Chapter 18
In the early morning, sunlight pouring through the clubhouse window and the small nooks in the plank-work, Applebloom gave a yawn as she surveyed the board the Cutie Mark Crusaders had put up.
Rousing from their slumber, having gone to sleep under the investigations, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sat up as the young farm filly gave a summary.
“Alright, gals. Here’s what we know fer sure” She picked up a thin stick and thwacked parts of the board where crayon pictures of various ponies, places and events were pinned.
The first was of a sad-looking grey pegasus with a smaller periwinkle unicorn hugging her.
“Fact One: Derpy’s been feelin’ low ‘cause somepony was writin’ mean things ‘bout her an’ Dinky wants us to help”
Then a picture of the periwinkle unicorn and a pinto colt dancing around surrounded by love-hearts.
“Fact Two: Pipsqueak’s head-over-hooves fer’ Dinky”
Then a picture of a beige mare, frowning but not so much as to make her look evil or ridiculous.
“Fact Three: Pipsqueak’s mom ain’t too happy about it”
Then a picture of a pink earth filly with a tiara topped with a halo.
“Fact Four: Diamond Tiara ain’t been the one writing the mean things ‘bout Derpy”
Then a picture of the periwinkle unicorn in a bed with a thermometer and the pinto colt standing over her with a sad expression.
“Fact Five: Dinky suddenly got really sick, something the one writin’ mean things about her seemed to be insinuatin’ would happen. Now, to an average-thinkin’ pony these things seem unrelated”
“Well, they look pretty unrelated to me” Sweetie Belle interjected.
“Thanks for proving mah point”
“No problem...wait...Hey!” the little unicorn scowled.
“Ah’m just kiddin’, Sweetie” Applebloom chuckled before continuing “But as ah was sayin’, if yah look closely at the goin’s-on, you’ll notice a pattern”
“Where?” Scootaloo asked as the three fillies scanned the board.
There was a pause.
Applebloom slowly turned to the little pegasus with a morose expression.
“Don’t ruin this for me” she sulked.
“Sorry, Bloom, but I don’t see any pattern. I mean, yeah, Dinky getting sick is one thing but are you saying somepony...gave her the disease on purpose?”
Applebloom said nothing but shrugged, giving the notion thought.
“But it couldn’t have been anypony at the Marathon” Sweetie pointed out “Or we all would’ve got it. And I feel fine, you girls feel fine. Only Dinky woke up pale and vomiting”
“Exactly” Applebloom countered “Y’all don’t think that’s a lil’ suspicious? Why did none of us get it? Why ain’t there some kinda’ bug goin’ round or health warnin’?”
“Yeah, they’d at least put a notice on the school” Scootaloo added “We’d have gotten some days off too. That would have been cool”
“Right. So explain why a young filly whose parents look after her well an’ are with her almost all day goes to bed feelin’ fine an’ dandy but wakes up sick as a dyin’ dog without any warnin’ or sign that whatever she caught came for anypony else”
There was a generous pause.
“I...don’t think we can” Sweetie answered.
“As ah thought. There’s more at work here, girls, there’s gotta’ be”
“I guess” Scootaloo checked the nearby alarm clock she kept on her, decorated with Rainbow Dash’s Wonderbolt motif “Still, that might have to wait till later. We got school. C’mon girls”
As the three fillies packed and bundled everything into their bags and galloped out the clubhouse, a pair of gleaming amber eyes watched them closely. Through the apple trees in the early morning haze, a lithe batpony, hanging upside-down with his wings closed, went unnoticed.
“Such bright little things” Shadowplay mused “They may have uncovered more than anypony else and not even know it...We’ll have to do something about that”
Rushing to Cheerilee’s schoolhouse at a brisk canter, the Cutie Mark Crusaders found Pipsqueak sitting forlornly against a tree on the edge of the playground. Rumble and Button Mash approached.
“Hey guys” Scootaloo gave a smile to the two “How is he?”
The two gave the girls, and each other, uneasy looks.
“Not...great” Rumble answered.
“What happened to Dinky’s really hit him hard” Button sighed “He can’t take his mind off it. We’ve talked to Tungsten but he’s not having any luck either. Pip just doesn’t want to talk to anypony”
Applebloom sighed.
“This sounds like somethin’ tha’s just gonna’ have to pass. The doc and nurses say Dinky’ll get better by the week’s end. The sooner Pip can check on her the better. Just keep an eye on him, ‘kay?”
“Will do, girls” Rumble gave a salute.
“You can count on us” Button did the same. The young pegasus and earth pony were hugged warmly by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle respectively, both of them blushing furiously.
“Thanks, Rumble! You’re the best!” Scootaloo squeaked.
“I promise I’ll make it up to you, Button” Sweetie cooed.
