//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 // Story: 64 vs. The Underground // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// Chapter 23 3rd Person POV The next morning, 64 slowly got up from his bed and rubbed his eyes, groggy after a dreamless night. Looking at his watch, he saw it was 8:20. “Might as well go see if Celestia needs anything done around here…” 64 muttered, hating these periods of time where he had nothing to do. Dressing in the new clothes that Rarity made for him, 64 made his way towards the Throne Room, feeling better about yesterday’s events. Opening the door with his magic, 64 saw Celestia and Luna both sitting in their respective thrones. “Hey there Princesses. How have thing been since I was out?” 64 asked. “Well besides from everything being peaceful for a change, almost nothing.” Luna joked, making 64 chuckle. “But apart from that, there has been a slight buildup of available jobs which have been requested. Shining Armor came to us yesterday and spoke of your interest in once again performing Royal Duties. He told of the case of Foalnappings across Equestria, and recommended you for the position. Of course whether you want to accept this job is completely up to you.” “Yeah, I remember him telling me a few things about that… But that’s an Investigation, I’m not sure my skill set is exactly optimal for that situation.” 64 admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “Then again, the Slava Case is an Investigation, so I’ll need some experience in that field. I accept.” Celestia looked down at 64 and narrowed her eyes a bit, before realizing what she was doing. She breathed in and out slowly, before speaking. “Crossroads told me of the request you came to her for, and I will say this. If you are able to accomplish this mission, I will consider allowing your involvement in tracking down the Slava Family.” 64 smiled and nodded in excitement. “Understood Princess.” “Now then, allow me to give you this.” Celestia said, floating a Manila Folder over to 64. He grabbed it from the air and opened it, as several photos fell out. He picked them up and grimaced slightly at the first one, seeing a photo of a Black Maned, Purple Coated filly. As he picked them up one by one, he saw the same kind of picture over and over, with a Foal’s face staring back at him. “These are the missing victims. 2 days before Discord’s return, the first foals were taken. The two foals lived in the exact same city, Las Pegasus. After that, many other cases began to spring up, with the circumstances being exactly the same. Two Foals, same city. The major towns that have been affected are Las Pegasus, Appaloosa, Baltimare, and lastly, Canterlot.” Celestia explained, grim features outlining her face when speaking of the last city. “Any outstanding traits about the victims?” 64 asked, not letting an anger bubbling up inside of him flow out. “None whatsoever. There is no pattern in color, gender, race, or cutie mark. The only thing to go by, are that the victims have been foals above the age of 8, and under the age of 14.” 64 lips set into a firm line, looking at all of the descriptions and trying to find something to go off by. His eyes narrowed at the discovery, and a grim thought entered his head. “What did you find 64?” Luna asked, seeing 64’s demeanor. “There have been 20 foalnappings in total… with 10 being Earth Ponies, 7 being Pegasi, and 3 being Unicorns.” 64 explained, as the sisters waited for him to continue. “If I had to guess, I would say manual labor.” Princess Celestia’s eyes widened slightly at the assumption, although it wasn’t entirely impossible. “You think the above average amount of Earth Ponies and the below average amount of Unicorns results in slavery?” she asked, not really wanting to know the answer. “Yep. Unicorns, although are resistant to magic, are not very resistant to physical trauma. They also are on average weaker than the two other races. And due to the ages of the Unicorns in question, 8, 10, and 13, it could mean that their skills in magic are not very honed yet. Earth Ponies on the other hand, can be just as strong as a mature Unicorn Stallion at the age of 10, making them perfect targets for manual labor.” 