Mistress Mare-Velous dodged the mad doctor with reflexes trained from years of circus training and even further years of crime fighting. "I'm sorry, doctor, but I don't think my insurance covers this sort of medicine!" she quipped, rolling around as she summoned her rope with her mind. "In fact, I have half a mind to sue you for malpractice!" The golden twine shot toward Horse Cough, wrapping around a rear hoof and tugging sharply.
The stallion sneered, rolling into the sudden imbalance and swiping at the rope with his claws. "Spare me your paltry jokes!" Mare-velous let out a cry as the rope's glow withered into an eerie green shade, the pain lancing through her mind almost enough to distract her from the pony once more swiping at her. "You are as pathetic and vile as any other denizen of these streets!"
Even through her sudden headache, Mare-Velous was able to roll out of the way of the claws. Psychic link, hurt the rope, hurt me... "Oh I don't know, doc, I've kept up a strict training regimen!" She slipped under anther swipe and slammed her forehooves into his side. "I've fit as a fiddle!"
"GRUNGH!" Horse Cough's cloak twirled as he slid across the road, finally gaining purchase mere inches from the sidewalk. "Then you deny the truth of things. The strong survive! The weak perish! That is the way of nature!" His claws cut through a metal mailbox, and he swiftly bucked it at the mare. "Ponykind has perverted the order of the world!"
Mare-Velous slipped sideways, just barely dodging the heavy hunk of metal sent at her. Okay, so I need to avoid those claws, Filli-Second has my hooferangs, and my rope is out of commission. Think, Maze Dancer, think! "So you think ponies should just lay down and die whenever they get sick? No wonder your medical license was revoked!" She cautiously began to circle around, keeping a wary eye on Horse Cough as she racked her mind for ideas.
"They should endure their suffering. If they survive, their genes are passed to the next generation. If they die, they weren't worth enough time to save." Horse Cough matched her circling, glaring at her through his cold plague mask. "I've explained this so many times, to so many people, yet they continue to attach sentiment to life, continue to set themselves up for desperation and despair when life inevitably ends... This is pointless. You are not worth my time." He turned away and began to walk down the road, silent as the grave.
The dismissal so shocked Mistress Mare-Velous that she could only stare for a minute or two.
Then she narrowed her eyes. "Hey! Get back here!" Her gaze darted around, landing on an abandoned cart, and with a well placed buck she had a wheel in her hooves. "I'm not done with you yet!"
Horse Cough ignored her... right up until the wheel bounced off the back of his head.
"AUGH!" He whirled around, the thick black goggles glaring at the masked mare. "Why are you so insistent on fighting me? What do you hope to accomplish? Vengeance? Justice? It is all irrelevant!" His claws gestured at the thick green mist around them. "You cannot stop what has been started, no matter how hard you try!"
Mistress Mare-Velous smiled beneath her gas mask. "You're right, I can't do anything to stop the mist. Filli-second, on the other hoof, should be neutralizing it right... about... now."
***
"And that is the final hooferang placed!" The filly's facial matrix smiled broadly. "Now it is only a matter of connecting them and channeling my own unique electrolysis magic through the consequent channel so that it is multiplied and projected throughout the city of Gruffington!"(1)
Her face flickered into a series of numbers. "It should take me roughly three seconds to accomplish this feat."
Then she zipped off, a line of purple light in her wake.
***
"What?!" Horse Cough spun around, goggled gaze darting around as a storm of odd flashes pass through the mists. "No... NO! What have you done?!"
"We've destroyed the disease you made." Mare-Velous flicked some dust off her shoulder. "It looks like it just wasn't.... strong enough."
The mad doctor locked his eyes on her. "You.... How desperate are you?! Don't you know what you face?! I have seen the eyes of the endless, I know, I know what is coming! Only the strong will be able to survive, and if they try to protect the weak they will die!" He pointed a claw at her. "Mark this day, for it is the day that you have doomed this world! The Vengeful Union will not be as merciful as I!"
With a sudden twist he smashed a canister against the ground, releasing a cloud of black smoke. Mare-Velous galloped toward him, but it was already too late; by the time the smoke had dissipated, Horse Cough was long gone.
"...The Vengful Union?" There's that name again.... first Manehattan,(1) then that spider thing,(2) now here? Mare-Velous shook her head. "What does this Vengeful Union even want? What do they have to do with anything?"
"I do not know what you are speaking of, but from the sound of it this Vengeful Union might be quite crucial to understanding current developments!"
"GAH!" Mare-Velous whirled about, coming face to facial matrix with Filli-Second. "That's the third time--you really need to warn ponies before you sneak up on them!"
Filli-Second had the decency to put on an embaressed expression. "I apologize. I do not mean to frighten. I have your hooferangs!" She held up the golden horseshoes. "They were very useful."
The older mare shook her head and chuckled. "No need to apologize, that's just who you are." She took the offered hooferangs and put them in her saddlebags, before turning to her rope with a sigh. "Horse Cough did something to my rope, though... don't know how long it'll take to fix."
"Oh! My father is quite intelligent when it comes to enchanted artifacts. Maybe he could assist you in repairing your rope?"
"...Your father the professor?" Mare-Velous tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Well, I have been meaning to have a word with him...(1) Sure, why not see what he can do? We'll have to pick up Humdrum though, before we head over to your dad's place." She shook her head. "Who knows what crazy antics he's gotten up to without me?"