//------------------------------// // Gather Information // Story: Pathfinder Ponies // by terrycloth //------------------------------// Macintosh took the cart to the stables, then he and Rarity joined the others inside Pie Manor’s massive foyer. Like the outside of the mansion, it was in poor repair, but was lavishly, if disturbingly, decorated. The windows were stained glass depicting devils and demons of all sorts, the couches were made of leather dyed in a patchwork of bright colors, and the bannisters were capped with pony skulls. Everything was coated in a thin layer of dust. Whatever the maids had been up to – the party spotted at least one more young female leatherwing passing by on the balcony – they evidently had not been doing much cleaning up. It was also very quiet, although after an hour of running around through overcrowded streets trying to avoid attention that was more of a comfort than anything else. After a few minutes, the original maid returned, to lead Pinkie Pie and her guests to the sitting room, to meet with Lord Pie. Igneous Pie turned out to be large brown and grey earth pony, who was sitting in a comfortable chair as they filed into the room. The bat-winged maid flew across the room to hover over him, and started rubbing his shoulders. “Now now, Dreamy,” he said, gently pushing her aside. “Not in front of my daughter.” “Daddy?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Is that really you?” She frowned. “You look old.” “I’ve aged a decade in the last two weeks,” he replied. “It was hard enough with you and your sisters gone, scattered to the four winds. When your mother… when she left, I felt as if I would crumble to dust. If it wasn’t for Dreams and her sisters, I don’t know how I would have managed.” “So are they, like,” Rainbow Dash stopped, mid-sentence, to look at Pinkie Pie. “Um…” “What happened to mommy?” Pinkie asked. Igneous scowled. “She got together with some of her old friends, and they set out to fight the cult. A few days later, most of them were wearing those damned amulets, and helping round up the other ‘dissidents’, but my Cloudy was nowhere to be found. They promised me I’d see her again if I joined them, but I am not one to be so easily manipulated!” He shouted the last words, then continued, in a low growl. “Besides, I know she’s dead.” “A shame,” Rarity said. “Although nowadays, being dead need not be the end for her.” “The cult has ways of ensuring its enemies stay dead,” Igneous replied. When Dreams started rubbing his shoulders again, he did not object. "We could look into this,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Even if it wasn’t personal, something needs to be done about this cult.” Igneous scowled. “That’s what my wife said. Don’t throw away your life on a fool’s errand. The world is dying, the Empire is failing, what does it matter if the city falls?” “Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine,” Applejack said, with a smirk. “But this ‘cult’ is already after us, so we may as well try and hit back.” “If you need a place to start,” Dreams volunteered, “their main recruitment center is on the corner of Maple and Carp, in the old Hall of Records.” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at the maid. “And how do you know that?” “It’s not a secret,” Dreams replied with a smile. “If you ask anyone on the street they could tell you as much.” Pinkie Pie stayed a while longer to catch up on things with her father, while Dreams showed the rest of the party to the guest rooms. Turning in early, and leaving Rarity on guard duty since she didn’t need sleep, they were able to wake up well before dawn and still be fully rested. The Hall of Records would be too crowded during the day, so a night-time raid was called for. Specifically, Applejack and Rarity would sneak inside, since they were the two stealthiest members of the adventuring party. The others would find somewhere to wait nearby in case they needed support. The building itself was a sprawling two-story structure on the corner of two major streets in the middle of the Residential District. It had some security – the doors were reinforced and locked, and the windows had iron bars preventing entrance by anything larger than a cat – but it was a place where minor governmental functions happened: marriages, property title transfers, the payment of fines, and so on. Or at least, that’s what it had been, until the cult took over. At night, most of the building was dark, although a few rooms near the front doors seemed to be occupied – some sort of business continued, even in the middle of the night. “Guess we use the back door,” Applejack said quietly, to the invisible Rarity that she hoped was following her like she was supposed to. “Probably a better bet anyway, less people watching from the alley.” Circling around to the back, there was no sign of life. Applejack and Rarity crept past piles of garbage and