Crimson Warlord: How do I feel?

by shattered_sky

The Way Things Are

It was morning. Serene felt indifferent to mornings. Many saw it as a cruel reminder of the god-like beings that toyed with ponies. Others saw a new day with all of the hope it represented. Some ponies despised mornings because it was simply torture to get up. Serene noted she definitely was not a morning person. Her mind worked slowly in the morning.

But to be fair the sun wasn’t even out yet.

She went through her daily routine. She took a long bath. She didn’t really enjoy baths either but she made sure she smelled fragrant. The apartments in the south side of the city didn’t have hot water. Waking herself up was the downside she guessed. She then brushed her teeth to a shining gleam. Wrapping a towel around her barrel she entered the kitchen to see Mountain cooking breakfast.

Her stomach rumbled as she smelled the tomato soup. She put a paw to her mouth. “Pardon me.” She excused herself. The table was low so there where cushions in exchange of chairs. “Good morning father.” She greeted.

Mountain smiled as he brought two bowls of the soup over along with a few sandwiches. “Good morning.” Earth ponies Serene thought, were more fascinating than most give credit for. The way the gentle giant balanced the bowls and plates on his back. She was thankful for the dexterity of her feelers.

She stared at the stallion she called father. He found her a decade ago on one of his journeys. Honestly, she didn’t remember her real parents. But this stallion loved her and took care of her and tried to set her on the straight path. She wondered what he thought, a middle-aged stallion with no one else but her.

She couldn’t even feel sorry. That she didn’t love anyone.

A worried expression crossed his face. “You’re thinking deep.” He whispered.

They stared at each other for a while. He took a sip of his coffee. “You should get a wife.” She commented. The stallion choked on his drink. Coughing and sputtering his eyes darted around for a napkin. Serene stood up and handed him one using her ribbon.

“What brought this on?” He asked after finally getting himself under control.

“You deserve it. You’ve had a hard life. You should find a mare and marry her.” She spoke between sips of her soup. He chuckled indulgently. “Get a shop. Or a farm. A cabin in the woods and live the rest of your life happily. Have a few little fillies and colts. Start a family.” She advised.

“Hmm…” He thought about it. “You’re my family.” He smiled warmly.

“Look, I can find a new Monday. You’re getting too old for this.” Logically despite being powerful he was getting old. Realistically he could go on for a few more decades if she needed him. But if decided to leave she would let him, he had finished his service a long time ago, he only stayed because of her. Not to mention she needed new people with connections.

A foolish sentiment she would say, but for her, he deserved better.

“One day I suppose.” He allowed. “I have over a hundred years left you know.” He joked. Serene noted that the old hag in the Apple family was well over 200. But her team courted death on every occasion. He would make a careless mistake one day.

She shook her head and sighed. “We have to be more careful. Night shift might shut us down. It would be a pain to start over somewhere else.” Mountain grunted. “I’m quite fond of this eeveelution.”

“Those youngsters.” He grumbled.

“You were there too. There was at least one responsible adult.” She teased. “But in all seriousness we need to tone things down a bit. I’ll talk to them later. We have new assignments.

After finishing their food, Mountain washed dishes in silence. Serene curiously peeked through the curtains. To her dismay there was a large crowd outside the building. Officially she was on vacation, so she wondered how these ponies caught wind of her. She had a house in the upper district but she wanted to lay low for a while. “There’s a lot of ponies outside. The press.”

As he turned around Serene grabbed a box and placed herself in it. “Adorable.” He smiled. He also peeked outside. “Why don’t you quit show business for good?”

“The information is invaluable to my task. Not to mention many people like my shows.” She closed the box. “Take me to the headquarters please. It’s too early for me to deal with this.” Her muffled voice requested.

He chuckled and balanced the two boxes on his back. Instead of heading through the main entrance he opted for the fire exit. Opening the door he spied for anyone outside. No one. At the side of the building he slowly walked out and looked around the corner. There were a large crowd of ponies. Some had cameras and recording equipment.

