The Long Way Home

by HyperRandomness

Chapter 8: Magnesium has nothing to do with this chapter.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Well, at least I didn’t wake up somewhere else… again.
Rez thought this sarcastically to himself as he came into consciousness. The constant beeping of the heart rate machine next to him was starting to annoy him, but he wrote it off for now. He’d be out soon enough.

Rez attempted to shift himself, but the abrasive materials that encompassed most of his body stopped him. Oh, right… he thought with a defeated sigh. He would try to summon up his magic vision to survey his environment, but the doctor had already talked to him about this earlier. He wasn’t supposed to use magic until he was out of the hospital. He wasn’t even supposed to use it to retrieve nutrition, as a nurse constantly came through to check on him.

It was nice that the nurse brought food and water for him when he needed it, and it was also nice that the nurse had brought him an extra pillow at request, but the kindest thing she’d done so far was read him a story when he was feeling tired. It had been earlier that day… well, he thought it was day? Actually, being sightless and being under a blanket surrounded by a cast constantly made it near impossible to tell what time it was. Only the nurse was his way of telling time.

Anyway, he was pretty sure it was still day… until the familiar sound of the door opening and a voice speaking blew that idea out of the water. “Hi-Rez, are you awake? It’s time for dinner. I brought you a grilled Silk Chinese lantern sandwich and some soup. I was just going to bring you the usual, but somepony stopped by today and donated these. They said they were specifically for you.”

The nurse wheeled the cart over beside his bed, and then set a tray of food next to Rez on his bed.
Over the course of the next ten minutes, she fed the food to Rez almost in the way that a mare would feed a foal. Rez never would have admitted he was embarrassed, but at least he was glad that his jaw had managed to heal so quickly.

After she was done feeding him, Rez gently said, “Thanks,” and put on the best smile he could, which was mildly restricted from the rest of the cast around his face. “You’re quite welcome,” the nurse responded as she wheeled the cart away. The sound of a door announced her departure, and Rez was alone once more.

Rez sighed. He had nothing to do, now that the nurse had departed. He would try to turn on the television they had in the room, but he wouldn’t be able to watch it anyhow. He considered trying to turn on the subtitles or calling the nurse and asking her to do so, but he tossed the idea and decided to get rest.

Unfortunately, he’d been doing this for a long time before he’d been sleeping, so he was quite bored. Well, he was bored until the nurse showed up, but now he was bored once more. Deciding it’d be nice to at least listen to the TV, Rez fumbled around with the limited range that he had until he found the remote, which had been right next to him the entire time.

Using his very restricted range of movement, Rez eventually managed to get the Television to turn on. From the sounds, it must have been a soccer game. Rez thought soccer was okay, but it wasn’t one of his favorite pastimes, so he flipped the channel. Now it sounded like some sort of shopping channel. Rez couldn’t really make use of a shopping channel without
vision, so he changed the channel again. This time, it sounded silent at first, so he listened intently to attempt to figure ou-

BOOM

Rez practically jumped ten feet in the air… or at least, would have jumped, had he been able to move. He quickly changed the channel and lowered the volume as to avoid the same mistake. In fact, he was starting to accept the idea of rest, so he clicked the TV off and tried to relax.

Beep beep beep!

Beep beep!

Beep.

Beep.

Within minutes, he was out like a light.

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Having practically flown off the train, Lens had been all over Ponyville by the time it arrived in the station. She hadn’t found Rez with his parents, by his booth, or any other location she knew he would hang around. She didn’t even see evidence of any recent photo-taking, so of course, she became quite concerned at first.

She went to talk to Rez’s mother, but she didn’t help much. All she had learned was that Rez had stepped out to do business, and he hadn’t been seen back for awhile. His parents sure have confidence in him being capable of taking care of himself, she thought, so why shouldn’t I?

Having complete and utter, undeniable assurance that Rez was safe, she turned a- who am I kidding?

After about ten minutes, she was as worked up as a member of P.E.T.A. at a foreign foods cook-off. There was no evidence of Rez having been in town in the past few days, little to no accounts of recent events regarding him, and even his own household didn’t know where he went!

If I were Lens, I’d be a smidgen worried.

Of course, she was so, so much more worried than that.

