The Mother City

by Quicksear

12. Assualt

“<-Ugh, it’s so cramped in here! Can’t we get another bus?->”

“<-Can it, Rainbow!->” I growled, ignoring her as I ground the gears of the old police truck, “We aren’t even out of the driveway yet!->”

I heard a few muffled squeals, cries and apologies behind me, and I saw Twilight, beside me in the passenger’s seat, look back. Rainbow’s voice rose again; “<-Look, I just don’t think this’ll work out, I need to at least be able to - ow! I need to move my wings, AJ!->”

Applejack’s muffled voice barely reached me, but it was still one of the best deadpans I’d ever hear; “<-Ah think we’re really gonna need a bigger cart.->”

“<-Car,->” I muttered, “<-And maybe you can just get Twilight to steal you another one.->” I added sarcastically, pulling out of the trees that surrounded the guest house into the large empty field around the main manor. I fumbled the controls jerkily and pulled into the main parking area.

Twilight just shrugged. “<-We could I suppose, but we need another driver first.->”

“<-Not what I - nevermind…->” I huffed, moving for the door handle. I didn’t turn the old truck off; I’d rather keep ready for a fast getaway. Twilight though, stopped me. “Marc, what are you doing?”

I wondered why she asked me that in English. But then, why would she bother asking me at all? I could feel her, right next to me. I knew where she was and what she was feeling: a foot away from me was an eerily determined alicorn with a grudge to settle. I’m sure she knew what I wanted here too, but I told her anyway; “We need to tell Sarah where we’re going. After what she’s done for us, I think she deserves a last goodbye this time, right?”

Twilight cocked her head and looked at the large house in front of us thoughtfully. The truck became silent, waiting. Then she said, “Of course. She’s done so much for us, but...Marc, something feels...off, here.”

I had no idea what she meant. Oh wait, now I did. Twilight’s perceptions became my own; there wasn’t a single car in the yard, and the birds in the trees were silent (odd, next to a bird sanctuary). Also, it was very early morning, earlier than most people would wake up. And yet lights were on across the house.

<-It may be nothing, but this place is too quiet. They either heard this police car come up the road, and they’d be out here wondering why, or they didn’t and the whole place would be dark.->

Twilight is much smarter than I am.

I sighed, slipping into telepathy like a comfortable duvet. Disturbing, how natural it felt now, So what then? If my uncle’s men are here, I’m not leaving Sarah to them. They’ll break her to get to me.

Twilight’s eyes found mine then. A curious glint that spoke of determination and excitement shone there, and a small knowing smile spread across her lips. Rarity saw it too, and she nudged Fluttershy beside her. They realized, as I did, what that look meant:

Twilight Sparkle had an idea.

Twilight…

*****

The knock on the door was dull, but so loud. Sarah gulped as she stood in front of the entrance, shuddering. The knock sounded again. She took a nervous step forward, then stopped. She choked on a sob.

“Come on, get it done, lady!”

The hissed words accompanied the cold press of a pistol to the back of her neck. She didn’t turn or otherwise respond. She only buried her tears, sniffed, and stepped up to the door.

The knock sounded again.

“Open it!”

She felt herself be jostled, and a knot formed in her stomach. Maybe it wasn’t Marc. Maybe it was just a postman or something. At 4 in the morning? Not likely. She had no choice. She reached for the door twisted the doorknob. She couldn’t look as she pulled the door inwards. “H-hello?” please don’t be Marc please don’t be Marc…

“Hey Sarah! I got to tell you something.”

And there Marc stood, framed by the mist and his old green jacket, looking every bit as ragged as a fugitive should in his rumpled clothing and week-old beard. But somehow, he was still handsome, something different about the way he held himself, so slight a change she wouldn’t have noticed normally. His eyes sparkled slightly, and Sarah couldn’t quite tell why he was smiling so much.

“Look, we gotta go, yeah? Just making sure you’re okay. We’re going to head south around Chapman Peak, maybe the cops aren't there yet - hey, are you okay?” His smile slipped slightly, but not completely.

“Yes, yes!” She blurted, “Perfectly fine! Just, I understand you need to leave. It’s okay. Call me when it’s all over.”

Marc’s grin widened. He leaned forward slightly, a little unsettling as he stated, “I don’t think the guy with a gun to your neck will allow that.”

