What Must be Done Chapter 5
By Foxgear
When Big Mac and Adagio rode up to the shack they weren’t expecting the lights to be off and the truck gone, both of them knew Aria and Sonata should have been home by now. It was nearly one in the morning for Pete’s sake!
Rationally though Mac reasoned they must have gone up to the house for some hot showers and had probably fell asleep watching TV, a normal habit of theirs.
However things were not normal at the house. For one, not only was the truck there, but so was Applejack’s truck and Sunset Shimmer’s bike and not only that but the front window was broken in and there were no lights on in the house. This worried them.
Carefully Mac approached the porch, gun in hand, Adagio huddled against the wall as he slowly opened the front door and turned on the lights. Broken glass littered the floor, the entire place smelling like gun smoke and blood. Speaking of blood there was a lot of it, a huge puddle just by the door, and it was nearly dry. Meaning whatever happened here, happened nearly an hour ago.
Mac’s grip tightened on the gun as he caught sight of Great Grandpa Apple’s elephant gun lying on the floor with a few blonde hairs stuck to the buttstock. Aj had fired the gun, he had little doubt about it as his anger surged.
“AJ! AJ are you here!” He yelled running throughout the house throwing open every door to see if anyone was hiding inside. He heard Adagio go upstairs, opening and closing every door. He appreciated her help, even if he knew logically their search would be fruitless.
“Mac!” Adagio called for him, her tone wary, “I need your help up here!”
He bound up the stairs in three massive leaps and ran for the end of the hall and came to a stop at AJ’s old room. Inside kneeling in front of the closet was Adagio with Applebloom clinging to her shirt in a sobbing mess. The siren gave him a “help me” look as his youngest sister soaked her shirt with her tears.
“There, there everything ok now, please doesn’t get snot on my shirt.” Adagio awkwardly patted the crying girl’s back as she tried to remove Applebloom from her bosom, but to no avail.
Kneeling down next to them Mac cooed, whispering a soft lullaby that he used to sing when Applebloom was growing up. Gradually she removed herself from Adagio and snuggled herself into his arms. Eventually she cried herself to sleep.
“Come on, let’s go back downstairs,” He suggested carrying Applebloom down to his parents old room on the first floor. The room was exactly has it had been left since his parents death. All the pictures were exactly where they’ve been and so were all of their clothes and possessions, even the sheets haven’t been touched till today. He could have just as easily left Applebloom in his room or AJ’s, but he had the strangest urge to put her in here. Maybe it was because Applebloom was the only one who didn’t remember their parents. She had been young when mom and dad died, not exactly a toddler, she had just started elementary school, maybe even first grade if he remembered right. She hardly ever talked or asked about them. Maybe it was just her way with coping with the loss he reasoned as he finished tucking her in.
Mac stayed there for a moment looking over his little sister’s sleeping face, which was still stained with tears. Gently he wiped her face clean with his handkerchief and carefully backed away from the bed, not wanting to disturb her sleep. However as he approached the door he couldn’t help but stop and stare at the family photo on his parents dresser. As if in a trance he walked over and picked it up.
The photo was of the day mom and dad brought Applebloom home from the hospital. Mom sat on the porch swing with Applebloom in her arms, Applejack looking almost like a mini version of their mother sat next to her, her eyes wide with wonder at the new baby. To his mother’s right sat him and his father. Mac chuckled embarrassed by how shy he looked in the picture as he sat in his dad’s lap. His father was smiling, looking as happy as man could be, his silver hair cut short and his blue eyes gleaming with happiness. Hard to believe he was a pony warrior from another world.
Mac rubbed his finger across the faces of his parents. Wondering what they would do if they were the ones here and not him. Mom, while probably not understanding what was going on would help dad and dad… while Mac wasn’t sure what he would do. From what the sirens and dad’s old tapes said, his father walked from one battle to the next like an old marshal trying to tame the west. Never resting and never giving up.
Setting the picture down Mac exited the room, his thoughts racing, he wasn’t his father, and he had to remember that. He wasn’t any better or worse at monster hunting just less experienced. He and the Dazzlings have faced many foes, each other tougher than the last; they would just have to rise to the challenge. First they needed to go over what they had.
“Find anything Adagio?”
