Guarded Emotions: The Final Season

by Alabenson

The Beginning of the End, Part 2

One of the first things that the Great and Powerful Trixie had done when she started making extended stops in Ponyville was develop an emergency plan in case of villain or monster attacks. Step one; hide under her wagon. Step two; wait for Twilight to deal with whatever the problem was. Up until now, said system had performed admirably, the minor frustration of having to rely on the efforts of Twilight Sparkle notwithstanding (Trixie mollified herself on this last point by reasoning that relying on a princess to save Equestria was no different than relying on one to raise the sun). This time, however, Twilight and her friends were nowhere to be found as everypony in Ponyville systematically fell victim to King Sombra’s brainwashing spell. Not even Starlight Glimmer, Trixie’s best (and probably as powerful as Twilight) friend had been able to escape Sombra’s dark magic.

As Trixie finally poked her head out from underneath her wagon, she was immediately struck by how eerily quiet Ponyville seemed. “Hello? Is anypony there? Trixie can’t really be the only pony to not have been captured, can she? Alright, Trixie, think. Everypony in Ponyville has been enslaved by King Sombra and Celestia only knows where Twilight and her friends are, so it’s all up to you to save the day. There has to be something you can do, I mean, it’s not like you haven’t saved Equestria before and Twilight does it all the time so how hard can it really be?” As Trixie continued to mutter to herself, she wandered over to the entrance to Twilight’s school before glancing back at the now deserted town. “Of course, Twilight always had her friends to help her, and I had Starlight to help when I saved everypony from Queen Chrysalis. I really wish I had anypony else here right now, I’d even settle for Discord.”

As if on cue, the water right next to where Trixie was standing erupted as a pegasi mare in guard armor bust to the surface. To Trixie’s horror, the mare also was wearing one of King Sombra’s mind controlling helmets. The sight of this threat immediately propelled Trixie into action, specifically prompting her to attempt to bolt away only to trip on her cape and crash face first into the dirt. Instead of pouncing on the hapless magician, however, the guardsmare simply floundered out of the water and collapsed onto the ground coughing and sputtering.

“Stay back!” Trixie warned as she righted herself, her confidence recovering at the sight of her opponent’s condition. “Otherwise I’ll have no choice but to unleash the full magical wrath of the Great and Powerful Trixie upon you!” Said wrath would likely consist of a detonated smoke bomb followed by the Great and Powerful Trixie running for dear life, but Trixie didn’t feel the guardsmare needed to be made aware of that particular detail

The guardsmare didn’t reply, instead continuing to cough up water as she pulled herself to her hooves, only to stumble back and fall to her rump. As Trixie watched, the waterlogged began frantically swatting and pulling at the helmet with her forehooves until she finally managed to yank it off of her head. “Oh thank rutting Celestia!” she said as she tossed the helmet away from her, the left side of the helmet crumpling to pieces as it hit the ground. “I could barely breathe in that stupid thing. I guess I owe Cyclops one for taking it out of commission.” As the guardsmare reoriented herself she finally noticed Trixie standing a safe distance away. “Hey, you’re that stage magician who camps out behind the castle, the something something Triskie, right?”

“It’s the Great and Powerful Trixie, actually,” Trixie replied with an air of indignation. “Although, under the circumstances Trixie supposes she can forgive your error.”

“That’s big of you. Anyway, what can you tell me about what happened? Where’s Sombra? And where’s the rest of town, for that matter?”

“Trixie…I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. I took cover when King Sombra attacked and I haven’t seen anypony else besides you,” Trixie admitted, dropping her stage persona.

“Well, it would probably be best if you stayed with me for the time being, at least until we figure out what the situation is. I’m Lieutenant Silver Streak, for what it’s worth,” Silver Streak said as she extended a hoof to Trixie.

Just as Trixie was about to shake Silver Streak’s hoof, the sound of a series of explosions tore through the air. “What the hay was that?”

“I don’t know, but it sounded like it was coming from the direction of the Everfree Forest,” Silver Streak replied as she started rushing towards the source of the sounds, Trixie following reluctantly behind. “With any luck, that’ll be the sound of the Captain feeding Sombra his own horn.”

“By ‘the Captain’ do you mean Twilight’s coltfriend?” Trixie asked. “Because if that’s who you’re talking about than I don’t think those noises are him.”

