Chapter 14- Remains
"Look Spy, I'm not waiting for France to finish another cigarette. My men are ready, and I'm getting bored waiting here. Wake up cyclops! Were attacking!"
The man in disguise was tempted to do a face palm but couldn't bring himself to do it in the presence of the two Elements. He would have to make do given the circumstances at hand, or hoof in this case; he only had so little time before the attack started. Head Hammer lead the two mares through the halls of the subterranean complex. They trotted in a single file line through the passageways in order to leave room for those traveling in the opposite direction.
Castle traffic was minor, but there are such things as civility habits. That and it was an unspoken rule of the undergrounds to be followed by all equestrinel. Especially since the fight force was making their way outside under earlier Head Hammer’s orders.
They passed warriors that bowed quickly as the princess went by, and other stallions glancing lonesome looks at the white marshmallow who trailed behind.
“Mr. Hammer?” Inquired Rarity, “I know this is one of ‘those’ questions you get all the time, but how do you manage to live in such dreary conditions?” They entered a large weapon maintenance room. Individuals were slashing a sharpened blade, polishing armor, or fine tuning the bow string.
Spy maintained his facade. “Madam it is quite alright, but life here is actually quite humble if you look past the musty air, tight quarters, and preserved food. Everything is routine, there is always good company, and you can rest easily knowing your behind massive walls and deep underground.”
Twilight Sparkle looked at her companion at this as they both shared a unsure expression of doubt. “If you say so.” An unexpected alarm immediately rang throughout the caverns, “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”
Everyone in the area looked up, ears perked in surprise and momentary panic. The ceiling shook and muffled noises of explosions and yelling became a horrifying background noise. Hammer looked back to the company. “We need to get you to Clue now!” He barked to everypony else, “Get ready and get to the surface!”
He galloped down the corridors, the noise of hooves close behind him indicating that he was being followed. The Castle traffic was under rush hour. The close confines of the stone walls also made the sound of a large force of hooves galloping louder than one would like, but the rumble of war kept looming over their heads in the most literal way. The dungeon door burst open with almost too much force for the wood to bear, the ponies ran down the stairs, dust and dirt clouding the area with the vibrations being caused above. A particularly loud explosion caused the ceiling to collapse somewhere and yells of those victim to the wrong-place-wrong time principle came through like a howling wind.
Head turned into the dungeon, looking behind him to see the princess and fashioness to stop at the griffen skellington in a scare. A desperate voice came from a cage towards the back at the sound of their screams. “Help! I’m trapped in a cell!” Ignoring the squeamish mares, Spy smiled under his mask at the sight of Clue in a cell, but his disguise showed a serious face. “How did you get in there?”
“A changeling trator I think, but first thing first get me out of here! Where are the girls?!”
The flustered mares caught up with him and Clue released a breath of relief. “I’m glad to see that both of you are ok, but I think he broke the lock and the gate won't move!”
The protege began to examine the lock, she had done something similar but all locks are not the same. With her mind under pressure from forces above the quick thinker was mentally stumbling. “O-OK, I can get you out! Give me a few moments...”
Hammer turned to Rarity and pointed to the back of the dungeon, “Look behind that door in the back and see if there are any books there.” She galloped away before Clue could respond with a shake of the head.
“I think he stole them but-” His pupils shrank in momentary surprise as Hammer raise a knife the wrong way around in an unnatural position. “-Twilight!” She looked up from the lock agitated from the break in her concentration before feeling something jab her spine and send a horrifying cramping sensation through her body. “AAHH!” Her scream was shrill and filled with agonizing pain, but just as Spy’s disguise cloud began fading, he cloaked himself.
Rarity recognized the type of scream from the one she made, the tone was indistinguishable and it haunted her ever since the train her head whipped to look back at the unconscious body. “Twilight!”
“He’s here, the changeling is here! Celestia dammit!” Rarity galloped over to her friend and was relieved to see her breathing, but her body was stiff and unresponsive. Seeing her friend suffer the same fate that had befallen her was almost heart breaking, but in this case, it was converted into anger. Spy uncloaked himself as Sneak Shiv lighting a cigar.
“Gentle mares, and stallion.” The mare still awake was clearly pissed, and for a second Shiv did a double take, put off by a outburst. “You!..” Her mouth seemed to struggle to find the correct word, but her involuntary dictionary chose wisely, “Bitch! You were the one-”
“On the train? That I was you little fool.” His voice was taunting and insulting having quickly recovered from the outburst, causing rage was like candy to one of his talents. Especially if its full blown discharges.
