Wanted

Chapter 3

“Now why don’t you put yer hooves up missy . . . and you put yer hands up Cereal!” Rickert commands. Twilight and I nervously follow his order. “Did you two take us fer fools?!”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Twilight pleads.

“Sher ya don’t. Maybe this can clear it up fer ya.” Rickert reaches behind him and pulls out a sheet of paper that reads: WANTED Unicorn and Creature Destructive Duo; Reward 50,000 Bits. In the center of the paper are two side by side pictures of Twilight and I. We gaze at the sheet in shock until Twilight desperately tries to explain.

“No wait! It’s not what you think!”

“Oh Ah think it is!”

“No it’s all a mistake! We’ve been framed we’re not responsible for anything!”

“Ah think yer lyin’!”

“We’re not we’re telling you the truth!”

“Yer lyin’!”

“We’re not we swear!”

“Yyyeee . . . really?”

“Y-Yes . . . !”

“. . . Promise?”

“Yes we promise!” Twilight says while cowering under her forelegs. Rickert then breaks out into a smile and starts to chuckle.

“Whew! That’s good; I actually thought you two were criminals!”

“Ricky what are you doin’? How can you be so sher their not?” Asks Lera.

“Sweetheart Ah just know these things. Ah can see it in ‘em that they ain’t no criminals. You can call it a . . . gift of mine.” Rickert then lowers his weapon and Twilight peeks out to them, and as she notices that it’s safe she sighs out of relief.

“Th-Thank you Rickert.” Says Twilight.

“Oh don’t thank me yet Miss Spickle. ‘Cause Ah don’t think ‘he’s’ goin’ to be convinced.” Rickert says pointing over to the window. Twilight hurries over and brushes aside the white curtains allowing the Moonlight to shine through the glass and upon our faces as we peer down to the ground. Near the entrance to town are a couple of stallions talking to a few of the local ponies. One has a dark brown coat with a short black mane. He’s wearing a black suit and hat with a notepad in his jacket pocket. His inner shirt is white with a black neck tie. The stallion near him is grey with a shaggy blonde mane, and he’s wearing a deep blue suit jacket as well with a white inner shirt and black neck tie. Their appearance alone suggests they are of authority, and thus fear is instilled in my mind.

“Who is that?” Twilight asks.

“His name is Detective Rhinehart if Ahm correct. He came with this here poster askin’ if we darn did see ya.”

“We’re going to need a plan to escape. This place is so wide open they’ll see us from any angle.”

“Well Ah’ve got a plan!” Rickert exclaims excitedly.

“Shh Shh!” We all attempt to get him to keep quiet with our eyes full of fright.

“Oh right, sorry. Anyhoo Ah think Ah’ve got the perfect plan.”

“And what would that be?” Twilight asks.

“Okay, so Ahm gonna pretend that Ahm about to hand you two over to mister detective, Ah’ll pretend to have mah gun malfunction and start shootin’ all over the place! My friends down there will make them keep their heads down, and while they’re distracted for as long as possible you two are gonna hurry on outta here!”

“. . . That’s actually a pretty good plan.” Twilight says admittedly. “But what if we don’t get enough time and they catch up to us?”

“Don’t worry about that, good ‘ol Rickert’s gotcha covered! Ah’ll have Lera go an’ have our friends Buckley an’ Gingerhorn get a carriage ready for you two on the other side of town. So you just run, git in, and they’ll pull ya outta town!”

“Well, alright. Let’s do it.”

“Lera, go an’ let ‘em know fer me would ya please?”

“Right away.” Says Lera before leaving the room.

“Alright y’all . . . are we ready ta do this?”

“I think so, Aireal?” Twilight asks, and I nod my head in reassurance.

“Then just stand right here in front’a me. Keep yer hooves, an’ hands, up. An’ let’s git goin’.” Rickert points his gun to our backs and urges us to move forward. We leave the house into the surprisingly cooled air towards the detective and his partner. The detective stares at me intently while his partner excitedly smiles and waves at us . . . which kind of confuses me. The detective notices his behavior and nudges his elbow into him; he then stops and tries to keep himself looking professional. I notice Rickert giving the few locals nearby subtle winks and nods.

“Well, so it’s you two that have been up to all this trouble huh?” Asks the detective.

“We’re innocent detective.” Says Twilight.

“Yeah, tell that to the two towns you destroyed. Now come with us, we’re taking you back to the station so we can—” A loud bang erupts from behind Twilight and I, and we duck down out of fright.

“Woah nelly! Look out now!” Rickert shouts.

“What are you doing?!” The detective shouts.