The dazzling was in the middle of cleaning up the mess or more likely looking for clues and hints to their enemy. “The floor is wet and so is the grass, but it hasn’t rained tonight, so were dealing with some kind of water user, but this could have easily been done by Sonata and Aria. The temperature is cooler here then when we were driving home, meaning they were attacked by something with weather based abilities. I’m guessing something involving ice.”
Mac didn’t argue with her deductions, she’s been pretty accurate in their past missions, so there was no reason to doubt her now. The question now was who attacked them? This was too well organized to be a random monster attack, leaving the chances pretty high that Maddie Hoof was behind the attack, but the questions was why go after Aj and her friends… actually now that he thought about it why not go after six magically gifted girls who have allowed themselves to be videotaped with wings and ear several times.
“What are the chances Maddie is behind this?” Mac asked, knowing Adagio would be thinking the same thing. Their investigation on Maddie today hadn’t turned up much, despite following her all day. Their suspected enemy was busy teaching her classes and going to cafés after work with her fellow professors at no point had they lost her. Hell they even ended up watching her undress through her condo window, a part of the mission he left Adagio to do alone of course.
Adagio frowned at the question, “Well she personally might not have done anything, but Madhoof liked to use minions at any chance he could get. Maddie logically could be the same way, but we’ve monitored her calls and emails all day and never heard any chatter related to kidnapping.”
“Yeah, and you are going to explain one day how you know how to do that stuff right?”
Adagio blushed and looked away from him for a moment while playing with one of her hair curls. “Well let’s just say I was “Involved” with the guys that invented phones and computers, so know a bit here and there about them.” She admitted.
With that Mac figured he was better off not knowing. “We have our suspect, but no proof of her doing anything. She’s either really good at hiding her tracks or it’s not her, we need to be certain before we waste our time chasing a lead to nowhere.”
“You gotta point there,” Adagio sighed with frustration. There didn’t seem to be any more clues to be found at the moment. “What are we going to do with Applebloom? Can’t just leave her here, can’t just drop her off your grandma’s all freaked out like she is.”
Suddenly the house phone rang. Mac and Adagio looked uncertainly between each other, with Mac pointing for Adagio to take the phone as he was supposed to be in the hospital still. After some hushed arguing Adagio answered.
“Hello?” She said as sweet and preppy as she could sound.
“Who’s this?” Granny Smith’s scratchy tired voice asked over the line. “You one of AJ’s friends? Where the hell are you girls! I’ve been getting calls all night asking where you are!”
“Oh um yes! I am Applejack’s friend… Sunny, Sunny Spark! Sorry we didn’t call in sooner. We’ve just had such an exhausting day and we decided on the fly to have slumber party here on the farm. We’ll be sure to call our parents right away, sorry for the trouble ma’am.”
“Oh what a sweet little thing you sound like, have you met my grandson Mac? I’d bet you two would kick it off real good!” Granny heckled as Adagio imagined the elderly woman going to what she called “Dotting grandma mode” this phone call could go on for hours if she didn’t end it soon!
“Oh yes, Mac’s a nice young man Miss Smith, I’d hold off on anything romantic right now, school and college you know.” On the other end Granny hummed and probably nodding to her words. “Also Applebloom is here, we found her sleeping in her parent’s old room. We didn’t want to walk her up, so left her there, but I was wondering why she was out here?”
Granny huffed over the phone, “Oh she and her little friends were getting worried about their big sisters, and you should probably call and ease their minds too. I’m sure Applebloom stayed there to wait and see if any of yawl would turn up there, but I recon’ her friends Scoots and Sweetie are home already, but please give their folks call. Also she can just stay out there with you gals. That girl has been a little down lately since her sister and brother have been fighting, see if ya could cheer her up some will ya?”
“Can do ma’am,” Adagio sounded off as Granny yawned loudly on the other end.
“Such a polite girl you are, better get your hands on Mac as soon as you can, so I can met ya in person Sunny.” Granny finished hanging up the phone, leaving Adagio flustering red as she hung up the phone. “So umm… your grandma’s nice.” She coughed looking away, “Oh and we should call your sister’s friends and straight up lie about what’s happened to them.”
Mac handed her the phone again with an unamused frowned, “I’m supposed to be in the hospital, you’re gonna have to do it, phone book is right here.” He said patting the thick book handing on a wire. “Their numbers are booked marked for you.”
