//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen: 50% Off Grudges, Today only! // Story: PonySide // by Puzzle Piece //------------------------------// Mat and Pinkie raced through the streets of Ponyville. The human followed blindly, at some points suspecting they’d run in a circle. Pinkie bounded along easily, making sure not to outrun her follower. Mat was winded already and continued to tire as they pressed on. A shout caught up with them from far behind them. Mat looked back to see the TR Engineer, who had just picked up his trail and was hot in pursuit again. The distance separating them started to close and Mat picked up the pace. “Are we ever going to get to this hiding place?” he asked the pony desperately. “Sure. It’s right there,” she said pointing to a building seemingly constructed of pastries and candy. “Why?” “Because I might have already been found,” Mat huffed along behind her. Pinkie looked back and noticed the Engineer. “Is that the seeker? Did he peek or something?” “Yeah, he peeked!” “That’s no fair.” Pinkie mused something over before another idea sparked. “Well, as long as we’re ignoring rules, I’ve got another idea! Just get inside and leave the rest to me!” Mat didn’t need telling twice. He flew through the open doorway and landed in the middle of a small eatery. The glass counter display was filled with pastries and cakes of all sizes and colors. Other displays around the large room expanded the selection. Tables and chairs were scattered about the main floor space. There were no ponies in sight. Mat took it in and ignored his stomach’s rumble while he cast about for a way to survive the inevitable confrontation. Pinkie entered behind him and dashed around the building, shutting doors and windows tightly and putting out the lights. Mat risked a glance out the window and saw the TR soldier slowing to a cautious walk as he approached the building. He held his carbine at the ready as he scanned for movement. Mat ducked back from the window. He started toward the back room to find another door and make a break for it when Pinkie came back to him and practically threw him into one of the corners. “Stay down over there. I’ll handle everything.” Mat decided, from where he was now lying on his face with his feet hanging comically over his head, that he was tired of running anyway. He righted himself and instead started tipping tables over to form a crude barricade. He hunkered down behind the admittedly thin layers of wood and watched Pinkie approach the door. “Don’t let him in!” he hissed at her. She stopped and glanced back at him. “Of course not, silly.” Instead, she moved a huge stack of muffins into reach of the door. She stepped back to critique the angle and nodded in satisfaction. “Perfect!” she exclaimed and trotted back into a back room without another word. Mat didn’t know what to make of it all so he sat back grudgingly and trained his Mercenary on the doorframe. Silent minutes ticked by as he waited for the Engineer to make his move. He heard a tapping sound at a window on the second floor and then a minute later, a scratching at the back door he hadn’t had a chance to find. Mat held his breath in between these faint hints at his enemy’s movement. Then, there was a knock at the door. Not a hard knock, but a firm one. Pinkie strolled back into the common room leisurely. “Just a moment!” she called. She took her time, straightening various displays as she made her way to the door. Then, upon reaching the door itself, she paused with her hoof on the handle. “Who’s there?” she asked. “This is Major Finnegan Gadrik of the Terran Republic,” the voice announced. Muffled as it was, coming from the other side of the closed door, it still carried the weight of self-assured authority. “The tearing what now?” Pinkie replied with genuine confusion. “I don’t have time to explain everything,” the voice said with dismissive impatience. “There is a dangerous fugitive inside this building and I need to take him into custody. Now open this door immediately or I will be forced to open it myself.” Oh no, Mat groaned inwardly. He was dealing with a veteran soldier. Probably a hard-ass officer with no brain and a permit to execute subordinates. Then his mind caught up with another detail. Major Finnegan Gadrik. If this guy was a Major, he could have an entire platoon of idiots running around town. Mat saw his chances walking away, flipping him off and burning the return ticket. But he kept thinking it through and realized something else. This was the same Engineer he’d been running into the entire time. If he’d had anyone with him, he’d have seen those grunts instead of the officer himself. Heaven forbid the Major have to get blood on his boots when a dozen subordinates will do it for him. And come to think of it, that MAX