Sarah was pulled aside and slammed into the wall, where she crumpled in a dazed heap. The black-clad snarling man that had held her raised his pistol and levelled it at Marc’s chest. “Fuck it,” He growled, “I’ll just kill you right here!”

Marc didn’t move.

Sarah heard the bang and saw the gun jump. her eyes widened as she gasped, hands covering her mouth. She watched in abject horror as Marc slowly looked down at his chest, touched the tear in his clothes. “Huh.” He whispered, “I was hoping you’d be more reasonable.”

Marc removed his hand, and the hole was gone. There was a burning in his eyes as he stared at the frozen gunman. “You should have waited for that.” Marc raised his hand, holding a pistol identical to that of the gunman. He cocked his head with a smirk as he aimed for the gaping man’s head.

“Wha…?” The gunman whispered. Then he pulled the trigger. He pulled it until his gun was spent, the flash in the morning light glaring to his eyes, the concussive sound ringing through his bones. When looked again, Marc stood still, his own gun still poised, only now held in a black glove, matching the black clothes that now wrapped him, a perfect copy of those the hitman wore.

It was too much for the man. He turned and fled as Marc started laughing maniacally, chilling all who heard it to the bone.

By god, Twilight had excelled herself.

I shook my head to rid the spell Twilight had cast on me: a perception spell that had let me see with the eyes of her illusion and partly puppet it. I couldn’t help but smirk as I stepped into the place of the insubstantial copy of myself from around the doorframe, and it swirled away in violet smoke as I did so. from the look on Sarah’s face, it was every bit as awesome as I imagined it to be.

Except I looked like a bum compared to Twilights image of me, but what whatever…

“Sarah, come on, we need to get out of here.” I leaned down and grasped her arms. She stood shakily, which hardly surprised me. After all, I should by rights be dead, but here I am.

“Marc, is all well?”

Twilight’s thought echoed across to me, and I looked back at the shrubs lining the main drive. Shrubs that bristled with multi-coloured eyes all looking in my direction. And Rainbow Dash’s wings poking out of the flowerbed. I guess when you’re a rainbow-coloured attention seeking performer, you don’t put much stock in stealth. Not that it mattered too much now.

Yeah, we’re good, get back to the truck, we’ll be there shortly.

Sarah was shaking badly. I didn’t know what to do for her, any comfort just seemed hollow. Her life had just been threatened. Hovering for a moment, I decided to take a cue from Pinkie Pie: I pulls Sarah into a hug. She barely reacted for a moment, before slowly returning it. I felt dampness spreading on my shoulder.

When she stopped shaking quite so much, I leaned back, “Hey Sarah? C’mon, we gotta go, before anyone else shows up.” She nodded dumbly and followed my lead out the door and into the slowly dissipating fog.

We got as far as the truck, but there Sarah stopped. She looked at the police truck surrounded by anxious-looking equines, from Twilight standing by the passenger door and Fluttershy trying to become one with the wheel arch, and cracked. I don’t know what was going through her mind, but whatever it was, she could be forgiven. “Sarah? We really gotta go…”

“I can’t…” She sobbed, stepping back, “I can’t do this, Marc.” Her eyes found mine, tired, scared, “It’s too much. I just w-want to go home…”

“<-Marc, we have to move, this place isn’t safe->” Twilight prompted.

Sarah looked around one last time, then locked eyes with me. “They’ll come again. I’ll...I’ll buy you some time. But I’m not a strong as you…”

I sighed. Of course she wouldn’t want to come with. Probably a good thing since we really didn’t have the space anyway...Ugh, there I go, the mindset that keeps me going: practical and calculating. Only, it wasn’t my mindset, was it?

I looked at Twilight, and saw an emotional tear in her eye. Somehow, that disturbed me. She was supposed to calculate, and I be all lost in my thoughts. Nope, this wasn’t right, for sure. I turned back to Sarah, and nodded, “I understand, Sarah. This isn't yours to bear anymore.” I held out a hand to her with a smile, “I’ll hold you to that phone call though, after this is done?”

Sarah gave a small smile, but a genuine one, “Sure.” And then she walked away.