The young farm-pony meanwhile gave a tut.
“Colts, colts, colts, tha’s all you two ever think ‘bout”
“Is not!” Her friends retorted furiously, prising themselves away as the school bell trilled.
On every other day, Miss Cheerilee would stride out and greet them warmly in her usual manner and would usher them inside for letters.
Today, however, there was a very different but by no means unfamiliar face greeting them.
“Awright now, young ‘uns. Inside for yer studies now. No back-talkin’ an’ no shirkin’, y’hear?”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, and indeed most of the schoolfoals, stared up at their substitute teacher, dumbfounded.
Applebloom found her voice at last.
“Mac?!” she started, staring up at her big brother who was dressed in a black coat, a pair of spectacles and a motorboard, a uniform as ill-fitting as it was anomalous.
“Tha’s Mr MacIntosh t’you, young lady. Today, ah’ll be yer teacher an’ ah want none o’ ya’ll late. Inside now. This ain’t no round-up”
The class were led inside, Pipsqueak bringing up the rear, quiet and docile.
“Wh-where’s Miss Cheerilee?” Silver Spoon asked, gawking at the height of her new tutor.
“She’s...not very well” Mac said with unease “She asked if ah’d take over as yer teacher while she recovers. Ah accepted”
“I wonder why?” Snails sniggered to Snips before the two of them shrunk under the towering workhorse’s gaze.
“Any more o’ that, sonny, an’ it’s a paddlin’ y’hear?” he thundered.
“Mac, teachers don’t paddle anymore” Applebloom whispered, sinking in the void the awkwardness brewing about her.
The stallion snorted, clearly getting very carried away in this temporary position of authority.
“Nope. That ain’t what Granny Smith told me, young lady. So while ah’m in charge, y’all better shape up!” He raised a large wooden paddle and thwacked in on the desk meaningfully.
“Talkin’ outta’ turn...Tha’s a paddlin’. Lookin’ out the window...Tha’s a paddlin’. Starin’ at mah motorboard...Tha’s a paddlin’. Jokin’ about that catfight Cheerilee and Sugar Belle definitely did not have...Oh y’all better believe tha’s a paddlin’!”
Applebloom gave a resigned groan.
She knew her elder brother was simply playing along, the big red stallion was never one to raise a hoof against any foal, and it was likely the class knew that too, mostly.
But paradise help her, this was going to be a long day.
Elsewhere in Ponyville, things were a whole more hectic.
With a discomforted sigh, Mayor Merry Weather took in the pale, cloud-strewn sky in the late hours of the morning.
There was commotion and, uncomfortably for her, a frantic knocking at the door.
After all the tensions of yesterday, she’d tried to calm her nerves with a strong drink which turned into several strong drinks. She was now drinking tea with honey and hoping it would kick it at some point in the next hour as she stumbled, groggily, to the front-door, supported by her wife who’d just re-entered.
“Merry, you’re in no fit state to go out. After yesterday, they’re looking up to you. Don’t meet the town like this”
“I just...need to know...” Merry mumbled as Lady Justice shouldered her “What...what happened now?”
“There’s been another” her wife answered, clear worry in her voice “But different this time”
Merry groaned loudly, clutching her temples, a great pain not wholly caused by the hangover.
“Who?” she mumbled at last.
“I wasn’t told. But Carrot Top’s outside. I’ll speak with her” Lady assured her but was grabbed by the shoulder.
“I’m fine, Liddy, I...I need to do this...”
Stumbling to the door, adjusting her spectacles, checking a mirror to make sure her mane looked the right colour and stepped outside.
Carrot Top was crying on Written Script’s shoulder, an eye blackened and several lacerations covered by bandages. Nurse Tenderheart was busy applying another as Merry took in the scene.
“Carrot...I am so sorry, what happened?” her voice was barely a whisper. Carrot’s meanwhile, was impeded by her despair-ridden wail.
“They...they jumped us...there were so many...the masks...they took her...they took her...I couldn’t...I-I-I...”
“Slow down, slow down. Look, start from the beginning, what happened here?”
While Carrot took a moment to gather her breath, Written Script spoke solemnly.
“With Dinky sick, Derpy’s friends were helping deliver the mail. Today, Carrot Top and Cloud Kicker volunteered. They were on their way to Sparkler’s when...when...” He too lost his nerve.
“They took her!” Carrot Top wailed, her voice returned “Ponies in gas-masks! They jumped us, beat us up and...They took her! They took Cloud Kicker!”
*
Nervous, trembling murmurings were all that could be heard under the dirty hessian sack placed over the struggling mare’s head as, lashed in a straitjacket strapped to a wheelchair, she was led unwillingly into a house of hell.
The heavy doors of Glanders Gate Asylum gave a slam like a thunderclap as they shut.
