Judgement
'Wow Sin, you genuinely care about Scootaloo, don't you?'
Sin gently creeped along the bottom of the bluff towards the Judgement keeping his movements flowing and concise, aiding in his stealth along the dark cover of night. The crashed airship was farther away than he remembered, he'd left the room at midnight and it had to be damn near half past two in the morning by now.
Doesn't matter if I care about her or not, all that matters is keeping the Nightmare in check until I figure out what to do with her.
'Huh, funny how only a small part of you believes that.'
It wouldn't matter if he believed it fully or not at all, if he couldn't concentrate on his current goal. He was almost to the airship entrance now.
Voices echoed from ahead, making the Sin sigh in relief. They hadn't left yet.
"Still, I'm surprised it was that easy." One of the sentinels said, sounding a little bored.
Another guard grunted in agreement. "Private Pansy was trying to kill that red bastard since he came to Canterlot, guess it couldn't be helped that she'd be the one to finish him off in the end."
'Sounds like the message has been sent.'
And that's all Sin needed to confirm before double checking both his main load and quick load.
His mouth twitched into a smile as the thought of Puddingheads blood staining the bolts entered his mind. Sin wouldn't kill him right away, oh no, no, no... It was going to be a slow, painstaking process. The pony would understand that he'd fucked up, he'd understand just how big of a mistake crossing Sin had been, and unlike Commander Hurricane, there was nopony to save the earth stallion his due suffering.
"Ohhh, you're thoughts entice me, Sinbad. I knew there was a reason I had yet to leave your side." Nightmare Moon cooed in a sultry voice.
That broke Sin from his bloodlust and he shook his head to regain his senses, but maybe he should indulge them? He enjoyed it, they deserved to suffer, so what was holding him back, again?
'Your sanity?'
Oh yea, that.
The Federalist began his approach, walking with both authority and purpose. The guards saw him and immediately stood at the ready, demanding that he identify himself.
Sin blinked and called upon the Nightmare enhanced aura. In a matter of seconds, both ponies began to tremble, their will being stolen away from them like candy from a baby.
"W-w-what's going on?!" One asked, falling to his knees and then to his side before curling into a pathetic ball of emotional trauma. Two ponies were no where near as bad as a pack of timberwolves, but the division in his attention was definitely noticeable.
Sin lept forward, knocking both ponies in the head and rendering them unconscious. Once he was sure they were both out, he released the summon and began nursing the minor headache. It wasn't as intense as his last one, but if these were going to be a constant theme, he'd need to start saving the Nightmare's power for emergencies only.
"What? Did you think you were just going to have the power to render anypony you came across utterly helpless with a single stare and pay no toll or consequence?"
Wouldn't that be nice? Tapio forbid anything be too easy for him.
Bearings regained, his two enemies gagged and bound, the Federalist made way through the airship proper. He was a little fuzzy on the details as he'd entered a portion where the hull had been smashed in where it met with the air bag, but if memory served, than he'd need to take the left at the engine room and go up the stairs to reach the bridge. Something told him that Puddinghead would be there, and he wouldn't be alone.
'Maybe it would have been a better idea to have the Nightmare convince... her name was Panzy, was it? Yea, you should have made her think you were dead too.'
Hindsight was a bitch, but nothing could be done about that now. Now, there were quite a few decisions to make...
A door opened and closed ahead, making Sin halt in his place. "I don't see why we have to go relieve Good and Crasher. They've only been on duty for the past hour."
Starting with the decision on how to handle the approaching two ponies who'd undoubtedly notice the lack of guards at their post.
'Shit. Quick, up top! into the air bag!'
Sin wasn't sure if he could do it without making too much noise, but a good idea was a good idea, if he could catch the two by surprise, he wouldn't need to call upon anymore headache inducing magic.
Sin leaped up and grabbed hold of a protruding structure bar outline and pulled himself up into the air bag, waiting for the patrol to pass. Asside from some creaking and a little grunt of effort, no noise was made. No where near enough that it wasn't drowned out by the patrol's talking and echoing hoofsteps.
"I don't know, something about the pony Panzy fought. If you ask me, I think he's being paranoid."
"Yea, no kidding. Hey, we're heading to Dodge City next, right? That little town with cherry trees?"
"Yea, we've got a hide out there in the old abandon coal mines, luckily the cherries are good eats, otherwise the town would have- ah!"
Sin jumped down, slamming his fore-hooves on both ponies necks at the bases of their skulls. One of them had made a bit more noise than he wanted and listened for any of the other Trotski to come and investigate, luckily none had.
"Why aren't you just killing them?" The Nightmare asked as Sin pulled their unconscious bodies into a vacant room.
The main reason was that he wanted to kill them, badly. Sin knew it wasn't right to want them dead the way he did, it was bloodlust killing that tempted him, the Nightmare's influence. If he was right, than whenever he'd give into her, she'd slowly gain more power over him again; and with his commitment to killing Puddinghead, the less he had to indulge her sickness, the better.
Now he had another decision to make, did he continue with his plan or wait out Puddinghead to run?
The bastards were expecting him, he had a quasi element of surprise for them not knowing he was here yet, but the fact was that they knew he would be. Sin contemplated this for a moment and debate on if the decision to go forward was a sound one or not. He could easily wait until tomorrow and snipe the earth pony off while he was leaving the ship. Even at a good distance, Sin's skill with a crossbow could ensure his enemies death.
Or it would, if he hadn't already knocked out four of their numbers, who'd likely be missed and alert the Trotski to his presence, thus causing Puddinghead to be much more cautious when he left. Using tactics that would make Sin getting to the pony an impossibility if he had too many competent scout guards protecting him at once.