“What do you mean?” Silver Streak asked, only for Trixie to point towards a dark crystal pillar standing in the wreckage of the town square, inside of which Moonwhisper could be seen trapped like a bug in a piece of amber. “Oh no. No no no no no no no, this is bad. This is really, really bad.”

“So, I take it this means we’re back to plan ‘wait for Twilight to save the day like she always does except for that one time the princesses all got captured’ then?” Trixie asked. “I really hate to admit it, but she’s usually pretty good at that sort of thing.”

“How the hay can be so – wait, do you hear something?” Silver Streak paused in the middle of rounding on Trixie and cocked her head towards one of the alleyways.

“If you’re referring to the sounds of whatever’s happening in the forest, how could I – yeek!” Trixie let out a squeal of surprise as Silver Streak grabbed her and dove behind one of the stalls. “You could at least warn me before doing something like that!” Trixie hissed in an annoyed whisper, only to be shushed by Silver Streak. Before Trixie could continue to voice her displeasure, however, she heard what it was that Silver Streak had heard, namely the sound of a cheerful, tuneless song being hummed as somepony, or something walked towards the square from one of the alleys.

Several seconds ticked by before one of the oddest-looking ponies Trixie had ever seen stepped out of the alley. The lanky unicorn stallion had a saffron-colored coat and a curly, puce mane that wasn’t quite eye-catching enough to draw attention away from the fact that the stallion’s tuxedo and opera cloak were just a touch too large for his frame. The entire ensemble gave the impression of a pony who wanted to look respectable but wasn’t quite able to manage to succeed.

“I’m not really sure who I was expecting, but whoever that is sure wasn’t it,” Trixie said as she watched the stallion half-walk half-skip towards the crystal pillar containing Moonwhisper.

Upon reaching the pillar, the stallion circled the pillar inspecting it before finally clearing his throat. “I’m not mad, you know. I’m sure you did the best that you could under the circumstances. I’m just a little…disappointed.”

“Who in Equestria is that, anyway? It sounds like he knows Moonwhisper, but I don’t think I’ve seen him in Ponyville before and I thought Moonwhisper didn’t have any friends before he came here or something,” Trixie said.

“Friend might be a strong word here,” Silver Streak growled. “I don’t think anypony’s really friends with that slimy little psychopath, but under the circumstances this might be a good thing.”

“You know I can hear you both, right?” The stallion called out without bothering to interrupt his inspection of Moonwhisper’s prison. “Why don’t the two of you come out so we can talk like civilized ponies. And don’t worry about any of King Sombra’s forces, they’ve all left to conquer Canterlot.”

“They’ve WHAT?” Silver Streak yelled as she leapt out from behind the stall.

“Left to go conquer Canterlot. Sorry, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are making quite the racket beating back the Everfree Forrest, so I’ll try and speak up.”

While Silver Streak tried to digest this new bit of information, Trixie poked her head out from behind the stall as well. “Um, as grateful as I am to find somepony else who isn’t trying to enslave me, who exactly are you, anyway?”

“Ah, of course, where are my manners. I am Greater Good, lead pony of the Equestrian Intelligence Division.” As Greater Good spoke he took an elaborate how that would have seemed mocking had it been performed by somepony less awkward-looking.

“If Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are back, then what the hay are they doing messing with the Everfree Forest and not stopping Sombra?” Silver Streak suddenly blurted out.

“Well, now that King Sombra has destroyed the Tree of Harmony the forest is out of control, so Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are handling that while Princess Twilight resolves the whole King Sombra situation. Which actually brings me to why I’m here. While Princess Twilight and her friends do have a rather impressive history of doing the supposedly impossible, I think under the circumstances it may be wise to activate our contingency plan.”

“You mean…” Silver Streak began before looking around the abandoned market square and letting out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess things can’t really get much worse at this point. But, don’t we need the Captain for that?”

“True, but I should be able to release him easily enough,” Greater Good replied cheerfully. “The trick will be keeping him from running off to fight King Sombra again before he’s ready. For that, we’ll need to have the protocols ready to go, so you’ll need to run off and get them.”

Silver Streak tried flexing her wings before wincing in pain and pulling them back against her barrel. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a problem. I think I must have torn something when I hit the water, there’s no way I could fly all the way to the Toybox and back.”

