//------------------------------//
// XXVI - Monsters 
// Story: Mortal Coil 
// by Reeve 
//------------------------------//

	I don’t know how long I had been separated from Applejack and the others by the time I left the church. I could only hope Pinkie had reached them in time, explained the situation and that instead of worrying about me, they would be dealing with the slavers. I needed to get out of the city and go to aid them, that meant sneaking back through the streets and avoiding patrols of robed ponies. I probably could have killed them, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that after I ended Lock Pick’s life, with his death the red mist faded and my rage was replaced by doubt and regret.

It wouldn’t take me long to leave the city, all I had to do was pick a direction and keep walking until I reached the outskirts then simply walk around to where the apple cart had been left. It wouldn’t have taken long, but that was before I ducked into an old business district to avoid a patrol and found myself in front of a very familiar shop. What with everything that had happened regarding the Children of the Earth, I had completely forgotten the other reason Pinkie and I wanted to come to Pivot.

It was rather amazing that I should find myself outside the shop of one of my old business rivals, Suri Polomare. I had known Suri for a long time when I was working in fashion, it had been her who won the competition using her rainbow thread, I had only come second, but the next time we competed against one another our places were reversed. This led to a small rivalry between us which I sort of lost track of as my career took off and I lost interest in petty quibbles like the one we had. Naturally I lost track of her when I left for Equestria, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she too had got a place on one of the boats, she certainly had enough money to. 

As I looked at the shop, completely abandoned, striped clean, not even boarded up, I could tell she hadn’t been here for a long time. If she could have helped us find the robed ponies who wanted Arcana dead, she wasn’t here to do so. I got so distracted looking through the shop window at the dark showroom that I didn’t hear the sound of approaching hooves. My ears pricked up just in time for me to glance around and see two robed ponies turn the corner and stop dead as their eyes fell on me.

“Let’s not do anything rash here,” I said, giving a weary smile as I started backing up. 

Both ponies gave loud battle cries and drew their weapons, but I had already turned and bolted in the opposite direction. I heard them giving pursuit, so I made a few sharp turns in the hopes of shaking them off, these two seemed a little more competent than the enemies I was used to, refusing to let me out of their sights long enough to escape. I ended up becoming a little lost and even picked up another three guards in my haste to escape the first two. If I had stomached my apprehensions and killed the first two I would have been fine, but now there was too many to attempt to take on. 

I turned right and charged into an alley way, regretting it almost immediately as I found it led to nothing but a dead end. I tried to go back, but they had already followed me in and, seeing I had nowhere to run, began slowly approaching. I ran to the end of the alleyway, hoping for a back door to a building or a sewer entrance or something, I was completely out of luck however. I turned back to see the five ponies had formed a wall and were slowly encroaching on me, there was no way I was giving them the slip.

“There’s nowhere to run abomination!” called one of the ponies as they moved in.

It really felt hopeless for a second, when suddenly something dropped down onto the middle pony’s head, something wet and sticky which dribbled down the peak of the hood. The pony gave a disgusted yell and stopped moving, the others stopped too to see what the problem was. The pony reached up and wiped the liquid off his hood, he tried to flick it off his gauntlet but most of it stayed on and simply dribbled off. Another large drop of the liquid fell down onto another pony’s shoulder, it was only at that point that I and the five guards all turned our heads up to see what was hanging over the alleyway.

I was at a safe distance, but the five ponies were standing directly under the creature, it must have looked terrifying as they stared up into its gaping mouth, filled with long shimmering teeth dripping with strands of saliva. The first guard to scream was the first to be pounced on as the creature dropped down from where it had wedged itself between the two buildings. The creature fell with its mouth wide open, swallowing the pony almost whole before snapping its mouth shut and driving its teeth into his body. The guards quickly forgot about me and turned their weapons on the monster, but that only made it angrier.

The creature appeared to be a mass of green fluff with naught but a mouth, a great, gaping maw filled with multiple rows of teeth that made my sword look like a buttering knife. It made quick work of the ponies, their attacks seemed to do nothing but make it angrier, or hungrier. It quickly devoured the first pony and moved onto the next, driven by a ravenous appetite for anything that could fit in its mouth. I watched the display from the end of the alleyway in horror, the robed ponies were picked off one by one, and I knew once the creature was finished it would be my turn.

