Chapter 19
64 POV
I looked at my watch for the thousandth time today, and it still read 9PM. I had two and a half hours still left inside of this freaking barrier, and I barely had anything to go against Knight. There was no way he was simply going to go by himself, he was going to bring at least an entire battalion with him to come and collect me.
I was in a bind. Stay and get captured? Try and escape before the timer ran down and alert Knight who in turn will alert Celestia of my location? Or go to that meet up and try and fight my way out? I had three options, and each one had different consequences, but all had the same ending, me being dragged off to the freaking chopping block, or worse.
Celestia had left some time ago after finishing her interrogation of Twilight’s friends, but Knight had offered to stay behind and “keep watch on the town”.
With me stuck in this Clock Tower without any means of escape, there was only one thing I could do.
Sleep on it.
“Vi, I’m gonna try an meet up with Luna, hopefully she will have some sort of plan I can use.” I said, going to the small hale bale I had as a bed and lying down. Luckily it was already night time, so Luna would be scanning for dreams. Hopefully I got a slightly more pleasant dream than last time.
I closed my eyes, and focused on going to sleep, and sure enough, I felt Luna’s night slowly drape over my body, lulling me to sleep.
3rd Person POV
As 64 slept, Knight was preparing his small army to bring to the secret meet up. He was in Twilight Sparkle’s guest room, writing letters to his formed Underground Guard Army.
“It will end tonight… 64’s capture is only one step of many in my plan…” Knight muttered, gathering the letters he had wrote and putting them into a small package. He then used a magic spell and formed a small falcon made of light, which almost had the same resemblance of Princess Luna’s hair.
“Transport this package to the coordinates labeled, a Pegasus Guard will be there to collect it. When he retrieves it, you can dispel yourself, got it?”
The bird nodded, and picked up the package using his two sharp talons, and flew out the window towards Canterlot.
Knight followed the bird until his sights landed on the Clock Tower Project 64 was currently being held prisoner. He was surprised that 64 actually was staying inside of the Clock Tower, and not trying to escape. He hadn't announced the casting of his Barrier Spell, but 64 had managed to pick up on it anyway. The second it was tripped though, he would send a magical message to Celestia through a charm she had given him.
“It is time for my departure as well.” Knight said, looking at the clock on the tower as it indicated it was 9:30PM. Knight gathered his things, and teleported out of the window, and slowly started to walk in the direction the clearing he told Project 64 about.
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Meanwhile, in 64’s dream, 64 was reliving the memory of little Orange Grove’s death. Only after 64 had anonymously delivered the corpse of the little filly to the nearest town of Manehatten did he learn her name through an obituary in an old discarded newspaper.
Apparently her parents owned the local orange farm, and she was laid to rest on the highest hill, next to the tallest tree. 64 had made it a vow to visit her grave once everything was over and done, and it was one of his biggest motivations in getting revenge on Knight and Celestia. 64 could only watch in horror as her breathing slowed, and her body went limp, siphoning the last of the light of life still left in her eyes.
It was a dream which had haunted him over the years, and one of the biggest reasons 64 chose to sleep as least often as possible. The only reason he had slept at Fluttershy’s Cottage was because he had endured head trauma, and wanted a good night’s rest. But now with his new communication line with Princess Luna, he would have to learn to deal with the memories.
Much to his relief, Princess Luna materialized in front of him slowly, soft sorry eyes staring at him.
“I could feel the anguish of this dream from the outside. This is her memory isn’t it?” Luna asked. 64 simply nodded as he looked upon her dead body. Luna’s horn glowed, and the entire dream was swept away in the breeze.
But as soon as it left, a new dream came forward, the land of Sanctuary and the Horrifying Obstacles. 64’s fists were bound to the desert this time, large and heavy chains shackled to his wrists.
“I guess this is better than the other one…” 64 muttered, “I sleep because I wanted to speak with you, so if we could do this sooner than later?”
Luna nodded and waited.
“I realize that I can’t complete the last leg of my journey by myself, so I need your help. Can you help me?” 64 asked.
“I will indeed help you in your endeavors, simply give your request and I will make it so.” Luna said, careful not to step into her Royal Canterlot voice.
