This is what we do

by Foxgear

The Great Ecaspe

This is what we do Chapter 30
By Foxgear

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Maddie crawled her way under the tin wall of the shed her arms and legs bloody from cutting her bonds, and now getting dirt in her wounds, but she didn’t care. She dug with the vigor of a field mouse clawing her way to freedom! Pulling her torso under the tin, cutting her back on the jagged metal, Maddie pushed and pulled her body out from under the wall her breasts catching as Maddie arched her back. A lot of dirt falls into her shirt, but again she didn’t care, she could see the moon! With a final grunt and pulled slipping her legs out from the hole and jumped to her feet! It hurt, and immediately fell back against the shed that she’d been captive in for the last few days in relief, but she was fucking out!

“Yeah! Wahoo! Momma’s free! And missing a lot of blood…” Maddie fell on her ass feeling woozy. She held her arms up in the moonlight cringing at her blood-caked arms with a good helping of dirt crusted over her cuts. Her legs weren’t any better. “Maybe I should just rest here for a minute… NO! Rest means death!”

She had no idea when Pinkie/Spite was going return. She had to get out of here and fast! With her legs like this, she wasn’t going to get far. Standing up and limping alongside the building Maddie spotted lights. The quarry! Yeah, she was at the quarry! She almost forgot after hours of being tortured!

“Hahaha, the things that slip your mind when you’re in pain.” This was perfect for her. Really it was. Her first attempt failed, but there was still a chance there was a vehicle, phone or just a helpful stranger down in the quarry just waiting to help her! She was modesty attractive woman that looked like a domestic abuse case, there was no way someone wasn’t going to help her on sight. At least she hoped so. “Well helpful stranger or phone, I’ll take either. Would kill for some painkillers too.”

Limping her way down the hill, Maddie used the slope on the side of the road to balance. Her progress was painfully slow. The road was winding, the gravel rough on her feet. Pinkie had taken her shoes, so she was barefoot. So, when she found a broken tree limb that was just about her height, she picked up, broke off the small adjoining branches and used it as a walking stick, which was a godsend at this point, which was kind of sad, but it did allow her to walk a little faster.

After an hour of limping she finally, finally, reached the end of the road and stood before the quarry. She was so happy she actually began to cry. There were vehicles lined up in rows, an office with the lights on, and there were people!

“Maybe there are gods in this world. Nice ones too.” Maddie took a step forward and… her stick snapped and stabbed into her leg. She screamed bloody murder as she put pressure on her fresh new wound. “WHAT THE FUCK DID I SAY THIS TIME!”

Despite that little setback, some men in orange vests came running to help her. They called for first aid, and she was placed on a stretcher, and there was even a medical professional on site. Not a doctor. But she didn’t care they had morphine and carbon peroxide, which hurt, but then the morphine kicked in.

“I will… no, I would… make the guy, girl, whatever the happiest thing in the world as long as you keep that coming…” She slurred as the drugs took effect. Her head rolled limply to the side off the stretcher. A gray-skinned girl in a hardhat stood beside her with her arms crossed. “Hello… you… want the clam cuddled?”

“Where’d you find this loopy bitch?” Limestone Pie asked leaning down for a better look at Maddie. It was painful just look at her. “Hey, lady, what happened? Bigfoot take you out back and make you his wife?”

“Ms. Pie that’s a little crude.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I bet your one of those nature freaks. Probably come here to protest again, and you fell down a mountain, and now you’ll sue us to try and get us to shut down!” Limestone barked grabbing Maddie by the shirt. One of the workers quickly caught her and pulled her away from the injured woman, but not before one of Maddie’s boobs slipped out of her shirt.

“Hey!” Maddie slurred drunkenly. “At least buy me dinner first!”

“Just settle down, she could be a hiker that got lost.” The same worker said, trying to calm down the irate Pie sister. “Besides if you hurt her anymore, she could sue you, so keep your hands to yourself. Miss? Miss? Can you hear me?”

Maddie nodded, her eyes flickered as sleep tried to take her.

