//------------------------------//
// 121: Aftermath Part Two 
// Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick 
// by Paaaad 
//------------------------------//

Virtue is still lying in a broken heap on the ground in front of the trade depot, covering her face and sobbing at... everything.  By now Harvest Moon has arrived at the scene and sees his wife crying.  He darts over to her and cradles her, looking up to the ponies around him.  "What the buck happened!?" he demands.

Glaive at the sound of the fighting rushes to the source weapons ready, armor clanking as he runs. He reaches the scene and sees a dozen ponies of all types slaughtered before him, they weren't soldiers, they looked like the merchants from the Rainbow Coalition, 'Shit. What the buck happened here.'

Jaxler stood there silent with a somber look on his face.

Harvest Moon turns his attention to Glaive, then to Sarissa.  "What happened?  Surely one of you saw it."

"We did what we had to..." Sarissa answers as she looks slightly to the side.

Friesden hops down the corridor after mister Glaive.

Harvest Moon's face shifts to disbelief.  "Did what you had to?"  He looks at all of the dead ponies, then back to his sobbing wife.  "This... explain..."

Jaxler stood there silent with a somber look on his face and gazed over at Harvest Moon.

"Meow meow meo-" Friesden stops short as she sees all the ponies looking really badly hurt.

Glaive walks carefully past the bodies to Sarissa. "I'm sure of that. But that wasn't what I asked. 'What the BUCK happened.' These aren't soldiers they were traders they came in peace. WHAT HAPPENED?"

"They...they would have killed our lady!" her eyes narrow as she feels frustration build, "One of the crazies aimed their crossbow right in her face!  All I did was disarm the freak, and that started everything!"

Virtue curls up more tightly in her husband's grip at the memory, but she doesn't manage to say anything.

Jaxler walks over to the pony he killed and starts searching it, acting completely oblivious to those around him.

Glaive looks over to Lady Virtue, "They, Why would they do that?" But Glaive then stands stunned. 'Friesden. She was right behind me when... ' he turns around to look to see if the filly followed him.  Friesden is standing stock still, not moving, not actually understanding why all the ponies are shouting instead of helping.

Sarissa groans, "They thought we killed their diplomat, and that made them get all crazy! They jumped to conclusions!"

Glaive rushes over to put himself between Friesden and the grizzly scene. "Friesden you shouldn't be out here. You need to go inside."

Harvest Moon stands silently for a moment.  "They think we did what?  Why would we do such a thing?  This... this is unbelievable!"  He looks over to the corpses.  "How many are injured?  Dead?"

"They're all dead" Jaxler responds.

Sarissa takes a look at the bodies.  "I don't know...12 maybe?" she says rubbing her head as her eyes dart from one body to another.  She turns back to Harvest Moon, "The guy DID die, but we don't know why. He just keeled over in the dining hall. So then they start with this 'poison' nonsense..."

Jaxler continued to search his kill showing some disgust on his face from Sarissa's lack of respect

"Gods help us..." Harvest Moon whispers under his breath.  He kneels next to his wife and tries to encourage her to her hooves.  "Virtue... Virtue... are you alright?"

She resists the attempts initially, but at her husband's encouragement, she stops crying and weakly gets up.  "No... I'm not."

Harvest Moon frowns and drapes a wing across her back.  "Come on... let's get you home... I'll handle this..."

"Mister Glaive? What...What happened?" Friesden asks.

Sarissa shook her head. Friesden didn't need to see this. She was too young.  Jaxler continued to search his kill, trying to ignore the foals ignorance.  Glaive looks down at the filly. "I..I'll explain later, for now. You need to go inside. Go...Go find Dad, or Falcata, tell them I said to stay with them for awhile okay." "Virtue, stay I have more questions for you."

"Aren't...Aren't we going to help the ponies? They look like they're hurt..."

"Let the mare leave..." Jaxler says to Glaive.

Harvest Moon gives Glaive a questioning look at first, but Virtue interrupts the motion by dropping out from beneath his wing and turning to face him.  "What is it?" she asks in a weak voice.

Sarissa returns her ax and shield to the sides of her flanchards, "There's nothing more I can do here. I'm going to check on Kat," she mumbles.  Sarissa hadn't the best of opinions about Kat due to her involvement with Stiletto's harem, but her feelings would have to take a back seat for now. Kat was an injured fellow warrior, and that took precedent over prejudices.

Glaive shakes his head. "We'll do what we can for them Friesden, please just do as I say."

"I...Okay..."  .Friesden starts to slowly walk back inside.

Turning to the Lady Virtue, Glaive says barely audibly. "Is it true. Did we poison him? Did anyone from here do it?"

