8 - Hostage Rescue
Rarity's heart was racing a mile a minute as she sped back towards the school. She briefly hoped she hadn't hurt Rainbow Dash too badly, but shrugged off the thought - Rainbow Dash had endured far worse and walked away laughing. Finally, with one last burst of stamina, she made it back with six minutes to spare. "You want me? Well, here I am! Now release the hostages!" One of the foalnappers stuck his head out the window. Rarity realized to her horror that he had Apple Bloom with her and had a spear pressed against her throat. One glance to her left saw the blood drain out of Applejack's face.
"Take your bucking mask off. Right now, or the runt gets it!" Rarity complied, and all of the onlookers fell into a dead silence. Sweating, the goon retreated back into the school and turned to his leader. "She's here. I made her take off her mask. It's the bucking seamstress, the one who has the Element of Generosity or some shit!" All of the foals turned to stare at Sweetie Belle, who promptly blanched.
Sis... what are you doing?
Roughneck looked out the window. "If it's really her, why the buck hasn't she done anything this past hour other than sit there and shit herself? And besides..." Roughneck returned to the window and addressed Rarity. "Don't think I'm a bucking idiot! I know who I'm looking for - three fillies! You're just trying to take the fall for them!"
It took all of Rarity's self-control to avoid jumping a mile at the revelation. WHAT?! Fortunately, she was not the Element of Honesty. "Please... do you really think three fillies could honestly pull off being a superhero on their own? They needed a leader... somepony like me." She began silently praying in her head. Take the bait, take the bait, please take the bait... Her prayers were answered when two of the foalnappers, a unicorn and a pegasus, stepped out of the school and began to approach her. Rarity growled, "You have what you want. Now release the hostages."
"Not yet." With that, the pegasus punched her in the face. The unicorn's horn began to glow, and together they charged at Rarity. Rarity attempted to use some of the self-defense magic she knew, but against the two hardened criminals it was no use. Rarity took a magic bolt to the gut and another kick to the head and collapsed on the ground in a heap. The pegasus brought down his hoof on Rarity's left foreleg and stomped it so hard that the bone could be seen sticking out of it. Rarity screamed in pain.
Applejack attempted to charge in and save her friend, but Twilight stopped her. "Not yet - if we move too fast, the other three might kill the children!" She turned to Wedge and uttered the one word he and the police had been waiting for an hour to hear. "Go." Wedge nodded and turned to the police. He had two unicorns including himself and two earth ponies too work with.
"All right, Chief Cufflink, make yourself and Hot Fuzz invisible. I've got Gumhoof." His fellow unicorn nodded, and in a moment the four were invisible. They snuck up to the entrance of the school and hid beneath the window. Wedge ordered, "OK, take the invisibility off of Hot Fuzz. Chief Cufflink, you and I will go in first and disable the unicorn and the pegasus, respectively. Once they're down, Hot Fuzz, Gumhoof, you follow us and we all jump the earth pony together. On my mark... ready... mark!" Hot Fuzz and Gumhoof reappeared and the two unicorns charged in. Wedge grabbed the spear from the pegasus' hooves and bashed him in the chin with its handle before hitting him with a stun spell knocking him out. Chief Cufflink telekinetically grabbed a nearby chair and sent it crashing onto the unicorn's head, taking him out as well. With that done, Hot Fuzz and Gumhoof rushed in and pinned Roughneck to the wall, leaving him wide open for a double blast from Wedge and Chief Cufflink. He slumped to the ground, and Wedge turned to the hostages. He discovered to his relief that they were terrified, but otherwise mostly uninjured. Wedge ran to the window and screamed, "They're down!" That was all the cue the other townsponies needed. Big Macintosh and Bulk Biceps let Derpy Hooves go, and the three charged in, quickly followed by Twilight Sparkle and an army of townsfolk. The final two foalnappers never stood a chance.
As Rarity was loaded into the ambulance, all of her friends tried to pile in with her. However, Nurse Redheart shook her head. "Sorry, folks. Family only." They nodded, and Redheart left with Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and their parents. Scootaloo ran off towards the hospital as well, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie decided to follow her in order to keep an eye on her and check up on Biggs. This left Twilight Sparkle and Applejack to confront Roughneck. They approached him as he was about to be carted off by Chief Cufflink and Gumhoof. Several curious fillies who had already recovered from shock, Apple Bloom included, also listened.