The employee slapped her! “Sorry, but you need to stay awake miss. The ambulance is on its way, the police too. Is there anything you can tell us? Like how you ended up like this?”

“Should have asked her before I morphine her up. She’s probably in Lalaland now.” The first responder grunted as he picked the glass, metal, and dirt out of Maddie’s wounds. “Man, she is a tough woman to wander out of the woods like this.”

“Pink bitch…” Maddie mumbled her eyes barely staying open.

Limestone looked sharply at her. “What’d you say?”

“Pink… bitch… she… hurt…me…” Maddie mumbled. “Pinkie, Pinkie bitch…”

“We better put her in the pickup and meet the ambulance. She’s not looking good. I might have given her too much morphine.” The first responder said grabbing one side of the stretcher.

Limestone cursed and grabbed the other side. “Fuck don’t die in one of our pickups! Goddamn insurance is going to be a nightmare.” She mumbled as they carried Maddie out to one of the pickups.

Maddie heard the doors close, and the truck began to move, her body rocked in the back seat of the white Chevy as the driver eased out of the bumpy quarry sight.

“Dammit, Ironsides, drive more carefully!” Limestone turned around in her seat. “I said this once already, but don’t fucking die in my pick up!”

“Relax Miss Pie, this woman survived up till now, I think she’ll make it just fine. The roads a bit bumpy going out, but we’ll hit the tar soon, Miss.”

“Hoof,” Maddie croaked, her throat dry. “Maddie Hoof.”

“That your name, Miss?” Ironsides asked as he turned onto the blacktop. “Miss? I know it’s hard, but if you could keep talking, that’d be really reassuring. Miss Pie, do you mind keeping an eye on her? I’m sure you’d like me to stay on the road. Try to be kind too.”

Limestone huffed, “Fine, but I’m not much for small talk.” She turned around in her seat again Maddie’s wounds barely visible in the cab and spoke as sweetly as she could. “So… your name is Maddie?” Maddie nodded stiffy. “Ok, good, good, I’m Limestone Pie. Um… I’m the second oldest of four. Do you have any siblings? How about your mother and father? Is there anyone we can call for you?”

Maddie began to cry. “Never knew my mom, Dad’s dead, don’t have any siblings.”

Limestone blinked away a stray tear. “Wow… that’s depressing. Do you have a boyfriend or just any friends? Is there anyone we can call?”

“Mac… Apple… we’re friends… I think we are. I hope we are. His wife too, I think she’s my friend, her name is Adagio.”

“Ok, um… let’s see…” Limestone pulled out her phone. She knew her sister was friends with one of the Apple girls. She and Mac had been in the same grade, but she hadn’t been that close to him. None the else she checked her contacts because he was kind of her type and maybe she snagged his number once before graduation. “Damn he’s already married, fuck. He works quick.”

“Adagio’s pregnant,” Maddie said wistfully.

Limestone’s eyes bugged out as she finished scrolling through her phone. “Fuck, he does work fast.” Maddie laughed, but it quickly turned into a hard cough, blood flew from her mouth hitting the back of the driver’s seat. “Hey, hey easy now.” Limestone stroked Maddie’s arm, trying to soothe her. “How much further Ironsides?”

“This is the only road out here, and we haven’t met the ambulance yet. Should maybe try calling. You don’t have that Mac guys number?” Limestone shook her head. “Can you look it up online? You have the internet on your phone.”

“I have a signal, but no network.” Limestone sat back in her seat. Maddie’s breathing was sounding hoarser. “I don’t think her talk was a good idea.”

“Maybe, but we at least have a name to call.” Ironsides slowed down and turned on his hazards. “That’s the ambulance.” He said eluding to the fast-approaching blur of flashing lights. Quickly he climbed out of the cab of the pickup, grabbing a road flare from under the seat, igniting it he walked into the middle of the road waving his arms and shouted for the emergency vehicle to stop. “We got your patient here!” He shouted as the ambulance driver rolled down his window.

“Roger that, Nyx, get the stretcher!” The driver shouted as medics poured out from the back with the gurney. One paramedic was a dark-skinned woman who looked very haggard.

