//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Apparently Bad Morals aren't Specific to Earth // Story: Injustices New and Old // by Serperior //------------------------------// After exiting the house, the trio continued on down the street, following Thunderlanes directions into town. They seemed to be in a more suburban area on the outskirts, the city skyline a good three or four miles in the distance. They walked in silence for some time, Gallavant deep in thought, and the other two wary to break the silence because of this. After they had walked a fair distance Thunderlane cleared his throat, “I think this is about a half mile out, you wanna use your spell to find your friends again?” Gallavant simply nodded, then his eyes glowed again for a moment, before fading, and he shook his head. “No one here, let’s continue.” After a few moments Tina finally tried to start up a real conversation. “So Thunderlane, did you grow up in… wherever this is?” The Pony shook his head, “No, I grew up in a city farther south called Cloudesdale. Raindrops and I only moved here a few weeks ago. And this city is called Detrot.” “Hmm…” Tina pondered for a moment, trying to figure out how to continue. “So what caused the move to this ‘Detrot?’” Thunderlane grinned, “Well… my marefriend got an offer for the weather captain in town, since we’re both graduates of the Wonderbolts we’re pretty hot material in air related industries.” “Oh? What exactly are the Wonderbolts? I don’t think we have that where we come from.” The Audino queried. “They’re a sort of… mix between a military unit and sports team. They usually just do airshows and races, but every now and then they’re called in to deal with aerial threats around Equestria,” He explained. This piqued Gallacant’s interest. “So you’re a soldier? You didn’t hit me as the fighting type.” “Oh no! Raindrops and I aren’t really Wonderbolts yet, and the academy was all flying, no fighting.” The two Pokemon nodded in understanding. “So how did you two meet?” Tina asked. “We first met at the academy. I had actually seen her around the last town we lived in a couple times, but we never really met. We first started dating at the academy, and kept it up when we went back to Ponyville, until she got a job offer here and we moved.” “Aww… that’s sorta sweet,” She smiled, “You followed her all the way here. I take it you two really like each other?” The stallion nodded. “Yeah, I had been thinking about proposing some time soon, but I was waiting until we could settle down some more. Now with all of… this happening I’m not sure if it should be reason for delay or to hurry up.” Tina gasped. “If you love her you should never delay! What are your species proposal traditions? How much do gems cost here? That is if you use rings. Have you met her parents? Has she met yours? What about…?” The gushing Normal-Type was cut off by a light smack to the back of her head. “Give the guy a break,” Gallavant chuckled, gesturing to the heavily blushing stallion. Tina gulped and gave an awkward smile. “Heh… sorry. I always get excited when I know there's romance afoot. I always liked to play matchmaker for teammates back home, and I’m happy to say that most of them are still together, and the only ones that fell through were with Gallavant and... Doki. I shouldn't have brought him up." Tina began tearing up a little. Gallavant stopped, got down on one knee, and opened his arms up for the Audino, who quickly accepted the hug, now sniffing a little. "It's fine, we're going to fix this. The hug tightened. “I know. But… I don’t think Jugger would have made it, even with me helping him.” She sobbed a little. “I hope the others are doing well.” Aphex was not doing well. He was physically fine, yes… but his situation with the local authorities could use some work. The guards were still at the ‘stab first, ask questions later’ stage, and so he was currently leaning up against a wall, barely paying attention to the feeling of heavy metal spears bouncing off his shield. They had started with swords, then arrows, and were now using spears. He was sure they’d bring some sort of crossbow next, considering what their weapon technology was like. Finally the guards ran out of spears, and were too scared to approach him to retrieve the ones thrown before. The sword Pokemon collected them all up with his ribbons and dumped them in the dumpster next to him, as they had cornered him in an alley. “You done?” He asked. One of the Ponyta-like creatures stepped forward, and scrutinized the strange creature before him. “This one doesn't seem an immediate threat. We should move on to some of the other more dangerous creatures around here.” There was a general murmur of agreement from the other guards, and they all retrieved their spears the dumpster, all carefully eyeing Aphex as they did so. Once they had all wandered off, Aphex exited the alley and wandered down the street. “That must have been a good two hours wasted,” he grumbled. As much as the guards he annoyed him, he wasn’t sure if he could get out without harming one of them, they may have been overzealous in their protection of the city from the Pokemon, which he had deduced were new for them, they were really only doing their jobs. As he