“Somethin’s wrong with mah gun keep yer heads down!” The few locals force the detective and his partner to duck and keep their heads down while Rickert fires his weapon crazily into the air. “Git down git down! – You two come back any time ya here? – This thing ain’t workin’ right!” In a flash Twilight and I are bolting down through the town towards the wooden carriage just ahead. We hop inside as the two stallions take notice of us.

“Hey! Stop right there!” The detective shouts while trotting towards us.

“Hold on you two it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!” One of the stallions advises. They kick up their forelegs and gallop down the steep hill ahead. Immediately we gain so much speed that with a quick glance back the detective gives up and throws his hat down onto the ground out of frustration. I turn back facing forward feeling relief, but my fear arises yet again at the sight of how fast we are rolling through the dust. I can feel my fingers digging into the wood with my teeth clenched out of fear. Twilight’s and my eyes widen with fear, but the two stallions cheer. Eventually we begin rolling so fast that the stallions fall backwards into the carriage with us as it rolls now on its own. Twilight and I are shouting fearfully, but the stallions turn around to us smiling. “Relax you two! Enjoy the ride!”

“Yeah! The best part is comin’ up! Yee-haw!” They both raise their hooves into the air as they continue to cheer. I find that the plant life is returning to the land, and I wait nervously for the “best part” they spoke of to arise. Suddenly we drop down into a creek and then back up onto the descending hill. As the water splashes over us I thought that we would still be screaming in terror, but instead Twilight and I are laughing. Soon, I find that we are cheering along with the two stallions. The trees around us thicken into bigger walls than before as we gradually come to a stop. All of our cheering settles to a short chuckle as we then climb out from the carriage. “Ha-ha! Told ya it’d be fun!”

“Will we see y’all again?”

“Yes, yes you will.” Twilight assures them as she calms her giggling.

“Alrighty! Oh, and before we go, down there is the town of Neon Brite. We hope ya find that wagon you were talkin’ about!”

“So long an’ good luck!” They shout. Twilight and I wave them goodbye as they turn their carriage away and begin to pull it back towards town.

“Thank you!” Twilight shouts. “Wow . . . that was . . . fun! But, now we’ve got a detective after us. We can’t waste any time we have to move on . . . Ah, Rickert was right, there are tracks still here. Come on let’s follow them.” Twilight and I walk the dark path enjoying the slight breeze against our faces. My body should be feeling weak and weary from the lack of sleep, but the ride has woken me up so much that I barely notice a difference. I cannot stop thinking about how much fun it was, but it reminds me of all the other times of fun I had with my only other friends. It reminds me how for the time being they are not really ‘my’ friends any longer. . . They’re ‘his’. If only I could still be with them to experience this feeling. The sounds of leaves rustling and wind whistling calms my senses helping my mind veer away from those thoughts for the time being. From the dark horizon colors begin to creep into the sky. The further we walk the more intense they become. They are like clouds shrouding the stars as they emanate from the glowing town below. This splendor of color feels like candy to my eyes as I continue to stare. “There it is; Neon Brite. Wait . . . do you see that just over there?” Twilight asks pointing near the entrance of town. Gazing out I notice a long rectangular object with not as much light except the small white lights around the border of one of its sides. The only thing I can think of it being would be . . . Trixie’s wagon. Immediately we sprint the rest of the way until we find ourselves slowing down, as the closer we get the more mesmerized we become by the sweet revelry of color.

The object we saw is indeed Trixie’s wagon, and it’s parked near a building with a sign atop the front entrance with curvy letters reading: Brite Sounds. From the outside we can hear a pulsing beat from the inside, and through the glass colors flash and explode. “Well, this is Trixie’s wagon. Maybe they went in there? . . . Try to keep a low profile. We’re going in there to look.” Following her plan we open the front door and our ears are met with a blast of music. Stepping through the front double doors feels like walking through a barrier of sound. Inside through the shadows are colorful ponies laughing and dancing under a glowing rainbow-tiled floor with flashing spotlights hanging from metal bars attached to the ceiling. Around the sides of the room are tables and chairs near drink stands. “Well . . . looks like keeping a low profile won’t be happening. Okay, we’ll split up and look for them. You search the dance floor, and I’ll search the pubs.” Twilight goes off searching around while I nervously walk to the center of the building where all the ponies are dancing crazily. Up above on the second floor is a white-coated unicorn with a wild blue mane, black earphones, and magenta tinted glasses bopping her head to the music. She’s working on some kind of metal table with a bunch of dials and knobs. Standing before the ocean of ponies I try to look over them to see if I can spot Trixie or . . . myself, but there’s just too many of them. I’ll need to go in there if I’m going to have a better chance at seeing one of them. Cautiously I stick my arm into the crowd, and eventually I’m able to submerge my body in the mob of raving ponies. As I pass through them they either don’t realize I’m there or stare at me with an excitable expression. Then, I feel something tap my shoulder. I whip around to the one thing I had hoped I wouldn’t get found by or run into. My double is staring at me with his arms folded and a smile that I want to just wipe off.

