//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Spectre of the Past // by Juntao112 //------------------------------// Good afternoon. This is the Voice of Equestria, with special guest host Sea Crest. Today, we will tackle the issue of immigrant labor laws in Equestria. In last decade, the number of griffons immigrating to Equestria for industry, construction, and security work has increased threefold. Thriving griffon communities now exist in most major Equestrian cities. Supporters say that bringing in workers from overseas allows for greater cultural contact and exchange between Equestria and her allies, while others are concerned that foreign labor may depress wages and close job opportunities for native Equestrians. Joining me now are Equestrian railworker's union representative Rex Rivet and griffon ambassador Artemis Brahe. Thirty minutes and one cab ride took Ace to a resort on the outskirts of the city overlooking the Canterhorn waterfall. It clearly catered to the Canterlot elite, with refined modernist architecture, a pristine lawn and immaculate staff. Deadwood confidently strolled through the entrance, ignoring the scandalized looks that the other guests gave her, and immediately booked them a room. It was luxurious by anypony's standards, far better furnished than Ace's home in Ponyville, and nearly as large as Stiletto's shop. The furniture was made of solid teak, the bed had a mattress as soft as a cloud, and the cotton sheets had a thread count higher than his monthly paycheck. Ace bounced up and down on the mattress in excitement, while Stiletto sat herself down at the desk. Her stomach rumbled loudly, despite her attempts at hiding it. Deadwood chucked a menu at her. "Give room service a try, I got a good feeling 'bout this place." Stiletto opened the menu and promptly dropped it as if it were a rattlesnake. Ace levitated it to see what was the matter, and felt his chitin turn pale. "Deadwood, a can of water costs more than I make in a day!" "You mean the fancy stuff imported straight from Prance? Give it a try, it's not bad. Kinda bubbly." She looked at their faces. "What're ya'll worried about, it's on me." "How can you possibly afford any of this?" Stiletto finally managed. "Let me tell you something about gamblin', kid," Deadwood chuckled. "It's a racket, but it's easy to make money if you're smart about it. Games like Blackjack, you can win against the house if you count your cards, but the house doesn't like that. Better casinos will offer to foot your tab if you win too much, which is their way of saying 'Alright, you've had your fun, now let us make our money back'. Most will just kick you out and bar you from returnin', and the worst ones — ones run by the mob — are liable to take it personally, if you know what I mean." Ace gulped. "I'm, er, not sure I want to know what you mean." Deadwood picked a pencil off of the desk and broke it. "So makin' money off of the casino's only good for small change. If you want big money, you have to get it from other patrons — rich folk who got more bits than sense." "So your plan is to go swindle some nobles while Ace and I investigate?" "What's the matter? Last I checked, you didn't want me anywhere near the two of you." Deadwood chuckled. "Now, if you want me to help you two out, I say we pull the fire alarm, kick down some doors, and steal whatever documents we need." Ace tented his hooves thoughtfully. "I think that's a good plan, minus the public disturbance. Why don't we sneak around when everypony's asleep?" "We could report this to somepony," Stiletto grumbled, as her stomach started acting up again. "Room service. Now. Before you faint." Deadwood pressed the menu to Stiletto's chest. "Order enough for the three of us, and don't skimp on nothin'." Deadwood waited for Stiletto to go to the door and buzz the floor attendant before leaning in close to Ace and lowering her voice. "Now, I have some suggestions for sneaking about..." The 'entertainment lounge' of the The Cavallo was filled with the soft murmur of conversations and the gentle 'chink' of chips being pushed around. Refined patrons sat around on plush couches and relaxed as fortunes were won and lost around them. Without warning, the lounge doors flew open and banged against the oak walls as Deadwood strolled into the establishment like she owned it. "Well, ain't this place a hoot," she grinned, looking around at the shocked faces surrounding her. "How ya'll doin' this evenin'?" She did not wait for a response before walking over to the