64 explained further, not taking his eyes off of the papers in front of him. Both of the Princesses thought about it, and 64’s explanation came up perfectly clear. “Your skill in Perception is very keen 64, perhaps you won’t be as ill-fitted as you think you are.” Princess Celestia congratulated, making 64 smile. “Maybe. When will I be leaving for Las Pegasus?” He asked, closing the folder in his hands and putting it into his Satchel Pocket. “In the evening, when the arrangements for a Pegasi transport have been made. Until then, I believe Shining Armor asked me to direct you to the Training Area at your earliest convenience.” Celestia informed 64. He nodded and bade the Princesses farewell, noticing that Celestia had a strange look in her eye before he left. It wasn’t a look of hatred or carefulness, but instead it looked like regret. He didn’t think too much of it as he walked out the door, heading towards the Guards Barracks. Meanwhile, Shining Armor was currently putting a group of new recruits through the ringer, trying to find out who would crack first. “C’MON! ARE YOU GONNA SIT THERE AND TELL ME YOU CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!? YOU ARE GOING TO KEEP RUNNING UNTIL THE HOOVE ON THE ENDS OF YOUR LEGS ARE CRACKED, BLEEDING, AND BROKEN! DON’T LET ME CATCH YOU SLACKING YOU BOTTOM FEEDERS!” He yelled to the exhausted initiates, who all had tears running down their faces. They were running around an indoor track at top speed with a Large Sphere rolling after them, courtesy of Shining Armor. “Well, the rolling ball is new…” 64 said, walking into the training area and seeing what was going on. “Well I was wondering when you were gonna show. Now c’mon, you’ve been in bed 2 weeks, you gotta get back in shape. Start running recruit!” Shining Armor yelled, half joking half serious. “Hey, you can’t call me that. I’m technically not one of your soldiers.” 64 said in a mock hurt tone. “The hell I can’t. Remember 6 months ago when I gave you the honorary Royal Guard Badge? Technically those things never wear off, so get running!” 64 complied and started to run when the large sphere was about to roll by, jumping in front of it and taking off. “ALRIGHT YOU MAGGOTS! GET OFF OF THE TRACK! TAKE A BREATHER! LET’S SEE HOW FAST THIS ONE CAN GO!” Shining Armor yelled, as the group of crying, exhausted stallions all ran to the side, falling over as soon as they got there. Shining’s horn glowed as the ‘Sphere of Encouragement’ began to roll faster and faster, making 64 pick up the pace a little bit. As of right now, 64 wasn’t using his magic to help himself run, but he knew that if it came to that, he would. 64 was in a full sprint at this point, with the rolling ball of magic nipping on his heels “STARTING THE COUNTDOWN TIMER! BAIL WHEN IT BECOMES TOO MUCH 64!” Shining yelled to the human, who gave a thumbs up as he continued running. 64 could already feel the effects of being immobile for 2 weeks, feeling his legs already start to ache after a few minutes of running top speed. “PICK UP THE PACE 64! YOU’RE GETTING A BIT SLOW!” Shining yelled, as he increased the speed of the ball of magic. 64 noticed this and began to kick in the afterburners in his legs, having flashbacks of running through a collapsing tunnel while using magic to augment himself. “64! HOLD OUT AS LONG AS YOU CAN WITHOUT MAGIC! YOU’LL FEEL A STATIC SENSATION IN YOUR LEGS WHEN THE BALL IS ABOUT TO HIT YOU! USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE!” 64 indeed was feeling a static in his legs, and decided it time to activate his magic. Only accessing a portion of it, 64’s legs began to glow a deep red color, speeding him up enough that he would outrun the ball for just a moment longer. The ball continued to speed up, forcing 64 to do the same. Eventually, 64 and the rolling sphere behind him were simply blurs zooming by, as Shining Armor kept up his concentration, trying to not get his friend killed. 64 felt the fatigue of accelerating to high speeds starting to affect him, so he called out. “BAILING!” He shouted out, before his body was thrown from the track and ended up colliding with the wall, leaving a 64 shaped hole in the wall. 64 was on the ground right outside of the wall, rubbing his head as he felt dizzy. “Ugh… how long did I last?” He said groggily, as Shining Armor walked over to him to pick him up and showed him the stopwatch. He saw the blinking 5:27 and smiled cracking his back a few times. “Well that thing certainly helps with motivation. I probably would have lasted half as that long without it.” “Well we aren’t done yet, that was just a test to see how much you have cut out for you. Excuse me for a second. ALRIGHT LADS! GET INTO HOOF TO HOOF COMBAT FORMATIONS! I WANT YOU