Heart of Raven Black

by Vin Diesels Go-Kart

Chapter 26: Forced Compliance

"What, in the name of Celestia, happened to you two?" Twilight asked, still amazed and confused at her friends' presence and appearance. The two other Elements exchanged looks as the boat they had commandeered floated to the ground. Pinkie Pie jumped to the ground, followed by Rarity, who elegantly hopped after her companion.

"It is a long and very complicated story, darling." Rarity said, flicking her hair back with a hoof.

Pinkie Pie took a deep breath before summing up their experience. "We went to visit Fluttershy at her cottage, when this weird flying boat came out of nowhere! These guys got off it and started looking around, saying some very rude things about Fluttershy's cottage while they did. Anyway, they tried attacking us, but after a grueling battle between wit and smarts vs. brute strength and weapons, we overpowered them and knocked them out. After tying them up and shoving them in Fluttershy's closet, we took their boat and now we're heading for Columbia!"

Pinkie took a deep breath while Twilight simply stared, no less confused than she had been before the pink pony spoke. Rarity rolled her eyes. "That's the short version, in any case."

"But how the hay are you flying that thing?" Twilight asked, pointing at the boat. "And how did you take control of those robot turret... things?"

"Oh, the controls for the boat are actually pretty simple, and you don't really need to have those finger things to use them." Pinkie said, prideful in her flying mastery. "As for the turrets, they were like putty in my hooves after I drank that green bottle of soda."

Twilight's eye twitched. "You did WHAT!?"

Pinkie licked her lips, reminiscing about the consumption of the bottle she'd found in the police boat. "It was delicious! Not like any pop we have in Ponyville. Plus it gave me really cool powers, so there's that."

"Pinkie! You drank a vigor? How could you do something so irresponsible?" Twilight thought back to the bandit leader who'd downed the bottle of Devil's Kiss. The pony had turned into a flame spitting fire demon, something Thomas had made clear was not common. It was easy for them to deduce that vigors responded differently to ponies' physiology, and had nasty side effects as a result. The thought of this put fearful images in the alicorn's mind, of Pinkie turning into a green ghostly ghoul.

"Oh don't worry Twilight, not all Columbian soda pops are bad for ponies. The two humans we were talking to assured me." Pinkie explained. "I mean, my eye is a little wonky right now, but I can fix that later."

"Two humans?"

"Yeah, these really nice humans, who looked like they could have been twins, told us all kinds of useful stuff!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Where are these two now?"

"They disappeared after a little while." Pinkie said, adjusting her eye patch.

"Indeed. A mysterious pair, those two." Rarity commented.

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She didn't have time to ask them a million questions about their ordeal, and she certainly didn't have time to scold Pinkie for drinking strange bottles of liquid, something she'd already had to do during several excursions to Zecora's hut. She could ask them all the questions she wanted after she was finished saving Equestria from the army of murderous thugs raining down from the sky.

"Alright. We can talk about everything later. I have to get to the Everfree Forest, to the old castle." Twilight finally said.

"Yeah, that's where they said you were going." Pinkie grinned. Twilight made a mental note that she'd have to find these two humans after this and have a chat with them.

"You said you two were headed for Columbia... why?"

"To save Apple Bloom, of course." Pinkie informed her.

"But what's Apple Bloom doing...?" Twilight shook her head. "Never mind. If she's in Columbia, then you have to get her out, and fast. Just please be careful, okay?"

The princess didn't want her friends anywhere near that floating city, but if Apple Bloom had somehow managed to get up there, then somepony had to save her, and Twilight couldn't do both. Thinking of an Apple...

"Have either of you two seen Applejack or Rainbow Dash? I have no idea where anypony is right now."

"Oh, their both making their way to Canterlot, walking along the railroad tracks. They'll be safe." Pinkie assured.

"Let me guess, the two humans told you that too, right?" Twilight assumed.

