Flatline Services

by ProbableSarcasm

Error of Eradication

On the other side of Canterlot: Ponyville April 2nd, 2:00, 19XX

---

It's been a few days since Fluttershy was abducted from her home, and they literally searched for hours on end to find. Twilight had everybody in Ponyville searching every acre of land for the missing Element of Kindness, yet not even so much as a strand of mane to find. Rainbow Dash searched the skies with haste, her eyes darting every detail of Ponyville. Like most of their attempts to find Fluttershy, it was fruitless. The rest of the town is starting to lose hope anyways, there was already a grave stone with Fluttershy's name engraved on it.

Twilight was searching through her house, looking for the closest thing to make out if she at least made a struggle leaving her home. Twilight knew she didn't just leave, why would she just stand up and leave her animal friends behind? Of course, the animals were spooked and going nuts. Twilight found a couple of does dead, to what seemed to be 9.mm bullets lodged in their heads. Twilight grunted, having to move on. Although it wasn't right to just leave an animal dead like this, she had to stay on task with finding their friend.

"There has to be a different approach to this... lets check the doors one more time... Twilight made her way back to the doors and checked the hinges. The hinges were slanted, bent, and even nearly off. Like someone took a crowbar to the hinges and silently took off the top one. They must have not expected animals, since these animals would have awoken Fluttershy at the first sign of trouble, and bucked the door in. For the exception of the bear, and possibly Angel, none of these animals would have attacked anyone. So these ponies were armed, given by the bullet holes in the walls.

Twilight made her way up the stairs, to Fluttershy's bedroom. Twilight noticed the stairs had blood on them, as if somepony was thrown down the stairs. Twilight made her guess it was Fluttershy's blood, but swabbed it up with a q-tip anyways for further analyses. Twilight inserted the q-tip into a cylinder, where it would remain sterilized until she got back to her lab. Twilight continued to ascend the stairs, her hooves making creaks in the floorboard.

That's weird...

Twilight has been in Fluttershy's house many times, and never heard a creak there. As silly as it may seems, Twilight was getting desperate to find Fluttershy. Twilight's first thought went to worse case scenario, maybe they killed her and buried her in her own house! No. No.... that's crazy-talk. She can't afford to act pessimistic now. She needed to find anything that could lead to Fluttershy's whereabouts. Dead or alive, Twilight was going to bring her home. Even if the kind pegasus was buried Tale-Tell Heart style.

Twilight flared up her horn and ripped out the nails in the floorboard and put them in a neat pile inside of a bowl so no one steps on a nail, which is really painful to see and really painful to watch. Twilight then easily took off the floorboard and noticed something very peculiar; there was a hole in the ground. Twilight shot a flare like spell down to see how far the hole went, she looked at her watch and waited for the flare to hit the ground.

Thirty seconds.

Twilight would not survive that fall if she just leaped in, however, she had a spell just for this situation. It was sort of a shock absorbing layer that would cover her limbs and absorb the impact of any fall or damage. Like a low leveled shield, a bubble layer shield that she could cover one pony at a time. She flared up her horn and her entire body was covered in aura, then, a glossy layer appeared on her body. She looked like a crystal pony.

Twilight leaped down and the first thing she noticed, is that she landed on somepony's spine. The unfortunate earth pony collapsed, unconscious. The shock impact layer shimmered, but didn't disappear. That means the pony took the brunt of a Unicorn falling on top of hi- her. The pony was a mare, blonde mane and tail and grey coat. She wore a white suit with blue collar, her cutie mark was a dimebag of crystals. Twilight instantly knew this Pony was a thug for hire, and her duty as Princess of Friendship, she had to arrest this pony.

Twilight's horn lit up, and strands of light blasted form her horn and wrapped the earth pony mare. She also wrapped her magic around her mouth. This spell was to stun the pony and keep them tied up, in case being knocked out wasn't enough. Twilight then smacked her hoof to her forehead, she forgot to interrogate the pony. What was the mare doing all the way down here, in an active crime scene? Twilight picked up the MAC 10 that the mare dropped and grimaced. Twilight pulled the mag. out of the fire arm and took the bullet out of the chamber and flung it in opposite directions.