floated down the street, he saw that most of the Pokemon around were rather small. Quite a few bidoofs and starlys hung around in a small park to his right, and he saw some Rattata scampering around between buildings on his left. They all looked very confused, which was a relief for him, as he was not alone in this feeling. “HELP! SOMEONE HELP!” Aphex made a sudden turn to the right, where a Houndoom appeared to be menacing one of the locals. He quickly floated over to the scene, and gave the dog a smack on the behind with his blade. “Oi, do your kind even try not to make yourselves look like villains?” The Dark-Type turned to the sword, “Butt out! She has food! I want it!” Aphex floated in front of the mare, and glared at the Houndoom with his single eye. “Leave her alone. Or else.” “Hmmph. You must not be very smart. I have two type advantages after all.” “Try me Fido.” The Dark-Type snarled and launched himself at the Aegislash, who didn’t even flinch when the Foul-Play attack made contact with his shield. He then bashed the Houndoom, causing him to stumble back. “You sure you wanna do this. You don’t seem very well trained.” The Houndoom made another animalistic snarl, and launched himself at Aphex again, this time with fire licking at his maw, it made to bite down on the edge of the shield, but at the last second changed directions and went for the tip of Aphex’s sword, poking out from the bottom, but before he could bite down the shield moved down suddenly, slamming his head into the ground. He bit at air for a moment, trying to grab something with the Fire Fang, but the fire in his mouth eventually faded, and he was thrown back again. “Nice try, but you can’t eye your real target so much when attacking, I saw right through your plan. I’m getting tired, I think I’m gonna finish up now.” The Aegislash shifted into his blade form, and charged up a Sacred Sword. The Houndoom, seeing a chance to deal some real damage charged forward again, but was smacked hard with the flat of the sword, and was sent flying back about fifty feet. Aphex began floating over to the Pokemon, but the Dark-Type quickly jumped back up and ran off, whimpering with his tail between his legs. Aphex turned back to the pony from before, who was still cowering at the same spot as before. The Aegislash sighed and floated over, and began picking up bits of food that had fallen out of the ponies basket. After he finished he set it back down next to her, and floated away. About halfway down the street he felt a light tug on one of his ribbons, he turned around to find the pony from before, giving as brave a smile as she could manage. “Um… thank you… sir? That dog thing would probably have stolen all of my food so... “ She pulled an apple out of her basket, “Here. I hope it’s something you can eat. If not maybe you could give it to a friend or something?” Aphex nodded gratefully and accepted the fruit, holding it in his ribbon-hand, and continued onward. Gallavant and his compatriots had been wandering the streets of Detrot for several hours now, with no luck. They had stopped a few times so that Tina could check on Gallavant’s wound, which was doing rather well. “It wasn’t really that deep, but he nicked a fairly major vein. The vein is sealed up and there’s little muscle damage, it should be fine in a day or two.” Tina explained, giving a basic rundown of the cut. “That’s good. That means I can go straight back to work then.” Tina’s eyes narrowed. “You really need to take a bit more time before you can fight again.” “I need to find Doki!” “You need to rest!” “I need to know why he betrayed us!” “He betrayed us because he’s selfish and doesn't care for the morals he’s helped uphold for the past eight years! Face it Gallavant! He’s changed! I don’t know when but he did, and there’s nothing more to it than that.” Tears were now streaming down Tina’s face, and she was shaking uncontrolably. “You forget, he was my friend too! We all knew him!” The Gallade wasn’t sure how to respond. In his mind, he knew she was probably right. Doki had betrayed them all, and there was no excuse for that. But he knew in his heart, there must be something more to the story. Doki would never just turn on them for something like profit, would he? The group stood there for several minutes, Gallavant giving light pats and strokes to Tina’s back every now and then to help calm her down. After some time she was finished, and before either of the males present were ready she began marching forward, a new look of determination in her eyes. Aphex had been attacked several more times by guards, and he didn’t fight back at all. Their weapons didn’t hurt him, so as long as they didn’t harm someone they were capable of harming, they were fine in his book. Instead of fighting back he usually just took their weapons from them and broke or threw them away, more as a distraction then anything. One rather pesky guard almost managed to nick his ribbons, he ended up hanging by his armor from a light pole. “They’ll probably just get one of those winged Ponyta to take him down,” the Aegislash reasoned. He hadn’t really accomplished anything in the five or six hours since he had awoken other than move around and saving the mare. He hadn’t even eaten the