//------------------------------// // Gamble // Story: Alienation // by Longtooth //------------------------------// Of all the things I can say about Alley Cat, I will give her this: she is never out of control. She saw what I had done, had felt the amount of power I could bring to bear, and she did not allow herself even a moment of fear. She looked at me with an infuriating calm, not unwary but not worried either. “You don’t have to be our enemy,” she said, though her tone made it clear that she wasn’t expecting this line of argument to bear fruit. “Yes I do,” I replied. “Who is manufacturing black crystal?” “Who are you?” she asked in turn. “Beneath the hood and the cloak?” I ignored her, stepping closer. “You will tell me what you know.” “One way or another,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to.” I was caught off guard by her attitude. None of the other addicts acted like her, and I didn’t yet know how strong she was. I was so used to fear and anger and brutal attempts at dominance, her casual demeanor was… off-putting. “Answer now and I will have no reason to hurt you,” I lied. There was no way I was letting a terminal addict live. I don’t know whether she picked up on the lie or if she was planning to toy with me the entire time, but she smiled in that maddening ‘I know something you don’t’ way and laughed. “You’ll have to catch me first!” she cried, and leapt back. I lashed out with my magic, wrapping telekinesis around her. Only to find that I had caught nothing but air. She slipped behind the bar, her own horn glowing with a yellow light. I went to leap at her, but my ribs protested the movement, bringing me up short. Instead I focused on the bar itself, tearing a chunk out of it to reveal what was behind. A terrified bartender still crouched there, shaking and crying as he saw me. Alley Cat was nowhere to be seen. I barely had to narrow my eyes at the bartender before he pointed a hoof. I followed the gesture to find Alley Cat slinking around the open end of the counter. Our eyes met and I saw for the first time the cool control she was exerting over herself. I hesitated from that look, I’m sorry to say. By the time I was sending a blast of destructive magic she was already moving. She dove towards the gaping hole that was once the floor. Shocked at the suicidal maneuver, I didn’t try to stop her. But suicide wasn’t her aim. She grabbed a protruding floorboard, spinning around it and launching herself right back into the room. Right at me. I brought my coat around for defense as she came at me in a flying kick. Except it wasn’t a kick, not really. She landed on me. On me. She used my defense as a platform and clung for a moment. Just long enough for me to realize that I was being outmaneuvered. Then she rolled off and kicked me in my broken ribs. That hurt. Even through the anesthetic magic, it hurt like crazy, knocking the breath from me. I blasted magic at her again, not even a formed spell, just raw power. It obliterated a piece of flooring, but she was already moving. She has reflexes like her namesake, and the physical grace of a gymnast. Combined with the power boost given by her black crystal addiction, it makes her incredibly hard to hit. I snarled in anger, unable to do much more than that because of the sudden lack of air in my lungs. She leapt at me again, her magic forming into telekinetic claws at the ends of her forehooves. Those claws hit the automatic defenses of my costume, and were shattered. That, at least, got a surprised reaction out of her. I took advantage of that, ripping up a loosened section of the rapidly-shrinking floor and slamming it into her. She took the hit with all the resilience that a terminal addict could bring to bear, shrugging it off and squirming away from my telekinetic bludgeon before I could use it to crush her against a wall. We paused for a moment in our fight, me fighting for breath and her regarding me with a quizzical air. “How did you get so powerful?” she asked. “You aren’t even one of us, but I can taste the darkness in you.” “Going to ask me to join you?” I managed to growl out. I was already working my magic, as I had before when facing the roomful of thugs. I was sending tendrils out, ready to be charged to life. I was building a cage around her, one she couldn’t just slip out of. “No,” she said with a slight shake of her head. “I know a lost cause when I see one.” Her eyes twitched, focusing on something other than me. “I also know a losing fight.” I slammed power into my incomplete spell-cage, belatedly realizing that what she had been focusing on were the tendrils of magic I was weaving around her. Alley Cat’s horn went dark, her eyes pulsing with shadow. She seemed to fall apart, becoming a cloud of billowing darkness that streamed through the holes in my cage. The living shadow rushed across the open floor, becoming a pony again once it had reached the other side and the ledge of remaining floor there. “Another time, Shadow Slayer!” she called out, before discorporating again and flowing into an air vent. I watched her go. I could have followed, could have torn apart half the Sky Promenade trying to catch her. Maybe I would have succeeded. But I was injured and unprepared, and she’d already shown me that my usual brute-force approach would be wasted against her. If I was going to catch Alley Cat, I would have to be clever about it. Fortunately, the method of her escape gave me a way to go about it. I had seen that kind of magic before, a couple times, actually. It wasn’t something that was easy to pull off by any means. Even with the power boost provided by the black crystal, it still required a lot of knowledge and training in magic. Which meant that Alley Cat, at some point, had been a student of high-level magic. And the best place for that kind of learning was Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Which, it just so happens, Twilight Sparkle had full access to. The next time I faced Alley Cat, I would know everything she had ever studied, and I would be ready to counter it. For now, though, I was left wheezing and staring at a place I had thoroughly wrecked. I turned to the cowering bartender. “You,” I snapped. “Two drinks, something hard.” He looked up at the smashed bottles that had once been displayed behind the bar. I grabbed him with my magic and dragged him to his hooves, giving him a very