Chapter 19
“They’re over here!”
The first thing I noticed when I woke up, was that I was under a cover. Strange considering I didn’t even remember falling asleep the night before. The next thing I noticed was the feeling of grass on my bare skin. ‘Hmmm……’ I thought. ‘Am I naked? Why am I naked?’ The warmth on half of my body caught my attention next. I turned my head slightly and felt a prick on the bottom of my chin. ‘Uh-oh.’ I was freaking out just the slightest bit. I adjusted my position and looked at person to my side. I was greeted with the sight of yellow and red hair. ‘Well fuck.’ I could feel her body on mine under the cover.
“Starlight is gonna kill me,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Funny,” a menacing voice said above me. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
I slowly looked up to see Starlight standing above me. Her coat had turned white and her mane and tail were made of fire. Her glowing red eyes were focused on me.
“I-”
“Shhhhhhhh,” Starlight put a hoof to my lips. “Don’t talk yet. You don’t want to make this worse. Think very carefully about what you say next.”
“.......I did say I would protect your sister from all harm….including emotional and mental?”
“....Go on…”
“Sunset is a fully grown mare capable of making her own decisions,” I said. “You have to respect her choices.”
“And of course, you remember her giving you her explicit, verbal consent,” Starlight’s glare intensified. “Right?”
“.........How would you react if I said I really don’t remember anything from last night?”
**********3rd POV**********
Trixie stretched deeply as she awoke. She smiled with satisfaction as she popped all of her joints. For some reason, she was in a great mood this morning. Even after having woken up sprawled across the grass, she couldn’t remember getting a better night’s sleep since...ever! And in her clothes no less. Although she could do without that nasty taste in her mouth and strange smell stuck to her clothing. She smacked her lips as she thought back to the night before. What had she been doing that led to such a great night? For some reason, she couldn’t remember. Oh well. Maybe Starlight knew. That bookish mare was always taking notes about everything. Trixie would just go back to the wagon and-
“I really think we should talk about this like rational adults!”
“Then why don’t you come back here! Stand still for a second you hedonistic monkey!”
Trixie watched, slightly confused, as Sasuke ran across her field of vision, chased by what appeared to be Starlight...but on fire. As the two vanished from her sight, Sunset walked over to her and sat down. The two sat in silence for a while, and looked out at the trees.
Trixie sniffed the air. “What’s that? Smells like sweat, anger, and shame.”
“Yeah….about that,” Sunset said. She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it. The two sat in silence a while longer.
“How was it?” Trixie asked. “You know, as a human.”
Sunset leaned back. “Human bodies are…...really flexible. And oddly sensitive around the ears and neck.”
“Interesting,” Trixie tapped her chin thoughtfully. The ground shook and they two girls looked into the distance and saw a large plume of smoke rising. “Is Sasuke going to be alright?”
“Maybe?” Sunset offered.
A pillar of fire extended past the tree line and yelps of pain echoed through the forest.
“Should we do something?”
“Do you really want to get in the middle of that?”
The two watched as explosions lit up the sky and animals ran away in panic.
“On second thought, I am really comfortable right here.”
***
“So, Adagio, Sunset, and Gilda, are going on the stealth mission. You three will be under Smoke Puff’s supervision. You will infiltrate an ore refinery and create duplicates of their documents. I want everything: shipping manifestos, blueprints, schematics, building plans, payroll, everything. Don’t let something slip by because you think it’s too small. Remember, you cannot be seen even once.” Sasuke coughed once and Gilda raised her hand. “Yes?”
“You’re smoking,” she deadpanned.
“Thank you,” Sasuke said.
“No, I mean you actually have smoke coming off of you,” she clarified.
“Oh that,” he dusted some of the soot off of his body. “Starlight and I had a slight disagreement earlier but we resolved it.” Starlight huffed and continued to pout. “Anyway while they are on their mission, Trixie and Starlight will be in charge of escorting the cart through the city without being detected. Aria and Sonata will setting up some stuff around the city with me. We will all meet to the south of the city limits. Any questions?”