He let Adagio to it and slumped into his dad’s old chair with a long sigh. From here he watched Adagio call Rarity’s, Rainbow Dash’s, Pinkie Pie’s, and Fluttershy’s parents. Parents that would most likely be worried for their children, parents that have probably been waiting up for their children to call them, parents that may not ever see their children again if he doesn’t find them.
The old grandfather clock dinged as the hour hand struck twelve, it was already two in the morning and there was a lot he still had to do and he’s barely gotten started.
“Well that’s done,” Adagio sighed joining him on the chair. Normally he could kindly turn down her physical affections, but he was too tired too, just as she was too tired to do her normal teasing when she sat on his lap, hell they were both tired! Also what they were doing felt kind of nice right now, relaxing even. He didn’t know how long they stayed there just sitting together, but it wasn’t very long, barely five minutes when a shuffle of footsteps came up behind them. Applebloom was awake!
“Big Mac…” She said tiredly rubbing her eyes. “Is that…?”
She didn’t get to finish as another set of footsteps come up the porch, but they were different, they walked in rhythm of four and sounded like wood against wood…
Both Adagio and Mac quickly realized what it was, “Timber wolf!” They yelled together, both jumping up at the same time, and both fell in a tangled mess of limbs as they knocked each other to the floor. The timber wolf’s steps slowly getting closer, which was strange, timber wolves usually attack with speed and a lot of fang and claw, not walk up to them like injured dog and they most defiantly weren’t black like they were made of campfire wood, but this timber wolf was all of these things and he looked at both him and Adagio with curious and confused eyes as it sat in front of them, not attacking.
“Wow, so cool,” Applebloom gushed kneeling down and petting the timber wolf, and much to Mac’s amazement it didn’t bite her hand off! “Oh you’re hurt!”
“Applebloom get away from that thing!” Mac ordered finally coming back to his senses! There was timber wolf in his house and he was letting his baby sister pet it like it was a dog! “It’s dangerous.”
“He needs help!” Applebloom shot back with a lot more force then he was expecting after just seeing her cry herself to sleep. “What do you need boy? Will some syrup make you better? Syrup comes from trees and it’s like glue, so maybe it will glue you back together?”
Too much of their collective amazement the wolf shook his head and instead raised it broken paw and put it over Applebloom’s heart and before Mac could even think to try and stop whatever was about to happen, his little sister began to glow with magic, sprouting ears and a pony tail right before his eyes!
“Wow, I’m like Applejack!” Applebloom squealed with excitement as she began to float. “This is so cool! Hey think I know what you need!”
Gently Applebloom placed her hands on both sides of the wolf’s head and did… something. Mac wasn’t sure what it was, but she started sending her magic into the wolf and its body began to reform and take on a new shape.
“Full fill your true purpose!” Applebloom shouted dramatically as her magic peeked and there was a sudden flash of light that blinded everyone in the room. When the light dyed away Applebloom was unconscious in a pair of arms made of wood and leaves. The timber wolf had changed into a human or a timber human or whatever that wasn’t important, but what was important was the face the woodman had and it left both Adagio and Mac stunned at the sight of it.
“Nico!”
“Dad?”
They sat in silence, both Mac and Adagio looking at him with suspicious eyes, not that he could blame them. They were right to be cautious; you had to be when dealing with monsters. This would the part where he would tell a sad tell of how he became what he is, but the truth is he’s always been a monster, even back home in Equestria.
“So I suppose you two want to know what I am.” Nico Vega asked his son and former enemy/informer/possible mother of his grandchild if their little cuddling session was anything to go by. He received two firm nods for an answer. “Alright, that’s fair. I guess I should start with the fact that I am not Nico Vega.”
Mac and Adagio looked at him, both of them clearly confused by his statement. “Allow me to clarify. I’m not the same Nico Vega you both knew when he was alive, I’m not the one who raised you and your sisters Mac, nor am I the one who chased you and your sisters away Adagio, that Nico is dead and buried with his wife in the graveyard. Me, I’m nothing more than a phantom created by Nico’s magic and his strong attachment to this place and to you and your sisters Mac.