apple, he handed it off to a young looking Chespin that looked about ready to steal from hunger. He seemed to be moving into a worse part of town now, as the buildings look significantly more run down, and the ponies looked less friendly. Not that the guards were exactly, but these Ponyta-like creatures seemed more threatening in a criminal way, as though they were sizing him up before they mugged him. Not that they would get anything if they tried, even if he had anything. Looking to the horizon he saw what appeared to be a large number of storm clouds gathering, or rather being gathered. Apparently the winged ones could use some roundabout form of Raindance as they appeared to be making rain. “I should probably find somewhere to go inside.” The Aegislash muttered to himself. He continued on, looking for somewhere run down enough for him to take cover without trespassing. Most of the buildings around him were either houses, which were mostly on the left, and factories on the right. After some time Aphex finally found one he deemed deserted looking enough, and he approached it. He tried the door, but found it to be locked. The sword Pokemon sighed, “I hate doing this so much.” He removed his shield, and shoved the tip of his blade between the door and the frame, and twisted, causing the wooden frame on the inside to explode inward. “What was that?” Asked a voice from the inside. “Don’t worry about it,” answered another more gruff voice, “Probably just a rat knocking something over, now get back to work. We’re all in trouble if they’re not moved by tonight.” Aphex stopped. He had been fairly sure this was abandoned. He floated back out of the building and looked at the wall, where a sign said “Keep out, bank property.” “In trouble… moving. That doesn’t really sound like bank stuff.” He looked back to the run down factory. “I think this deserves investigation, doesn’t seem like the locals are dangerous anyway.” Aphex floated back into the building, and found a large number of cardboard boxes, all apparently new, and stacked against a single wall. The Aegislash looked around the room more, and found it to be some sort of lobby or front entrance, but there were no doorways other than the one he entered through. He looked over to the pile of boxes. “Whoever is trying to keep from looking suspicious is really bad at it.” He floated over, and pushed the boxes out of the way with ease, revealing an open doorway, and… more boxes. Was their plan to just prevent people from getting in through giant mounds of cardboard boxes? “Shadow Sneak,” he mumbled, and he sank into the floor, and moved through the shadows to the other side. “Too easy,” the Aegislash would have smirked if he could. Looking around he found to be behind a large number of large machines, industrial looms to be more precise. They were lined up close enough together than Aphex still couldn’t see past them, but he could hear voices on the other side. “Hey, boss, we have a train set up. They think we’re moving chickens to a bunch of different farms in Zebrica,” one voice explained. “Didn’t I tell you to say they were vegetables? We could've put a sound muffling spell on it.” The same gruff voice from before questrioned. “They charge less for livestock. I thought you’d prefer that.” The other voice became more irritated. “But they’re less likely to look inside if they’re vegetables. If we get caught it’s your fault. Now go clean out one of the empty crates, they pissed themselves in there earlier. “Yes sir.” the first speaker then wandered off. The apparent leader began to speak up again, “Alright boys, we’re moving out tonight. Get all the merchandise into the cages, Sweet and I will come around and put silencing spells on them once they’re closed and sealed.” There was a sound of affirmation and of hoof beats around the factories stone floor as the subordinates began their work. This was enough for Aphex, something was definitely going on here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. He floated out from behind the machinery and looked. Before him, being rounded into five shipping containers on wheels, were thirty bruised, beaten, malnourished specimens of the Ponyta creatures. This was the last straw. Aphex came farther out, floating over to the pony who he assumed was speaking as the leader before. The brown and green stallion was facing away from the sword, and was monitoring the locking and latching of the containers. As the Pokemon floated through the room some of the other ponies who were cleaning up possible evidence stopped and watched, with looks somewhere between shock and horror. “Ahem.” The pony didn’t turn around. “I think you mean ‘excuse me sir’. Do it right and we can talk.” Aphex reached out with his ribbon-hands, and grabbed the pony around the barrel. “Hey there asshole!” The ponies eyes bugged out, “Wh-what are you?!” “I think you mean, ‘what is your species sir’.” Aphex then wrapped one of his ribbons around him and carried him underhand as he floated over to a locked container, all of the workers still watching in fear. Once he made it to an empty container, he ripped open the unlocked door, and threw the pony inside, then slammed the door closed. From inside a terrified cried out, “What