Secondo

by Lil Penpusher

Accelerando

They could feel it now. The spite and anger, the hatred and strife of the seaponies and hippogriffs, of those idiotic, clueless mortals... it was all streaming out back towards them, now.

They enjoyed these moments to the very end. It had been so long since they last fed. It seemed to them that only now did they realise the fact they had never once eaten since their unjust imprisonment there. A sudden hunger filled them, a desire for more. They craved to be let out, to allow their voices to be heard far and wide once more, and enjoy a sumptuous feast as they had so many years prior. That's what they were born to do, after all.

Their hatred subsided for those few moments of relief and... yes, they even felt a little relaxed. The mortals were doing their part, playing right into their hands of course, as they always did. A lesser species being used as a tool by those above their station, as was right.

They came back to their senses and tried to somehow, by any means, squeeze through the tiny crack that had formed in their prison. But although the gap had seemingly widened very minimally already, there was no way the trio could force it open. Not yet, at least. They would need to be patient now. They had been patient in their desire and lust for revenge and vengeance for over a thousand years already.

A few more weeks couldn't hurt.

---

Coldbeak swam through the intricate canals that wound through the metropolis that was Seaquestria, with rows and rows of uniquely-designed underwater houses and shops to his left and right. Things were relatively quiet by this hour, as they were readily approaching 11 PM already. Still, some ponies were out and about as he was still, mostly in groups heading to one final destination for the day or home. He frowned whenever he passed any of them.

He could hardly explain it, but, since his team and he returned from the Mareiana Trench two weeks ago, he'd realised a fair few things. It was like someone had flipped a switch on the back of his mind, shifting it back into gear. Everything he'd realised then was... well, frankly, so self-explanatory. He almost hated himself for how oblivious he must have been all that time before.

He realised just how annoying everypony and everygriff around him was. All the questions they asked, all the commands issued. Who did they think they were to order him anywhere, anyway? Did a stitched-on insignia on some fancy pants uniform make them better? Did it? What stupid nonsense that was. He grumbled under his breath as he swam along. The image of him barging into his Major's office back at the barracks and bashing a hoof into his face flashed before his eyes. He smiled at that before the imaginary image faded.

No, he had more important things to do now than deal with the many imbeciles he was surrounded by. There was no end to them, anyways, always coming out of the woodwork one after another to swarm him, one sentence, one phrase, one word dumber and more annoying than the next. "Could you-" this, "I want-" that, "You should-" bla bla bla. Grrr, how he-

...Aha. He shook his head, losing track again as his temper flared. That seemed to happen a lot nowadays. He wasn't bothered by it, actually, but he did need to get some things done right now.

The Soldier in civilian dress took a left, dashing through a comparatively small offshoot canal in the city. Nopony was out and about around here, but he did know where he had to go. Safe to say he wasn't scared of any creeps in the dark, either.

He slowed down, floating up towards a door to what looked to be a single-family home. His fin moved slowly as it kept him in place, and he knocked a few times in quick succession. He rolled his eyes as he was left waiting, counting every second impatiently.

The door opened then, and the dim light from the interior streamed outside, covering his face and torso. A fellow seapony met him at the entrance. Like him, she had primarily blue scales, but from her torso up, there were also specks of white.

"Ah. It's you, Cold. Come to bother me again, so soon, did you?"

She was equally as annoyed at him as he was at her; that much was evident.

"Shut up and let me inside, Azure. I'm not in the mood for your stupid games."

"Hmph," she muttered with a pout. Yet, she made way and stood aside. "Fine. Right now, I'm in a good mood, so I'll entertain your idiocy, if even for a little bit."

Coldbeak made his way inside, eyes averted from the young woman. He frowned, but she could tell as much even without looking at his face.

"Riiight... my idiocy..." he murmured.

He wasted no time making his way to the right, where the living room was. He was not surprised to find that there were a fair few seaponies already assembled. Six, not counting him and his host. All of them soldiers of the royal guard like him, who went with him to that Trench expedition weeks ago.

"Oh look, our great leader finally makes an entrance," one of them uttered sarcastically, crossing her hooves.

"Took you long enough. What, too busy for the likes of us?" another complained.

"That's so like you..." a third quietly added, averting her eyes from the stallion in disgust.