nearest poker table. "Looks like a mighty interestin' game you got goin' on here. Mind if I join?" The dealer glared at her over the heads of the players. "I think you'll find, ma'am, that there is a ten thousand bit minimum buy in." Two thick stacks of bank notes hit the table. "Then you best deal me in." Everypony's jaws dropped as the dealer counted out twenty thousand bits worth of chips. Deadwood calmly lifted a martini off of the tray of a passing waiter and tossed a dozen red chips into the center of the table. "Well don't just sit there slackjawed, let's get this game started!" The waiter with the martinis passed around the room several times over the course of the next hour, as the stakes rose at the poker table and more eyes followed the game. When the clock struck eleven, he made his way back to the employee entrance, checked to make sure nopony was paying attention, and quickly walked past the kitchen and to the nearest fire escape. He pressed up against the door and whispered. "Stiletto?" "Ace, lower your voice," she growled back. "Whispering makes you hiss, and it's rather distinctive." "Sorry." Ace opened the door and let her slip in. "Well, Deadwood's got them distracted outside. I think we're good to go." Stiletto nodded and motioned for him to follow as she snuck into the offices. Most of the lights were off this late at night, though there was the occasional sign of a late night conversation, or the sound of an accountant busy at work. They kept to the shadows and barely made a sound until they arrived at an office door bearing Furioso's name. Stiletto listened at the door for a moment before opening it; the lock sprang open with a click, and they walked into an office geared almost entirely towards entertaining guests than paperwork. Ace paused to admire the sculptures and paintings that decorated the walls and found himself looking at a crooked knockoff Marenet watercolor, while Stiletto made for the heavy oak desk in the back. There was a rustling sound as she rifled through the drawers, but Stiletto came up empty hoofed. "Well, it looks like Furioso's smart enough not to– Ace, what are you doing?" Ace reached for the painting and lifted it slightly. "I think I found a safe!" The painting was quickly cast aside to reveal a small safe set in the wall, with a combination lock keeping its contents secure. Stiletto abandoned the desk to examine the lock. "Good job. Ready for another lesson?" She pressed her horn to the knob and closed her eyes. "A combination lock is much harder to crack, because you have to align several wheels inside the locking mechanism so that they'll open. Since we can neither see nor feel inside a solid steel door, it will require a great deal of telekinetic finesse to feel out the insides; I'm used to working with small objects, so hopefully I can…" There was a sharp clunk from within the safe, and the door swung open. "Wow, and I thought I'd have to ask Deadwood to come in and blow it open." "That was amazing! How'd you learn to get so good at...well, everything?" Stiletto blushed. "Oh, I just paid attention in school and learned how to use my head. It's nothing, really. Anypony could have done it." She stepped aside and motioned to the safe. "Would you care to do the honors, Ace?" "Sure." Ace opened the door and pulled out a heavy scroll of parchment. "Hm, it seems I've got a letter, but it's nothing incriminating. It's from somepony named Bella Donna telling Furioso that she's raised the other half of the money for some griffons that did a job for her." "Being paid half upfront and half upon delivery is standard operating procedure for a griffon mercenary. We should make a note of this and put everything back together." The office door flew open with a bang as a dark red unicorn strolled into the room, flanked by two earth ponies and a pegasus wielding a spear in her hooves. "Or maybe you'll drop dead," he sneered. "Furioso, I presume?" Ace growled, stepping in front of Stiletto. "Seems like we've got some unfinished business." Furioso snorted. "You'll forgive me, but I have no idea what you're on about, Mr…" "Gambit. Ace Gambit. And you've been consorting with ponies who hospitalized two of my friends and wrecked my shop." "Hey, who says I got anything to do with anyone being in a hospital? Sure your pals didn't trip and fall on a particularly long flight of stairs?" His underlings broke out laughing upon hearing the line. "And just a bit of advice, kid; if you want your shop to stay intact, maybe you should pay up on