//------------------------------// // The Silenced Scream // Story: Seeing Monsters // by Hopefullygoodgrammar //------------------------------// Daring Do lay on the bed, her eyes were closed and her wings were splayed out behind her.  To the less observant, the pegasus mare appeared to be completely at ease, but she was anything but. She was as tense as a taut bowstring, and the feeling of being unable to do anything but wait was had very nearly evolved into a form of physical pain.  But she knew that it would be utterly pointless to run, not when Ahuizotl had their scent. And what’s worse is that I have to protect the doc, who I’m pretty sure is going to need my help in order to tranq him.  Though why he didn’t contact the police to help him i- Her eyes shot open and she turned to look at Dr. Hoof, who was rolling the syringe between his hooves. “Doctor, can I ask you a question?” asked Daring, trying to keep the suspicion from her voice. “Y-yes?”, said the doctor, giving her a weak smile. “Why, pray tell, didn’t you contact the authorities and bring them here with you?”, she asked sweetly. “Wh-who says I didn’t?” stammered the unicorn. “If you had, you would have come here with an escort, police are like that.”  said Daring, matter-of-factly. Dr. Hoof started to stammer a reply, but Daring was on him before he could form a single word. She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the wall, hard. “Are you working with the things that Ahuizotl works for?” she asked in a low, dangerous voice. Dr. Hoof whimpered, “N-no, I just-I just…. I don’t get along well with the police, okay!!”, he shouted these last words so loudly it made Daring’s ears ring. When the harsh ringing faded she asked, “What the hay do you mean, ‘don’t get along with the police’?” Dr. Hoof sighed and slumped against her hooves dejectedly, “When I was younger, before I took this job, me and my wife were both rather unlikable ponies- No, we were the biggest bullies this side of the entire eastern lands. I was a prodigious surgeon and my wife was an actress, we were both far too different to ever really form any sort of intimate bond outside of the bedroom-which resulted in a daughter that I didn’t want to look after.” “Besides being a surgeon I was also a drunkard and a damn mean one at that, I got into more high-speed chariot chases than anypony else and I always, always used my magic and my wealth to get out of any trouble.” Here he stopped and raised a trembling hoof to his bloodshot eyes, which had begun to water. “Then one day I… I made a m-mistake, I gave a patient the w-wrong m-medicine and she… died right in front of me, choking on her own vomit, while I just sat there like a statue.”   He was sobbing freely now, his tears staining Daring’s hooves. “I-I let another pony d-die!” he wailed, “And the l-look on her face, I knew that she was trying to ask ‘why?’.... I didn’t answer her, WHY DIDN’T I ANSWER HER??!” He collapsed into a heap, his whole body heaving with the force of his sobs. Daring felt a pang of pity  stab her heart as she watched the miserable stallion utterly breakdown. Now I really feel guilty. she thought, crouching down and placing a hoof on his shoulder. “After that my life was ruined.” he said once his sobbing had calmed somewhat, Daring was surprised that he was even capable of speech after a breakdown of that magnitude, but it seemed that the poor unicorn needed to get everything off his chest; so she let him. “Everypony looked at me differently, like I was some kind of plague rat, though I didn’t blame them and I still don’t. I deserved every single insult that they threw my way, every thrown stone and every back alley beating. Eventually I quit my job and fell out of high society. My wife was… less than pleased and she left me and took my poor daughter with her. I even had to change my name to Helping Hoof to avoid the pain that went with my old name.” He let out a shaky sigh and rested his head on Daring’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry for getting all up in your face like that,” whispered Daring, “and I’m sorry that all of that happened to you. I won’t say that it wasn’t your fault, but it seems to me that you’ve become a far better stallion. I mean, you still care for sick ponies, just ones that have a different sort of sickness. You fell hard and managed to pick yourself up, which is pretty awesome.” Dr. Hoof gave a hoarse chuckle, “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Daring smiled at him, then held a hoof to her chin, “You said that Helping Hoof isn’t your real name… what is it?” The good doctor smiled and had just opened his mouth to reply when a maimed, blue and black furred form crashed through the window. Daring rolled out of the way with Dr. Hoof just as Ahuizotl’s first blow connected with the spot on the floor where they had been sitting, reducing the area to a mess of splinters. “Won’t you lend your lungs to me, mine are collapsin’, breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give, hope the day’s not poised.” he sang in a creaky voice as he withdrew his fist from the hole in the floor. Daring got into her fighting stance and flared her wings, “Well, I’ll say this: you’re timing’s gotten way worse now that you’re crazy.” She expected Ahuizotl to give her an angry retort, but he only giggled and said, “Time? Time is nothing to me anymore, just an ant made from clockwork that I can step on.” Daring gave him an incredulous look, “If I ever