//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Bridge over River Rijn // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 7 It was late by the time Rarity had stumbled into the suite, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had already gone off to sleep, as had Pinkie Pie, leaving Vinyl Scratch, Surprise, and Fusilier Willoughby up, watching WBC. They had ended up watching about a programme about a pony, who was actually an alien, who travelled around time and space in a blue box that was bigger on the inside than the outside, with his granddaughter, who was also an alien, along with her science and history teachers. As silly as it sounded, it was actually a rather good show, though they had not caught the name of it. Vinyl Scratch turned her head when the door opened and grinned at Rarity. ‘Have fun?’ ‘Yes, very much so... though I’m sure not as much as Fluttershy’, Rarity said, smiling at nopony in particular. Vinyl Scratch began to put the pieces together. ‘She’s getting laid! Isn’t she?!’ Vinyl exclaimed, probably louder than necessary. Rarity refused point blankly either way. ‘Well, now that Rarity’s back I think it’s time to hit the hay’, Vinyl said simply, rising to her hooves and trotting off. ‘Yep! Same goes for me’, Willoughby said, hopping off to his room. ‘Surprise?’ Vinyl asked as she was about to enter her room. Surprise turned and looked blankly at Vinyl for a few seconds before giving an answer. ‘I don’t sleep, ever’. ‘I think that says a lot about you, Surprise, well goodnight then!’ Vinyl said with a grin and shut the door behind her. Rarity too, trotted off to bed, leaving Surprise alone. Now it was time. Surprise rose to her hooves and turned the television off, she trotted into the room that would be hers and plucked a pillow off of the bed, she began to flap her wings, floating silently as she snuck back out into the main room of the suite. She quietly crossed the room and gently pushed Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash’s door open. Twilight was apparently taking a bath before she went to bed, because Surprise heard the water running from the bathroom, while Rainbow Dash was alone in the bed, fast asleep. Now was the perfect opportunity for her. Surprise would never get another chance like this. Pinkie Pie would be happy, and Surprise would deliver happiness to her on the silver platter of a grieving mare. Surprise hovered over Rainbow Dash, sleeping soundly and slowly lowered the pillow down towards her face. Surprise blinked, but to her shock, discovered that it was not actually Rainbow Dash who was sleeping in the bed, rather it was a bright pink Pegasus pony with an electric blue mane. ‘F... Firefly?’ Surprise mouthed silently. What was she doing!? Surprise was about to murder her bestest best friend! What troubled Surprise the most was the why, she had come into this room to kill, and she didn’t know why; Surprise nearly dropped the pillow onto Firefly’s face in shock. Surprise was panicking, she needed to get out of here, and she needed out now. Surprise flew out the door fast, slamming it behind her, waking Rainbow Dash up in the process. Surprise dropped the pillow in the main room, threw one of the windows open and promptly leapt out it. Her wings spread wide and she glided out into the night sky of Trotterdam, she flew for a couple of kilometres before settling down into a dark alleyway. ‘Surprise?’ a voice asked from behind her. Surprise slowly turned to see that Firefly was standing behind her. ‘What are you doing, Surprise?’ Firefly asked. ‘I... I...’ Surprise stammered, however, she was not able to get another answer out, as Firefly had leapt on her and tackled her to the ground. ‘Why did you kill me Surprise?’ Firefly asked, her head hovering a few millimetres away from her face. Surprise did not get a chance to answer. ‘You killed me Surprise. Now I am going to kill you’. To Surprise’s horror, Firefly’s face began to reform, she was no longer looking at a pony; she was looking at a dæmon. Its eyes began to fall out; its face grew wide and its mouth long, exposing rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. The dæmon roared loudly, and Surprise made her best attempt to pull the chain knife out of its hiding spot in her mane. The dæmon was too fast; it quickly batted the knife away from her and began to sink its teeth into her. Surprise let out a scream. ... A group of schäferhund, each of them about equal in status with each other, as they were all wearing submachine guns at their side strolled down the street. The group was on leave from their posting in the Bundesrepublik federal army, taking a well deserved holiday in Trotterdam. ‘Hans, sie haben keine ahnung, wo wir noch gehen?’ One of the schäferhund asked who believed them to be lost. Hans, the leader looked back in annoyance. Hans did know where he was going and what he was doing, sure, he was distracted, but it wasn’t every day when a pony showed up a schäferhund in gun usage. Hans had not been able to stop thinking about that unicorn with the fondness for magnum revolvers. Had she been a schäferhund, Hans would have likely asked her to marry him on the spot. Hell, he still should have! What did it matter that she was a pony, she knew what she was talking about. Hans’ ear began to twitch. ‘Stopp!’ he called out and began to listen. He heard screaming. Hans took off, his section took off after him, and Hans rounded the corner to discover a pony lying on the ground, screaming her head off. There was no one else around; Hans had no idea what she could be so frightened of. ... Fluttershy yawned as she woke up to sunlight filtering in through the windows, she quickly discovered that she couldn’t move, as Katrijn had wrapped her legs around her and was holding her closely. Of course, Fluttershy had not minded one bit. She liked it a lot. Katrijn began to stir, she lifted her head up and placed it on Fluttershy’s shoulder; she leaned over and kissed Fluttershy gently on the cheek. ‘Good morning lover’, Katrijn said playfully. ‘Good morning’, Fluttershy said, rolling over and giving Katrijn a quick kiss. ‘Oh I wish I did not have to kick you out’, Katrijn said with a small frown. ‘I have to work’. ‘Oh, that’s okay! I understand. I need to go find my friends anyway. I hope they aren’t too worried about me’, Fluttershy said. Katrijn said nothing, and the two of them continued to cuddle with each other until the last possible minute that they could, then Katrijn had to get up and get ready to go to work. Fluttershy gave her the hotel information for where she was staying; Katrijn looked at it in shock, saying that she had figured that Fluttershy was well to do, but not this well to do. Fluttershy looked at her in confusion, and Katrijn told her that she was staying at the Hotel Pulitzer, the finest hotel in not just the city, but likely the entire Low Countries. Fluttershy had looked genuinely surprised at the revelation, and explained what had brought them to Trotterdam, (being as brief as possible, Katrijn needed to get to work, after all.) telling her about how Princess Luna had made all the arrangements for them, Katrijn was amazed that Fluttershy was friends with royalty, but then promptly warned her not to repeat it to anyone else. ‘I believe you speak the truth, many others won’t because it sounds absurd to them, others will believe you and try to do things to you because of it’, Katrijn said. Fluttershy took the advice to heart as both of them walked out of Katrijn’s home. Katrijn kissed her goodbyes, following up with a light smack on Fluttershy’s arse, turning the Pegasus mare’s face beet red. Both mares clearly wanted nothing more than to go back inside and spend the rest of the day making love to each other, though sadly, it could not happen. They parted ways, and Fluttershy made her way to the hotel. Upon arriving, the concierge directed her to the suite that her friends were in. Fluttershy made her way up to the top floor and opened the door gingerly, to discover that everyone was in the main room talking near an open window. Vinyl Scratch turned around and looked at her. ‘Surprise!?’ she asked frantically. ‘N... no, it’s just me’, Fluttershy said as she shut the door behind her. ‘Is everything okay?’ ‘No!’ Vinyl said frantically, as she poked her head out the window and began to look around. She brought her head back in and looked back at Fluttershy. ‘When we all woke up this morning, Surprise was gone and this window was open’. Vinyl looked around the room at her friends, looking incredibly distressed at the idea that Surprise was gone. ‘We need to go find her!’