expression. “Meatwaaaaall!” she said. “You told me you would let me in!”

Meatwall stood paralyzed for an instant. When he recovered the control of his own body, he blinked twice, running his eyes over his colleagues. As he feared, he found the accusing hoof of Brute Strength.

“I knew it! I knew it!” Brute Strength said. “You are a traitor!”

“She’s lying!” Meatwall replied. “I’ve never talked to her! I don’t even know her! We arrived at this post today! How could I even make a deal with her before!”

Brute Strenght, to Curiosity’s dismay, seemed to be reasoning what his mate told him. “Mmm… It makes sense…”

Curiosity, not missing a beat, started crying. “I cannot believe you would say that to me after all these years, Meatwall! Before your own daughter!” the Princess scanned her companions, who were waiting in the alley, head over head, trying to stay hidden. Too shy… Truth monk… Smash will have to do, she thought, calling Rainbow Smash with a small nod.

“Uh… What?” Rainbow, for her part, didn’t know what to do until Applesake’s push got her by Curiosity’s side. “Ah! Uuuh… Mother! Why does father reject us?! Why does he say that he doesn’t know us?!” she said, standing rigid, her voice trembling as a foal on his first school performance.

“Meatwall!” said one of the guards. “Rejecting your own wife and daughter? How can you be so despicable?!”

“They’re neither my wife nor my daughter!” Meatwall struck the floor furiously many times.

Meanwhile, Curiosity kept crying. Another guard moved forward and pointed to her. “Can’t you see those two tarts are trying to fool us?” he said.

Meatwall turned towards her immediately. “How dare you call my wife and daughter ’tarts’?!” Not giving his neurons enough time to establish connections, Meatwall hit his mate with a powerful punch. Brute Strength, of course, didn’t miss the oportunity and punched Meatwall. Seconds later, every guard in the battalion was fighting while Flutterblade and her friends snuck into the pagoda.

Rainbow Smash elbowed Applesake while they were crossing the door. “That was awesome… Also, now I’m scared of her.”

“Me too, riceball. Me too.”

The four fighters entered the pagoda and stood frozen for an instant inside the first hallway. Despite its width, a dozen of golden statues in the likeness of Bluewater standing in different poses made it a very narrow passage that forced them to walk two by two.

“This guy must have some kind of complex,” said Rainbow Smash, leaving a little space between her front hooves, making Flutterblade blush.

“And a lot of money,” Curiosity continued. She hit with her hoof one of the statues and listened carefully to the tinkling. “So much gold must have costed him a fortune.”

“Meanwhile, ponies are hungry in the village, riceball. Ah think Ah want to beat him up even more now,” Applesake said.


Meanwhile, at the emperor’s palace…

“Traitorous Viper! Traitorous Viper! Where are you?” the emperor shouted, looking for his most trustworthy adviser.

“My lord! I’m here!” replied a voice inside one of the archive’s rooms. The emperor went inside and found Traitorous Viper sitting at a table, surrounded by papers, writing so much his horn was giving off smoke.

“What are you doing, Traitorous Viper, my most trustworthy servant?” the emperor asked, getting closer to watch Viper’s work.

“I’m copying some secret documents, your highness,” replied the trustworthy servant, dipping his brush in the inkwell.

“C… Copying secret documents, Traitorous Viper? Why?” The emperor, intrigued, raised his brow.

“To send them to the enemy, of course,” replied Traitorous Viper with a smile while he wrote another line.

“To the enemy?! What in Tartarus?!” Magnificent screamed.

“Calm down, my lord. It’s just a trick. Modified documents with traps so the enemy will believe we’ll attack from the wrong place or that our most fortified enclaves are the less fortified ones,” Traitorous Viper continued.

“Oh… I see. It’s a great plan. Worthy of my army, no doubt… I guess. It doesn’t sound very much honorable, does it?” The emperor went around in circles while thinking.

“Think of it, your highness. If the enemy is so dishonorable as to use spies, they deserve this. On another note, I think you might be interested to know that your daughter has been located at last. She is in…”

“Lotusville. I have been already informed, of course. I never thought Lord Bluewater would be capable of such treason,” said the Emperor, punching the table and spilling the ink. “Naturally, I’ve already sent one of our best ponies with a battalion to rescue her.”

There were not many things in Neighpon whiter than Traitorous Viper’s coat, except Traitorous Viper’s coat whenever the Emperor made a decision without his advice. “And… Who did you send, your highness?” said the trembling adviser.

“Oh, easy. I took my list of trusted generals and chose the first of them. If she’s the first, it must be for a reason,” Magnificent said, producing a paper roll. “Her name is Nightfall Flare.”

“My liege… Nightfall Flare is the palace’s librarian.” Traitorous Viper trotted closer to the Emperor.

“What?” The Emperor unrolled his list. “This is outrageous! Somepony switched my trusted general list with my palace’s librarian candidates list! Traitorous Viper, clearly, there are spies in this palace using your own strategy! Start searching them right now!”

Traitorous Viper sighed. “Yes, my liege,” he said. “And what about Nightfall?”

“I hope she’s read a book on army leadership.”


Outside Bluewater’s pagoda, the battle was still raging. The guards keep punching each other, and uttering strong insults.

“You are scum, Meatwall! Scum! Your wife and daughter don’t deserve somepony like you!” Brute Strength screamed while he punched the muzzle of another teammate not related at all with this incident.

“What?! I’m not married! And I don’t have any daughters!” Meatwall, meanwhile, was twisting another guard’s leg, sitting on his stomach to keep him pinned down.