With locks and bolts larger and more plentiful than a Bliss Bank, there was no way out for any patient.
She heard voices. None of them sounded friendly.
“You work fast. Saves me some time” The voice was a males, calm but in a distinctly bad mood.
“Canker Sore is a dependable member of our staff, sir” The second voice was mild, effete, speaking with a macabre serenity “I promised satisfactory results and I delivered”
“I thank you for it” the first voice sounded disinterested “I trust you were subtle?”
“We...had to be swift, sir, on your insistence, but we caught her by surprise and relatively alone” Cloud Kicker recognised the voice. Short-of-breath but relaxed in a somewhat eerie way.
She's been with Carrot Top, delivering the mail for Derpy, heading up to Sparklers. Ponies in masks had jumped them. That voice had come from their leader. They sprayed a gas. She still felt the bitter, noxious fumes at the back of her throat, threatening to choke her.
Fear bubbled in her insides as the voices continued to natter.
“All the same, I believe it would be best to bring her filly along. There’s no telling what sort of...inflictions were made upon her neuroses while in contact with such an invalid mother. I’m sure with some time I could...undo such damage”
“Mr Canker Sore...stop pursuing ambitions that physically nauseate me and focus on the mission at hoof.” The first voice was close to angry “We have an opportunity. Our enemy is away from home. When he returns, he’ll have gathered knowledge that could well damage our operations. I need him kept as distracted as possible. His daughter’s impediment does that job well but I need his mind kept sufficiently ill-at-ease”
“As a Doctor, Mr Cascadius, I must dissuade you. You could inflict serious damage on a stallion’s psyche.”
There was a pause and the sound of a stallion breathing deeply through his nostrils.
“That’s. The. Point. The more confused a pony, the easier to predict. And what have I told you about using my name on the job?!”
The pegasus could endure no more. Tugging frantically at the belts on her jacket, she cried out.
“Let me go! You can’t do this! Get me out of here!”
Something struck her in the thigh. Before Cloud Kicker could react to the sharp pain, a great deal more was inflicted on her as her body jolted wildly, seized by a violent grip of electric tendrils coursing across her.
Her screams filled the corridor until she fall back in the wheelchair, gasping for breath and quietly crying, transfixed by pain and terror, fearing what hell she’d woken up in.
“That voice...” the first stallion spoke again “It sounds...unfamiliar”
“What do you mean?”
There was a pause.
Then the first stallion barked an order.
“Take that hood off. Now”
The light struck her like a hoof across the eyes as Cloud Kicker stared up at her captors, a doctor, a dozen orderlies, four nurses and one mass-murderer.
They, in turn, stared at her.
Taking in the sight, Cascadius gave a weighty sigh and massaged his temples with one hoof.
“Canker Sore?” he asked like a disapproving teacher.
“Sir?” An out-of-shape earth-pony stallion with a mucky-yellow coat, a pair of small, orange-red eyes, a greasy black mop of mane and more than several warts across his face looked up.
“Who’s this?”
Canker Sore looked at the terrified Cloud Kicker, then at Cascadius.
“It’s Miss Irregular Glass, sir”
“No, Canker Sore, look again. Closely. What do you notice?” His teeth were bared as the orderly looked dully at the pegasus in front of him.
“Well...clearly she’s been grooming...and, perhaps lost some weight, maybe even gotten...”
“Where are the wall-eyes, Mr Canker Sore?!” Cascadius’s fury was not loud or clear but certainly apparent “That is something Miss Irregular Glass possesses, is it not?!”
“Ah, Mr Cascadius, I wasn’t certain you were aware,” Canker Sore smiled weakly “Our Dr Bittersweet cured her of that unfortunate habit some time ago”
There was a chilling pause. Cascadius’s eyes bore into the orderly’s, who shrunk under his gaze.
“Do you still have that photo I gave you?” the mercenary asked.
“Yes, sir, I do, sir”
“Let’s see it”
His hoof beginning to shake, Canker Sore reached into the pocket of his long white coat and held up a small photo of Derpy Doo, her head leaning against a brown stallion’s shoulder in relaxation, seemingly shot through a window.
Her eyes were all walled as ever.
“Notice anything?” Cascadius asked, tapping one hoof.
“Well, this is clearly an old photo, sir...”
“No, Mr Canker Sore, it isn’t. It was taken by Mr Shadowplay in Ponyville, outside the Doo family home, two days ago”
Canker Sore’s hooves were rattling on the marble floor.
“Ah...Well, sir, I’m sure...this is simply a...temporary relapse...surely, given time revisiting our...procedures, we shall-”
Cascadius raised a hoof, an expression of sheer disapproval on his features.
All those in the vicinity froze, a silence falling in the room so heavy one could cut through it with a knife.
