Whitewashed

by ScottTrek

Part 6

The party had been going largely well, on top of the Mane Six and the CMC, Derpy Hooves, Dinky and Sparkler had turned up shortly afterwards. Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra and Bon-Bon had all turned up on time with the only no show being the Mayor, who had been invited but no-one had seen her for about a day-and-half. Despite the labyrinthine assortment of boxes currently swamping the lower floors of the house the guests had made themselves very comfortable, the haphazard setup invoking a sense of joviality that had been sorely missing from the ponies recently.

The only thing that had gone wrong so far was minor. Midnight had gone a bit funny, stockpiled all the vegetables in the house, encamped himself in a box-fort atop one of the stacks and started throwing food at the guests. A spring roll had hit Derpy very painfully in the eye and the adults had retreated to a different room while the CMC sorted Midnight out.

Sweetie Belle peeked her head out from behind her makeshift barricade but had to quickly duck back again as another vegetable based snack flew past her head. She turned around to face the other fillies and began talking in her best army voice, “Ok ladies, we have a very difficult mission ahead of us. We’re facing an entrenched enemy on higher ground, but we must succeed! The grownups are counting on us!”

“Yeah!” Came the collective response from her four gathered troops, backed up by cheers from Sparkler and Applejack who were sitting off to one side watching the proceedings. “Remember your recovering the dessert platter from up there,” Sparkler added, “So if all else fails can you at least get me an éclair?”

“You hear that?” Sweetie Belle declared, trying her best to keep a straight face while her ‘troops’ giggled away. “There are innocent éclairs being held hostage! Forward! For honour! For dessert for the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

Dinkie Hooves shot a hoof into the air “Question: Am I in the Cutie Mark Crusaders now?”

“Err…Yeah I guess so.”

“Why wasn’t I in your club before?”

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo who looked at Applebloom who looked back to Sweetie Belle. “Err well… I have no idea.” Sweetie Belle eventually replied. “I guess before you were a bit young.”

“Actually,” Applebloom mused, “Now ah think about it we pencilled in asking you to calendar, but then I think it got lost after you-know-what.”

“Well then I think as our new inaugural member Dinkie is going out first, Right girls?” Sweetie Belle grinned. Dinkie cheeped in surprise and shook her head vigorously but before she knew what was happening Scootaloo had grabbed the smaller filly and hoisted her over the barricade. Sweetie Belle peered over the barricade in time to see Dinkie swan-dive to avoid being smacked by a thrown cabbage. “CHARGE!”

Sweetie Belle leapt forward, streaking after Dinkie straight towards Midnight’s stack while the other two flanked to the sides. Immediately the rate and intensity of the thrown vegetables increased, Sweetie Belle flinched as several carrot bounced off her back but managed to avoid the worst of the barrage and skidded into the bottom of the stack of boxes and out of Midnights line of sight.

Sweetie Belle looked back to see Applebloom pull off an impressive dive over a hefty looking watermelon. She nearly called out encouragement at Appleblooms acrobatics (usually notoriously bad) but right before the thrown melon hit the ground it crackled with a black aura and reversed course. It accelerated backwards and walloped into Applebloom right as she was landing. The impact lifted the unfortunate filly off her feet and sent her flying in a mushy explosion of pulp and pips.

Sweetie Belle hissed empathically, that looked painful.

Trying to ignore Midnights worryingly aggressive attacks Sweetie Belle and Dinkie quickly scaled the stack of boxes. Sweetie Belle grinned as she used her magic to create several small telekinetic footholds allowing the two to scramble up the last couple of boxes and into the fort, her lessons from Twilight and Midnight were paying off.

Midnight yelped slightly as Sweetie Belle and Dinkie advanced, his pupils had shrunk to pinpricks so he was still very much out of it. For a moment he threateningly waved a cucumber at them before it swung to close to Dinkies mouth and the small filly took bite out the end. Midnight regarded his broken ‘weapon’ for a seconds before shuffling backwards and picking up the big dessert tray as he went.

“Easy Midnight.” Sweetie Belle cooed as Midnight hefted the tray to the edge, balancing it precariously. “Let’s not do anything drastic ok?”

