Seeking A Quiet Afternoon

by Tired Old Man

Ch. 2-8: An Unexpected Ally?

Mender felt an oddly familiar warm glow envelop around him, and found he could breathe normally again as he was held aloft in the air.

If he didn’t heavily suspect Twilight was researching healing magic before, that was completely confirmed now. He saw her horn glow as he was healed from a kick that probably devastated the chances of any future children of his existing.

She finished the spell and set Mender down on the ground. The first words to come out of his mouth were absolutely expected.

“AJ, you owe me SO much right now.”

“The hay do I owe you for?!”

“For saving those damn fillies! Would you think it to be a good idea to keep them around others that look like them AND expect me to keep track of them while fending off over ten changelings?! Have you ANY idea how reckless that sounds compared to sending them away to escape?”

Applejack was taken back, realizing that would be quite difficult to do. “You...You’re right. I’m sorry. But still, we need to find them!”

“I know that! I just sent them out toward the gardens. Hopefully they’re on their way toward the gates no-”

A high-pitched scream from outside cut him off, and they wasted no more time moving outside. AJ took off first toward the door, with Mender running next to Twilight as they both followed closely behind. He had one thing to say to her as well as they ran.

“You and I are going to have a very important conversation later.”

Twilight nodded and said nothing, knowing he was referring to her healing spell. Wasting breath talking about it now was wasting time.

AJ kicked the door open with her front hooves, almost knocking it off its hinges as she looked around the evening garden for the source of the scream. As Mender and Twilight joined her, It didn’t take long to figure out who it came from.

The Crusaders were corralled and huddled in front of a statue as a swarm of changelings was about to descend upon them. Sheesh, they escape from one swarm only to get caught by another outside? Mender hoped they would make it to the main gate, but they ran in the opposite direction, probably headed off by this swarm. Why did he think it was any safer outside if the inside was so dangerous as is?

AJ ended up being right after all. HE was the one at fault here. Maybe not at fault enough to deserve that kick, but still at fault despite his noble intentions. There was no time left to dwell on it, however...but it already seemed too late. The fillies were trapped and the swarm was too close to them for the group to reach them in time.

Suddenly, a changeling in the back of the group screamed in pain before it fell to the ground, causing the swarm to cease its advance. A second fell, then two more, and the swarm scattered, trying to find whatever was attacking them.

This proved to be a worse strategy as stragglers were picked off one by one in rapid succession, ten of them falling in less than eight seconds. This visibly caused the remaining changelights to panic and flee, thinking it to be the best option.

AJ, Mender, and Twilight were stunned at the scene. In this darkness, all they saw were the changelings falling and not knowing why. There were no bright lights indicating magic bolts being used, so what took them down?

Mender rushed in while the mares stood aghast at the scene, and immediately knew who was responsible as he saw kunai sticking out of the bodies of the changelings.

Mender began to sniff around the nearby bushes closest to the statue while the mares got out of their shock and tended to the very frightened fillies.

Then, almost instinctively, he walked over to a nearby bush and punched it. The bush crumpled into a heap as a yelp of pain came from it, and Knife Point burst out from behind the thin wooden board painted meticulously to look like the bush.

“Point.”

“Mender.”

“How the buck did you get in here?” Mender asked.

“I came here on the train, in the same car you were in of course,” Point replied.

He was? How did Mender not notice him-oh, right. The fillies and AJ were heavily distracting him at the time. But…

“How did the guards not spot you then? They were very thorough in looking for changelings.”

“Exactly, they were only looking for changelings. If they had bothered to do a half-decent inspection with their eyes instead of their horns, they might have seen me. Idiots,” Point remarked with a confident smirk.

Mender sighed. Celestia’s security measures were horribly lax if Point could get through such a tight checkpoint right under their noses.

“Well, what are you doing here, anyway?”

“Simple. Making sure YOU don’t die on me.” Point pointed at Mender as he said “you” to emphasize it.

“What? Why?” Mender asked, slightly dumbfounded at Point’s apparent change of heart.

“So I can kill you as soon as you tell me why you spared me!” he huffed.

“...seriously?”

“Seriously?”

“You didn’t need to echo that.”

“What, I can’t voice my own disbelief? This assassin’s a nutjob!”

