The Elements of Unity

by Gremlin Grenade

Railroad Rampage

[The weight of our crimes is not to be measured by our peers. Who is one who condemns, and destroys in the name of condemnation? The righteous are those who follow their heart, thoughtless to the just and unjust and mindful of their dreams and ambitions alone.]

The train station was exceptionally busy, with the commotion surrounding the arrest. Newsponies from all around were showing up to shed light on the situation and report on the now exposed corruption in Trottingham. While this made it easy enough to schedule an exit without attracting too much attention, it also resulted in unbearable delays as the small station had difficulty dealing with the huge influx of arrivals. Master Plan had originally intended to escape the city via the docks, sailing down the river-line, but his bust had put unexpected pressure on the ship captains by the guards. Instead, they would take the train; a normally undesirable means of travel both because of the slower pace they would be travelling at, and the relative ease with which a train conductor could keep track of individual passengers, making it all the more difficult to remain anonymous.

Steel Hoof was forced to sell his cart and some of the goods inside if they were to take public transportation, which was something he was none too happy about, though the three agreed that the funds they received out of the sale were well-needed. Kataro also managed to sell some of the jewelry he had bought earlier; he now only wore a few rings around his hooves and a shawl with tribal designs, helping him fit in more, if only slightly.

It wasn’t long before Master Plan began to grow fidgety and impatient. While it was true that his recent efforts were considered by many to be nothing short of heroic, he didn’t want to attract any more attention to himself or his compatriots than necessary, lest some reporter find out his real intentions. As he waited at the train station for their ride out to finish repairs, Master Plan paced back and forth, tapping his hoof impatiently. They had somewhere to be, and his gut told him that they didn’t have much time…

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When she heard of the visitors arriving from Canterlot, Royal Valor’s first reaction was that of frustration. While she was grateful of such esteemed guests, recent events had already stretched her thin, and she wanted nothing less than more high-society types to interfere with her work. As she approached the Duke’s throne room she found that their guests had already met with the Duke, and were investigating the scene themselves.

“Royal Valor, is it?” The unicorn by the open treasury addressed her without turning, “you were the one leading this valiant arrest, correct?” Seemingly finished with his inspection, he turned to face her, “It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Holy Justice; I’m with the department of kingdom security, and I have a few questions regarding the nature of this incident.”

Royal was shocked to find such a powerful organization involved in her affairs. “I assure you, Lord Justice, the local guards have everything under control; we should have the entire gang cleaned up by the end of the month.”

“Oh, I’m not questioning your abilities. I simply wish to know the nature of the arrest. From my understanding, it was an inside job, of sorts. Is this correct?”

“Yes sir, a civilian set up the whole operation.”

“And do you know this pony?”

“No sir, he wasn’t one of the locals”

“Could you describe this pony, captain? What did he look like?”

Royal thought back to the other night. “He had red eyes, and a grey coat. His cutie mark was a chess piece but his clothing made his mane color impossible to tell.”

“And I am to gather that it hid his breed as well?” As she thought about it, this was also true. His hat hid any possible horn, while his trench coat covered where wings would normally be. In fact, for all she knew, the gray pony could be an alicorn.

Holy Justice seemed to catch on to her line of thinking as he chuckled out loud. “Don’t worry; I’m sure his breed is nothing out of the ordinary. I have one more question before I take my leave: did this unknown pony speak to you? Perhaps tell you his name?”

Royal Valor thought to what the mysterious pony said the other night. She knew he was dangerous, that much was for sure, but there was something about him that made him seem sincere, genuine. Against her better judgment she played stupid with this Canterlot official. “No, sir, he said nothing.”

She couldn’t tell if he bought it; his expression hardly changed. “Hmmm, curious. Well, I suppose we’ll be off then, thank you for your cooperation.”

As the unicorn and his assistant began to leave, Royal Valor stiffened. She had her suspicions, but she hardly felt the incident warranted a visit from Canterlot. “Excuse me, but what is all this about?”