“Why is Trixie stuck doing something as lowly as guard duty?” Trixie pouted. “Trixie’s powers are much stronger than that time when she fought the robopony!”
“That wasn’t a robot and your power isn’t the issue,” Sasuke calmly ran a hand through his hair. “Your use of your power is. Show me how much you’ve advanced and next time you’ll get a different role.”
Trixie rolled her eyes but said nothing else.
“If that’s it, get your stuff ready,” he said. “The mission starts the second the cart crosses into the city.”
Everyone dispersed to take care of their preparations. Starlight stood with Sasuke and Smoke Puff.
“Smoke Puff, you don’t need to get anything ready?” Starlight asked.
“We’re breaking into an unguarded factory that’s at pre industrial revolution levels of technology,” Smoke Puff deadpanned. “I could do this in my sleep. If they can’t handle something this simple, there’s no hope for them at all.”
Starlight frowned. “Smoke Puff, I need to talk to your father about something very adult. Please give us a moment.”
Smoke Puff looked up at her father, who patted her head and nodded. With a huff, she walked away, searching for her teammates. Starlight gave Sasuke a stern gaze. He looked back at her with serious eyes before grabbing her. They disappeared into a swirl.
***
“They just crossed into the city. Conceal your presence and let’s begin,” Smoke Puff instructed. Adagio, Sunset, and Gilda began focusing on trying to suppress their power. It dimmed but Smoke Puff could still clearly feel them all. “Stop messing around and do it for real,” the small bunny girl looked up, irritated.
“We are,” Sunset said.
“Like you could do any better,” Gilda huffed.
It didn’t take even a second. It she wasn’t standing in front of them, none of the girls would have noticed anything. They could feel no power coming from her, they couldn’t hear her breathing and when Smoke Puff took a few steps forward, there was no noise at all.
“You’re supposed to be ninjas,” Smoke Puff squeaked angrily. “This is how you do it. Did you learn nothing from father’s lessons?”
“I get that you’re better at this and all that,” Adagio said. “But I still feel like it's super weird Sasuke has an adopted half-bunny daughter.”
“I know right?” Gilda added. “We’re not technically his children too. Are we?”
“That would have some pretty weird implications for you wouldn’t it,” Adagio wiggled her eyebrows and nudged Sunset.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Listen idiots, focus on the task at hand. And you,” she turned to Smoke Puff, “Aren’t you supposed to be in charge of this mission? This team is falling apart!”
“Please,” Smoke Puff laughed, “This is going to be the easiest mission I’ve ever had in my life. We could literally wait for everybody else to get to the edge of the city before we take one step.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “You are soooo unhelpful.”
“We should get moving though,” Smoke Puff admitted. “I could do this super fast but I’m not so sure about you guys.”
**********Irontown**********
Starlight was sweating bullets. The last time she had been this afraid was when she met Sasuke in the Everfree Forest. But she wasn’t alone and she took comfort in that. Trixie, on the other hand, was fuming. Here she was, an improved mare with something real to contribute and now Sasuke wouldn’t even give her a chance. Well screw him! Her greatness couldn’t be contained even if she had to do something as degrading as watching the cart.
“Names and reason for entering,” a griffon guard stopped the cart as they entered the town.
“What’s with the all the beefed up security,” Trixie asked. “I don’t remember it being this strict when we left.”
“A dangerous group of criminals has been causing chaos in Equestria,” the guard explained. “How do you not know this? You’re both ponies.”
“We’ve been camping for a few months,” Trixie said with mock irritation.
“And what’s wrong with that one,” the guard pointed at Starlight.
“You just said there was a gang of dangerous criminals in our home,” Trixie glared at the griffon. She wrapped her hooves around Starlight. “It’ll be ok. The princesses will stop them.”
The griffon rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We need to inspect your cart before we let you through.”
“Fine just don’t wreck our stuff,” Trixie spat. “It lasted us this long and I sure as Tartarus won’t let some featherbrained musclehead ruin it.”
