Futile Waterfall
The forest was always a serene, quiet place. Not much went on in the Everfree, despite the rumours of evil magic that ponies spread to keep little ones away. There were some interesting ingredients that a local medicine pony traveled around and collected every now and again, but otherwise, if one were to leave the forest alone, the forest would let him or her be.
That was before the mine, before Philharmonic Corporation had cast a striped pony from her home and into the streets of Ponyville. It had been one long year since the zebra had made a proper home amongst the dark streets of the once-happy town. First, surveyors had torn up the forest with a peculiar white unicorn, forced to identify the boundaries of some kind of object by way of a knife to a smaller unicorn’s throat. Once they had left, the eviction notice had come. She petitioned to Celestia by way of Twilight Sparkle, the Princess’ pupil, but received no response from anyone. Eventually, she was dragged out of her home, and it was razed to the ground, along with fully half of the forest.
It wasn’t long before the heavy – heavy – machinery began rolling in. Giant steam earth-movers, sorters equined by thirteen ponies apiece, monster trains rolling in and out on the new tracks striped across the Everfree and defended from the foliage by all manner of ponies, and more equines than had ever been seen in the area had transformed the land into an open pit a hundred miles in diameter and fifty miles deep. The old castle was gone. Ponyville had been assigned by Octavia herself as a mining town, and was expected to retrofit and re-plan all their systems accordingly. Most of the town had complied, but the buildings away from the Everfree, and, strangely enough, Fluttershy’s cottage, remained untouched.
The zebra, Zecora, had made a point to harass the mine ever since.
No longer the friendly mare she once was, she now spent her days deep in the forest, infiltrating and eliminating a pony here or there and dragging them off into the woods to post on poles. It had been a very successful venture, killing pegasi, unicorns, and Earth ponies with great success and causing general terror throughout the camp. It seemed to be working – fewer and fewer new ponies came every week, because most were hearing that the mine was haunted.
She sat atop a tree in the shadow of the leaves, overlooking the mine. It was the tree just below Spitfire’s perch, a peculiar large-leaf weed that had wrapped itself around the tower and sprouted exactly twenty-one leaves. Twelve acted as steps by which Zecora had ascended the tree. Three became a shell for her to observe her victims. The rest grew at points to give it the appearance of a natural tree. There were eleven such plants around the perimeter.
She bent a stick to its breaking point, then wrapped a thin string around both ends. Tying it off in a double knot, she quickly snapped it a couple times to ensure the tension was right. When she was convinced of this, she readied an arrow she had made from local trees.
The forest seemed to be at her beck and call lately, as she had been the only one of its friends to actively prevent ponies from raiding its gems. Even butter-yellow and kind Fluttershy, which it had trusted in the past, turned against the village she lived in and the forest she had once cared for and sided with Octavia.
Which was why the little white bunny that the pegasus had once called friend now rode on Zecora’s head.
Angel, as he was known, buried himself deep in Zecora’s mane as she lined up an arrow for the first shot of the day. A pair of glistening manticore-ivory knives, harvested from the dead, hung around her barrel. Angel himself had a singular smaller knife in the same place. Both zebra and bunny bared their teeth at the same time just as the forest in front of them erupted in activity. Zecora and Angel relaxed as the base went into overdrive. Spitfire took off from her perch and dove into the woods. Her other pegasus comrades and most of the unicorns on two sides of the mine focussed their efforts on the foliage their commander had dove into.
As the gate opened, Zecora’s heart burned. Thunderlane and Time Turner, carrying the bound Applejack on a cart, cantered into the mine. They were quickly swarmed by several armed ponies with small-caliber machine guns. Time Turner was unloaded of his effects by the ponies of varying kinds, and he, Thunderlane, and Applejack disappeared down the main mine shaft. With a crunch, the small wooden blue door leading into the mine, marked “Outhouse – Out of Order” and plastered with several kinds of posters… “Free phone call”, a smaller wooden box, even a picture of some random missing pony every now and again… closed behind the last of seven ponies filing into the entry of the giant hole on the other side of the hill behind the outhouse.
She smirked. How she would have loved to take out that bastard Time Turner. However, to do so would incur the wrath of the entire encampment. Even with her near-limitless supply of hiding places courtesy of the forest, she knew it wouldn’t be long before they started simply burning the place down. As it was, the forest had already been reduced to two-thirds its’ natural size. Had it not been for the forest’s natural or unnatural hardiness, depending on who you asked, it would have long burned to dust.
As she readied another arrow, she caught sight of some movement at the wall to her right. The unicorns had not yet returned. The forest had gone black with the darkness of night, but her eyes, slightly augmented by a potion she had brewed to allow her to see better in the dark, made no mistake. Someone else was in these woods, and they did not want to be seen.
A leaf was shed as she disappeared from her perch.
Zecora and bunny wove their way through the foliage towards the ripples. She hoped to catch them before they tripped the alarm. A perimeter spell, undetectable by most eyes, yet one that she had tripped on numerous occasions, had been cast sixty feet away from the wall. She wasn’t sure what these ponies were planning, but she wanted to stop wand warn them, if not deter them completely. With the distance between her and them, however, she wasn’t sure she could close the distance fast enough.
Soon, she realized she didn’t need to worry. The disturbance in the foliage had ceased exactly five feet from the barrier. A few more strides put her within cantering distance, but she slowed to a moderate trot to try to catch the conversation.
“…my sister’s in there!” a stallion shouted.