Holy Justice raised an eyebrow. “Well then, you’ve been cooperative enough, I suppose you deserve some answers. I have been tracking a pony by the same description for several years now. His name is Master Plan, though we suspect that to simply be an alias. What we do know is that this pony intends to harm the royal sisters, and perhaps usurp the celestial throne. We know he is very intelligent, and should be considered very dangerous.” He stopped for a moment, as though a thought just occurred to him, “If you discover any new information about this pony, please inform my department via ‘dragon mail.’”

As the officials left, mixed feelings stirred within Royal Valor. What they said was surely true, Master Plan had made a point of telling her so himself. He was dangerous, and what he planned was treason. But he had also handed her one of the most notorious crime bosses in all of Trottingham, and left despite receiving no reward or recognition. Master Plan wanted revolution, she was sure of that, but she wasn’t sure if that was necessarily a bad thing. She tried her best to clear such thoughts from her head, but she couldn’t shake this feeling of guilt. Her thoughts were interrupted by the footsteps of the Duke, who had returned from a meeting and Royal Valor returned to her post.

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Master Plan leaned his head against the window, watching the rapidly changing scenery. While the train had left a full hour and a half late, the trio had made it safely aboard and were almost a day out of Trottingham. Steel Hoof and Kotaro sat on the other side of the train car, playing with some dice that Steel Hoof had managed to sneak out of The Rapscallion Stallion. Fortune played in Kataro’s favor, though, and the large earth pony soon found himself losing his hard-earned bits. Master Plan sat in a contemplative state, reflecting the events that had just occurred. There was a chance, he was aware, that Royal Valor would not take him up on his offer. While everything did go according to plan so far, there was still a chance that the guard captain would choose to hunt him rather than help him. In that regard, he took a large risk by using his real name, but it was the only way he could be sure to earn her trust. Even if she choose to accept his offer, she would be wary of him for a while, and it wouldn’t help his cause to tell her he had been lying about something as simple as his name.

His mind also fell to the future, to what he had planned ahead. He hadn’t told his allies the next stage in his plan, and, in truth, this next stage may take months. His current companions didn’t fully trust him yet, he could tell, but the closer they headed to Canterlot, the happier the citizens were with Celestia’s rule. As their train headed southward, he thought of the ponies he would have to “enlist,” to complete his objective. To complete the elements of unity.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a stallion’s voice, amplified with a megaphone. “This is the department of kingdom security, you are hereby ordered to stop this train at once!” Master Plan hoped that the engineer would panic and keep moving, but he was quickly jolted forward as the wheels started to screech to a stop.

When he peered outside, he saw a group of pegasus ponies flying alongside the moving train, along with a regal white unicorn being pulled by a flying chariot. “Steel Hoof, get to the front of this train and make sure it keeps moving; no matter what!” Master Plan was frantic to reach his destination; he had come too far to be stopped by another pony’s cowardice. He leapt from his seat, racing to the car behind them. Kataro, catching wind of the situation, followed closely behind.

Steel Hoof had to shove his way to the front car through a plethora of curious and panicking ponies, but with his size he managed to reach the engineer’s car well before the train had stopped moving. When he reached the front, he saw the engineer, confused as anypony else, peering out the window, his hoof on the brake. Steel Hoof was relieved to find that, while many trains were pulled by a group of larger ponies like himself, this one was mechanically powered and he would only need to convince the one pony to continue moving. “Do not stop!” The engineer was startled by the roar of the massive passenger, and his hoof slipped off the brake as he turned around. He started to turn back to the controls, desperate to regain his grip, and Steel Hoof saw that he needed to act fast. “These ponies, they are imposters! They are not real government ponies!” He saw in the engineer’s eyes that he wanted to believe Steel Hoof, though he himself would admit the bluff was certainly an absurd one.

“They’re not?! But… look at that armor! Who are these ponies?” The engineer was growing more nervous every second. Despite the absurdity of the situation, Steel Hoof realized he could keep the train moving with just a little more convincing. “No, they are criminals! They want to hurt the passengers on this train! We will handle them, you just keep train moving! Get there on time!”

The engineer looked around worriedly as he tried to assess the situation. “Yes, Mr. Punctual would… I… I don’t want to lose my job!” and with that he returned to the controls of the train, his hoof remaining off the lever.

