• Published 10th Jan 2013
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Flutterblade - Dropped C



A long time ago, in the magical land of Equestria, there was a country called Neighpon, where a shy vagabond roamed looking for people in need of help.

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Chapter 7

“We’re going to fight! We’re going to fight!” Pinkie Sai, really excited, danced on the table while juggling three bowling pins.

Meanwhile, Flutterblade watched in bewilderment her new enemy, trying to understand what was happening before her eyes. Finally, she decided to talk to her, although with some reluctance: “Uhm… What are you, exactly?”

Pinkie caught the three pins with a pirouette and stored them in her mane, causing a surprised “Eep!” from Flutterblade. “I’m a Party Ninja!”

“A Party Ninja? Never heard about them.” Flutterblade tapped her sword’s hilt, getting her hooves ready to draw.

“That’s because we do our job reeeeeally good, silly!” Pinkie answered with a lilting laughter. Then, she struck the table with her hind leg twice. “Your friend, the Princess, should get out of there, shouldn’t her? They told me to kill you and to take her as a prisoner, and, of course, down there while we fight we might accidentally kill her and then I wouldn’t complete my mission and would have to kill myself and… What was I talking about, again?”

“You were telling us how you were going to surrender, darling,” the Princess deadpanned, watching Pinkie carefully. Curiosity took advantage of the little breather to get out from her hiding place below the table, shake off the dirt on her coat, and stand as far as possible from the two combatants. Finally, she opted to hide behind a statue. Yes, of course it was a statue of Lord Bluewater.

“Uh… That’s strange. I don’t think I was talking about that. You know, honor and all that… Also, fighting a legend must be fun!” Pinkie bowed to Flutterblade.

When she got up, Flutterblade wasn’t in front of her anymore. Pinkie’s tail vibrated strongly twice, and the ninja looked up. The swordsmare was diving, her wings flaring, ready to hit. Rolling quickly, Pinkie fell from the table just as Flutterblade struck, breaking it in two neat pieces.

“Hey! That’s dirty!” Pinkie screamed, frowning.

“Uhm… In the real world, nopony waits for you to be ready to get attacked.” Flutterblade fluttered softly in the air.

Curiosity gulped as she noticed an almost imperceptibly sad inflection in the swordsmare’s voice. Then she noticed that, in her haste to avoid the splinter shower from Flutterblade’s powerful strike, she was hugging Bluewater’s statue. Looking at it in disgust, she distanced herself. “Ew!”

“Oh! That makes sense! In that case, I’m gonna have to keep you grounded”. Pinkie smiled, rummaged a bit in her mane and threw a hoofful of glittering confetti.

Flutterblade reacted swiftly, trying to avoid the shower of paper bits that fell endlesly, but she couldn’t avoid some of them sticking to her body just before she reached a little shelter beneath one of the statues in a corner. The swordsmare cried as she noticed the burning pain wherever the confetti touched her, and so, she tried to remove it with her hooves while protecting her wings with the rest of her body. “Poison confetti!” she muttered, breathing quickly to control the pain.

“Party Ninja!” Pinkie said, nodding quickly thrice. “Are we playing the truism game? We are, aren’t we?” Pinkie tilted her head, looking innocently. The room stood still for a second. Then, a glint in Pinkie’s eyes marked the start of the second round. Pinkie ran, avoiding the murderous shavings with ellegant cartwheels and somersaults, but she stopped when she noticed Flutterblade sitting still and quietly in a corner. “Uh… What are you doing?”

Flutterblade allowed herself a little chuckle. “What I usually do in a party: Stay in a corner and wait for it to end.”

Pinkie’s right eye started twitching furiously. “A non-partygoer! My nemesis!” screamed the crazed ninja, taking three little knives from her mane and grunting at Flutterblade.

Curiosity and Flutterblade looked in each other’s eyes. While the swordsmare kept a stoic and neutral face, trying not to betray her worry, Princess Curiosity’s alarm was obvious.

“Oops…” they said at the same time.


“This ain’t going well, riceball!” Applesake said.

“Wh-y d-do y-ou s-say t-ha-a-t?” Rainbow Smash answered, her voice creating a raspy staccato between the punches that a guard was delivering to her snout, her attempts to leave his chokehold mostly unnoticed.