I stood watching her for a moment, words of farewell still on my tongue, but I shook my head and returned to the police truck as the ponies piled in. Andrew was somewhere up on the pass, trapped, maybe captured. And if the gunman we’d just run into was any indication, things could very quickly turn ugly up there.

All the doors shut as I climbed into the driver’s seat. I ignored Rainbow Dash complaining and slammed the the truck into gear. “I hope you girls are ready for this.”

“<-Yup!->” AJ, Pinkie and Rarity called, all bumping hooves.

“<-N-No…->” Fluttershy squeaked.

“<-So long as I get to buck someone in the face…->” Rainbow muttered.

“And thats about as good as we’ll get,” Twilight stated, “Now get going! We don’t have all day!”

I chuckled as I floored the accelerator. The engine roared, spluttered, coughed and stalled. I quickly twisted the key in the ignition again, feeling a manly blush starting. “Sorry…”

“Ugh…” Rainbow buried her head beneath her wing.

*****

A quick reminder of exactly how my life had decided to punish me again: We’d been holed up for one day - ONE DAY - in Hout Bay, a suburb of Cape Town proper. Now the city itself was on the other side of Table Mountain from us, and between to the two was a small, old and mostly unused pass, now that both Chapman’s Peak and the coastal Point Road were built. This pass was tight, high and a little scary, prone to fog and rockfalls and the like. And it was up this narrow pass that I was attempting to drive without alerting any police. Kinda hard since I was driving directly towards a police roadblock.

I started to slow down as the flashing lights appeared through the fog, “Twilight, what do I do now?”

Twi’s wings buzzed slightly from where she sat in the passenger seat. She looked out into the valley beneath us, thoughtful, and then began a spell, saying, “Just keep going, act normal.”

“Uhh...okay.” I crawled the truck up the road as the three police cars materialized. As we neared them, a purple shimmer flared across the windows around me. I missed a gear as I flinched in surprise, “Twi, what are you doing?”

She didn’t have time to respond. The truck ground to a halt, of course, right next to a police officer. You could tell just by looking at him that he was one of those cops that took his job way too seriously. He had a handlebar moustache and everything.

“Hallo there, vehicle number please?” He drawled, leaning against my door’s sill and spitting out his toothpick.

Oh god, seriously? I glanced at the number over the radio and responded in my best equally heavy accent, “Five two dash eight three nine, on collection.”

The man at my window leaned down and peered through the glass at me. Whatever it was he saw, it most certainly wasn’t me or Twilight. He stood back, waving aside the two other officers, “Right on through there, sergeant, they have the suspect ready for you.”

He just waved us through. A stolen police truck filled with magical aliens and the very desperado he was guarding against. I drove past the three cop cars and crawled on up the pass. The violet shimmers across the glass of the cab sputtered out, and Twilight gasped. “<-Whew...I need to practice illusions, clearly...->”

I tried to focus on driving this time as I asked, “<-Twi, just out of curiosity, what did you do back there? He didn’t even give us a second glance.->”

Twilight shrugged, “<-Illusion over the windshield and windows: he would look in and see what he expected to see. So I’m going to guess he saw police officers.->”

“Huh…” It was quite an impressive Jedi-esque move, that, “<- I’m just worried you’re using up your energy. I mean, you’ve cast some pretty impressive spells this morning. This fog couldn’t have been easy to raise.->”

“<-Yes,->” She muttered, “<-It’s...I’m finding it easier to cast the higher up the mountain we go, but still, I’m running out of reserves to draw on. Illusions are easier than trying to throw something physical at least.”

Higher up the mountain, or further from the City? I wonder to myself. Twilight sensed my thought, and I could feel her agreement echoing hollowly somewhere in the space between our minds. If this was so…

“The further from the City we go, the more in touch with magic I’ll be, and the more I’ll be able to achieve by drawing on the energy of the world, not just myself, my friends and you.”

My eyes found Twilights for half a second there, but my mind focused on her as I felt a question roiling. But first I asked, You can draw from me as well, then? I already knew the answer, I was just making sure.

“Yes, though it shouldn’t be as easy with you as it is with my friends.”

I raised a brow, Shouldn’t be?

“It might be because of how close our minds are, or because of something else...but you are probably my biggest source of native energy right now.”

I don’t know how I feel about that…

She didn’t respond.