had any doubts about you being crazy, then I don’t now.” Ahuizotl merely grinned and whipped his tail towards her. Daring raised her hoof to grab the hand out of sheer reflex, only to realize too late that the hand had been severed, allowing the tail to wrap around her forelimb with ease. Daring stood on her back limbs and raised her remaining forelimb to stomp on the tail, but Ahuizotl was quicker, he yanked hard and added a slight upward flick to his tail’s tip, which sent Daring spinning into the air. She fell hard on her wings, the air exiting her lungs with a WHOOSH. Ahuizotl straddled her and wrapped his hands around her neck. Daring grasped his wrists and managed to alleviate enough pressure to call out, “Doc, tranq him!!” . Dr. Hoof nodded, removed the cap from the syringe and started to move towards the struggling duo. Ahuizotl snapped his head up and shot the doctor a hateful glare, Daring used her foe’s momentary distraction to her advantage and drove her hind limbs into his taut stomach with enough force to knock him off her. The adventurer sprang onto her hooves, grabbed her whip from its spot on the nightstand, and unfurled it with a cracking sound that meant that she had evened the playing field. Ahuizotl snarled at her and lunged forwards with his mouth open, clearly intending to bite her, Daring casually flicked the whip and wrapped it around his gaping jaws, then she pulled tight and forced his teeth together with an audible click.   “Now, doc!” she roared. Dr. Hoof raced forward with the syringe held in his magical aura. Ahuizotl saw the gleam of the needle and grabbed at the whip. Daring realized what he was trying to do and undid the whip from about his jaws, only to cast it around his thick neck and pull hard, bringing the psychopathic cryptid to his knees. Dr. Hoof raced the two and raised the needle up, Ahuizotl looked at the needle with wide eyes and started to rise to his feet, but it was too late, the needle swung downwards and buried itself in the back of Ahuizotl’s neck. The blue-furred former-evil mastermind gasped, then slumped to the floor as the drugs began to take effect. Just before he succumbed to the tranquilizer he looked Daring in the eyes and said, in a voice that oozed insanity, “You’ve not yet experienced fear, but fear is coming…. and it’s coming for you.”   Then his milky eyes closed and he fell gracelessly to the floor. Daring wordlessly untangled the whip from his neck, then she went to the bed, tanked off the sheets and began to tear thim into thick strips. “Uh… what are you doing?” asked Dr. Hoof, eyeing her suspiciously. “I’m gonna tie him up and bring him back to the asylum.” she said in a low voice. Dr. Hoof nodded and watched as she bound Ahuizotl’s hands and paws together. When she was done she looked up at him and raised a brow. “What?” asked the doctor. “Usually, when someone ends up working with me on one of my adventures, they ask me if I need help any time I do something even remotely hard-looking.” “Do you… want me to help you?” he asked uncertainly. “No… it’s actually nice to have a partner who doesn't try to interfere in everything that I do.”  said Daring with a small smile. Dr. Hoof blinked owlishly, then said, “Well it looked like you had everything under control.” “I do.” said Daring with a wolfish grin. Dr. Hoof opened his mouth to reply, but the door to their room slammed open and the manager, a burly earth pony with a thick mustache and greased back hair, barged in. Both ponies could practically see the steam leaking from his ears. “What. The. Tartarus is goin’ on here!!” he bellowed, letting his bulging eyes rove around the destroyed room before finally settling on Daring and the bound Ahuizotl. “What the hay are you two doing?!” he screamed, “This is a respectable establishment, damn it!” Daring snorted, the manager growled and advanced on her, “I want you three out of here, now!”, he reached out to grab Daring’s chin, but the past few days had made Daring’s far less patient than she usually was and she swatted his hoof away and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. “Listen, flankhole” she growled dangerously, “I’ve had a seriously bad day and you’re not making it any better. So shove off and we’ll be outta your hair in a moment.” She let him go and pushed him back to the doorway. None of them noticed that the fog was swirling around the doorstep or the dark figures that were slithering through it like black snakes. The manager opened his mouth to scream at her some more, but the sounds never reached his lips, because at that very second a twisted, sharp talon erupted from his throat.  The manager gurgled as blood began to dribble out from his snout and mouth, then the talon jerked out and more blood gushed out of the wound. Daring and Dr. Hoof screamed in unison as the body fell forward like a marionette with cut strings. Then the figures of Dr. Cabelleron and his posse rose up from the fog, their red eyes alight with sadistic mirth. Daring, reacting out of pure fear, grabbed Ahuizotl and hoisted him onto her back. Daring shot Dr. Hoof a pleading look and mouthed, “Make a door.” The unicorn doctor nodded and turned to the opposing wall, he fired a concussive blast that tore through the brick and mortar like it was nothing, then he and Daring leaped through the hole with the unconscious Ahuizotl in tow. The six creatures in pony form watched them leave with large smiles plastered over their falsified features. The hunt was on.