“Danger…” Midnight said, voice trembling. “Danger…”

“We’re not going to hurt you.” Sweetie Belle said soothingly, trying to edge closer. “Your brother just wants his desserts back.” At the mention of his brother Midnight seemed to focus slightly. His eyes refocused for a moment and he stared straight at Sweetie Belle, unfortunately Dinkie took this as an opportunity to make a grab for the tray. Midnight horn sparked and Dinkie stopped dead mid-grab, he made to shove the tray but his hoof met nothing but air.

Turning around he saw the tray bobbing downwards. Whilst Sweetie Belle had been keeping him distracted Scootaloo had silently looped round the back and grabbed the tray. The orange Pegasus was no parachuting down, wings flapping furiously to control the fall into the waiting hooves of Applejack and Sparkler. He let out one forlorn, “Danger?” before sagging exhaustedly.

“Why don’t you go have a lie down?” Sweetie Belle suggested to which Midnight nodded meekly. Sweetie began to climb back down the boxes, but before she could react Midnight heard Twilight enter the room asking how things were going. Midnight grinned manically and flashed his magic at an adjoining stack of boxes. Sweetie Belle could only watch bemused as Midnights entire stock of ammunition was sent spiralling out of site before landing with a mighty, wet slap.

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With one final ruffle of a towel Sweetie Belle was satisfied she’d cleaned the last of the pulp from her coat. She exited the upstairs bathroom, the only one currently working in the house, and passed Scootaloo, Twilight and Applejack waiting to use the facilities. Before the older mares could react Scootaloo had slipped past Sweetie Belle and locked the door.

Chuckling to herself Sweetie Belle made her way back to the party, there was a considerable commotion coming from the lounge. She poked her head round the door to find all the furniture and boxes had been shifted to form a large clear area in the middle of the room except for what appeared to be a large log placed end-up. Sweetie Belle did a double take at the sight that presented itself to her. Dusk was stood balanced on his two back legs gripping a huge sword in his front hooves.

Dusk was stood side-on to Sweetie Belle affording her a breath-taking silhouette. The sword was being held straight up in front of him and from her angle she could see how the sword, which was nearly as long as Dusks body, curved forward giving it the appearance of a snakes fang especially when combined with the greenish tint of the blade.

Dusk began to move the sword in circular patterns around him, slowly at first but quickly picking up pace. There was hum of magic and small force field enveloped the area around Dusk, Lyra and Sparklers horns glowing as the sword began to blur in Dusks hooves. The sword was helicoptering around Dusk at an astonishing rate when he suddenly moved forward towards the log. In an instant the thick wood was cleft apart as the blade sliced through it like it wasn’t even there.
Dusk fell to his knees panting as the force shields dropped his audience burst into rapturous applause, Sweetie Belle adding in some whistles for good measure. Dusk straightened himself up and announced, “And that friends is how one handles a Makao kopis sword!” Dusk then carefully placed the sword back into a padded box as everyone crowded around to get a closer look at it.

“So that’s what you’ve been trying to find all evening” Sweetie Belle said to Dusk as he gulped down some water, his body dripping with sweat.

“Yeah,” He gasped between deep breaths, “That and the mystery instrument.” Dusk pointed to one corner of the room. Sweetie Belle followed his hoof and for one perplexing moment she through that Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were being eaten by a massive spider. Then it hit her that the huge tangled structure encompassing the two musicians was in fact the most complicated looking string instrument she’d ever seen. The huge structure of interlocking beams was host to dozens upon dozens of strings all connected to a horrendously complicated series of levers and keys. “That instrument hasn’t been used or indeed seen for thousands of years by any kind of musician but they’re convinced they can get it working.”

Sweetie Belle was fascinated as Octavia and Vinyl Scratch continued to fiddle around with the huge string instrument. Though the web like structure was slightly bent in placed and the carved beams badly worn, the kinks provided character and the ware was that of a well-used and loved instrument. “It’s so grand looking…” Sweetie Belle mumbled.

Octavia nodded in agreement but was far to enthralled in her work to reply. Vinyl smiled back and said, “It is pretty cool isn’t it?” Vinyl stopped working for a few moments looking ponderous before turning to Octavia, “I’ve been living with you far too long if I’m finding an old string instrument cool.”