“May I have this dance?” He asks. “I see you’ve brought another pony to the party? I didn’t think you’d get over Trixie ‘that’ quickly! Say, why don’t we all get together and make it a double date?!” He asks excitedly. I don’t know how to respond to him, so I just choose to stay silent and alert. “. . . Just what are you doing here anyway? I told you to think about it; clearly you didn’t take my advice.”

“I-I’m not giving up.”

“Well you should. Look, I’ll tell you what, why don’t we just relax and settle this over a drink?” Suddenly the music stops, and the pony above grabs hold of a microphone.

“Uh-oh everypony! Looks like we got double trouble on the dance floor! Let’s give’em some room!” All the ponies back away giving us a good amount of space, and a new track of music begins. “Let’s see whose moves are sicker! Clone number one on the right? Or clone number two on the left? Let’s go!” She shouts while putting her headset back on and pumping her hoof to the beat.

“Well? You heard her. Let’s give’em a show.” He says. For some reason he starts moving to the music. I stare at him confused while slowly lowering down my defense to figure out just what exactly he’s doing, and then he kicks up into my chest sending me down in pain already. The ponies in the crowd let out an “Oooo” as they cringe once I hit the glass-tiled floor with the colors blaring near my eyes. “That was it? And you’re supposed to be the ‘real’ me? Maybe you should be happy I’m here instead of your pathetic, weak—” He begins to walk away while ranting about how superior he is, but I grab him by the ankle and trip him up. Once he hits the ground all the ponies start to cheer. I ignore the ache in my chest to stand up and take advantage of this. He starts to get up, but there’s no way I’m just going to let him get up without any repercussions. I whip my leg through the air as my shoe socks him dead in the face. He falls back down, and at this point after landing at least one hit on him I feel that I just may have a slight chance at this. Out in the pubs I spot Twilight talking to another pony, Trixie. It doesn’t really look like just talking, more like arguing. Now it appears they’re yelling at each other, and then, Trixie fires a beam of magic at Twilight sending her to the ground. It doesn’t look like she’s through as her horn continues to glow. None of the ponies in the crowd notice it as they are too focused on me and my double. Afraid of what she might do to Twilight I find it necessary to try and stop her myself.

“Trixie! Sto—” My double tackles me to the floor and grasps his hand around my throat.

“Well, it’s about time I got some fight out of you!” He pulls his fist back preparing to punch me, and I try to cover my face with my arms. Until I hear him grunt and fly back away from me. A beam of pink light shot into his side burning a hole through his jacket. I lift my head to see that it was Twilight that saved me, but she herself gets tackled by Trixie behind the crowd of ponies. My double and I get back to our feet, but he’s able to hold a smile. “Now that wasn’t fair. Well since they’re busy now, let’s finish this.” I fear what might happen next, so I slip my hand into my pocket trying to grab hold of a smoke ball. He starts running towards me, and I fearfully smash a smoke ball onto the ground. The smoke quickly starts to fill the room as he lets out a coughing fit and halts his charge. Afraid, I toss another onto the ground to keep the smoke lingering as long as possible.

“Woah! I didn’t know this place had a fog machine! That’s rad!” The pony above exclaims still oblivious to the fight that my double and I have been part-taking in, but the crowd just seems to be enjoying it. Perhaps their just too tipsy to even care. I am about to try and sneak up to my double, but his coughing suddenly stops leaving me clueless to his position.

“Why can’t you just accept that Trixie doesn’t care about you anymore? She has me, and I’m afraid it’s going to stay that way. So why don’t you just take your new friend and leave? We can forget about this whole mess.”

“. . . Because of what you’ve done. Those towns you’ve destroyed. . . Eventually they’ll find out it was you.”

