Gleaner Chronicles: American Monsters

by sevenofeleven

Chapter Fifteen: Get Rarity and Spike

23rd Street and Madison Ave

Again Margot tried to look at the Eye Sore building to see if it resembled the Flatiron building she remembered. Nope, her eyes burned and tears clouded her vision. This close to the building she had to be careful what magic she used. A quick look at the team showed the other ponies were not able to see the building either.

LaShawn sighed then she looked at her watch. “Okay guys, we have to cross the street and get moving. We have a noon appointment with Beverly Rankin. We show up late and she might not see us. I just hope she doesn’t care about seeing fillies in the exhibit. Oh yeah, before you end up in the street stumblin around with tears pouring out of your eyes, just look at the lower two floors please.”

As they crossed the street, Margot noticed the parked police cars full of MA enforcers in bulky combat armor. Two MA Enforcers stood at the corner watching ponies walking past.

LaShawn continued briefing the group. “Since this is an office building, the guards won’t bother us because they think we have business here. The resistance has been able to get some info about the upper floors. Eya Sore, owns the nineteenth to the twenty- second floor. The exhibit is on the fifteenth floor. The elevators stop at the fifteenth floor unless you have a special key. Ms. Beverly is a favorite of Eya so she has the keys to all of the upper floors. I’m not sure how we can get the keys. Ms. Rankin might have an accident.”

Skybreeze smiled. “Finally, we can just take an elevator instead of taking the stairs.”

LaShawn glared at Skybreeze. “The elevator stops at the fifteenth floor. We will have to take the stairs up.”

Skybreeze waved her left forehoof. “Well, I’m curious to see what sort of artwork a creature called Eya Sore can make.”

Inside, the building was cool and empty. LaShawn pressed the elevator call button and the elevator opened its doors.

Margot found the gold and white color scheme interesting. A few moments later, they were at the fifteenth floor. Unlike the lobby, the color scheme was different. Now it was mostly black with green and gold highlights. A white earth pony with short red hair and a frown waited in front of the elevator.

The group barely had time to step out of the elevator before the pony stuck out her right forehoof. “Who among you has my money?”

LaShawn nodded and pulled out a bundle of cash.

The pony grabbed the money then counted it. “Okay, that’s all of it. I’m Beverly Rankin. You got fifteen minutes to gawk and out you go. Don’t cause problems or I call security. You don’t want me to call security. These guys send ponies to the Tombs. Also keep the fillies from crying. Follow me.”

Margot was glad Skybreeze didn’t say something snarky.

Scootaloo opened her mouth and closed it. Her eyes narrowed.

Beverly walked up to a ebony door with gold accents at the end of the hall and waved an ID card in front of it. With a hiss, the door opened. Then she led them into the room.

Margot was amazed at how lifelike the pony statues looked. After a moment, something about the agonized poses made a chill run down her back. There was something not right about these sculptures.

Beverly left them and stood by the door.

The group continued to the end of the room.

To Margot, it looked like Skybreeze could barely keep her eyes in her head. She just had to look at all of the details.

On the other hoof, Jerome seemed to be unhappy. His tail and ears drooped.

Margot walked up to Jerome. “What’s wrong?”

Jerome frowned. He looked at Nga'Devro. “You feel it, don’t you?”

Nga'Devro’s tail and ears also drooped.

Skybreeze looked at Jerome then at Nga'Devro. “What are you-” She was interrupted by LaShawn’s cry of pain.

“Damn. Evangeline! They got you?” LaShawn said while a tear fell from her eye.

Margot cantered up to LaShawn while the rest of the group followed.

Margot looked at the statue. It was of a very pretty mare, She had long graceful legs and a delicate looking muzzle, but the pose was so contorted.

Jerome pointed toward the statue. “These aren’t made with marble. They’re made with living ponies. All of these ponies are in pain. Especially that one.”

Skybreeze looked around at all of the tortured statues. “Can we undo the spell? Stop the pain?”

Jerome just shook his head.

