//------------------------------// // Casting Phoenix Down // Story: Innavedr // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Sir Ordo was panicking. He tripped over every other step as he galloped like a wild stallion through the secret upper levels of the Nightshade HQ building. “Fatch hasn't communicated in hours... We can't get through to the Madame... Enforcers are filling the streets... A horrible air battle is erupting outside our windows... and now...” He seethed. “I hear about gunshots in our very own hallways?!” “Sir...” One of two stallions struggled to gallop in pace with him. “Sir, we need to get out of here!” “What?!” Ordo allowed a strand or two of his mane to spill loose as he frowned back at the pony in question. “Abandoned our posts?! When Nightshade needs us the most?! I'd much rather chop off my own tail!” “Sir, you speak of this as if we're soldiers!” the stallion stood his ground, frowning ahead at the two as they sped on. “We're not! I've got a family at home, and I'm leaving to go protect them before we're overrun with enforcers!” “Fine!” Ordo snarled into the air. “Nightshade has only provided for your every financial need for the past decade! If you want to show your true cowardice, I won't stop you!” “Sir Ordo...” The other stallion murmured. “Just don't come crawling back, expecting to be blessed!” Ordo grunted, trotting even faster. “You there! Come along! We're snuffing out whatever craziness is happening upstairs! Nopony's taking this tower if I have anything to do with it!” The first stallion ran back towards the nearest elevator, leaving the second fidgeting awkwardly in the center of the hallway. Finally, after an aggravated groaning sound, he turned around and ran after Ordo. “Sir! Wait up!” As the hallway emptied and silence fell, a ceiling panel above slid open. Like a slinking golden spider, Belle dropped down. She shifted the weight of the rifles over her bruised body, gazing left and right across either end of the corridor. Once the coast was clear, she shuffled ahead, her hooves steady and swift. At last, she stumbled upon a door labeled “Maintenance Chamber 27-B.” She leaned forward, pressing her ear against it. A low hum emanated from the other side. Clenching her jaw, she fiddled with the knob, grunting in frustration to find it locked tight. Several seconds into this struggle, the air within the hallway shifted. A door had opened across the way, and one of two ponies gasped, “You there! Freeze!” Belle spun, lifted a rifle, and fired. In less than a second, a stallion had his taser knocked out of his outstretched hoof. He and his partner gawked at the smoke rising off his burnt forelimb. Snarling, he fumbled and reached for a sound stone. Unfazed, Belle fired again. Her blast shot into the sound stone, exploding it in the stallion's grasp. The black knocked him back, so that her ricocheted off the doorframe and fell cold to the floor of the room beyond. Belle's eyes icily turned to the second guard. The guard gazed at her, trembled, and gulped. He pulled his taser stick out, smiled awkwardly with a shrug, and then zapped himself in the neck. “Ghkkkkt...!” His eyes rolled back as he fell blissfully unconcious. Belle stood there, rifle outstretched. She blinked, then returned quietly to the door. After fumbling for a few more seconds, she grumbled, stepped back, and aimed the rifle at the knob. Shielding her face with one forelimb, she fired. The knob flew off with a splash of sparks and the door swung open. Briskly, Bellesmith trotted in, gazing around the dimly-lit rows upon rows of metal racks. “Phoenix...?” She galloped down the aisles, hissing. “Psssst! Phoenix! Phoenix, where are you?” The humming sound intensified. Belle decided to trot towards it. As she did so, she found a figure strapped to the instrument panel of a large manaconduit station. “Phoenix!” His head dangled loosely from where he hung off a loose length of chains. His forehead was saturated with caked blood, all stained brown around his shattered horn and draping down past his ears. He stirred slightly, his lips moving, pronouncing nothing. “Phoenix! Speak to me!” Belle shuffled up to him, giving the stallion a firm shake. “It's me! Bellesmith! I've come to get you out of here!” “Nnngh... don't...” He whimpered dryly, his mouth and tongue swollen. “Don't... know... stop... stop the sparks... the flame...” Belle grimaced, but nevertheless reached into her saddlebag for a pair of miniature rods. She burned away at his chains, steadying his body with her flank. “Just hang in there. I'm cutting you free. You've spent long enough in this place.” “Mmmf... B-Belle...?” “Yes, Phoenix, it's Belle. Now, relax as I—” The stallion's eyes flew wide. He gasped heavily, the bloodied wrinkles in his brow creasing. “Belle! No!” He thrashed and rattled on the end of his chains. “Won't tell you! Won't tell you a thing! Leave her alone! Leave us all alone!” “Phoenix! Phoenix!” Belle dropped the cutters and gripped his shoulders tight. “I'm here! It's me!” “Not... not...” He shuddered, his pupils quivering. “Not real. Not Belle. Not Crimson. Not my family...” He shook his head, clenching his eyes shut. “Nnngh... Stop shoving the light in. No more... nngh... reflections. Thoughts and reflections of thoughts.” He hiccuped, hissing through clenched teeth. “Get out of my head... get out of my head with your flame