debris, until they reached the back door, which was locked securely but didn’t seem to be trapped. Applejack made short work of the lock, but as she opened the door a loud alarm went off. “Oh, ponyfeathers,” she hissed, as she dove through the door. “Just go! We can lose them inside!” A volley of flaming bolts streaked down from the roof towards Rarity as she headed for the door, and swerved in midair towards her. Two glanced harmlessly off her defensive spells, but the third sunk into her flank. Looking back for the source, she spotted a pale pegasus concealed beneath a dark cloak, hovering over the edge of a rooftop. Rarity’s eyes flashed with dark energy as she intoned, “RUN!” Then she ran inside, as her invisibility popped, and took cover next to Applejack, around a corner of a T-intersection, thirty feet from the door. The white-winged Pegasus was right behind her, apparently impervious to fear. Applejack threw a dagger at her as she came in, but it went wide. Seeing two intruders, the Pegasus dove into one of the dark offices to hide. It did her no good, as the office was small enough for Rarity to fill the entire thing with a Glitterdust. Applejack rushed forwards, drawing her rapier, and plunged it into the blinded pegasus’ chest. She wrenched herself off the blade, and spread her wings, flipping over Applejack’s head to get out of the office – but Applejack was able to track her clumsy, blinded movements, and stab her again as she fled back out the rear entrance. She whispered into the air, just loud enough for Applejack to overhear, “Wildfire, I need your help! At least two adventurers!” Rarity could no longer see the target, as she’d flown straight up to break line of sight, so she cast Haste instead, to speed herself and Applejack. Applejack shot out the back door, and leapt up to stab at the pegasus again, but this time her target could see, and managed to dodge the swing. She shot back with a volley of flaming bolts, but Applejack dodged them all. Seeing the bolts crash against the alleyway, Rarity darted back to the rear entrance and fired a barrage of magic missiles at the glitter-coated assailant – and she fell from the sky, landing in a bloody heap. A crow dropped out of the sky, and landed on top of her. There was a blue flash, and many of her wounds were healed. “Don’t die on me, Prize,” it squawked. Applejack blinked to the ground behind it, and lashed out with her rapier and claws, but couldn’t land a hit on the bird as it hopped back and forth from foot to foot, then took to the air. The Pegasus, conscious once again, fired a volley of flaming bolts at Rarity, one of them hitting its mark, damaging her through all her magical defenses. Rarity hissed, and flung out her hoof, tossing a ball of fire that engulfed the pair, and much of the alley, stopping just short of Applejack’s muzzle. Unfortunately, the pegasus was able to ride the updraft from the blast and shield herself with her wings, while the crow took the blast full on, but barely seemed hurt. “Why the hay did you prepare a fireball spell for a stealth mission?” Applejack asked, staring at Rarity in dismay. “I said that if we needed the others to come assist, I’d set off a flare,” Rarity replied. “What spell did you expect me to use?” The crow laughed, and burped up a massive ball of flaming pitch, which bounced across the ground, flinging itself at Rarity and smacking her in the face. She shrieked, and the smell of burning, rotted flesh filled the air. Applejack leapt at the bird, and managed to skewer its leg with her rapier, which bent for a second before sinking in, as if she’d stabbed a piece of rock. Rarity dodged another volley of flaming bolts from the glittering pegasus, then cast a spell to protect herself and Applejack from fire. “That’s hardly fair,” the crow said, flinging the ball at Rarity again anyway, although this time she managed to dodge. “But I’m no one-trick pony.” Lightning shot down from the sky, striking the ghoulish wizard directly. About that time, the rest of the party finally showed up, at the far end of the alleyway. Pinkie Pie tossed a bomb, which exploded in force against ‘Prize’, knocking her unconscious again. Fluttershy fired a bolt from her crossbow at the crow, but it bounced off his rocky skin. The others charged down the narrow space, closing the distance. “Now that’s really not fair,” the crow said, glancing at the reinforcements. Applejack ignored his quips, and managed to stab him again, and Rarity closed in to flank, clawing at him with her sharpened hooves, trying in vain to paralyze him. He flew up over the lip of the roof, tossing a fireball at the newcomers as he went. He was a fast flier, in crow form, but Applejack was still hasted, and swooped after him, stabbing at him with her rapier as he healed himself, and again as he cast a curse on her that made her wings feel briefly like they were made of lead, before she shook it off. And again, as he called down a column of holy flame, which she dodged past to get in one more swing, before he dropped over the front edge of the building, and rushed through the front door into the lit area. None of her attacks hit. “Blaze take you, stupid crow!” she shouted, before flying back to rejoin the others. They were gathered around the downed pegasus, stripping her of her valuables. She seemed to still be breathing, although she was battered and had deep wounds, barely healed over. “He got away,” Applejack said. “Y’all best skedaddle. I’ll try and sneak in and take a look around while they chase ya.” “Are you nuts?