“Fuck me, I was almost done with my shift too,” Nyx grumbled as Ironsides opened the back door of the pickup. The paramedic beside her looked sympathetic.

“Sorry Nyx, but you were the only other qualified personnel available. Everyone’s shifts have been screwy lately. Let’s just get this... wow she looks like shit, doesn’t she?” The medic joked with the disputation of someone who was numb to real horrors. “The hell happened to her? Did a bear get her?” He asked as they gently moved Maddie to the stretcher. Nyx gasped in horror.

“Holy shit, Maddie?”

“You know her?” The medic asked.

The driver honked the horn. “Keep it moving people! I know your not the A team, but we got a life on the line! Gently now!”

Nyx and the paramedic move Maddie to the back of the ambulance and quickly place her inside. Limestone and Ironsides wait as the ambulance made a quick and precise three-point turn and sped off into the night with lights and sirens blazing.

“Shall we head back Miss Pie?” Limestone silently nodded as she climbed back into the pickup, Ironsides making his own three-point turn back to the quarry. He drove for several minutes before breaking the silence. “Something eating you Miss Pie? You worried about that girl or the insurance.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “Shut it, I may be a bit callous, but I don’t want her to die. Especially when she wandered onto my property.”

“Your dad still owns the quarry.”

“Future property then.” Limestone bit her thumbnail. “Something she said is bothering me.”

“What’s that?”

“She said a pink bitch did that to her, she even said Pinkie bitch too. Pinkie… Pinkie is my sister’s nickname.”

Ironsides laughed. “Pinkie? Your bubbly sister who makes us all cupcakes? You think she did that?”

“She wasn’t always that way.” Limestone crossed her arm and leaned down in her seat. “She used to be downright scary. When she was twelve, she… well never mind. You right, Pinkie wouldn’t do that.” Limestone looked out the window into the blackness as the rain began to hit the window. (But Pinkamena would.)

As they sped through the night, Limestone looked out the window and yelled for Ironsides to stop the truck. The pickup slid on the slippery road coming to a full stop in between the narrow lanes. Before he could ask what happened Limestone had already climbed outside the vehicle. Ironsides got out too covering his head with his arms as Limestone stood in the rain, the white tank top beneath her open flannel shirt soaked wet.

Eyes adverted he peered into the darkness trying to see what she saw. “What is it, boss?”

“I thought I saw Pinkie.”

“Your sister?”

“Is there another Pinkie you know?”

“Well, no, but what the hell would she being doing out here?” He said pulling her back towards the pickup. “Come on, your just tried and probably stressed because of that Maddie girl and the insurance.”

“Yeah, maybe.” She replied climbing back into the passenger seat. As Ironsides straightened out, the truck Limestone pulled out her phone and seeing she had some bars she decided to call home. “Hey, Marble? Has Pinkie come home, yet?” A soft ‘no’ come over the line. “I see, yeah, yeah, I’ll call her friends in the morning. I can’t tonight.” She snapped, Marble’s soft-spoken protests barely coming through the speaker. “You know why. I’m not putting work before family. It’s fucking eleven PM! I’m not calling people at eleven at night! I know she’s been gone for two days, that’s nothing new for her! Principle Luna came by? When? Two days ago? Look I promise I’ll start making calls in the morning when I wake up. I’ll take the day off to help you look, ok? What more do you want from me? I do care, Marble! You're just too emotional!” Limestone hit end call.

“Wow, I almost heard her.” Ironsides laughed, earning a punch in the side. “Hey, don’t get mad at me because your meek sister got angry at you.”

Limestone huffed crossing her arms. “She acts like I’m fucking heartless.”

“Um…”

“Fine, I can be a cold-hearted bitch, but I do care about my sisters!” Limestone chaffed, leaning back her seat. “Fuck, I wish that was Pinkie I saw just so I could spank her ass.”

“So, what did you see again?” Ironsides asked pulling into the quarry lot.

“Nothing just a pink blur… what the hell!” Limestone sat up in her seat in horror! The quarry site was on fire! Equipment was overturned, and her men lay on the ground unmoving. She jumped out of the truck and ran to the nearest man who was still breathing. “What the hell happened here?”