Meanwhile, Applesake punched and kicked another guard, but the only thing getting hurt were her hooves as she hit the iron-coated hulk.

“We need another plan!”

“B-buck m-ee! I had-dn’t not-t-t-iced!”


Pinkie raised her hoof, ready to throw her knives against Flutterblade. Flutter looked at her sword, at the wall that now was an obstacle that didn’t allow any dodging, and at the killer confetti that didn’t allow her to move comfortably. With a little smile, she flapped her wings with all her strength, causing a confetti hurricane that covered the ninja for an instant. Then, she readied her sword at her side and, with a powerful thrust of her hind legs, launched herself against Pinkie Sai.

Slicing side to side while the confetti cleared out, time stopped for Flutterblade. Her sword slowly pierced the ninja’s skin. She tried to stop, but it was too late already. Pinkie Sai lay in the floor, cut in half.

“No!” Flutterblade screamed watching the corpse in horror.

The corpse started to bleed… Candy? One after another, like a string of fireworks, the candy exploded launching the swordsmare against the wall with such strength the stones cracked.

“What do you think about my decoy piñata? It’s one of my favourite techniques!” Pinkie lowered herself from the ceiling while Flutter got up using her sword as a cane. “Fools the enemy, hurts the enemy… And it’s fun!”


Meanwhile, in the hallway, one of the hypermusculated guards had Rainbow Smash and Applesake pinned with his forelegs, banging their heads rhythmically.

“AGH! AGH! AGH!” Rainbow repeated while trying to hear her own thoughts between blows. “Sakes! Do you really trust Flutterblade?”

Applesake really wanted to watch Rainbow in bewilderment, but the continuous change of distances between their heads and the fact that she was trying to hold the guard’s leg made it difficult. “Yes, riceball. Agh! I trust her OUCH with all my heart!”

The guard tried to smash the two mares’ heads once again. The arm that held Applesake didn’t move.


Flutterblade felt every single of her muscles burning as she tried to get up. Resting on her sword’s handle, every single flutter to restore her posture was torture. Between moans, she could heard a nasty hiss.

“Meh, I hoped you would last a bit more,” Pinkie said, walking slowly towards Curiosity. “For a legend, you’ve been a bit disappointing.”

The smiling ninja grabbed the Princess with her hoof. Curiosity pulled back, trying to free herself. Pinkie didn’t doubt, and with a quick movement wrapped Curiosity in streamers. “I know the tricks,” she said, smiling while tying a gift bow to the streamers. Turning her back to the Princess, she walked towards Flutterblade. “I go to kill Flutterblade and then you hit me from behind with something, even when I’ve already shown my inequine reflexes, saving the heroine so she can beat me, so… No!” Pinkie shook her head and fixed her gaze in Curiosity’s eyes. The Princess looked down, trying to avoid the ninja’s glare.

A powerful flap made Pinkie turn her head again. Behind her, Flutterblade flown with her sword in the ready, going through the poisonous confetti with a scowl and a wince of pain.

The swordsmare charged with fury in her eyes, ready to do whatever she deemed necessary to protect Curiosity, even if it meant giving her own life. So blinding was her rage that she couldn’t even react when Pinkie Sai turned with a giant cannon between her forehooves. The wick was sizzling, more than half of it already consumed.

Between visions of a tall white mare caring for her and teaching her how to fight, Flutterblade tried to drop down and roll to avoid the shot.

Her master’s eyes betrayed her deception. The white mare turned her back to her.

The cannon fired. Between a shower of noise and fireworks lighting, Flutterblade crashed into the ceiling and then fell, motionless, on the floor.

Curiosity screamed in panic.


“Do ya like it, riceball? DO. YA. LIKE. IT?” Applesake yelled as she hit repeatedly the guard who had been pinning her on his muzzle.

Meanwhile, at the end of the hallway, the rest of the guards watched until their teammate screamed between punches: “Don’t just stand there, you idiots! Attack!”

Rainbow Smash, seeing the guards’ charge, jumped and turned quickly to Applesake. “Quick, Sakes! Did you really choose a rotten apple for Curiosity’s breakfast just to see her face?”