He slowly walked away, trying not to draw attention to himself. A loud crash rang and as he accidentally knocked over a trash can. One of the ponies turned around. “Hey wait! Isn’t that Serene’s father!?” He yelled. Everyone in the crowd immediately turned to him.

Serene poked her head out of the box. “Uh-oh.” She whispered. “Good morning everypony! Bye-bye!” She greeted with a smile before going back in. “Run.” She whispered. Mountain broke into a mad dash with the ponies hot on his trail.

*******

The gang’s current meeting place was in the upper district. A larger and better apartment owned by Lightning Dust. As much as the Pegasus wanted a cloud house the materials were a bit expensive. Not to mention for some reason the taxes for owning a cloud house was expensive. Mountain knocked on the door and waited.

To his surprise Armando answered the door. “Maayong aga, Mountain. He greeted in his native language. He was dragging a plastic bag and cleaning up. Sunday could be seen cleaning the couch. He wore a face mask and his sleeves were rolled up. He was also wearing a pink apron over his usual garb.

Mountain looked at Quills who was washing a huge pile of dishes. “Morning.” She muttered.

Sunday went around spraying the surroundings with a disinfectant. “Lightning Dust is currently indisposed.” He mumbled.

Armando tied sealed up another garbage bag and disposed of his gloves. “LD is still sleeping. Pepper is currently following a lead.” He opened the fridge and pulled out a cupcake. “Pepper will probably disappear for a few days. Be sure to tell the boss.”

“Duly noted.” Serene chimed in, jumping out of the box. The monkey let out a scream and scrambled behind Sunday. She giggled. “Oh my. You didn’t expect me?” The monkey picked up the fallen cupcake into his mouth and swallowed.

“Hey boss!”

“Morning Boss.” Sunday and Quills greeted.

“We have our work cut out for us. So we should get started.” She put a paw on Mountain. Father please bring the files to the meeting room.” Mountain nodded. She sighed. “You three should stop. Lightning should learn to take care of her own responsibilities. And please drag Lightning to the meeting room Armando.” The three nodded and stopped their current tasks.

Serene waited for everyone in the meeting room to be seated. Armando dragged the still groggy Pegasus.

“Well then. About yesterday. The disposal of the illegal cargo.” She frowned as she glanced at LD and Mountain. “I’m not going to talk about it. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t have any warehouses blown up. Much less five.” She growled. She passed by the docks earlier, worse than the initial report.

Mountain sighed while LD merely groaned. Quills frowned and shot a bolt of lightning at the Pegasus. She let out a yelp and flew straight up. Landing back in her chair she looked around wildly. “I’m awake! I’m awake!” She yelled. Everyone looked at her in varying amounts of irritation and amusement.

“Moving on!” She cheerily announced. Our top priority is to recover blueprints of the Mark one Sentry unit Destroy any manufactured units and apprehend those responsible. Developed by Apple Corp- Please do pass the files around Father – we need to make sure this technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

Quill lifted a hoof. Serene nodded to her to speak. “Is there any suspects?”

“We have some leads, but no one in particular yet.” Serene then turned to the monkey. “Armando, I need you to keep an eye on the underground market. Keep your ears open for information about this technology.” She flipped through the files. “So any ideas?”

“Testament of Progress. Rusty Rails is an Ideal who normally carries out the dirty work. I can track him down and extract info from him.” Quills growled. She had an obsession about taking out Celestia’s troops Serene knew.

“Could be internal matter.” Armando muttered as he flipped through a file. “Apple Corp or Night Shift. Corrupt members could leak the project files. Or somebody at Apple Corp sold the files for a profit.”

Serene looked at Sunday. “I can’t imagine. I hold true to my oath.” He put a claw to his beak. “But if was like those suits… I would have to be high up to get valuable assets. And if was a researcher I would have others work on different parts. While I would hold all of the pieces myself.” He thoughtfully offered.

Lightning Dust cut him off before Sunday could recite one of his sayings. “It could be any of the big wigs! Or any of the nerds that work for them.” She complained. “Heck it could be the big boss himself.”