“Oh, that won’t be an issue at all, the artifact was moved to Canterlot some time ago,” Greater Good replied with a grin. “It should still be in the Royal Vaults underneath the city, you’ll just need to sneak in and retrieve it. Also, you may want to bring Miss Trixie along with you, she does have a certain amount of experience infiltrating hostile territory, after all.”

*********

“I feel like I was missing a few important bits of context with that conversation. Also, THE TREE OF HARMONY WAS DESTROYED?” Trixie screeched, earning her an angry glare from Silver Streak.

“Would you be quiet, or do you want all of Sombra’s mind-controlled servants to catch us?” Silver Streak hissed.

“I’m sorry, but I’m dealing with a lot right now and it’s a little much to process all at once!” Trixie angrily whispered back. “And what exactly is so important that we need to sneak into Canterlot to get it?”

Silver Streak let out a sigh. “It’s part of something Greater Good put together after Tirek attack called the Nightmare Protocols. Basically, it’s the guard’s Plan B if something like Nightmare Moon were to happen and Princess Twilight wasn’t able to stop it. You know, a situation where things can’t possibly get any worse.”

“And the thing we’re risking our lives to get is part of that plan?”

“The artifact in Canterlot is the plan. It’s an incredibly powerful artifact that in the right hooves could turn somepony into a one-stallion arm. The only problem is that it’s also incredibly dangerous, to the point that there are only a few ponies in Equestria that could be allowed to use it, and the Captain’s at the top of that list.” Silver Streak paused before continuing. “To be honest, there’s a much longer list of ponies who aren’t allowed to even touch the thing, and you’re on that one.”

Trixie started to open her mouth to protest before apparently thinking better of it and grumpily turning away. “Trixie can…understand why that might be the case.”

“Look, if it makes you feel any better, Princess Twilight is also on that list,” Silver Streak said.

This news did manage to elicit a slight grim from Trixie. “Heh, really? Whatever this is is too dangerous for Twilight to handle?”

“Not just Twilight, any of the princesses. Also Shining Armor, your friend Starlight Glimmer, even Rarity,” Silver Streak said.

“Alright, I get it, whatever this thing is it’s horribly dangerous. So, what exactly is this thing, anyway?” Trixie asked.

“That’s classified information.” Silver Streak immediately replied. “For the time being, all you need to worry about is how we’re going to get into Canterlot and back out without getting caught by any of Sombra’s goons.”

“Fine. So, what about that Greater Good pony, what’s the deal with him? You didn’t seem like you were all that happy to see him when he showed up,” Trixie said.

“That’s because I wasn’t,” Silver Streak snapped. “Don’t let that goofy weirdo shtick of his fool you, Greater Good is one of the most cold-blooded ponies you’re ever going to meet. You know how he said he was the head of the EID? Well, that position was created when Princess Celestia merged a whole bunch of different jobs together, and one of those happened to be the Royal Assassin.”

Trixie silently stared at Silver Streak in shock. “That was a thing?” Trixie finally managed to sputter.

“Well, it was one of those legacy positions that dated back to before Princess Celestia took over, and before Greater Good took over I don’t think any of the EID directors paid any attention to it. Greater Good, on the other hoof…let’s just say you really don’t want him to decide that you’re a danger to Equestria,” Silver Streak said with a shudder. “The Captain can’t stand the guy, but for some reason Greater Good likes to pretend he and the Captain are best buddies.” As Silver Streak spoke, the two mares reached the edge of the underbrush leading up to Canterlot. To their dismay, dozens of enslaved unicorns could be seen milling about in front of drawbridge leading into the city while the sky was teeming with mind-controlled pegasi.

“You expect us to sneak past all of that? We’ll be caught for sure,” Trixie said as she shrank back into the bushes.

“Well, we definitely will if we try to get in through the front,” Silver Streak agreed. “Luckily, I have a plan. Canterlot is riddled with tunnels and passages beneath the surface. All we need to do is find one of the entrances that open up outside the city walls and we should be able to get in with no problem.”

“Not that I’m complaining, anything that gets us through this without getting caught is fine by me, but shouldn’t the guards be, you know, guarding those?” Trixie asked.

“Probably, but the Canterlot garrison is considered a joke for a reason. Besides, even if they had finally gotten around to posting guards outside the entrances to the underground, I seriously doubt Sombra would keep them there. I doubt that sick nutcase even knows they exist,” Silver Streak added. “Besides, it looks like somepony’s already got Sombra’s attention if all that activity is anything to go by.”

