The Secrets of Caduceus

Okay, this lift is descending too fast. How can I tell? Well, it sort of started when I began to rise into the air slowly. Floor after floor, I see ponies staring at us as we casually approach our doom.

"W-What the hay?! Thorns stop this thing!" I shout, turning to the other floating pony in the elevator with me.

"I'm trying! Just hold on!" She angrily says, gritting her teeth.

Her Roseblades spin so that the sharp edges of the blade face forward. She raises her hooves and then drives the blades into surface of the lift floor. Pushes and pull the blades in and out of the floor, and inches closer to the floor selector. Attempting to press the buttons, her hoof stretches far to no avail.

The blue mare becomes more and more aggravated, until she gives up and simply stabs the numbered buttons. With her left Roseblade jammed in, the numbered board begins to shoot out sparks.

*SCREEECH*

An ear wrenching noise forces me to cover my ears with my hooves.

"What did you do?!" I shout.

She remains silent, and then sharply twists the blade. The sparks stop flying out, and the lift stops. Suddenly, an extremely painful shock races through my body.

I whine in pain, as the front of my body slams onto the lift's floor.

While I writhe in agony, Thorns gracefully descends onto the floor without making a noise.

"I stopped the elevator." She says flatly.

I sigh, and then sit up with my hoof in my face.

Suddenly, my communicator begins to beep and crackle again, "Come in, is anypony there? Answer already!"

"We hear you ace. What's up?" I ask, groaning.

"Not you, that's for sure! We just saw you falling from the top floor of the building! Are you okay?" She whispers angrily.

While Thorns yanks her Roseblade from the elevator panel, I ask about the progress of the mission, "Did you get the info out of Velvet?"

"Yeah, we got her room number with some... Difficulties." She says in an unsettling voice.

I ask curiously, "What kind of difficult--"

"AAH! Please! No more! No more! I gave you what you want--" A male voice screams and shouts until the communicator cuts off.

I sit on the lift floor in shock, sensing that my eyes are slowly dilating. Just what kind of crazy group have I entered?!

"Don't worry about it too much." Thorns says, as she spins her Roseblades to a position where blades point up her arms and reach all the way up to her neck. How this technology works, I have no idea. It could be some sort of magic that Strings whipped up, or maybe Dove designed it. Whatever it is, it baffles me.

The blue mare continues talking in her soft flat voice, "We should make our way to the hotel area now. Ace will fill us in on the way."

I nod, and then stand up.

*SCREECH*

"Wait, what is that noi--"

*SCREEECH*

The elevator begins to shake, and then slowly descends.

"Oops. Looks like my Roseblade was keeping the elevator sustained in the tube." She says disappointingly.

"So that means there's nothing holding up the..."

*SCREEEEEEECH*

The lift falls for about five (5) seconds, and then slams into the ground floor. Fortunately, I stayed on the surface of the elevator the entire time.

As we step out of the glass tube, I notice that the mildly crowded lobby eerily staring at us. We did just crash an elevator lift into the floor of the building.

"Faulty mechanics. You should get it checked out." I let out a obviously fake laugh, pathetically trying to cover up our vandalization of the hotel.

"Come on, we need to hurry outside." Thorns whispers, as she dashes out of the lobby.

I gallop after her. Stopping in the middle of the automatic doorway, I see a blurry blue object moving around the corner of the building through the garden that wraps around the entire building.

I trot through the ominous shadowy garden slowly. Flowers and orchids, which should be full of colour and vibrancy, are reduced to black dark pieces of vegetation.

"Thorns? Hey Thorns?" I whisper quietly, not wanting to disrupt anypony who might be lurking in the gardens at this hour.

Silence looms over me, and the fact that I can't see anything from here to the garden lamp post a few metres away gives me an even more unsettling feeling.

You have got to be kidding me. Alone in the dark in a garden where anypony can jump out at me? This mission just keeps getting better and better.

*rustle*

I quickly turn around, "Who's there? Thorns?"

Silence again.

"Come on. If you're trying to register a sense of humour for the first time, it's not working."

Silence still looms in the air.

"You some kind of gangster? Alright punk... You asked for it."

I reach for my revolver, but then I realize that Dove still has my Viper. So... I'm alone, in the dark, in a city filled with psychos, without a gun. Okay now I'm starting to panic, but only just a little. On the count of three (3), I'll make a run for the lamp post.

One... Two... Three!

My hooves gallop as hard as they can, while the rest of my body is stricken in fear. Now I'm sure something is following me! And that something is making a lot of noise, with the snapping of twigs underneath it's feet. The closer I get to the lamp post, the closer my hunter gets to the backs of my hooves!

I'm slowly becoming fatigued again, breathing heavily and panting consistently. As a last stand, I use the final ounce of my strength to make a dive for the ray of light underneath the lamp post.

"Oof!" I grunt, as I land on my side, bathed in light.

I take a second to catch my breath, and then scramble slowly to my hooves. My head tries to analyze what's beyond the ray of light, but to no avail. Whatever was chasing me, it's either gone now or it's hiding cleverly.

"That's right!" I shout, "And that's why you don't mess with--"

"Apollo?"

I shout, while jumping back. A blue mare stands behind me with a hoof reached out to me.

"I-It's just you... Sorry."

She tilts her head in confusion, "Who else would it be?"

I shake my head, "N-Nothing. Just... Just forget about it."

She gives me a look of concern, and then turns around to walk away.

I've never lied to these ponies before, but I suppose it'd be best to keep this to myself. I gallop after my companion, hoping whatever was chasing me had given up.

----------———

After catching up to Thorns, our earpieces begin to pick up signals again.

"Hello? Thorns... Apo..llo... An... Pon.."

A loud and irritating crackling noise muffles everything that the caller is trying to say.

"Dove? Is that you? Respond!" I hear Ace's voice come in through the earpiece.

No response.

"Ace, what's wrong? What happened to Dove, and where is Aura?" I ask.

The earth pony replies, "I'm trying to find her now. Strings will walk you through the hotel part of the plan."

Then, the white unicorn chimes in as if called on cue, "Alright you two, I need to split you guys up. Thorns, you'll extract Apollo and Aura when he captures her. Apollo, we've sent a gift to the psychic, and its from you."

From me? Just what are they planning?

"A bouquet of beautiful red roses has been sent to Aura's room. I must say, you have great taste when it comes to flora." Strings continues.

I can tell she's making a joke, but I don't appreciate their methods of getting the job done.

I won't humor her this time, I'm more focused on completing the mission,"Alright, which suite number is hers?"

"Number twenty four (24), on the third floor of the hotel. Tailor Velvet was kind enough to provide us with the key to her suite. I've asked for it to be sent to the front desk of the hotel. One of my... Clients, is holding on to it for you. It's a stallion, he'll have a name tag labeled Billiards T."

I'm starting to speculate how Strings gets her inside information.

"You got all that?" I ask, facing Thorns.

She nods, and we both gallop through the courtyard of the hotel.