Twilight, one other question, I added in the silence that existed outside of the noise of the vehicle, That image of me you conjured, how did you manage to make it so real-looking without wasting too much energy?

“I have a very good image of you in my memory” She replied quickly, “And I drew slightly from you as well. It was a pretty good image if I do say so myself.”

Yeah, I snorted, Except I’m not so vain to think I’ve ever looked that good. Where’d that come from, huh?

Yet again, she failed to answer

*****

“<-The peak of the pass is just around the corner. I don’t know what's up there, though, any ideas?->” I asked. We’d stopped now, the truck pulled up on the curb of the old road, just below the rise where a few flashing lights could be seen. Police, waiting, like we were. Only we had surprise on our side.

I got out of the truck then, needing to think. Twilight followed my example, as did her friends. There we stood, unhidden, a fugitive and some aliens, like it was perfectly normal. The sad thing, though, is that by that point it kinda was.

“<-If only we could get some eyes up there without being seen…->” I muttered, thinking about climbing the road-side cliff.

I was immediately interrupted by a sudden spread of cyan feathers. “<-Yeah, I wonder how we’ll manage that?->” Rainbow Dash deadpanned, before she rocketed up into the foggy sky. I was still trying to come up with a valid response by the time she crashed back into the tarmac in a puff, grinning.

“<-Yup, I found Andrew! He’s in one of the two cars up there, and there’s a black truck like ours, kinda, with other people in it, like that guy at Sarah’s? Yeah. Them and the cops are arguing over him.->”

“<-So we got a plan?->” I asked the ponies broadly. We were here to blatantly attack some cops, so pretty much anything could go.

Rarity spoke up first; “<-Is there perhaps any way we could convince them to hand Andrew over peacefully? I’d rather not have a fight break out here, it would be terribly messy.->”

“A-and dangerous…” Fluttershy added.

Rarity shrugged, “<-That too->”

Applejack cocked her head over as she stared up at the corner, “<-RD, are they lookin’ our way or over th’other side?->”

“<-Oh,->” Rainbow chuckled, “<-it really doesn’t matter, they’re just about blind and deaf while they’re fighting. But the black truck is nearest us, and all the people just the other side of it. Andrew’s in the cars on the far side.->”

Applejack smirked at Pinkie Pie, who winked back knowingly. Applejack nodded to Twilight, who also seemed to have caught on, “<-Ah think it’s time ta show these humans how Earth Ponies sort out a tussle!->”

Oh Shit…

It was a terrifying plan, the kind of crushingly bold plan where one or another party would indeed be crushed, quite literally. And I felt, even though I was quite well protected, I was in the firing line.

Twilight orchestrated the battle-plan, a far cry from our usual cut-and-run tactic: AJ and Pinkie both hunkered down square in the middle of the road, somehow managing to be sneaky in plain sight. Rainbow Dash hovered expectantly right above me, somewhere in the thickening mist that Rarity focused on drawing up with impressive focus. Fluttershy was hovering out over the valley, the first time I’d seen her fly so much, watching, ready to call upon our final weapon: Me, in a cop truck, with a bloody Alicorn crouched on the roof. All in all, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

It started with a kick.

The sound of hooves cracking into stone high above us startled me. Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen, but slowly, and then in growing volume further along the road, along with a profusion of powerful cracking noises, the rocks started falling through the fog.

I knew that from where AJ and Pinkie crouched, the top of the black PMC truck was visible. They also saw the first few chunks of cliffside start crashing down around the people up there. All I heard were the shouts of surprise. I heard an engine start, and Twilight whistled. Looking out my window, I could just see Fluttershy flying back to us through the fog. That was part of the signal.

Up on the peak, the humans were scattering. RD’s rockfall was to them a freak occurrence, and the first thing they would do would be to try and get their vehicles out of the way. The police began driving down the hill towards Cape Town only to be blocked by a massive block of stone that fell from on high. A prismatic contrail began building above the cliff.

The PMCs saw the blockage and tried to reverse into a three point turn, but only got halfway. The driver’s face froze in shock when he suddenly found himself stuck broadside with two galloping Earth Ponies running him down.