The man coughed and pointed to the old machine shed at the top of the hill. “The old barn… exploded and then a pink blur came by and did this…” The man went limp in her arms Limestone kneeling stunned in the mud.

“A pink blur…” Suddenly an explosion erupted in the direction of the main road in the direction of the ambulance. “Ironsides call for more help!” She ordered climbing into the Chevy and peeling off into the night.

“Miss Pie, wait!” He yelled, but the tail lights of the pick up were already gone.

---

“Holy shit you’re in bad shape, even worse than last time,” Nyx said as she adjusted Maddie’s breathing mask. “They doped you on morphine too, shit, well it might be for the best given your current state. Hand me that disinfectant, Hobs.”

“Man, this woman must be tough as stones,” Hobs commented handing over the disinfectant. “I mean, look at her! She looks like she got mauled by a bear!”

“Yeah, can’t really say what’s holding her together.” Nyx dabbed a Q-tip into one of the cuts on Maddie’s left arm. The wounds around her wrists were the freshest. “She was bound, look here, rope fibers were in her wrists and…” She gulped only imagining the pain. “She must have rubbed the ropes until they broke.”

“Her feet too. Did she walk like this? Look at these cuts on her legs.” Hobs began to cut Maddie’s clothes off, they were shredded anyway and just in the way. “Man, what sicko did this to her?”

Nyx took a pair of tweezers and pulled a thin pink hair from the cut on Maddie’s shoulder. She stretched out the pink lock, it was long, longer then most males would have their hair. Also, pink wasn’t a typical male color either. Some men have naturally pink hair, but that was a narrow margin in this world. She could think of a few pink heads she knew personally. She let the one end of the hair go, it curled. She knew a pink haired girl with curly hair.

Maddie was unconscious, she couldn’t confirm her fears, but Nyx knew who did this to her. It was just her luck that she came back to work just in time for this.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Nyx patted her pants pockets looking for her phone. She stood up digging her hand frantically into her tight pants pocket. Phone in hand she pressed the power button as she chewed her lip while glancing fearfully out the window, lightning running up her spine.

“Nyx, you know you can’t use your phone in here.” Said Hobs has he reached to take it. She smacked away his hand, leaving deep scratches that bleed. “What the hell woman?”

“Be quiet! I have to make this call, or we’re all dead!” Nyx barked her transformation slipped and revealed her changeling features to her coworker.

“What… what are…”

Nyx pressed her finger against Hobs’ head. “Sorry, sleep.” Hobs fell over on the bench, knocking over some medicine bottles he had set out. From the cab, the driver, a man named Auto glanced back. “What happened?”

“Nothing, keep driving, faster if possible.” Nyx pressed her body as close to the wall as she could to keep him from seeing her fangs and ears.

“That bad huh? Alright, I’ll try to speed it up, but this rain is kind of slowing me down.”

Phone on Nyx scrolled through her contacts and pressed Mac’s name as soon as it came into view. The dial tone rang. Sweat began to gather, she could feel a presence coming toward them, and it was much, much, stronger than her.

The call went through, Mac’s voice coming over the speaker. “Hello?”

“Mac… ‘BOOOM’!”

The world was suddenly upside-down Nyx laid on the roof of the ambulance, which was now the floor. She rolled on her side, sparks fell from above the lights flashing on and off, casting her in a blur of light and dark. Nyx grabbed one of the bars on the wall and pulled herself up against up. Her clothes were wet, at first the thought it was the rain, but when she patted her stomach, she felt a piece of metal sticking out of her gut.

“Fuck this day.” She mumbled looking to see how her co-workers were doing. Hobs lay towards the front, his head covered in blood, he was probably dead. Auto hung from his seat, he wasn’t making any noise either. In the flickering lights, she saw a steady stream of red blood poured from his body. “Auto?” No response.

A soft groan caught her attention. Maddie still tied down to the stretcher lay across from her, somehow alive. “Fuck, can anything kill you?” Nyx felt around for her phone, it had flown from her hand in the explosion. Her hand splashed through the water running in from the rain, searching for her phone, she found it. The screen was black though. “Come on, work.” She pleaded rapidly pressing the power button.