Twilight would appreciate it if she didn't catch a bullet in the back of the skull, and she especially since this spell doesn't work as a bullet proof armor. In fact, the spell was more or less used as a way to take more than fatal blow. Her little swan song, in case worst case scenario. Twilight stretched her limbs, nervousness of the unknown creeping on her. She took a step forward and hesitated, she can't go in alone. That's suicide. But Fluttershy could be in there, bound and helpless. Being tortured or worse.

Twilight couldn't afford to wait, these bastards have to know where Fluttershy is. And if they don't answer to her, they could answer to the Princesses and the Grand Jury. Twilight shot a pulse, it was a signal for unicorns, she waited until she heard alerted voices and hoof stomps before running into the tunnel. Twilight had a plan, and she needed it to work. Twilight raced down the tunnel, and crammed herself behind a rock. Two ponies, unicorns in white suits and blue collar shirts, carefully trotted past her.

Twilight noticed they were armed, one of them holding a MAC 10 and the other a switchblade. Twilight couldn't possibly take them both out without being shot or being sliced into a cannibal's salsa. Twilight sneaked closer hoping she isn't going to make an error and literally shot and stabbed. Twilight shot a blast at the pony holding the MAC 10 to stun him, then Twilight turned around and bucked the other pony in the side of the head. Twilight's bucks weren't strong, but strong enough to knock someone off their feet. Twilight slammed her hoof into the side of the switchblade-pony, knocking him out cold.

Twilight slammed her back hoof to the temple of the MAC 10 Pony, sending them to the land of nods. Twilight then secured the ponies with the arresting spell, pink strands of magic pinning their legs to their bodies and covering their mouths. Twilight nabbed the MAC 10 and pulled the mag. out, along with the bullet in the chamber. She tossed them in opposite directions again, allowing her to exhale the pent up air she didn't know she was holding in. She won't catch a bullet in the back of the skull and that's a win in her book any day. Now if only she knew where these thugs were getting their weaponry.

Twilight had a boost in confidence, she had knocked out three thugs already. Twilight isn't one to resort to violence, but this sort of situation calls for it. That, and she has no intention of leaving Fluttershy here to rot. Twilight felt her confidence squeeze the fear into shape, and instead of fighting the fear: Twilight used it as her motivation. She's going to save Fluttershy by using her brain, and her brain produces fear so that's sort of a double edge sword on her part.

As Twilight lurked deeper into the darkness, she noticed tunnels. Using a sonar-like spell, she found out that these tunnels act as sort of rooms for Diamond Dogs. Twilight deduced that having Diamond Dogs, whom charge a lot of money for their services, would be redundant to guard a tunnel.... wait... why are they guarding this tunnel? Twilight had no time to ponder anymore, she felt the presence of eight more different ponies in the same area, patrolling the vast tunnel system. None of them armed with firearms, thank goodness. Twilight was beginning to grow tired of the feeling like she could be just shot at any given time.

WHACK
Twilight let out a sharp cry, as numbing pain entered her cheek and jaw. Something came out of the right tunnels and charged Twilight, smacking her across the face with a baseball bat. Twilight's vision became extremely wobbly as her impact layer broke and shattered like glass. She lost her balance and was sent sprawling to the ground, her ears hearing nothing but static, and her head screaming in a blind furry. A bruise was starting to form on Twilight's right cheek, swelling up too. Twilight's vision came back into focus almost immediately.

Twilight noticed her assailant was an earth pony, she knew better than to square up with the thug straight on. New Alicorns don't have the strength to match them, but Twilight had something these thugs didn't. Training in these situations. Becoming a Princess wasn't as simple as becoming an Alicorn and calling it a day. She had to face the threats of assassins trying to kill her, or the other two princesses on an occasional bases. It also helps when you have the Captain of the Royal Guard at your disposal to help train you in close combat.

That, and Twilight practically studied the anatomy of each species.