Apple Bloom stood taller. “We can use Oonte’s help to free these ponies or give them Grace!”

Margot knew what she said next would sound cold and heartless. “We can’t do anything with these ponies until we get Rarity and Spike. It’s too early to tip our hoof.”

LaShawn sobbed. “I wonder if Robert knows?”

Skybreeze glared at Margot. “Show some heart. If one of these ponies was a relative would you be so cold?”

Margot flinched. “We came to this world to get Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. Alerting the enemy that we’re here will make things harder and might jeopardize the mission.”

Beverly walked up to the group. “You know what? I’m calling security. I don’t like what I’m hearing.”

LaShawn reached for a hidden gun.

Beverly’s eyes narrowed. “Go for the gun, Zebra and I’ll have security here so fast-” Then Beverly’s expression went blank.

Jerome walked up to Beverly. “Okay Beverly, how about you give us the access cards to the upstairs floors?”

Beverly shook her head then she grimaced.

“Oh, I see, you don’t want your bosses to get mad. No problem. Give us the keys and I will make sure you are safe in your bed sleeping. Does that sound good?” Beverly nodded then she dug through her saddlebags and gave the keys to Jerome.

“Thanks. Now to get you safely home. You had a tasty lunch. Your tongue and mouth loved it, but your stomach not so much.” Beverly’s face turned green, and she kneeled on the floor then she threw up.

Skybreeze danced away from the splashing vomit.

“Poor Beverly. Don’t worry, your pain will end soon. Call your boss and tell him or her that you are closing up early and going home. Go straight home and go right to bed. When you do that, you will forget us. In fact, you are alone in this room looking at the statues,” Jerome said.

Beverly dry heaved again and then got her cell phone. “Hello Brian. My lunch has made me sick and I have to go home.”

Margot watched as Beverly turned around and left without saying a word. She faced LaShawn who was wiping her face. “Who’s Robert?”

LaShawn sniffled. “Robbie, Robert Kinney was a homie of mine from way back. We came through the police academy together and got assigned to the two oh. When I made detective, Kinney became my partner. We were doing the homicide detective thing and then he met Evangeline Watson. He couldn’t stop talking about her. When I met her I was amazed. She was so pretty, but the beauty was also on the inside. Maybe I fell in love with her too? We were like the Three Musketeers for a while. We would go to parties, gallery openings and other high society events. Then the gleaners came… I didn’t know what happened to Robbie and Evie.”

Jerome walked up to LaShawn. “We gotta get going.”

LaShawn looked at Evangeline’s tortured form. “Does she know?”

Jerome looked away. “Yes.” Then he looked back at LaShawn.

The group left the room of pain and stood in front of the elevator.

Jerome pushed the up call button. The doors opened and the group got in.

The floor panel had buttons up to the twentieth floor. The twentieth, twenty-first and twenty- second used card readers. Jerome stuck the card with the gold square on it in the twentieth floor card reader. The elevator’s door closed and it went up.

Margot watched as the numbers on the floor indicator increased. “After we rescue Spike, we probably can’t use the elevators anymore. They will probably turn them off.”

Nopony said anything.

As the elevator rose, she scanned the guards and tried to see what sort of spells they had on them. If they had spells monitoring their status, killing or stunning them could set off alarms. It seemed like there was nothing but Margot wasn’t sure that there were no spells or she couldn’t sense them. Another thought suggested that the guards might be watched by cameras. If they just slumped when stunned, anypony watching could hit the panic button.

A quick scan showed no cameras. She just had to decide to kill or just stun. For some reason, Margot decided just to put the guards to sleep. She hoped that bit of mercy wouldn’t bite her in the plot later. No good deed goes unpunished arose in her mind. She pushed it away. “When the door opens, we have to leave this area quickly.”

The group got their weapons ready. The doors opened.

Two MA enforcers slumped behind desks with bullet-proof shields on top. Each shield had a slit so the guards could shoot into the elevator. They left the guards and continued down the hallway. Margot kept scanning the guards so she would know when they woke up.