Virtue keeps her eyes fixed on the ground.  "I don't know."

Jaxler finds what he was looking for, a Large copper dagger, Jaxler then mumbles something and turns to Virtue. "If you don't mind I think I'll be taking my leave..."  She gives him a quick look, but says nothing.  Jaxler starts walking away with a depressed look on his face.

Harvest Moon looks at Glaive.  "Of course not!  Why would anypony here do something like that?"

Glaive looks at Virtue, examining every pore on her face, trying to see if he could detect any hint of a lie. He could find none. "Okay, I believe that you didn't know about it, if it happened. Do you know if any of the unicorns here could detect poison? If he was assassinated, we need to start an investigation immediately, it may be the only way to avoid war”

Virtue locks eyes with him briefly.  "I don't know," she repeats weakly.

Harvest Moon thinks for a moment.  "There's sure to be somepony here who could... Wool might.  Or Panacea might be able to tell somehow."  He looks around for a second.  "Somepony go get Wool and see to it that he checks the diplomat over.  We need to get to the bottom of this... Kat was hurt right?  Panacea should look after her."

Friesden runs into Jaxler as she walks back to Fauchard, her face bowed and not paying attention to her environment. "Oh...Sorry, mister Jaxler."

Jaxler was startled by the foal. "WHA... Oh... Hay there Friesden..."

"Sorry for bumping into you...Why aren't they helping the ponies?"

"Some ponies are beyond help, Friesden," Jaxler responds.

“What do you mean?”

“They weren't hurt Friesden, and nothing anypony could do could heal them.”

"But..."

“But what?”

"But...How could somepony not be able to be helped?"

Jaxler sighed "Nopony can save the dead..."

"They're...they're /dead/?!"

"Yes... they're dead."

"But...but...but...but..."

“But what?”

Friesden runs off in tears to Fauchard's room.

Glaive thinks for a moment, "I..I'll go get Wool. I can't do any good here." He looks to Virtue, "I'm sorry to have blamed you milady. I'll take my leave now." He bows and heads off to find the doctor.

Virtue says nothing but returns to her husband's side.  Harvest Moon looks around.  "Somepony... somepony go find Indigo and get him to organize the reserves.  Get the bodies moved..." he motions to the mess in the trade depot.  "And get that mess cleaned up.  Just... just move it into the warehouses for now, we'll figure out what to do with it later."

Harvest Moon moves to take his wife home as the gaggle of ponies slowly comply with his request.  The boxes and barrels in the trade depot are slowly picked over and they begin to make their way toward storing them in the warehouse as directed.

Sarissa decided not to bother Kat, as she already had Flux for company. She simply asked Panacea for her analysis. It turns out that there was nothing life-threatening about the gray pony's injuries, although she probably wouldn't return to fighting anytime soon. With that bit of knowledge obtained, Sarissa left the hospital and decided to clean the dark red stains from her face and armor.

As the workers begin to move everything inside, the foremost, Hickory notices movement inside the warehouse, and hears what distinctly sounded like somepony whimpering.  "Um, hello?  Is anypony in here?"  She steps around behind an obstructing mass of tables and chairs to find just that: three ponies she didn't recognize.  "Wha..."

There is a faint metallic /click/, and before Hickory can take in the scene before her the shadowy form of a pony looms before her and raises an unfamiliar weapon an inch from her nose.

She freezes for a moment before letting out a chilling scream and scrabbling backward.  It was another rainbow pony!  She was going to /die/!  She breaks for the door, stumbling over and noisily destroying several pieces of furniture in the process.

Virtue and Harvest Moon pause in place at the scream and turn to see ponies running to or from the warehouses

Jaxler walks into the room after Friesden. "Friesden... are you okay?"

Friesden runs up to Fauchard and grabs onto one of his legs.

Fauchard hugs the little pony, he'd heard the fighting too and surmised what she had seen. "Friesden, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-the ponies are dead!"

Fauchard hugs the filly and rubs her back with his hoof. "Shh. shh. It's okay, you're going to be fine now." he whispers to her.

Friesden is trembling in terror and unhappiness.

After a splash of cold water begins to wash the crimson stains from her copper fur on her face, Sarissa's reflection on the incident was interrupted when her ears are hit by a shout of fear. Eyes widen in shock as she cancels the clean-up operation and heads off towards the source. Another attack? Had those mutants sent reinforcements?

Just as Glaive finishes telling Wool to perform the autopsy, he hears the scream and rushes out of the hospital to look around.

The figure withdraws into the shadows again. Well this was just /grand/. She'd bring the militia down on them for sure. They needed to move. Now. But, in her condition...