The back doors of the ambulance were suddenly torn away. Standing in the red light of the tail lights was a very pissed off looking Pinkie or rather the SIN that was controlling her body. The possessed girl climbed into the wrecked vehicle grabbed hold of the stretcher and yanked it out with one mighty pull!

“There you are, mommy.” Pinkie said in a sickly-sweet voice. “You know better than to run from me, right? Why do you hurt me like this mommy? I thought you wanted to play? I brought everything we’ll need to have some fun from your lab.” Nyx saw the duffle bag Pinkie was sporting as she kneed next to the stretcher and wondered what she had inside it. “Come on now Mommy, I’ll make you better.” Pinkie’s nails turned into claws, easily she cut the straps holding Maddie down and threw the wounded woman over her shoulder. The entire time Nyx held her breath, praying Pinkie wouldn’t notice her.

(Call me a coward, but I’m not a fighter.) Nyx held her stomach wound, Pinkie’s footsteps growing more and more distant until she couldn’t hear them anymore. Even then she waited another thirty seconds before finally breathing again.

“Now what?” She asked aloud. “Just sit here and bleed out?” Looking around for something useful Nyx spotted some gauze in the upside-down drawer. She gripped the piece of metal in her gut and gave it a light tug. It was painful and probably not a good idea to take it out yet, even with bandages available. Carefully she worked her way across the ambulance and took her prize for her efforts. She tore away her uniform and bundled a bunch of bandages into a wad and packed them around the metal in her stomach and held them there. Grabbing some tape next, she pushed the pad down and taped it tight. Finally taking more bandages, she wrapped several rolls of medical tape around her stomach to hold the wad down and fell back against the wall again. It hurt like hell, but what blood was coming from her wound was stopped for now.

“Better not move, might cut up my organs,” Nyx mumbled her eyes fluttered open and closed. She was so sleepy all of a sudden. How long has it been? Would anyone notice they were late in time to save her? Would Mac try to call back? It didn’t matter if he did, her phone was trashed. “Maybe I should try for the radio?”

The radio transmitter lay on the floor, the cord still connected. It seemed so far away now. Nyx reached for it, but her body refused to move anymore. She laid her head against the wall. “So tired.”

Headlights flashed through the back of the ambulance, and a door slammed, there were footsteps. Someone knelt in the wreckage, their body blacked out by the headlights of their vehicle.

“Holy shit, don’t worry, I’ll be there in a second.” A voice said. It was a woman’s voice. A pair of strong arms grabbed and dragged Nyx out of the ruined vehicle. “Don’t worry. Help’s coming.” The woman assured her putting her in the back seat of the pick-up. The same one that had brought Maddie. “How are the others?”

“Don’t know, Hobs is dead, but I couldn’t really tell with Auto,” Nyx replied dazedly.

The woman nodded, “Ok. I’ll go check on them.” She disappeared for about a minute. When she returned, she didn’t say anything and just started driving.

“Dead?” Nyx croaked.

“Sorry,” The woman replied. Her hands gripped tight on the wheel. “What happened?”

“A pink bitch blew us up and took our patient.”

The woman looked like she was about to say something, but stopped short. “I’ll drive you to town myself. More ambulances are on the way, she… she got some guys at the Quarry too.”

Nyx laid back and sighed. “I see… I’m kind of tired, but… call Mac Apple, he… he’ll fix this.”

“What can he do? Hey? You still alive back there?” Limestone shouted shaking Nyx. There was no response. With a feral growl, Limestone sped down the road to the hospital. “Fuck, don’t die in my pick up!”

---

“Who was that?” Aria inquired as Mac dropped his phone back into his breast pocket. She was squished between Mac and Ferocious on their way home. After revealing the Fluttershy’s Frankenstein project, they lingered around the crime see for a while and then looked to see if there had been any sighting of strange creatures at the sheriff’s office. The time was thirty minutes to midnight, and they had found nothing, so they decided to go back to the farm when Mac got a call.
“Nyx,” Mac drawled pulling over to the curb. He fished his phone back out of his pocket and tried calling the changeling nurse again. He held the phone out checking his signal before trying again. “Hmm… she’s not picking up.”

