Mending Light

by Kiromancer

84 - Interrogation

We were walking a fine line. Pasture was too well fortified and too well defended to keep spying on without risking getting caught. We needed more information, but our choices were limited. The obvious choice was to catch one of the mercenaries, as they were the ones who were leaving the town on what seemed to be a regular schedule.

It was a sad sight, the burnt remains of the hut where not too long ago, I’d sat drinking tea with Ivory while Dusky slept. The forest clearing where her little cabin sat was scorched now, splintered wood and ashen stone where once had been a home, and a pony. I just hoped that while the cabin was gone, the pony had gotten away in time.

It wasn’t the best place to stage an ambush, but with just a single mercenary stationed there during the day, it was the best option we’d found.

He wore lacquered armor that looked like it was leather hide, emblazoned with the crimson hoof, but other than that ominous reminder it was clear that this wasn’t what he wanted to be doing with his time. Likely stationed there just to catch anypony stumbling into the clearing, he seemed quite sure he wouldn’t be seeing any action today, as he casually leaned against the remnants of Ivory’s chimney.

Icicle, Mint, and myself waited, watching his routine for most of the morning. Once the sun arced an hour past noon, Mint took the lead and began our little operation. My sister had a lot of talents, but a knack for stealth wasn’t one of them. To fill that gap, Icicle and I would have to sneak in. While the three of us could certainly overwhelm this lone pony, the less noise our whole encounter made, the better. We couldn’t be sure who or what else was in these woods.

Icicle and I moved quickly into position, across the burnt remains of the field and hut. The debris made stealthy movement tricky, but a keen eye and a careful hoof won out. Icicle and I reached our positions. The moment we were ready, Mint gave us a distraction, drawing the stallion’s attention. As he moved to investigate, Icicle moved first, rushing in to deliver a swift hoof to the stallion’s temple. He tumbled to the ground, and I followed after, making sure he was down. Mint got there quickly, and almost too easily, we had our prisoner.

We dragged him to the edge of the clearing. I frowned as Mint tied his hooves, thinking back to similar tactics we'd employed in Ostfriesen. It always made me feel like, maybe we weren't on the right side of things. Though, I suppose in a lot of ways, we weren't. We were on our own side. I glanced over at Icicle, who's face had a look of similar distaste upon it. Still, he kept silent for the moment, letting Mint do her work.

Once our captive was restrained, his hooves tied and his mouth gagged, we waited. He didn’t take long to recover consciousness, and immediately set about struggling against the bindings, making a muffled commotion through the gag.

Mint was directly in his field of vision, raising a hoof to her mouth to signal silence. “There’s three of us, and one of you. No noise, no funny business. You answer our questions and we all walk away tonight without any regrets or broken bones, got it?”

Clearly not happy with the situation, the mercenary glared daggers, then slowly nodded his head.

Mint removed his gag.

He began to laugh, a low chuckle. "You have no idea what you're up against. I talk, I’m as good as dead. Better to let you waste your breath and wait ‘til you get bored with me."

Mint frowned, giving an exasperated growl, but it was in part an act. This was what she’d been hoping for. He wasn’t supposed to talk, but this stallion certainly wasn’t going to shut up if given the chance. We just had to press and let him get careless.

“We already know you’re working with the Cartel. Tell us about Moss. What’s his game out here?”

He chuckled, “Cartel? You think ‘Moss the Paladin’ is who hired us? Ha! He had the contacts, sure, but there’s no big conspiracy, babe. This is all legit. It’s funny how you think you’re the good guys here, but the truth is, it’s us.”

Mint spun on him like a lightning bolt, her eyes wild. "You think this is funny? I can promise you, it won't be so funny when I break each bone in your body. Freelancer scum." She spit to the side. "This is Equestria! The Guard doesn't put up with your kind doing what they please to its citizens."

The mercenary laughed, "Oh, honey, you're awfully cute when you're riled up, but the Guard don't mean shit to us. We've got them eating out of our hooves, and once the boss flushes out that necromancer and breaks her pretty little neck, then the Mayor will hail us as heroes."