Everyone was silent at that. None of them were pleased. They were already in big trouble and potentially someone big could be behind this. In either Equestria’s largest weapon manufacturer or Equestria’s Secret Police.

Armando was first to break the silence. “So. We have nothing concrete.” He muttered. “We need to know about the researchers of the project then. Everyone involved.”

“And what? Track them down and interrogate them?” Quills snapped.

“Apple Corp refuses to cooperate with Night Shift. They’re protecting the identities of those involved.” Serene passed another file around. “Between me and Quills we could force out the truth.” She idly chewed on her ribbon. “But we need names. We need to ask the big Stallion himself.”

“If they didn’t help Night Shift they won’t help us.” LD scratched her mane wildly.

“I could convince him.” Serene gave a sly smile. “But it’s the where. Apple Corp is based in Canterlot. It’s better if I’d look for an opportunity at some social gathering. Take him somewhere private…”

“Bad idea.” Mountain grumbled. “You attract too much attention.”

“You are the King of the Board. Bodies would pile up. For when the King falls, everything is lost.” Sunday recited. LD rolled her eyes. “Those who know who you are would seek to eliminate you. Those who don’t would try to use you. Either way you wouldn’t have respite. It would be impossible to pin him down.”

“…Live weapons testing?” LD offered. “We set up a field day with him and we could get answers.”

“Why would an Actress need the latest weaponry?” Armando asked.

“A Warlord would. He probably knows who the Warlords are.” LD reasoned. “Something behind the scenes. A deal for something with a little more POW. Like Etheric Suppression Fields. Those cloaking devices. Or prototype weapons that don’t meet legal standards.” She listed down.

“Lightning actually knows what an ESF is.” Quills marveled.

“That was a bit wordy for LD.” Armando added.

“Truly wonder of wonders.” Sunday chuckled to himself.

Mountain nodded in agreement.

Quills had to suspend the screeching Pegasus in midair. Everyone save for LD and Serene broke into laughter. A sweet scent filled the room and everyone calmed down. Mountain pieced together that Serene wanted thing on track. “Enough. We have business.” Mountain declared.

“Quills and Sunday will get leads on the Testament of Progress. To see if they’re involved in this. Armando will look up info on the market. LD, track down Pepper. I need him for something. Mountain get in touch with Night shift and Big Macintosh. See to that weapons demonstration.” Her team nodded.

“There are few other cases that require our attention however.” Serene added. “Quills do you remember that body you told us about?”

“Yes. It was disturbing… I’ve seen a lot. But taking away one’s cutie mark and leaving them a husk?” She shook her head. “He was just a colt. Who recently got his Cutie Mark. What monster would do that?” Her eyes seemed to blaze.

“Apparently this is one of many murders.” Mountain confirmed. He looked through the files. “It’s almost if… Something harvested their blood and Cutie Mark.”

“It’s inconsistent however. A few months and even years between cases. And we can’t be sure if these are the only cases.” Serene sighed.

“It sounds familiar… I’ll look into it boss.” Armando spoke up.

“We also have somebody cursing people.” Serene flipped through the file before passing it around.

“Horseshit.” LD swore as she looked through the file. “There’s no such thing as curses.” She dismissed.

“What the actual buck/fuck?” Quills and Armando swore at the same time. “A dragon maid?” They both asked incredulously.”

“My daughter is a pink non-magical dog with ribbon feelers who has dragon slaying powers. Which I adopted on a job delivering a package from the mafia to a depressed witch. I saved Serene from an undead lord who wanted to drain her soul to kill dragons because a dragon bucked his wife two hundred years ago.” Mountain crossed his hooves. “She’s currently an actress and singer. Behind the shadows she works for a covert organization our government denies its existence. Leading a band of criminals to take down other criminals.”

Serene snorted and giggled. “I guess truth is stranger than fiction.” Mountain laughed too. The rest tried to wrap their head around it.

“… I’m beginning to believe those old tales my master told me.” Sunday muttered.

“We are getting side tracked again!” Serene huffed and raised her paws in frustration. She cleared her throat. “Armando and Sunday. Try to get info on this.”