“Maybe she ass dialed you? She probably got home and fell right into bed with her clothes on. She has been working double shifts since the portal was destroyed. A lot of older folks are still suffering from that.” Aria divulged. “I’m worried about some of our golden girls. I hope they recover alright.”

He didn’t reply. Trying to call Nyx back for the third time and still no answer. Tried or not, Nyx didn’t call them for personal reasons usually. She had said his name, and then there was a loud noise, and that was it. “She wouldn’t have called for no reason.” Mac drawled dialing the number for the hospital office. He about knew it by heart now with how often they’ve been there. “Hi, this is Macintosh Apple. Yeah, sorry to bother you so late at night, but is Nurse Nyx in? She’s out on an ambulance call? No, sorry, I just didn’t know she did that too. Any details on when she’ll be back? The Pie Quarry? When did she leave?” Mac held the phone between his cheek and shoulder and checked his watch. “She should have been back by now, right?” Suddenly someone yelled in the background, and the hospital receptionist hung up.

Ferocious leaned forward in his seat. “Something wrong?”

“Maybe,” Mac dropped his phone back into his shirt pocket and gripped the shift lever. It was late, there wasn’t any more they could do today, so they might as well go home and sleep. He moved the lever to drive when his phone rang again. He pulled out his phone again, the screen displayed a somewhat familiar number. He answered. “Hello?”

“I don’t suppose you remember me?” The voice on the other end said it was a woman with a harsh tone.

“Limestone Pie?” Mac replied surprised. “Kind of the last person I expected to call at midnight.”

Limestone sounded tired. “Yeah, well you weren’t first on my list either. Listen, I know this is going to sound strange, but could you meet me at the hospital? I just delivered someone that said you could help fix… whatever is going on.”

“And what’s going on?”

“Crazy shit, look I know this is a lot to ask so late, but… I need your help, Mac, if nothing else you might want to see your friend here. She’s in tough shape, her name is Nyx.”

Before anything else could be said Mac drifted the pick-up away from the curb and pointed in the direction of the Hospital. “We’ll be right there, stand in a place we can see you, Limestone,” Mac ordered and then hung up. “Aria, call the house tell Adagio we’ll be back in the morning, somethings come up.”

“Got it.” She replied as they sped through the dark empty streets.

---

Limestone paced in the emergency room hall. Nyx was inside getting the metal scrap removed from her gut. She would have left by now, but after overhearing some other nurses say Nyx didn’t have anyone coming to see her, she decided to stay. At least until she was out of surgery. Limestone had sat down when Mac found her.

“Howdy,” Mac greeted sitting down across from her, a pink skinned girl punk rock girl sitting down next to him who looked very familiar.

“That’s your wife?” Limestone inquired. Mac did a double take and laughed ruffling the girl’s purple pigtailed hair.

“Naw, this is my sister in law Aria. Wife is back home taking care of our guests at the house. We were in town on some… business.”

“That’s some pretty late business.” Limestone quipped glaring skeptically at the two.

“Let’s cut the bullshit, what happened?” Aria snipped cutting to the chase.

Limestone leaned back and crossed her arms. “Some beaten and bruised woman named Maddie Hoof showed up at the quarry, I deliver her to the paramedics, I get back to the quarry my entire staff is on the ground, and something exploded in the distance. I figured it was the ambulance and went back to check on them, leaving my hired man to call for more help. I find Nyx alive and the other two dead, and the woman they were transporting gone. Nyx said you, Mac, could fix this.” She leaned forward, elbows on her knees as she whispered. “Does this have something to do with all that magic nonsense that my sister and her friends have been involved with since before we graduated?”

Mac leaned forwards, speaking just of softly, “Something like that. The genie might be coming out of the bottle soon. Things… things have been crazy.”

