Heart of Raven Black

by Vin Diesels Go-Kart

Chapter 25: Full Circle

"We need more guns on that lead boat!"

"Get those rockets loaded, we don't have much longer!"

"Jesus, I count eight...no, nine!"

"I count twelve."

"They're fuckin' multiplying, get those anti-air measures up!"

What remained of the ill-equipped and under-manned Vox Populi quickly regrouped to defend themselves against the growing forces of the Founders. Using the landed ships as cover, they formed a circle in the bleak looking park and awaited the end. Without proper weapons and with nearly half of their forces gone, they had no cards left in their hands.

Two Vox Handymen were jumping from the various police boats, destroying the engines and tossing a few occupants to their deaths, but with every boat destroyed it seemed as if two more took its place. The red tarped Handymen started getting overwhelmed as the ground forces continued to get hammered by machine gun fire.

"They have us surrounded!" Donny shouted over the chaos. He stayed close to Daisy and Apple Bloom, who had taken cover behind the First Lady. Pulling out his repeater, he sent eight rounds toward the nearest police boat. Three bodies fell. "This is no good, we gotta fall back."

"Ain't no place to go, Donny." Fitzroy smiled. Donny looked to her, wondering if she'd finally snapped, but then realized she was right. The smile wasn't one of insanity, it was of clarity.

"Wish it didn't have to end like this. Fucking sucks." the large man admitted, bullets grazing his cover.

"Indeed it does, my friend. Indeed it does." Daisy laughed. She turned to Apple Bloom. The young filly no longer looked distant, but she was not fearful either, as a child should be. It reminded her of the children in Shantytown. Those who watched their parents worked to death and then tossed on a pile to be thrown off the edge later. It hadn't taken long for the filly's spirit to brake, and it crushed Fitzroy. "Sorry it turned out this way." she apologized to the pony. "Your kind ain't the enemy, but you still gettin' the short end of this here stick."

Apple Bloom didn't respond. She turned away from Fitzroy, and now faced the soulless gaze of an automated turret. The automaton's lone eye met her's, and it quickly went from yellow to red, then opened fire.

* * *

Daniel wasted no time as he ran past the encroaching trees of the Everfree. The vegetation was still thick, but now that it was just him and Trixie, the journey to the ancient castle ruins was much quicker. He sprinted as fast as he dared without making himself vulnerable to possible creatures skulking the trail, hidden in the brush. His unicorn companion galloped right alongside him.

"So tell me again what you expect to find at the ruins."

Daniel panted as he ran, forgetting how tiring the actual act of running long distances can be. Usually flying everywhere, he never really worked on his cardio. Even so, he slowed down a bit to answer the pony without sounding like he was quite so out-of-shape.

"I believe that Fink was always planning on making a play for Columbia. I don't think he anticipated me killing the Prophet, but that didn't change his plans too much."

The two entered a particularly dark part of the forest. Last time they were there, Twilight had used her horn to light the way. This time, it was Trixie who provided the means to see. Her horn lit up the area and revealed the path, allowing Daniel to continue his explanation.

"He would have wanted Jacob to remain in the Everfree, since that is where his abilities are most potent. We have a machine in Columbia that can do something similar, but it isn't very reliable anymore, ever since it was sabotaged by Fink himself."

Confused, Trixie looked at him. "Why did he sabotage it?"

"To kill the scientist who created it, a woman whom you've already met." he answered.

The unicorn's eyes went wide. "She's... dead?"

Daniel nodded. "Supposed to be, anyway."

They continued through the trees, which were becoming much less thick.

"So what are you planning to do with Jacob?" she asked.

"He's going to help me undo this mess. We're going to send Columbia packing the same way we brought it here."

"But what about the ships that are already moving over Equestria? How can you target them when they aren't in the city anymore?"

Daniel thought about that. Trixie looked over at him expectantly.

"I'm still working on that." he finally said.

The two finally reached the clearing where the canyon was. They stopped just short of it, Trixie looking down and remembering how she almost perished here. It sent shivers down her spine.

"Can you teleport over there?" Daniel asked. Hesitantly, she nodded. "Good."

The Zealot formed his murder and flew to the other side. He was quickly followed by Trixie, who crossed the gorge in a flash of light. Daniel examined the castle. "Hmm, no guards outside."

"Maybe there's no one here after all." Trixie suggested.

The Crow shook his head. "Their in there alright. Wait here."

He walked up the ancient stairs, entering the old castle ruins once again. Trixie did as he asked, and remained outside, not wanting to see what she knew was going to happen.

Eight men stood inside the castle, talking among themselves and passing around a bottle of whisky. Their weapons were slung behind them and they were turned away from the entrance. Jenkins was chained down to the floor, not moving. Jacob was nowhere to be seen.

"All I'm sayin' is we should get better weapons than these machine guns." one of the men commented.

"Yeah, Fink's got all kinds of crazy gadgets in his labs, and we get stuck with the low end shit." another agreed.

"That's because we gotta deal with shit jobs, ain't that right tin man?" a few turned and laughed at the incapacitated Handyman. Jenkins turned his head and looked at them. Lifting one of his porcelain arms. He didn't have much movement in it, with his constrained position, but he could still reach his head.

Several men pulled out pistols in response to his action, but holstered them upon realizing he was just adjusting his monocle. The Handyman smirked at their fearful reaction.

"Keep smilin' fuck face." one of them spat. "When the time comes, we'll make sure it hurts."

The men's laughs were cut short by a scraping sound coming from the entrance. They all turned to see a dark figure dragging his blade across the stone floor. He reached halfway between them and the entrance before stopping and raising the sword.

