If there was ever a time Alexia was a hair’s breadth from committing murder, it was in this moment. The enraged alicorn’s horn was a glow with a violent sheen of mana as she marched right up to the frozen forms of Reed and Pack Rat. She raised a hoof to slap Reed, but checked herself at the last instant.
The alicorn was breathing heavily just to keep her temper from flaring. “You, Reed, are going to shut this whole thing down, and stop worshiping me!”
Both other ponies prostrated themselves in front of their goddess. “Please have mercy!” “I accept whatever punishment you see fit.”
“If were up to me,” Alexia growled, “I’d have you both rot in prison for a few decades. But such as it is…” With monumental effort, she doused her magic and put her hoof down. “I can do nothing except ask you to stop.”
Tina Star stood on the far end of the pew with her head down and her ears out. She can’t be serious. She’s a goddess, she can do whatever she deems fit!
Pack Rat peaked out from behind her hooves with a cautious expression. “You’re not going to punish us?”
Alexia gritted her teeth so hard they might have shattered. “I’ll sue you all for harassment, and anything else I can think of. I don’t care if the world’s going to shit, and I don’t have a case. I’ll drag both your asses through court for so long you’ll be wishing you were back in The Ranch!”
“But my goddess, we only did this for you. All of this,” Reed waved his hooves at the room. “All of it was for you.”
“I. don’t. CARE!” She roared while slamming a hoof so hard on the ground that it cratered the marble floor. “Get rid of it, all of it, or so help me I’ll torch the whole building to the ground!”
As Alexia raged against her two disciples, Tina was nearly heartbroken. No… it’s worse than I feared. She still binds herself to mortal laws and morality. I can’t allow her to live like this. If she dies here, then there is still a chance to salvage her reputation as a goddess!
Tina pulled her scalpel out of her mane and moved it along the ground towards Alexia. Tears dampened her face as she did.
Pack Rat drew up her courage to ask a question. “Alexia, why can’t you see what you are?”
The alicorn, who had been grilling Reed, shot her a dirty look. “I can see what I am perfectly fine! I am a pony, nothing more!”
“But you are!” Reed protested before cowering under her spiteful gaze. He could feel her anger fueled mana start to swirl around them. “You embody all three tribes in addition to your divine power.”
She slapped him hard enough to throw him to the floor. Reed felt his teeth loosen and blood starting to pool in his mouth. “Don’t you dare. Alicorn magic is not divine. I am simply unique on this world, nothing more!”
Both disciples struggled to find the right words to persuade Alexia otherwise. “B-but you’re so much more than that,” Reed pleaded. “I’ve felt it since the day I first saw you, even before you ascended. You are of the divines, a living, breathing goddess right here on Earth!”
What little control Alexia had over her temper was fading fast as magic gathered around her horn. “You just don’t get it do you!?” she spat toxically. “What will it take for you to realize I’m not A DAMN GOD—” The sickening sound of a blade slicing flesh filled the room. Everything around Alexia went numb as a scorching hot sensation lanced its way into her torso. She looked down at her left side to see a scalpel embedded in her chest, and could feel it tear into her heart. The world quickly grew dark and the last thing she saw before everything went black was the blade being ripped out of her.
Reed watched on in stunned horror as his goddess collapsed to the ground with her life fluid pooling in all directions. Pack Rat saw the scalpel fly back to its owner, but was too flabbergasted to act as Tina fled the scene with a hood over her head and her tail tucked away in a skirt.
Reed jolted out of his stupor and rushed over to cradle Alexia searching for breath or a pulse, but found neither. “No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening! Alexia, you’re a goddess, wake up!” Pack Rat nearly feinted at the sight, and just barely managed to tear her eyes away. She spotted her phone sitting on the pew and bolted over to call for an ambulance.
Reed’s brain was misfiring at an increasingly erratic rate at the sight of Alexia’s blood staining his fur, and her shocked unmoving face. Reed’s world narrowed to just his bleeding goddess. The surgeon in him knew her heart had been punctured, or at least the artery directly above it, but the disciple in him refused to believe what he was seeing.
Pack Rat wept off to the side, barely able to control herself enough to stay on the line with the hospital.