After making a left turn, the group quietly walked down the black and gold hallway until they arrived at a golden room.

Margot looked into the room. The golden room had nothing except for a small purple and green dragon standing on a black marble pedestal. A large red ruby in the shape of a heart was stuck in his mouth. Then Margot closed her eyes and focused on the magic inside the room. Her passive scan showed a more dangerous view. The floor had pressure sensitive spells while several layers of magic beams sizzled and crackled. Even the pedestal had a weight sensor.

She turned to Skybreeze. “Check out this room please.”

Nga'Devro walked up to the doorway to scan the room.

Sweetie Belle peered into the room. “It looks clear.”

Far shook his head. “I doubt getting Spike will be that easy.”

Margot shook her head. “There are multiple levels of magical traps in the room.”

Skybreeze nodded. “How will we do this?”

“I’m going to hack the weight sensor and then we will use telekinesis to carry Spike out. Skybreeze can you bend the energy beams around Spike so he doesn’t get hurt or set off the alarms?” Margot said.

Skybreeze’s eyes closed for a second. “I think I can do that.”

“Nga'Devro will assist as needed,” Nga'Devro said.

Margot’s horn glowed as she focused on hacking the weight sensor. That wasn’t too hard. the next part was going to be more difficult. She had to grab Spike and carefully pull him through the energy beams without breaking them.

Skybreeze had to bend them in a way that wouldn’t cause the alarms to go off.

Margot pushed away the thought that the alarms would probably be silent and she wouldn’t know until the guards double tapped her. She shook her head and picked up Spike. Slowly he floated across the black tile floor while Skybreeze and Nga'Devro bent the energy bars so Margot could carefully pull Spike past them.

LaShawn watched in surprise as Spike floated closer to the door.

The power drain was tremendous and Margot was already starting to feel tired. She yawned just as Spike landed on the floor outside the room.

Skybreeze dispelled the stun spell.

Spike looked around and pulled the ruby heart out of his mouth. “Ptoo! Glass? Really?” Then he looked around at the ponies looking at him. “Wait, did I just end up in a Comicon? I don’t recognize any of the chars.”

Apple Bloom walked up to Spike. “Ah you alright Spike?”

Spike looked around again. “Um, yeah. Where am I? Where’s Rarity and where’s Twilight?”

Apple Bloom sighed. “It’s a long story. You’ve been kidnapped and we got you out.”

Scootaloo stepped forward. “Don’t you mean dragonnapped?”

Sweetie Belle stuck her nose in the air. “There’s no such word as dragonnapped.”

Spike frowned. “Whatever. The last thing I remember was Coco Pommel telling us about a water main break and the flooding destroyed some costumes for a play. She wanted Rarity’s help to fix them. Then I wake up here with a stupid glass heart in my mouth. Anyone have some food or jewels?”

Skybreeze stepped up after she fished through her saddlebags and found a food bar. She gave it to Spike. “Here Spike, it’s probably not as good as a ruby but it should be better than glass.”

“Thanks. Where’s Rarity?” Spike said then he bit into the bar.

Sweetie Belle smiled. “Rarity is on this floor right?”

Margot did a quick passive scan. Spike’s room was the only cage here. A quick scan of the floor above showed another magic filled deathtrap. “Sweetie, Rarity is probably upstairs.”

Sweetie Belle smiled. “Can we go now!”

Margot shook her head. “In a few minutes. We have to talk about how to deal with the guards.”

Nga'Devro nodded. “Nga'Devro knows some spells that can take out the guards quietly.”

Spike looked up at Margot. “Where’s Twilight?”

Margot looked down at Spike. “She’s in another building several miles away. When we are done here, we are going to rescue her too. Sweetie Belle, can you tell Spike what’s going on?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. The group left the hall to take the stairs up.

When the group reached the upstairs landing, they could hear the guards talking.

“Freakin Todd, stop fidgeting!”

“Sorry, when do we get our essence cans?”

“In an half hour or so. How about thinking about something else. How about Beverly Rankin?”