“Yes, dead serious,” Point continued. “Until you tell me or I figure out why you let me live somehow, I need to make sure you stay alive long enough to tell me!”

Mender strongly resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but decided to ask a different question.

“Well, why did you save the fillies then?” He gestured over to the fillies, who were still recovering from shock and fear as Twilight and AJ tried to get them under control.

Point shrugged. “I have a soft spot for kids.”

Mender narrowed his eyes. “That can’t be your only reason. They fired an arrow into my house at me the last time we fought!”

“That’s also the other reason they’re alive. They make your life miserable.” Point grinned widely, chuckling at his own joke.

“Heh, he’s got a point Mender. Those kids DO make your life entertaining to follow, at least to me.”

“Shut up, Young! Don’t agree with the enemy!”

“Well, he’s not really an enemy if he saved the fillies from the changelings, right? You know, enemy of my enemy...”

“NO! The last thing Point or I would DARE admit is that we’re friends! I’m pretty sure if I suggested that, he would-”

“NOT kill you, remember? Pretty sure you could use that to tick him off, though.”

Mender smiled in a way that instantly made Point uncomfortable. “Young, you’re a genius. A dirty, devious little genius.”

“Well, thanks for saving the fillies, Point. I think you just upgraded to ‘friend’ status.”

Point’s eyes shrunk, and a drop of sweat fell down his face. “W-WHAT?!”

Mender’s smile widened with glee. He knew he was getting under Point’s fur now.

“Oh, don’t play dumb. You’re making sure I’m staying alive, and you saved some young fillies that we couldn’t! Far as I’m concerned, we’re buddies now!” Mender walked up and wrapped a forehoof around his neck, only for him to slink out of the grip and back off instantly.

“We are NOT friends!” he objected, loud enough to get the attention of the other ponies gathered around the statue.

“Hmm...yeah, I’ll go ahead and think we are. All the more for me to torture you with, after all.”

“I-I’ll refute it every time until my death!” Point weakly objected.

Mender laughed. “Hah, go ahead and do that. Until you kill me, I won’t stop.”

“AAAAAAAGH!” Point pulled out the kunai with red cloth tied around it and brought it to Mender’s neck in a flash.

Mender narrowed his eyes again, and stared at Point defiantly as the mares and fillies watched with a fearful look in their eyes. He decided he would be very blunt with his statement.

“Careful now, Point. You wouldn’t want to spill my blood in front of the fillies you just saved, would you?”

“Tch,” was all that came from Point before he withdrew his weapon and holstered it. The mares breathed a sigh of relief before tending to the fillies.

“That’s a good boy. Now then, how about we all go for a nice walk back into the castle and find Twilight’s friends, hm?”

Point scoffed. “Hah, no way. You expect me to willingly walk into a deathtrap for other ponies I don’t know or care about?”

“I figured...though I should let you know I’m going in there. If nothing else, you said you were looking out for only me. What if I decide to get reckless and start trying to kill myself in there?” Mender smirked.

“You wouldn’t.” Point grit his teeth.

“Considering I was just in there and managed to live so far, yeah, I think I can go back in again.”

Point shrugged, which confused Mender for a moment. “Fine, but I’m not going along with your merry menagerie of mares. I work solo.”

Mender sighed. “I expected nothing more or less from you, Point.” He turned to the other ponies, who had finally calmed down despite the commotion from earlier. “Alright, we’re moving back into the castle.”

Applejack immediately objected. “What? No way, yer not puttin’ my little sister or her friends back into that castle, y’hear?!”

“Applejack, they nearly got captured by changelings out here. At this point, I’m very concerned that they won’t even make it to the gate by the time more changelings show up...actually, changelings could be at the gates right now, making sure that there’s no pony escaping to alert the town.”

AJ was about to interrupt, but Mender held a hoof up to stop her as he continued. “Also, leaving them outside here in the gardens will only invite more trouble for them, as they’re left wide open out here without somepony to watch them. Unless you’re feeling confident in taking down an entire swarm of changelings that notices you, and we all know how well that worked for me, I very much doubt staying out here is a good idea.”

“W-well, it’s not like the castle is any safer!” AJ objected again, albeit a bit weaker now. She knew Mender was making good point, but she still thought the castle was a bad spot to bring the fillies into.

