Scarlet

by Skijarama

Ambush

A father.

For the last eight years, Sharp Lens had been a father and never even knew. And now… now he’d never gotten a chance to meet his daughter. He would never get a chance to hold her, to see her face, or get to know her. She was dead, now… murdered by a changeling in her own home town. If fate had a mind of its own, then it was a cruel, cruel mistress.

Those thoughts and many, many more raged within Lens’ mind as he hunched over his workbench, a pair of comically large and clunky metal goggles covering his eyes and magnifying his view of the glowing crystal lamp in his hooves several times over. His hooves worked on autopilot, as did his horn. His hooves applied a tool to the lamp, a light touch or a gentle scrape, his eyes observed the reaction, and his horn jotted down anything of note on a nearby note pad with a quill.

But despite already having a stack of notes on the arcane oddity, his mind was barely absorbing any of it. It was old, it was heavily warded, and if he had to make a deduction, he assumed that something was held inside of it. Whatever that might have been, though, he had absolutely no idea, and at the moment, he didn’t rightly care.

“...Scarlet,” he finally breathed after what felt like hours of work. With a heavy sigh and his shoulder sagging with exhaustion, he pried the goggles off of his head and set them to one side with a loud, metallic thunk. He lifted his head, his eyes glossing over the scrambled and haphazard appearance of his workshop. There were diagrams, notes, and illustrations pinned all over the walls, while tools and parts were scattered across tables and stuffed into drawers to the bursting point.

“You should have come sooner,” he went on in barely even a whisper. “Or tried to reach out. I know you could have found a way…”

He stood there for a while, completely still and trying to imagine what his daughter had looked like. What color had she been? Did she have a short or long mane and tail? What color were they? Was she a unicorn? Probably, given that was what both of her parents were…

Lens let out a quiet growl of frustration before closing his eyes taking a deep breath. When he let it out, he opened his eyes and noticed just how heavy the lids were getting. He frowned and glanced at the pile of notes he had accumulated. Curious, he peered over them and began to read what he had written down if only to distract himself and make sure he had it all memorized. Scarlet and Primrose had come all this way so he could study it, had they not?

But as he studied the pages, the words began to blur together or split into two or more copies that drifted aimlessly across his vision. Lens blinked several times before giving off a humorless chuckle and a shake of his head. “Figures… too tired to even read,” he grumbled before setting the notes aside on his workbench and heading for the door. He could read them to his guests in the morning.

Suddenly, a high-pitched ping sounded in his ears, and a short spark of magic danced along his horn. Lens stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing. Someone had just tripped one of his proximity runes. Someone new was on his property. But who?

Before he could contemplate it any further, there came the sound of three short knocks on his front door. Lens blinked a few times to clear his vision before dragging himself tiredly out of his workshop and for the front door. “This had better be really good,” he grumbled to himself before throwing the door open with his magic and glaring out.

“Hello, Lens,” the dark armored pegasus on the other side greeted in a smooth, level-tone, his eyes flashing with recognition.

Lens’ eyes widened, and his jaw fell open. “Wha… Silent? Silent Edge? Er, that is your name, right?” he asked, adjusting his glasses on his face with a hoof.

“The very same,” Silent replied with a respectful nod of his head. “I do not wish to waste your time or mine, for that matter, so I shall be brief. You are currently housing two wanted fugitives and a highly dangerous piece of contraband in your home, and I want them turned over to me immediately.”

Two wanted fugitives? Lens blinked in confusion, his groggy mind trying to connect the dots. “Wha… I don’t understand…”

“Don’t be stupid, Lens,” Silent cut back, his voice gaining a stern edge. “Scarlet Frost, the filly Primrose, and the lamp the filly carried with her. Both of them are wanted dead or alive by the Lunar Council, and I am here to collect them.”

“Wait, what?! Uh, wha- j-just hold on one minute! What did they do?!” Lens demanded in confusion, his eyes going even wider and his exhaustion now long forgotten.

“That is way above your paygrade, Lens,” Edge shot down the question with his eyes narrowing and his wings twitching on his back. “I will not ask you again. Bring. Them. Out.”

Lens took a step back, sweat starting to form on the back of his neck. “I… I don’t…”

And then everything exploded into chaos.

There was a blinding flash of purple light in the center of the room, and Scarlet emerged from it with her cloak billowing in the residual burst of wind. Lens scrambled back, crying out in alarm before watching wide-eyed as the mare charged her horn and fired a bolt of raw magic right at Silent. The pegasus reacted quickly, snapping out his wingblades just as Scarlet emerged and catching her attack with them. He staved off the worst of it but was still sent sliding back several yards.

“Scarlet?!” Lens shouted, scrambling back to his hooves. “What in the world is going on?!”

“Where is the lamp?!” Scarlet demanded in turn, whirling to face him with desperation written on her face. “Where?!”