Hickory stumbles out into the open, terror plastered all over her face.  "A darkbolt!  There's a darkbolt in there!  And... and somepony else!" she shouts, stumbling again and diving behind the nearest militia pony

Sarissa ran to the side of the warehouse, scanning the area for any sign of those weird-looking faux ponies. She overhears Hickory's words. "Another darkbolt?!" She almost trips over herself trying to get inside.

Glaive hurries lagging behind Sarissa, but trying to keep up.

Jaxler was saddened by what he had done to the foal and his unwillingness to lie. "Friesden... are you okay... please tell me."

Sarissa gives a quck look over to Glaive, reassured about his presence. 

Virtue and Harvest Moon trot back to the unfolding chaos.  More screams?  No... please no more violence...

As Glaive reaches Sarissa he asks her quietly, "Did you see any of those that fought run in here? If they haven't hurt anypony yet, we need to give them a chance to surrender."

"Surrender? Oh yeah, I'll give them a chance to surrender alright," she whispers in turn. She then begins shouting, "Come on out mutant! If you show yourself now, I may be kind enough not to split your skull in half!"

Glaive curses Sarissa just loud enough for her to hear it before shouting, "Rainbows. Drop your weapons and come out slowly, and you will not be harmed. You have my word."

A voice calls out from within.  "I rather like my skull in one piece, thank-you!"

Sarissa sighs internally. We have to show this low-life that we mean business...  She draws her weapon, "Ah ha! So you ARE in there! Come before us, slowly..."

"Not a chance, sweetheart!"

"Forgive my comrade's harsh words Rainbow, she is a brute, but I swear to you by all our gods that you will not be harmed if you surrender."

"The others... I hear no fighting. They are all dead, aren't they?"

Sarissa lowers her eyelids at Glaive's description of her, but groans and lowers her weapon in compliance. She would keep a sharp eye out, though, and was ready to raise the ax again at a moments notice.

"Yes they are," Glaive admits.

"You showed them no mercy. Why should I expect different?"

"It's not like they asked for mercy; they threatened our lady!" Sarissa hissed.

Glaive cuts his eyes to Sarissa.  "We are ponies sir, not monsters, they were killed in battle, they were not executed. I promise you that if you surrender you will not share their fate. And if it can be said that you harmed none of us then our Lady will let you go free...  but if you do not, you will have the full weight of the military of Dawnpick crushing down upon you."

There is another sound from within. A groan of pain. This one is not the speaker, it sounds femnine.

"You got that right!" the copper unicorn grins

Virtue reaches the warehouse, fear replacing the sadness on her face for a moment.  "What... what's going on?"

Sarissa pricks her ears at the familiar voice, but keeps facing the inside of the warehouse, "My Lady! We've captured more mutants!"

Glaive speaks but doesn't take his eyes off the entrance. "Milady, there are at least two surviving Rainbows, one Darkbolt male and the other I think is female."  He adds, "I have given them a chance to surrender, but if they don't come out soon, I'll go in after them."

Virtue grimaces at the thought and turns to look inside.  "Um... h-hello?  Who are you?  You... you can come out, we won't hurt you... I promise..."

There is conversation from inside. Nopony can make out the words, but a third voice is heard, also female, and much younger.

Sarissa chuckles to herself and licks her lips.

"You... I remember you. You are the lady of this town?" the voice calls from the warehouse.

Virtue nods, as if the listeners could hear her.  "Yes, that's right.  Baroness Virtue Cookales.  I promise you... we're not going to hurt you.  Please..."  She can see movement in the doorway. A figure makes his way up nearthe doorway, ducking behind crates and furniture. He stops a few meters away.

Sarissa whispers, "I say we demand them to throw their weapons out here first."

Glaive whispers back, "Do we even know they have weapons?"

"Can't take the chance," she answers. The brown mare complies with Virtue's sign.

The figure asks Virtue, "...you have a doctor?"

She makes a small motion for Sarissa and Glaive to back away.  "Yes, we have a wonderful doctor.  Are you hurt?"  She motions for them to join her outside.

Glaive does as his Baroness commands and backs away several feet. 

"...My wife... she cannot walk out..." the pony says back to Virtue.

Virtue looks back to everypony.  "Somepony... somepony go get Panacea... or Wool.  Just get somepony..." she says to the small crowd behind her.

"They could be faking it..." Sarissa mutters

Virtue  takes a nervous step inside while she waits for Panacea to come.  "It's going to be alright.  Panacea is a wonderful doctor."  She stops just a few steps inside.  "She'll be here in a moment."