“Please wake up, please wake up, you’re a goddess, this is nothing to you.” Reed repeated this mantra again and again for ten minutes as he gently held onto Alexia’s head. A glow caught his eye, and he paused his chanting to face it. He saw the ankh on Alexia’s flank start to develop gold glowing lines across her cutie mark.
The glow caught Pack Rat’s eye as well, silencing her as Reed started backing away as the lines fully traced Alexia’s cutie marks. Once both marks were fully traced out, the ankhs flashed solid azure and golden light washed over Alexia, closing her wound. The old surgeon felt the alicorn magic wash over him, bathing him in the same divine moment he felt the first time he gazed upon Alexia. For several precious seconds, he felt blessed by her power.
Pack Rat stood stock still as the golden light started to fade back into Alexia’s horn and cutie marks. Reed stepped back, neither disciple not knowing what to do until Alexia suddenly coughed up blood and took a shuddering, blood-flecked breath.
Containing his euphoria for the moment, Reed and Pack Rat rushed over to aid their goddess.
“Wha—” Alexia blinked as Reed slowly came into focus. “…What happened?”
“Pack! Fetch some water, quickly, and have someone guard the doors. I don’t want that murderer coming back!” With the earth mare running off to obey, Reed moved over to help Alexia over to one of the nearby cushions. “Some animal tried to kill you.”
Alexia’s vision continued to swim for a few more seconds until she saw that both she and Reed were completely covered in blood. “Kill me? Wha—but, then whose blood is this?”
“…Yours, my goddess.”
“Stop calling me that and what do you mean mine?” The blood loss had taken its toll, and she fell heavily on the offered pillow. Reed was becoming more and more gleeful as Alexia recovered her strength with every breath.
“I don’t know who, but a unicorn stabbed you with a scalpel. I can only imagine the blade cut straight through to your heart.” His tone took on a fanatical tone. “But you are alive, this is irrefutable proof! You truly are the Alicorn of Life!”
That broke through her mental fog. “Wait a minute. Just because I have an ankh for a cutie mark you… Look, I just—ahh- it must have some kind of magic that—”
Reed knelt before her. “Goddess Alexia, this was a sign. A sign from God to show that you truly carry divine blood!”
Alexia shoved his prostrating out of her mind. Someone actually tried to kill me? Here, in Trinity?! Yet it all came rushing back as Reed started kissing her hooves. “Stop that! And that’s not true, it was just my alicorn magic, that’s all.”
He gazed on his god with a hymn in his heart. “And what is alicorn magic, but that of the gods? You died! Your heart stopped, your breathing ceased, and yet here you are, alive again! I know of only one other person to every return from the dead.”
“Yeah well he wasn’t exactly a god either now was he?” Alexia countered with a smug grin at her quick wit. “But—no, it’s just magic. There’s nothing divine about me. Just, stop, okay! If I was god, a stupid knife wouldn’t have been enough to kill me in the first place!” She struggled to pull her phone out of her satchel. Her revivification took a heavy toll on her mana. “I have to call the office about the attack.”
“W-why can’t you see the facts? You arose from the dead. No magic can do that or else you’d have found it by now. Please, Alexia, accept the truth, you are a god!”
“I don’t want to hear this drivel! Shut this place down by the end of the week or I’m pressing charges!” Alexia snapped before teleporting herself back home.
That proved to be a little bit of a mistake, because her blood loss made her collapse in a heap in her living room, right in full view of her entire family. Needless to say, the sight of a blood covered alicorn sent the house into a panic as she slipped into unconsciousness.
Tina Star was giggling manically to herself as she raced through the farmland to melt back into town. Her still bloody scalpel was sealed inside a plastic bag wrapped up inside her tail. I can’t believe how easy that was! Just one little stab and she went down like a stone.
Wailing police sirens reached her ears, making Tina duck a little deeper into the gently swaying crops. She started creeping along towards a convenience store on the edge of the farm. Once she was sure the coast was clear, the unicorn bolted to the store before calmly strutting inside to act as any other customer, hiding her heavy breathing from the sprint all the while.
Strange how easy it was. Perhaps the poison in her mind affected her more deeply than I thought. It would have taken more than a shredded heart to snuff her life had she accepted her place in the world.