“...actually, the castle might be better to stay in after all.” Twilight added, earning a look of surprise from Applejack. “The corridors and hallways, in addition to the bedrooms, force the changelings to fly in a tight cluster. With proper magic spells or wide physical attacks, it’s much easier to directly assault changelings that way as opposed to an open area where they can fly around more freely.”

Mender smiled. “See? Even Twilight thinks it’s a good idea, AJ.”

“Can I vote by saying it’s still a terrible idea?”

“It’s the least terrible idea, Young. That automatically makes it a good idea.”

“I’m not sure that’s a proper way to think of things, Mender.”

“There’s a certain phrase I know, Young. If failure is assured, fail in the best way possible.”

“Hah, I see where you’re going with that...but you think you’re going to lose, then?”

“I would hope not...but this attack is too well planned and coordinated. Most of the guards have been disabled or dealt with, and the attack happened during nightfall which helped mask their approach...however they got in here. This is a far cry from how bold and brazen their first attack was in broad daylight during a wedding.”

“Sounds like they’ve improved their tactics dramatically from last time. They went from cocky to conniving rather quickly...I wonder...”

“Something on your mind, Young?”

“...nevermind. Just had some wandering thoughts, is all.”

“Mender!”

He shook his head to see that AJ, Twilight, and the Crusaders were all waiting at the ballroom door. He looked around for a moment and noticed that Point had vanished...only now, Mender was very aware of his stern gaze watching him from the shadows.

Without any further delay, Mender ran over to the group and followed them all inside as Twilight held the door open for everypony to get in. While she didn’t see Point, she quickly picked up on the fact that he was probably following them anyway, so she shut the door to join her friends.

-----------------------

Point had taken the high ground, scaling a wall that led to a window he had opened on the second floor of the ballroom. It was from this vantage point that moments ago he had seen Mender valiantly fighting a small swarm of changelings...and naturally the nut-smashing kick AJ delivered to him. That made him grin in delight.

His eyes fell on four unlucky changelings that happened to follow him onto the balcony overlooking the ballroom. Unlike Mender, Point had no qualms about killing changelings as opposed to disabling them. Leave it to a medic to save and preserve lives, and an assassin to take them away as quickly as possible. Point was no slouch, despite his many failed attempts to kill Mender, as each changeling either suffered a mortal slash or stab wound to their head or torso. Their body structure didn’t really differ much from a pony’s, which made it all the easier for him consider he knew every vital point a pony had.

Point looked down at the group of ponies below him, including his rather irksome target, Mender. He noted that the orange mare with the stetson (he never bothered to remember their names) was nervously looking around, though he believed she wasn’t looking for changelings. No, she was looking for him. Hah, she’s wasting her time. He never intended to follow them anyway, as he had his own agenda to accomplish besides following Mender.

As soon as he saw the changelings patrolling the gardens in swarms, Point knew something was wrong. Lord Locus had recanted to him and others when he was but a young Recruit about the foolish attempt that Chrysalis made for the throne. It was during such a rare but grand speech of his that he had gone over how the changelings had fought...and comparing that knowledge to how they acted now, there was no doubt in his mind.

These changelings had outside help to get them this far, and he wanted to know who did it and why. If this unseen hoof of influence was able to get the changelings this far in, they could prove to be a threat to Lord Locus. While Point himself doubted it, he knew that doubt like that would only invite underestimation of a future opponent, and that would prove far more fatal in the long run.

Point walked back into the second floor hallway from the ballroom balcony and saw six changelings patrolling in a three wide, two high rectangular formation, their backs facing him. He smirked. This would go rather quickly.

He pulled out two kunai and chucked them at the changelings. One scored a direct hit to the back of the neck of the bottom-left changeling, killing it instantly. The other went to the top-right changeling’s wing, severing it and causing it to collide with the other two that were flying below it, sending the three to the ground.

The remaining two changelings stopped and turned to face their opponent, only to see nothing there. Curious, one changeling separated to investigate, leaving the other to help the three changelings untangling themselves.

The lone changeling saw nothing out of the ordinary as it slowly flew forward, its wings buzzing all the while. Point had hidden himself behind his wooden camouflage board, brandishing his red-clothed dagger. When the buzzing came close enough, Point rewarded the intruding changeling with a strong stab through the bottom of their skull before bringing them down to the ground.