“Thanks, you don’t know how much that means to me, but right now we have bigger fish to fry.”
“Fry… fish?”
“Never mind, look, you know Royal Advisor Silent Knight correct?”
Luna thought about that for a bit, before the name resurfaced in her memory.
“Yes, he’s a very quiet one, and more than often does his work in solitude. What does he have to do with this?” Luna asked.
“You saw him in the memories remember? He was there when I first came out of that vat of blood plasma remember? He’s the one who put me through everything before I escaped.” 64 said, trying to move the conversation along.
“But, you didn’t let me see what you had escaped from; all I saw was the prison cell you were in, then you were running from the Guards and my sister…”
64 looked down in though. He knew he couldn't just reveal what he had gone through in the Underground Labs, which would completely ruin Luna’s train of thought. She would need to be eased into the explanation. So 64 simply opted to pull up his shirt, revealing the large scars and markings from his time in torture and experimentation.
Luna’s reaction was tame, putting a hoof to her mouth in shock in an attempt to prevent a cry coming out. 64 rolled down his shirt when he thought enough was enough.
“I can’t show you anything else for now. It would be too quick, too soon. And right now we are getting off track, so you know who Silent Knight is correct?” 64 asked in slight frustration.
“Yes, we have established that.”
“Well he is also in the quest to have me captured, and right now he knows where I am. That’s the reason he decided to stay in Ponyville one more night, to keep an eye on me. He has me trapped in the local Clock Tower with a Barrier spell, and if I try to break through its gonna tell him, and there isn’t going to be a single thing to prevent him using that little Dragon’s fire breath to get a letter to Princess Celestia. I need someone on the outside to give me a hand.”
Luna nodded and put on a confident smile.
“Just give me the details…”
------------------------3 Hours Later------------------------
In the middle of Whitefire Woods, Knight stood with 10 Underground Royal Guards all equipped with spears and spiked hoof covers. Knight had felt Midnight roll around, and saw no sign of Project 64.
“Guards, prepare for a fugitive assailant. He will be alone, yet extremely dangerous, capture with extreme prejudice.” Knight ordered, as the guards readied the spears using their Unicorn magic. Knight continued to stare in the direction of the Ponyville Clock Tower, and awaited 64’s arrival.
“64 wouldn’t be stupid enough to run, but he isn’t stupid enough to not come with a backup plan…” Knight thought. A rustle in the trees alerted everypony in the field, and all turned towards the noise. Another rustle in another direction, and all turned towards the new noise. Soon enough, every tree in the field was rustling, and the 10 Underground Guards surrounded Knight, ready to fight the strange anomaly.
64 eventually walked out of the tree line, standing about 10 yards away from Knight and his Guard circle.
“Well, well Project 64. That was a very nice trick you pulled back there, but sadly it wasn’t enough to scare any of us off, better luck next time. Now will you come quietly, or will we have to break your legs?” Knight barked, wanting to get this over with.
“Trick? That wasn’t me, I was wondering what that was, because I heard it back there too. And for your second question, I can easily see I’m outnumbered here, so what do you think my answer is going to be?” 64 said, holding out his wrists, revealing he didn’t have Peacemaker in his hands.
Knight snickered, and nodded his head towards a guard, signaling the guard to apprehend 64. The guard quickly ran towards 64, aiming his spear towards his legs so he wouldn’t have to worry about 64 pulling a fast one. As the guard brought down his spear, he felt it stop mid-swing. He looked down and saw that his Spear was shrouded in a purple glow of magic holding it from de-limbing 64.
“C’mon, even Knight isn’t stupid enough to think I wouldn’t come without some backup. Come on out!” 64 yelled.
Immediately, a brown unicorn stallion dress in blue night camouflage jumped out of the trees, snickering as his horn glowed with a purple light.
“Not just him! Everypony come on out!”
As 64 yelled this, 9 more Ponies of various gender and race jumped out of the trees, all holding swords either in their mouths or in a magical grasp. They all wore the same dark blue camouflage uniform, and slowly gathered around Project 64.
“Who? Who in the hell are they?!” Knight yelled, bewildered at the group of ponies gathered around 64.