Tina selected a few dated candy bars from the moderately bare shelves. Seems even Trinity cannot escape the wrath of a collapsing global economy. No matter, the town will fall apart without the goddess around to keep it strong. I better find a quiet place to call Tazzy and tell him the deed is done. The faster I get out of town, the sooner I’m out of the local law’s reach… I wonder what sort of reward Tazzy will give me this time, she thought with a grin as she took a bite of her well-earned treat.
The world was slow to return to Alexia. At first, all she could feel was the soft bed underneath her, two very warm lumps coiled at either side of her prone form, and a tiny horn jabbing her left wing’s elbow. She cracked her eyes open and waited for her swirling vision to clear up before looking around.
At first, the room appeared to belong to the hospital, but the window between her and the fake scenery told her exactly where she was. Section Nine’s headquarters… well at least I’m in safe hands.
She craned her neck to the two lumps to find her daughters nestled between her barrel and wings on both sides of her. The mere sight of the sleeping foals eased her thoughts, but only just. A quick glance around the room revealed Conrad sleeping quietly. She rubbed her aching head and gently nudged Violet Spark's horn off of her wing. I must be really out of it if I missed him up until now.
One of the fillies yawned loudly, waking her father up with a snort-snore. “Alex! Thank goodness,” he said rapidly while rushing over to her side, “how are you feeling?”
“Like I just ran a marathon with a vice on my head. How did I get here?”
“You tell me. You teleported into the living room completely covered in blood, and pass out on the spot.”
“I ahh…” Alexia’s memory returned, along with Reed’s words. Of all the times damn times someone had to try and kill me. “I think I pulled a Jesus in front of my biggest prophet.”
That earned a skeptical look from her herdmate, but the sour expression on his alpha erased any chance it was sarcasm. “Uh huh, Quartermaster Pack Rat said something to that effect, but I didn’t catch much before the boss took her in to be debriefed. What happened? You practically gave the Andersons and your sister a heart attack.”
Fatigue made Alexia slump back in her pillow. “Funny you should say that…”
Conrad flew over to stand by her bed, and leaned in to nuzzle her. “I should have been there. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
Alexia gingerly rubbed the spot where the scalpel sank into her flesh. Aside from a ghostly recollection of the pain, there was no trace of the injury, save for a slice of missing fur. “With all the ponies aligned with the Mions, I should have expected someone to have tried to kill me by now.”
“But why now? If the cult’s starting to move towards the coast,” his face fell into a frown. “We may have to evacuate Trinity.”
And everything I’ve tried to build for the past two years will go with it. “I really don’t want to talk about this right now.” She couldn’t wash the image of so much of her fur being covered in blood. “What’s the damage?”
Conrad scowled at her dismissiveness, but Alexia busied herself with stroking her fillies’ manes. “…You lost a lot of blood, as I’m sure you know. You’re also suffering from moderate mana withdraw, and apparently you had a deep laceration in your chest, all the way to your heart. The strange part is that for some reason, your heart is completely undamaged, but the amount of blood on you when you landed in the living room would say otherwise.”
Alexia held her children close with her wings. “I nearly died, Conrad.” He quieted down at her emotional instability. “I was so angry at Reed that I couldn’t think straight. I was yelling at him, for a bit and then… I felt a white hot needle piece my chest, and… I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up.”
Conrad’s frown lost its hard edge and he stroked his mate’s mane. “You’re safe now, Alex. Whoever it was that tried to kill you, can’t reach you here.”
“I don’t want to be coddled,” she replied with a thin edge of steel. She didn’t shake him off, but he understood the message. “I’ve been shot and stabbed more times than I care to count. It was bound to catch up to me one day.”
“Alex, there’s a big difference between getting attacked during an op, and nearly getting killed here at home.” She wanted to argue, but the lack of blood and mana robbed her of any fire. Upon seeing that, Conrad nuzzled her before tracing a hoof along her chin and pulling her over so their eyes met. “I’ll watch over you while the Director figures out who did this.”
Alexia barely nodded before slumping into his embrace. Despite it all, she took comfort in his touch, and that of her sleeping children, for together; they could heal any of her wounds.