Icicle sighed beside me. “No hero I’ve ever seen holds a village hostage just to kill one mare, who as far as I can tell, has done nothing wrong.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, kid. Prideful invited us in. The village wants us there to keep them safe. This one mare is a menace. A monster. But I guess now I know whose side you’re on, eh? Must be sided with the necromancer. So maybe you tell me where she is, and then you let me go before you really get hurt.”

Mint applied pressure, her hoof pressing into his chest carefully. I knew it was part posturing, part necessary, but where was the line? Mint growled low as she threatened the stallion. “You’re really in no position to negotiate. Now tell us more about Moss the Paladin, hmm? Before I lose my temper.”

Something changed on his face, and it wasn’t from the pain of Mint’s hoof. Suddenly, his whole demeanor shifted. The frustration and the bravado faded, and his voice grew chill. "You're trying to make me afraid, but it won't work. See, I've known true fear."

Mint raised an eyebrow, “What I want is your cooperation, not your fear.”

“You don't join up with Crimson Haze without facing true, raw terror and coming out the other side intact. The rest just get broken and left behind.” His ears had perked up to attention, and a wicked grin grew on his face. "Just like you're about to be, girlie. Now go to hell."

Mint's expression turned to confusion, but before she could ask, our captive's threat became clear. Something was galloping through the woods. Fast. Thunder heralding the storm, the approaching hooves thump-thumped the ground with a terrible purpose. It was heading straight for us with all the speed and caution of an oncoming train.

Before anypony could call warning, the figure emerged from the foliage not so far from us. The massive camel stopped almost effortlessly, Crimson Haze himself, fully adorned in his heavy red plate. He snorted as he spotted us, and tilted his head as he made eye contact with me. I felt a shiver go through my spine before his eyes moved on. Me. Then Icicle. Lastly Mint, where his eyes seemed to linger. He grinned, a wicked looking smile with unnatural seeming teeth. Then, almost as if magic had propelled him forward, he was on top of us.

The scent hit me then, like a snorting too much of a strong spice,. My eyes immediately began to water and my throat parched, but that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was the fear. Fear wasn't even an adequate way to describe it. It was just a massive sense of wrongness, like suddenly everything was out to get me. In the midst of that was the Camel, the absolutely epicenter of everything wrong. I had to get away from it. I had to run, or just this sensation felt like it would kill me.

Icicle hadn't fared much better, standing stock still opposite me, the Camel in between. He stared at the monster in armor which stood amidst us, mouth agape and wings already rising into ready position to flee. I'm entirely sure mine were instinctively preparing to take flight as well.

Mint tried to stand firm, but she clearly wasn't expecting his speed. Though Starshadow had forewarned us, she clearly hadn't expected her reaction to that primal fear that was was now utterly immobilizing us either. When he reared up over her head, her eyes grew wide, and I could see panic grip her. Not able to bring up any kind of defense, the camel's forelegs came down into Mint's chest.

He laughed as he stood over Mint, and the chill of his voice made my fur all stood up on end. "Damned ponies. Not a one of you is the necromancer, but maybe you know where she is, eh? Little eyes, little spies. I can beat the information out of you, then pluck those eyes out, yes? Might be fun."

I felt the terror burning in my head, making each of his words drive in all the deeper. It felt like I’d stuck my hoof onto a stove burner, but for some reason couldn’t bring myself to pull away. The fear penetrated each and every fiber of my being. Every single muscle in my body begged to cut loose and run, fly, do whatever I could to get away from this monster. At the same time I was frozen in place, unable to make a move. All I could do was watch as the Crimson Haze advanced on Mint's limp form.

"Not talking? Got nothing to say? Or just too afraid?" He laughed again, striding up to put a hoof on Mint's head. He began to apply pressure. "Maybe one of your friends will be able to help you, hm? Or maybe they'll just stand there while I pop your head like a grape. It's always funny to wait and see what kind of cowards you ponies are deep down."

Mint screamed as his hoof pressed against her, grinding her down into the ground. She flailed her wings and hooves, desperately seeking some kind of purchase, but that only seemed to drive Crimson Haze on as he continued press down in sadistic glee.