Nico loved you so much, that when he died he wanted some way to still protect you, a fail safe, so he poured what magic he had left into the trees of this place and combined with the chaos magic that spills over from Equestria and created me into existence. I’m the reason there are less timber wolf attacks around this place, I control these woods, call me the guardian of the orchard or such things, or if you wish you can still call me Nico and father, just know I’m not him. I’m just pile of sticks held together by his magic, my only mission is to keep you kids safe and I’ve failed.”
“So you don’t really care for us then?” Mac asked him sadly, Nico followed his son’s gaze to the little girl currently hugging him like a plush toy in her sleep, Applebloom, his youngest child.
“I care and love you guys as much as Nico did; I have all his memories, his experiences, his way of thinking. I guess you could say I’m a clone, we’re the same, yet different. I’m not sure how to really explain it better than that.” Nico said scratching his hair, which was made up of leaves. “Look, let’s just skip the family reunions and get down to business. Some frosty snow bitch came and took Aria, Sonata, and Applejack, also Sunset Shimmer, almost forgot about her. They put up a fight and they lost. I tried to step in and help AJ, but… my strength wasn’t enough. She was the one that ended up saving me instead. Now I’m not update on what you all are doing or who you’re fighting, so ask me whatever questions you want and I’ll answer the best I can. Cause this is probably my past coming back to bite you.”
Mac and Adagio nodded in agreement.
“Alright,” Mac said, tossing a bunch of files onto the table, “What do you know about Maddie Hoof?”
Nico picked up the file, it’s been a few years, but he recognized these girls, Madhoof’s experiments from Crystal Prep Academy. Those poor girls, he wished could have helped them more than he did.
“Maddie is Madhoof’s biological daughter, I’m not sure who her mother is, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she was made in a test tube rather than a womb. Madhoof was crazy like that. Whatever the case she was taught everything Madhoof knew about magic and science and the existence of Equestria. I think she was possibly only sixteen, when I destroyed Madhoof’s lab and finally killed the bastard. She was there that night too; I ended up saving her that night and placing her in an orphanage. I was kind of hoping she would turn out better, but I guess she’s too much like her father. I should have done more for her, maybe took her in myself, but I was her father’s killer, I doubted I could have done anything to help her.” Nico lamented tossing the files back onto the coffee table.
“As for the other three girls, Kerosene, White tail, and Tundra, I can only assume they survived the fire and somehow ended up in Maddie’s care. She’s probably used them to achieve her current position despite being so young.”
Mac asked the next question, “Why go after Applejack and her friends and how did they find them?”
Nico sighed, “Aj and her friends have the highest amount of magic humans can have in this world, which is kind of my fault, my magic was passed onto you kids and then your magic encouraged the dormant magic in other people to grow. However I had a feeling Aj and her friends were always something more, but that’s a matter for another time. What’s important now is that we find them and rescue them before Maddie decides just want kind of monster she wants to make them into.”
“Where do we being to search? We followed Maddie all day and didn’t see anything strange, no evidence of a lab or anything like that.” Adagio stated showing her notes on Maddie’s actions for the day. Nico took them flipping through the pages slowly with a curious expression.
Nico stood up and retrieved a map of the city and laid it across the table for them to see and with a pen he marked out several locations on the map. “Madhoof had more than one place for his experiments, some were to hold supplies, others for subjects he captured and many more were backups in case he was discovered. I know for certain the lab beneath Crystal Prep is destroyed, as is this one here, here and here, leaving only this one available.”
“The old Canterlot city Library, I thought they were going tear it down.” Mac said remembering hearing about it on the news, though he wasn’t sure it actually happened or not.
“They were,” Nico confirmed, “but Madhoof brought it from the city for cheap and had it restored as a private home. It has a lot of basement space and thick walls, his favorite kind of building and it’s also in a poorer part of town, a good place to pick up more subjects. In place like that if a few runaways or hookers go missing nobody will pay it any mind.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Mac rose up from his seat, but Nico pushed him back down. “What are you doing?”
Nico huffed, “Slow down a bit Mac, first things first we need to tend to Applebloom and there a few other things that need to be done before we ride off. First thing we need to do is to get you two geared up and I mean fully geared up. Carry whatever you can and wear your best armor clothing because you’re going to need it. I assume it’s all out in the west shack?” Mac nodded. “Good, you two go get geared up, I’ll stay here and get something ready.”