The still-flying changeling noticed and hissed at Point, who had now folded up his screen and took a combat stance. By this point the changelings on the ground untangled themselves, and they had all transformed into other clones of Knife Point while the changeling above remained flying for air support.

Point’s smirk grew even wider. Copying his appearance was a huge mistake, one that he was gladly going to rectify. He pulled his red cloth kunai out of the changeling he’d just stabbed and held it up to his nose, sniffing the blood on it. It reeked a foul odor of bile and something else Point couldn’t identify. Then he licked the blade, tasting iron and what felt like hot, burning acid on his tongue, and as terrible as it was, he forced a malicious smile towards his foes as he grasped the blade in his teeth.

The changelings that observed his actions were visibly horrified. The pony before them had just tasted their blood, and seemed to be enjoying it. This display both angered them and gave them pause for thought as to whether or not they should fight him.

Point made their decision for them as he charged forward. Out of instinct, they rushed toward him. Exactly as planned.

Point pulled out one of his dust bottles that he had used when he fought Mender and slammed it on the ground not two seconds before the changelings would have come upon him. The sudden smoke blinded the changelings, causing the flying one to ascend above it and the ground ones to scatter in panic. He then pulled the kunai blade out from his mouth and sliced into the cloud, scoring a deep cut along the neck of one of his clones. He rushed into the cloud and found a second disguised changeling, but he wanted to make this one suffer. He brought the kunai down onto the changeling’s back seven times, then severed the wings and horn before leaving them to bleed out.

Suddenly, he felt the third grounded changeling latch onto him from behind. Despite the weight on his back, Point flared his wings and flew into the air a few inches off the ground. He then inverted himself and shut his wings, going into a small drop that crushed the changeling underneath him. This loosened the grip long enough for him to roll out and gut his foe as they laid on their back.

Point had to take a moment to breathe. He didn’t expect a changeling to find him in the dust cloud he summoned, but it was of little consequence now. There was only one changeling left to deal with, and he decided to be quick. Point chucked his red cloth kunai up into the air above him.

THUNK

The last changeling fell to the ground, the kunai embedded in their head right between the eyes. The fool was looking down for the rest of his squad instead of flying away from the cloud to find help. Well, that saved him the trouble of chasing the changeling down, at least. The last thing he wanted was more reinforcements bearing down on him.

As soon as he removed his red cloth kunai from the changeling’s skull, he ran back toward the bend in the hallway he passed by earlier to deal with the threat in front of him. Rounding the corner, he continued to run down the dark, dimly lit corridor.

It would only take a few minutes for him to find a tower stairwell. On intuition, he ascended the stairs quickly but quietly. He had a feeling by now that if the princesses weren’t incapacitated, they were surely fighting off the swarm...or their leader, Chrysalis. Given how infested this place was, Point assumed the latter was taking place as he approached Luna’s bedroom door. As she was responsible for keeping the barrier up, Point thought it best to check on her first, as she would no doubt be the most vulnerable out of the two.

There was no noise coming from the room through the closed doors. Point carefully looked around for any patrolling changelings, and noted that none were present. He then carefully opened the door, and slowly poked his head inside.

Luna was encased in a green cocoon, and she was either resting or unconscious judging from her closed eyes and her collapsed body within. Gazing upward, he spotted Celestia hanging from a similar cocoon on the ceiling, along with a third occupant in the room buzzing around and applying what appeared to be a green sap-like substance to the cocoon.

Point grinned, and noisily opened the door. This caused Chrysalis to flinch and look down at the intruder, who smiled and began to speak to her in a slightly condescending tone.

“So, you must be Queen Chrysalis.”

Comments

[alehhandro]

I just cannot understand it. It just wont fit in my head... WHY ist this story so unliked!! only 30 faves for a clearly planned and thought over story!!! i cant understand ppl anymore..

anyway!. what i really wanted to tell you was that i REALLY like this piece of adventure literature a LOT and i really hope that i will be able to reade some more chapters real soon! your portrayal of the differens ponys is lovable and the plot got me thinking more than one of too times.. (btw, i have a really strong suspision about Menders supposed Fillyfriend.^^)

[Luna Secret Stallion]

Oh boy!

[Rune Heart]

100k words already and it's only two months old? Definitely going into my read later.