“M-my workshop,” Lens stammered out by instinct, his ears drooping. “But-”

Scarlet shoved past him without another word, all but tearing the workshop door off of its hinges with her magic before sprinting into the room.

“Hey!” Lens shouted after her. Before he could go to follow her, however, more pings went off in his mind. Three. five. Nine. The color drained from his face and his eyes turned back to the front door of his home.

Nightblades. Not counting Edge, there were nine of them, weapons drawn and converging on the home.

Acting by reflex, Lens’ horn lit up with magic and shoved his front door closed just as the first pony, a unicorn, arrived. He grunted with strain when he felt their weight slam into it, and he quickly ran to bolster it with his body weight. “SCARLET, WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” he screamed, his heart hammering in his chest.

The mare in question emerged from the workshop immediately after, the lamp floating behind her in her magic. “No time!” she snapped back before glancing for the stairs. “PRIMROSE! COME ON!”

Lens turned and watched as the foal came scampering down the steps, her eyes wide in panic and her saddlebags loosely thrown over her back. “Scarlet, he found us!” she shouted in terror, sprinting for the older mare. “What do we do?!”

“We run,” Scarlet replied simply, her horn glowing brighter before two curved swords made of pure magic snapped into existence by her sides. “And we fight through.”

“Scarlet!” Lens shouted as the unicorn at his door charged again. He was growing desperate, and it must have come through in his voice because Scarlet finally looked at him directly. They made eye contact, and her entire posture changed. She went from ready to leap into battle at a moment’s notice to staring at the stallion before her with unbounded guilt and fear in her eyes. He leaned towards her as well as he could from his door. “Please, tell me what’s happening!”

Scarlet opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the window to the left of the door suddenly shattered into the room. Silent Edge swooped in, his eyes affixing themselves onto Primrose. “Got you!” he snarled before lunging forward, his wingblades ready to carve her in half.

Primrose screamed at the top of her lungs, scrambling back.

Thankfully, Scarlet was there before Silent could reach his target. Her horn swelled with light, her swords vanished, and a half-dome barrier formed in front of her, catching Silent’s swing with a distorted clang. She gritted her teeth and bent her legs under the force of the blow before shoving back.

Lens grimaced before dropping to the floor and crouching low, evading the expanding pulse of magic. Scarlet’s eyes flew wide in horror, and her swords began to materialize as Edge leaped forwards, his blades angled to bite into her neck.

Time slowed to a crawl, and Lens’ eyes widened. Scarlet didn’t have enough time to raise a proper defense. By the time she could conjure her swords or another barrier, Silent would have already taken her head clean off.

Instinct took over. Lens’ horn lit with sky-blue magic and latched onto Silent’s short tail long enough to drag him back. His grip faltered in an instant, but he had made just enough of a difference to make the pegasus’ attack come up short by mere inches. His hooves spread wide, an agitated snarl slipping past his clenched teeth as he steadied himself.

Scarlet capitalized on the window of imbalance, unleashing a blast of raw concussive force against Silent and sending him back into the wall. “Primrose, on my back, now!” she barked before turning to Lens. “Get out of the way!”

Her tone of voice left no room for argument. Neither did the two magic blades angling themselves to thrust through him if he did not comply. With a gulp, he ducked to the side. His ears were filled with the sound of splintering wood and a muffled scream of pain. He rolled over just in time to watch Scarlet blast the door into sawdust with a focused burst of magic, sending the three Nightblades positioned outside of it flying back.

Silent recovered at this time, his eyes flashing with rage. He turned and tackled Scarlet’s side just as Primrose was climbing on, sending them all falling to the ground in a tangled heap. They struggled for a brief moment before Silent reared back and punched Scarlet on her horn with his armored hoof. She cried out before falling limp, her eyes rolling up into her skull. With her dazed, Edge turned to Primrose, who was still pinned beneath her weight.

Lens’ heart went cold when he saw the look on Silent’s face. That wasn’t the look of a soldier carrying out his duty anymore. The dilated pupils, the manic grin, the tremble in his cheeks. This was the face of a bloodthirsty, sadistic predator. A predator that was now readying to plunge his blades into the frantically screaming filly pinned beneath him.

“NO, NO, NO!” she was repeating at the top of her lungs, tears flying free from her eyes while she tried desperately to pry herself out from under Scarlet.

“The chase is over, filly!” Edge snarled before thrusting his blades forward.

Only for a beam of magic to strike him in the face, sending him rocketing back into the opposite wall hard enough to put spiderweb crack pattern into the stone. He slumped to the ground in a heap, groaning in pain.

