Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Scratched stared at the mare aiming the gun at her and began to try to figure out a way to save herself when the mare narrowed her eyes.
“You’ll tell me exactly what trouble you brought to my place in the next five seconds or I will kill you too,” she said as she walked over to where Scratched was hiding and Scratched was under no illusion she was bluffing. “Five. Fou-”
“That maniac’s been chasing my friends and I to get back this data storage we found, and we came here to hire someone who could protect us from him,” Scratched said in a rush, standing up slowly.
The mare looked at her critically, then sighed. “Well, you won’t have him chasing you anymore, at least,” she said. “Now, come out of there.”
Scratched did so, and for a moment the other mare studied her. Then, she spoke again. “Tell me, were you trying to lure him to here specifically?”
“No.” Scratched shook her head vehemently, staring at the gun still pointed at her. “We had plans in case he showed up, but we had no idea he’d beat us here. For that matter, I have no idea how he figured out where we were even going in the first place, after the last time we escaped him.”
“It makes sense that someone of his nature would end up here,” the mare said as she used her magic to rifle through his pockets and begin to pull out items. “His weapon is high grade which indicates he is from a serious organization. Someone from an ordinary criminal syndicate, slave catching, or a cult would not be on their own so this indicates that where he- Ray Blaster- was from, he was well trusted or more worryingly, a low level grunt that could use this as a common weapon.” She spared the corpse a quick glance before she returned her attention to Scratched. “From what I heard, I tend to believe the latter.” She then realigned the gun at Scratched and asked, “Do you have that data storage on you?”
“Yes ma’am,” Scratched said as she reached into her saddlebag and fished it out with the other mare grabbing and activating it.
‘-ttack … Hesturland… -th phase then will commen …’
She stared at the device in her hooves for a long time before flashing a steel glare at Scratched. “If this is some sort of jo-”
There was a crash of footsteps from outside the door with a voice calling, “Downpour, is everythin-” Thorn and another nearly identical dragon stepped into the room.
“Mom, what happened?” the other dragon asked, staring at the dead body and then at Scratched.
“Thorn, Scorch,” the mare said turning to them and lowering the gun to her side which allowed Scratched to let out the air she wasn’t aware she was holding in. “I need you to get me-”
“Mom, wait,” Thorn said as he waved her over and whispered something into her ear. Her entire body jolted and she looked at Scratched again with new eyes. “There are also a lot of soldier looking ponies marching towards us.”
“I see,” the mare said, biting her lip as she moved to leave the room. “Change of plans. Curtain Call.”
“Swan Song,” Scorch said causing the mare to spin around.
“No,” she snapped staring up at them. “If you two think I will let you actually go for it then-”
“Mom,” Thorn knelt down to stare her in the eye with Scorch doing the same. “You raised us centuries ago from mere hatchlings, took care of us and taught us everything we know. We can tell how serious this is and how much you will need a cover to get away safely. Please, let us do this for you.”
The mare stared at them before poorly stifling a sob, and the two dragons embraced her in response. The three held each other before the two dragons let her go with her muttering she would be back in a few seconds. Thorn went with her and Scorch turned to face Scratched.
“Listen to me very carefully,” he said, leaning into her face. “She may be one of the oldest mares alive but she is very mentally fragile. She is prone to long periods of depression, she doesn’t respond to praise well and she can lose herself if you aren’t there to pull her back to the surface. Do you understand?”
“Ye-yes,” Scratched said nervously nodding her head.
“Take care of her, please,” the dragon said. “This will be very hard for her and she will need someone to help her.”
“I will do my best, I promise,” she said which seemed to reassure him enough.
“Good, now if you will excuse me, me and my brother need to go do something,” Scorch said, patting her shoulder before he walked out of the room.
Walking up the stairs, he saw Thorn walking down with a mega blaster over his shoulder and a second in one hand, which he tossed to Scorch.
“You ready for this?” he asked him.
“As much as I can be,” Scorch said as they walked to the counter, before he raised a claw to get the attention of the customers. “Okay, listen up everyone, this is the final round!” He ignored their complaints and spoke louder. “When I say final round, I mean the final round for the bar!” That got their attention with the regulars all staring at them. “There are some folks that are coming to our doors that we’re pretty damn sure are here to cause trouble. Me and Thorn are going to do our best to tell them to sod off but we’d appreciate every hand we can get.”
“To underscore how serious we think these offlanders are, we are tearing up all the tabs and letting one final round of drinks for those who stay,” Thorn said as he began to activate the defences of the bar they had installed over the years while Scorch went to the front door. “The choice is yours.”
Within a few seconds, the brothers had their answer.