“I will tear you to shreds after what you did on the train, and to Twilight!!” She tried to levitate him but to no avail to her surprise. Growling, she charged at him with every intent to beat the smile of his face.
He knew full well that she would do just that if she got the chance. In a well timed simple side step, Spy did a signature move of his; the side stab. Again he recloaked himself while Rarity screamed in anguish and defeat once again. “I think not.”
After redisguizing himself, her body was flung as well as the princesses’ into a new cell. Spy spoke to Clue. “Consider yourselves lucky, my colleagues might have killed all three of you.” He turned his pony ears upward. “From the lack of noise, it looks like his fort is finished.”
The words were true being that the quakes from above were in dead silence. Clue glared death at the stallion, but he knew that his efforts to do anything could be in obsolete vain. But he decided to investigate from a fresh source.
“I would think that capturing the elements could be a smart move for you.” Shiv shook his head. “Not yet, if the humans were on land, I would have taken her to them already. We cannot risk exposure in the process of holding them.” As he exited the room the turned back, “You will be out of here soon, once they wake up at least.”
Clue croaked his a state of disappointment and a heavy emotions of the reality. “What were those books anyhay?”
“Ah! They were books on dark magic involving necromancy and sacrifices. I know this because I recognized some of the symbols from a spell book I used one particular halloween.”
-The field-
Spy stepped out of the fort and into the main field. The sight he saw was not expected. Ponies were lined up in organized rows and were stripped of their armor and weapons in dishonor, but a sentry looked over them just in case.
The Frenchie approached the team who was chatting amongst themselves. “What the hell happened?!”
Scout huffed in disgust at the ponies behind him, “They surrendered.”
A hand met the face on a gentle facepalm. “Oh no…” They were given strict orders not to take prisoners except for the Elements of Harmony. Something obvious given the circumstances of their stay. Rifle rubbed his forehead, “Lets just kill them already. There is no way around it.”
Soldier moved to slap him but restrained himself, or more likely, Redwood restrained him. “I will not spoil this chance to make a dream of mine come true! Heavy? Are you almost done?”
The Russian was writing on a large piece of blank construction paper from Engineer’s stash. “Heavy is...done! Here.”
Soldier took the paper and smiled in a way not seen often. He turned away from the group and drilled the deprived prisoners on what to do next. “Alright maggots! As much as I would like to have each of you killed here and now, there is formal paperwork that prevents me from doing so. In the interest of formalities and proof to my superiors of your capture, you will all sign the back of this document before your departure. I highly advise you do it now in case something goes wrong...”
He handed a pen, notepad for a writing surface, and the document to the first in row. “I will remind all of you that is one of you tears up, scribbles all over, or damages the paper in any way, you will all be killed on the spot. TF policy.”
The team waited in silence and curiosity as Soldier supervised the signing of the document. The eventual process ended, and Soldier retrieved the paper at the last obedient warrior. He examined at the paper, the main jest of the document was written in Russian, hence why Heavy wrote it, on the back was every name of those present.
“Demoman,” Solly said quietly as he approached him, “how many heads do you have?”
His voice and face was dumbfounded seeing the paper and connecting the dots in his head. “Mate, you didn't...”
“Answer the question.”
“I’m good, but I doubt Redwood likes the idea."
“Redwood supports me, he thinks that if it's going to happen, might as well be with a smidge of honor. Besides, he knows how much this means to me." He turned to Engineer. "Grease Monkey, deploy two more sentry guns flanking the captured."
Engie appeared to be confused but did not argue. The eyes of the prisoners followed him as he placed down one tool box on their left, and as he placed another one on the right. The ponies looked at each other with uncertainty.
Soldier nodded, and his Texan friend obeyed, activating the guns. One earth pony decided to speak up. "What is this? What are you doing?"
Soldier happily answered the question, with his voice expression the feeling of achieving a personal goal. "The document that you all signed was your own collective death warrant! Haha!" He yelled at the sentries and pointed at the panicking ponies, "FIRE!"
-Underground-
Twilight had regained consciousness after about fifteen minutes, but was still feeling the aftereffects of the backstab. Her body pleaded not to move in some places, but others were communicating with slight agony to shift position. Her poor state of mind prevented her from trying to assist in the escape of the dungeon. Rarity also found herself incapable of doing anything productive for the same reason.