The griffon snarled but said nothing. He waved another group of guards over and they climbed into the wagon. They shuffled around but the space was too small for them to really move. Or so it seemed. Starlight watched in amazement as the three griffons stood in a small circle despite the wagon’s space being enormous. They lifted up the same objects ten or twelve times each before all getting out. That was when Starlight saw their eyes. Each of them had the same pattern. A two tomoe version of Sasuke’s sharingan. Their eyes all returned to normal as they stepped down. Trixie grinned maliciously for second before putting her annoyed face back on.
“I hope you’re done,” Trixie snapped. “Ruining my packing system, dirtying the floor, and scarring my poor marefriend to death. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.” Trixie held Starlight closer.
“Ponies,” the guard muttered under his breath. “You’re clear to enter the town. Don’t do anything weird.”
Trixie and Starlight drove the cart into town. As they pulled out of earshot, Starlight breathed a huge sigh of relief and Trixie let go of her.
“I’m impressed,” Starlight said. “Coming up with a story so quickly and being so convincing was amazing.”
“Of course,” Trixie beamed. “Such acting is foal’s play for a performer of my magnitude. Although Trixie must give credit where credit is due. You weren’t too bad yourself. Even Trixie believed you were terrified.”
“Heh, heh.” Starlight nervously rubbed the back of her head. “Full disclosure: I was absolutely petrified. You lied so naturally though. Is it always that easy?”
“Trixie is an entertainer,” Trixie explained. “And as every great entertainer knows, to tell a convincing story you have to mix some truth in with the fiction.”
“Wow,” Starlight’s eyes widened. “What part of that story was true?”
“Do you really want to know or are you asking just because?”
“What else do have to talk about?”
“Fine,” Trixie looked out at the town. “I used to go camping with my marefriend.”
“You used to have a marefriend?”
Trixie smiled. “We used to travel together, back when I was touring Equestria. She would play this great music and push my shows over the top. She could captivate any audience and put their emotions right where I wanted.”
“What happened?”
Trixie’s gaze turned sad. “She wanted to settle down in a single location and I didn’t. So, we went our separate ways.”
“Just like that?”
“I may not have been so... nice when I left,” Trixie said with a sigh. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure, I’m sorry,” Starlight said quietly. “The way you used illusions was pretty cool. You hid everything in plain sight.”
Trixie perked up. “Thank you, at least someone recognizes Trixie’s greatness.”
***
Four shadows darted around the exterior of the refinery. None of the working griffons noticed anything odd and why should they? There was nothing special about this refinery. They just shipped metal to factories. There was nothing confidential, no big world changing secrets, even the upper levels of management were average. All in all, there was nothing special about this refinery. But that didn’t matter to the shadows. They moved quickly and silently past the workers. In and out of every room, they searched for their target.
Smoke Puff led and the others followed. She was a quick little thing and the other girls had more than a little trouble keeping up with her.
‘Children should not be this fast,’ Adagio thought, nearly panting. ‘Stupid rabbit.’
Smoke Puff stopped in front of an office and the other girls caught up after a second. “I swear it’s like none of you have ever run before in your lives,” she whispered.
Adagio leaned on the wall catching her breath. “Shut up. This the place?”
Smoke Puff snarled adorably. “Father said we’re looking for shipping records so anything like that.” She put her tiny hand on the door and paused. “Can you read?” The angry glares surrounding her brought a smile to her face.
Smoke Puff pushed the door open, the girls stepped inside, and froze. It looked like a tornado had blown through the small space. Papers were plastered to every surface in the office, file cabinets were turned over with their drawers ripped out, and in the corner a griffon lie in pool of his own blood.
“What the buck happened in here,” Gilda asked as they searched through the scattered papers.
“Looks like someone else beat us here,” Sunset responded, examining the griffon. “Poor guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Smoke Puff said. “This changes nothing. Start looking.”
The other girls shared a look but sifted through the room. Smoke Puff moved to the griffon and searched his body.