"Shut up already. I'm only here because we all have a part to play. I think you ponies are all despicable frankly, but if there's one thing I hate even more than you folks then it's that our saviours are under lock and key."

Coldbeak tried to flex his speaking talent, which wavered when he was rudely shoved aside by the mare that had opened the door for him.

"Coming through, darling." She grinned at him as she pushed past him into the living room. "I do hope you weren't followed. Wouldn't be beyond the likes of you to be stupid enough to let Violet Facade's lackies tag along, you know."

"That's why I showed up late, dirtbag," Coldbeak crudely replied with contempt. "Ever since they subjected us to those brainless examinations back at AHAC, they won't give us a quiet minute. Always tailing us. No different now."

"Yes, thank you for stating the obvious, 'Sir'. Anything of actual value to say, too, perhaps?" Azure Wings countered, situating herself on a chair. The fact she had to sit on a chair and not her very own sofa because those scumbags had taken up all the seats on it already... gah, she did hate them so very much. She wanted to entertain them in her home only for as long as this really required.

Coldbeak clenched a fist but continued. "I lost whoever I believe to have pursued me. But that's not important now. We must work to bring the enlightenment of our saviours to these imbeciles as soon and fast as possible. I... argh, I hate to say this very much, but I cannot do it without your help."

"Ehhh? Our brave Lieutenant suddenly so weak and incapable, is he?" a green-scaled mare on the sofa replied hastily and with a chuckle.

"Hardly a surprise, though, is it? I always knew you were only pretending to be all big and strong. Probably only half as smart, too," a red-scaled stallion added.

"I don't give a shit about your stupid, worthless opinions. If it were entirely up to me I'd have you live someplace far, far away from me where I would finally have solace from your stupidity."

He took a deep breath and continued.

"But that's not the point, now. If there is anyone I hate more than you it's Queen Novo and her complete failure of a daughter, who runs amok like a pre-schooler despite her age."

"Ah, what about Violet Facade?" someone threw into the room.

"Hmph. Yes, her as well. But regardless, you all know as much as I do that Novo is occupying a throne that does not justly belong to her. It's thanks to her and her absolute failure of a government that all of us have to deal with as much annoying crap as we do now. Only thanks to her do students flock to the streets waving their idiotic, red banners, shouting about rights and privileges that they don't even understand. Thanks to her, we have nationalists trying to tear apart the nation for... essentially, no reason besides some veteran asshole thinking he's above everyone else or whatever. As if a healthy dose of racism and nationalism will somehow intimidate Colthage from eyeing up Zumidia, and stop them from trying to regain it."

"I think I saw Crack Lightning once - or I think that was his name? - and my goodness he is certainly full of himself if nothing else. I'd go out and say he's probably more of a nuisance than even you, Coldbeak," Azure Wings commented with probably the biggest 'compliment' Coldbeak could expect from his audience that night.

"Correct. Queen Novo, and for that matter, everyone and everything she has caused to happen has been a disaster, and the people she inspires to act up against her are somehow nearly as stupid, or more stupid, as her. Something has to be done to save ourselves from such ponies. Thankfully, I think, we all know who must take up the reins to achieve just that."

"Of all the ponies I know, only our masters are capable of actually running a state and leading us anywhere that is not the depths of tartarus. Posada would probably accomplish that in record time, too... that stupid commie..."

Plenty of nodding and murmured, hushed agreement was motioned with the statement of the private.

"Still," he continued, "while our masters are the only ones fit to rule, that doesn't exactly make it easy to accomplish that. We are only 8 - maybe you forgot to count after all - and I doubt Novo will just let our saviours waltz in through the front door."

"Well, we just have to use force, then. Easy enough. We're Royal Guards trained to kill, so I say we barge into that ugly face's throne room and hold her hostage until she surrenders and makes way!" Azure Wings was fired up, but a glare from Coldbeak killed that off, even if her enthusiastic grin was just as quickly transformed into a grumbling frown.

"And you called me idiotic, Azure...?" Coldbeak said right back to her and shook his head. He looked into the room at large once again. "A direct confrontation now won't serve us any good. Those ponies are idiots but pulling a trigger is, unfortunately, not rocket science. Even they would be able to gun us down if it's just the few of us moving against them."

"...So? What then?" one wondered.

"We recruit more. Dumb as they may be, everypony will come to see our masters as the just and right saviours of Hippogriffia if only they are made to hear their voices."