“<-Giddy-up, Pinkie Pie!->” Applejack called, “<-And...BUCK!->”

Both spun on their forehooves, rear legs poised, and buck they did. An ‘epic buck for the ages’ to be sure. It was so powerful, so perfectly timed, that the truck was lifted a good two feet off the ground, tipped on its side, and it slammed down with an almighty crash of crunched steel and shattered glass.

I heard a cry from within cut the morning air. The driver’s door began to open, but Applejack put paid to that. With a too-loud shout she bounded onto the door, delivering a single kick to the door handle, bending it shut. The rear bed door burst open then, and three black-clad men tumbled out, giving terrified looks to Pinkie Pie as she sat beside their car, waving a hoof with a blissful smile: “<-Nice to see you, come again!->”

“Now!” Twilight’s order above me spurred me into action. Ikicked the accelerator and our truck lurched forward, gaining speed. Rarity dropped her spell and joined Fluttershy in galloping alongside us til we reached the fallen truck. There they stopped, and I didn’t. I rammed the exposed belly of the other vehicle, and floored it. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both bounded atop my truck and dropped through the roof hatch into the bed, breathing hard. Twilight, invisible but for a violet glow above the windshield, called directions I barely heard as I rammed the overturned truck straight over the top of the pass and down at the confused police officers. The four men stood for a moment, fumbling for their pistols and looking for a way to stop us, but behind our barrier, they could not shoot us. They wavered in the middle of the road.

Just then, a terrifying CRACK spread with a shockwave through the air.

The fog was blasted away by the violent wave of energy, rippling its colour across the sky and blasting at the men standing before the now clearly visible truck barreling towards them on its side, with Twilight Sparkle, wings spread and horn sparking, standing atop it all.

They scattered like flies.

“Left!” Came the order. I swerved to the left promptly, and the truck stuck on my bumper skittered off to the right, banging into the guardrail and leaving me driving all clear. Well, all clear right up to the point where two cop cars were parked in front of a massive boulder. Twilight roared bloody fury as she single...hornedly?... knocked the rock aside with a violet club of light.

As I swerved to a halt in between the two cop cars, Twilight deftly leapt onto the left-hand one. Rarity and Fluttershy skidded up either side, and with a flash of her horn Rarity had all the doors open. I got a front row seat to the fantastic show that was Andrew’s face at that moment.

Eyes wide, shaking and I’m quite sure near screaming, he watched dumbly as Rarity quickly weaved a little of her blue aura into the handcuffs around his wrists, and they clanked to the car’s floor.

I rolled my window down and gave him a full view of my smug expression.

He gibbered as he looked up at me, “What the fuu…?!”

“Shut up and drive, mate!” I called to him as I looked around, making sure we were clear. Rarity and Fluttershy bailed in either side of Andrew as Twilight hopped into the passenger seat of our new conquest. Andrew hovered for a second before catching a wake up and clambering into the drivers seat. He whacked the vehicle into life as I geared down to follow him.

Andrew drove like a bat out of hell down the pass, the sirens giving warning to no one in particular on the empty road. As I chased him, a thin ribbon of light over the valley grew brighter and brighter, til Rainbow Dash collapsed through the open hatch of my truck, crowing her victory in inarticulate shouts. Pinkie and Applejack joined her in celebrating, and scant minutes later our two-car convoy reached the city limits, rushing through the outer suburbs, then the empty District Six, all the way up the coast towards the north. All the while other police cars and suspect black vans whistled past us in the opposite direction.

Half an hour later, as the proud mountain behind us faded to grey with distance. I allowed myself to breath. Ahead of me, in Andrew’s vehicle, I saw a pair of violet eyes looking back at me, sparkling with glee.

“We won!”

Twilight was euphoric. I could feel the happiness and relief that radiated from all the members of our party. I could just about hear Andrew’s ecstatic laughter through Twilight's ears, but I didn’t let myself give in to victory quite yet.

We still had a long way to go.

Author's Note:

So I sat down and wrote ya'll a chapter. Lookit that!
Thanks to Boerkie who sat down and edited...somewhat...for me on this, but it was kinda rage-written, so please be lenient there.
Other than that, yeah, this story moves apace and whatnot...

Regards
Quicksear

Comments

[Romaji]

Oh jeez.

[Hurgusburgus]

The moar boar demands moar.