Vector Gaze eyed the dusty streets leading up to Doa’s Bar with distaste but soon this business would be done. Behind him, a score of his best soldiers were following dutily. As he approached the bar, he reached out to the doors with his magic only to find it locked.
“Hello out there,” a voice called out to him. “What’s the deal with all those men?”
“Hello yourself,” Vector called back. “These stallions are here in case things go poorly, which I hope they don’t. I am here for a stallion named Ray Blaster.”
“Sorry to say that the guy is dead,” the voice called back with a chuckle. “Pulled a gun on a girl in here and that couldn’t be allowed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Vector called back as he walked back into the safety of his soldiers. “Ray was a terrible pony and the universe is probably better with his death. Though, I have to ask if the mare he was threatening was a Scratched Wrench.”
“And if she was, what’s it to you?”
“She found something that was stolen from my boss and we’re just trying to get it back,” Vector said honestly enough. “Ray was over-enthusiastic in trying to get it from her and while I understand there was a bit of rough handling in trying to get it, I promise that if you just send her out, we can handle all this nice and quietly.”
“Sorry, that’s not happening,” the voice replied. “I’ve heard what you did to her homeworld and that library and I don’t think it’d be safe for her to meet you.”
“I must insist you open those doors to let me in lest we need to make things messy,” Vector said with a sneer forming on his face.
“I insist you leave before you bite off more than you can chew buddy,” the stallion called out to him.
“Look, we are coming in there one way or another; let us just do this peacefully,” Vector said. “Open the doors and let us in.”
“Not going to happen,” the voice said before cutting off the voice com.
“That’s it, take it down,” he said, tilting his head to his soldiers to blast some holes into the bar to scare them into acting smart.
...only for the blasts to merely singe the paint.
“What the …” he said as his ear flicked as he heard motors running and hidden automated gun turrets leaned out of the side of the building. Reacting on his training, he raced for cover behind one of the buildings while his front three lines were being mowed down as there was so little cover to be had in the middle of the street.
Thankfully, his men knew to fire and didn’t wait for his orders to destroy the turrets and soon enough, each one was a smoking heap of wreckage. Moving out with his fellow quick hooved soldiers, he approached the building with one soldier from a demolition squad attaching a breaching charge to the front doors.
Holding for a moment while the doors were blown apart, Vector saw his squad leaders wave soldiers in, only for them to cry out as they were met with a hail of gunfire coming from both more turrets and deeper inside the bar. With a snarl, the squads began to lay covering fire as several of his demolition units raced forwards to launch a breach charge into the room. With a mighty thud, everything shook for a few seconds before the fire started again but by that time, Vector's men were able to rush into in the room and begin to lay down even more cover fire with Vector peering into the room though his visor cam, only to see complete bedlam.
The computer inside of it began to list those shooting them as well known mercenaries, including several that the Final Order had hired in the past. His mind began to race as he tried to figure out what this bar could have possibly have on them, as his men did their best to chip away at these mercs but the tables they were hiding behind were also made of the same metal that the outer wall was and his men couldn't begin to blast through them.
Still, he had superior numbers and they were able to turn the breach into a proper staging area to take the rest of the place.
That was until a dragon appeared from behind the bar with a heavy mega blaster and began to blow apart entire squads. He was dressed in high plated body armour and clearly had some training as he was aiming for the squads that were carrying the heavier weapons.
He was also the leader of this shitshow and killing him would be the key to getting everything under control.
Aiming his own rifle with laser point, he began to focus on the dragon’s head when he heard a series of clunks. Turning his head to the side, his eyes went wide as he saw a burning keg bouncing down into the bar room and straight to their breach point.
“INCOMING!” he shouted, diving backwards as it exploded and took out more of his men. With a snarl, he leaned back into the room and managed to fire off a shot.
“THORN!” he heard a voice shout across the room with more rapid explosions from another heavy mega blaster being fired. Another, near identical dragon appeared onto the scene and leaped behind the bar but at this point, the tide had turned in Vector’s favour.
Suddenly, there was a loud roar from outside, and Vector spun around, his visor zooming in. After a moment, he cursed. “Fall back, they’re escaping!”
“I think not,” came a growl, and a moment later he fell forward, his rear legs twisting and tearing as he screamed in agony.
Then he felt an aura surrounding him for a moment. Just as quickly, a shot rang out, and he heard a wet thud as something fell next to him.
Dazed, he looked up as a pair of scaled feet stomped over in front of him, and saw a badly wounded dragon with a claw over a gaping hole in its stomach, holding a device of some sort in the other hand.
“You may have won the battle, but not the war,” the dragon sneered. “Goodbye.” He pressed the button.
And then all Vector Gaze felt was fire, and pain.