time." Stiletto placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Ace, please hand me the letter and let me take care of this." Ace kept his gaze fixed on Furioso as he handed Stiletto the scroll. The moment it left his hooves, he fired a beam of green energy directly at Furioso. The henchponies recoiled, but Furioso quickly erected a red bubble shield around them. Ace's beam splattered harmlessly off of the magical barrier. "Get 'em!" The bubble dropped, and the pegasus was the first to charge at him. Stiletto's magical pink aura enveloped the tip of the spear and bent it down, before releasing the tip. It hit the pegasus in the face, and sent her spiralling into the Marenet painting. Ace backed up as the two earth ponies closed in on him and fired off another blast. It sailed through his attackers without making contact and hit a light switch near the door. It broke with a crack, and plunged the room into darkness. A beam of light issued forth from Furioso's horn, and revealed that his henchponies were busy wrestling each other on the floor. "Get up, you oafs! I'm not paying you to fool around! Find th–" The marble bust of some Canterlot model caught Furioso in the chest, sending him reeling out of the door. The light swung wide as he did so, and revealed that Ace was on the other side of the room. The two earth ponies untangled themselves just as the pegasus shook herself free of the painting. Ace swallowed nervously and grabbed the nearest thing he could lay his hooves on. He came up with a bouquet of flowers. The pegasus charged him again, and found her vision filled with thorny roses. She batted them out of her face, only to see Ace step out of her way, and that he had been standing in front of Furioso's mahogany drink cabinet. She spread her wings to halt her flight, but he grabbd her forelegs and swung he into it. Wood splinters, glass, and alcohol filled the air as the pegasus sailed into it. There was a groan from the back of the room, and everypony stared as the heavy office desk slowly rose several inches in the air before barreling towards the earth ponies. They both dived aside but only one was lucky enough to escape. The other found himself pinned behind the desk as it carried him into several bronze sculptures, which buried him under their weight. The desk shifted as the henchpony pushed it away with his legs, only for stiletto to leap onto it in one graseful motion and bring her hoof down like a whip. There was a sharp crack as she planted a blow directly on his forehead, knocking him out of the fight. The remaining earth pony rolled on the ground and came to a stop directly in front of Ace. He delivered a leg sweep that knocked Ace off of his hooves and followed it with a headlock. Ace struggled to breathe and repeatedly punched his assailant in the stomach, but found a knot of solid muscle waiting for him. The deathgrip suddenly vanished as the earthy ponyies legs gave out from under him. Ace pried himself loose and turned around just in time to see Stiletto grab the henchpony by the shoulder and slam his head down on the ground. A piece of cold, sharp steel pressed into his neck; Ace froze as he realized that it was a knife; Furioso had snuck behind him in all the confusion. In front of him, he could see Stiletto slowly turning away from the unconscious pony in front of her with a letter opener levitating next to her head. The three of them stood in silence as each party calculated the next move. Stiletto was the first to speak. "Drop the knife, Furioso. I don't want to hurt you." "I think you'll find that you're in no position to be giving demands," Furioso snarled, pressing the knife firmly against Ace's chitin. "Espcially not since backup's on the way. Give up now, and I promise death will be the worst thing that happens to you." Stiletto's eyes shot back and forth between Ace and Furioso, before she relinquished her hold on the letter opener. The glow of magic from her horn did not dissipate however; instead, it focused itself into an impossibly thin needle of energy. The beam penetrated the shield as if it were cloth, and pierced Furioso's horn. The shield around Ace dissipated as Furioso fell back with a cry of pain. Ace turned around and kicked the knife away, before grabbing Furioso by the shoulders. "Alright, start talking; I want to know about the Patriotic Order," he snarled, as he reached for his back pocket. A glint of silver flashed in the dark room. "Or else you might get whacked." Stiletto gasped as brought it into the light. "Where'd