look that spoke very clearly about how little whining I was prepared to tolerate. “Yes, ma’am,” he stammered, and began searching for intact glasses. I stomped outside and found the pegasus bouncer, who had followed my instructions and was resting as comfortably as he could. “You’re a mercenary,” I said. He nodded, though it hadn’t been a question. “You’ve had guard training?” “Yes,” he replied. “Your previous clients are unable to retain your contract. Would you be willing to entertain a new offer?” He swallowed at the implications and gave me a steady look that said everything I needed to know about his stallion’s courage. “Do I have a choice?” “Not an enviable one,” I said, looking pointedly at the edge of the Promenade. “In that case, I’m always willing to listen,” he said with a forced smile. I smiled back, telekinetically picking him up and floating him back into the remains of Jack Trade’s. His eyes bulged as he saw the empty chasm that had once been a shady, but profitable, bar. There were still a couple thugs edging their way towards the closest exit that didn’t have me in front of it. I considered them for a moment, then gave them all a shove towards their chosen exits. I didn’t want any of them to overhear what I was going to task the mercenary with. I magically fused a portion of the floor into a new shape, setting up stools and giving us a place to sit at the bar. I released his forehooves from my binding spell and thanked the bartender when he set a pair of drinks in front of us. He took that as permission to leave and scurried towards the exit. I let him go. He was effectively an innocent. We sat in silence for a long moment, and I took a few slow sips at the hastily-prepared drink. It wasn’t a good drink by any of the standards I had been introduced to, but it burned all the way down and took my mind off of the squeezing pressure on my lung. I’d have to fix that soon, but I wanted to do this first. In all honesty, I had no idea what I was going to do with this pony. I had the vague notion that he could be put to use, but I had no clue as to what that use could be. It was an impulsive decision, made after a long and wearying day. Yet it turned out to be the right one, in the end. “Equestria is in danger,” I began. “I’m trying to save it.” “With all respect, ma’am,” he said. “That’s the Guard’s job.” “They don’t know how to win this fight.” “And you do?” I nodded. “I do.” “Then why don’t you go to them and show them how?” I snorted back a painful laugh. “Why did you leave the Guard?” He frowned at the change in subject, but answered quickly enough. “I made some mistakes,” he said. “Such as?” “Such as none of your business.” I shook my head. “Not a good answer.” “It’s not meant to be, ma’am.” I regarded him quietly for a minute. He was scared. I could see that in the tremble of his wings and the shortness of his breath. I could practically smell it in the sweat that glistened on his coat. He was scared for his life, but strong enough to overcome it. “I can’t go to the Guard,” I said. “Even if they knew how to win, they wouldn’t do it. It’s not in their nature.” “And you think you can do it all on your own?” he asked. “Yes,” I replied. “But it will take too long. That’s why I want your help.” “I don’t work for murderers.” “But you’ll work for criminals and traitors instead?” I asked. He flinched at that. “Black crystal. It’s more than just a drug, it’s the opening salvo in a war. A war designed to destroy Equestria. Your former employers were working with the architects of this war. Working with them is just as bad as working for them, and that’s where you stand.” “And you’re any better?” he demanded, angry now. “How many did you kill tonight?” “Many,” I replied. “Though not as many as I would have liked. The truth is, I am better than them. I kill, yes, but they destroy. They corrupt. They will take everything good in this world and twist it until it fulfills their purposes. I won’t.” “And what do you want me for? To be your sidekick?” “No, I’ve got sidekicks,” I answered. “I need a soldier. I need somepony who I can count on when things get bloody to do what is needed.” “And what makes you think that pony is me?” I smiled and took another drink. “Just a feeling.” He sighed. “Can we get this over with? You don’t need to justify yourself. For one I’m not going to believe you, and second we both know how it’s going to end. Whatever you want, I’m going to say yes. It’s either that or you toss me down that hole, right?” I shrugged. “I admit that I considered it. But, no. I’m not going to kill you, regardless of what you answer.” “Then I’m going to say no.” I smiled again. “No. You’re going to say ‘maybe’. You’re going to go home and you’re going to think about it. You’re going to do your research and you’re going to figure out that what I’ve been saying is the truth. Then, you’re going to come and find me, and you’re going to say ‘yes’.” “What makes you so sure of that?” he asked. What I did next was a gamble. Something I maybe wouldn’t have done if I had planned this whole thing out. But I was running on intuition now, trusting instinct instead of reason. Heh, of course I was. It was about as far from Twilight Sparkle as I could get, riding the ragged edge of true self-determination. And yet, even here I couldn’t escape her. Even this moment of being as opposite her as I could, I was tied to her by that very act of opposition. The ironies and paradoxes of my existence are never-ending. I reached up and unclasped my hood from my horn, lifting it off and lowering it, revealing my features to him. His eyes widened, he gasped and his mouth went slack. “You know who I am,” I said. He nodded in mute astonishment. “I promise you, I have always done my best to protect Equestria, and that’s exactly what I’m doing now.” His mouth worked in silence a few times before he managed to get out a single question: “Why?” “Because it has to be done,” I replied. “What’s your name?” “Gale Force,” he said. “Pleased to meet you.” I dispelled the bindings I had placed on him. “Think about it, Gale Force. Equestria needs you. When you’ve decided, you know where to find me.” And since that was a really good exit line, I launched myself backwards and out of the hole. My coat stretched out to lift me up and I flew away into the night. Which, by the way, only made my broken ribs hurt worse. The things I do for drama.