"But... that's all the way at the bottom of the Trench, Coldbeak. And the Trench isn't exactly an afternoon trip for fun either. How are we going to get ponies to follow us along?"

"I never did say it had to be voluntary. We are guardsponies, in the end. I think all of us, dim-witted as some of you might otherwise be, know how to knock a pony out cold. At that point? We just have to drag them with us, back to our saviours, and they'll see the error of their ways."

The room's inhabitants were uncertain. Skeptical.

"That sounds like a lot of work. A lot of work which, frankly, I doubt the AHAC won't catch onto."

"Are you afraid?" Coldbeak returned with a raised eyebrow. Everyone in the room suddenly seemed to shift and look at the stallion who'd questioned Coldbeak's actions.

"I... of course I'm not! I'm saying if we get caught red-handed, we may as well have just stumbled into the throne room and shot the damn Queen already. It wouldn't make a difference then, would it?"

Coldbeak, for his part, rolled his eyes. "And I suppose you also never go outside because you think you might swim into something and break your neck and die?" The room snickered, quietly. "If you're going to deal and think in maybe's and perhaps' then we won't get anywhere. I thought even a brainlet such as you would understand that much, Storm. If we really want to win as at least I do, and get rid of that Queen who has already doomed us to so much dumb crap, then we must take risks. As it stands, we can't win unless we expand our ranks, until eventually we can actually mount an assault. But until then, we just have to recruit faster than the AHAC can arrest us if that's what it boils down to."

"Why so bothered about the AHAC anyway? Aren't they the ones who literally let us off the hook to begin with? We literally insulted Violet in her stupid little face, and she did... well, nothing. What makes you all think this wanna-be secret police has the guts and intellect to actually catch onto anything we do? I'd bet that, if they do, it'd already be far too late for them to actually do anything."

Everyone looked over to Azure Wings, who simply sat in her chair, raised both her hooves to her sides, and shrugged.

"That's... surprisingly, not entirely untrue and stupid to say," the Lieutenant admitted, though it hurt him having to concede as much. "Violet Facade is hellbent on tackling those Communists and Nationalists right now, and from what I could overhear in the throne room during her talks with the Queen, and Princess also, she is not exactly doing a grandiose job at the moment. Probably under a lot of pressure... so who is to say she would ever spare the manpower and divert resources to another issue?"

A few regretful nods are seen. Like Coldbeak before them, they hated to admit that the rhetoric made sense.

"If we're fortunate, Violet is dumb enough to even cover up our doings." A purple-scaled stallion, not too dissimilar to Violet Facade in colouration alone ironically, spoke as he floated in the water behind the sofa. "After all, if she reports it to the Queen but nothing is done, she gets the blame. But if she doesn't report it to begin with... well."

"I somehow find myself in agreement, Blaze. Even someone like you can say something slightly less annoying and pointless, from time to time, I suppose." Coldbeak glanced around the room and everyone in it. "I'll begin drafting some rough plan of action throughout the next day or two. I'll contact you about it, and we can get started by the end of the week."

"Hmph," one gave out.

"I suppose I must..." another muttered.

Morale was... iffy. The idea of working with those they thought to be annoying fools was undoubtedly not enticing. Still, the idea of removing an idiot of a Monarch and their even more reckless daughter who together were a destructive force for all of them; bringing to power the only ones they could all agree to be capable and sensible... yes, that would suffice, for now, to have them entertain the notion of cooperation.

They could all hear the Abyss call to them now. They were calling to be lifted up, empowered, and freed. Soon would be the time when everypony would hear their song and realise just how pointless the Royal Line of Novo was and that, in the end, the Hippogriffs needed to be saved.

Comments

[ponepony]

He could hardly explain it, but, since his team and he returned from the Mareiana Trench two weeks ago, he'd realised a fair few things. It was like someone had flipped a switch on the back of his mind, shifting it back into gear..

Is there a term for this? This concept seems familiar but I don't know what's it called. Sounds horrifying for their family members though, who for all they know their kind, gentle stallion got his brain swapped with a violent nut.

"But... that's all the way at the bottom of the Trench, Coldbeak. And the Trench isn't exactly an afternoon trip for fun either. How are we going to get ponies to follow us along?"

The trench is an Equestrian extremist factory.

How long before they stab each other in the back?