“I’ll do my research boss.” Armando saluted. Sunday bowed.

“Our last order of business is to keep an eye out for Cadenza’s daughter Flurry Heart.” Serene announced. They waited for her to say more. She didn’t. They all flipped through their files and to their dismay had no information on the pony in question. In fact it seemed like they were hardly given anything at all.

Lightning Dust was the first to comment on this. “Oh come on! It’s always like this!” She slammed the binder she was holding. “Do this. Do that. Don’t break things. And we’re being asked to solve a jigsaw puzzle… with the pieces all over the town!” She complained.

“Needles in the ocean.” Sunday agreed. “But it’s our duty.” He concluded.

“Well. Sentry is top priority.” Mountain gestured to the binders. “Its dangerous technology.”

“Honestly it’s going to be rough. But if we catch a lead for the other cases we can follow through.” Quills reassured them. “We just have to stick to our parts.”

“I have complete trust in all of you. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.” Looking at the sulking LD she impishly smiled. “Who knows? We could get some nice things on the side. I admit, the prospect of overwhelming firepower is soooooooooo attractive.” LD’s ears twitched.

“Just think of the benefits of our job. It’s well worth the effort.” She clapped. “Okay dismissed.” She announced.

Lightning Dust zipped out of the room. Sunday and Quills discussed between themselves about their task. Mountain nodded to Serene and left. Armando looked a Serene. They exchanged glances and Serene nodded.

“Hey Lightning wait up!” Armando rushed out to follow the Pegasus.

As she sat alone she wondered about things. “Am I simply a trained guard dog?” She mused. She was holding her paws out but she stared far past them. “Perhaps. I was never human to begin with. Maybe the way I am is much more appropriate.”

*******

“I thank you for giving me a ride Kapatid.” He thanked Lightning Dash. LD decided to fly around a bit before dropping Armando off.

“You keep saying that word. What does it even mean?” She irritably asked.

“In my language it means brother or sister.” He confirmed.

“You mean…”

“I consider you all my family.” He softly said. “I will probably not see my home ever again. I am quite old already.” He chuckled. “Truth is I was one of the founding members of the gang. So in a sense I’m the older brother.”

“You ain’t bad old man. Why do you still work for her?” She asked.

“I swore to serve her after she saved my brother. She told me I owed her nothing. That she just wanted to do it. I was thinking of quitting after Red Tape’s death.” He smiled as he reminisced. “I remember when she was just a small fluffball. But she acted more adult-like than anyone else.”

“Now I ask you in return. Bakit? Why do you still work for her?”

“Well… It pays well.” She admitted. “But the way the government treats us. We’re doing all of this! And we’re still considered as scum!” She scoffed. “Not to mention she’s creepy.”

Armando thought about this. “It’s part of the job. You ponies have it easy. From where I’m from. Ex-cons don’t get second chances. You have a criminal record and nobody wants to hire you.” He snapped. “Imagine spending fifteen years of jail time for just stealing a few bits. Murder, drugs, corruption and many more are punishable by death.”

“And about Serene… She’s been through a lot.” He sighed sadly. “All of us did.”

Lightning was silent at that.

“So if you have any concerns you should bring them up with the boss. She’s not unreasonable.” He scowled. “Unlike pony government.”

“I guess so…” LD relented. Without warning she dived down. Armando screamed as he grabbed on to her neck for his life. Near the ground she gave a powerful flap of her wings canceling her momentum. The monkey was still clutching her tightly and screaming.

To her amusement she slowly opened his eyes. She snickered, trying to stifle her laughter. “Hallelujah! I’m alive!” He jumped off and began kissing the ground. “I’m never flying again! Nakakatakot!”

She broke out into laughter and so did Armando once he realized how silly he was. Armando poked her to get her attention. He saw that the ponies were all staring at them. She wiped off her tears and they stared at each other. LD had deposited him in the market, close to where he needed to be.

“Thanks Lighning. I’ll be off now.”

“Yeah dude. Thanks too. Smell ya later!” She saluted as she took off.