“Back up, back up, she did what!?” Loki half yelled.
Pack Rat’s gaze kept bounced between Director Thompson, Loki, Reed, and Crimson. “She resurrected herself. Right in front of us!”
“I can confirm, good sir,” Reed proclaimed with a manic tone. “She was bleeding out right there, her holy essence spilt on all over the floor, but her divine power proved the better!”
“I’m not interested in your beliefs,” Thompson spat impatiently. “As far as I’m concerned you’ve caused nothing but trouble for my operatives. Now, what about the assassin, do you have a name, a description?”
Reed was too high on faith to be insulted. “Right, of course, well… I didn’t see who it was directly, I admit I was dumbstruck any pony would be soulless enough to murder the goddess in cold blood, but it was unicorn alright, no doubt about it.”
Thompson jotted that down. “Anything else? What about the actual pony?”
Pack Rat raised a hoof. “I remember the blade had an amber aura, and I saw that mare Reed was talking to run out of the church, she might have seen who it was.”
“Or could be the assassin herself,” Loki pointed out as she shoved her muzzle in Reed’s face. “What did she look like?”
He backed up a bit to think. “Oh, hmm, she had gold fur with a cyan mane, I forget the eye color, and she was a unicorn. But if you think she’s the would-be murderer you’re sadly mistaken. The poor girl was in over her head just being in town. The goddess’ wrath is not to be taken lightly, and it likely sent her running.”
Thompson picked up the phone while shooing the two zealots out of the room. “Follow the agent outside to finish your questioning, I have a manhunt to organize.”
Reed was practically giddy. “Yes, yes, of course officer. I have to make sure the camera captured the beauty of her resurrection before distributing it to the p-”
“WHAT!?” Everyone else in the room shouted, leaving Reed a little confused.
“Why didn’t you tell me you taped the whole thing?” Thompson barked as he stood up out of shock.
Reed wilted under the heated scrutiny of the others. “The ahh… the thing is I usually just use the tapes to improve on my sermons, I didn’t remember them until just now.”
Thompson worked his jaw to keep from verbally biting Reed’s head off. “Go with the agents outside this office and retrieve the tape for study.”
“I’ll make sure it gets done, Director.” Pack Rat practically shoved the protesting Reed out of the office.
Crimson barely waited long enough for the door to close before jump to the director’s desk. “This better not be the part where you tell me this is too personal for me to go out there and hunt this bastard down.”
“This is it exactly,” he replied definitively. “Glad we’re on the same page. You know how this works, agent, get down there and watch over your mate. I’ll handle the manhunt.”
Thompson’s intercom bleeped an incoming message. He kept his gaze on the two very angry earth mares while he pushed the button. “What is it, Sanders?”
Crimson recognized the name from the Chief Watcher over Europe. “They’ve hit us, sir, hard. You better come down to the CC.”
“How bad is it?” Thompson voiced the shared question with practiced calm.
“Bad. I can explain in more detail here.”
“Fine, I’m on my way.” He stood up while addressing the mares. “You two come with me. I have a feeling you’re going out on deployment sooner than we planned.”
“What about the assassin!?” Loki growled. “That creep could be going after our family next!”
The director kept talking as he led the ponies out into the hallway. “I’ve already ordered bodyguards for them and doubled the watch over your house.”
“Doubled?” Crimson shot her mate a confused look. “You’ve been watching our house?”
I really don’t want to get into this right now, Thompson thought as he skipped the elevator in favor of the stairs. “Did you honestly think I’d risk letting your home go on without protection? This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to avoid.” For all the good it did.
The trio all but barged into the command center which was alive with chatter from over fifteen overseers talking frantically to various ground teams. Above and in front of the rows of computer consoles was a large screen depicting the world map with a small scattering of green dots in several locations in Europe and Asia. However, they were joined by a plethora of angry looking red dots close by.
The mares had been here only once before, but the hectic tone felt abnormal. Thompson looked to the first unicorn on his right. “Status report, Sanders.”
“I just received a report that a new bioweapon was just deployed in Singapore.” He pulled his screen up so the others could see a grainy video feed of panicking civilians fleeing in the streets. “Field teams report this stuff turns people within seconds of exposure. The masks most civilians have aren’t enough, the op leader thinks it can infect even through unbroken skin.”