and sparks...” “Phoenix, you are not sequencing!” Belle said firmly, frowning into his face. “This is real, and I have a bunch of real foals waiting for me in a hovercraft just outside the HQ. We gotta get to them, and we gotta get out of this cursed town. But I'm going to need you to cooperate with me.” Phoenix hyperventilated. Nevertheless, he swallowed and stammered, “Get... out of h-here...?” “Yes, Phoenix. Together.” “You...” His brow furrowed as he breathed his thoughts aloud, “You're afraid...” Belle shuddered, returning to the cutters. “Yes, Phoenix. I am always afraid. But that doesn't change the fact that you don't belong here.” She burned away at his bindings. “That's the secret that Rainbow Dash knows, I think. It's simply... keeping it all secret, and running past what's held you back.” Phoenix blinked several times. He muttered, “That's not s-something Nightshade could create...” His lips quivered. “You're... always so afraid, Ms. Bellesmith. So afraid... so sincere...” “Yes, well, we can talk about that later...” “I... I don't understand...” “I'll explain once we get into the hovercraft.” Belle finally tore the chains loose. Phoenix slumped down like a sack of meat, and she did her best to hold him up. “Nnnngh...! Ungh... You think you can walk?” “I... I-I can...” “Good, come with me...” “But... where were... where were you?” He gulped and leaned limply against her side. “Oh, Bellesmith, they burned me... they b-burned me alive from the inside out. Did they find you? Did I tell them too much?” “It's okay, Phoenix...” Belle said, dragging him along the lengths of the cold chamber. “Yes, they found me and Kera. They took us far away in their airship and began doing to me what they did to you, but I fought them back. I fought them back, and now we're getting away from it all. Everything is going to be okay. I promise you.” “Ms. Bellesmith, that's... that's...” “I know it's all hard to believe. I'm trying not to dwell too much on it myself. But, I assure you, as wild as this is, you're not sequencing.” “Wait!” He shoved at her so that the two could stare evenly at a nervous distance. “You... You got away... you were miles away...” He gulped. “And yet... y-you came back for me?” “Yes. Phoenix. Please, we need to go now.” “But... you... you...” His face melted. He hung his muzzle towards the floor as the first of several tears fell from his eyes. “I don't understand... I-I just don't understand...” He sniffled, his shoulders shaking. “After all th-that I've done... you came back? You came b-back for me?” “Yes.” “I... I don't...” He sobbed, his voice becoming more and more indistinguishable as his body lost to gravity. “Don't... d-deserve... all the things... blessed spark, I've done n-nothing to d-deserve...” “Phoenix, look at me.” Belle tilted his face up. She smiled placidly into his breakdown. “It doesn't matter. You don't belong here. None of us belong here, and I am getting you home. You hear me?” He took a few even breaths, his shudders melting away. “Yes, Ms. Bellesmith. I... I hear you...” He sniffled and a pained smile crossed his lips. “I-I hear you loud and cl-clear...” His next sob broke through grinning teeth. She smiled back. “Good. Now... I know you've been through a lot, Phoenix, but I need you to be strong now. We've got a lot of ways to climb.” She reached for the door ahead of them. “Most of the guards appear to be fleeing home. Not a bad idea, if you think about it.” “Heh... n-not at all, Ms. Bellesmith.” She opened the battered door. “Let's just try and do this as quietly as—” As hallway loomed, three guards were standing in a tight circle, examining the unconscious bodies. As soon as the door opened, they spun about and gasped. “The intruder!” One stallion cocked his manarifle and aimed it straight at Phoenix's forehead. “Quick! Finish them both—” Phoenix tearfully gasped as the manabullet flew towards his skull. “Nnngh!” Belle kicked the door shut in a flash. The bullet deflected so that it flew over the stallion's shattered horn. Heaving Phoenix's body around, she bucked at the shattered doorknob, kicking a hole open in the wooden panel. She aimed through this with one of her manarifles and fired several blind shots. One stallion groaned in pain. The other two's hooves galloped off in a flurry. “Bellesmith! How did...” Phoenix sprawled on the ground after she dropped him. “Whoah...” “Haaugh!” Belle rammed through the door, knocking the thing off its hinges. A bleeding stallion lay on the floor while the other two ran around a corner. They shouted loudly into their soundstones, and from a distance came several more guards, all of them looking positively ticked off. They formed a line around a distant corner of intersecting hallways and aimed their weapons at Belle. The mare fumed. She heard a moaning sound as the shot guard on the ground reached for his taser. With a grunt, she kicked him upside the horn, then reached into the maintenance corridor for Phoenix. “Let's go!” The stallion gasped as she dragged him along, galloping madly away from a streaking barrage of manabolts. “Go go go go go!” “By the sp-spark!” Phoenix rasped, eventually galloping in a lurch along with her. Together, the fugitives darted around a corner pock-marked by manabullets. Shouting commands to one another, the Nightshade security gave pursuit, filling the hallways with a cacophony of galloping hooves.