TO TRAIN WITH INTENT TO GET YOUR OPPONENT TO SUBMIT!” Shining yelled out, as the trainees all paired up and stood in front of each other. “BEGIN!” They all began individual grappling matches, as 64 watched with interest. Shining saw him and walked up beside him, before hitting him in the side with his elbow. “Heh, don’t worry, you’ll get yours soon enough. We still gotta get you warmed up. Let’s get you go through a few more training exercises and then well have you start with the fighting training. You have seriously got to make a new fighting style; your heavy fisted fighting will only get you so far.” Shining explained as 64 thought about it. “I guess that makes sense. The only reason I was able to stand a chance against Discord was because I was using a few new skills that Super Nova was able to teach me.” 64 said, not realizing how crazy it sounded. “Wait, you’re telling me that Super Nova decided to go ahead and help you?!” Shining said, unbelieving. “Yup, she didn’t want me dying just yet. I die, she’s not far behind me. Look at this.” 64 held out his hand and cupped it under his mouth, before shoot out a small stream of lava into his hand, making Shining Armor rear back. “Woah! What the hell?! Doesn’t that hurt you?!” He shouted quietly, staring at the bubbling liquid in 64’s hand. “A little, it burns like hell, but it’s bearable. It nothing to get worked over about.” 64 said, absorbing the molten liquid back into his body. “There’s another one where I cover myself with Molten Rocks, but that one involves destroying the ground around me, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to do it in here.” Shining agreed as the two began the training, working on getting 64 back into shape. Minutes slowly turned into hours, with the both of them working on 64’s new fighting technique. “Look, I say I don’t fix what isn’t broken, so I should make a style which is similar to my heavy hand technique!” 64 argued, making Shining Armor roll his eyes. “And I say that brute force will only get you so far, so despite what you think, quicker more accurate attacks are more efficient than your big hits.” Shining Armor rebutted, making 64 scowl. They had been going back and forth on fighting styles which would suit 64, mainly ones which required standing on two legs. “Look, whenever I land a hit on somepony, there’s going to be some serious damage. So I think making them weaker will only make it harder for me to take someone down!” “But if your opponent can read and react to what your fighting style is, then they can easily start to dodge your attacks and counter!” They were about to continue arguing, when 64’s Communicator began to glow. “64, your transport is ready. Please come to the Throne Room.” Celestia’s voice said clearly, making the tow of the guys sigh. “Well it seems like working on your fighting technique will have to wait then. Please try and do something differently if you end up fighting something, we don’t want any of this training to go to waste.” Shining instructed, with 64 nodding and walking away. “I’ll be back before the week is up! So get ready for when I get back!” 64 called over his shoulder, making Shining Armor chuckle. 64 POV I walked to the Throne Room and saw that the passageway behind Princess Luna’s Throne was open, with the Princess of the Night waiting for me. “So how long will it take me to get to Las Pegasus?” I asked, wondering if I had some time to look through the Mission File before diving headfirst. “Well, it will be an overnight trip with my Lunar Guards. You should arrive in Las Pegasus by 6AM tomorrow morning.” Luna explained to me as we walked through the passageway to the back of the Canterlot Palace. “Seems like a slow trip, but this one I won’t mind. It seems like I’ll have to make a few more stops after Las Pegasus, there 2 families to talk to. I’ll talk to the families here in Canterlot last, they’ve been the most recent.” I said, thumbing through the folder I had in my hands. Luna nodded as we emerged from the passageway, seeing the 4 Lunar Pegasi all ready for takeoff. I stepped onto the Chariot behind them and sat down onto the bench, waving over to Luna. She waved back with her hoof as I looked forward at the Pegasi. “Cleared for takeoff!” I shouted, as their wings all flapped open, before running towards the edge of the cliff, and soaring into the air. I watched as Canterlot Palace got smaller and smaller, before it was simply a building on the side of the mountain. “Alright, let’s