Lens was quick to get back to his hooves, his horn glowing even brighter as confusion, anger, and fear all surged in his veins. He encased Silent in his magical aura and forcefully shoved the stallion out of the window. With that done, Lens lifted his head and focused. His head began to pound from the exertion, but sure enough, a dome of pale blue magical energy expanded from his horn and encompassed his house, forcing the Nightblades back and denying them entry.

He could already feel the Nightblades chipping away at it, but at least now he had a second to focus on other matters. He shook his head to clear the fog and reached down to the still panicking filly. “Hey, hey!” he said to her, his voice firm.

Primrose looked back up at him, her breath coming in heaving gasps and more tears rolling down her face. “H-help us!” she begged through the quivers ravaging her small body. “P-please, h-help us!”

Scarlet began to stir, thankfully. Her eyes fluttered open and she sluggishly pushed herself back to her hooves, taking her weight off of the pinned foal. “Guh… ugh,” she groaned, slumping against the door frame. “Damn him…”

“Scarlet, for the love of the Five, would you please tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” Lens demanded, stomping up to her. “WHY ARE THERE NIGHTBLADES ATTACKING MY HOME!?”

Scarlet made eye contact with him for a few seconds before looking outside at the barrier, which was already starting to flicker. She winced before lifting Primrose onto her back with her magic. “I’m sorry… I didn’t want you to get involved,” she whispered before looking at him directly. “I can explain it all later. For now, we have to run.”

“Run?!” Lens asked impatiently, his eyes narrowing. “Run where?! Those are Nightblades Scarlet!”

“If we don’t run we’re all dead anyway!” Scarlet shot back, her ears drooping. “Please, just trust me!”

Lens stared at her, incredulous. His mind was still a raging inferno of confusion and adrenaline, but in this brief moment of composure, he inwardly swore as he realized that she was absolutely right. The moment he had used his magic to hinder the ponies outside, he had made himself an accomplice. He was a target now, the same as they were.

He only wished he knew what they had done.

“Alright, alright, fine!” he finally relented, adjusting his glasses on his muzzle. “Where are we going?”

“Away,” Scarlet answered simply before glancing up at the barrier. “Is this thing mobile?”

“No, sorry,” Lens shook his head. “It wouldn’t last half as long if it were.”

Scarlet growled under her breath before turning to face the street. The Nightblades were still pounding on the barrier, and cracks were starting to form on its surface. She hummed for a moment before spreading out her legs. “Alright, I have an idea. Grab onto me. On my mark, drop the barrier.”

Lens blinked. “Huh?”

“Just do it!” She barked, her horn starting to glow.

Lens was quiet for a moment before shaking himself and placing a hoof on her neck. “Alright, I’m trusting you…”

She glanced back at him out of the corner of her eye. “...Thank you, Lens,” she whispered before facing the barrier again. She gritted her teeth and let out a groan of effort as a dense ball of purple light began to form on the tip of her horn. It twitched and crackled with energy, and the Nightblades all began to stop their attacks.

Lens’ eyes widened. “W-wait! Artillery?! Here?! NOW?!”

“Do you have a better idea to get rid of them?!”

“Something that won’t blow up the house across the street would be nice!”

Scarlet shook her head, making the ball distort and ripple. “No time. On my mark.”

“Scarlet…!”

“Three… two… one… MARK!”

Lens screwed his eyes shut and reluctantly dropped the barrier. At the same instant, he heard Silent’s voice crying out ahead of them. “GET CLEAR!”

The spell went off.

If Lens had to find a way to describe what it was like to hold onto Scarlet as she made use of her signature spell, it was like holding onto a full-grown dragon that was bucking like an angry bull. The sound was deafening, drowning out everything but the ringing in his ears. He could feel it in his ribs, in his throat, and in the floor beneath his hooves.

If the initial shot was powerful, the explosion was simply monstrous. His mane was swept back from the gust of air that tore out from the point of impact, and the ground shook so hard he almost lost his footing. Before he had a chance to fall, though, there was a tingle of magic over his body. He opened his eyes just in time for them to be flooded by blinding purple light, while an intense gale whipped at his body from all sides. It lasted for barely an instant before it ended.

They emerged from the teleport in the middle of an intersection that he recognized as several blocks away from his home. Lens fell to his haunches, gasping for breath and looking around with wide eyes. Soon enough, he caught sight of the plume of smoke starting to rise into the air from where his home was, and his ears drooped. “By the Five…” he choked out.

“Pray for salvation later,” Scarlet said sternly, hauling him back to his hooves with her magic. “We’re not in the clear yet.”

“B-but…”

“No buts, soldier!” Scarlet snapped at him before craning her neck to look at Primrose. “Are you okay, Prim?”

“I’m scared,” came the trembling reply.

“So am I,” Scarlet assured her in a whisper before turning back to Lens. “Alright, we head for the wall, and we teleport to the other side. Then we flee into the woods. Clear?”

