Mortal Coil

by Reeve

XIX - Into The Woods

Author's Note:

Part 4

It was an odd feeling, standing just behind Cogs right shoulder as he sat opposite Maverick in the cabin of the barge, while Sufferthorn stood behind his shoulder. To think it had only been a couple of days prior that I had been the one in that seat with Stranglethorn standing where I was now, it was certainly a bizarre turn of events. Cogs was just finishing up explaining to Maverick how he came to be in Typhoon’s service and how I rescued him. Maverick listened to the entire story without interrupted, occasionally glancing up to me for confirmation, which I would give a small nod in response to.

“Well then,” Maverick began when the story was at an end. “I can assure you my friend that we will not allow any more harm to befall you. Needless to say you can’t return to Mule, and Arclight is out of the question, so we can get you safely to Pivot where you can stay until you make your own arrangements.”

“Zat would be wonderful,” Cogs replied gratefully. “I sink I shall travel to Equestria in ze coming weeks, go stay wiz my sons.”

“Certainly, and if you need any help getting that far you can just ask me,” Maverick offered. “Of course if you wanted to stay you could always…”

Maverick cut off when I flashed him a deadly look, I wasn’t about to let Cogs get manipulated by a different group right after escaping the Liberators.

“Er, nevermind,” Maverick continued in a slightly weaker voice. “Anyway, you must be exhausted after your ordeal, you can rest below deck. I have matters to discuss with my agents and I’m sure you can appreciate the need for privacy.”

“Of course, of course,” Cogs assured him, standing up and making his way over to the ladder. “Sank you again, especially you Rarity, I will never forget what you have done for me.”

I smiled as he made his way down the ladder, letting out a little sigh as he was disappeared out of sight and Maverick cast a quick soundproof spell over the floor. I quickly glanced outside to see that the barge was still sailing smoothly out of the bay; Stranglethorn seemed to be doing fine on his own so I closed the door again and went over to sit in my usual seat while Sufferthorn pulled up a stool.

“Well,” Maverick began, letting out a sigh of relief of his own. “I think I speak for us all when I say today couldn’t have gone better.”

“Maverick,” I began awkwardly. “About Typhoon…”

“Do not worry yourself over his fate,” Maverick cut in. “You did what you had to do, there will always be casualties of war.”

“I thought the war was over,” I muttered to myself before speaking up again. “But you two were friends.”

“Once,” Maverick agreed. “But his actions in recent months have made it very clear what our friendship meant to him, I will not resent you for what you did to him. Besides, we won’t know exactly what happened to him until I hear from our other agents inside the city.”

“I’ll be very surprised if that did kill him,” Sufferthorn added. “I once saw him get stabbed right in the chest with a spear during a battle, the pony who did it pushed it in pretty deep, but Typhoon walked it off like it was nothing.”

“Quite,” Maverick said, grimacing slightly. “Now we must discuss our next course of action.”

“We’re leaving Mule,” I pointed out; we had set off from the harbour as soon as Sufferthorn, Cogs and I arrived back.

“It’s only temporary,” Maverick explained. “Today we have struck a serious blow against Typhoon and the Liberators; we must press the advantage while we have it. As such Sufferthorn and I will be returning there tomorrow, while you and Stranglethorn make yourselves scarce for a little while.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because if Typhoon is still alive, it would be the height of stupidity for you to show your face in Mule again until his rage dies down,” Maverick told me. “I also remember that story about the spear, and you do not want to hear of things he did to the pony responsible. No, you need to steer clear of Mule for a while until the heat dies down, until then however I have another task for you if you’re interested.”

“I’m listening,” I replied without much thought.

“You know how Cogs said he taught in Arclight University?” Maverick began. “It’s how I knew him, I taught Literature there myself. He mentioned that he was… let go, do you know why that was?”

“He… didn’t say why,” I answered honestly.

“It was because he is an earth pony,” Maverick announced, causing my eyes to widen in shock. “Tell me Rarity, have you heard of the Arcane Order?”

I scoured my memory for where I had heard the name before; it had been Applejack who had mentioned it when we were discussing the splitting up of the Rebellion before we reached Mule. She had said it was one of three factions that emerged from the Rebellion; two were led by one of the Rebel leaders each while the third was led by the ex-marshal.

“Yeah, they’re one of the factions that split off from the Rebellion,” I recalled. “They’re based in Arclight, right?”