Mac and Adagio walked out of the house and sprinted into the trees, leaving him and Applebloom alone. After several seconds Nico spoke, “I assume you heard all that?” He said aloud as Applebloom’s eye flicked open. “And I assume you want to help?”
“Dang right I do!” Applebloom shouted raising her head off his lap, her eyes burning with determination that reminded him of her mother. “Nobody messes with my big sister!”
“Alright, alright, I get it, but you can’t come with us, it’s too dangerous.” Nico said, earning a glare from his youngest daughter, though it only made her look cuter in his opinion. “Now, now, don’t look so gloomy. There’s still something you can do to help, it just won’t be on the battlefield.”
“Then what is it… um dad?” The red head ask uncertainly. “I can call you dad right?”
Nico nodded, “If you wish. Though don’t get too used to be being around, I’m afraid my time in this form, if not this world is limited. I wish I could spend some quality time with you and all that dad stuff, but there isn’t time.”
“I understand,” Applebloom said sourly, obviously disappointed. Thought there wasn’t much he could do about that. “But I still wanna help!” She cried making him smile.
“I know and that’s why I’m going to give you a very important job.” From beneath his coat of bark Nico pulled out Sunset’s journal and a piece of paper and handed it over to Applebloom, “This is what I want you to do…” He whispered into her ear.
It was awkward being having four people squished inside of a regular cab pickup truck, but that’s what happened, since as epic as it would be to ride Mac’s and Nico’s motorcycles to town, it was impractical with how much gear they needed to bring. So here they sat with Mac driving, Adagio next to him and Nico riding shotgun with Applebloom sitting on his lap.
The sight of his father’s magical phantom or whatever it was, was strange to see, even harder to admit it was real, but it was and it was currently chatting with Applebloom answering whatever questions she could think up. Truthfully Mac was a little jealous, though he knew it was stupid to be, he had actually gotten to spend time with their real father. Applebloom barely remembered him; whatever time she could spend with him was her to have.
Keeping his attention on the road Mac put aside his petty jealously as he pulled into town. They hit a bump, resulting in Adagio grabbing tightly onto his arm, pulling his arm into her breasts making him blush.
“Am I going to have grandkids soon?” Nico teased, making both Mac and Adagio blush.
Mac spluttered as he tried to come up with a retort against his father, but all that came out was a bunch of sounds and not much else, making Nico grin wider.
“It’s alright Mac, nothing wrong with falling for a siren, it’s practically their lot in life to be irresistible. Doesn’t hurt this one here has turned over a new leaf for a better life, right?” Nico said jokingly ruffling Adagio’s hair. The siren swatted his hand away with an even deeper blush then before. She couldn’t catch a break as an excited Applebloom nearly pounced on her, pulling her into a hug.
“Does this mean I get to have a magical fish pony as a sister?”
Adagio awkwardly pried Applebloom from her waist, looking to Mac for help, but he wasn’t going to step on that landmine. “Let’s wait and see about that.” Adagio said gently hoping this would be the last of Nico’s teasing.
“This it over here,” Nico said pointing to a duplex on the right side of the street. “We’ll leave Applebloom with my friend for the night. She won’t ask questions.”
Mac shut the truck off and climbed out of the cab walking around the truck to the side walk. Something about this street seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. Whatever the case they decided to leave Applebloom with dad’s “friend” since to was too late in the night to bring her back to Granny’s place and it was too dangerous to leave her alone at the farm. Course he couldn’t help wonder as Nico and Applebloom exited the truck, who lived here?
Unable to restrain his curiosity Mac asked, “Whose house is this?”
His father chuckled and slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Your godmother’s of course! Now come on, she’s probably still awake playing video games or something.” Nico walked ahead of them and rang the doorbell.
Now Mac was expecting perhaps some distant relation of the Apple family or someone a keen to that to answer the door. What he did not expect was his vice principle, dressed in only a long blue tee shirt, to open the door for them with black circles so deep under her eyes that it looked like she’d been punched in the face!
“Vice Principle Luna?”
“Big Macintosh? Aren’t you supposed to be in the hospital? Wait... aren’t you one of the sirens!” Luna yelled pointing to Adagio who stood a ways back from the rest of them. Luna brushed past them, only to stop short as she turned around to look from Mac to Applebloom to Nico, and then back to Mac and then back to Nico. She took seeing her dead friend made of wood very well. “What- wait your- is this more magical bullshit? Why can’t there be any normal problems for once!” Luna sighed exhaustively. “Whatever, what do you need?”