Outside, Holy Justice frowned when he saw the sparks beneath the train wheels disappear; it appeared that they would not stop. His resolve regained slightly, however when he saw the black figure climb to the top of a nearby train car. Master Plan himself, his trench coat blowing against the wind, galloped to meet these pursuers. Behind him, a tall zebra followed, quickly catching up to the smaller pony. “Ah, so you’ve come to meet me!” Holy Justice called out over the noise of the vehicle. “So you’re Master Plan? I suppose you’re about what I expected.”

Master Plan was shocked at this remark. Who was this pony, who supposedly knew so much about him? He figured that it was possible Royal Valor dispatched a group of guards to capture him after all, but, based on her earlier hesitation, he did not expect the response to be so quick. “I suggest you leave now if you want to live!” He knew he wasn’t in much of a position to call out such a bluff, but it was the best way he could think of to test this pursuer’s resolve.

He didn’t disappoint. “I’m afraid not, in fact the only way this little game can possibly end is with you dead or in captivity. And personally, I don’t care which you chose!” Master Plan was both impressed and infuriated with this lawpony’s bravado. While he outnumbered Plan and his companions fairly severely, he would either have to know very little about his enemy or have a few tricks up his sleeve to attempt such a bold move.

The cars behind Steel Hoof rattled with a flash of light as some sort of explosive hit the rear of the train. He expected it to be a magical attack, though he had seen the use of many different cannons and missiles while in service to Stalliongrad. Either way, these were foes to be reckoned with. The earth pony quickened his pace as he raced to help his friends.

The fireball the white unicorn fired would have surely caught Master Plan, if Kataro had not caught him in time to avoid it. As it was, the shot merely singed his coat, as well as taking out a sizable chunk of the train car. As he regained his footing, one of the armed pegasi lunged for them. Master Plan dropped to his stomach to avoid the blow, but Kataro managed to grab a hold of the pegasus’ spear, using his momentum against him to writhe it free and send him flying. Master Plan also returned fire with a fireball of his own while still off his feet, though this volley was far less sizable than the one sent at him, partially due to the constant telekinesis he had to maintain to keep his hat on. Holy Justice managed to doge the shot, though one of his companions was not so lucky and crashed into the countryside in a ball of burning feathers. Kataro had already found himself engaged in spear-to-spear combat with another one of the guards, and Master Plan was finding that they were in a very compromising position.

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Royal Valor paced down the castle halls nervously. She had nearly come to a resolution, though it was one that the better part of her disagreed with. Holy Justice had only left about an hour ago; if she was going to act she needed to do so soon.

When she entered the armory, Lieutenant Scarwind, Royal’s second in command, had been waiting, just as she had asked. He stood stiff and at attention, but his eyes revealed his confusion and worry. Royal didn’t blame him, her flustered and hasty attitude surely came off as unsettling for those under her command recently, but she had some very important decisions to make and virtually no time to make it. “I appreciate you meeting me on such short notice, Lieutenant. Time is short and we have important matters to discuss.”

“What is this about, captain?” The lieutenant’s nervousness found its way out as his captain looked him sternly in the eye.

“I’m stepping down from my office, lieutenant. Possibly indefinitely.”

“Stepping down?! But sir, I-“

“There’s no time for questions, lieutenant, just listen. I need you to take over my station as captain. The guards here still need a leader, and Trottingham will be looking to you to be its protector. Can I count on you to perform my duties in my stead?” Royal could see the hesitation in his eyes, the fear of such a heavy burden. But she knew that he was capable of this weighty task, and, in her heart, she knew what his answer would be.

Scarwind was not a pony of great ambitions. He wasn’t interested in rising to the top, of royal pay grades, of fame or fortune. He was a pony of principles, who wanted to protect his people, so when he said to her, “As you wish, captain,” she knew it was without ego or aspiration.

Not another word was spoken as Royal Valor raced, alone, to the aid of a pony she had no reason to trust, but in whom she held a sense of belief, nonetheless.

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Master Lunged away, rolling to his feet on the landing, as another royal guard swept down to impale him. He placed a magical wall in the guard’s path, causing the pegasus to crash and plummet into the dirt. Out of his peripherals, he saw a group of earth ponies boarding the rear of the train, and racing to where he was. Kataro was still engaged with the last two pegasus guards in spear combat. Though nopony was gaining ground in this fight, Master Plan still felt they were running out of time.