Twilight rolled on her back, avoiding a vertical smash of the baseball bat that would have ended her life. Twilight scooted closer and slammed her hind leg into the lower abdominal regions of the Earth Pony, making the white suited thug lean over in pain. Twilight's horn lit up and she teleported out of harms way, up on her feet and two feet away. Twilight's lip was busted and her nose dabbled blood, but her cheek and jaw was the most painful. Pain started to overcloud her judgement, her rationale held hostage by her fury at this point.

The earth around Twilight began to rumble, as her inner energy caught her a second wind. She snarled, her teeth stained with blood. This white suited stallion could have killed her if she didn't have the shield on, and Twilight wasn't too keen on letting this stallion get away with it either. She had never felt so furious in her life, that this pony was willing to take her life like it was no big problem. Twilight's life. Twilight shook with blind fury, her eyes glowing into a white void.

"Heh," The stallion nervously chuckled out loud, his Russian accent heavy. "Still got some fight in you!? Huh?! Fucking idiot!"

Twilight grunted her reply.
And whatever happened next was just static.

Twilight caught a horizontal slash to the hoof by a machete, she growled as she took the stallion's foreleg and wrenched the machete out of his hands. Twilight leaned her head back, and then smashed her forehead into the nose of the stallion. Knocking him to the ground and stunning him instantly. Twilight leaped on him and gave him two hard stomps to the sides of his face, breaking the jaw and incapacitating the stallion completely.

Twilight resisted the urge to keep pummeling his face in, reluctant to stand.

Twilight swung the metal baseball bat with her hooves, trying to conserve her magical energy to create another impact layer shield. The bat collided with the mare's foreleg, bone sticking through and blood spurting from the leg. Twilight swung the bat down in an vertical strike onto the spine of the thug-pony, a audible CRACK as her spine either snapped or crumbled in the sheer force of an Angry Alicorn. Twilight bared and grit her blood stained teeth, resisting the urge to bash this filly's face in. Twilight wasn't a killer, she will not kill this pony, or any pony.

Twilight slammed the head of the last thug-pony into the cave wall, enough for the skull to crack. Twilight was jittery, her eyes were a vast void of glowing white. The Alicorn had a smile spiraled across her face, her pain and her anger finally lifting from her head. Her lungs burned as she inhaled more dust fumes and charcoal, her head felt dizzy. She leaned across the wall, that she smashed the unconcious pony's head into, and pressed her face into the wall.

Twilight violently sobbed, her whole body racking with pain. Twilight felt spent, magically, physically, and emotionally. Twilight's mind was numb, and she hated the feeling. Her whole body covered in scratches and bruises, her lungs burning every frantic breath she took and she hated the feeling. She had just violently beaten eight ponies into unconsciousness and she hated the knowledge, wishing this whole incident was just a scary nightmare.

Nightmares don't use up so much magic.

---

Twilight was sitting in the middle of the tunnel systems, sweating, dirty, and bloodied. Twilight's eye had sullen, her cheek and jaw bruised, her ear scratched up and bleeding slightly, she had a busted lip, her nose bled even more. She was catching her breath, after her major panic attack left her riddled with guilt and remorse for the ponies she viciously beaten. Of course, she had to check if they were still breathing. Twilight would never live with herself fully if she knows she beaten a pony to death like an animal.

...Am I an animal...?

Twilight had patched herself up with whatever she could find. Apparently, this was a base of operations. Twilight did some investigation, clearing her mind to the best of her abilities. There was an entire room dedicated to an infirmary, but they didn't have any gauze. She did find a dozen crates. One of those crates were enough painkillers to feed an addiction to thirteen dozen thugs, which is the most legal thing she found in those crates so far. She found weapons, crystals, cocaine, and counterfeit bits.

Twilight had wrapped her hooves in boxing tape to prevent further damage to her hood or forelegs, as her hooves were bleeding from the machete slash she had encountered. Twilight coughed, this tunnel system only had a few pot holes for air. Twilight knew that yelling for help would be useless, as she was deep underground. Twilight groaned, her lungs feeling like they were on fire. Twilight wiped her nose with a foreleg. Sniffling.

Twilight blinked, and laying on the ground was a pony. The pony was a stallion, well built but still on the skinny side. The stallion's coat was white, given the bloodstains on his coat. The colt had a brown jacket on, one Twilight had only seen when she was around fifteen or sixteen. The colts that she use to totally not crush on wore these jackets as a triumphant to their sports or academic achievements. They of course were Varsity Jackets, and they were bulkier than what this pony as wearing.