A mare with a voice of helioid gravel coughed and continued, “Mac, now’s not th---the time to rush in, guns bl---blazing. We h---have to c---hkk---come up with some k---cxk---kind of plan before --- we destroy our one ch---chance to see if Silver Sp-Spoon’s in there, too.”
Zecora stationed herself behind a bush.
“We can go all Rambuck down dere if’n y’like, Mac,” a second stallion, much larger than the red one they identified as ‘Mac’, said, “but y’still gots t’have a ways o’ doin’ stuff t’lessen-like all da losses y’all’re gunna face.”
Mac sighed. A brief pause told of his realization before he continued. “Thank y’all. I should probably stick t’the plan we all came here with.”
Zecora realized they were headed into the mine. She had many a night’s expertise in infiltrating and either stealing something or killing someone from the place, so she decided she would volunteer her services. At that moment, she remembered where she had seen him in the past. He was Big Macintosh of Sweet Apple Acres. She emerged from the bush.
“Pardon me. A wish I seek. It is with Mac I want to speak.”
“Zecora.” Mac greeted her with a simple nod.
The other two ponies moved to protect him. A colt nearby that she hadn’t seen also drew a gun from its holster.
“Easy, ponies,” Mac said. “She’s an old friend.”
The three relaxed.
“Zecora, let me introduce you to Smoke Screen, Armada Scout, and Slick Cannon,” he said, indicating the mare, the massive stallion, and the colt in respective turn. “And yes, you heard right. We aim to break into that mine to save my sister and see if my employer’s daughter is held inside.”
“Pardon my inquiry, please, but who might your employer be?”
“Baggin’ Bitts, of Spoonship Industries.”
“Then I suspect you speak of Silver, though in this mine there is none to pilfer. Your sister, however, is within. I know the layout, so let me in. Safe you will stay if I show you the way, though where she lay I cannot say.”
Mac smiled. “Glad t’have you aboard.” He pulled out a white soundstone. “Sparrow to Forest Team. We have a new member, codename ‘Zee’. Subject is a zebra. She will be joining Operation: Futile Waterfall at ground zero, with Painted Brick, Hightower, and Earthquake. State your unit and readiness level.”
A buzz. “Sexytimes here, Futile Waterfall Aerio unit ready for takeoff.”
Another buzz. “Echo Tree here. Futile Waterfall Fisherpony unit ready to commence puppetry.”
A third and final buzz. “Purple Ghost here. Futile Waterfall Dirty Bomb unit is a go.”
Big Mac smirked. “Aerio and Fisherpony, you are on. Dirty Bomb, remember: wait two minutes after this transmission ends. Pincushion, get ready – we are hot in thirty seconds.”
Zecora bit her lip. She had no idea what they had planned or what kind of insider information they had. “I must insist, what is it you’ve planned for this attacking bit?”
As Aerio came swooping in from above, a series of other pegasi also joined the fray. A soft glow illuminated the area.
Big Mac replied, “Aerio is our pegasus-heavy unit, led by a pony named Cloud Kicker. They’re to provide the first level of distraction. Fisherpony is led by a brown unicorn stallion with a green mane named Leafroot. They’re in charge of illusions and other kinds of distractions that pegasi aren’t capable of making. Dirty Bomb is also lead by a pegasus, but she’s black and purple and called Boomdrop. She’s our resident expert on murder and tactical intimidation. If Silver actually isn’t in there, then someone from Dirty Bomb will find out where she is and tell me. I’m leading us, the five-pony infiltration unit I called Pincushion, in to get my sister. According to the intel Smoke and Armada gathered, and maybe with your help, we’ll be in and out in five minutes with my sister.”
Zecora couldn’t believe it. They thought it would only take them five minutes to get in and out of the mine! They were absolutely delusional.
“This plan is foolishness at best. I know the mine, and must protest! Be in and out in five you’ll not. I fear you’ve doomed this whole lot.”
Big Mac cocked his shotgun. “Slick, you’re on.”
The colt raised his gun into the air and fired three loud blasts, punctuated in the middle by a “Damn!” Zecora’s eyes shot up into the stratosphere in time to see Spitfire and one other pegasus fall limply into the forest. As the mine started to come alive with warning bells, she quickly reeled her head back to the four ponies she had just been talking to. They had once again disappeared into the brush, but from the general direction of their voices, she was able to catch up with them just as they approached a particularly large gap in the wall security. Zecora stopped behind the four ponies as Slick Cannon lit up his horn and dispelled the force field in a small area.
They approached the wall slowly. Smoke Screen vanished into the earth with some shuffling. A moment later, Armada walked up to the wall, turned, and bucked with a single hoof. Smoke popped out in front of the behemoth of a stallion just as the ten-foot wall came crashing down in a cascade of stone and cement. They entered as cries of “Breach! Breach!” echoed throughout the mine. With the ponies above and around them providing enough of a distraction, they were able to quickly dart into the outhouse in the middle of the complex. They descended down into a hallway filled with background noise.
The party stopped. Big Mac turned to Zecora. “You’re on.”
Like I’d know where they put her, she thought, gritting her teeth. I barely watched them bring her hither!
A few terse seconds of walking suddenly had Zecora frantically waving at them to throw themselves into a nearby office as nine ponies trotted past, clad in purple and gold and carrying full-auto machine guns. The zebra gulped.
Oh horseapples, what did I do? What did I get myself into?
A few minutes later, she let loose a breath she didn’t know she was holding and looked outside. Her eyes looked straight into the blue eyes of a tan and brown stallion with an hourglass cutie mark.
A hissing from behind her. “Pasty, this is Sparrow. We’ve just been caught.”