wasn’t with him now either. I’ll bet the bitch is squirming without anyone to order around. But something tugged at the back of his mind about that detail. As he listened to Pinkie talk to the Major, he realized that Trevor had said he had a plan to handle the MAX and that he’d meet him back at the farm when he’d taken out all of the TR. Could he have been driven off after getting the MAX? Or…worse? Mat realized what had likely happened and he kicked himself for agreeing to split up. It was his fault if Trevor had been jumped. He felt his anger building as the sound of the TR officer’s voice droned on. ~*~*~ As Twilight held Katie and attempted to give some measure of comfort to the stricken Medic, a series of sporadic shots were heard from somewhere outside. Katie flinched at the sound. Twilight tried to hold Katie tighter but Katie brushed her away suddenly and rose to her feet. Her gaze was hard as iron as she turned toward the door. “Where are you going?” Twilight asked. “To end this, one way or another,” she replied in a tone like ice. She picked up her Pulsar and changed out the battery. “I’m sick of all of this. More sick of it than I’ve ever been before. I’m going to go out there and, Vanu willing, put a stop to this. You’re going to stay here and fabricate some way to get us out of your town and back into our world of war, where we can go back to feeling normal about all this killing and dying.” Twilight watched Katie with an expression that bordered on horror as the Medic spoke those words with a dispassion that rang with unsettling dissonance against her usually cheery and inquisitive nature. Katie stripped Nathan’s body of his equipment and weapons, clipping them securely onto her belt. She moved him around and turned him over with all of the emotional expression of someone emptying an old, ragged backpack. When she had everything she cared to take, she checked all of her equipment a final time and started toward the door. “Katie. Please, don’t go out there.” Twilight made the desperate plea with a voice barely above a whisper, taking a half step forward as if thinking to stop the soldier but reconsidering. Katie stopped, brought up short by the raw need in Twilight’s words. She turned around and looked into the other’s eyes, measuring what she found there. “Why?” The word hung in the air like an axe blade, the single deciding factor that spelled the difference between doom and salvation. Though whose doom it meant was known only to fate. Twilight felt strangled as the weight of this terrible moment pressed down on her. In the end, she lowered her head in sorrow. “I thought you could overcome this cyclical violence,” she murmured. “I thought you were different.” “I am different, Twilight.” Katie spoke without expression. “And it is that difference that has become my greatest weakness here. I allowed myself to put emotions before my mission. I’ve been hurt…in ways I never want to be hurt again. And I know how to protect myself now. By putting my emotions aside and giving myself over to Vanu; heart, mind and body.” Twilight drew back. “No! That isn’t the way! Withdrawing from everyone, never making connections with anyone, that isn’t going to help you overcome this pain. We all need someone to lean on, to talk to, and to trust…” “Enough!” Katie said sharply but without shouting. “I’ve done far too much trusting in that which did not deserve it. I will now put my faith in the one place it cannot be betrayed. And I will follow that path to its end, whatever that may be. Goodbye Twilight. I wish we could part on better terms.” Katie didn’t wait for Twilight’s response as she shouldered her weapons and walked out the door. She listened for the direction of the gunfire but it had fallen silent. She picked a direction and started off at a hurried pace. ~*~*~ “Well, you’re going to have to take the time to explain if you want to get anywhere here,” the pony inside the shop said. “See, we’re closed for the day and I don’t open up shop for just anything.” Gadrik grit his teeth. It was taking all of his self control to keep from shouting back a retort. He briefly considered kicking the door down anyway. But if he ever hoped to convince Twilight to help him, he would have to show that he wasn’t a rampaging menace. Already, he’d been careful during this chase. He’d taken his shots sparingly, only firing when he was sure he would hit. But in doing so, he hadn’t been able to put out enough damage to the Light Assault to bring him down. And with this pony willfully helping the NC to escape and hide, he was losing patience. “Could you at least open the door so that we can discuss this without shouting through an inch of wood?” There was a pause in which he heard the pony whisper something about not wanting to be rude. Then the door opened a crack. “The