And then nothing.
“This better have been worth it,” the mare next to Scratched hissed angrily as they stood on the ramp of the Excelsior, watching the massive explosion of where the bar once stood with smaller ones ripping apart the street where more of those soldiers were standing. “You had better be worth it.” She stared intensely at Scratched before her eyes fell into something that resembled curiosity. “You have no idea to who I am, do you?”
“Ye-yes,” Scratched said with a glup. “You’re that mare who created all those cures, the foremare of the universal health standard. You’re Sp-”
The mare scoffed at her. “You know nothing.” Stepping angrily forwards to the cockpit, the mare shot back as they began to take off. “I wonder what they are teaching kids these days if that’s what you know of me.”
“My mother was the teacher back home and that fucker Ray Blaster killed her,” she snapped back angrily with the mare stiffening for good long ten seconds before shaking her head.
“I know of some jump gates that can get us closer to Hesturland, I will tell your pilot...” she trailed off as she walked in the small room with her best friend and girlfriend staring at the alicorn.
“Scratched, honey, do you know who she is‽,” Aerostorm said with terror in her voice, reaching for her gun.
“Yes I do,” Scratched said, walking to be shoulder to shoulder with the other mare who seemed pleased to see that Aerostorm was scared of her. “She is also willing to help us get this damn data to the Hesturlandians and-”
“What happened to your wing?” the mare asked, walking closer to Aerostorm who looked at Scratched for guidance.
“It was shot off by that bastard you killed,” Scratched said. “I’ve been working on creating her a replacement wi-”
“I can fix her,” the mare said with her horn glowing. A table appeared in the middle of the room, with the alicorn looking at Aerostorm. “I can fix you. Despite what I have done, I know how to fix people.”
Aerostorm gave her a nervous look before swallowing and reaching over to kiss Scratched’s cheek before climbing onto the table. “Okay, Doctor Genome, I’m ready.”
“Spliced Genome,” the mare corrected. “I never gained my medical degree.” Her magic then enveloped Aerostorm completely, with the griffon falling asleep. The mare then moved up to her right wing joint and stared at it before pulling out Aero’s left wing out. With her eyes glowing, strands of blood and bone began to sprout out of the wing joint. Watching in awe, Zaat and Scratched watched as layer upon layer of biological tissue was being created in front of them and Aerostorm’s right was coming into existence as if it was being created from a three dimensional printer. Scratched could barely stop herself from leaning over to run her hoof over the new wing to feel the feathers, but she forced herself to hold back so as not to disturb the process.
Within minutes, Spliced had completely restored the wing. She seemed like she was about to pull back when a frown flashed across her face and she leaned closer to the griffon. Before Scratched could even ask what was going on, Spliced had sent what looked like a magical pulse into her girlfriend’s chest and pulled it out. The ball was filled with something but the alicorn crushed it into nothingness before Scratched could get a good look at it.
With that done, Spliced drew her magic back into herself and Aerostorm began to stir. Scratched wanted to go to her but Zaat held her back. The griffon shook her head before looking at her wing and extended it above her head with choked sob escaping her mouth. She ran her talon over the restored wing before turning her head back to them. “Scratch, my wing is back.”
Scratched couldn’t hold herself back anymore and leaped onto the table to hold her love tightly, placing kisses on her neck and face with tears running down her own face as she felt the wing with her hooves before being hugged tightly by both of Aero’s wings and it was exactly the same as before.
“Thank you, thank you so much for giving me back my wing,” Aerostorm said through her joyous crying.
“I just fixed your wing and what was inside of you,” Spliced stated, looking uncomfortable with being given praise.
In that instant, though, the entire atmosphere of the room changed.
“What do you mean by what was in her?” Scratched asked with Aerostorm looking panicky for some reason.
“Come on Scratch, let’s just enjoy that I’m okay, okay?” she asked nervously with her heart starting to race.
“Aerostorm, what’s going on?” Scratched tried to stare in her the eye but Aerostorm wouldn’t meet them. “What did you do?” she asked Spliced Genome.
“As I said, I fixed her wing and her lung cancer, nothing more.” Spliced Genome said with her coat bristling.
Everything froze at that moment with Scratched’s mind racing a thousand miles a moment. In any normal situation, being told you were being cured of cancer would have been an even more joyous event but Aerostorm looked nervous and guilty.
With a gasp, Scratched stared at the griffon she was on.
“You knew.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
910 users online
576,779 hits today, 2,205,040 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
There's that improbable accuracy again
Ahhh Spliced... your bedside manners still suck
9542159
pfft
She's probably not.
Oh you gon' die.
You're damn good at what you do.
Oh boy.