“Maybe…” Octavia replied, “But I was going to say that it looks like some tried to build an analogue Theremin, it even got a horn port to apply a charge to the strings.”

Sweetie Belle wasn’t quite sure what a Theremin was but Vinyl looked overjoyed at Octavia so Sweetie left them to it and turned back to Dusk and his sword. She could get a better look now that everyone had tried and failed to lift it, the sword was longer the Sweetie Belles body and thickly built. Curiously Sweetie Belle noticed that its greenish sheen was identical to that of the string instruments beams. She ran a hoof along the flat of the blade, it didn’t feel like metal and felt strangely warm. Sweetie Belle looked at the sword, then at the instrument, then back at the sword before frowning.

“Dusk?” Sweetie Belle asked seeing the colt wasn’t talking to anyone, “Are the sword and the instrument made of the same material?”

“Well noticed.” Dusk replied, He’d probably already explained the whole story to everyone else but the look on his face made it clear that he was more than eager to go through it again. Considering the problems he and his brother had communicating with people this was probably a rare treat. “It made out of Ironwood, it very rare nowadays, I think the Canterlot Castle gardens have four or five and that’s the highest concentration in the known world. As the name suggests they have metallic properties and because it’s organic it remain very flexible. The wood from the tree is one of the most strong and durable naturally occurring materials known to pony kind”

Dusk effortlessly hefted the huge sword so that light ran across its edge, organic patterns and webs on the blade being picked out. “What makes these artefacts so special is that no pony today had any idea how craft something from ironwood. As far as scholar’s all items made from this substance all originate from the Makao Tribe.”

“Go on!” Sweetie encouraged, intrigued at Dusks story. As Dusk took a ship from his drink to clear his throat Sweetie Belle absentmindedly saw Scootaloo had returned from the upstairs bathroom. There was a faint sound of muffled bumping and raised voices from upstairs followed by a few loud thumps, “Sounds like Applejack and Twilight are fighting over who uses the bathroom next.” Sweetie Belle giggled.

“The Makao Tribe are virtually fairy tales.” Dusk continued, “Only a very small number of their ruins are known to exists, scattered across the extreme south-west edge of Equestria all of which date back millennia before the tribes of the Earth, Pegasus and Unicorns where anywhere near this region of the world. They appeared to have magic and technology far in advance of what even Equestria has today, the ironwood artefacts are evidence of this. Anecdotal evidence suggests their kingdom stretched throughout the known world and beyond then one day… poof…they disappeared.”

“An ancient precursor civilisation with fantastical technology that were wiped out by some undescribed apocalypse?” Sweetie Belle said, eyebrow raised cynically, “Are you sure you’re not reading to prologue to some bad sci-fi?”

“Yeah I know how it sounds.” Dusk sighed, placing the sword back in its box. “The ruins are just so rare. I’ve spent my entire adult life researching the Makao tribe, huh, over half the information that is known came from me or my father. It was one of those expeditions that gave me this,” Dusk indicated his burned side, “Colleague walking along, steps on magically trapped tile, whoompf, acid bubbles materialise out of nowhere, I dive, push them out the way but get caught on the edge of the wave. No more dates for me.”

“I don’t know, rugged explorer is pretty attractive and manly.” Sweetie Belle shrugged, “Plus I’m told by my sister that chicks digs scars.”

“Not sure that’s applies to 50% deep tissue damage that makes me look like –Two Face.”

“Yeah but saving a friends life is an awesome story. You also seemed to know what you were doing with that long-sword, that’s pretty awesome, have you used it much in real life?”