“Will they now? Because I’m afraid they’ll be looking for you instead! You know they will catch you before me. . . I mean just look at you! Hiding behind your little cloud of smoke. It doesn’t even matter if you hide . . .” A sudden silence falls upon his voice forcing my heart to quiver. “Because I’m right behind you.” His voice whispers into my ear. My heart skips a beat as I jolt around to him holding his arm out to me with a thin dark barrel under his wrist. It fills me with fear as it reminds me of the weapon Rickert held to my face. He squeezes a metal handle connecting to the contraption in his sleeve to project an explosion of confetti into my face. I stagger back and he proceeds to kick me in the stomach, but before I can fall to my knees he grabs me by the collar and holds me up. “Well, this I must say was definitely more fun than the last time, but I must say goodbye for now, Trixie and I have a big show planned for tonight. And it looks like you may have other plans. You’ve got a couple more friends lookin’ for you.” Turning my head I find that through the front doors the detective and his partner burst through immediately searching the room. My double lifts me up and tosses me onto one of the tables. The table and I topple over as the drink that was resting on it spills over my head. Trixie trots over to my double worriedly inspecting the burnt hole in his jacket. His smug expression changes to frightened and distraught. He and Trixie leave the dance floor as it floods with the ponies yet again. The detective and his partner are closing in and are about to discover me if I don’t get up, but it hurts too much. Through the craze of jumping ponies Twilight is shoving her way and thankfully she spots me.

“Aireal! That detective is here, we have to go!”

“Detective! I see ‘em!” Shouts the detective’s partner.

“You two! Don’t move!” Shouts the detective as they turn to a full on sprint towards us.

“Aireal come on!” Twilight urges tugging at my jacket with her teeth.

“Freeze!” The detective shouts. I’m not too sure if I’m sleepy or losing my line of sight, because everything is fading to darkness. The detective and his partner leap towards us, but it is all shrouded in black before they can touch me. Just as it all feels so peaceful, this silent dark space, my body falls against something solid. My face has slammed onto the creaky boards of a wooden floor. Papers are scattered all around the floor, and the humidity in the air has drastically increased.

“Ha-ha! It worked!” Shouts an enthusiastic yet familiar voice. I push myself up, and not only find that Twilight is with me as well, but a friendly face that I never thought I’d see again is before me. Valiari, with his cheerful smile and energetic movements as he parades around the room for how his spell had worked, then holds his hoof out to me. “Let me help you up, Aireal.” I happily take his hoof and he helps me to my feet. “And you Miss Twilight?” He says as he helps her stand as well.

“H-Hey, it’s you. . . You’re that pony from that day.”

“Valiari, and might I just say it is a pleasure to finally become acquainted with you properly.”

“Same to you. W-Where are we? What happened?”

“You two are in my little shack in the swamp, and I just perfected my teleportation spell! So, welcome to my humble abode!”

“It definitely is . . . something.” She says while looking around the messy room.

“I don’t appreciate sarcasm Miss Twilight.” He says sternly.

“What? Oh I-I wasn’t being sarcastic I was just—”

“Just what?! Implying that my home is a pile of disgusting junk?! Well I’m sorry for not tidying up! I didn’t know the ‘Prissy Pony of Equestria’ was making a visit! Perhaps you’d rather I send you somewhere more ‘fit’ for you needs!” He shouts in her face. Twilight just stares in complete fright. She swallows nervously as her body trembles with Valiari’s furious eyes gazing into hers. Then, he breaks out into laughter. “Oh relax Miss Twilight I am only joking!” He says relaxing his enraged eyebrows and throwing his foreleg around Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s all in good fun! You didn’t really think I was serious did you Miss Twilight?”

“. . . N-N-No.”

“Well good! It is indeed grand to see you again Miss Twilight. Especially you Aireal; it’s wonderful to see you again.” He says now standing in front of me.

“. . . You really believe it’s me?”

“Of course, not only did I see and hear everything that happened just now, but I can just look at you and say: Yeah, that’s him. The real him.” Immediately I feel just so overwhelmed with emotion my eyes begin to water, and I throw my arms around Valiari’s neck to embrace him. He believes me, and I couldn’t feel any more grateful. I have one of my friends back. I can then feel one of his hooves touch my back as I tighten my grip around him. After a few moments I regain my composure and release him.

“Thank you.” I finally manage to say.

“You don’t have to thank me for knowing who you are. But soon . . . everypony will.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asks.

“Well . . . it looks like you two made the front page.” Valiari walks over to his little table and lifts up a newspaper with our pictures on the front cover. “You know, now that I think about it I don’t remember ever getting the paper all the way out here . . . odd. It’s the first one I received in ages. That ditzy-eyed mail mare must’ve been confused.”

“. . . What are we going to do?” I ask aloud.

“Mister Valiari, could please explain to me how this could have happened? It’s been boggling my mind all this time.”

“I can tell you, sure . . . it’s the solution that I’m worried about.”

“Why is that?”

“. . . Because I don’t have an answer.”