Whatever Mac was expecting to happen, didn’t, because Luna took it all in stride as she led Applebloom into her house with a kind and gentle demure and handed her a PS4 controller and let the youngest Apple play what looked like an M rated game.
Luna stepped out under the step light and shut the door behind her. “Alright what’s going on Mac and please don’t lie to me.” She said crossing her arms, her face set in her stern lecture mode.
“Well… it’s a long story and we really don’t have the time to explain it.” Mac began hesitantly; he looked to his father for help, who looked equally unsure of what to do. Mac was going to try doing his best to explain the madness that was his life now, but Adagio beat him to it.
“Look,” She began, “All you need to know is that little girl’s sister and her friends are in trouble and time is something we can’t spare right now. I promise that once we come back, we’ll explain everything, but right now we need to move.”
Luna looked at them with an impassive expression before nodding, “Alright, if things are truly that dire, then I will delay you no longer. However what should I do if you don’t come back?”
“I’ve already arranged what needs to be done should that happen,” Nico said stepping forward and wrapping Luna in a hug. He whispered something in her ear, something that Mac and Adagio couldn’t hear.
As the two old friends broke apart Luna nodded and said, “I understand, I’ll make sure it’s taken care of. Please don’t let it come to that.”
“I’ll do my best.” Nico said to her as he motioned for them to get back in the truck.
As Mac pulled away, he couldn’t help but glance at his father’s solemn demure as he looked out into the passing terrain. Unable to not know, he spoke his mind.
“What did you ask Luna to do?”
Nico sighed heavily as he turned and looked Mac in the eyes. “I asked to do what she promised to do when she agreed to become your kid’s godmother, take care of Applebloom.”
“What about Granny Smith?”
Nico chuckled humorlessly, “Do you think Granny’s old heart could take losing both you and AJ at the same time or even at all? No, she’s a tough old woman, but she’s seen a lot of her loved ones die before her. Her husband, her daughter, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews, she’s lost a lot, but losing you kids would probably be the breaking point for her.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Mac said matter of fact. He looked to his father again to read his expression, which was a small grin.
“Then we better not fail then.” Nico said as he settled down into his seat with a big yawn. “Wake me up when we get there. Even magical beings made of wood need rest you know.” He chuckled going still as a tree trunk.
Mac and Adagio rode in silence for several miles, Adagio occasionally tapping on Nico’s wooden skin to see if he was truly sleeping or not, at least that was Mac assumed she was doing in order to keep herself amused, but it was far from the truth as she sat back with her arms crossed her expression grim.
“No matter what happens he won’t live past the night.” She said suddenly, Mac nearly swerved off the road out of shock of the statement, but quickly righted himself, Nico didn’t even react the sudden action.
“What do you mean?” Mac asked looking worriedly to his father’s phantom. His mind was still processing the fact the thing was real and now it was going to be gone soon? That wasn’t fair! He wanted to at least have one conversation with his father again, real or not!
Adagio sighed, looking put out by what she was about to say, “He’s basically a super charged timber wolf Mac, timber wolves can’t leave the forest they inhabit for long, by the time we save your sister and her friends he’ll have been away from his life source for too long. That’s why he’s resting; he’s trying to extend his life period for as long as possible. I’m sorry.”
Mac gripped the stirring wheel tightly, he’s been suppressing his anger since he’s found out about Applejack being kidnapped and the grim news of Nico’s short life didn’t help, but he didn’t have anything to channel his anger at for the latter.
“Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault, it’s is what it is.” Mac stated as he exhaled deeply. “It’s probably for the best anyway. He isn’t really dad and he’ll just open up old wounds if he were to linger around.”
“You don’t have to try to hide your feelings Mac.” Adagio placed her hand on his shoulder. “I know you want to talk to him, which is why you should just say what’s on your mind, even if he can’t hear you right now.”
“There’s nothing to say,” Mac grumbled as they entered the city limits.
Adagio huffed and leaned back into her seat, “Fine be that way for all I care, leave me to be the only one to worry about your emotional state.”