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Maybe, but it’s the last thing they’ll expect,” Applejack said. “That’s because it’s crazy,” Twilight said. “But if you think you can pull it off – don’t try to be a hero. We’re just gathering information.” “We’ll take Surprise with us,” Pinkie Pie said, indicating the unconscious rogue. “She was one of mom’s friends – maybe she knows something.” “And you can keep ahead of the guards while carryin’ her?” Applejack asked. “Ayup,” Macintosh said, taking hold of her in his teeth and tossing her onto his back. To make her solo mission less of a suicide mission, Pinkie Pie and Rarity handed over the rest of the infusions they’d prepared for the caper – two doses of invisibility, along with gaseous form and burrow for emergencies, although that last one would leave a trail. Applejack drank one of the invisiblity infusions, then ran headlong through the darkened building, distancing herself from the scene of the crime, while the others fled through the city streets. She did have to hide from a patrol sweeping the hallways, but invisible, they had no chance of finding her. Unfortunately, the interesting sections of the building – the stacks, the basement, and the front rooms – were guarded, and the guards were now alert. Most of the offices were full of boring, normal paperwork, at least at first glance. The invisibility spell had worn off by the time she got her first break – one of the ponies on patrol said that they were going to go up and inform the Director. Applejack shadowed them like a ghost, until they reached a nondescript office on the second floor. The pony opened the door, and said, “Sir? Sir, are you awake?” The office was dark, and there was no response. “We checked the building, and it looks clear. It looks like they all ran off.” There was another pause, and while she couldn’t hear anything being spoken, Applejack was sure she heard something moving around in the dark room. “Yes sir, I’m sure the guards can handle them. Goodnight, sir.” Applejack waited by the closed door for several minutes, listening for any sign that whoever, or whatever, was in the room was still awake. Her bet was on ‘whatever’, since who ever heard of a pony sleeping in his office? Once she was as sure as she could be that nothing inside was moving around, she slowly, slooowly opened the door. Once it had opened far enough, she carefully peeked through the gap. The office was small and unremarkable – a desk, some chairs, a filing cabinet, a large wastebasket set next to the desk… and there, standing next to the desk, just behind the basket, was a pony. At least, it looked like a pony. It wasn’t moving, and its mouth was… wrong. There was very little light, but eventually Applejack made out just what had stricken her as so unusual about it – its mouth was gaping open, impossibly far, as if the edges of the mouth extended down its muzzle and halfway down its neck. Inside was a dark, fleshy gap, with ridged, exposed flesh. Despite that, the thing was somehow breathing – but there was no sign of life in its eyes, and no sign that it had noticed Applejack. Applejack figured that if it had seen her, it had seen her, and slipped into the room, quietly shutting the door behind her. Not wanting to get too close to the… thing, she first examined one of the filing cabinets. It was locked, but that was hardly a moment’s pause for a thief as skilled as her. She picked out what looked like the most heavily used folder, and spread it out on the floor to try to make out what was inside it. It was hard to read, in the dark, but Applejack could tell that it was a list of names, pages and pages long, many of them crossed off. The crossed off names had one of several symbols next to them – usually a circle, but sometimes a spiral, or a pair of parallel vertical lines, or a squiggle. From the smell of the ink, this list was edited frequently. The other folders in the cabinet were less interesting – just dossiers on various ponies, with pictures and not many details. Applejack considered the cabinet. It was too large for her to carry quietly, but if she managed to unscrew the bars from the back window, maybe she could toss it into the backstreet and run off with it, less quietly. It had wheels, after all. For the moment, she