Suddenly, the ten guards stopped the fight and looked at each other slowly. Inside the pagoda, in the hallway, Flutterblade and her friends heard shouting from outside.

“We’ve been tricked!”

“Get them!”

“Guards! Guards!”

“We’re the guard, idiot!”

“Alarm!”

“Buck!” said Rainbow Smash. “I hoped it would take them a little longer.”

“Uhm… I guess we’re going to have to fight…” Flutterblade started unsheathing her sword, but Rainbow put her hoof on the hilt, stopping her.

“You always want to show off, don’t you, huh? You two keep going. I and Sakes will stop them here.” Rainbow clashed her front hooves.

“Sakes and me,” corrected Curiosity.

“What? No, you go with Flutterblade. I and Sakes will fight here. Why would you want to fight? I swear, this filly doesn’t make any sense.”

Remembering her former urges to strangle Smash, Curiosity decided to ignore her. “But it is crazy, darling! You’re two against ten!” Curiosity tried to get closer, but it was hard because of the number of statues.

“Look at you, Princess. You can’t even fit there,” Smash continued. “What’s the use of ten guards in this hallway if only two can fit at the same time? And, two by two, Sakes and me kick flank just better.”

Applesake, surprised, stared at Rainbow Smash. “Riceball, was that a sudden tactical intelligence sprout? Are ya sick?”

“Ha ha. Too funny. You two, go! Sakes, let’s kick some flank!”

Flutterblade wasn’t one to miss an opportunity, so, sheathing her sword again, she took Curiosity’s hoof and pulled her, running towards the interior of the pagoda.

At the end of the hallway they found the main hall: Excessive, enormous and… Did I say excessive? Sorry. VERY excessive. Huge amounts of gold, portraits of Bluewater, and panoplies full of exotic weapons served as the hall’s decoration. A gigantic table took up the hall from one side to another. On that table there were only two dinner services, with golden plates and golden chopsticks. Curiosity got closer, took one of the plates with her magic and struck it softly with her hoof, listening to the tinkling.

“It’s gold. Pure gold. Bluewater has pure gold plates,” the Princess said. “Flutterblade, this pony has been my father’s ally for years and, according to Applesake, his vassals are hungry. All while he dinners on gold plates.”

“I see…” Flutterblade knew it wasn’t the most adequate reply, but her head was full of other thoughts. “There’s nopony in this hall… It’s too quiet.”

“Flutterblade… Do you think my father knows this?” the Princess continued, taking a set of chopsticks to study them. “Do you think he… Allowed this?”

“I don’t know, Princess, but… I think we should go one step at a time,” said Flutterblade. “I don’t know what your father is like, but I know one thing: Bluewater is not a good pony. Let’s take care of him first and… We’ll see. I mean, just if you want…”

“You are right. Let us move on. We will settle this lat…” Curiosity couldn’t finish her sentence. With that disturbing speed that made it seem as if Flutterblade disappeared, the swordsmare pulled her abruptly, throwing the Princess under the table. “Flutterblade! What is happening?!”

Curiosity hadn’t even finished her sentence when a meringue pie fell before her. “Darling, I think paranoia has got the better of you this time. It is just a pie.”

“No, Princess, look,” Flutterblade said, pointing to the floor under the pie which was dissolving with a disturbing hiss.

“What…?”

“Weaponized sugar, Princess.” Flutterblade scanned the panoplies in search of something and sprinted towards one of them, dodging two more pies. Curiosity tried to find to no avail the source of the murderous confections while Flutter ripped a shield from the wall and ran again under the table. The swordsmare offered Curiosity the shield.

“Take this, Princess. Protect yourself with this —“ Flutterblade read a little plaque on the shield “— aegis shield.”

“Me? And what are you going to do?” Curiosity looked at Flutterblade, her eyes full of worry, and frowned when she saw such a calm smile. Flutterblade got up and climbed slowly the table, standing in the middle of the room. She closed her eyes, unsheathing an inch of her sword.

Two more pies flied through the hall. Flutterblade spread her wings with strenght and took off. Getting out of the pies trajectory and spinning, the swordsmare unsheathed quick as a lightning. Her sword hit the two plates, returning them to their source.

A mare rolled forward, letting a piece of fabric painted with the same pattern as the wall fall to the ground. When she got up, she found the tip of Flutterblade’s sword before her muzzle.

“Who are you?” Flutterblade asked, studying the mare. She had a most peculiar appearance. Her coat was bright pink, her eyes sky blue, and she had a fuzzy, messy mane a darker pink than her coat. She wore a mask and two patches of black fabric that hid her cutie marks. Even with the mask over her muzzle, Flutter could sense a huge grin.

“Whoa! You’re good! So quick! Is it true what they say? That you could beat your own shadow in a duel? It can’t be true, because you have a shadow, and if you had killed it, it would be dead. Oh, can shadows die? I’d say ‘let’s try it’, but we’re supposed to fight, so we’ll have to wait until we finish the fight to try it, but I’m supposed to kill you, so I think we won’t be able to try it and…” The pink mare spoke way too quick, not stopping even to breathe.

“Uhm…” Flutter kept pointing her sword, but her face showed her doubts.

“Oh, of course, silly me! I haven’t introduced myself.” A confetti explosion took Flutterblade by surprised. When the flying paper pieces fell to the floor, the mare was already on the other side of the table.

“My name is Pinkie Sai! It’s an honor having to fight the Queen of Killers! This… This… This calls for a… PAAAAAAAARTY!”