In the car beneath him, Steel Hoof was charging the newest passengers head on. Slamming into one of the two, the guard pony crashed to the ground when his ally bucked Steel Hoof in the ribs. The workpony grunted and staggered, but managed to regain his balance in time to catch the guard’s fore hooves lunging toward him. The two pushed back and forth as the wind, blowing in from the gaping crater in the train car, roared about them. Steel Hoof managed to overpower his opponent, but had little time to recover as the other guard climbed to his hooves and was lunging toward his opponent. A swift buck caused the guard to stagger, but Steel Hoof didn’t have the time to put as much power as he wanted. The other barreled into him, knocking him off his hooves, but also causing him to crash into the other guard pony, sending him off the side of the train car. Steel Hoof rose in time to catch a second attack with a head-butt of his own, though the guard’s helmet made this a worse idea than he anticipated. Both ponies stood apart for a moment, dazed, before Steel managed to regain enough composure to force the staggering pony off the other end of the open train car.

Master Plan put up a protective shield as another of Holy Justice’s fireballs crashed into it. He was growing weary, the chaos of the whole situation making him exhausted. Kataro stepped back to avoid a strike from one of the pegasus guards, before lunging in and stabbing his attacker in the neck. The guard crashed into the floor of the train car below, and Kataro had only a split second to regain his stance before the second guard attacked. Master plan attempted to blast the pegasus pony drawing his opponent’s chariot, but Holy Justice deflected the attack with ease. He could see another white pegasus guard in the distance; there wasn’t much they could do if reinforcements showed up.

His thoughts were interrupted as Kataro let out a cry of pain. His opponent landed a hit on his left flank; it wasn’t a serious wound, but the blood was already starting to drip from his cutie mark. Steel Hoof yelled from below, “If we are to do something, it must be now!”Still, despite his namesake, Master Plan had nothing. He never expected such an early attack, and even if he did, he didn’t have the resources to prepare for one. Which was exactly why he was caught so off guard when the approaching white pegasus blindsided Holy Justice, bucking the side of his chariot.

“JUMP!” was all Royal Valor could manage before changing her flight path, trying to throw her pursuers off guard. Master Plan, out of any other options, Leaped off the side of the train, his allies close behind. Royal Valor ducked and weaved away from the pursuing pegasus, finally crashing through the window and coming out the other side. Her pursuer lacked her grace and crash-landed into the inside wall of the train, shards of glass in his face and legs.

By the time Holy Justice regained his balance, his targets were long gone. With the majority of his forces incapacitated, and no trace of Master Plan, he decided to retreat, landing his chariot atop the moving train. His quarry may have escaped, but he knew where they were heading, and his superiors would find his newest information most intriguing...

As the three allies regained their composure, Royal Valor glided over to meet them. The four of them were sore and exhausted, but all felt fortunate they were alive. Master Plan turned to his newest ally, grinning despite his pain. “So, it seems you reconsidered?”

Her demeanor, it seemed, did not change since their last meeting. “You let three guardponies die back there.”

“An astute observation, captain.” Royal did not appreciate his facetious attitude.

“I stopped TWO of them without killing anyone, the lot of you should be more careful!” The adrenaline leaving her system, Royal started to calm down. She turned her gaze to the ground, somberly, before speaking, “There’s going to be more killing, won’t there?”

Master Plan saw no reason to be dishonest with his new compatriot. “Yes, there is.” He wanted to add something more, to comfort his friends, but there wasn’t anything he could say. He had no idea if things would get better, but he could be sure they would get worse.

It was Steel Hoof who broke the silence. “So, where do we go now? Do we even know where we are?”

Master Plan’s ears perked up, and he looked to his friend with a smile. “We are, fortunately, in walking distance of our intended destination.” He pointed his friends to a nearby sign. “A quaint little town, in the shadow of Canterlot. The perfect staging ground for our revolution.” Master Plan turned back to his compatriots. “My friends, we go to Ponyville.”

End Chapter 4

Comments

[RamboPilot]

I was going to do a Che Guevara in Equestria fic, but this looks good.