I saw the second last pony pull out a familiar object, it was a bomb, very similar to the one I used when taking on the Dreadnaught. This one had a fuse however, and the pony was still searching desperately for his matches when the creature attacked him. The bomb was dropped and it rolled down the alleyway towards me, I dived and scooped it up, searching in my own bag for matches before stomping the ground in frustration when I remembered giving them to Cogs. The creature was moving onto the final pony, I didn’t have much time left to either light the bomb or find a way out.

The creature was so large it filled the width of the alleyway on its own, when it took five ponies to do so previously, so getting past it wasn’t an option. I turned back to the bomb, I didn’t have matches, but I did have something those Children of the Earth ponies didn’t, magic. I held the bomb up to the tip of my horn, channelling all my magic into my horn but not releasing it so it would build up, as I did the heat of my horn also began to build up and the occasional spark was released. The creature finished off the last pony and turned its attention of, shuffling forward on obscured feet. 

“Come on, come on, come on!” I urged as the creature got closer.

Then I heard a small hissing noise as one of the errant sparks managed to ignite the fuse. I was thankful for how short it was when I chucked it forward, getting it right into the monsters wide mouth before it reached me. The bomb went off with a muffled explosion, sending out a shower of bodily fluids and clumps or fur. I had turned at the last second and sheltered myself with my forelegs, but I could still feel lumps of the stuff hit me on the back. Looking back I found that the creature had been reduced to pulp which now coated the walls and floor of the alleyway.

Taking some rapid breaths, I quickly calmed down, remembering that I still needed to escape the city and that explosion would no doubt draw in even more guards. I ran out of the alley and got myself to a safe distance before slowing down and making a much quieter exit from the city, once I was clear I used my compass to find out that I was roughly southeast of Pivot, which meant I didn’t have far to go before I reached the others. It was dark enough that I was able to sprint over the hills without fear of anypony in the city seeing me, and the grass muffled my hoofsteps. 

It turned out that I had even less distance to travel than I expected before I found the others, as when I reached the road leading to and from Pivot, I could see the light of torches further down and the sounds of metal clashing. I guessed Applejack and Pinkie must still be engaged with the slavers, so I hurried south, staying off the road so the sound of gravel crunching under my boots didn’t give me away. As I got closer to the flickering lights, the sound of fighting ceased and I wondered if it was over, but once I was close enough to make out figures, I saw that wasn’t the case.

Applejack and Pinkie both stood, facing me and Pivot, while three of the seven slavers stood in a line with their backs to me. As I crept closer I could make out the crouching shapes of the slaves who were cowering in fear, and the bodies of the other four slavers, but I also saw that two of the three remaining slavers were each holding one slave as a human shield, curved swords pressed up against their throats. The head zebra was shouting something in his native language, gesturing for Applejack and Pinkie to lower their weapons.

It was at that point that I was close enough for my friends to see me; they glanced at each other and gave a small nod, lowering their weapons to the ground very slowly. That was my moment to strike, drawing a knife and dashing forward before leaping into the air. The head zebra spun around but was helpless to stop me from landing on his shoulders and bringing him crashing to the ground, my dagger buried to the hilt in his throat. The other two stared at me, shocked at what had just happened, Applejack and Pinkie Pie took that as their opportunity to take them down.

Pinkie did her usual thing of appearing behind the slaver to my left in a second as soon as everypony had taken their eyes off her, sticking one of her daggers into his sword hoof and the other into his back. Applejack simply charged the last slaver head on, his grip on the slave was slackened so Applejack tossed her roughly to the ground  when she got close enough before swinging her claymore in a wide arc, taking the zebra's head clean off. When the head fell with a small thud onto road, we all sheathed our weapons and went about untying the prisoners. Any rope that we were able to untie rather than cut, we gathered up and I shoved it into one of my bags. 

“Rarity?” Pixie Dust said in a quiet voice when she saw who was undoing her binds.