Before Thompson or the mares could ask, one of the new Mions burst into view by jumping down from a low rooftop. The surging crowd was thrown into further disarray at the sight of the towering red giant that started bloating up like a water balloon frighteningly fast. Local police, who were trying to direct the crowd towards shelters, fired on the Mion. It popped like a massive pustule, flinging bile laced pus in all directions, covering the fleeing people and several police.
“Okay, that’s disgusting.” Loki shuddered at the sight. “How could someone design such a thing?!”
Crimson felt her bile rise. Everyone who got covered in the viscous grey liquid started having seizures on the ground while showing signs of rapid mutation. “Those monsters are just going after the civilians!”
Thompson couldn’t afford to let anger cloud his judgment. “What’s the status on the local military strength?”
“Umm,” Sanders began as he sifted through his reports on a second monitor. He was sweating profusely at the carnage onscreen as the fresh victims arose en masse. That was when the CIA cell leader started pulling his team out. “The local army should have enough strength to handle the situation, in time, but that’s not the primary concern. If this plague drains the civilian population, there won’t be anyone left for them to protect.”
“And no one left to support and supply the military,” Loki added worriedly. “This is a war of attrition.”
A human operator jumped out of his chair to grab the director’s attention. “Sir, Vladivostok’s been hit! Major bioweapon attack across the entire city.”
“What? I thought the FSB was having better luck than the FBI was!” Thompson half growled as he briskly walked over to see the reports coming in.
The overseer sat back down to organize the data. “They were. Our eyes on the ground say they intercepted several bombs in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and three other cities in the past two months, but it looks like Vladivostok slipped by them.”
Live satellite images revealed scenes very similar to Singapore, only with a breed of Mion built light and fast that leapt across walls and rooftops to strike at anyone they came across, human and pony alike.
Before Thompson could even think, a third overseer called out informing of an attack in France, along with a forth and on and on for well over an hour. By the end of the day, he was sweaty, tired, and almost at a loss at what to do.
Presently, Alexia and the herd were sitting in Thompson’s office as he angrily slammed the preliminary report on his desk. He couldn’t summon the strength to speak for a moment, and just rested his head in his palms. When did the Mions get the kind of numbers and funding for it all? Do they even care about money?
“This is bad,” Loki thought aloud.
Thompson felt her words were more flippant then their intent and clenched his fists hard enough to draw blood. “No shit.” He glared at the gathered equines. “Shanghai, Rotterdam, Kobe, New York, Panama City, and twenty other major shipping ports are either under siege or are being evacuated.” He lost his anger, which was quickly replaced by resignation. “…What was left of our global economy and manufacturing capability goes with them.”
The whole room knew the same thing after Conrad told Alexia about it. The alicorn was still woozy from lack of blood and mana, but she hid it well. Everyone shared in Thompson’s shock, but not his willingness to mope around.
“Well where do you want us?” Loki half shouted to get him out of his funk. “There’s got to be something we can do! Send us off to one of the ports and let us clear it out.”
Thompson scowled at her. “Send you to clear one port out of fifty two? No one single port is important by itself.”
Any further discussion was halted when the red telephone on the director’s desk started ringing. He answered it before the first ring ended. “Mister President,” he answered while trying to mask his heavily weighting doubt.
“Director, normally after a disaster like this I’d demand somebody’s resignation, but then I realized we’re in no shape to replace anyone at this point. Do you have something for Operation Seawall?”
Thompsons’s eyes flashed at Alexia for a moment. “We’re still researching, sir. We’ve hit a few bumps recently.”
“Well unbump it, because I want Agent Tune on the next flight to San Francisco.”
“Yes, Mister President. She’ll be in the air within the hour.”
Fitzgerald paused a moment. “Is she present?”
“She is.”
Thompson handed the phone over to Alexia who cleared her throat before speaking. “I’m here, sir.”
“Tune… Alexia, while I know you accepted under protest, but do you still hold yourself as the princess of your people?”
Alexia wasn’t sure how to take his causal, yet serious, tone as she unconsciously rubbed her necklace. “I do. Mister President.”