“You're telling me,” she snorted. “Ugh… I can’t believe this happened, no good deed goes unpunished and all that. The worst part is I think Pinkie is involved, both Maddie and Nyx said a pink bitch attacked them. Maybe it’s because she’s the first pink skinned person I think of, but my sister isn’t involved in this, right?” Limestone pressed sounding hopeful. When Mac and Aria didn’t rebuke her, she nervously chewed her lip. “She is, isn’t she?”

“It’s not just her,” Aria admitted. “We’ve gotten caught up in it ourselves. We only just now began piecing things together.”

Mac sighed. “The short of it is, some bad magic parasites got themselves into Applejack and her friends. Some were affected worse than others. We just wrangled down Rarity today… well, it’d be yesterday now, but Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie are still at large. A companion of ours scuffed with Rainbow Dash no long ago, she was in tough shape. We don’t have any real leads on Fluttershy and Pinkie.”

“At least until now,” Aria added, she pulled her phone out and opened her map app. “Could you pinpoint where the ambulance was attacked?”

“Yeah, fine,” Limestone said taking the phone and tapped the general location and then where she thought the old shed would be. “It’s gone now, but there was an old machine shed where dad used to house the equipment before he upgraded and things were too big to fit inside. When I came back to the quarry it was on fire, so that might have been where Maddie was being held.”

Aria took the phone back and showed to Mac, they both nodded and Aria slipped it back into her pocket. “I’ll go tell Ferocious, she can’t have gone too far carrying Maddie.”

“I’ll wait to see Nyx, she deserves that much,” Mac said with a wave. “You two can wait for me or head back home. See if Ferocious and Stryker can get anything.” Mac looked at Limestone. “You called the cops, right?”

“I’m not stupid.” Limestone retorted. “They’re probably checking out the area now. I’m staying here, I got a lot of workers I need to care for that are coming.” She sighed with dismay. “Why would Pinkie do this?”

“Don’t know,” Mac replied leaning back in his chair. He checked his watch, it was after midnight now, even if the police were on the scene it was dark and they were probably tired from checking out the animal shelter scene. Trying to find Pinkie now would be hard. (Hopefully, one more day won’t hurt.) He hoped that was true, mentally he counted back how many days Maddie had before the seal kicked in and killed her. Time was running short for her and for the girls.

He and Limestone waited in the emergency room hall for the next hour, neither of them really talking. During that time Aria had come back and said Ferocious had made arrangements to check out the wreckage and quarry tomorrow morning, for now, the police were preserving the scene for better light, and a semi-rested crew. Their hands were tied on that end.

The Doctor Blue Cross come out of the emergency room blood still on her scrubs as she looked at the two of them. “Ah Mr. Apple, here again, I have better news this time, and you’re the young lady who brought our Nurse Nyx her, thank you, you saved her life. Miss Blackthorn is conscious and would like to see you, but only briefly, she needs her rest.”

“Right, ya coming Limestone?”

“Yeah, lead the way.”

The two followed Doctor Blue Cross to Nyx’s room, the changeling Nurse laid on her bed her stomach wrapped in bandages her breasts covered by a disposable bra. Another nurse was asking her questions, so they waited till the nurse was done and pulled a blanket over Nyx.

“I don’t know how long she’ll stay conscious if she falls asleep. Don’t worry, just leave, and we’ll take care of her.” The nurse said pointedly before walking away with Doctor Blue Cross.

Mac walked into the room and took the chair by the bed, Limestone chose to stand on the other side of the bed. “You’re in tough shape. I’d ask if you’re ok, but that seems a bit rhetorical.”

Nyx snorted with disgust. “I got off lucky compared to everyone else. Me, the friendless, familyless, loner. Hobs was married, had two teenagers, Auto, he had three kids the oldest was probably twelve, fuck what I am supposed to say to them? I’m sure their wives will come in crying wondering why I survived, their kids will stand there crying and not understanding what’s going on. Ugh, god, maybe I should have tried to save Maddie from Pinkie, at least then I could have been spared this headache.”