Armando scampered off into an alleyway. Hauling himself over a dumpster he jumped over, grabbing an AC unit he climbed. Grabbing the various pipes and rails he got to the top of the building. He grunted as he pulled himself up. It upset him a bit that he was getting old. “It used to be way easier.” He chuckled dryly.

Perching on the edge of the building he surveyed his surroundings. LD had dropped him in the residential district near the market. He would have to make his way to the market himself.

Ever since they cracked down on the various criminal enterprises, the black market scattered. It was more like connoisseurs sought after the different merchants selling things frowned upon. More daring merchants sold the illegal talismans, ran money laundering schemes and kept certain substances on demand.

After all who would expect a fruit stand to partake in money laundering? There was this one case that people sold off fake antiques as part of a money laundering scheme.

He would have to visit a few contacts in order to get some information. It sounded like a Hemomancer, Voodoo Shaman and an Alicorn were around. He wasn’t prepared for any of those… at the moment.

For him Equestria was filled with extremely dangerous people. Unicorns and their spells. Pegasus flight and weather control. Earth ponies were not so bad, an oxen, yak, griffons, Minotaurs could rip him apart as easily. Umbrums. Changelings. Alicorns would just see him as an ant. But anyone could be beaten with enough preparation.

He made his way over to the market. Walking on various signs and wires allowing him to cross buildings. Finding himself at the market he slid down a traffic light. Plopping down nobody batted an eye. Most ponies just went along with their business, browsing and haggling. A few yaks went by, everyone giving them wide berth. An armored deer talking to a teenage dragon was the weirdest.

His own kind had their own little community. No one he was actually related too. But they were quite hospitable regardless of race.

He went through many stands handing over a piece of paper, an inquiry about the Shaman. He wouldn’t look here for info on the hemomacner, he’d ask a friend of his later.

Eventually he walked over to a fruit stand and bought some apples. He discreetly passed a note along with his payment. ‘Who has friends on the other side?’ it read. The stallion grunted, counting the bits. “Just apples? Don’t you want any bananas?” He joked. The stallion placed the apples in a paper bag.

“Nope. You wouldn’t have some coconut?” He asked. Peeking into the bag he saw the note. It had an address.

“Expensive. Most fruits are hard to come by these days.” The stallion sighed. Armando looked at the limited selection and sympathized with the Stallion. Armando sighed and bit into the apple, eating a chunk along with the note. He already memorized the address. “Thanks come again.” It was a shot in the dark. Like the lead was just dropped into his hands.

“Thank you Ripe.” He answered back. “Ah just like the apples back home. Almost tasteless.” He grumbled under his breath

He would head first to Vulcan Forge. For some reason it was located in the market and not in the upper district. Known for creating the best gear and affordable prices. The owner definitely enjoyed crafting and all of the challenges.

Her assistant did not share the same sentiments. Magma would go lengths to make bits behind her back. The unicorn was made good Cloud Steel and ever since the Pegasus cities fell he didn’t have much competition. He was probably talented enough to craft the targeting talismans. Or he could be involved in the acquisition of materials.

Walking up to the shop he frowned. It was closed. He ignored the sign and reached for the handle. It opened. “The dammed fool.” He walked in and sighed. An orange pony with all sorts of burns was dozing off at the counter. His head was missing patches of his dark red mane and he had no eyebrows.

Guess his boss wasn’t here today. He walked over and stuck an apple on his horn. He then shouted at the top of his lungs. “WHY IS THE FORGE COLD!?” He immediately ducked as the cooked apple exploded.

The unicorn got up with a start and looked widely around. Setting his eyes on the monkey he groaned. “Oh. It’s you.” He blinked before grabbing a morning star. “I’m going to crush your head!” He shouted in rage.

Armando held up a bag of bits. “Eh?” He jiggled it a few times. “Eh?” He smiled as he gestured to it.

“What do you want?” He irritably asked. “If it’s your order, you have to come back another day. The boss went over to the Tagalog community to research on the symbols.” He added. He snorted as he lay his head on the counter.