you get that?" Ace shrugged. "I picked it up in the kitchen. Thought it might be useful." Furioso paled as Ace stepped forward. "I–I don't know nothing!" There was a wet sound as a fish swung through the air and slapped him across the cheek. "Wrong answer. Keep it up, and you'll be sleeping with the fishes." He brought the fish under Furioso's nose. "Last chance. Where do I find the Order?" "It's all Bella Donna's doing, I swear!" Furioso babbled. "She's the one hiring thugs to go about hijacking the Voice of Equestria and everything!" Stiletto nudged him in the side. "Come on, Ace, we've got what we need. Let's go." She took old of the fish and bent down to Furioso's level. "Oh, and if there's ever any retaliation for this, I will personally see to it that you will be very sorry. Forever." She dropped the mackerel on his face as she walked Ace out of the room. The door swung shut behind her, and there was a grinding sound as Stiletto jammed the lock in place. When she turned away from the door, she saw Ace marching determinedly to the exit. "Ace, wait up!" She struggled to keep up with his pace as he tore through the empty offices. "Are you alright?" "Perfectly fine, I just have a goal, you know? I miss having a purpose in life, and I think I've just found one." He stepped out into the lounge, only to find activity winding down and Deadwood out of sight. The other employees were too busy closing to pay them any heed, so they made a beeline for their room. Halfway there, the pegasus from earlier staggered out of the employee entrance and pointed a hoof at them. "Don't let 'em leave!" she yelled. The employees around them immediately formed a ring around the pair, while Ace and Stiletto charged their horns. Both sides stood still, neither wanting to trigger a brawl. The silence in the air was broken by the jingling of bits as Deadwood stepped around the corner, cigarette glowing in her mouth. She took the cigarette out of her mouth and blew a ring of smoke in the air. "Looks like ya'll got quite the conundrum here. How 'bout I pay for the damages and we call it even? Does fifty thousand bits sound good?" "You!" The pegasus wobbled forward. "I knew there was something wrong with you! Get her too!" Two burly pegasi advanced on her, but Deadwood calmly placed the cigarette back in her mouth and flicked her wrist. The room went dead silent as a stick of dynamite appeared in her hoof, its fuse dangerously close to her cigarette. "If there's one thing I learned from runnin' round with Widowmaker," Deadwood grinned, "It's that every problem can be solved with high explosives." "You're bluffing! You'd blow us all to the moon if you lit that up!" The pegasus sounded nonchalant, but the fact that she was edging towards the pool table undermined her bravado. Deadwood shrugged, puffed on the cigarette, and touched the glowing embers to the fuse. Sparks flew from the end as it hissed like a snake; everypony's eyes locked onto it as Deadwood flung it high into the air. Pandamonium broke out as everypony dived for cover. Stiletto, seeing her chance, grabbed Ace and weaved through the panicked crowd. Above them, the fuse merrily burned away as the stick reached its apex. It exploded with a deafening roar, filling the air with shrieking balls of light. The fire alarm rang loud enough to wake the dead, and water drizzled down from sprinklers in the ceiling. "Were those fireworks?" Stiletto shouted at Deadwood, as she flung open the front doors. Deadwood threw back her head and let out a proud whinny. "Trixie brand pyrotechnics! Work like a charm!" "I'm surprised at your restraint, considering your reputation for blowing up mines, bridges, trains, elected officials, and 80ft tall mechanical tarantulas." "You help one archeologist demolish one automated arachnid, and nopony ever forgets." Ace gave the mares a curious glance. "Are you two talking about Daring Do and the Wild, Wild West?" Deadwood glanced up at the sky to see a firecloud full of pegasi descending on their location. "Less talkin', more running away!" Midnight found the trio in one of the back alleys of Canterlot, tending to their wounds. Ace's neck was so swollen that he was having trouble speaking, and Stiletto found that she had a nasty pattern of bruises developing on her left side, though from what she could not recall. Deadwood emerged out of the shadows at the far end of the alley, with a bag of ice and carton full of ice cream in tow. "Here, this'll help." She handed the ice cream to Ace, and the ice to Stiletto. "Gotta