see what we have here…” I said, opening the first profile and looking through it. It was the same Black maned, Purple Coated filly I had seen the first time, but this time she had a anme next to the photo. “Cardinal Berry. Age 9, Race Earth Pony…” She was smiling in the photo, and looking at her school record, she was on a fast track to straight A’s. Family had history of violence, and no enemies whatsoever. No debts, house was paid off, no arrests ever. “Not much to go by…” I muttered, flipping to the next picture. It was another filly, with a Black mane, but with red tips at the ends. Her coat was an eggshell color, and her eyes where a bright grey. She didn’t have a cutie mark either. “Crescent Rose…” I muttered, looking at her profile. This one had subpar grades, and lived at home with her dad. There was a newspaper clipping about a mare being mauled to death by a Timberwolf, apparently do it to save her daughter. My mind connected the dots, and I felt sorry for the filly. The dad on the other hand had 3 arrests on his record, all for drunken misconduct. The death of his wife probably hit him hard. “So two fillies, both earth ponies… But there isn’t a pattern with the rest of these…” I grunted, seeing that the rest of the foals in the folder were all mixed in some way, with nothing tying them together besides their ages. “Looks like I’ll just have to ask around when I get there…” I shivered at the cold air, with Rarity’s Jacket doing its best to keep me warm. It was a stark contrast to the dark sky, nearly shining like a star in the sky. I decided to go ahead and take a bit of a rest, knowing it would be awhile before I landed. I closed my eyes and laid down on the bench, letting myself fall into a deep sleep. Princess Luna POV I felt 64 fall asleep an hour after he took off from Canterlot, and decided to go ahead and visit him in his dreams. It had been awhile since I had seen his dreams, remembering that the first time I had done it, I nearly froze to death. I entered the Dream Realm and searched for his dream, seeing the thousands of dreams which I was responsible for every night. There weren’t any nightmares to be seen, so I continued flying through the realm, seeing the thousands of windows to another realm. There were many of love, hatred, and yearning, and all I could do was give them a few moments of experiencing what they longed for. I eventually found 64’s dream, but it looked grey, as if it was a very dark dream. I entered and found myself in Ponyville, although it seemed as if there was some sort of fire burning, due to a dense cloud of smoke hanging in the air. “What in the world?” I asked myself, flying through the thick smoke. I heard yelling, and immediately identified it as 64. I flew over to the sound of distress, to find the source of the scream. Discord was standing in front of 64, who was bloody, beaten, and broken. Although he looked like this, he was still standing up, defying the smug looking Discord. “Oh what’s the matter… feeling a bit under the weather? Or are you just going to let Ponyville continue to be destroyed?” Discord mocked, as 64 stood there with a glare on his face. “I… will always fight…” He whispered, obviously in no condition to make a claim like that. “Oh, well aren’t you the noble one… Very well then, fight me. Slay me like the hero you are.” Discord said, making a target on his chest, and putting a bow and arrow into 64’s hands. He shakily notched the arrow, pulling back the bowstring to aim it at Discord. He barely had any strength to pull it back all the way, but he pulled it back as far as he could, and let the arrow fly. As it soared, the image of Discord began to waver and fade, being replaced by an image of 64. The arrow struck the image in the chest, before it fell backwards into a dead heap. 64 looked at the image of his dead body, and dropped the bow in his hands in shock. He suddenly looked down to see that blood was now rushing down his chest, before his face grew pale as snow, and fell backwards into the dirt. As he gasped for air through the blood rush leaking out of his mouth, Discord appeared in front of him, with a malicious grin plastering his face. “Game over little one…” He said, before snapping his fingers. I was forcibly ejected from the dream, as I felt sweat dripping down my face where I sat. I quickly wiped away the sweat, before trying to figure out what in blazes 64’s dream was trying to say. “What is going on in your head Project 64?”