The stallion had a letterman jacket on, with the letter B on it. However, the letter kept changing. Twilight began to think that the letter didn't mean anything. Twilight didn't even know if this was another moment where she just blacked out again, or if she's having an hallucination from the lack of oxygen. Twilight only had to wait and.....

Hold on...

The stallion was wearing a golden chicken mask, how did she miss this feature?!

The stallion sat up, sitting across from her. The masked pony tilted his head at her, as if he was examining her. Twilight looked deeper into the chicken mask's eyes, and felt like the eyes behind the mask was judging her. Judging her for her actions to the ponies, judging her completely out of place violence. Twilight's ears flipped back, her guilt was already killing her and she did not need her insecurities eating her up.

"What?" The stallion spoke, or rather, the chicken mask spoke. The mask's beak moved, as if it could sentimentally speak... no... that's impossilble...

"You should know by now, nothing is impossible. The mask read her mind, and Twilight's eyes, save for the one swollen one, widen.

"Y-you read my mind...-" Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her spot, seemingly frozen in place. "H-how did you.-"

"No, no I didn't, The mask calmly interrupted, the stallion shifting into a more comfortable position. "You had that look in your eyes, that same look you gave to Pinkie Pie about her Pinkie Sense."

Twilight blinked in confusion.

"The look in your eyes," The stallion continued, not allowing her to reply "They show a Princess of Friendship."

"Tell me, what good is friendship when most of the time: you want to be isolated in your library?" The stallion asked, not even flinching at his own cold words. "Why is it that you're down here, when you're wishing you could be in your home, curled up on a comfortable sofa, drinking hot tea, and reading a book that requires a doctor's degree to even understand the title?

"Why are you down here, alone?"

"Why didn't you call for help?"

"Why did you want to hurt these ponies?"

"Most importantly, why didn't you kill them?"

Twilight was astonished, this pony had accurately described her more hidden selfish nature. How badly she wished she didn't care to have friends so she could be alone with Spike, how badly she got hurt looking for the slightest shred of a clue where Fluttershy might have gone. How badly she wanted to take her anger out on these thugs, who might know what happened to Fluttershy. At the same time, she wanted to banish these tainted souls into the deepest circle of hell.
However the other two questions blew up her mind, she couldn't regain her thoughts.

"....I... don't..." Twilight was still trying to process who is this pony. "I don't... understand... who are you?"

"My name isn't important, The stallion-chicken waved his hoof dismissively. "What's important is the four questions I want you to ponder."

"Why are you down here, alone?"

"Why didn't you call for help?"

"Why did you want to hurt these ponies?"

"And most importantly, why didn't you kill them?"

Author's Note:

Notice the difference between Jacket and Twilight Sparkle.

Let me know if you see the hidden similarities, and there'll be a reward.... maybe, I don't know, don't sue pls.

Credit is where credit is due. I don't own the images above, and as soon as I find the proper artists; I'll credit them.

Comments

[ProbableSarcasm]

6234371 Thanks! It means a lot!

[SomeBloke]

Amazing, keep it up

[Butterwings]

Wait, what if she tossed the second gun in the same direction she threw the first magazine?

[ProbableSarcasm]

6235614
Right, fixing it ASAP!

[ProbableSarcasm]

6235648
Huh, that's true...

I'll fix it.

[predatornc]

will you ever update this?

[ProbableSarcasm]

6522953

Yes and no.

Yes, I will return to the story in the future. I had a lot of fun writing the story chapters and such, feel like I fleshed out Jacket's character, and cross the lines between sanity and insanity.

No, it will be a good while before I do return. I have other works to further advance and hopefully complete, honestly this story is shelved for now amd will remain on hiatus until further notice

[MaskofLimbo]

Nice, you make Twilight fight like Evan (The Writter from HM 2). Starts with non-lethal attacks, but when gets angry, starts using lethal attacks. Smart, very smart.
Very good chapter, too. I will await with patience until this story's returns.

[K Bird]

6523915
lol