Not wanting to get into an argument with her Mac kept his mouth shut and kept his eyes focused on the road ahead.
It’s not that he didn’t have anything to say to his father, he was just too embarrassed to say it in front of Adagio. He actually had a lot thing he would love to talk to his father about, things he never got to ask before he died. Simple life lessons that every son needs from his father.
Life lessons such as how do know when you’ve found the right girl to marry? How to run the farm, what should he do if he had a failed crop or how to be a father when he has finally has kids? Stuff like that.
“Mac, turn left here.” Adagio directed breaking him of his musings.
They have arrived.
The library was in deceit condition, though not great, clearly it wasn’t being maintained properly, but neither was the rest of the neighborhood. In fact from what Mac has seen so far, the entire block around the library appeared to be empty.
At first he wanted to scoff at such a thought, thinking the idea ridiculous, after all how could such a large space in an overcrowded city be empty? Well the idea wasn’t looking that ridiculous when they passed the first blood stained wall.
“What in the hell,” Mac uttered under his breath as his father approached the stain, it wasn’t the only one, there were dozens of them! The entire street seemed to be filled with them!
Nico hummed as he rubbed the blood stain with his hand, a deep frown marred his features as he walked up to the stoop of the apartment building and busted down the door. The sound echoed throughout the entire square and only the crows responded to it, nothing else moved.
“Adagio, do you see anything?” Nico asked her, his voice heavy with sadness.
Adagio’s eyes shined green as she looked around the area, her expression looking more and more distraught the more she looked.
“There’s nobody here, all I see is dark magic seeping out of the library. There’s nothing else here.” She reported. “The people that lived here are they?” She left the question hanging, probably already knowing the answer.
“Yeah, they’re gone.” He said grimly waking back down the stoop. “She wiped them out and nobody even noticed. Probably because nobody cared about this neighborhood and no human authority would want anything to do with a mess like this, so they probably just pushed it under the rug and said everybody moved away. I guess that’s how she was to buy this area from the city so cheaply.”
The idea that anyone would kill so many people just for some land would be chilling, if weren’t for the fact history was full of people that did just that, but that was usually a country or some tyrant conqueror, this here, this was a woman barely in her twenties.
Mac was getting an eerily vibe from this place, like he had back in valley where he and Adagio had encountered the shadow ponies. This place felt just like then, only a hundred times worse.
“Wait up you two,” Nico said putting his arm out in front of them to block their path and pointed toward the top of the stairs. Up top stood a blue figure standing at the top, the air suddenly became chilly.
“That’s her.” Nico said with a wide grin as he pulled the elephant gun from his back holster, “The one that took Applejack and her friends. I’ll deal with her, you two get inside and take out Maddie and rescue the girls.”
Mac nodded as he and Adagio ran up the stairs. Ice began to creep down towards them, but they didn’t slow down, even as the ice girl Tundra approached them. The sound of elephant gun firing made his ears ring his father fired at the ice girl. They ran past her shattered body, which was quickly putting itself back together as they reached the top of the stairs. Thankfully the ringing had stopped by then, allowing Mac to hear Nico’s last words to him before he entered the library.
“No matter what Mac, I’m proud of you!” Mac heard his father shout as the elephant gun blasted off again as the door shut behind him.
Nico watched as Tundra fully reformed in front of him. He tossed the elephant gun aside, knowing it would be useless from here on out, it had served its purpose anyway. Mac and Adagio were inside and that’s what mattered.
“You don’t honestly think you can beat me do you?” Tundra asked him as she finished pulling herself back together. “It will be a mere repeat of last time, only this time there will be no little girl to beg for your life.”
Nico scoffed, breaking out into a wide grin. “Last time I checked, I had you on the ropes at the start and now I know what to expect from you this time. You on the other hand,” Nico’s body began to change shape from human to something more equine with a little draconian.
“Have no idea what you’re up against!”
Jaws snapping and claws curled, Nico leap forward with his new wings, relishing the feel of his original form, it’s been so long he’s nearly forgotten what it felt like to be in pony shape, but it all come back to him as easy as riding a bike as he assaulted Tundra with a fury of blows so fast she could barely keep up as he ripped large chunks of ice from her body.
“I’m Night Patroller 088, Nico Vega, and in the name of Princess Luna of Equestria, I sentence you to death for foal napping my daughter!”