"Mr. Roughneck, age 37, currently wanted all across Equestria for crimes including arson, kidnapping, murder... and jaywalking?" Twilight shrugged and continued. "You are going to answer my questions, or I am going to let Applejack break your legs."
Roughneck spat, "You wouldn't. Interrogation is for police ponies."
Chief Cufflink shrugged. "One of the hostages was my daughter. It's too bad we had to break your leg during the rescue effort." Roughneck scowled.
Twilight asked, "Why did you do this? What did Mare Do Well ever do to you?"
Roughneck smiled. "Money, of course. I was paid a hefty amount of bits to lure her out and take her out."
"I'm sure you can figure out the next question on your own, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Who hired you?"
Roughneck paused. "...Sterling Silver." Everypony gasped. The reaction among the eavesdropping fillies was instantaneous. Slowly, they began backing away from Silver Spoon in horror. Derpy Hooves' daughter Dinky spoke up.
"Silver Spoon... that's your dad... THAT'S YOUR DAD!!!" Silver Spoon began stammering in confused horror. Diamond Tiara ran up to the police and jumped to her best friend's father's defense.
"There's no way - he would never do something like that! That bad guy is lying through his teeth!"
Apple Bloom joined in. "Besides, he tried to kidnap Silver Spoon! Why would he hire the ponies who endangered his daughter to do anythin'?"
Chief Cufflink responded by dropping another bombshell. "The police have no record of any kidnap attempt against Silver Spoon besides this one. You're not seriously taking the word of a well known self-centered attention whore who has every reason to want to protect Daddy and his money, are you?" At this accusation, Silver Spoon ran off crying. Diamond Tiara glared death at Chief Cufflink before running off to comfort her friend. Apple Bloom could only stand there in confusion as the police dragged Roughneck away in chains.
Sweetie Belle listened to the doctor as she rattled off Rarity's injuries. "Several broken bones, multiple bruises, internal bleeding... your sister will be hurting for a while, but she won't die, if that's what you're worried about." Sweetie Belle nodded and turned to her sister, who was lying on a bed in the emergency room.
"Why did you do that, Sis? You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"As long as you were safe, it honestly didn't matter what happened to me... and besides, I'll pull through! Why don't go you check on Biggs? I'm sure he and Scootaloo need your support more than I do." Sweetie Belle nodded and ran off to the surgery section of the hospital, where the other doctors were trying to save Biggs. She found Scootaloo, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie in the waiting room. Sweetie Belle sat down next to Scootaloo and put a hoof around her neck. They began waiting for news of Biggs' fate. Soon, they were joined by Twilight, Applejack, Wedge, and Apple Bloom, who updated the group on the accusation against Sterling Silver. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo also refused to accept Roughneck's words as truth. The final member of the group to join them was Rainbow Dash, who revealed exactly how Rarity had gotten the Mare Do Well costume from her. The group waited for an hour, although it felt like three. Finally, Nurse Redheart appeared and dropped the next bombshell of the day.
"Ladies and Wedge, Biggs is going to pull through." The cheering from the nine ponies was deafening, and none more so than Scootaloo's.
It had been a long, long, long day, but Apple Bloom had finally returned home with her family after giving a statement to the police. Applejack was angrily muttering under her breath. "Stupid Mare Do Well, nearly gettin' everypony killed just so she could play hero..." Apple Bloom winced. She knew perfectly well her role in the mess, and did not need Applejack to remind her. "Ah mean, come on! Some hero! She chickened out and left Rarity to get the stuffin' beaten outta her in her stead!" Apple Bloom could barely choke back tears. "That scumbag is no better than the rest of those crooks! If ah find her, I'm gonna knock her teeth out, then rip her dumb mask off before ah ask her just why she couldn't be bothered to go the whole nine-"
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT! THE HAY! UP! AH NEVER WANTED ANY OF THIS TO HAPPEN! AH JUST WANTED TO BE A HERO!!!"