Then he gave a sigh and spoke matter-of-factly.
“How well do your eyes work, Mr Canker Sore?” he asked.
The orderly had an unprocessed look about him.
“Perfectly fine, sir”
“You won’t mind, then...”
“I don’t follow”
Piercing the silence like a bullet-wound, a sickening, wet splattering sound filled the room followed swiftly by the ear-splitting screams of Canker Sore as he fell to his knees in a crawl, clutching at his face.
Cloud Kicker’s mouth fell open in a silent scream. All those around jumped back in shock.
One moment, Canker Sore had been possessed of two small, suspicious, orange-red eyes. The next moment, his right eye socket was a bloody, empty mess and Cascadius stood above him, a fresh eyeball resting on the sole of his raised hoof.
For a moment, he simply stood there, glaring in disgust at the weeping orderly before slamming a free hoof down on his back.
“What are you whining about?” he snapped “You’ve still got one. Next time, make sure to use it”
He took his hoof off the wretched stallion and looked at his stunned audience.
“I believe this fellow needs a doctor”
Three of Glanders Gate’s staff carried off the wailing Canker Sore as Dr Bittersweet simply stared, his eyes wide but his face otherwise lacking in expression.
“Mr Cascadius...that was...unnecessary”
“Not to me” the mercenary said coldly “You’ve only yourself to blame, Doctor. Next time, tell your staff what you need them to know, not what you want them to know” He turned to another orderly, an elderly pale blue unicorn with a grey, thinning mane and a face saggy with wrinkles.
“You” he said “What’s your name?”
“Sir...my name is Dr Gentle Nudge”
“Good. Pack your things. You’re going to Ponyville. Bring us Miss Irregular Glass” With his voice and expression calm, he took hold of the stallion by the scruff of his white coat and deposited Canker Sore’s eyeball in his coat-pocket. Gentle Nudge’s face curdled with disgust but he said nothing.
“Keep that” Cascadius said “And know that if you plough this up, the next pony we send after Miss Irregular Glass will be given three. Understand?”
“Y-yes sir, perfectly, sir.” he said groggily “With your permission, I believe I shall take Miss Recluse. She will be...quite able for the task. Now, erm...what do we do with Miss...er...”
He gestured to the restrained Cloud Kicker who hunched over in the wheelchair, wracking with sobs, lost in horror and despair at the sights in front of her, tears running down her pale, bruised face.
“Who are you ponies?!” she wailed “What do you want with me?! I don’t belong here! I want to go home!”
Cascadius gave her a look.
“Do what you like” he said flatly, shrugging, ignoring the horrified look he received from the struggling mare “You might as well. She suffered from dyslexia in her youth, her father nearly died in a thunderstorm, she hangs around Miss Rainbow Dash’s crowd and she’s suspiciously intimate with a mare...Medley, is it?” he asked the name of her marefriend “Yeah, I’m sure you’ll find ways to occupy yourselves with her”
“Thank you, Mr Cascadius. We shall make sure to cure her of these...unfortunate habits” Bittersweet nodded to the orderlies who dragged her wheelchair back, leaving her flailing in her straitjacket.
“NO! LET ME GO! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” she shrieked, met with an apologetic look from the mercenary leader looking over his shoulder.
“Sorry, Miss Cloud Kicker. But you know what they say...” he sighed as the door to the mare’s new cell began closing as the staff of Glanders Gate asylum prepared her ‘treatment’, the screams and wails of their new patient echoing across that house of hell.
“Wrong place, wrong time”
*
It was anypony’s guess whether Pinkie Pie felt pain when she hit her head on a ceiling. Still, she insisted on bouncing her way down a stairway and hitting her head on the ceiling is what she did. Yet it did nothing to impede her and her general demeanour.
“Up and at ‘em, everypony! We’re going flank-kicking!” she cheered. As she made her way into the central bunker, she found the guards crouched behind the windows or wedged into corners, crossbows at the ready, stock-still with tension.
“Hey guys! Watcha’ doin? Playing paintball?”
As the guards tried to shush her, Pinkie Pie’s bounce was cut off, quite literally in mid-air, as a bullet shot past, missing her nose by a bare inch, hitting the wall on the far side of the room.
There was a lengthy pause as Pinkie Pie slowly plonked down on the ground, wrinkled her nose and sneezed.
“Gezundheit” Lolli mumbled, as she darted into a corner on the ceiling, hanging upside-down and peering outside. She nodded to an eager Colonel Peregrine, leading the defence.
“Sharpshooter out there. Three more with bolters, five with melee”
“Nice one.” the Colonel nodded “Blizzard and his boys took off but this lot’s pinned us down. We can’t stick around here long. Miss Pinkie, I suggest you find cover”
“Aw, cover-based shooting’s boring” Pinkie whined, budging up between two guards and pouting with her forelegs folded, her curly pink mane just visible over the window.