"Nope, that one was all me!" the pink mare smiled innocently.

Twilight shook her head again while Pinkie and Rarity got back on the boat.

"Do you think Ponyville is holding up alright?" Rarity asked Twilight, thinking of Sweetie Belle.

The alicorn honestly had no idea. "The best thing we can do for everypony is to get that city out of here. Let me handle that, you two just go get Apple Bloom, and please be careful!"

She looked at the boat again, realizing they were one pony short.

"Where's Fluttershy?" she asked.

"P-p-present." she heard a soft voice stutter.

Fluttershy's pink mane and blue eyes peaked over the side of the boat.

"How are you holding up?" Twilight asked, concern in her question.

"I'll manage." she replied, uncertainly.

The princess turned back to her other two friends. "Keep an eye on her, okay?"

They nodded as the craft zoomed away, into the falling rain. Twilight took one last look at the strange rain pattern before turning back toward the Everfree and flying off in that direction.

* * *

Trixie did her best to ignore the bodies that were strewn about the floor in the castle's main foyer. Daniel had already freed Jenkins and the two were talking in a far corner. Trixie was quick to make her way over to them.

"Why would he do that? The most logical thing would have been to either kill Jacob or bring him back to the city for protection." Daniel said, to which Jenkins merely grunted.

"Alright. Let me go downstairs and get him, then we can come up with a plan to get rid of Columbia once and for all."

The Crow quickly ran to the stairway and descended the steps to the lower level of the castle, leaving Trixie and Jenkins to wait.

Trixie immediately felt awkward and did her best to keep her head down, but this was the first chance she actually had to look at the Handyman. The unicorn had expected his metal body to be what called for her attention, but she was surprised to find that his face was what she couldn't stop looking at. It was so out of place next to everything else, and seemed to be the only organic thing left of him aside from his beating heart, which sat behind a glass jar in his chest as if it were some twisted museum piece.

The monocle that still adorned his eye was slightly cracked, and he still frequently adjusted it with two of his enormous fingers. Trixie didn't stare directly at him, in case he looked her way and she needed to avert her gaze quickly. He always seemed so calm, she noticed. The pony had never seen him get angry or ferocious, granted she hadn't known him for very long. Even when he was fighting the beasts of the Everfree, he did so with a calm, if not stoic, expression. It just seemed like he should have been more upset with the world. He was an abomination; something that wasn't living nor dead, but suspended in an endless void of existence, trapped inside a metal shell until one lucky enemy had what it took to end him.

The unicorn didn't know if he was controlled, or if he had free will. Her observations led her to believe it was a little of both. Of course what was free will anyway? She couldn't deny that she'd let her own ego control her in many aspects.

When Twilight first embarrassed her by defeating the Ursa Minor and exposing her as a fraud, she let her obsession with showing the purple pony up get the better of her. She'd spent most of her life savings on that stupid amulet, only to let it corrupt and control her in a more direct way than her ego ever did. Perhaps she and the Handyman were alike in that regard. At one time or another, both had allowed outside forces to control them in some way.

Trixie snapped herself out of the trance she'd seemed to have fallen into, only to find Jenkins staring directly at her. One of his eyebrows was raised and he was wearing a curious expression, no doubt wondering why she was gawking.

The magician averted her gaze, like she'd planned, but it was too late. The Handyman chuckled as her face flushed an obvious crimson.

Downstairs, Daniel found the Boy of Silence held in some make-shift cage. At some point, one of Fink's men had removed the bloody sack from his head, and given him a new one to wear.

Tabula Rasa had been replaced with Fucking Freakshow. It was a cute little message that confirmed Fink's men had brought their sense of humor to work with them.

"Jacob, hang on. I'm getting you out of their." he assured the Boy. The Crow examined the lock that had been placed on the door of the cage. Nothing a quick slash of his blade couldn't handle. He unsheathed his weapon and readied his strike.