“You’re more valuable to both me, and the nation as a whole in playing the role I forced upon you. And for that, I’m sorry.”
“I expect you don’t regret it though,” she replied knowingly.
“I do, actually, but I would do it again every time, because I know, as much as you hated it, you fill that role perfectly.” That got a raised eyebrow out of her. “And from what I understand about Equis’ pony culture, it was the princesses that faced down the worst the universe could throw at them.”
Grim determination fell over Alexia’s features. “What would you have me do?”
“Whatever it takes, Princess, to end this threat before our civilization collapses. Thompson will brief you further.”
Fitzgerald hung up, prompting Alexia to do the same. Thompson nodded at the group. “Pack your bags, if you come back from this one… I’ll discharge you from fieldwork, if you so choose.”
“One thing at a time, Director, what about my family? I don’t want that assassin having free reign over the town where I can’t protect them.”
The other ponies mumbled in agreement, a sentiment Thompson fully supported. “I can arrange temporary housing for them in Frisco for the duration of the assignment. It’ll be cramped, but it’ll be on the naval base.”
“Father’s not going to like it,” Crimson declared with a touch of concern. “He never liked highly urbanized areas.”
“Better than risking him or the foals with the hit man at large,” Conrad added. “Besides, Elizabeth’s been wanting to go on road trip anyway.”
It was well past midnight before Tina Star almost broke the door of her motel room, both opening and slamming it shut, and jumped onto the bed laughing manically for several minutes. She completely missed Frank Gill glowering at her from across the room as he hastily shoved his belongings in a suitcase. When she finally regained some measure of composure, Tina sat up on the bed and gave Frank a mocking salute. “Mission complete, Gill-friend. Scratch one alicorn goddess.”
“You took your sweet time getting back.” Frank stuffed the last of his clothes in his case. “You put the whole town on high alert! If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m human, the suits would have killed me on sight for being at the royal manor’s front door.” He pulled his suitcase up. “We have to leave, now, before that alicorn comes looking for you.”
Tina chuckled at him for a few seconds until she saw his expression wasn’t lightening up. “Are serious? I killed her myself.” She pulled her blood encrusted scalpel out for inspection. She grinned at the small tuft of silver fur still clinging to it. “I pierced her heart with this. She died before hitting the floor, mission accomplished.”
“Sn’t what I heard,” he teased with a hint of mirth. “Word on the street says the supposed goddess brought herself back to life.”
To any rational person, even in the world of newfound magic, resurrection would be laughable. Tina however, could never claim to be rational. Her laughter died as she eyed him carefully. “It has to be propaganda from the local spooks. Alexia was too weakened by the false believe in her mortality to resist a mortal wound.”
Frank took a moment to lean against the wall with a sneer. “And what sort of proof do you base that on?”
“Bah, you’re no pony, you’d never understand.”
He rolled his shoulders before hefting his suitcase. “Perhaps. But I know you’ve probably been hiding and not actually hearing all the rumors around town.” Tina’s shrug was all the answer he needed. “Word has it that, that preacher, Reed, recorded the whole thing.” He fished his phone out of his pocket, selected the video, and tossed it at a seething Tina. “And he’s posted it on the net.”
Even she was willing to look at a clip before biting his head off. The video was of decent quality, and the camera was perched high above the altar, but Tina recognized the room and Alexia instantly. She was surprised that Reed had the integrity to keep Alexia’s tantrum in as well. A snide smirk slide across Frank’s face as Tina’s expression went slack as Tune’s magic brought her back from the brink of death.
A fiendishly savage grin shot across her muzzle. “Yes, yes, yes, YES! I knew she was stronger than a mortal!” Tina bounced happily on her hooves, much to Frank’s dismay. “Now she has no choice but to acknowledge her godhood! Now, when I kill her, she’ll know just how much work it takes to slay a god! How many times do you think it’ll take? Is she like a cat? Do I have to sever her head? A stake through the heart, perhaps?”
Tina kept playing the clip over and over again, never caring to notice it showed her running away from the scene of the crime. So it was that she was quite surprised by the motel’s window suddenly shattering and two grenades bounce inside the room with one rolling in front of Frank’s foot.