“Great, maybe its Twilight and she’ll have this fixed before we even need to get inside,” Trixie said unenthusiastically.

*********

After several tense minutes of sneaking later, the two mares finally reached their entry point into Canterlot, a small unassuming cave entrance tucked away where the city of Canterlot met the mountain. “Alright, this should take us into a cave system that connects with the underground tunnels that run beneath the city. From there we just need to make our way to the rescue vault where Greater Good stashed the artifact,” Silver Streak said. “Any questions?”

“Two. One, why am I even here?”

“You waited until now to ask that?” Silver Streak asked incredulously. “Fine, because your options were to either come with me on the off chance you might be useful or stay in the abandoned town being attacked by the Everfree Forest,” Silver Streak replied.

“Oh, right. Anyway, my other question is how do you know so much about these tunnels anyway?” Trixie asked.

“The Captain had us map them out at one point when he was evaluating Canterlot’s security. Nopony ever bothered to do anything about any of it because Celestia forbid any of the snooty twits that live in the city get inconvenienced by proper security procedures, but we still did our part,” Silver Streak said with a snort of annoyance.

“Ugh, Canterlot unicorns really are the worst,“ Trixie grumbled as she cautiously followed Silver Streak into the caverns. “What?” Trixie asked as she noticed Silver Streak giving her an odd look in response.

“It’s just that you’re one of the few unicorns I’ve ever met to go out and say something like that, Most unicorns can’t stop themselves from gushing about how wonderful Canterlot is. Even when you do find that’s willing to admit the place isn’t perfect they spend half the time apologizing for it.”

“You forget, the Great and Powerful Trixie is a performing magician first and foremost, and every traveling performer knows that Canterlot audiences are the absolute worst,” Trixie replied. “There’s even an old saying among performers, ‘better dead than in Canterlot’.”

“Heh, well if nothing else that explains Watercress Fields’ epitaph; ‘On the whole, I’d rather be in Canterlot,” Silver Streak quipped, eliciting a chuckle from Trixie.

“I wouldn’t have taken you for a classic vaudeville fan,” Trixie said. “Most ponies I meet have never even heard of any of the greats. I mean, Starlight had never even heard of Hoofdini until I told her about him.”

“You’re kidding me? How the hay do you manage to have never heard of the greatest stage magician who ever lived? I mean, next you’re going to tell me they’ve never heard of the Manx brothers either,” Silver Streak said, actually laughing a little.

“I’m pretty sure I haven’t met anypony in Ponyville who’d be able to appreciate classic Abyssinian comedy. Come to think of it, how exactly did you wind up becoming a fan of the old vaudeville performers anyway?” Trixie asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Eh, it helps I grew up in Las Pegasus,” Silver Streak said. “Once you dig past the touristy parts, that city’s got a real appreciation for the old school performers. You know, there’s a theatre out there where a lot of them performed that’s still standing.”

The two mares continued to chat more amicably as the caverns gradually gave way to a maze of underground vaults. “I guess I can see why you’d use this place to hide something, but why does Canterlot even have a place like this?” Trixie asked.

“Honestly, who knows?” A lot of these tunnels predate everything in the city other than the castle itself. Most ponies don’t even know they exist and the ones that do typically just use the tunnels for storage,” Silver Streak said. “Anyway, we should be getting close to the vault where Greater Good stashed the artifact by now.”

“How can you tell? All these tunnels look the same to me,” Trixie said.

“See how the stonework on the walls is changing? That means we’re just about under the palace right now.” Silver Streak suddenly let out a brief chuckle. “It’s almost funny when you think about it. Sombra and Celestia only knows how many brainwashed guards are standing around right about our heads and none of them even have a clue we’re down here.” Silver Streak had scarcely spoken when a door materialized on the ceiling and opened up to deposit a guard directly in front of Silver Streak and Trixie. “Oh, of rutting course…Trixie, get ready to run on my signal.”

“Fear not, for the Great and Powerful Trixie is already a step ahead of you,” Trixie declared before dramatically rearing back on her hind legs and throwing a smoke bomb onto the ground. Seconds later, both mares charged back out of the resultant cloud as fast as their legs could carry them. “So much for their not knowing we’re – yeek!” Trixie let out a squeal as Silver Streak abruptly yanked her into a side passage.