"Is that him?" one of the men asked fearfully.

"Can't be." another said.

The figure clenched his free hand into a fist, which started glowing green. The bottle of whisky crashed to the floor as the men drew their weapons. However, not a shot was fired in the castle.

When the final scream of agony had subsided, Trixie knew it was safe to enter the ruins. As she walked up the stairs, she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to see, scared to death by the realization that she was already getting used to it.

* * *

Twilight looked at the wall of rain with great curiosity. She stuck a hoof into the falling water, feeling the cold liquid slide down her leg and fall to the ground. Her head tilted to the side as she removed her hoof and planted it on dry land, not three inches away.

She'd been flying toward the Everfree, barely able to see through the veil of water, when she suddenly emerged from the storm and out into completely arid land. The princess stopped and went back to where the rain still fell, perplexed as to why it stopped where it did. Looking up, she noticed that the clouds were still covering all of the sky above her. The ones that produced no rain were just as dark and menacing as the ones in the storm, yet for some reason they did not behave the same.

The alicorn wanted to investigate the phenomenon further, but a horn blaring in the distance reminded her that she was on the most important mission of her life, and that it was her first and only priority. With this thought in mind, she turned away from the mysterious weather anomaly, and right toward three police boats.

The princess' heart skipped several beats, then dropped down into her stomach, where it burned for several moments as she looked at the faces staring at her. Most of the humans were smiling, a grin that pointed toward joy from cruelty. There were four men to a boat, and they all carried weapons of some caliber.

"Well look what we got here. This ones pretty far from the settlements, huh?" one of them chuckled.

"Wonder which dirt heap she sprang out of? Probably that Buffalo Bill lookin' town we razed." another suggested.

"No way. Look at what its dressed like. Gotta be the mountain city."

"Oh yeah. I bet that European boomer leveled that place to the ground already."

Another laughed. "Well then I guess this one's got nothin' left to go back to."

The men in the left-most boat pointed their weapons at her.

"Watch that horn. Those damn things can cause a fuck ton of trouble. Tim got cut pretty good by some kinda trick they can do."

"Ain't nothin' they can do against a bullet. Just shoot the thing so we can move on to the next town."

"Terrance, you're never any fun, but I guess you're right." one of them jumped from the boat and landed on the ground in front of Twilight, who slowly backed away. The man drew a pistol and pointed it at her.

"That really necessary, chief?" a man asked from above.

The other shrugged. "I like being thorough."

He continued to advance on the alicorn, but before he could fire, a series of bullets peppered a line between the two. Confused, the man looked up to see a fourth police boat flying in, this one with a mounted turret. The robotic WWI era soldier sprayed the boats with gunfire while the man quickly climbed a rope ladder back up to his transport.

"What the fuck!?" he yelled. "Why are they shooting us? Are they Vox?"

"No! It's Rarity, you ruffians!"

Twilight had to rub her eyes, not sure how she was looking at the white unicorn at the bow of the air boat. The fashionista held a Hand Cannon with her magic, pointing the pistol toward the other boats and popping off a few rounds while the turret provided suppressing fire.

"Shit! Take em out!" one of the men yelled, but before they could return fire, the boat Rarity stood on turned one hundred and eighty degrees to reveal a rocket turret at the stern. The turret's red eye glared at them while it acquired all three targets.

"Goddamnit, we gotta bail!" the alicorn heard them shout. The engines fired up and roared as all three boats took off into the rain storm, leaving a very confused Twilight and a very excited Rarity in their wake. The princess looked at her with a mouth almost touching the floor. Rarity looked a bit tired and she had a bad cut on her face going right down her left eye, but she seemed unafraid if not confident as she brought the Hand Cannon to her mouth and blew smoke away from it. Holstering the weapon in a make-shift belt, Rarity turned to Twilight.

"That was so riveting! I feel so ashamed to say it but these 'guns' are simply a ball!" the unicorn squeed, clopping her hooves together in delight. "I mean did you see that, Twilight? We sent them running in the most extravagant fashion! Those brutes didn't know who they were messing with."

"Rarity, w-what are you d-doing here?" Twilight asked shakily.

Before the Element of Generosity could respond, a door to the boat's cabin opened up and Pinkie Pie stuck her head out, she had several scrapes and scratches on her face, and was wearing an eye-patch for some reason. Both ponies looked like they'd been to Tartarus and back.

In a casual tone the earth pony answered, "Well we're rescuing you, duh!"

Comments

[Xomniac]

Well...that happened.

[RufusTSerenity]

So this chapter had Rarity with a Hand Cannon saving Twilight...?

BEST CHAPTER ENDING...EVER

[Vin Diesels Go-Kart]

3529428 Haha I'm glad you liked it.

[RufusTSerenity]

3530233

You bet I did! I had a massive smile on my face when reading this!

So, do you still have concerns about where this story is going or have you thought it all out?

[Vin Diesels Go-Kart]

3531333 Yeah I've got an ending in mind. We're definitely in the home stretch now.

[SCP Pinkamena]

3531496
RRRRRRRUUUUUU

[RufusTSerenity]

3531496

Very good! I'm glad that you were able to come up with a ending. I'm sure it'll be great!

I'm just sorry I wasn't able to make this process easier for you. Again, I'm sorry.

[Vin Diesels Go-Kart]

3532089 Merely commenting has helped me out loads. Any kind of response helps me improve my writing. I've never written stories before fimfiction, so you guys giving me feedback has been one of the major ways for me to develop as a writer. Thank you for that.

[RufusTSerenity]

3532377

Aw, that's great! Well, your very welcome then!