She started asking random ponies if they’d seen Rez, but she got few responses that were relevant to his location. There was one couple that said they’d seen him a few days back at his stand, but that was all she could manage to gather up.

This concluded with her speeding about Ponyville and checking every public place, including the park three times, but all to no avail. The two places she hadn’t gone so far included a local pub and the hospital, neither of which she wanted to check.

Had Rez been in the pub, he’d likely be blasted out of his mind from alcohol. She’d learned, the hard way, not to take him to the pub again. One horrid memory and a shudder later, she then developed a frown as to why she wouldn’t want to investigate the hospital. If Rez was in there, then she would feel pretty bad for not having been around to stop whatever nasty thing had occurred to him. She wouldn’t feel right after that, so she felt it best to just not check.

Whoops.

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In a relatively desolate cave illuminated only by dimly-glowing crystals, many ponies chat amongst themselves and pass loot around. A great number of them are clad in varying armor, some looking more durable or expensive than others, and some not even having armor at all. Ponies of many shapes, types and sizes wander about, ranging from a small Pegasus filly to a hulking earth pony with more than twice the normal proportions.

This unusual meeting would draw the eyes of many, which explains why it was in a cave. Why meet, though? What is their purpose? Do they have a motive that inspires this meeting?

Calm down and let me explain.

See, each and every one of these ponies is part of a thieves’ guild. Each one has their own sob story of why they want money, or how their family is or was poor, or other sad junk like that.

To make a short story long, each of these ponies were contacted by a mysteriously dark-clad pony who would disappear as swiftly as appearing, leaving only a note for them. Each and every one of these ponies read that note, which detailed a time and place. At this place at the specified time, the pony would normally show up and be confronted by the stranger once more. They get invited to the guild, guild stuff, blah blah, happy ending. Right? Riiiiiight.

Anyhow, each time and place is always different as to avoid run-ins with other guild members in public. Most of those happenstances are either by accident or are pre-planned, and when they’re planned, they are never with good intention. Most public guild meetings are for massive raids.

These raids aren’t held often, but they’re held often enough for ponies of most upbringings to know the name of the guild. Known only as ‘Silver Plague,’ these ponies are supposedly ‘fast as lightning’ and ‘strike with deadly precision.’ Several other accounts and sightings of these thieves reports similar qualities, such a-
Okay, know what? Enough side explanation. Let’s get back to the matter at hand.
Hoof.
What?
The matter at ‘hoof.’ Ponies don’t have hands.
…oh.
Let’s get back to the matter at hand hoof.
That’s better.

Anyhow, after a few minutes of idle chit-chat and minor quarreling, a pony clad in all black stood on a podium of sorts, then cleared his throat.

“Everyone, could I have your attention please? Everyone, attention!” The pony called out above the voices of the other ponies, quickly making its presence known with its deceptively cheery tone. All the ponies began to turn to see the speaker, some of which had to be nudged or ‘shushed’ to cause them to be quiet and turn.

“Ah, good. Now that I have your attention, I can imagine you’re all curious as to why I called you here…”
The pony stood and surveyed the crowd for a moment, a black hood hiding its unidentified face.
“Well, I’m curious too, seeing as I didn’t.”
Many ponies looked back and forth amongst themselves, obviously confused.
“Don’t you worry, everypony. I know most of you are likely confused.. well, all except him..” the black-clad pony motioned to a wall opposite to it, where a metallic figure was leaning up against the wall.
“STATEMENT: CORRECT.” A robotic voice toned, drawing the attention of many ponies. “CONTINUE.”

Pausing for just a moment, the black-clad pony continued, “Er… right. Well, anyway, I know most of you are confused, but I know somepony who can relieve that confusion! Give it up for… Grandmaster Lotus!”

A black-armor-with-gold-trim-clad pony appeared next to the shadowy pony, causing some ponies to gasp or jump from surprise.

A distinctively feminine voice spoke, “Welcome, one and all, to this meeting of the Silver Plague.” The Grandmaster spoke, then reaching up to remove her helmet. Upon removal, a silky pink mane, blue coat, and glimmering aqua eyes. With a devilish smirk, she spoke, “Now that everypony’s here, we can begin.”

Comments

[HyperRandomness]

1488683
Hm.
You have a good point.

I might just have to do that now.