“That is correct,” Maverick confirmed. “Out of all the groups tied into the Rebellion, the Arcane Order is easily the least militaristic. It was formed by the last pony who worked alongside Typhoon and I to form the Rebellion in the first place, a pony by the name of Arcana. He too worked in Arclight University, a professor of Politics and Philosophy. He and I first discussed the idea of Panchea governing itself while we worked together, but it didn’t move on from talking until Typhoon joined us and we began to seriously consider making our fantasy a reality.

“Arcana was never the most tactical of ponies, and he certainly wasn’t a fighter,” Maverick continued. “But he was a master with words and ideas, a real politician. The original plan had been for him to become the first official president of Panchea when we achieved self-governance, but as the war went on I began to realise he had one major flaw that made him unsuitable for the role.”

“What was that?” I asked, although I had a feeling I knew where it was going.

“He’s a massive racist,” Sufferthorn stated bluntly.

“Well, yes,” Maverick picked up rather awkwardly. “He hid his beliefs at first; he was probably waiting until our goals had been achieved before he revealed them, but as the war dragged on his true attitude began to shine through the façade he had painted. Eventually he came to me directly and ordered me to remove Typhoon from his position as one of the three leaders, if I’d known then that Typhoon would split off not long after I would have obeyed just to placate Arcana for a little longer. I refused and he made it quite clear that he believed our future government should be made up only of unicorns, and that the highest position a pegasus could ever obtain was a low ranking military officer.”

“He thought lowest of earth ponies,” Sufferthorn continued bitterly. “Under his rule we would have been little more than slaves.”

“Naturally I put my hoof down,” Maverick carried on. “Not long after, Arcana split off, returned to Arclight and together with his followers formed the Arcane Order, a group dedicated to introducing a racial hierarchy to Panchea with Unicorns at the top.”

“So he has control over Arclight,” I repeated thoughtfully. “Then it was no wonder Cogs was fired, I suppose there aren’t any non-unicorns left working in the city.”

“Not many,” Sufferthorn confirmed. “And those that are only have menial jobs. Arcana prefers it that way, that earth ponies and pegasi do the low paying labour while unicorns occupy all positions of power.”

“So you want me to go to Arclight and do something about this?” I asked.

“Not quite,” Maverick replied. “While taking the Arcane Order down is one of our long term objectives, they are not, as I said, very militaristic and therefor pose no immediate threats to the rest of the country. No, what I need you to do is go to Arclight and get close to Arcana himself.”

“During the war,” Sufferthorn picked up. “Although we didn’t know until very recently, Arcana was keeping in close contact with an unknown party. We don’t know what information passed between the two of them, but we do know that on several occasions Arcana acted without the knowledge of Maverick or Typhoon and moved troops to various places at various times.”

“The purpose of all this is still unclear,” Maverick continued. “Which is why we need you to find out more about it.”

“So you want me to sneak in and steal information again?” I asked.

“I was thinking this time you could utilise some of your other skills,” Maverick replied. “The agents who found out what we already know have been unable to find anything more in writing that could help us, which means that the information we want can only be found inside Arcana’s head. You’ll need to find a way of getting close to him and persuade him to spill the beans personally, we need to know who he was in contact with, what all he did for them and why.”

“We’re stopping the barge at the most southern part of the Sanguine Grove,” Sufferthorn explained. “If you agree to this mission, you and Stranglethorn would set off immediately through the forest to Dolor. He will be your guide through the forest, but will only go as far as the village where he’ll wait for you to return once you’ve either cleared or failed your objectives.”

I rubbed my chin, pondering the mission before me. I hated the way they made it sound like I had a choice, before proceeding to talk like I’d already agreed to it.

“I’m sure you can appreciate that a unicorn is best suited to this task,” Maverick pointed out. “And just like your previous missions, you are an excellent candidate since Arcana does not know you and will not know you are working with us.”

“Well it sounds simple enough,” I put forward. “I have a friend in Arclight, a pony I travelled from Equestria with. Would I be allowed to see her while I was there?”

“It would give you a good cover,” Maverick agreed. “Just in case the police took an interest in you, but you can’t let her know about your mission or involvement with us. She may be your friend, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t an advocate of the Arcane Order since she moved back there.”

“I know, I’ll be smart about it,” I assured him. “So travel with Stranglethorn through the forest to Dolor, make my own way to Arclight, meet up with Lyra and figure out a way of getting close to Arcana.”