shoved the list of names into her saddlebag, then hopped up onto the desk to check whatever documents might be laid out there. Unfortunately, her paw slipped on a piece of paper, and knocked a jar of ink off the table, into the wastebasket, where it landed with a quiet ‘squelch’. Suddenly, tentacles exploded from the wastebasket, as the creature resting inside was awoken. Applejack grabbed a bunch of random papers in her mouth, then leapt off the table, trying to hide behind the filing cabinet. The ooze flowed across the floor towards her, flailing a tentacle in her general direction, although it was aimed too high to hit her while she was flattened against the floor on all fours – apparently, it hadn’t gotten a good glimpse of her, and thought she was as tall as she’d been while standing on the table. Applejack took the opportunity to open the door and run away. The creature didn’t follow immediately, letting her easily make good on her escape. Meanwhile, the rest of the party made their own somewhat noisy escape through the city streets – they weren’t trying to make noise, but Twilight and Macintosh were never going to be able to move quietly, and there were no crowds to blend in with during the night. So it shouldn’t have surprised them that they were intercepted by the city guard, as archers in the bright blue guard armor fired down at them from the rooftops. Arrows shot at the two noisy plate-armored ponies in the front, missing Macintosh but striking Twilight a nasty blow. The orcish shooters were clearly visible – clearly not rogues of any sort, and not even trying to hide. The archers were too spread out to catch more than one in an area attack, so Pinkie Pie picked one and tossed her bomb, which exploded in fire and poisonous smoke and grease. The orc slipped on the grease and fell to the street, prone and choking on the aftereffects from the fumes. Macintosh charged at him, skewering him with his lance and finishing him off. One of the other orcs focused his attacks on Pinkie in retaliation, and without most of her defensive spells in place, the fiery arrows sank easily into her shoulder and belly, burning with both flames and acid. Fluttershy winced as she saw the arrows hit, but healed Twilight first, who was still hurt from the fireball as well as her arrow wound. She moved over towards Pinkie Pie to heal her next, though. Rainbow Dash charged at the orc who’d shot Pinkie, but her target easily dodged her clumsy swing. Twilight stayed close to Rarity, tossing a pair of javelins at the rooftop archers and missing badly. “Allow me to assist,” Rarity said, and teleported both of them onto the roof, right next to one of the attackers. The orc dropped his bow, and pulled out a Lucerne hammer from its sheath – but he was obviously far more accustomed to archery, and Twilight parried his attack easily. The remaining archer focused his fire on Pinkie Pie, sinking two more flaming arrows into her flesh. Her ablative barrier mitigated the shots a little, as they had the first two, but unlike Rarity she couldn’t ignore the painful feedback from the spell, and she fell to the ground, unconscious. The orc that Rainbow Dash was menacing surprised her by sticking to his bow, even at close range, and put a painful fiery acid arrow into her stomach before she realized she had to dodge the next two shots. She replied with a flurry of blows, but couldn’t get a claw on the orc, who danced around the rooftop, grinning at her. His grin failed as a tanglefoot bag arced up over the edge of the roof and splattered against him, entangling him and gluing him in place. Below, Fluttershy landed on Pinkie Pie and healed her, washing away her bruises as well as most of her arrow wounds. “Thanks!” Pinkie said, launching herself into the air and throwing a bomb at the archer not currently engaged by one of her friends. He was engulfed in flames and smoke as well, but failed to fall to his death, although there was a ‘thunk’ and various scrambling noises on the rooftop, and he didn’t manage to escape the cloud. Up on the roof, Twilight slammed her hammer into the archer trying to duel her, striking a solid blow to his armor, but failing to take him down. Rarity snuck around behind him, and planted a glowing hoof into the small of his back – it didn’t hurt, but the dark energies ran through the orc, unravelling his nerves. His attempt to counterattack was feeble and halfhearted, and Twilight’s next attack crushed his head, leaving him thoroughly dead. On the other roof, Rainbow Dash and the entangled guard continued to duel, although the advantage was on Rainbow’s side now, and she struck him twice, with bone-crushing force and a surge of electricity, while even his crazy tricks couldn’t let him get a clean shot at her. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy flew up to the cloud of smoke concealing a guard, and Pinkie cleared the cloud with a kick, letting Fluttershy follow up with an admonishing glare at the retching orc, which slammed into him with physical force and knocked him out. Then, in the street below, Macintosh shouted, “Nope. NOPE!” as a blue ooze that had emerged from the corpse of the guard he’d skewered slithered up to him and swung at him with an oozy tentacle. “What? What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked, sizzling the trapped guard with more electricity and continuing to dodge his counterattacks. “The guard turned into an oozy thing!” Pinkie Pie said, swooping down and throwing a firebomb at it, scorching it. In the light of the flames, she could see it more clearly. “It’s made out of blue mud!” “You already lost, stop fighting!” Fluttershy pleaded, shooting beams of force from her eyes, splattering the mud a little. It wasn’t clear whether it had helped or not. Macintosh stabbed at it with his lance, which was definitively unhelpful, as the creature split in two around the blow, and now two oozes squirmed around, flanking him. Their tentacles splatted against his armor, but while there was an acid sizzle, it kept him from being hurt. “Is this one going to turn into an ooze?” Twilight asked Rarity. Rarity examined the fallen guard, and spotted flecks of blue mud swimming in his blood, congealing into larger and larger bits. “Hmm, yes, most likely.” “How do we stop it?” she asked. “Try hitting it with your hammer, once it manifests,” Rarity suggested, trotting back behind Twilight to use her as cover. “Blunt force was used to turn the original blue mud to powder, so it may still work against these blue mud creatures.” Sure enough, an ooze started to rise from the corpse, which dissolved around it, and when Twilight slammed her hammer into it, it reacted as if hurt, and didn’t split in two. “Use blunt force!” Twilight shouted, to the others. “Rainbow Dash, your punches would be perfect!” “Little busy here,” Rainbow replied, continuing to attack her entangled opponent with a flurry of blows, most of which were blocked or dodged, although one managed to break his nose. At the same time, another of his arrows finally hit her, sinking into her chest near her neck, narrowly missing a fatal strike as she twisted aside. Macintosh, not knowing what else to do, stabbed at one of the oozes with his lance, and while it split again, both halves reeled back and collapsed into puddles – still cohesive, but apparently unconscious. Fluttershy used her glare on the other ooze, and it fell unconscious as well. Pinkie Pie flew over to Rainbow’s roof, and smacked a firebomb into the middle of her opponent’s back, incinerating him in a shower of flaming fluid. “There. Can you go help Twilight now?” “I’m actually doing fine,” Twilight said, continuing to pound her hammer into the ooze, while blocking its flailing attacks with her shield. Rainbow streaked across the sky and slammed a lightning fist into the reeling ooze, knocking it unconscious. “You were saying?” “I was saying I had it,” Twilight replied. “But this isn’t a contest, so…” she rolled her eyes. “Thank you Rainbow Dash, for finishing off the pathetic opponent that I was about to take down anyway.” “Can we go now?” Fluttershy asked. “We need to find somewhere safe to heal, and there might be more guards coming any second!” “Their bows are high quality, and there’s magic on their belt – it looks like potions,” Rarity noted. “As long as we have to fight off the guards, we might as well get something of value out of it.” Fluttershy healed the party as they looted the downed guards – it was easy, since the bodies had dissolved. One of the guards was still alive, but unconscious, which would have made taking his armor more difficult if they wanted to take his armor at all. It was made of the blue metal, so they left it, contenting themselves with the bows and potions. When they went to loot the stronger guard that Rainbow had been fighting, they found that he had much more magical equipment – a ring, a magic bow, a cloak of resistance, and magical boots. His body had dissolved, but there was little sign of the ooze that must have come out of it. Fluttershy was able to track its faint trail across the rooftop to a gutter, which drained into the sewer – it must have run away. “That’s fine,” Twilight said. “We were in disguise, so it doesn’t matter if we leave witnesses. These people are being mind controlled, so killing them isn’t actually a good thing.” “I didn’t see you pulling your punches,” Rarity noted, as they fled the scene of the crime. Twilight frowned. “If they turn into ooze when they die… they might be too far gone to save.” “Or we might just need a remove disease extract for each of them,” Pinkie Pie said. “Or maybe being an ooze isn’t so bad? They didn’t talk, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t talk, or think, or do stuff that doesn’t involve trying to kill ponies.” “I hope you’re right,” Twilight replied.