say, you two sure raised Tartarus in there. Get what you were after?" "Yeah," Ace whispered. "We know who to go after now. I say we find her and–" "Ace, you're starting to scare me,” Stiletto said slowly. “You've been getting more...well, mercurial ever since we stopped by the hospital. Are you alright?" "I'm fine; like I told you, I have a mission and I'm going to see it through." Stiletto bit her lip. "Ace, is there something you're not telling me?" Ace wolfed down a mouthful of his ice cream. "You think there's something I'm not telling you? How about what you're not telling me?" "I'm not sure what you mean." Deadwood quickly stepped in front of Stiletto. "Now Ace, you'll want to eat that ice cream right quick–" "How about the part where you went about thrashing earth ponies twice your size? Or maybe the fact that you shot the Clydesdale who had me in a death grip in the knee through a magic shield?" Stiletto threw her hooves up in the air. "All I did was simple beam compression! I admit, it's hard to do because energy is inherently repulsive to a degree, but if you have the finesse for it, you can reduce the surface area of a ray and create so much pressure on the target that it simply slides through. It was just basic magic theorry and quick thinking. Any tailor could have done it." Stiletto pointed at Deadwood. "And what about her? She's been lying through her teeth all along!" Tears welled up in Ace's eyes. "Yeah, but I expected it! I thought you and I were closer than that! No more excuses about how safecracking or knowing obscure criminals is something trivial, I want to know who you are!" A tense silence settled in the alley as Stiletto found her eyes glued to the ground. She flinched when she felt somepony touch her shoulder, and raised her head to see Deadwood patting her sympathetically. "Darlin', I think you'd better come clean." Stiletto nodded. "Alright. I admit, I haven't been entirely forthcoming about my true reasons for moving to Ponyville. While everything I told you was true, I neglected to mention that I'm a distant niece of Captain Thunderball, who invited me to Ponyville." Ace cocked his head to one side. "You're here to keep an eye on me?" "Well, he never actually told me that, but I did my own research and came to that conclusion." "Great," Ace muttered. "My friend is actually just a professional assassin who doesn't even know if she's really supposed to be watching over me." "I...hey! I'll have you know that preserving plausible deniability is a perfectly valid reason for keeping others in the dark. I make my living as a cobbler, thank you very much, and I'm friends with you because I like you, you ass!" She grabbed his shoulders and crossed horns with him. "Can't you feel it?" Ace closed his eyes and let her emotions wash over him. He had never taken advantage of her before, but now that she had opened up to him, he could feel pure and wholesome nourishment flowing into his body. It healed him better than any medicine; he could feel the bruises in his body melt away before it. He opened his eyes and embraced Stiletto in a tight hug. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you, I just...I thought I'd left all the lies and deception behind me when I left the hive, and I don't want to get drawn back into that mess again." "I'm sorry too," she sniffed. "I just didn't know when to tell you, and then it was suddenly too late." Deadwood picked up the ice cream and took a generous bite out of it. "Well, ain't this just the most heartwarmin' thing I've seen all day." Ace glared at her over Stiletto's head. "You're not off the hook either. What's your deal?" "Ain't got a clue what you're talkin' 'bout, I'm just a simple mare with a penchant for gamblin'. My pappy was a vaquero from Mexicolt, and my ma a 49er from San Anponio. They had me in the li'l border town of Rock Ridge–" "Drop the act." "And I confess, I do have a tendency to pursue justice wherever I find cowardice, avarice, and oppression tainting the land,” Deadwoord finished. “Now, I may be a little hotheaded, but I'd like to think my heart's in the right place. Even if I may have faked a lot of evidence to get the both of you to come along with me." "And you're here because?" "I owe you changelings one, and I always settle my debts." Deadwood scarfed down the remaining ice cream and chased it with a flask of whiskey. "It was about a year ago, and the good folk of the Red River Valley were looking to string me up for a train robbery." Stiletto rolled her eyes. "You were innocent, of