are you doing? Get him!” The trio walked a while longer, and Gallavant decided to stop and check for teammates again. His eyes glowed as he scanned the surrounding area for familiar minds, and finally, he found someone. “Aphex! I found him. He’s close enough for me to sense him, but I can’t quite communicate with him.” Tina gave as large a grin as she could muster, “Yes! Finally! Cmon, we gotta go get him!” The trio set out again, now with a destination and a new spring in their step. The ponies charged at Aphex, trying to beat him with their hooves, but he simply allowed them to pass through him, most of them slamming into the metal container behind him, falling down, and groaning. A bright flash emanated from behind him, and he felt a mild tingling sensation on his back, turning around he found one of a female Ponyta, this one with a horn. So would it be more like a Rapidash then? he wondered to himself, before her horn lit up again, and he was hit with another beam of energy, impacting his shield and dissipating, it felt somewhat like fairy energy he noted. The ponies eyes narrowed, and she tried a different spell, this time a fire spell. “Gaah!” Aphex exclaimed at the surprisingly powerful flames, and backed up, holding his shield in front of him again. The pony smirked and fired another fire spell, but was interrupted by a green fist impacting the side of her face, throwing her into another of the containers. “Hello Gallavant. Nice to see you. How’d the mission go?” Gallavant fended off another one of the ponies charging him, picking him up and throwing him up onto a catwalk. “Poorly. So what are we dealing with here?” “Standard slave ring. I think I had it fairly well under control but I always welcome help.” “Good, because I feel like punching something right now.” The two approached the group of ponies cowering in front of the container their boss was in. “We surrender!” They all shouted simultaneously. Gallavant put his hands on his hips. “Hmmph. Way easier than usual.” “I think that the fear factor of how unfamiliar we are helps,” another voice pitched in. Aphex turned around to greet it, “Ah, Tina! Good to see you too! Who’s the Ponyta?” Thunderlane gulped at the blade pokemon. “Uh… Thunderlane. Guys, I wish you would've warned me about your friend being a giant sword.” Gallavant chuckled. “Sorry. I guess it slipped my mind. Now, let’s go find the local authorities and-” The Gallade buckled down in pain. “Gaah! Tina, check the wound!” The Audino hurried over and took off the bandage carefully, scrutinizing the cut beneath. “Gallavant, I told you no fighting until it was healed! Now you tore the new flesh growing there. We need to get you back to the house.” Gallavant sighed in defeat. “Fine, but first we need to let these ponies out. Thunderlane, go find the guard and tell them what happened.” The stallion nodded, “Got it,” before trotting outside. Tina forced Gallavant to sit down, so he watched their criminal prisoners, preparing to use his mind instead of his body should they try anything. Once all of the ‘merchandise’ was released, they were led outside and instructed to wait with Aphex for the guard. Tina practically dragged Gallavant back to Thunderlane and Raindrop’s house, where she put him back in his bed, and made him rest. Gallavant awoke to someone knocking on his door. “Come in” he mumbled. The door was enveloped in a blue psychic glow, and he was surprised to see a Meowstic enter instead of Tina. “Hey Robin, how’d we find you?” The Meowstic smirked. “It was more like I found you. The guards made quite the spectacle out of the arrests, especially when they chewed out Aphex. Apparently they don’t need his help, and they should lock him up for obstructing justice. I heard about what happened there, and in my opinion if Aphex hadn’t done what he did, those ponies would be long gone to wherever they were being sent.” Gallavant sighed, “I suppose they don’t like things that are strange and new. What about your experience? You met anyone good?” The Meowstic nodded happily. “I already have a job! I appeared out front of a music school, and I heard the terrible… sounds those amateurs were making. I just had to go in and correct them.” Gallavant laughed, before grimacing and putting a hand to his side. “Augh… still hurts sorta. So, lemme guess, your instruction involved an instrument being forcibly taken?” She giggled slightly. “Oh, you know me too well! Yes, I charged in there and yanked a violin away from their instructor, and showed them how to properly play… whatever piece they were doing. It’s new music to me, but luckily it’s based on the same principles.” “I would have expected you to be more passionate about someone messing up on the sax.” “Hush you. Just because my specialty is jazz doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate other forms.” “True, true. So what time is it now?” “FIve o-clock. I find it odd how they even have the same time system here as we do, I’m not complaining, but it is very odd. You’ve been out cold for the past three hours. Tina sent me in to wake you up and let you know dinner is almost done.” “DINNERS DONE!” Came a shout from down the hall. “I suppose I have performed my duty well. Come along o’ fearless leader.”