“Really Howie? That mare got no ladyparts. She replaced them with a bill reader. Nothing touches her lips unless it’s triple washed. I wish I could get my hooves on that unicorn with the purple mane. Now, that’s good stuff.” At that moment, Nga'Devro’s horn glowed brightly and there was a cracking sound.

“Yo, Howie what’s up with you?” Another bright glow and they could hear no more from Todd.

The rest of the group came in. Spike looked at the MA enforcers whose heads were at strange angles to their necks then he looked at Margot.

“Sorry Spike. We had to do that so we can free Rarity,” Margot said.

Spike looked back at the two dead MA enforcers. “So how many ponies have you guys killed?”

LaShawn walked up. “I’m LaShawn. These guys aren’t exactly ponies. They are ponies that were turned into monsters that feed on life.”

Nga'Devro hoofed through the pockets of the guards to get the key to Rarity’s room then walked up to her room and swiped the key. The door opened with a hiss.

Rarity stood on her hind legs while reaching for something with her white hooves. The walls were golden with black highlights. Margot noticed that Rarity’s blue eyes were blank like she was in some sort of trance. Again, Margot closed her eyes and focused. The traps here were more dangerous. Instead of a mesh of energy beams, it was walls. Death spells were on standby if Margot made a mistake. Just one and Rarity would be dead before she made it out the door.

Margot sighed. If they weren’t under a time limit, the spells would be somewhat easier to deal with. “Skybreeze do you see all of this?”

Skybreeze closed her eyes and focused. “Yes, we’ll need more time for this one.”

Apple Bloom walked up with her group then they raised their right fore hooves. A blue flash flew into the room. Apple Bloom turned and faced Margot. “Do it now before the spell fades!”

Margot scanned the room.

It seemed like the spell from the SHC froze the spells in the room. She looked at Skybreeze and then used a telekinesis spell to grab Rarity. Then Margot started pulling. The stasis spell from the SHC started to fail once Rarity left her pedestal. The floor behind her exploded then the pedestal shattered into flying white shards.

Just in time, Skybreeze cast a shielding spell to protect the ponies in the hallway. More sections of floor exploded while Rarity flew toward the doorway. When she entered the hall, Nga'Devro closed the door. There was a thump as something hit the door.

Rarity awoke with a start and looked around. “Where am I? Who are all of you?”

Spike ran up to Rarity. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Thank you for asking,” Rarity said.

Sweetie Belle peered at Rarity. “Is that you, Rarity?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? Are you alright Sweetie?” Rarity said.

“I’ve dreamt about finally finding you so many times. I don’t know it’s real,” Sweetie Belle said.

LaShawn broke into the conversation. “Sweetie Belle, hug your sister so we can move on. Eya Sore has to be put down.”

Sweetie Belle ran up to hug Rarity. For a moment, they were happy.

Margot wished they had more time for their hug, but LaShawn was already at the stairs. The group followed her while Sweetie Belle tried to tell Rarity what had happened while she was captured. When they got to the twentieth floor, the group stopped.

Far looked around. “We don’t have a lot of time to debate this, but what should we do? I bet there will be guards here too. There were guards for Spike.”

Margot looked at LaShawn.

LaShawn looked back at Margot. “We kill the guards. Maggie or the changeling can do it.”

Rarity frowned. “Excuse me, what was your name? LaShawn? I’m not sure I could take killing ponies. Can we find another solution?”

LaShawn’s eyes narrowed.

Margot walked up. “Sure Rarity, I will stun the guards. They won’t wake up for hours.”

Rarity nodded. “Thank you, darling.”

Margot focused and dropped a stun spell on the four guards. Far tried to open the door but it kept rejecting the keycards.

A green glow covered Nga'Devro’s horn as he used his telekinesis to break the door down. “Nga'Devro suggests that we move quickly before the SWAT teams catch us and Eya Sore gets away.”

Far and LaShawn went through the door with their guns drawn.

Margot wondered who would survive as she went through the door.