“No worries, Pinks. I’ll see if I can draw them out” Lolli gave wink.
Taking a deep breath, the thestral held a hoof out the window, waved it for all to see and yelled.
“Hey! Flank-Much! You got something to say, lets settle this like mares!”
Whisking her hoof back behind cover, stroking it as if to dust it, she gave Peregrine a look.
“Too far?”
“Come out!” there came a female’s accented voice from outside.
The guards turned to Lolli whose bright eyes darted from left to right. Steeling herself, she gave Peregrine a nod.
“Lolli” Pinkie piped up, her normally chirpy face twinged with worry “Be careful out there. I don’t want you to get shot in the nose”
“S’okay, Pinks. You got my back right?” Lolli chuckled, met with her friend’s fervent nodding.
Checking her gear and giving her wings a few readying flaps, she swooped out the window and placed herself in the square outside the guardhouse.
The three bolter-bearing mercenaries raised their firearms at the lieutenant while the five with close-combat weapons surrounded her at every corner.
Lolli Beats took in the situation.
“Er...hi” she began with a cheesy grin “Yeah, so...hiding behind the window like a bunch of little nags didn’t work so we figure we’re gonna’ do this the old-fashioned way.” she gestured energetically with her forehooves “You cool? We cool? Yay?”
Dropping from a rooftop to the ground with graceful poise, a tall, slender, black-coated earth-pony mare with a long silver mane streaked with red and a vibrant orange-flushed flank, emblazoned with a cutie mark of a deadly red-backed spider, strode into view, brandishing a small but heavy silver bolter made for killshots. Her cold, arrogant eyes scanned the opponent before her as her comrades held position, weapons primed.
“Keep your guard up at the windows” she ordered, her accent Hevonan, a Northern Stirropean state contested around the Frozen North.
“Understood Miss Mustaleski” one of her fellows replied.
Lolli tilted her head.
“Wha...Musti-Letski-Shake-Your-Buttski?” she twisted her tongue.
The Hevonan mare was distinctly unamused.
“Must-A-Les-Ki” she said slowly “It means, how you say, Black Widow”
“Oh...sorry to hear that”
“I mean the spider”
“Where?!” The thestral jumped, checking the ground. The mercenaries glanced at each other, perplexed.
“Ignore her” Mustaleski sighed “Focus on the guards, I’ll deal with the bat”
“Did you just call me bat?!” Lolli’s chirpy face bristled with fury, her protruding canines bared with a hiss “Okay, just for that, I’m gonna’ beat the buck outta’ your flanks more than anypony else here!”
Never one to remain still for more than a moment, she glanced at the sharpshooter’s scarlet behind and giggled.
“Though it looks like somepony else got there before me.! That your thing? ‘Coz I’d be okay with that, I mean, my girl Roxy and me have some experience in that field. I’m sorry I left my paddle at home!”
The side of Mustaleski’s lips tweaked with frustration.
“Are you mocking me?”
At this, Lolli adopted a goofy grin and answered.
“Eeyup!”
With a growl, Mustaleski drew up her bolter before the cheeky thestral.
“Only a fool or a coward fights with petty insults and only a fool or a coward reacts to them”
“Nag”
Bang!
Another bullet sped from the bolter. On the sound of it, however, Lolli’s wings snapped open, folding around her wings. As the bullet hit her, her body dissipated in a bright flash of neon red light with a flat thumping sound like an old-fashioned camera.
A thestral ability. Short-range teleportation.
Mustaleski drew back and set about reloading.
There was another thumping sound, straight behind her, as the Hevonan met the thestral swooping down from above, spinning a pair of nunchuks in both hooves. Slamming into each other, the two clashed. Locking hooves, Mustaleski hurled the lieutenant over her shoulders and drew a long metal rod which extended to twice its length in her hoof.
Lolli spread her wings, hovering in mid-air, and chuckled.
“Oh so that’s your thing?”
There was a click and viciously-sharp blades spring out the ends of the rod.
“Okay, clearly you’re not a fan of innuendoes”
“Please be quiet and die”
Spinning the polearm around her forehooves, Mustaleski advanced on the thestral.
Mustaleski was known to be cold, swift and brutal mercenary, survivor and victor of a hundred battlefields and slayer of countless foes.
But one thing she wasn’t was patient.
Lolli Beats knew impatience when she saw it and always found a way to capitalize on it.
Taking to the air, spinning and darting in all directions, she began weaving her foe ever further into frustration. The Hevonan slashed and swathed in furious circles, growing more and more enraged by the moment.