“What? You thought that I was all alone in my travels? I’ve been recruiting, gathering followers, and most importantly, convincing. Some ponies now know that Celestia isn’t all peaches and cream like everyone thinks, and they are slowly planning to revolt.” 64 yelled as he pulled Peacemaker out of his waistband.
“EVERYPONY! CHARGE!”
As they charged, Knight knew they couldn’t be as skilled as the veteran guards he had brought with him, so they would be slaughtered down instantly.
This was not the case.
As the first Rebel reached the Guards, he immediately jumped up, putting a hoof on the guards face and vaulted off of him, leaping over the ring of guards and heading straight for Knight. Knight gasped and fired a weak bolt of magic at the stallion, knocking him out. As Knight was about to turn and run away, he saw a Rebel Mare behind him, knife poised to strike. Luckily an Underground Guard tackled the mare, and a grappling match started.
64 hung back and waited for his moment to enter the fray, when he saw a Rebel stallion stab an Underground Guard in the neck, before continuing to attack another. 64 slightly gagged at the blood slowly pouring out of the dead Guard, still not over his slight fear of blood and death. The fighting continued, and as the Underground Guards fell, some rebels did as well.
A Unicorn Mare Rebel was poised to strike an unconscious Guard, when a spear was thrust into her back, sending her blood rushing out of her mouth as she fell onto the floor. The stallion which first came out of the trees came out of his unconsciousness and rush Knight again, but a Guard was awaiting, and brought a spiked hoof down on the side of his head, spewing blood out of the wound.
As Knight watched the bloodshed, he saw an opening, and ran for his life. Despite his big talk, he was in no way a combatant, so running would be his best shot. As the Guards saw their Commanding Officer retreat, the remaining Guards too retreated, leaving the remaining 6 living Rebels on the field, bloodied and battered, yet victorious.
The Rebels cheered, before they all collapsed to the floor, and morphed into a Purple magic aura before dissipating, revealing them to simply be solid illusions, as Princess Luna walked out onto the field.
“Well 64, it seems that your accusations regarding Silent Knight were correct, and he is indeed going behind I and Celestia’s backs. He will receive the proper punishment when I return to Canterlot.” Luna said scowling in the direction Knight ran.
“No, leave him be.” 64 said putting a hand out to hold Luna back, “I think he will think twice about messing with me for a while. Remember, you aren’t supposed to be here, so if you bring anything up about tonight, both he and Celestia will have suspicions about your association with me. You get it?”
Luna nodded and began to flap her wings preparing for takeoff.
“I will see you soon Project 64… And that was a very convincing story about the Rebellion you supposedly had.” Luna said, before flying away towards Canterlot.
64 shook his head in humor and began to walk towards the pile of dead Guards, and saw that one of the guards was in fact alive, yet slowly dying. He walked up to the guard, looking at his eyes slowly lose their light. The guard looked towards 64, and started to whisper.
“Please… end my suffering... I don’t want to live like this anymore….”
The Guard looked as if he has had a pain in his eyes that of which he had been suffering for a much longer time than 64 suspected. 64 looked towards the Sword from the Peacemaker in his hand, and back at the suffering Guard. He shook as he contemplated what he was going to do, before the Guard himself grabbed his hand, and brought the Sword into himself.
“NO!” 64 yelled as he pulled the Sword from the Guard, but the damage was done, and the light in the Guards eyes was gone.
64 POV
No… no… no he didn’t just do that! I saw his body go limp, and soon enough he was dead. I looked at the blood on my hand, and started to shake once again. The blood felt warm and viscous, a horrible combination to feel on my hand. I lurched over and released my lunch, coughing and gagging at the now very thick smell of blood.
“64, now is the time to get going. There will be an investigation here very soon, obviously masked up by Knight as some sort of rogue guard group. Head to Outpost #13 in Dodge Junction, its easily a day’s travel, and we need someplace to lay low, far away from Ponyville.” Vi said, shaking me out of shock.
I shot up and immediately ran in the direction Vi’s locator sent me, eager to get away from the stench of blood.
I didn’t want to think about that Guard…
I didn’t want to think about anything right now…