Applesake blushed and looked at Rainbow, who looked back with a mischievous smile. “It’s true! Ah admit it! It was only a joke! But Ah don’t think this is the best time for that kind of question, Smash!”

Smash. Applesake’s last punch made the guard tumble unconscious for two meters.

“I think it’s the perfect time.”


“Well, it’s a pity this had to end like this, Flutterblade. I mean it,” said Pinkie, watching the swordsmare’s corpse. Then she turned back and trotted to Curiosity, who stood still, tears dripping from her eyes.

“Why…?” Flutterblade’s weak voice surprised both mares. She tried to grab her sword dragging her foreleg on the floor, still blinded by the shot.

“My, you’re a toughie! Why what?” Pinkie answered lifting a brow.

Flutterblade tried to rise once again, only to fall. Moaning in pain, she continued: “Why do you serve Silencio?”

“Well, the clan’s chief told me to. And he’s wise, intelligent, and good, so it must be a good thing.”

“Heh… Heh heh…” Flutterblade laughed meekly.

“Why are you laughing? Don’t laugh at the chief!” Pinkie stepped menacingly.

“Don’t you know Lord Silencio’s laws? ‘Everything must be silent.’ ‘Disorder and noise are evil.’ His court is entirely carried out by mail, just to avoid having to hear people.”

“That’s silly, isn’t it?” Pinkie rocked softly, as if trying unsuccessfully to find a more comfortable posture.

“You still don’t get it? If Lord Silencio conquers Neighpon, his law will apply to the entire country,” Flutterblade continued. “If Lord Silencio wins, Pinkie Sai, there will be no more parties in Neighpon.”

“What?!”


“Ha ha ha! Your power is awesome, Sakes!” screamed Rainbow Smash as she bucked a guard.

Besides her, between a mountain of gold statues broken and knocked to free some space, Applesake was smashing five guards using a sixth as a weapon. “Damn you, Smash! Ah knew those questions had a reason, but these guards didn’t need to know my saddle size!”

“Uhm… If it helps you, I kinda like mares when there’s more of them to grab,” said the last guard who hadn’t still entered the fray. He quickly noticed his error when six of his mates crashed on him.

The palace’s door exploded and seven guards fell unconscious on the streets. Applesake dusted her hooves off. “‘More of them to grab.’ Asshole!”


“No, no, no, this can’t be.” Pinkie trotted in circles. Her tail twitched and one of her eyelids couldn’t quite decide if it wanted to stay open or closed. “No parties? Everything silent? The chief would have never accepted this! No, no, no, something must be wrong here.”

Finally, the ninja turned to Flutterblade, stomping on the floor. After a complete body twitch, she said: “I’m switching to your side!”

“What…?” Curiosity answered from behind while Flutter tried to stand up.

“Something smells fishy here, and a guy who wants everything to be silent can’t be normal. So I’m switching sides! At least until I find what’s the matter with all of this, of course. If I find that you’ve lied to me I might have to kill you. I kinda don’t want to kill you because you don’t seem to be bad ponies, but you know, it’s my job and I shouldn’t mix my feelings with my job, because I’d end with fobs or jeelings and… What was I talking about again?” Pinkie Said looked in confusion at Curiosity.

“About cupcakes,” deadpanned the Princess.

“Ooh, I love cupcakes! Do you want cupcakes? I could make a batch if we go to the kitchen and…”

As Pinkie was starting to walk to the kitchen, Applesake and Rainbow Smash entered the hall, talking joyfully about their fight. When they saw the ninja, they looked at each other and then looked at Flutterblade.

“Who is she?” Applesake asked.

Flutterblade smiled and answered, wavering. “She’s Pinkie Sai, a Party Ninja. She just left Lord Silencio’s team and joined ours.”

Rainbow Smash blinked several times with a perfect poker face. Then she opened her mouth slowly. Then, suddenly, she flared her wings and scowled while her face turned red in fury, looking at Flutterblade. “How the buck do you do this?! Do you have magic betrayal powers or what?!”

“Charisma, darling,” Curiosity answered. “Don’t we have a little Lord who needs a big beatdown?”

The rest of the team looked at themselves, shrugged, and started to walk towards the stair to the upper floor.

“Darlings…” Curiosity said. “Would you mind releasing me from these streamers?”