Glaive nods, failing to notice Virtue enter the building, "Milady, Sarissa is not wrong. They could just want a hostage. We can't send in Wool or Panacea alone."  He  hesitates, "I volunteer."

Sarissa grins.  "Let me come too! Can't take any chances if they decide to spring for you."

Virtue hesitates at their requests, unsure how that might destroy the diplomacy.  She doesn't deny the request.

Panacea arrives and pushes her way through the crowd.  "What's going on?  Somepony else is hurt?"

There is a loud metallic *click* and Virtue has a weapon trained on her from behind a stack of barrels. "Right there. Not another step. And nopony else, either."

Sarissa widened her eyes to the size of saucers, baring her teeth and brandishing her axe. "SEE!"

Virtue freezes and her eyes go wide.  "I-I-It's okay... th-the doctor is here... can she come in?" she manages after a moment.

"...her only. Just the two of you."

Sarissa  doesn't move, but shouts in anger, "So help me, if you so much as split a hair on her head, I will rip out your spleen and cram it down your windpipe!"

"And for Luna's sake, not her!" the obscured pony insists.

Panacea gives Glaive and Sarissa a frightened look before stepping carefully inside.  "Who's hurt?  Where are they?" she questions in a worried voice.

"Doctor?"

“That's me..."  She pauses.  "Doctor Panacea... can I come take a look?"

Sarissa's body trembles with rage and adrenaline, nervously spinning Elegy with her teeth as she tries to think of some way to strike the enemy without anypony else being harmed.

Glaive grips his axe tightly, 'Shit' he waits for the darkbolt to be distracted, 'any minute now...shit Panacea's going in now? This situation is degenerating fast. Need to do something'

"Coward...coward!" Sarissa shouts.

The pony moves down the line of crates, placing himself out of sight from the doorway, and steps out fully before Virtue and Panacea. He is a large, imposing darkbolt with a deep crimson coat and unkempt black mane, with a well trimmed beard. His bright, emerald green eyes study them both head to toe. He grips a strange, foreign-looking weapon clenched in his jaws.

"A-are you hurt?" Panacea asks.

"...No. My wife has been shot. She's in the back. Follow me, slowly."

She nods and does as he asks.  Virtue dithers in place, unsure of what she should do.

Glaive keeps a close eye on the armed pony, he judges the distance between him and the Baroness, 'if he points that thing at her...Yes, I have just enough space. That's what I'll do, hope Sarissa can respond fast enough.'

'Apparently he wants a wound to match hers', Sarissa thinks in response.

He leads Panacea into the back of the warehouse, behind a hastily-constructed barricade where she finds two pegasi huddled together in the corner. The elder of the two has a bone bolt protruding from her abdomen, pinning her wing to her side.

Worry flickers across Panacea's face as she sees the wound.  "Oh..."  She steps closer and takes a better look.  It looked like it missed her spleen, with any luck.  This was still probably going to require surgery.  "It's going to be alright," she says, giving the two a small smile.  "But we've got to get you to the hospital.  I can't work in here."

"...How far is that from here?"

"It's just down the road... not far."

Sarissa begins frothing at the mouth and growling.

The stallion is silent for a moment, weighing his options. Slowly, he turns his gaze to Virtue.  "...They are unarmed... neither of them has so much as swung a blade in their lives...  If... if I lay down my arms here, now... they will be unharmed?"

Sarissa focuses her eyes. Yes, yes. Lay down your arms. That's right...

"You have my word," Virtue assures.

The stallion does not move. "Look at me. Look me in the eyes and swear to me that my family will be alright."
She does as instructed and looks him squarely in the eyes.  "I swear upon my life they won't be harmed, and that your wife will be fine."

Slowly, he lowers his head, resting the weapon on the ground, before giving it a good shove with his forehoof, sending it sliding across the floor to Virtue.

Virtue smiles and says, "Thank you, I assure you you're making the right choice."  She reaches down and picks the weapon up in her mouth.

"I trust you, lady Virtue. Please don't betray that trust."

Something inside of Sarissa snaps. The guy is unarmed. The time to act is NOW! The brown mare charges inside, a war cry issuing from her mouth, "It's a good thing My Lady only specified that your family will be alright, because I can't say the same for YOU!" She gets ready to strike with her ax.

He rolls out of the way, managing to avoid the blade of Sarissa's axe, but taking the full force of her charge. They tangle together and fall in a heap.

Glaive charges after Sarissa, "Buck!" He tries to keep up with her but with his bad leg she's the faster.

Virtue stares in absolute horror.  No.. No!  NO!