Clue bucked at the cage again, but could not get the door to budge despite its age. He sat in defense, but stared at the cage with a sense of respect and honor for the blacksmiths who forged the iron all those years ago. He looked over at the two girls moaning and whining away like they had for about ten minutes, and shook his head in shame.
“I would say that I'm sorry for letting this happen to you, but I suppose the changeling was right, better here than dying up there.” The statement was inspired by a soft thunder of fire about fifteen minutes ago. After the girls woke.
In that time voices of shouting rang through the corridors and loud sounds indicated the movement of heavy objects. A sign that the base being raided.
He saw the cell locks glow in a white hue, and the gates for both cells opened. Clue saw Rarity grind her teeth as it would have been painful to focus enough to use the spell. He sprang from the room, and yelled back as he went up the stairs, “I’ll see if I can find some painkillers!”
As he ran up to the almost broken door, he noticed that something pushed it open with great force, he became worried that some raiders were still in the castle.
He carefully looked around the corner of the door, checking the halls for any sign of life. Hearing and seeing nothing he moved forward working his way through the castle, slower than he would like, but caution had to be exerted. His streak eventually lead him to the medical room, known by the Medical-plus sign above the door. It’s door was open slightly ajar, but that did not worry him in the slightest. What matters is the medicine.
There was none. All the shelves, cabinets, drawers, and what bags remained were out of all medicine. "How could they have cleaned this place out that quickly?" He scrambled through the bags and furniture in ultimate vain. He sat in the lonesome room; the fort being as dead as the silence that occupied it.
He made his way back to the girls in a shameful trot. Upon arrival he saw their faces look toward them in pain filled hope, with tears in their eyes; a sight painful to see. “I’m sorry, but they took all the medicine.” Rarity seemed to only grow furious at this announcement. Using what little strength she could muster, she communicated to her inmate. “Twilight..power start…” She opened her eyes wide at this, and almost facehooved herself as a result but settled for wincing her expression.
The two unicorns tilted their heads and tweaked their bodies as little as possible to get their horns in touching distance of each other. Once the horns finally made contact, both horns glowed, and in a massive flash the pair of ponies sprang to their feet. Albeit they were slightly disoriented. Clue went off his rocker for a moment to ask one valid question.
“What the hell was that?!”
“That,” began, “Was a unicorn power start.” She straightened herself up. “In laymare's terms by allowing our power to connect to one another we create a power surge that can rejuvenate both ponies, complete a spell, or teleport impressive distances.”
She seemed proud in reciting this knowledge. She turned to Rarity for an inquiry. “How did you know about it?”
“Well,” She blushed, “When I was dating a few years ago. Our horns accidently bumped into each other...and I found out about it from him…”
The face Clue was making indicated that he had something snarky to say.
“Shut up! Its in the past!”
Twilight shook her head in a way that told how the past of the mare did not surprise her. “C'mon guys, lets get out of here.”
The ponies made their way to the surface, again carefully with all three of them slightly paranoid at the deadly silence. The shelves, tables, chests and anything that might have contained anything of use appeared to have been looked through and left to rot until more inhabitants filled it’s place.
The final stretch of stairs had a dry waterfall of once fresh blood, now the source appeared to be dry, but left a damp staircase. The topside door was missing from its original spot.
Carefully, the trio peaked over the edge and saw a decapitated body laying a few feet from the doorway, but the head was leaning right next to the doorway. Strong stomachs for this the girls did not have. Even Clue was tempted to regurgitate some lunch he never ate. After a small break, the ponies collected their guts and exited the building.
A massacre. The evidence of an outright massacre was laying in the middle of the open field. Clue would have rolled his eyes when the entourage had to excuse themselves again, but not even he could muster an inappropriate gesture in the presence of such death and destruction. “My celestia…I guess they don't take prisoners.”
He waited for the couple to return. “Twilight, I know this is grim but there are few things that can compete with the joy of a fresh crime scene for a pony like myself.”
“It doesn't take a genius to see from the density of the bodies that this was an organized horse slaughter, and that means they must have surrendered at some point in the battle. Twilight, make an observation.” She responded with made a simple statement. “They’re worse than the ponies at Juniper.”
Rarity agreed, “Absolute monsters, they must be.”