“Stop! Moving! And! Die!” As the blade flew forward, near enough to tip Lolli’s muzzle, the thestral dissipated in another teleport. With a growl, Mustaleski swung her blade toward where she knew her foe would appear, straight behind her.
A resounding clang filled the air as Lolli pulled out her claws, grabbing the weapon by the blade. She smiled a toothy grin.
“Gotcha pointy stick, nag!”
Having reached the peak of her fury, Mustaleski gave a snarl as she reared up on her hind legs, grabbed Lolli by the ear and head-butted her ferociously once, twice and thrice. Knocked semi-conscious, the thestral fell to her knees, blood pouring out her nostrils and from the middle of her lips, her eyes shut tight in pain.
“Lolli!” a high-pitched cry escaped the window “Are you okay?! That looked like it super-hurt!”
Whether Lolli hear her dear friend was uncertain as Mustaleski held her by the chin in one hoof, resting her spear on her shoulder and aiming for one of her eyes.
“Going to cry, little filly?” she sneered with disdain.
Lolli Beats stared up at her opponent, bloodied and bruised.
And smiled.
“Maybe a little”
And with a short intake of breath, Lolli Beats let loose one last thestral ability.
Ultrasonic Screaming.
Great rings of motion emitted from her open mouth and expanded, pulsing through Mustaleski who dropped her weapon and jolted violently, her face locked in a picture of shock and dismay.
Around her, the mercenaries felt the brunt of it even from afar, falling to the ground and clutching their ears. On the signal, Peregrine bellowed for the guards at the windows to return long-overdue fire. Blasts of magic and pulse bolts slammed into their quarry and laid the enemy low as those that fired them withdrew from their hiding-spots and retook the courtyard.
Pinkie Pie gave an almighty cheer as Lolli stood up, proud and eager as ever and grabbed the staggering Mustaleski by the neck, raising a hoof meaningfully.
“Hey, pay-ride!” she yelled “Watch the bucking birdy!”
And the fearsome mercenary was felled by a hard punch to the face, her silky mane covering her battered face like a shroud as Pinkie bounced into view.
“YAY LOLLI! YOU WERE AWESOME! IT’S JUST LIKE THOSE JUICE LEE MOVIES WE WATCH!”
The two bubbly ponies danced about giddily, performing a number of martial arts with enthusiastic sound effects as Colonel Peregrine surveyed the scene.
“Job well done, lieutenant. Remind me to buy you a flask of Sweet Apple Cider when this is over” he chuckled “Alright fillies and colts, let’s see if we can track down that damn crystal interference and then get the Princess and Captain-General on the line”
“Colonel!” one of the guards yelled, pointing to a shape emerging from the rooftops.
Peregrine stamped a hoof and signalled defensive formations. The guards snapped to position, weapons primed on the newcomer, Pinkie Pie adopting an aggressive stance with a wolf-like growl.
It seemed to be just the one but this was definitely one of the mercenaries. Dressed in a great trailing cloak with a collar of white tiger fur and a necklace of fine-cut bloodstone shards, he approached an enigmatic figure. He bore features of a crystal pony, silver of coat and gaunt, his light-blue mane tied in a tail behind his head and his deep crimson eyes wide and staring at his foe.
“Stand your ground” Peregrine ordered as they eyed him.
“He’s just standing there...menacingly” Pinkie mumbled.
Silence fell across the courtyard, the crystal pony pacing forward without a sound, his hooves hidden and muffled behind his cloak.
Then at last, he opened his mouth.
But no words came out. Only a long drawn-out moan, eerie, monotonous, yet somehow symphonic.
“What’s he doing?” Lolli snapped, slowly noticing her wings twitching, beginning to feel a strange pain between her eyes “What...what’s going on?”
“Oh...oh no...” Peregrine groaned as he and his guard stumbled in place as their hooves grew weak and shaky, their weapons clattering to the ground.
As the singer drew out his song longer and longer, the crystals at his necklace left his cloak and began floating round his head in a slowly spinning ring as he droned and hummed like a wasp, his lips twisting and his head twitching like some demonic possession, his crimson irises expanding and flooding his eyes a threatening blood-red.
Pinkie Pie gave a gulp, her shaking hooves rattling on the sidewalk.
Crystal magic was something she was actually quite well-versed in, to her friend’s surprise when she told them once during their travels. When one’s family dealt with rocks, one found the odd crystal and learnt what to do with it. Bloodstone, however, was a dangerous thing. Ironically not blood-red in colour but a bizarre flush of black, bottle-green and scarlet, it could be used in geomancy to shut off a pony’s equilibrium. In its presence, unicorns lost their affinity with magic, pegasi were grounded and earth ponies became sluggish, feeble and disorientated. Her immediate knowledge of the subject stopped there, Maud was the family expert, but all she needed to know was that whatever this foe was doing, it certainly wasn’t making her and her friends feel all too good.