“Yes, it’s me Pixie Dust,” I whispered back to her. “Don’t worry; I’m taking you both to see Grass Snake now.”

Once all the slaves were liberated, the three of us stepped off to one side to give them all a moment.

“Was he…” Pinkie began, noticing I wasn’t with Lock Pick.

“I… he asked me to make it quick,” I said, quietly so the two fillies wouldn’t hear. “I could never have got him out of there.”

“It’s okay Sugarcube,” Applejack told me, putting a foreleg around my shoulder. “You did what you knew was right, you always do.”

“Yeah…” I began before Applejack whipped her leg back in disgust, seeing what I was covered in.

“The heck is this?!” she exclaimed, her leg covered in matted clumps of green fluff.

“It’s a long story,” I replied. “Let’s just say those Children of the Earth got to see what a real abomination looked like. What happened here?”

“Well Pinkie came to me just like you said to,” Applejack explained. “Ah left the others over at the apple cart and we came down here to get the jump on them. They took their time mind you; they must have stopped to stock up on supplies or somethin’.”

Applejack gestured to a cart further down the road that I hadn’t noticed before, there were two small crates on it which we discovered contained various items of food. 

“Shall we take this with us?” Pinkie asked, rapping her hoof on the cart. 

“Might as well,” Applejack replied, nodding towards the bodies of the zebras. “They’re not gonna use it.”

Pinkie and I hooked ourselves up to the cart and Applejack helped Pixie Dust, Emerald and another young filly on board. She then quickly instructed the others that we were going to meet up with our friends, referring to Grass Snake and Caramel, then we would all head down to Sweet Apple Acres. Most of them were too traumatised by their horrific experience of being captured, tortured, mutilated and sold into slavery to even acknowledge what Applejack was saying; they did as they were told however. We set off to the west, following Applejack’s lead to where the apple cart had been hidden.

My first hint that we were getting close was the sound of somepony rushing through the grass, once they got close I saw that it was Grass Snake who stopped in front of Applejack. Applejack gestured back to Pinkie and I who were at the rear of the party, Grass Snake ran around the other ponies with us and soared through the air, landing on the cart.

“Grass Snake!” the two fillies cried out, rushing into her embrace.

“You’re okay…” Grass Snake began before she saw just how wrong she was. “Emerald, your horn?! Pixie… What did those monsters do to you?!”

“I’m sorry Grass Snake,” I said as we continued hauling the cart up the hill. “We arrived too late to do anything about it.”

“You girls saved them,” Grass Snake said firmly, even as her voice shook with anger. “You have nothing to be sorry for… Wait, what about Lock Pick? Your friend said you went after him.” 

“I…” I began, deciding quickly on the spot whether I should tell the truth or not. “I’m sorry; he was already gone when I caught up with him.”

“Oh…” Grass Snake said feebly still clutching onto the two fillies. “I… I just don’t believe this. How could this kind of thing happen? I thought the worst was behind us… But you tried your best, and you saved Pixie and Emerald, I can never thank you enough for everything you’ve done.”

We reached the apple cart where Caramel was waiting, once the other two fillies dismounted the cart, they rushed over to her and they all held each other and cried together. Grass Snake took this time to speak to the other filly, a pegasus whose carer had apparently died when they were taken. While Pinkie checked on the three girls, I walked with Applejack around the other mares to see if they were alright and if they were happy to come back to Sweet Apple Acres. None of them objected to that arrangement, some were very appreciative for the offer and rescue, one mare in particular threw her hooves around Applejack and sobbed uncontrollably, just saying thank you over and over again. 

With that decided, we all got a quick bite to eat from the two carts before Applejack hooked herself up to her own cart and led the way back along the path we had come that very morning. Grass Snake and the other mares walked behind Applejack while Pinkie and I took up the rear once more with the zebras’ cart, the four fillies were placed in one or the other, in the back of ours sat Emerald and the new filly, Scootaloo. We walked straight through the night, stopping only to rest around midday once we were sure we had travelled a safe enough distance from Pivot.