“I…” Lens replied, his body going numb, and his heart hammering in his chest. Was this really happening? It couldn’t be. He’d left behind this kind of stuff years ago. Maybe he was just having some really vivid fever dream? Yes, that must have been it. Scarlet’s sudden arrival and her story about Crystal had left him in such an emotionally broken state that he’d passed out at his workstation and was having a horrific nightmare about his entire life being blown up in front of his eyes.

Sadly, such hopes were dashed when a hoof slapped across his cheek, sending a flare of fiery pain through his entire face. He reeled from the blow, bringing a hoof up to rub the sore spot before turning back to Scarlet.

“LENS!” She bellowed, leaning in close and glaring daggers into his eyes. “Get a hold of yourself! Were you a soldier or a baby!? We. Need. To GO! Do you understand me?!”

That finally snapped Lens out of his horrified stupor. He stiffly nodded his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Y-yes… alright, okay. Lead the way,” he finally said, his voice getting some of its strength back.

Scarlet nodded before turning and sprinting down the street, heading for the western wall. Lens turned and followed after her, putting all else but his own survival out of his mind for the time being.

Every so often, though, he couldn’t help but look over his shoulder at the pillar of smoke that rose into the air. Every time he looked, he could just make out the screams of the ponies who had been close enough to be affected.

---

“My legs…” the Nightblade mare at Silent’s hooves gurgled out, blood and tears running down her face in equal measure. “I can’t… I can’t feel… my… my legs…”

“That would be because you haven’t got any,” Silent thought to himself as he stared down at her.

It was true, her entire body was brutalized. Her legs had all been blasted off in the explosion, reduced to a liquefied smear along the stone streets that reminded the assassin of smashed raspberries. Much of her lower barrel had suffered similar damage, and there was no doubt that she was going to die, soon. “A pity,” he thought. “She was a good scout.”

“Sir!” one of the others called over to him, drawing his attention away from the sobbing corpse-to-be and back to the house. Luckily, it seemed Scarlet hadn’t gone completely mad. She had aimed for the street below them instead of at them directly. The blast had absolutely obliterated Lens’ yard and put a sizable crater in the street, but it had not caused any damage to innocent bystanders.

The same could not be said for his troops, though. Of the nine he had brought, only two were still in fighting shape. Three had been incinerated, one more was about to bleed out, and three had been given crippling injuries. One of them was never going to walk or fly again.

The one that approached him now was the same mare with orange eyes that had met him on the roof in Swanrun a few weeks prior. Amber Blitz, if he was remembering her name correctly. She came to a stop in front of him and pulled down her hood. “Sir, there is no sign of the target or the lamp inside the home,” she relayed simply. “It appears they teleported away in the confusion.”

“I see…” Edge said quietly before turning back to his fallen soldiers. His expression darkened. Scarlet just had to make things difficult, didn’t she? With a grimace, he turned to his last remaining soldier, a unicorn stallion who was frantically tending to the wounds of another injured Nightblade. “You!”

The unicorn glanced up. “Yes, sir?”

Silent nodded towards the wounded. “Take care of the wounded and deal with the corpses. If ponies ask questions, dissuade them,” he ordered simply before turning back to Amber. “You, you’re with me.”

“Where are we going, sir?” She asked, falling into step beside him as they started down the street.

“We’re finishing what we started...” Silent replied simply before unfurling his wings and taking to the sky.

Comments

[The Voice in the Water]

And we have Scarlet go mama bear on Silent and the Nightblades. Light, I still have no idea what Prim's family did to warrant this kind of thing from Silent, but if what I think is true about her is true, when Scarlet learns about it, its not going to be pretty.

[JMP]

....as soon as I saw the chapter title, I figured this would happen. I just hope whatever that lamp is is worth all this...

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Holy hell....

[tom117z]

Someone had just tripped one of his proximity runes. Someone new was on his property. But who?

Wuh-oh.

[tom117z]

9844960
Oh, I think it will be...

[MixMassBasher]

Nice to see Lens pov of this whole thing. And now the gang is now three.

Let the ponyhunt begin.

[harts fire]

i can say this is a good story and has earned a up vote from me.
i will be weighting and watching for updates.

[mustangdrew4]

Hell yeah! I forget sometimes while reading that Scarlet was an artillery mare. Nice to see that kind of power.

[The Weaver]

The same could not be said for his troops, though. Of the nine he had brought, only two were still in fighting shape. Three had been incinerated, one more was about to bleed out, and three had been given crippling injuries. One of them was never going to walk or fly again.

A pity

Some of the things survived.

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

Silent is no soldier, not anymore at least. Every war story I've ever read here on this website makes a clear distinction between the two. But based upon how quickly he turned on Scarlet, Lens, and his own squad members tells me that he's too far gone for any hope of redemption or he was never a soldier or a friend at all.