And that meant she had to stop it. Certainly before Mustaleski and her cohorts came to her senses and found an easy target.
“Lolli?” she murmured through gritted teeth, struggling to keep her vision from blurring.
The thestral was still on her hooves but her wings were locked against her sides and her teeth were chattering feverishly.
“Y-y-yeah?”
“This is spell-singing, right? Th-that’s how he’s using the crystals...”
“I think so. Y-you got a plan, P-P-Pinks?”
The Bearer of Laughter stared down at her opponent and grinned.
“Always” She stepped forward, fighting through the magic and finding her balance, at least for the moment, as she asked her friend a very important question.
“Did you bring your boom-box?”
*
“That is a pity. Still, I did tell you Bittersweet and his madhouse weren’t all too reliable”
“I remember”
Cascadius often had to look past the fact that he was communicating via a transceiver to a skeletal cobra.
But the rules of the Echo Squad were as clear as ever.
Najiva paced elegantly around the solitary cell that had recently been made ready for their new guest.
“I, on the other hoof, haven’t been idle” the cobra spoke through the glamourling’s magic, two voices at once, a male growl and a female lilt “I found the one we were looking for. I’ve brought her here. We can consider Project Gamma underway. That makes how many ‘projects’ of yours now?”
“I’d need to back with my work-board to tell you. It helps to multi-task” the Paymaster chuckled “Very well done, Mistress. I look forward to the result. It must be ready by the deadline. Use any means necessary”
“Oh believe me, that last past goes without saying” Najiva tittered through the cobra but found herself craning towards the transceiver and giving a sultry hiss “Come home soon, I’m starting to miss you”
“The feeling’s mutual, Najiva darling” Cascadius said suavely “I’ll be back as soon as I can to welcome the boys and girls back. Let me know how that goes. Have fun with our new guest. Make it last. Ta-ta”
The transceiver blinked and switched off not too soon before the door was knocked.
Najiva emerged and beheld Miura, a bandage across the side of her head and wrapped around one foreleg. Beside her was Lambasar, who bowed respectfully along with two other members of the Echo Squad along with eight pony mercenaries, three of Slashtalon’s griffons and a Brontothere.
Each of them was gripping a chain tightly in one forehoof, all connecting to a tightly wrapped and restrained figure hidden under a sack, writhing and growling like a mad beast.
Najiva smiled and reached for the head of the figure.
“I wouldn’t get too close, Najiva-sama” Miura warned flatly “If these wounds do not speak volumes, seventeen of our number and six of yours did not survive her rage”
The glamourling craned her neck and chuckled sardonically as her cobra crawled atop her shoulder and spoke for her.
“Only twenty-three?” she sneered “Dear me, you really have lost your touch...Chrysalis”
With a flick of her forehoof, she tore open the sack just enough for the figure to reveal her face.
A changeling matriarch, angular horn encased in a jet-black crystal ring and her face twisted with a demented fury, hissing and spitting wildly as she beheld an ages-old foe.
“Najiva!”
“So you do remember me. I hardly need recall you, oh magnificent Queen Chrysalis of the Changeling Hives” the Echo Squad matriarch bowed mockingly at her new prisoner
“Oh...but wait, I’m forgetting. You lost the Hives...and you’re no longer the Queen...which makes you...” she paused, pursing her lips before shrugging.
“Nopony, really”
The chains went taut, every hoof and claw present pulling with all their might, as Chrysalis lunged forward, gnashing and snapping her fangs, her livid eyes pulsing wildly. For what seemed like hours, she struggled at her bonds, flailing her neck impotently, before finally collapsing to her knees in exhaustion.
Najiva, unshaken, shook her head as her cobra tutted.
“How far the mighty have fallen. To think you once struck terror into the hearts of my kin”
At this, Chrysalis raised her head.
“Fearing me was the wisest thing your arrogant kind ever accomplished, you preening usurper!” she hissed with venom.
Her smile disappearing, Najiva gave Lambasar a nod. The old stallion bowed, threw up one hoof and struck hard against the back of the Changeling Queen’s neck.
Like a hurled cinderblock, it nearly shattered bone. Chrysalis cried out in pain and curled up on the ground, cursing and griping under her breath.
Her smirk returning, Najiva gave her prisoner a look over.
“Are you crying?” she asked “Dear me, this is becoming embarrassing. Take her to the cell and have the procedures for Project Gamma underway as soon as possible” She craned in closer, staring her old nemesis in the face victoriously.