course." "As the day I was born. Anyways, I was cooling my hooves in the jail at my wit's end when suddenly the sheriff says that they'd not only collaborated my alibi, but a pony matching my description was seen committing other crimes around town. So, I was sent on my way, with a stern warning not to come back, while they chased down the real culprit." Stiletto opened her mouth again, but Ace gently squeezed her shoulders. "Ten miles outside of town, I decided to take a rest and a dead–ringer for your's truly drops out of a low hanging cloud and tells me she's taken quite the liking to my antics. Apparently, her hive has a policy of encouraging peace, love, and whatnot among ponies so they can have a better source of food, and she couldn't bear to see all the good work I'd done go to waste. Thus began a really interesting partnership that only dissolved when she was recalled to the hive due to increased aggression by Chrysalis a couple of months ago. Figured the least I could do was make the world a bit safer for her while she was gone." Ace looked at her thoughtfully. "There is a hive matching that description in Mexicolt, last I heard. Your story checks out…for now." Deadwood batted her eyelashes at him. "You still don't trust me after I spilled my guts for you? Do I at least get a hug?" Stiletto growled. "Fine, I get the message, he's yours," Deadwood laughed. "But can I ask why he's been mean enough to bite a rattlesnake?" Ace sighed and looked away. "Chalk it up to disappointment in my new home, and in myself for being so useless when my friends were put into comas that they may never come out of. Whenever I think about what happened to us, I want to hurt somepony." Tears ran down his face. "I just want to do something to stop all this." "It's ok, Ace." Stiletto stroked his cheek. "We'll find the culprits and turn the over to the proper authorities, alright? You don't have to hurt anypony." "Yeah, between the three of us, I reckon there's nothing we can't do." Deadwood embraced both of them in a tight hub, and for once Stiletto showed no sign of resisting. Bella Donna giggled as Prince Blueblood's lips ran across her hooves. "Oh my, they certainly were right to warn me about you and your devilish charms." "My dear, you have me at a disadvantage; how could a stallion possibly resist a mare like you?" He ran a hoof up her foreleg and cupped her face. "Come, shall we retire to your bedchamber?" "Oh no, Prince, I fear we must postpone our dalliance for another day," she smiled. "Goodness, is it midnight already? I think we should both go to sleep. We'll have a busy day tomorrow." "So I hear," Blueblood nodded. "I wish you wouldn't keep me in such suspense, though; surely you trust me?" Bella Donna raised her eyebrow delicately. "Don't you trust me?" Blueblood lowered his head. "Well, I must admit, you do seem to have riled up our friends, and scared the nation." She gave him a pat on the head. "All I do is speak the truth. I have no control over how others respond to it. And they, in turn, react the way they have deemed fit; who are we to question their judgement? Can they all be wrong?" "I suppose not," Blueblood said hesitantly, "But I would like to know where this is all going. Will everything turn out alright?" "Darling, darling, of course it will, but I would never dream of ruining the surprise. Meet the others here tomorrow and you will all see." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Siegfried will show you out. Au revoir, my prince." Prince Blueblood bowed. "Adieu, mademoiselle." Bella Donna poured herself a cup of tea and smiled. She had the idiot prince eating out of her hoof with little more than winks and innuendo. Soon, all of Equestria would be under her spell, and Celestia would be forced to allow fear and hatred to spread through Equestria, or sacrifice her noble principals as she cracked down on the Patriotic Order. In either event, Bella Donna would come out victorious. Siegfried knocked on the door. "May I take away the tea set?" She motioned for him to do so. Siegfried produced a serving platter and piled the teapot and cups on it. As he took it away, he slipped on a small puddle of tea and fell onto Bella Donna. The serving platter and the delicate china tea set it carried fell upon the ground in a cacophony of destruction, along with Bella Donna's hat. Siegfried started to apologize, but gasped at what he saw. Bella Donna looked at the hat on the floor, then back at Siegfried's stunned face, and sighed. "I wish you hadn't done that."