Glaive reaches the scene and tries to grab Sarissa with his magic, with his legs, with his mouth. "NO!" He desperately tries to keep the two ponies from killing each other.

The telekinetic assault on her motion trips her up, causing to her miss with her initial swing and barrel headlong into the intruder with her body, knocking both to the ground.

"Stop it..." Virtue mutters under her breath, barely audible through the weapon in her mouth.  Terror grows on her face.

"There has been too much death already!" Shouts Glaive trying to pull Sarissa away from the unarmed pony.

The darkbolt draws his hindlegs in, trying to buck the mare off of him.

Sarissa tries to grip the stranger, "What are you DOING Glaive?! You should be helping me if anything!"

Glaive doesn't relax his grip on her. "What the buck are you doing? He surrendered, it's over."
[
Trying to wrap her forelegs around the darkbolt's neck with a chokehold, she yells back to Glaive, "He threatened our Lady!"

Virtue's face distorts in fury.  She drops the weapon and scowls at everypony present.  "Stop it!  Stop it!  STOP IT!" she screams at the three.  "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"  she adds, stamping her forehooves into the ground furiously as her face grows even more enraged.

Sarissa pauses and turns to look at the gray Earth Pony, but doesn't relax her grip, "But...but...My Lady..."

Glaive grips Sarissa's forelegs with his magic trying to pull them away from the prisoner's neck.

The darkbolt manages to squeeze one hoof, then the other between Sarissa's forelegs and slowly tries to pry them apart.

The combined effort frees the pony from Sarissa's grasp. Glaive tries to make use of that momentum, such as it is, to throw Sarissa to the space behind him.

Virtue bares her teeth and scowls harder at the fighting ponies.  "I SAID STOP IT!  THAT'S ENOUGH!" she screams again, stamping her hooves against the floor with all of her weight.  One hoof lands on the trigger mechanism of the weapon, discharging it.  The bullet tears through the air before tearing through Sarissa's rear leg.

Sarissa throws her head back, mouth gaping in agony, "Son of a MOTHER!" The copper unicorn writhes on the floor, gripping the injured leg with her front hooves.

A shriek of terror follows the shot. "DADDY?!"  The younger pegasus bolts out form the barricade, rushing to her father, heedless of the militiaponies gathered around.

Virtue leaps back at the violent discharge, and in an instant the pent up rage of two years of stress drains away to be replaced with fear again.  She... she'd just hurt Sarissa!  What about Glaive?  Or the rainbows?

Glaive stands over Sarissa, "You deserved that." he tosses her weapon away with his magic. "Some pony get the guard and take her away."

The darkbolt rolls to his hooves, sore and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. "Mari, stay behind me!"

"What?! Nng! What hit me?!" Sarissa groans, trying to stop the blood with her front hooves.

Panacea cowers next to the pegasi, scared out of her mind after such a loud sound following the fighting

Glaive looks up to her.  "Panacea. Sarissa is hurt. Can't have her bleeding out before we decide what to about her actions just now. Can you take care of her?"

After a moment Panacea rallies and shakily returns to her hooves.  She steps over to see Sarissa bleeding badly from her leg.  "T-Take her to the hospital... and somepony help me get this one there too," she says, motioning back to the wounded pegasus.

Sarissa's mind starts going through what has happened, but it's too much information to process right now. She'll have to wait and think this over in the hospital, "Somepony...take Elegy back to my room...please..."

Slowly, the stallion relaxes, his daughter still cowering behind him. After another glance to assure himself that nopony else will attack them, he turns and pulls her close, hugging her tightly.

After the adrenaline and rage begin to leave her, Sarissa begins to realize the depth of the situation, "Lock him up in his box too please..." Her eyes begin to sadden.

Glaive steps over Sarissa toward Virtue, "I'll see that it gets there, Sarissa." He bows before the Baroness, "I'm sorry about all this, is there anything else I can do to help?"

Virtue stands motionless.  She suddenly felt violently ill, but she manages to keep her lunch down through some miracle.  As Glaive addresses her, she nods slowly.  "P-Please... make sure his wife gets to the hospital... n-nopony else gets hurt.  Please... promise me..."

"As you wish milady." Glaive levitates his shield and both his and Sarissa's weapons to himself. "I shall protect them all with my life."

Sarissa manages to get to her feet, but limps badly.

Virtue steps forward on unsteady hooves.  She raises a trembling hoof toward the darkbolt and looks at him with teary eyes.  "I... I'm so sorry... y-your wife is going to be fine..."  She pauses and sniffles.  "W-We should go speak in private..."

He looks down at her, his daughter still clinging to him. "...Thank you."