“She could have asked me. It’s my kind’s ancient writing after all.”

“She wanted to research it herself. And something about ‘you can’t enchant it properly’.” He gestured air quotes with his hooves. “I’m good at what I do. Good luck finding a unicorn as good as me.” He scoffed.

“Easier to find somepony who opens the shop when you’re gone Larv.” Armando looked away and muttered under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Easier to get information from you than Larv.” He chuckled as he corrected himself. “I know my Agimat is nowhere near ready. I just need some info.” He clarified.

“It depends.” He then leaned forward. “What do you want to know?”

“You seem very open.”

“Well as long as I’m paid and the authorities don’t crash on me. My thanks for being covered.”

“As long as you don’t go into certain ventures you can make all the money you want.” He promised. “You can start by talking about what materials you supplied.”

“Materials…” The unicorn murmured. He floated up a booklet and flipped through it. “Lots of lead and iron, off the books. I’ve been gathering that for a long time. My boss might suspect me so I took it nice and slow.” His eyes narrowed. “Kinda strange if you ask me.”

“Strange?” There wasn’t any lead in the blueprints.

“Yeah. Lead negates magic. You can’t enchant it.” Magma explained. “Mind you it’s not magic proof. It’s just impossible to use it for magical purposes. My guess it’s for confinement.”

“How about in any alloys?”

“Buck if I know. I’m an enchanter first, smith second.” He shrugged. “Or probably for guns.”

Armando would ask Larv but she wasn’t one for small talk. She was all business. “So who ordered it?”

Magma was silent for a time. “I can’t tell you.” He finally spoke up.

“Look friend. This is a very important matter, I need your help in this.”

“Can you prove it’s related to your investigation?” Magma asked. Armando sighed in exasperation. “I’ll take that as a no then. Now if you’ll excuse-”

“Just hold your horses.” Magma let out an annoyed whinny at the expression. He would try a guess. “Look, you are a craftspony. I know you set your unicorn friend with some tools.” He’d have to pull everything out of his ass. He could rattle Magma into giving him the information.

He flinched. “You don’t know that.”

“I. Do.” He leaned forward and smirked. “I’ve already tracked down your friend’s supplier for gemstones. Just wanted you to come forward with the information. You’ve proven I can’t trust you anymore.”

Magma was sweating. “I’ve protected you so far friend. We’ve had a good relationship. So I’ll deal with you later. Give you time to skip town.” He raised the apple in a toast. “I’m fishing for the bigger fish, so I’ll come back to fry you later. On account on our former partnership I’m giving you a head start.”

“Wait!” Magma called out. He’d either use his magic or give him the information. Armando was confident that his association with the Warlord would dissuade the unicorn from attacking him.

“Goody bye old friend.” He waved as he grabbed the doorknob.

“I have useful information! I can give you a lead on Quick Fix!” He yelled desperately. Armando turned around and raised an eyebrow. Inside he was laughing, he couldn’t believe that worked.

“Oh? Really now?” He turned around and took a bite out of his apple. “Why didn’t you come out with it?” He smiled as he walked away from the door.

Magma revealed the Quick Fix was an acquaintance of his who ordered different metals from time to time. Quick Fix said he had a new project he was working on but didn’t elaborate. Magma dropped off the supplies at the scrapyard in town. It was clear that Magma was only a supplier and delivery boy. Armando promised Magma that his involvement in any of this would not come to light.

Magma caught the bag of bits that Armando tossed. The monkey waved, said his thanks and left. The unicorn glowered at the door and locked it. After a while he privately wondered if he was played. He thought he could have some time off with his boss gone but his thoughts were racing right now.

He sighed in defeat, unlocked the door and placed the open sign. He floated today’s newspaper over to him to calm himself and pass the time.

Author's Note:

Weird that I have a Sylveon as the boss I guess, but I read the Pokedex entries. Then all of this happened. I took this as a opportunity to write something not really fcking depressing or random. Also to expand the universe my other stories take place in. So this is kind of a work in process. Please give feedback, this is a little different from what I usually write.