“So, my sister did attack you?” Limestone asked

Nyx nodded turning her head toward the Pie sister. “Yeah, I’d recognize her easily. Seen her come by giving treats to sick kids and hanging out with the older patients at the nursing home.” She looked back to Mac. “She seemed really keen to get hold of Maddie. I don’t know what she has planned for her, but she said she had things from Maddie’s lab. Whatever that means.” Nyx bit her lip tearing up. “She killed two of my co-workers, they were good men Mac, you can’t let this continue.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “I won’t. We’re following leads right now, we’ll find her, and we’ll stop her. I promise.” Mac stood up and placed Nyx’s hand on her chest. “I’ll tell Adagio what happened. I’m sure she’ll want to visit. I know we don’t appreciate you enough Nyx, but you are our friend. We’ll do better to show it from now on.”

She settled down in her pillow, her eyes dropping low. “Friends huh. Maybe that’s why I put up with you, if that’s true let me take a sip of that love. I’m hungry.” Nyx’s eyes closed and her soft snores filling the room.

Mac and Limestone left her making their way out of the hospital. Mac leading Limestone to her pickup. “Thanks for bringing her in. I owe you one.”

“Yeah,” Limestone said wistfully as she leaned against her pickup. She looked up at the hospital and then back down to Mac’s retreating back. “She’s not from, here is she? Nyx, I mean.” Mac froze in his tracks. “She had ears atop her head, like my sister and her friends when I pulled her from the truck. I’m don’t know shit about this magic business, but I’ve seen Pinkie knock herself out when playing around with it and her ears disappeared when she clocked herself out. Nyx’s ears stayed so I hid them under her hair and wrapped a bandage around them to keep them down when I handed her off. She must have woken up enough to do something about them because nobody made a fuss about it.” She looked on at Aria waiting in the pickup. “She’s from the same place as them. The Equestria world or whatever. Can’t believe I lost a chance at you to one of the fish girls.”

Mac turned around, looking a bit surprised. “You fancied me, huh? Can’t say I noticed.”

Limestone blushed in the lamplight. “You were focused on your farm, I was focused on the quarry, I assume… relationships could come later. You’re a hard worker, I respected that and found it a little attractive. Too late for that now.”

“I got a few cousins like that, if your interested, but that’ll have to wait till this mess is over.”

“Yeah, got a little off track that here.” Limestone scratched her nose feeling silly. “So… um… I know Pinkie has done some bad things, but she’s still my sister…”

“You don’t know the half of it.” He said tightly, remembering the massacre in the city, it’ll be better not to tell Limestone that was Pinkie’s doing. “We saved Rarity, we’ll save the rest of them if we can. We can only do our best Limestone.” He turned to face her, his face filled with conviction. “We will bring this to an end, but things will never go back to the way they were.”

She sighed and walked over to him and presented her business card. “This is my cellphone, keep me in the loop. Better yet, call me when you go out to see the sight, I may be of some help. My sisters and I used to play in those woods around the quarry when we were young, maybe Pinkie will be at one of our old hangouts.”

Mac pocketed the card in his shirt pocket. “We got enough people, but… yeah, she’s your sister, I’ll try to keep you in the loop.”

“Fair enough,” She waved goodbye and returned to her pick up. Mac doing the same and the two parted ways.

---

Deep, deep in the woods, shivering and freezing Pinkie/Spite loomed over a prone Maddie, the former mad scientist shivering up a storm. Spite removed several different colored vials and syringes from her duffle bag. She placed a green bottle in a syringe and let a few drops out as she poised the needle at Maddie’s exposed neck.

“Don’t worry Mommy, I’ll make you better, better than better, I’ll make you just like me.” The needle pieced Maddie’s neck, and Spite pulled the trigger, injecting the strange liquid into Maddie. The mad scientist began to wither in agony as steam rose from her wounds. Her injuries healing rapidly. Spite loaded a blue vial Maddie’s screams never stopping as the second dose was hastily injected. “It’ll be painful, but I promise it’ll be quick, Mommy and then we can have some real fun.” Spite loaded the third vial. “Now let’s just add everything and see what you become. A monster’s mother should be even more monstrous right?” She laughed injecting the fourth vail and the fifth and more and more.

Author's Note:

Was originally going to make a hard push to finish this story this month, but then I got sick so I'll be doing that later.