I could hear my heart in my ears, almost drowning out Mint's screams. I wanted to shut my eyes and drown it out entirely, but I held on, gritting my teeth. True fear. That was nothing this camel had control of. I'd known true fear before, hanging by a thread as the dragon Broken Tooth had attempted to snuff out my very existence. I'd been afraid when Dusky had been taken to to Fillydelphia, that I might lose her forever. I was afraid of a lot of things, and had always been afraid that I just wasn't good enough.

In that moment, I decided that one thing I wasn't afraid of was Crimson Haze.

Before I could rationally process my actions, I was across the gap, wings pushing as hard as they could to drive my hooves into the side of the camel's neck. My hooves were only answered by the dull clang of metal as I slid past, but while I maybe didn't do the kind of damage I had hoped for, my attack was enough to knock him off balance, enough to get Mint free.

He staggered to the side for only a second, then recovered and moved like a viper, his elongated hoof arcing out to swat me from the air. The blow struck me dead on. Fortunately my momentum carried me away even as I lost control. I spun into the ground, digging a short groove as the cold, harsh dirt grated into my face.

My head rang, and I tried to shake it off, forcing myself upwards, only to find myself looking up at the camel's toothy grin. "Little shit. You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that, but all it bought you was a much quicker ticket to hell." He raised his hoof up, but just as he prepared to bring it down, he howled in pain.

Behind him, Mint had crawled into place. There, she’d struck, raising her armored hoof and driving it into his knee as hard as she could. His right leg buckled down, and he reared up the left leg to kick, but Icicle was already there, having broken through the fear enough to swoop in and pull Mint back.

The camel’s left leg lashed out, but Mint was was just out of range, with his reach stopping just inches from her head. His armored tail slashed recklessly and the blade affixed to it caught Mint's foreleg, but before he could do much else, she’d slipped out of Icicle’s grasp, and beat her wings to lower herself into a standing position.

She glanced at me, keeping one eye on the camel as she yelled out to Icicle and I. "Go!"

Without hesitation, my wings were moving. I spun, hearing the camel curse out in a language I didn't understand, but the intent was clear enough. Sparing a glance behind me as I climbed over the treeline, Icicle was at my side, and I spotted Mint following just behind, clutching a hoof against her wounded foreleg.

We skimmed the top of the trees for quite awhile, just pushing hard to get as much distance as we could. We dived back down under the tree tops, taking cover in the upper branches to make sure we weren't unintentionally leading anyone watching back to the manor.

Mint rested, checking her wounds, her voice a harsh whisper as she recovered her breath. "N-nice moves. Both of you. You two pulled my flank out of the fire there."

"Likewise, Sis." I nodded, and sighed. "How do we even stand up against something like that? I don't think we even scratched him."

Icicle sighed, “I couldn’t even move, I totally froze up, sorry.”

“Not your fault, Icicle. I froze up the moment I saw him, or we wouldn’t have been in that situation.” Mint frowned. "I don't know how we can fight that. Hopefully, if all of us are there and we can push through that initial fear and let adrenaline carry us, we can take him. Merri and Starshadow would have definitely been a help... but even then, he's no joke."

I sighed, “We didn’t even get anything out of his stallion. He wasn't going to cooperate unless we... unless we really pushed him. I... I wouldn't have felt comfortable if we'd gone that far, Mint.”

Mint raised her uninjured hoof to pat my side. “I wasn't going to torture the poor bastard, Night. And, well, we got one thing. Crimson Haze wasn’t hired by Moss. He was hired by the Mayor. He mentioned ‘Prideful’ inviting them into town.”

“Dusky said Ivory had a history of some kind with him. I didn’t realize it was this kind of… blind hate.”

Icicle nodded, wings rustling in agitation. “What kind of Mayor sells out his town like that? Moss the Paladin, the Cartel, and Crimson Haze’s mercenaries? All this to kill one mare? What kind of history do they have to warrant that kind of thirst for revenge?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know… but maybe we need to get a look at Mayor Prideful for ourselves.”

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

Good grief, this guy seems to know just where to pop up... wonder if he took any inspiration from Mr. X?

[Kiromancer]

9488090
Heh, can't say on that inspiration! I guess Crimson Haze is a very intimidating kind of figure, and he knows exactly when to pop-up to maximize the jump scare factor for our protagonists!

[FoodFrogs]

9512883
Shoot, you're right. Don't worry I can fix that.

Edit: No I can't.