GTA: The Ballad of Rainbow Dash
Chapter 15: Just Wait
(Broker – Warehouse District – three days later)
The sound of bullets ripping into the door frame and wall echoed in the small room. Dash tried her hardest not to think about the fact of how many there was outside. In truth, any number of them could be the changelings. She didn’t know when they came over, but they were here now, and one of them was going to pay for what they did.
(Bohan – Niko’s old Apartment – three days earlier)
Dash looked around the room and took a deep breath. The air was stale, but that was understandable. Niko and Roman hadn’t lived here in a few years, but the apartment was still rented to them. Niko had told her that the apartment more or less served as a storage room for some of their things, and there was something there he needed to be done with. She wasn’t sure what it was that he wanted to be rid of, but if it was going to help him then she was more than ready to do it. He began digging through boxes, and after about an hour of searching he brought out a small notebook.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“This was the journal I carried after the war. My friends, twelve boys I grew up with, all died because of the actions of one man. I lived with the desire to find him, and make him pay for betraying us. I wanted to make him suffer for killing them, and for trying to kill me, but in the end I found that he was a shell of who he had been. His life was pain, and letting him live was the best way to get past what had been done,” he said as he looked at the book, “I don’t need any more reminders of this time in my life.”
She reached for the notebook and he handed it to her. She opened it to see his native language scribbled on the pages. Crude drawings of two men seemed to be present throughout the book, and finally it came down to one man’s drawing. She knew this had to have been the one who had betrayed him. She had heard him talking about him, about Darko, and even some of the things he had been through.
She held the notebook and it felt, heavy. That was the only way to describe it. It didn’t feel as it should. It was still a normal notebook, and she knew that in truth it only weighed a few ounces, but still, holding it she could almost feel the weight of what he had been carrying around for so long.
“What do you want to do to it?” she asked.
“Burn it. I want to make sure it cannot come back to haunt me,” he replied.
They walked downstairs and Dash spotted a bum standing near a trashcan he was using to burn trash in. She nudged Niko and pointed toward the can. He nodded and the both of them walked toward it. She began to toss the notebook in when she saw him again. The same Eastern European man she had seen a while before. His eyes trained on her and a wicked smile crossed his face. She backed up toward the building.
“Dash?” Niko asked.
He turned to see the man she was looking at. He caught the man’s eyes changing color for a second. For the briefest of moments his eyes looked unnatural, and bizzare. Niko watched as the man then looked at him and slowly studied him.
“Who are you?” Niko asked.
“A traveler who knows your friend,” he said before he began to walk away.
Niko walked toward him and shoved him toward the wall.
“I asked you who you are!” Niko shouted.
The Eastern European’s voice and face changed. Niko stepped back as he looked into his own face.
“Why, I’m you. Isn’t it obvious?” he asked mimicking Niko’s voice perfectly.
“Niko, get away from him!” Dash shouted.
Following her advice Niko jumped back. The bum standing near the entire ordeal screamed and threw his hands into the air.
“I knew it! Aliens! I said the Aliens were here!!!!” he screamed as he turned to run.
The false faced Niko stood looking at Dash and the real Niko. She watched as his eyes turned a deep forest green. Twilight had talked about the Changelings, she had said what they were capable of, what they could and would do, but with the exception of the small incursion they had helped deal with there wasn’t much she really knew about them.
“Maybe right now being an egghead wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” she thought as she watched it.
Before she could really react the Changeling raced forward toward Niko. She tried to pull a gun, but it was too late. Once it had him the thing turned toward her, grinned, and then the both of them disappeared.
“Oh, sweet Celestia what do I do?” she said as she stood there.
Those things had all of the magical ability of the unicorns. She tried to think of someone, anyone, which could help her and Niko. Little Jacob would gladly help her look, and so would Packie, Roman, Brucie, Dwaine, Tracy, and Simone, but none of them had the ability to tap into magic. She thought instantly of going home, going back into Equestria, facing her friends, and begging Twilight to come and help them, but she couldn’t. Even if Twilight agreed to help her it would be too hard to explain about Pinkie Pie.
She racked her brain trying her hardest to think of someone who could help them, who would be able to help them when she thought of the Incredible Kleinman. She never saw wires, or anything else that she had noticed during other magic acts when he performed. It was a long shot, but maybe he was really magic. If he was then he could help. She needed someone to help her convince him, and that’s when she thought of Little Jacob. The Rasta would be glad to force him into helping them. She grabbed her phone, dialed Jacob’s number and waited.
“This is Jacob,” the Rasta said with a sleepy voice.
“Jacob, I need your help. Something’s happened to Niko, and we need someone to help find him,” she said.
“What happen to ma boy Niko?” Little Jacob asked.
“Someone took him Jacob! I need help finding him, and there’s one person that might be able to do it,” she said.
She could feel herself trying to slip into a frantic and panic state. Her control was slipping and she was feeling as helpless as she did when she had been trapped in Pinkie Pie’s basement. She had to force herself to calm down. She caught the end of something Jacob has said and shook her head.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Who? Who gonna help us?” he asked.
“The Incredible Klienman. He’s the only one that I can think of that might be able to give us some idea of where to look,” she replied.
“Meet me at Perestroika in half an hour,” Little Jacob said before he shut off his phone.
Dash looked around carefully. There had been one Changeling, just one, but it had been fast enough, and resourceful enough to capture Niko, and now it had escaped. She walked toward the Dukes and started to get in. Then for a moment she thought of the notebook, the journal Niko had carried with him since the end of the war, and she looked toward where she had dropped it.