“Needless to say,” Sufferthorn stepped in. “You can’t get found out. The same went for your previous missions of course, but in this case your enemies won’t even need to ask questions to get the answers right out of your head, and I doubt you’ve been trained in mental blocking.”

“I haven’t,” I replied, unhappy at having to reveal my lack of expertise in magic.

“It will be fine,” Maverick assured me. “I think you’ve proven yourself to be more than capable these last couple of days.”

The door opened behind me and Stranglethorn walked in, giving a curt nod to indicate everything was fine outside.

“Perfect timing,” Maverick continued. “Rarity will you take over on deck while we go over the details with Stranglethorn? Just keep her going straight.”

I nodded and took my leave. I wasn’t alone on deck for very long before Stranglethorn returned to give me a hand, but then I don’t think he’d ask quite as many questions as I would when being tasked with a mission. We didn’t work for much longer before Sufferthorn came to relieve us, since we were being expected to leave as soon as the barge reached its destination, then we needed to get some rest before then. It did seem a bit nuts to me at the time, the idea of finishing a huge mission only a day after doing another big mission, then mere hours later being tasked with journeying miles to do another.

It was quite clear that Maverick, Sufferthorn and Stranglethorn, perhaps even more agents I hadn’t met, all lived for their cause. A part of me was afraid of becoming like them, I didn’t mind the things I had done so far, I was able to justify them as the right thing to do, but the idea of sacrificing any semblance of a normal life for the Rebellion was something I just couldn’t swallow. It was the earliest hours of the morning when Stranglethorn awoke me, after getting ready I followed him up to the deck where Sufferthorn was waiting in the pitch black of the night, the barge tied up to an old, forgotten jetty on the edge of the forest.

“It’ll probably be a while before we see you again,” Sufferthorn said to me, it sounded like she was really trying to maintain her usual cold tone. “Just do as Strangle does and you’ll reach Dolor in one piece, if there are any questions about the mission, he can fill you in.”

“Uh…” I began awkwardly.

“You’ll know what he means, but if it’s anything too complex he’ll write it down,” Sufferthorn explained, slightly agitated. “Now hurry along, and… good luck.”

I was a little taken aback by that, spinning to face her but she was already retreating back into the cabin. Stranglethorn gave me one look followed by a shrug before hoping off the boat onto the rotting planks of the jetty. I clambered down after him, not nearly as elegant but I didn’t get my clothes dirty. It hadn’t been easy to clean them after trekking through the sewers, but I managed to work my magic on them, I just hoped I wouldn’t have to do so again for a while.

Panchea had its lush parts, small clumps of wood were dotted all around, but little amounted to the forest. It covered roughly a third of the land that wasn’t mountains, so big that it was divided into three sections, each with their own name. The southern section was known as the Sanguine Grove, that was where we began our journey. The Northwest section was called the Hallowed Woods and the Northeast section was called the Tranquil Forest, it’s quite obvious that whoever named them went by a theme.

Arclight and Dolor were the only settlements in the entire forest and both were located a short distance from one another in the Tranquil Forest, although Arclight was almost on the border with the Hallowed Woods. As we began our trek, I examined my map under the light of my own horn and guessed it would probably take us three days at the very least to arrive in Dolor. Stranglethorn however managed to get us there in just under three, it was clear he knew the forest like the back of his hoof, knowing exactly where all the shortcuts were and the best routes that would allow us to avoid predators and pitfalls.

As such, the journey turned out to be rather boring, not helped by Stranglethorn being incapable of making conversation. We started our journey with absolutely no food stuff, although I quickly learnt that Stranglethorn was quite the scavenger. Anytime my stomach began grumbling he would stop and without having to change location he would find something edible in the forest, whether it be berries or flowers or even some rare fruit on a few occasions. I tried to mimic this at one point by plucking some juicy looking purple berries from a bush as we walked, but before I could pop them into my mouth they were slapped out of my grasp.

Stranglethorn jotted the word ‘poison’ onto a notepad he kept in his saddlebag before looking for something himself, I didn’t try to look for food myself after that. I did have my water canister which I was able to fill up regularly; there was an abundance of clean streams flowing through the forest. We only stopped to rest twice in the whole trip when Stranglethorn allowed me to catch a few hours’ sleep, we would always have travelled so far that I passed almost instantly upon hitting the forest floor. As we walked together he began to remind me of Big Mac, only less talkative, on the occasion that I would begin making a very one sided conversation he would listen, clearly very attentively.