“Firstly it’s a Kopis, not a long sword.” Dusk replied, “But to be fair…”

The conversation was cut short as Octavia said to Vinyl, “Ok think I’ve gotten a bit of it.” Everyone crowded around as she and Vinyl prepared to test the instrument. Octavia looked embarrassed and told them, “Don’t look so excited. It’s just the one, little bit of it that I think is tuned up properly…Provided this thing plays how I think it does.” Vinyl depress a couple of buttons shifting the tensions so several string and Octavia ran the tip of her hoof along a grouping of strings. The sound that emerged was like nothing anyone had heard before, the sonorous chord reverberated through the ironwood frame which began to vibrate and hum adding to the sound that seemed to permeate the floor then rise back up through their bodies. “This instrument could easily replace the entire string section of an orchestra by its left if that was the noise one simple strum makes…” Octavia gasped, “Ok, Ok Dusk, I know this is an important historical piece but you need to let us take this home and work through it properly. If this thing’s half as good as I suspect it is then….YAHH!” Octavia suddenly cried out in shock and jumped in her seat before throwing herself backwards out of it. For the briefest off moment Octavia’s flank flashed with magic and a faint image of her cutie mark appeared before blurring fading out.

Everyone stood silently, dumbstruck at what they had just witnessed. The total impermeable silence lasted for a good 30 seconds before someone mumbled, “Someone get Twilight.”

“She’s upstairs in the bathroom getting melon out of her hair.” Sweetie Belle quickly replied.

“Err I’m actually over here.” Twilight said from behind the group, hovering apprehensively on her wings. “Midnight got the downstairs bathroom working so I used that.”

Twilight brushed past the party guests and began furiously inspecting Octavia rear. Midnight, who had been standing next to her wandered over to Sweetie Belle and started saying something but she couldn’t hear him.

Oddly enough she wasn’t distracted by what had happened to Octavia. There was something bothering her, a voice at the back of her was telling Sweetie that something wasn’t adding up quite right. Ordinarily this was the kind of feeling most people ignored, after all she couldn’t quite place what seemed to be wrong. Ignoring Midnight, Sweetie Belle looked over at Twilight who was aglow with magic and scanning Octavia by every means she had. Suddenly Sweetie noticed a small clump of fruit pulp adhering to Twilights tail and her uneasy feeling snapped into focus.

“Wait Twilight!” Sweetie Belle yelped, eyes widening in panic. “If you were in the downstairs bathroom then who did I hear upstairs with Applejack?”

No sooner had the words left Sweetie Belles mouth the air was rent by a savage yell. There was a flash of azure magic from the doorway and orange blur came hurtling through. Twilight’s horn flared in self-defence but hesitated at the last second. Applejacks limp body ploughed into twilight like a freight train, slamming both mares through several piles boxes and smashing them into the wall with a sickening thud. They fell to the ground, surrounded by bit broken furniture, cardboard and packing foam. Twilights Alicorn physiology kicked in and she dragged herself back up, Applejack lay very, very still.

There was another flash of azure magic, Sweetie belle was blinded and thrown off her feet. Unable to stop her trajectory she bounced of the coffee table, miraculously not impaling herself on the ironwood sword, and crunched painfully into the base of an armchair. The flare was fading rapidly but still unable to see Sweetie belle could only lie still as the world shook around her, as a voice she had not seen heard for a long time began to jabber hysterically; “Though you win this? Huh? Huh? Did you? Thought I wouldn’t notice! Get back here!” Sweetie Belle blinked furiously trying to get some vision back as the voice moved closer and close with the crackle of magic hissing and spitting around it. “You’re all fools! The end is coming! You hear me! We are all dead and you let this happen! But I’m going to fix this! I’m going to finish this, I am is to finish this….” Sweetie Belles vision finally came back into focus, numb from shock she rolled over to look disbelievingly at their assailant. The hair was lank and uncut, the costume gone, the skin anaemic and the eyes crazed and bloodshot, but there was no mistaking The Great and Powerful Trixie.

Trixie stepped over Sweetie Belle, as she did so Sweetie felt something warm and thick dripping onto her as the crazed sorcerer passed. Sweetie Belles looked upwards and saw something that would haunt her for a very long time. Trixie’s flanks had been completely eviscerated. Flaps of flesh hung off her body, dripping half congealed blood downwards. Sweetie Belle was no medical expert, but even she could see what the angle of the slashes meant, there was no doubt that the wounds were self-inflicted. Worst of all there was felt patches stapled into the raw flesh, it drenched in blood and torn by the staples but the patch of fabric was clearly representing the wand and blue flourish of Trixie’s cutie mark.