She didn’t see it, and she knew that she hadn’t dropped it into the fire. She closed her eyes and tried to block the idea of what that thing could do with the journal. Niko was strong. He had faced so much already, and she knew he had faced more beforehand. There was no doubt in her mind that the Changeling would have a hard time trying to break him down if that was its plan.
She pulled the Dukes up to Perestroika and stepped out. The Russian Vaudevillian club seemed closed. She figured that it was Little Jacob’s doing. Walking inside she heard the sound of a grunt and then something large falling to the ground.
“Where’s ma boy Niko?!” Little Jacob yelled at the downed Klienman.
“I don’t know a Niko you hyped up hippy!” Klienman shouted back.
“No, but you’re gonna help find him,” Dash said as she neared him.
He stared at her for several seconds before he began to stand up. It was obvious that Little Jacob hadn’t worked on him too long, but it was more than enough to show a few places that would be turning into bruises.
“And what could a humble purveyor of magic tricks do to help you?” he asked.
“A, whatever the Tartarus you said, can’t do ponyshit to help us, but someone who is able to practice real magic can. I’ve seen your act. No wires, no life nets, and you always recover from something that should kill you or your assistant. You have magic, and we need that to help us,” she said.
He laughed, almost insanely, for several minutes before finding a seat and setting down.
“Then you don’t need me. When I say that I am a mere purveyor of magic tricks I’m not lying. You need Laurel. She’s the one who knows magic,” he said.
A moment later a woman with white hair came down the steps. She stopped, and Dash took a good look at her. Her eyes were purple, her hair white, and she had a light aura of blue light around her. The woman stepped back and Dash shook her head.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie? What in the name of Celestia are you doing here?!” Dash exclaimed.
The woman breathed out and took a seat. She looked toward Klienman and shook her head.
“Trixie asks you to do one job. One, but you can’t even do that for Trixie can you? Make the crowd believe it is you doing this Trixie told you, but no, you can’t do it,” she said.
“Damn it Trixie it’s not that damned easy!” he exclaimed.
“Okay, I don’t care who is what. All I know is that you,” she said pointing to Trixie, “are going to help me find Niko.”
“Why should Trixie help you? As Trixie recalls you and your friends laughed at her when she failed to beat the Ursa Minor,” Trixie said.
“Because I’m not the same pony I was then. Because I can and will do what I have to do to make you help me,” Dash said as she stepped near the setting woman.
“Time in the human world has changed you hasn’t it? Trixie has found it to be different, but it is better than being killed,” she said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The pink one, she foalnapped a clone Trixie had created with the mirror pool. Trixie needed a partner, and Trixie thought who better than Trixie? So Trixie created the clone, came back to camp, walked out to find some dandelions, for a nice snack, and came back to find a trail and Trixie’s clone missing. Trixie followed it, and she found the basement. Trixie watched the pink one as she cut Trixie’s clone apart. It… it was horrible,” Trixie shivered, “She left and Trixie went down to look at what had happened. Trixie heard noises from a hole and crawled through it. When Trixie came out she stood inside of a dark building hearing the sounds of a man trying to perform magic tricks.”
Dash looked at Klienman who shrugged his shoulders.
“I needed a place to practice and the haunted house was shut down,” he said.
“Fine, and I don’t really care, but you are going to help me now. I need you to find Niko, cast a locator spell, whatever it is you need, and find him,” Dash said.
“Did he leave you?” she asked snidely.
“We were attacked by a Changeling,” Dash replied.
The admission of that caused Trixie’s eyes to widen and suddenly she was up trying to get past Dash and out of the building.
“NO! TRIXIE WILL NOT DEAL WITH THOSE THINGS!” Trixie screamed.
“Jacob, little help?” Dash asked as she held on to Trixie.
A moment later Trixie went limp after getting a blow to the back of the head. Jacob turned to Klienman who spread his hands.
“I don’t care man. She’s a bitch, and she’s hard as hell to work for,” he said.
They carried her out and then Jacob looked toward her.
“What cha talkin’ ‘bout back in there?” he asked.
Dash sighed and helped Jacob load Trixie into the back of the Dukes.
“You know that I’m not from around here right?” she asked.
He nodded. She took in a breath and figured that if she was going to trust someone else besides Niko she needed to start now.
“I’m from an entirely different world. I’m serious when I say that. There’s a magic portal or something that connects our worlds together. It’s inside of that Haunted House in the fun fair. I don’t know how it works, but it made me human when I came through. I didn’t even realize that what I was now was called human. Before I came through here and before everything changed on me I was a Pegasus Pony,” she said.
Jacob looked at her for a moment and then shrugged his shoulders.
“You’re taking this really well,” she said.
“I grew up in Jamaica, and there be thin’s there that can’t be explained. Just need an open mind,” he said.
She studied him unsure of what to say about his response. What is it that he could have seen in his homeland that would make her story not sound so bizzare? She decided not to think about it, and instead got into the Dukes. She was surprised when he got in beside her.
“I’mma coming with you girl. We gonna find Niko, and then we gonna to rain down upon de rassclot,” he said.
(Broker – Warehouse district)
Niko woke up to the sounds of laughter. His eyes hazily looked around the room until it fell on a blackish creature which had holes in its legs. It stood nearly as tall as him and when he seemed to be awake it began to change shape and form until it resembled Dash. The false Dash walked up to him, touched his cheek, and then slapped him hard.
“I’m not sure what another of the Elements of Harmony is doing here, but I don’t really care. I have orders to follow, and they are simple. Break down the Element anyway I can. I guess that means that I have double the work since there’s two of them here now. The other one… She didn’t enjoy having her plot plowed. But this one… She seems hung up on you human, so the question is… how do I break you?” it said in Dash’s voice.