It was an undesirable set of circumstances, but Sin ultimately decided to proceed. The Trotski were few in number already, and he'd gotten the upper hoof by taking out four of their already diminished members. Now was a prime time to finish his enemy once and for all.
Scootaloo awoke with a powerful yawn, ending in a slight squeak.
She looked around for a moment to see if Islander was in the room with her, to her surprise he wasn't. The only other animal present was Angel, who slept peacefully besides her.
Slipping out of bed as quietly as she could, Scootaloo stretched out her back and began looking for a note of some kind, or other explanation as to her companion's disappearance. He'd said something last night to her, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember exactly what it was.
Shrugging, the filly walked out of the room and made way for the hotel lobby, they promised a complimentary breakfast for all who stayed with them, and she was going to make good use of it.
She made way down the well lit hallway and turned the corner to a small dining area just outside the lobby. The dining area was empty, save for a pair of unicorn stallions who were busy chatting to themselves. On the wall was a spread of breakfast foods enough to make the foal practically squeal with delight. It had everything! Bananas, pineapples, hashbrowns, eggs, milk, juice and even some cereals!
Loading herself up with plenty to share with Angel, Scootaloo placed the trey on her back and happily made her way back to the room, taking no notice of the two pairs of eyes watching her as she went.
"Angel, wake up. It's time to eat!"
The rabbit woke with a yawn and clicked his tongue a couple of times, his grogginess disappeared as soon as his eyes landed on the food and he dashed forward, ripping an apple free and chowing down as if it would walk up and get away at any moment.
Scootaloo took a bite of cereal, and suddenly a lot of things hit her all at once.
Aside from the rabbit, she was completely alone... No Macintosh or Annabelle to ask her how she slept, no Granny Smith to give a funny early morning quip, no Applebloom to accompany and do choorse with, no Applejack to give her sound advice... The filly was all by herself. In a stuffy hotel room, in an unfamiliar city, accompanying a stallion she barely knew, on the run from the law, and eating food that had no love made into it.
Slowly, Scootaloo placed down her spoon as the revelations began to sink in.
Part of her denied everything that happened, it all seemed so sureal to her. The filly had hoped, even prayed in her most desperate mind, that everything that had happened to her was a bad nightmare that would soon come to an end. That one day, she'd wake up back on the Apple family farm by either Macintosh or Annabelle to tell her that she needed to go get ready for the wedding that hadn't happened. That she'd wake up and go back to school, be around her friends and go on adventures, doing stupid, dangerous or silly stuff to try to get their cutie marks.
But she was slowly coming to terms with the fact that this wasn't the case... that the way she'd woken up the past few days were going to be how life was for her for a very long time.
There would be no more Apple family... no promises of sisterhood socials with Rainbow Dash, no more visiting Sweetie Belle and Rarity at Carasol Botique, no more Pinkie Pie parties, no more friendship lessons with Twilight Sparkle, or animals with Fluttershy, no more Mr. and Mrs. Cake, or Cheerilee, or Carrot Top or Derpy, or Dinkey, or Silver Spoon or Diamond Tiara...
Before she realized it, the hot stinging pang of tears burned her eyes and began falling down her cheeks. She'd lost so much, her home, her friends, her family... all of it was gone now. It was gone and there was nothing she could do to get it back.
She gripped the bowl in her fetlock. "It's not fair..." She sniffled. "It's not fair, why did..." She paused again and wiped her eyes.
There was no use in crying, crying never helped anything... It didn't bring her parents back from Griffinstone, it didn't put food in her stomach, it didn't make the Landlord not take her house, and it didn't stop that pink pegasus horseapple head from taking her away... Crying didn't help anything.
She felt something prod her side and found Angel looking up at her, offering the foal his half eaten apple.
It was such a mediocre gesture, a half eaten apple, but even through her tearful laughing, Scootaloo could feel the generosity and good will the rabbit offered. She picked him and and squeezed him to her chest. "Looks like it's just you and me now, Angel."
The rabbit pushed away and looked into the filly's eye with a serious and somber expression before shaking his head and pointing to Islander's dark brown saddle bags that sat against the wall.
"You really think he'll let us stay with him?" Scootaloo asked, surprised by the bunny's gesture.
Angle smiled and nodded vigorously, reaching up a paw and wiping Scootaloo's tear ridden face. Islander had been so mean to Angel, he'd tossed him for no reason, laughed as the rabbit threatened to explode, kicked him, and treated him about as well as... well... as Angel treated Fluttershy. Though, despite all of that, the bunny was still willing to urge her to trust him.
Scootaloo wasn't sure about that, but she looked at her own saddle bag, as well as all the contents there in. It wasn't the most expensive assortment of things, but it certainly wasn't cheap either. Everything she had now was thanks to Islander, he'd done a lot for her... maybe he was a little standoffish and callous, but he did make sure she was taken care of.
"Maybe you're right." She petted Angel's ears and nuzzled the top of his head in a show of affection.
A couple of knocks broke the filly of the moment.
"House keeping." Said a high pitched voice from the other side.
Scootaloo placed Angel down and made way for the door, though for some reason, the white ball of fluff jumped infront of her, holding his paws out to his sides to halt her advance.
"Angel, what are you doing?"
Knock, knock, knock. "House keeping?"
Scootaloo tried to push passed him, but the rabbit jumped in her way, continuously motioning for her to stay away from the door. "Angel, what-" he jumped in her way again. "-they're just doin-" and again, "-just let me tell them they can't come in!"
She jumped over the unusually deniable rabbit and opened the door. "We don't need any hous- MmmmM!"
Her cry of surprise muffled by a hoof over her mouth, Scootaloo began to thrash about in an attempt to push off her attacker. A sudden and painful hit to her cranium made the filly see stars for a moment before unconsciousness took her once again.