I also noticed as we travelled that he would occasionally stop for brief seconds at a time to examine the plant life closely and smile as he did so, it was some of the first emotion I’d seen him display since we first met at Sweet Apple Acres. It was also the first time I began to wonder about his and Sufferthorn’s names. I know parents were suspiciously good at naming their children with regards as to what they were going to grow up to be, but I had never heard of anypony having such… unpleasant names as the pair of them. I had to wonder if maybe they had taken those names on themselves, and if so what were their real names, what kind of lives did they live before joining the Rebellion?

They always kept their cutie marks hidden; dying their flanks to match their coat colours, although I figured that was common practice for Rebel agents to help them go unidentified. Ignoring the fact that a grown pony with a blank flank was more eye drawing that whatever their cutie marks could have been originally. I decided better than to ask Stranglethorn then, making small talk was fine but I didn’t want to draw too much focus from the job at hand, and it might require a little more back and forth than Stranglethorn was capable of.

Only one other thing of interest happened while we made our way to Dolor, it was late in the second day just after we had crossed the imaginary border between the Sanguine Grove and the Tranquil Forest. Stranglethorn froze mid-step, raising his hoof to single for me to stop as well. I did so and saw that Stranglethorn’s ears were swivelling about the same way Sufferthorn’s did before the last mission. I listened hard too, trying to figure out what it was he was hearing, but I only caught an odd rustling noise before Stranglethorn tackled me to the ground, a timber wolf leaping out from the undergrowth at the place I had just been.

I scrambled back up to my hooves while Stranglethorn leapt up and was standing with his short swords drawn before I could even blink. I drew my own sword, by hoof once more as the timber wolf began circling us. We both kept our eyes locked onto its, I was sure we wouldn’t have any bother with it and it would probably realise we weren’t worth the trouble and retreat, but suddenly Stranglethorn whipped around, sweeping his blades into the body of another that had begun sneaking up behind us.

The one in front leapt at me while another two leapt out of the shadows to aid their fallen brethren. I tried raising my sword to block my attacker, but the rapier was too light and I found myself thrown onto my back, the wolf bearing down on me. Without hesitating I pulled all three of my knives from their sheaths and drove them into the wolf torso, it howled in agony before bursting into twigs and wood chips. Rolling onto my belly I saw the other three trying to take on Stranglethorn, which didn’t end well for any of them.

I still remembered how he took down Hatchet back at Sweet Apple Acres; it was quite something to be able to see it a second time, only against three foes instead of just one. Every movement he made was measured perfectly, his limbs moved with such fluidity, each swing moving smoothly into another. He even threw in some kicks with his hind legs if one of them tried to sneak around behind, and when two dived at him from either side he simply flipped out of harm’s way, allowing them to crash into one another and lock jaws before he delivered the finishing blow.

‘Simply’ really was the word for it, he made everything look so effortless; it was like he didn’t need to think about his moves at all. When he was done, which didn’t take very long at all, he sheathed his two blades before carrying on his way down the forest trail, not even stopping to look at the mountain of wood he’d left behind. As impressed as I was, I had to remind myself that this was still the same pony who had mercilessly cut the throats of all those soldiers back at the farm, some would say he did pretty much the same thing there with those timber wolves. There was no denying that Stranglethorn was a cold blooded killer, and a terrifyingly good one at that.

I shivered as I followed behind him, praying that I would never end up on the other end of his blades… or hooves… or anything really as I didn’t doubt he could kill me with a blade of grass if he wanted. I took solace in the knowledge that we were on the same side, and that there was hardly another pony as skilled in taking lives as Stranglethorn… I was very wrong in that assumption, and it wouldn’t be long before I learnt that.

Comments

[Elsaack]

A new mission requiring Rarity the honey trap? The only way she might get this information is if she makes herself either intellectually part of Arcana's life or emotionally so, and I'm not sure she can insert herself into the government there so easily. Seduction could turn ugly, is Clotheshorse OK with this kind of long term emotional manipulation and eventual betrayal? From the sound of it Arcana couldn't have been nicer until the other tribes come up in conversation. But I suppose we'll see.

Wonder if Trenderhoof is is going to turn up?