We didn’t make it back to Sweet Apple Acres until early evening the next day, by which time everypony was thoroughly exhausted from the trip and their ordeal. Applebloom came out to greet us, she was excited at first but skidded to a halt when she saw all the ponies with us, particularly how they were covered in dry blood. It was a hectic few hours while all the new ponies were taken up to spare rooms and had their wounds treated, a difficult task considering the Apple family only had the most basic understanding of first aid.

Braeburn set out that night, making for the town of Timber to the east. There he would warn them about what happened in Pivot, try to get word up to Glean and see about fetching a doctor to come out. Being the only unicorn still with a horn, I was left in charge of tending to the others who had theirs removed. A unicorn’s horn was mostly made from the same material our hooves were, with only a light dusting of fur to give it it’s colour, but the core of the horn was packed full of nerves and neurons, it was basically an extension of our brain.

When they were being removed, the victims wouldn’t have felt any pain at first, but when the saw got far enough in… It was a truly terrifying prospect for any unicorn, the kind of thing we had nightmares about. It was very possible for a unicorn to become brain dead from losing their horn, if the damage that led to its removal was severe enough to… tug on the rest of the brain beneath. These wounds however were fairly clean cut, and had been done slightly above the base of the horn, leaving a small stump. I dreaded to think how much practice that crowned pony had to get so efficient at removing horns at just the right place to stop the pony from ever using magic again, but still able to carry out other functions.

Without any real medical knowledge, I resorted to treating it like I would any other wound, clean and disinfect the area before bandaging it up. However we learned quite quickly that trying to disinfect the area when the poor mare’s brain was literally exposed only made things worse. When we came to the rest of the unicorns we skipped that step, praying that when the doctor arrived they would be able to sort something out for the victims. To make matters worse, one of the unicorn mares was heavily pregnant, due to give birth in a matter of weeks. Granny Smith checked her over, having some experience in the matter when it came to the birth of her grandchildren, she reported that the baby was still alive despite all the stress the mother had been through, but they would have to monitor her very carefully over the coming days.

The pegasus wings were left to Grass Snake, as she was in the same boat I was in, however they weren’t able to do much either before Grass Snake began insisting they needed surgery if they were going to make any improvement. Once all the victims had been treated to the best of our abilities and put to rest, the Apple family, Pinkie Pie and I gathered in the kitchen with a bottle of strong cider. Grass Snake took the spare room I usually slept in with her three fillies while Scootaloo stayed with Applebloom in her room. The pregnant mare took the second spare room while the other five were divided between Braeburn’s vacant room and Applejack’s, who opted to sleep on the sofas in the living room with Pinkie and myself.

“Well…” Caramel said after a long moment of silence in which we all just sat and drank. “That was stressful.”

“Eyup,” Big Mac agreed, downing his own drink in one gulp.

“It was awful,” I added, getting a round of nods.

“How long before Braeburn gets back with the doctor?” Pinkie asked.

“Braeburn’s fast,” Granny Smith assured her. “He’ll be back before you know it.”

“Ah hope so,” Applejack muttered. “Ah don’t know how long those girls will manage without some real treatment.”

“Eyup.”

I rested my head on the table, groaning in frustration at how bad everything had turned out. I didn’t raise my head again, even as the others discussed what was going to happen for the next few days. As I lay there I could feel myself drifting off, and when I came around again I had been moved onto one of the sofas, Applejack and Pinkie Pie already fast asleep elsewhere in the room. Needless to say the farm work would take a hit over the next couple of days; the Apples could only task one pony at a time to managing the usual work while the rest busied themselves looking after their guests.

It didn’t help that the very next day, two mares and Emerald were already developing fevers. I had just got a free minute in the afternoon after helping granny Smith tend to Autumn, the pregnant mare, which I spent walking around the farm with Pinkie Pie.

“A giant ball of fluff…” Pinkie repeated thoughtfully. “With teeth. Sounds like the kind of thing I’d do.”

“Excuse me?” I said, quirking my eyebrow at her.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “But still, now we have actual monsters, what’s the deal with that.”

“I have no idea,” I said honestly. “But before I encountered it, I found the shop of that mare I was telling you about.”

“Your fashion friend?” Pinkie asked. “The one who made those robes?”