**********Irontown 1st POV**********
Sonata, Aria, and I walked through the town disguised as griffons. Aria had some trouble at first with using the technique but she caught on eventually. Sonata surprised me by having no trouble with it at all. In fact, I’d noticed that Sonata quickly caught on to every technique I’d taught her with almost expert proficiency. Odd, considering I was pretty sure she was the dumb one.
“Here’s another good spot,” I said as I spotted another alley. We turned and walked into the shadows. “And here you go,” I gave them each 10 explosive tags. “Remember, structural weaknesses are better but anywhere works.”
Sonata gleefully spread her wings and leapt into the air. She perfectly placed and disguised every paper bomb before landing with a flourish. Aria rolled her eyes and lazily stuck all the tags to the same wall.
“So do you ever take pride in anything you do,” I asked her.
“Whatever,” she sighed.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “You know just because you were stuck in the body of a teenager for a long time doesn’t mean you have to act like one forever.” Sonata continued beaming at me. “You did great Sonata. Onwards!”
We walked out of the alley and continued down the street. We continued the process every time we came across an alley. We covered half the town before I decided we were done.
“Good work ladies,” I said. “Time to go.”
“That’s it?” Aria asked. “Doesn’t really seem like we did much.”
“But we did,” I explained. “This town is now a potential distraction or battlefield. Control is key.”
“You know, for once, you could give a straight answer.”
I looked at her curiously. “But there was nothing mysterious about that answer. It was a straight answer.”
Aria rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
Sonata pointed to the setting sun, “Time to meet up with the others.”
“Gather round now,” I said grabbing their shoulders. “Time to see how everybody did.”
***
The entire crew sat around a campfire far outside of the city limits. Starlight and Trixie sat next to each other and seemed surprisingly friendly. The sirens had rejoined and were basically on top of each other. I smiled sneakily. They’ll never admit it but they really can’t stand to be apart. Even Gilda and Sunset were talking to each other. Smoke Puff had snuggled into my side when I teleported to the camp and hadn’t left me alone since. I stretched and yawned, capturing everyone’s attention.
“Report time,” I said. “First up, Starlight and Trixie. Any issues?”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “Like it would be hard to get a regular cart through some idiot town full of meatheads.”
“And what do you have to say, Starlight,” I asked.
“Trixie’s use of illusions was way more advanced and controlled than anything I’ve ever seen,” Starlight explained. “She manipulated several griffon’s sense of space at once without any sort of gaps or inconsistencies. I’d say her talent and skill were wasted today.”
“Damn.” I was blown away. This was high praise coming from my second in command. And judging from the smug look on Trixie’s face, she was loving it. “Alright then. I’ll have give her a more appropriate role in the future. But for now,” I activated Trixie’s secondary genjutsu, “this will have to do.”
Kurenai appeared in front of Trixie and suddenly became distorted. Her form shifted and split into two masses. Each mass took on another shape and became clearer and clearer until two new humans stood before her. One had black hair, bright red sharingan, and wore a black cloak covered in red clouds. The other had blue hair tied in a shape that resembled a pineapple, wore a green jacket and had mismatched eyes, one red and one blue. After they finished forming, they both vanished. Trixie grinned triumphantly.
“Next up, Sunset, your report,” I said.
“Why don’t I get to give the report,” Gilda asked.
“Because Sunset was the team leader on this one,” I explained.
“I thought Smoke Puff was the team leader,” Adagio said, finally paying attention.
“No, Smoke Puff was your observer,” I said.
“Bitch did a lot more than ‘observe’,” Gilda muttered.
“ANYWAY, we infiltrated the refinery and made our way to the records,” Sunset reported. “However, once we got there we found a griffon that had been killed and the place had been ransacked. We did manage to find out where the metal is being sent: Golden Reach, the capital city.”
“Of course,” I rubbed my chin. “Nothing’s ever easy. The good news is, they won’t really be able to deal with magic. But….” I focused on my thoughts. He can’t be ready to make his move yet, can he? How, when… I should act as if he’s able to operate freely. At the minimum it’s clear he has agents that can act for him. This is going to take some adjustment but at least the enemy is close by and sloppy. They didn’t cover their tracks so… fanatics most likely, not professionals. Or it’s a message. Hmmm…
“Sasuke?”