“You should thank us. Your scorn and spite can be a powerful weapon...if placed in the hooves of someone with actual competence. And through this, your hated enemies in the Crystal Empire, that time and time again made a fool of the great Queen Chrysalis, will fall in shame in ruin. I might even let you watch.” she drew back, as if smelling something unpleasant on her “But in the meantime, don’t get any ideas. Nopony’s ever escaped us and nopony ever will” She gave the mercenaries a smile “Gentleponies, put up with no form of disobedience or disorder from the prisoner until the Project is complete. Use any means necessary and if she gets too difficult, don’t hesitate to call me. I am always ready to show dear old Chrissie here who’s really in charge”
As she turned to leave, she wasn’t all too surprised to hear Chrysalis yell one last threat.
“Look at me!”
With distaste, Najiva did so, looking over her shoulder derisively as Chrysalis’s eyes bore into her with absolute hatred.
“Look at my face, Najiva...” she snarled “It’s the last thing you’ll ever see! You may not talk anymore, but I promise you, when I get out of here, I’m going to teach you how to scream!”
*
Blurry vision steadily made way for the sight of sheer marble floor tiles as Flash Sentry slowly regained his senses.
Trailing limply along the ground, his foe’s forehoof dragging him by the collar, he was led to the main geode complex. Here, all the crystal-powered systems and machinery operated.
It was deserted. When the sonic drums impeded it and the walls fell, those within had likely assumed they’d be better placed at the defences. Flash was, at least, glad that they wouldn’t run into his captor.
Angrboda looked around, a look of bored disdain on her marred face. She shook Flash by the scruff and barked.
“Which of these is the portal system?”
“The big podium in the centre of the room, genius” the cocksure pegasus muttered, receiving his face slammed into the floor for his trouble.
“Why is it still on?” she said flatly.
Sure enough, the portal system, though depleted of its magical energy, was still showing activation in its crystal nodes, the great quartz hexeracts slowly spinning in wait.
Flash Sentry shrugged weakly.
“No clue, I’m no geomancer. I just kick flank and wise-crack”
The caribou gave an impatient hiss.
“Fair enough” she sneered, pacing over the device with Flash Sentry in tow. Her antlers lighting up with a flame-like magical hue, she pried loose the mosaic plate covering the workings. There was a light emitted from within as Angrboda and Flash Sentry beheld the intricate jigsaw of crystals of all shapes and sizes rotating and grinding against each other, charging geomantic energy.
The caribou gave a sadistic smirk.
“It matters not” she said as she held Flash over the device and leered “In my experience...machines tend to malfunction...when you shove a pony’s head between the gears!”
Flash swiftly found his forehooves again as he pushed frantically against the wall before him, struggling as the caribou pressed a massive forehoof at the back of his head and made to follow up on her statement. Trying to turn his head sideways, he felt the static from the crystals crackling against his cheek and lips. His strained grunt turning into a fearful scream, he shut his eyes tight.
Blind to the sight, his ears pricked as the hum of the portal system grew louder, a great yawn of activation flooding the room as the crystal nodes spun at full velocity.
Angrboda tilted her head.
Then with a mighty eruption of power, the caribou warlord was blown across the room, smashing into the back wall as a portal blasted itself into existence.
A hyperportal, better known colloquially as a ‘speed portal’. Small, only capable of transporting five to six ponies at once and only possible through vast magical study but effective, requiring no active opposite conduit to achieve. With the magic on the opposite end dispelled however, the portal relied on self-activation, hence the sonic explosion.
Flash Sentry lay coughing on the floor, the fur at the side of his face singed but otherwise uninjured, much to the relief of the visitor.
The pegasus felt a gentle hoof prop him up and found himself staring into a pair of warm teal eyes set in a face of rich oranges and crimsons and boasting a tough but caring smile.
“Rough day, huh, big boy?”
Flash chuckled as Sunset Shimmer made her entrance.
“I knew you couldn’t resist me” he joked through coughing.
“Take it easy, speedy” Princess Celestia’s old student ordered as she strode up to the caribou who’d placed her coltfriend in such a condition. Already, Angrboda was shaking off the magical blast and was cradling her battle-axe in hoof as she faced down the unicorn.
Sunset Shimmer was not alone. Beside her were three sirens, slim, lithe and long-tailed with silky, shimmery, fin-like manes and each drawing a different weapon.
Sunset Shimmer herself was armoured in hardy brass mail, a gilded shield on her left foreleg boasting an inlay of a rising phoenix while her horn lit up and revealed a mighty, flaming-headed mace, spinning in preparation, scattering embers.
Twisting her neck to the left and right, eyes fixed on the terrifying adversary, she spoke.
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Was worth the wait for me, great work as always! As for doctor Canker Sore
Big Mac as teacher, well better than nothing. Poor Cloud Chase though.
8569727
Thanks.
Cascadius doesn't often harm his own allies, he considers it unproductive.
But when pushed to his limit, you're gonna' know when you've disappointed him.
8570340
Yeah.
lol