Silver Streak forestalled any further complaints on Trixie’s part by putting a hoof over her mouth as she pulled her behind a large pile of crates and mentioned for her to keep quiet. Moments later the sound of galloping hooves on stone could be heard rapidly approaching until they reached the side passage the two mares had ducked into. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, their pursuer galloped off once again, the sound of his hooves echoing off into the distance.

“That was too close,” Silver Streak finally said. “I really hope whatever dumped him down here was a one-off type of thing. I am in no shape to actually have to fight anypony.” As if to punctuate this statement Silver Streak attempted to spread her wings before quickly folding them back and wincing in pain.

“Well, it could be much worse,” Trixie said. “At least it was only one guard instead of a whole bunch of them. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s…nothing,” Silver Streak finally said. “Call me superstitious, but whenever somepony says something like that something horrible always seems to happen right afterward.”

“That’s ridiculous. Just because I said it would be really bad if we were being chased by a whole bunch of guards doesn’t mean that it’s going to suddenly happen,” Trixie said, only for a low, bellowing noise to echo out from the direction the guard had gone. “That was something horrible happening, wasn’t it?”

Silver Streak nodded her head. “More specifically that was the sound of that guard signaling for reinforcements. We need to move, now!” Before Trixie could voice a reply, Silver Streak grabbed her and pulled her along as she charged down the halls at full speed. “If we can just get to the artifact we might be able to grab it and make a run for it before those guards can catch up to us.”

“So your plan is to just the thing and hope we don’t get caught?” Trixie asked incredulously as she strained to keep up with Silver Streak.

“Well if you have a better plan than I’d love to hear it!” Even as the pair argued, the sounds of hooves galloping through the halls could be heard rapidly approaching from seemingly every direction. “You’re a unicorn magician, aren’t you? Can’t you, I don’t know, magic us a way out of this or something?”

“I’m trying! I don’t work well under pressure!” Trixie yelled before frantically starting to repeat the word ‘teleport’ over and over again to no avail.

Suddenly, Silver Streak turned a corner only to come to an immediate, screeching halt, causing Trixie to crash into her. “Hey, could you warn me before you stop like that? And why’d you stop running, anyway? We’re being - oh.” Looking further down the hallway, Trixie could see a huge mass of black crystals blocking off the hall. “Okay, we can go back and find some other way around. You said you know your way around this place, right? We’ll just go back a little and then take some other way around before those guards get…” Trixie’s nervous rambling trailed off as she realized that the halls were no longer echoing with the sounds of pursuing hooves. Sure enough, a trio of guards now stood a short ways behind them blocking off their escape, causing Trixie to rapidly back away in fear. “Teleport. Teleport! TELEPORT!”

“Trixie! Pull yourself together!” Silver Streak barked before dropping her voice to a whisper. “Listen, I’m going to charge these guys to make an opening for you. When I do, I want you to toss any smoke bombs you have left to give yourself some cover and then run like all Tartarus is chasing you. Try and make your way out of here and back to Ponyville to let Greater Good know we couldn’t retrieve the artifact.”

“Are you crazy? They’ll catch you for sure if you try something like that,” Trixie protested.

“And they’re going to catch both of us if I don’t do something anyway,” Silver Streak shot back. “At least this way one of us might be able to get away.”

“But –“

“We’re out of time to argue about this. Now move!” With that, Silver Streak let out a scream of rage as she launched herself at the advancing guards. As Silver Streak was mid-leap, however, a bright wave of light cascaded down from above, disintegrating the black crystals in the hall and washing away the dark magic from the eyes of the guards.

The guard nearest Silver Streak scarcely had time to breathe a sigh of relief at his freedom before a screaming pegasi mare violently tackled him to the ground. “Hey! Get off – Lieutenant Silver Streak? Ma’am, what’s going on?”

*********

“-so after I got off of him and apologized we headed topside and verified that Princess Twilight and her friends had successfully neutralized King Sombra,” Silver Streak said.

Moonwhisper’s eyes visibly twitched at the mention of Sombra’s name but otherwise seemed completely calm. “I see. You did the best that you realistically could have under the circumstances. Quite frankly we were completely outmatched when it came to facing Sombra’s raw power, which is something it will be my responsibility to rectify. For the time being, I suggest you get some rest, I strongly suspect Princess Twilight’s impending ascension is going to keep us rather busy.”

Comments

[Onyx Quill]

Something tells me that Moonwhisper is going to be quite angry with Discord later...