answer is still no, we’re not open.” “Listen,” Gadrik said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “ I don’t want trouble but I have to capture this soldier. It’s imperative that I not let him get away again.” “No can do,” the pony replied. “Besides, I don’t think there are any soldiers in here to find. What there is to find here is a complimentary muffin and a welcome to come back when we reopen to purchase the full gift basket set at fifty percent off.” She pulled a muffin out from behind her and shoved it into the Major’s hands, making him fumble with his carbine momentarily. He stared at it in bewilderment and then tossed it aside. “I’m not interested in baked goods. I need to catch my opponent. I saw him going in here. Now let me in.” “How do you know it was the same human you’re looking for?” she replied. “It could have been any human you saw run in here.” “How many humans have you seen in town?” Gadrik asked, trying not to sound as impatient as he was. “Not many, I’d wager. That narrows it down, I think.” “Maybe,” the pony said. “But we’re still closed. You’ll have to come back when we open up again.” “And when would that be?” Gadrik asked, only barely able to continue to humor this pony on the slim possibility that playing her game would eventually lead to his entry into the building. “Uh,” the pony said, reaching inside to pull a sign down from the window. Gadrik thought he saw business hours listed on the sign as it slipped out of view but couldn’t make them out. “Maybe in a few hours?” the pony said hopefully. “No. I will not wait that long,” Gadrik said, taking a defiant stance. “You wouldn’t even understand what I’ve been through to get this close to catching him and I’ll not be turned away by these games of yours. Open the door and step aside. Now!” The pony opened her mouth to reply but turned to look at something inside that suddenly grabbed her attention. Her ears flattened back and she glanced at Gadrik once before diving out of the doorway. A voice reached out to him from the dark entry. “If you insist, then by all means, come on in!” Gadrik, surprised by this sudden development, barely had time to realize what he was seeing before he was forced to dodge a hail of bullets. “Come back! You wanted to get in so bad a second ago!” the NC trooper taunted from behind the overturned furniture. Gadrik swung up his carbine and steeled himself for the fight. He wasn’t given much time. Bullets cut through the walls of the building, throwing splintered wood into the air and making Gadrik jump away as his shields were impacted. He ran several paced before spinning and sending a spray of bullets back into the building both through the door and the walls. The NC trooper stopped shooting briefly but returned fire when Gadrik paused to listen. The Major threw himself flat on the ground as bullets streaked over him. Judging by the sporadic spread of the other’s shots, he couldn’t see the Major. Seizing on the other’s apparent willingness to stand and fight, Gadrik fired a short burst that succeeded in sending the other back behind his cover. He then sprang to his feet and dropped his MANA turret module into the dirt in front of him. The nanties spread rapidly upward into the mounted and shielded machinegun. Gadrik jumped on and gripped the trigger. He set his sights on the holes in the wall and started to shred what was left of them. The hiss and crack of the bullets drowned out all other sound around him as bits of the wall were stripped away. He saw a silhouette diving out of the way and he tracked after it, ripping apart furniture inside the building. A warning blinked on his HUD and he eased off the trigger. The turret creaked as heat dissipated from the overworked barrel. Gadrik scanned the dark interior for movement. He saw nothing. But he did hear something. It took him a while to make out the faint sound. When he did, he realized it was whimpering. “Stop! Please, please stop!” The voice of the pink pony repeated those words over and over from somewhere out of sight. It was a pathetic sound, made even more unbearable to the Major by the knowledge that he was to blame. As guilty pangs worked their way through him, he considered retreating. But a shadow crossed over him and he looked up. He found the barrel of the NC Light Assault and a cruel sneer pointed down at him. He fully expected to die then. But as the bullets rained down at him, something slammed into him hard from behind. He was carried out of the path of the enemy’s attack and behind a nearby building. He was deposited on the ground roughly once he was out of the line of fire. Gadrik groaned as he rolled over. He found a blue Pegasus standing beside him with a cocky grin. “Don’t you worry Major,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ve got your back.”