“Oh shit,” he muttered before the room flashed as bright as the sun and he crumpled to the ground. For a brief moment that felt like it dragged on for minutes, they were numbed to the world.
A battering ram slammed the door open and five CIA operatives stormed the room. They didn’t even bother shouting a warning before the first operative tackled Frank to the ground with a pegasus flying over the first agent and grappled Tina to the ground.
“Targets subdued, get the cuffs and wards over here!” the pegasus ordered to the two other operatives entering the room.
Tina struggled, but between the flashbangs and the anti-magic ward collar wrapped around her neck, she could do nothing but spit incoherent obscenities as she was bodily dragged outside. It wasn’t long before they were being led to a waiting black van. The late hour still saw a few bystanders watch the snarling unicorn and human get tossed inside the vehicle.
Tina wasted no time in trying to charge the heavy steel door of the van, but her hog-tying shackles turned her efforts into little more than flaying on the bench as the last operative slammed it in her face, and laughed at her while patting the door as he walked off.
“Take this damn collar off me or I’ll gore you on my horn!”
Frank let her yell a few more obscenities before chuckling at her. “Give it up will you? They don’t care how you threaten them.”
With frightening alacrity, Tina’s mood preformed a complete turn around and she laid down on the floor with a stupid grin on her face. “Too bad. They’ll probably wish they had taken me up on their offer in an hour or so.”
He eyed the mare as she tried to scratch an itch, but with little success. “Why, you going to muscle your way past that collar?” He shook his handcuffs at her. “I’d be more likely to punch through the walls.”
“You just might,” Tina replied cryptically.
The prisoner area jostled as the engine came to life. “What did you do?”
Tina inspected her hogtie for a moment before glancing up at Frank with an innocent expression. “What?”
“What. Did. You. Do?” he asked dangerously, not that Tina was bothered in the slightest by his tone.
“I called my boss, that’s all.”
Frank wasn’t satisfied, and Tina’s return to inspecting her restraints didn’t help. “I bet he’ll be pissed to know you failed your mission, right after telling him you succeeded.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get another chance to fight her in a day or so.”
“What, he’s sending back up?”
“In a manner of speaking. You see, with the goddess assumed dead, there’s no reason for him to believe that this town needs to remain anymore. So he sending a few care packages our way.”
“Care packages? Wait, is he going to bio-bomb the town?! That wasn’t part of our deal!” Frank shuffled over and started hitting the small window into the driver cabin. “Hey!” *bang bang bang* “I want to confess! I need a mask!”
The operative on the passenger side slammed the butt of his rifle at the reinforced window before speaking over the van’s intercom. “Pipe down back there. You’ll get your lawyer.”
The driver snickered darkly, along with his companion. “Right, and straight on in to the lynch mob of a jury.”
The passenger kept the intercom transmitting just long enough to catch more laughter. Frank whirled around to Tina who was rather enjoying herself. “Call him back, tell him to abort the hit!”
“Why do you care about the town all of a sudden?” she purred mockingly.
“Because I’m still in it!”
Tina shuffled enough to sit up. “Don’t be such a baby. You should have known the moment you sided up with the Mions that there were only 3 options for you, red skin, fur, or a body bag. Besides, in case you hadn’t noticed, my phone’s been confiscated, so you’re out of luck.”
“But he said he found out how all those people turned into ponies. That he’d let me choose what kind I wanted to be since he’s out to kill all humans. I don’t want to be one of those mutant freaks!”
Tina didn’t flinch as Frank vented his rage on the bench, the walls, or even the front glass. He’s dead already. Me, I just have to wait a bit. She turned around to look out of the small barred window and into the night sky. Maybe the turned townsfolk will help weaken Alexia enough that she can’t resurrect. Or I could even try raiding the SWAT armory.
A few moments later, the van turned a corner, allowing her to see a tiny streak of light in the distance before it suddenly vanished. “Oh my…” she said gleefully.
Frank was staring at his bloodied hands, but his gaze was far beyond it until Tina spoke. The off-kilter quality of her words struck a chord of terror in his heart. “What is it?”
A large toothy smile spread across the mare’s lips as she turned to her accomplice. “Tazzy really knows how to treat a lady; he’s early.”