“Huh,” I looked up to find everyone staring fearfully at me. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve never seen you make that kind of face,” Starlight offered.
“And you were leaking, like, death or something,” Gilda said, her voice voice barely above a whisper.
“It was killing intent,” Smoke Puff. “You were feeling his desire to kill someone.” Trixie shivered. “Don’t worry,” Smoke Puff laughed, “If it was you, you’d be dead. But that does raise an important question.” She looked me in my eyes. “Who were you thinking about?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled. “It’s a non-issue.”
“If you say so,” Smoke Puff was unconvinced but she wasn’t going to push the issue. Everyone else began to relax and go back to talking. Soon, the atmosphere was back to its friendly, peaceful state.
“I guess our next stop is Golden Reach,” I said to no one in particular.
“I think after a successful mission we should celebrate,” Adagio grinned. “Hey Sasuke, do we have any more of that special plant?”
I rolled my eyes and smiled. “We might.”
**********Ponyville 3rd POV**********
“Are you sure about this, Twilight?” Spike asked nervously. He sat on a stool in the library’s basement. Attached to him were various wires all connecting to the many machines that Twilight kept for her studies.
“Of course, Spike,” Twilight answered as she manipulated the various knobs and switches. “There’s only a small possibility that something can go wrong. Less than 20% at most.”
“I think we have very different ideas of what a ‘small possibility’ is,” Spike snarked.
“Oh hush,” Twilight said. “This is for research Spike! Imagine what the Princess will say when I give her my findings!” She held a book in her magic and made some more adjustments.
“What is that book anyway,” Spike asked. “Usually you’re done with them pretty quick but you’ve been reading that one and another one for a while now.”
“I’m glad you asked, my number one assistant,” Twilight said cheerfully. “This is a book that details all of the Children of Tartarus. It’s incredible Spike! Did you know alicorns aren’t a pony species? And that other children include changelings, wraiths, and dragons. Among the other amazing characteristics they possess, all of the Children of Tartarus have a unique magic that is said to come directly from the source of all magic! Imagine what could be learned!”
Spike winced. “You’ve got that look in your eye again, Twilight.”
“What look?”
“That look you get right before you do something really crazy,” Spike deadpanned.
“Whaaat? Me?” Twilight pointed to herself and tried to look innocent. “Nah.” Twilight flipped a switch and the machines came to life. Lights flashed and a mechanical hum filled the room. Spike worriedly looked around while Twilight focused on the controls in front of her. “Spike, I need you to breathe some fire now.”
Spike nodded and in a deep breath. Focusing his mind, Spike let out a small torrent of flames.
“That’s perfect, Spike,” Twilight said. “Keep it up for as long as you can.”
Spike kept his tiny fire going and the machines spat out page after page of data. He blew for as long as he could and then fell over, out of breath.
“This is amazing, Spike!” Twilight said, rolling around in the papers like snow. “I’m going to revolutionize the world!”
“Yeah, sure,” Spike sighed. “I’m going to go see Rarity. Are you going to be ok down here?” Twilight continued rolling around, oblivious to the world. “I’ll be back before dinner because I’m pretty sure you’re not listening and will probably forget to eat. Later.”
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No Worries...Everybody has something Important to finish first, So take your time...
So...Should Sunset expect anything..?
Whenever Twilight finds something interesting, she'll have that Look...
IT'S... IT'S ALIVE!!!!
So there's a possible fourth player in this game, eh? I bet that they'll be a nuisance down the road.
IT LIVES
There is finally more
Awesome, it's alive!
Yay
You are back!
Who are Trixie's new teachers. I recognize Itachi, but whose the other one?
this chapter was released in april... it just turned july. WHERE IS MORE WORDS?!
Interesting. Another piece on the chess board hm? I wonder...