Applejack stammered, "...Wha-"
Apple Bloom completely broke down. "...It was us the whole time... me... and the other Crusaders... we found your old costume in your closet... and we took it... took 'em all... and then it worked... Ah got mah cutie mark for bein' a superhero... we all got out cutie marks... Ah thought we were helpin'... and then those bad guys took us all hostage... We tried to do somethin', but we couldn't... Ah... couldn't... do... anythin'..." And with that, she began crying. Her family quickly began hugging her. It took a few minutes for her to calm down. When she did, she finally choked, "...Are you gonna tell Rarity and Biggs?"
Applejack visibly flinched. "...You know ah have to."
Apple Bloom nodded. "...Doesn't matter. Ah'm done... ah don't care anymore... ah'm done with this whole stupid charade..."
"Ah think that'd be best." Applejack helped her to bed, tucked her in, and kissed her good night. When she returned to the living room, Big Macintosh asked her the obvious question.
"What did Apple Bloom mean by your old costume?"
Applejack laughed nervously. "It's a long story..."
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Smooth AJ. Real smooth.
So.. She's fine with playing hero when the purpose is to humiliate a friend but when someone puts on the mask for the purpose of doing good(and getting cutie marks), it's a bad thing?
I know she's angry and thats dropping her IQ even lower, but 3 seconds of thought would tell her that she took the exact same risks* for a much pettier purpose. I hope Big Mac bucks her across town.
*They're lucky they just dealt with disasters and accidents. Had they run into criminals, which was as likely for them as it was for the CMC, the same sequence could have unfolded.
I almost feel sorry for the two foal nappers who the whole town jumped. Ponyville is a very close community and I think Derpy alone would have mauled one of them to near death. If Silver Spoon finds some proof her dad was behind everything, I hope she runs to Twilight and spills everything she finds. I mean, the fact he would arrange for her to be kidnapped scares me so much I want to strangle him if it turns out to be true.
I can also see her enduring quite a bit of fallout from this from her classmates, but I hope the Crusaders and Diamond Tiara ban together to protect her.
4575791
I agree, especially on that first part. Now that you mention it, I'm currently savoring the vision of Bulk grabbing one of those fuckers and breaking their spine like a No. 2 pencil--all of this the while shouting"YEAHHHHHHH!"
4575733 NOOOO!!! Curse your logic!
Thanks for pointing that out, I'm gonna have to have that point added in later on. This is why I read the comments section. But yeah, anger is making her stupid right now.
4576246
Mmm.. Grilled Face Sandwich.
It gets even funnier. AB's butt tat quite clearly shows that her special talent, innate nature and destiny is heroism and fighting for the good of others. Powers higher than Celestia herself have decreed that Apple Bloom is a super hero.
AB's very butt rebuts AJ's accusations. And AB's butt has the Universe on it's side.
Also, they knew that Mare Do Well was three fillies and were demanding Mare Do Well's appearance.. while they had most of the town's fillies as hostages. Did they have a back up plan for that?
4576320 Quoth the villians:
"The spear pegasus growled, 'Why are we even waiting? We know Mare Do Well is a bunch of fillies! We should just kill all of these brats right now!' The foals screamed. Roughneck shook his head again.
'We don't know that every filly in town goes to this school at this time. If we jump the gun and fail to kill our target, we're fucked. Just keep your head on, and we'll find them... and then they die.'" If Mare Do Well had no-showed, they would have known that all of the fillies comprising her were among the hostages, and then they would have killed them all. Assuming that they survived the counter-attack... well, if I go any further, it would be a spoiler. ;)
Yay for Apple Bloom's butt!
4576521
Ah, right. Forgot that.
They probably should've just nuked the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
4576176 Nah, Bulk Biceps and Big Mac would have just started bouncing the scum back and forth between them via bucks to the head. But yes, if there were more perps outside I can see Bulk Biceps doing the iconic "Bane breaks the Bat" pose despite being a pony.
Well, so much for the cmc superheroes. Didn't think the story would go this route, but it is pretty fitting and believable.
4580084 Go to 1:15.