Daniel found it odd how silent he was. He'd expected the Boy to be weeping or whimpering, not sitting in the middle of the cage, motionless. It was a bit off-putting and the Zealot was rather disturbed by it.

He was about to question the Boy, when a soft clicking noise caught his attention. It was a familiar noise that he'd heard hundreds of times before, especially in his line of work. The noise signaled that a hammer had just been drawn back into a locking position and that a firearm was ready to... what else? Fire.

Slowly, Daniel raised his arms up, knowing that whoever had him in their sights was close enough to hit him even if he went Crow. He wasn't worried, but still, he waited until he was given instruction by the person.

"Turn and f-face me, s-slowly." he was surprised to hear a female voice, and one he recognized.

He turned to find Cynthia standing behind him, pointing a pistol at his head. Her rifle was slung behind her back and she held the smaller weapon with both hands. As much as she tried to hide it, her fear and confusion were apparent. Even with both her hands wrapped around the pistol, it was shaking violently. He doubted she'd be able to fire it with any degree of accuracy.

"Cynthia.."

"I saw you coming a mile away." she interrupted, trying to steady her voice. "I had you dead to rights in my scope, but I didn't fire. You killed Comstock, you betrayed Columbia. I could have ended you out there, but I didn't."

Her eyes were beginning to water, but her hands were much steadier now. "Why didn't I fire, Daniel?"

The Zealot breathed deeply, calmly. "Because I only recently discovered what you knew all along. Comstock was a monster. He framed Daisy Fitzroy for a crime that he himself was responsible for. He killed our lady and had every intention of doing the same to the rest of the world. Then he wanted to do the same to this world. It had to end somewhere."

He walked closer to her, and she tensed up, keeping the pistol pointed at him. Her expression was one of sadness. "I'm just sorry it took me this long to realize it."

Slowly, she lowered the gun, bringing it all the way down to her hip, and holstered it. "I assume you came here with a plan to fix this..."

Daniel nodded. "I could use some help, if you're offering."

She smiled. "What are your orders, sir?"

Returning the smile, he looked around. "Do you have access to a ship?"

"Yeah, there's one parked out back." she replied, walking over to the caged Boy. She pulled out a gold key and used it to unlock the door. The Boy paid it little mind.

"I need you to fly to Columbia, start giving the order to evacuate all civilians from the city. Tell them to evacuate everywhere from Shantytown to Emporia. All civilians. The city's going down, but her people don't need to."

Cynthia gave the Zealot a nod. "I'll get right on it."

She started running off when Daniel called after her. "Be careful up there. Columbia's main attack force is on its way to the major cities here. In order to get them to go back to the city, I'm going to need to give them a reason, which means things are going to get crazy up there."

"Do what you need to do." she replied with a look of determination.

She quickly made her way up the stairs as Daniel turned his attention back to Jacob. The Boy was now standing, hunched over and rocking back and forth. Daniel knew his mental state was only going to continue to deteriorate. It was only a matter of time until the Boy completely snapped.

Daniel just hoped they could fix this before that happened. The longer they took, the more damage Fink was going to do to this world. He knew things were only going to get worse from here.

Time was slowly running out, for all of them.

Comments

[Zecoro]

The end is near...im excited for it! /)^3^(\

[Vin Diesels Go-Kart]

3709933 Very close indeed. We're almost there!

[Brony Dragon]

UPDATE

[Vin Diesels Go-Kart]

3711166 Ikr? Been way too long since I did. Sry bout that y'all.

[Zecoro]

Will there be an update soon?
and btw i made the mistake of not reading the story before this one. Now i read it. (that story was fantastic btw).
Now I'm eager for the finale of it all!

[Vin Diesels Go-Kart]

4025960 Yessir! I've actually found a lull in my school work so I'm working on the next chapter as I type this... I mean not at the exact same time... I just took a break to respond to this... so I'm not actually... I mean... oh you know what I mean!