Clue’s face became plain and straight. “A better one. Something in common about them, look at one and tell me-not that one-that one.” He swerved her gaze from a particularly horrible example to something less gruesome. "Tell me what you see."
“I don't want to see this!”
“Keep your mind steady! Push through your fears and look at the corpses! This wont get any better until we get to the bottom of it!”
“... I see holes. Lots of... bullet holes.”
"Yep, and if my suspicions are correct, the same bullets from Juniper; pull out a bullet."
"What?!"
"You heard me. Pull out a bullet from the corpse."
"That's disgusting! No!"
"As your teacher I demand that you do it."
"No!"
"Oh for Celestia sake! I'll do it!" Rarity choose to rip more than to pull out a bullet from the flank; this destroyed the cutie mark in the process and would make it harder to pinpoint who it was. Turning to Clue she shoved the piece of metal in his face and awaited a response. “This appears to be identical to the ones found in Juniper, an estimated 50% of the fallen had one of these in them. I have no doubt that the humans are feeding whomever is behind this attack, or somepony had finally unlocked human smithing secrets.”
“This location also points out the possibility of their influence being much more widespread than we anticipated, or they have really good transport. Unless…”
The girls had listened to his rant. Happy to think about something other than the dead lying about. The investigator turned to both of them suddenly, “Can you both keep a secret?” They nodded, “I have had suspicions from Tall Tale, but I think that the PHR might have humans working with them. The oils and markings on the hospital wall, the footprint we found in Fort Juniper in that black pegasus’ brain slpatter, the material used here, blast radius consistency; it makes sense and there is enough evidence to put the idea on the table. I need more in order to make a official call.”
Wanting her own questions answered, Rarity asked, “What was behind those doors anyhay?”
He answered more to Twilight, “Necromancy magic.” The gasp that predictably followed made her trott to and fro in a short distance in panicked thought.
“Necromancy is strictly forbidden unless approved for research purposes! If equines were experimenting on war prisoners...what kind of ponies were we back then?”
The answer was a true one, but not a fact to easily admit to. “We were no better than the humans. The only difference being we evolved to be who we are today.”
There was an eerie silence as there was nothing more to be said. “How do we get home?” The stallion sighed and began trotting back to the missing door.
“I can grab some parchment and one of you can send a letter for help.” He snapped back, “Don't contact Celestia.”
-The Smokey Cavern, an hour later-
Derpy ate from a bowl of fresh veggie soup, the large supply of food called for a bit of splurging, and she happened to get off of work early to visit. As she swallowed the food, a giggle escaped her lips,
“I’m surprised you didn't take the kitchenware sooner, its nice eating out of a normal bowl.” Soldier gave a hearty slap to Pyro on the back as thanks for cooking the meal, “An American needs his greens to keep his vitamins in check!”
“Murph mur.”
Spy sat next to Scout, he chuckled to himself and shook his head at a close memory. “You know, this soup reminds me of the ones Scout’s mother makes.” By instinct, the defensive Bostonian moved to twack the Frenchman on the head, but stopped.
“Y-You know what, yeah..it does.” The pair simply nodded with a heavy sigh, staring into space at the memory of the home made cuisine.
Rifleman for one was exercising his levitation on the soup itself; negating the purpose of a spoon; like a liquid in zero gravity. This captivated Demoman in his limbo of being drunk. "Its like a lava lamp, but with food..."
“Trust me, Zero gravity is harder than it looks, but it does seem to warrant a state of zen.”
Medic was hard at work moving new magical material. The mad man happily organized his lab station. "Ah! I hafe so much more research material, zis vill satisfy my curiosity for a vile." Sniper picked up a large gem and felt heat radiating from it. A small reminder of the power they held. "Those gem tipped bullets did the trick mate, but I need more."
"Fear not Sniper, I can teach you how to make zem, und zen ze experiments can continue." Taking another box he opened it and pulled out a unicorn head. "Ah perfect. Zis brings me one shtep closer to learning about magic, and how ponies vork."
"Don't let Derpy see that for bloody hell's sake!"
He looked at the innocent mare being distracted by a guitar strung with a rubber glove and an enthusiastic singer playing a catchy tune.
"We were at the beach,"
"Everybody had matching hats!"
"Somebody went under the dock, and there they saw a rock."
"But it wasn't a rock."
"Its was a rock SENTRY!"