“That’s the one,” I confirmed. “It was just luck that I came across it after… after Lock Pick… But it’s been abandoned for a while by the looks of it.”

“Forget that for a while,” Pinkie said, waving it away. “Are you still sad about what happened?”

“I had to kill a friend,” I reminded her with a deadpan look. “Of course I’m still sad; unlike you I don’t enjoy killing other ponies.”

“Hey now, no need to be mean,” Pinkie replied, looking hurt at the accusation. “I don’t like killing ponies, in fact I hate it. I wish nobody ever had to die… but then I also wish nobody ever did anything to hurt anybody else.”

“Sorry, I’m just…” I began, rubbing the sides of my head. “Yesterday, after seeing what those ponies did… I just lost it. I didn’t even realise until after I left Lock Pick what exactly I had done.”

“You’re not really feeling bad for them are you?!” Pinkie exclaimed. “The Children of the Earth, after what they did to the poor ponies in that town?”

“I don’t feel bad, I just…” I tried to argue. “Don’t think I’ll ever be cut out for doing what you do, killing ponies who deserve it.”

“You don’t have to do what I do,” Pinkie pointed out. “I do what I do, and the world doesn’t need two mes.”

I didn’t reply, just turned and kept walking through the orchard.

“Look, maybe you will have to ki… take more lives,” Pinkie continued, hurrying to catch up with me. “And you’ll probably always feel bad about it, but that’s a good thing! Being able to feel guilt and question your actions, always checking yourself to make sure that what you do is always for the greater good, that’s what makes you better than them… that’s what makes you a good pony!” 

“Do you really believe that?” I asked in a dull tone.

“I do!” Pinkie declared. “And I always stick to what a believe in. We might not have been friends for very long, but I know you’re a good pony inside, and you’re always trying to do the right thing.”

“Thank you Pinkie,” I said, smiling for the first time that day. “I’m very glad to have a friend like you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Pinkie replied. “Making ponies smile is what I live for. So, now that your frown has been turned upside down, what will you do next?”

“I really should stay here and help with looking after the others,” I began. “But I also need to get back to Mule, Maverick has to hear about what’s going on in Pivot, something needs to be done to help those ponies we left behind.”

“Well if that’s what you think, maybe you should do just that,” Pinkie suggested. “These ponies are in safe hooves now, Applejack and her family will look after them, and the doctor will be here soon.”

“I’ll bring it up with Applejack first,” I said after a moment’s thought. “If she agrees and thinks she can manage here without me, then I’ll go.”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck with that,” Pinkie said, patting me on the back. “I just know that once I get back everything will be sunshine and lollipops.”

“Get back?” I repeated. “You’re leaving?”

“Just for a wee bit,” Pinkie replied. “I’ll travel about, look around, ask a few questions. I’ll see if I can’t figure out more about those robed ponies, or that monster that attacked you, or your fashion friend who went missing… what was her name again?”

“Suri Polomare,” I informed her. “And for all we know she didn’t ‘go missing’, she might have just moved or something.”

“Exactly, ‘for all we know’,” Pinkie repeated. “We don’t know what happened, and we won’t know until one of us finds out, and since you have more important things to be doing, I’ll take care of it.”

“Well then you should keep hold of this,” I said, pulling out the scrap of embroidered robe. “You might need it if you do find her. Just hurry back, what with everything that’s going on in this mad country, I’d hate for anything to happen to you.”

“Don’t you worry about me,” Pinkie said, rubbing my head a little condescendingly. “I’m full of surprises; I’d just love to see somepony try to get the drop on me.”

With that see pulled up her jester hood, her bushy mane disappearing beneath it, before pulling her grinning mask out of nowhere.

“Tell Applejack I said goodbye,” Pinkie said as she slipped the mask on. “Oh yeah! And you… Goodbye Rarity!”

“Goodbye Pinkie Pie,” I replied in a choked voice as I was pulled into another bone crushing hug. “I’ll see you… whenever I see you.”

Pinkie released me and I doubled over, panting to get my breath back. When I looked up a few seconds later, she was nowhere in sight.